Urban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities, and in particular the shaping and uses of urban public space. A public space refers to an area or place that is open and accessible to all citizens regardless of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Age or It has traditionally been regarded as a disciplinary subset of urban planning, landscape architecture, or architecture and in more recent times has been linked to emergent disciplines such as landscape urbanism. Landscape architecture involves the investigation and designed response to the landscape The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation Landscape Urbanism is a theory of Urbanism arguing that Landscape, rather than Architecture, is more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban However, with its increasing prominence in the activities of these disciplines, it is better conceptualised as a design practice that operates at the intersection of all three, and requires a good understanding of a range of others besides, such as urban economics, political economy and social theory. Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Political economy originally was the term for studying production buying and selling and their relations with law custom and government Social theory is an essential tool used by scholars in the analysis of society through the use of theoretical frameworks social structures and phenomena are analyzed and placed in context
Urban design theory deals primarily with the design and management of public space (i. A public space refers to an area or place that is open and accessible to all citizens regardless of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Age or e. the 'public environment', 'public realm' or 'public domain'), and the way public places are experienced and used. Public space includes the totality of spaces used freely on a day-to-day basis by the general public, such as streets, plazas, parks and public infrastructure. Some aspects of privately owned spaces, such as building facades or domestic gardens, also contribute to public space and are therefore also considered by Urban design theory. Important writers on, and advocates for, urban design theory include Edmund Bacon, Gordon Cullen, Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, William H. Whyte, Kevin Lynch, Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi, Colin Rowe, Peter Calthorpe and Jan Gehl. Edmund Norwood Bacon ( May 2, 1910 – October 14, 2005) was a noted American Urban planner, Architect, Thomas Gordon Cullen (1914-1994 was an influential English Architect and urban designer who was a key motivator in the Townscape movement and carried it The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is arguably the most influential book written on Urban planning in the 20th century Christopher Alexander (born October 4, 1936 in Vienna, Austria) is an architect noted for his theories about design and for more than 200 William Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte (1917- January 12 1999 was an American sociologist, journalist, and peoplewatcher See Kevin Lynch for other people with this name Kevin Andrew Lynch (1918 Chicago, Illinois - 1984 Martha's Vineyard Aldo Rossi ( May 3, 1931 - September 4, 1997) was an Italian Architect and Designer who accomplished the unusual feat of Robert Charles Venturi Jr (born June 25, 1925 in Philadelphia) is an award-winning American Architect and founding principal of the firm Venturi Colin Rowe (born Rotherham England 1920 - died November 5, 1999, Arlington County Virginia, U Peter Calthorpe has been named one of twenty five "innovators on the cutting edge" by Newsweek magazine for his work redefining the models of urban Jan Gehl (born 1936 is a Danish Architect and Urban design consultant based in Copenhagen and whose career
While the two fields are closely related, 'urban design' differs from 'urban planning' in its focus on physical improvement of the public environment, whereas the latter tends, in practice, to focus on the management of private development through planning schemes and other statutory development controls.
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Urban Design Principles
Public spaces are frequently subject to overlapping management responsibilities of multiple public agencies or authorities and the interests of nearby property owners, as well as the requirements of multiple and sometimes competing users. The design, construction and management of public spaces therefore typically demands consultation and negotiation across a variety of spheres. Urban designers rarely have the degree of artistic liberty or control sometimes offered in design professions such as architecture. It also typically requires interdisciplinary input with balanced representation of multiple fields including engineering, ecology, local history, and transport planning. Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and Ecology (from Greek grc οἶκος oikos, "house(hold" and grc -λογία -logia) is the scientific study of Local history is the study of History in a geographically local context Transportation planning is the field involved with the siting of Transportation facilities (generally Streets Highways sidewalks bike lanes and Public
The scale and degree of detail considered varies depending on context and needs. It ranges from the layout of entire cities, as with l'Enfant's plan for Washington DC and Griffin and Mahony's plan for Canberra (although such opportunities are obviously rare), through 'managing the sense of a region' as described by Kevin Lynch, to the design of street furniture. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Walter Burley Griffin November 24, 1876 &ndash February 11, 1937) was a US Architect and Landscape architect, Canberra ( is the capital city of Australia With a population of over 340000 it is Australia's largest inland City. See Kevin Lynch for other people with this name Kevin Andrew Lynch (1918 Chicago, Illinois - 1984 Martha's Vineyard Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed on streets and roads for various purposes including benches, Bollards Post
Urban design may encompass the preparation of design guidelines and regulatory frameworks, or even legislation to control development, advertising, etc. and in this sense overlaps with urban planning. It may encompass the design of particular spaces and structures and in this sense overlaps with architecture, landscape architecture and industrial design. The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation Landscape architecture involves the investigation and designed response to the landscape Industrial design is an Applied art whereby the Aesthetics and Usability of mass-produced products may be improved for marketability and It may also deal with ‘place management’ to guide and assist the use and maintenance of urban areas. Place management is the process of making places better This is practiced through programmes to improve a location or to maintain an already attained desired standard of operation
Much urban design work is undertaken by urban planners, landscape architects and architects but there are professionals who identify themselves specifically as urban designers. Many architecture, landscape and planning programs incorporate urban design theory and design subjects into their curricula and there are an increasing number of university programs offering degrees in urban design, usually at post-graduate level.
