Introduction to Urban Design

Reference- Author

“…. The interface between architecture, landscape architecture and town planning, drawing on the design tradition of architecture and landscape architecture, and the environmental management and social science tradition of contemporary planning.”

• Bentley and Butina 1991

Urban translates to the characteristics of cities or towns and design is a  expression through activities like sketching, planning, arranging, colouring and pattern making. In the context of urban design, urban also relates to villages and hamlets while design takes a much more problem-solving attribute with narrow aesthetics and physical outcomes. Furthermore, urban Design is an overlap of various disciplines and activities, namely, architecture, surveying, property development, environmental management, and protection etc.

In other words, an open system that uses individual architectural elements and ambient space as its basic vocabulary, and that is focused on social interaction and communication in the public realm. In addition, urban designers use verbal and visual communication and they engage in a range of scales of the urban continuum. Also, some gaps can be fulfilled by urban designers which might have been missed by other professionals in terms of scale and focus. Also, I would like to discuss the works of four major writers in the field of urban design, namely, Camillo Sitte, Le Corbusier, Jane Jacobs, Kevin Lynch.

Historic Overview:

1. Camillo Sitte

http://www.architektenlexikon.at/de/603.htm

Australian architect Camillo Sitte tries to understand the principles of city building. Thus, the three of which are stated as below:

1. Break the modern pattern of strict blockhouses.
2. Retain the useful building styles of historic city planning.
3. Try and reach the ideal planning methods of ancient models.

Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla

In addition, He wrote a book on “City Planning According to Artistic Principles (1889)” and analysed aesthetic forms of European towns and picturesque city design. Moreover, he talks about the curving and irregular street patterns which gives ever-changing view angles and vistas to the users. As well as, the provision of T intersections to facilitate the movement of traffic. Also, he goes on explaining it impossible to see more than one street out of the square at the same time because of the effect of Turbine Squares. Besides, he emphasised on square being in proportion to the major building, the depth of 1-2 times the height. Moreover, he talks about sculptures being close to the buildings and around the corners rather than being in the centre of the square as a free-standing mass. Further, this helps in providing the central space for other activities.

2. Influence And The Beaux-Arts Tradition:

A concern for aesthetics lay behind in the 1890s- 1900s, beaux-art traditions of city planning. Hence, the 19^th-century reconstruction of Paris and the renaissance principles inspired it.

Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla

3. Mid-20^th Century

Le Corbusier and Charles Jenneret invented a new era of city planning and design aesthetic- namely, ‘The Modern Movement.” Le Corbusier is famous for his international style of architecture. He believed we should have fundamental principles for all town planning practices and hence, he and other modern town planners dismissed Sitte’s ideologies by considering them too romantic or nostalgic and instead quoted City as a ‘machine for living.’

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_Voisin_model.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

4. Ciam –Congres international D’architecture modern

A new system of priorities was formulated when it was founded in 1928:

• Housing
• Production
• Recreation
• Transportation

The Early Reaction To Modernism:

Jane Jacobs was one of the early ones to question the modernist approach. She wrote a book on death and life of great American cities. She points out the demise of traditional streets and the flow of cities. Moreover, Jane Jacobs was famous for questioning universally accepted ideas about planning and putting forth a new and different perspective. She explains that if the streets are dull and abandoned, it creates an unsafe place for the residents and hence it is important to have eyes on the streets.

Kevin Lynch wrote the book The Image of the City (1960) in which he tries to understand the user journeys and how people orientate themselves through places. He also studied the mental mapping of places. He formulated five elements in city design:

• Paths: The channels which are used by the observer for movement.
• Edges: Boundaries between two phases.
• Districts: It is the medium to large sections of the city which are recognized to have some common identifying character.
• Nodes: The strategic points in the city where the observer can enter for travelling.
• Landmarks: The external point of reference where the observer does not enter.

Urban Design: A Synthesis:

Aesthetic and Social are the two strands of concern that became the basis of synthesis for Urban Design. Also, It is simultaneously concerned with the aesthetic entity and as a setting for human activity. Furthermore, for analyzing places from a holistic viewpoint we can understand different dimensions of Urban Design.

• Aesthetic/Visual:

Rhyme- Rather than repetition, it is creating balance.

Rhythm- Direction, interval

Balance- The total scheme of the design should be in relation to each other.

Harmony- Creating a feeling of peace

“Paris” by barnyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

• Morphological Dimension:

Land-use

Buildings

Plot Patterns

Street patterns

Mae West

• The Functional Dimension:

Functional zoning is a part of modernist planning and yet it is used in some sectors, particularly residential sector.

• The Perceptual Dimension:

This relates to how a place makes us feel, how users perceive a particular place. In addition, this is mostly based on our 4 senses, visual, hearing, smell, and touch.

• The temporal Dimension:

This suggest the time at which any activity is taking place and Lynch suggests it is important to space the activity according to activity timing and venues to sustain activity in public realm.

Conclusions

Finally, we understand that Urban design is a vast and complex topic which is an overlap of various fields related to Architecture. Moreover, for the early urban designers like Sitte aesthetics was the focus of city planning but it was later rejected by the modernist planners in the 20^th century. But Modernism failed to create engaging cities. Hence, there came a need to look back at the aesthetic principles of the design but along with social concerns. In conclusion, I feel we should remember, thinking holistically is important for creating a wholesome user journey along with being functional, which will eventually make places better.

References:

https://ncl.instructure.com/courses/42972/files/4821543?module_item_id=1978106

Public Places Urban Spaces

http://courses.washington.edu/gmforum/Readings/LeCorbusier.pdf

https://www.writingcities.com/2016/10/01/camillo-sitte-art-building-cities/

The Beaux-Arts Tradition

https://www.architecture.com/explore-architecture/modernism

https://mitpress.mit.edu/contributors/kevin-lynch