Urban design considers:
- Urban structure – How a place is put together and how its parts relate to each other
- Urban typology, density and sustainability - spatial types and morphologies related to intensity of use, consumption of resources and production and maintenance of viable communities
- Accessibility – Providing for ease, safety and choice when moving to and through places
- Legibility and wayfinding – Helping people to find their way around and understand how a place works
- Animation – Designing places to stimulate public activity
- Function and fit – Shaping places to support their varied intended uses
- Complementary mixed uses – Locating activities to allow constructive interaction between them
- Character and meaning – Recognizing and valuing the differences between one place and another
- Order and incident – Balancing consistency and variety in the urban environment in the interests of appreciating both
- Continuity and change – Locating people in time and place, including respect for heritage and support for contemporary culture
- Civil society – Making places where people are free to encounter each other as civic equals, an important component in building social capital
History
Although contemporary professional use of the term dates from the mid-20th century, 'urban design' has been practiced throughout the history of cities. Urban structure is the arrangement of land use in urban areas Urban density is a term used in Urban planning and Urban design to refer to the number of people inhabiting a given urbanized area Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product (e Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place Mixed-use development is the practice of allowing more than one type of use in a building or set of buildings Neighbourhood character refers to the 'look and feel of an area' in particular a residential area Cultural heritage ("national heritage" or just "heritage" is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or Society Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning Society as opposed to the force-backed Social capital is a concept in business economics, Organizational behaviour, Political science, Public health, Sociology and natural Ancient examples of carefully planned and designed cities exist in Asia, India, Africa, Europe and the Americas, and are particularly well-known within Classical Chinese, Roman and Greek cultures (see Hippodamus of Miletus). Hippodamus of Miletus ( or Hippodamos Greek Ἱππόδαμος (498 BC &mdash 408 BC was an ancient Greek Architect Urban Planner Physician Mathematician Meteorologist European Medieval cities are often regarded as exemplars of undesigned or 'organic' city development, but there are clear examples of considered urban design in the Middle Ages (e. g. see David Friedman, Florentine New Towns: Urban Design in the Late Middle Ages, MIT 1988. )
A revival of urban design in Europe is associated with the Renaissance and, especially, the Age of Enlightenment. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Spanish colonial cities were often planned, as were some towns settled by other imperial cultures. These sometimes embodied utopian ambitions as well as aims for functionality and good governance, as with James Oglethorpe's plan for Savannah, Georgia. James Oglethorpe (December 22 1696 &ndash June 30 1785 was a British general a Philanthropist, and was the founder of the colony of Georgia. Savannah is a city located in the state of Georgia, United States. In the Baroque period the design approaches developed in French formal gardens such as Versailles were extended into urban development and redevelopment. Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc Versailles (vɛʀsaj in French) formerly de facto capital of the kingdom of France, is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and is still an important In this period, when modern professional specialisations did not exist, urban design was undertaken by people with skills in areas as diverse as sculpture, architecture, garden design, surveying, astronomy, and military engineering. The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation Garden design is the art and process of Designing and creating plans for layout and planting of Gardens and Landscapes Garden design may be done by the garden Surveying is the technique and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional space Position of points and the distances and angles between Astronomy (from the Greek words astron (ἄστρον "star" and nomos (νόμος "law" is the scientific study A military engineer is primarily responsible for the design and construction of offensive defensive and logistical structures for Warfare Other duties include the In the 18th and 19th centuries, urban design was perhaps most closely linked with surveyors and architects. Much of Frederick Law Olmsted's work was concerned with urban design, and so the (then-new) profession of landscape architecture also began to play a significant role in the late 19th century. Frederick Law Olmsted ( April 25, 1822 &ndash August 28, 1903) was an American landscape designer and father of American
Modern urban design can be considered as part of the wider discipline of Urban planning. Indeed, Urban planning began as a movement primarily occupied with matters of urban design. Works such as Camillo Sitte’s City Planning According to Artistic Principles (1889), and Robinson’s The Improvement of Cities and Towns (1901) and Modern Civic Art (1903), all primarily concern urban design as did the wider City Beautiful movement in general. Charles Mulford Robinson (1869&ndash1917 was a journalist and a writer who became famous as a pioneering Urban Planning theorist The City Beautiful movement was a Progressive reform movement in North American Architecture and Urban planning that flourished in the 1890s and
'Urban design' was first used as a distinctive term when Harvard University hosted a series of Urban Design Conferences from 1956 . These conferences provided a platform for the launching of Harvard's Urban Design program in 1959-60. The writings of Jane Jacobs, Kevin Lynch, Gordon Cullen and Christopher Alexander became authoritative works for the school of Urban Design. Jane Jacobs, OC, OOnt ( May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) was an See Kevin Lynch for other people with this name Kevin Andrew Lynch (1918 Chicago, Illinois - 1984 Martha's Vineyard Thomas Gordon Cullen (1914-1994 was an influential English Architect and urban designer who was a key motivator in the Townscape movement and carried it Christopher Alexander (born October 4, 1936 in Vienna, Austria) is an architect noted for his theories about design and for more than 200
Gordon Cullen's The Concise Townscape, first published in 1961, also had a great influence on many urban designers. Thomas Gordon Cullen (1914-1994 was an influential English Architect and urban designer who was a key motivator in the Townscape movement and carried it Cullen examined the traditional artistic approach to city design of theorists such as Camillo Sitte, Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin. Sir Raymond Unwin (1863 &ndash 1940 was a prominent and influential English Urban planner. He created the concept of 'serial vision', defining the urban landscape as a series of related spaces.
Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961, was also a catalyst for interest in ideas of Urban design. Jane Jacobs, OC, OOnt ( May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) was an The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is arguably the most influential book written on Urban planning in the 20th century She critiqued the Modernism of CIAM, and asserted that the publicly unowned spaces created by the 'city in the park' notion of Modernists was one of the main reasons for the rising crime rate. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Crime statistics attempt to provide a statistical measure of the level or amount of- Crime that is prevalent in societies She argued instead for an 'eyes on the street' approach to town planning, and the resurrection of main public space precedents, such as streets and squares, in the design of cities.
Kevin Lynch's The Image of the City of 1961 was also seminal to the movement, particularly with regards to the concept of legibility, and the reduction of urban design theory to five basic elements - paths, districts, edges, nodes, landmarks. See Kevin Lynch for other people with this name Kevin Andrew Lynch (1918 Chicago, Illinois - 1984 Martha's Vineyard He also made popular the use of mental maps to understanding the city, rather than the two-dimensional physical master plans of the previous 50 years.
Other notable works include Rossi's Architecture of the City (1966), Venturi’s Learning from Las Vegas (1972), Colin Rowe's Collage City (1978), and Peter Calthorpe's The Next American Metropolis (1993). Aldo Rossi ( May 3, 1931 - September 4, 1997) was an Italian Architect and Designer who accomplished the unusual feat of Robert Charles Venturi Jr (born June 25, 1925 in Philadelphia) is an award-winning American Architect and founding principal of the firm Venturi Colin Rowe (born Rotherham England 1920 - died November 5, 1999, Arlington County Virginia, U Peter Calthorpe has been named one of twenty five "innovators on the cutting edge" by Newsweek magazine for his work redefining the models of urban Rossi introduced the concepts of 'historicism' and 'collective memory' to urban design, and proposed a 'collage metaphor' to understand the collage of new and older forms within the same urban space. Calthorpe, on the other hand, developed a manifesto for sustainable urban living via medium density living, as well as a design manual for building new settlements in accordance with his concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD). TOD in cities Many cities in the USA and Canada are developing TOD policy The popularity of these works resulted in terms such as 'historicism', 'sustainability', 'livability', 'aesthetic', 'high quality of urban components', etc. become everyday language in the field of Urban planning.
Equality Issues in Urban Design
Disability
Until the 1970s, urban designers had taken little account of the needs of people with disabilities. At that time, disabled people began to form movements demanding recognition of their potential contribution if social obstacles were removed. Disabled people challenged the 'medical model' of disability which saw physical and mental problems as an individual 'tragedy' and people with disabilities as 'brave' for enduring them. They proposed instead a 'social model' which said that barriers to disabled people result from the design of the built environment and attitudes of able-bodied people. The phrase built environment refers to the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity ranging from the large-scale civic surroundings to the personal places 'Access Groups' were established composed of people with disabilities who audited their local areas, checked planning applications and made representations for improvements. The new profession of 'access officer' was established around that time to produce guidelines based on the recommendations of access groups and to oversee adaptations to existing buildings as well as to check on the accessibility of new proposals. Many local authorities now employ access officers who are regulated by the Access Association. Local governments are administrative offices that are smaller than a State. A new chapter of the Building Regulations (Part M) was introduced in 1992. Although it was beneficial to have legislation on this issue the requirements were fairly minimal but continue to be improved with ongoing amendments. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 continues to raise awareness and enforce action on disability issues in the urban environment. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA 1995 is a UK parliamentary act of 1995, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against people in respect of their
Gender
Little consideration was given to the issues of gender in the urban environment until the establishment of Women's Design Servicein 1987. A group of women architects and planners expressed concern that women’s issues were being largely ignored by planners, architects and urban designers. They explored a problem with the personal nature of design: designers tend to see themselves at the end of the pencil or mouse, and imagine themselves in the space they are designing. When the majority of clients, planners, landscape architects, architects, engineers and construction personnel are white, able-bodied men this tends to create an urban environment that reflects the needs and experiences of this particular group, excluding (deliberately or not) the needs of others. Illustrating this is Le Corbusier's famous call for buildings and urban environments to be designed to a human scale: the scale of his 'Modulor' was based on a six foot tall man. Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, who chose to be known as Le Corbusier ( October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965) was a Swiss
Gender-aware urban design aims to cater to a human model that reflects both genders. Statistically women are smaller, have a shorter reach and are less physically strong than most men. The scale of stairs, door handles, chairs and many other designed elements tend to suit male ergonomics, while door closers match an able-bodied man's strength. Women have different physical functions; they require different toilet provision, areas for breast-feeding, accommodations for pregnancy, all of which have until recently been largely ignored by designers. Breastfeeding is the feeding of an Infant or young Child with Breast milk directly from human Breasts, not from a Baby bottle or other Women's social position also has implications for urban design. Social position is the position of an Individual in a given Society and Culture. Women still bear the major responsibility for caring for children and elderly relatives. They are still more likely to organise domestic responsibilities such as shopping and housework. Women have less access to use of a private car and are the greater users of buses. However public transport routes and timetables have been designed around the needs of commuters going into the centre at peak times and not around the needs of women delivering children to childcare, then visiting a relative, then going to work, then shopping, then collecting children again. Gender aware urban design seeks to acknowledge these issues in the way that our towns, cities, buildings, transport and open spaces are planned, designed and managed.
Ethnicity
Different cultures may use public space in different ways. Public space is where different cultures come together and negotiate the use of shared space.
The UK Department for International Development had a programme of research aimed at creating a guide to urban design http://www.transport-links.org/transport_links/filearea/publications/1_637_PA3379_1998.pdf this appears not to have been published in full.
References
- Barnett, Jonathan, An Introduction to Urban Design, Harper & Row, New York 1982, ISBN 0064303764
- Carmona, Matthew, and Tiesdell, Steve, editors, Urban Design Reader, Architectural Press of Elsevier Press, Amstedam Boston other cities 2007, ISBN 0750665319
- Larice, Michael, and MacDonald, Elizabeth, editors, The Urban Design Reader, Routledge, New York London 2007, ISBN 0415333865
See also
- Activity centre
- Architecture
- Automobile dependency
- Behavioural sciences
- Building engineering
- Car-free zone
- Context theory
- Crime prevention through environmental design
- Design
- Ecology
- Environmental psychology
- Ergonomics
- Gordon Cullen
- HUD USER
- Landscape architecture
- Landscape urbanism
- Neighbourhood character
- Neighborhood Watch
- New Urbanism
- Place
- Placemaking
- Principles of Intelligent Urbanism
- Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse
- Space syntax
- Townscape
- Transit-oriented development
- Urban consolidation
- Urban density
- Urban economics
- Urban planning
- Urban village
External links
Industry resources
- the initial urbanism portal in iran(ir)
- Urban Design Forum, Australia
- Urban Design Alliance, Queensland, Australia
- New Zealand Ministry for the Environment publications, including Urban Design Protocol
- Resource for Urban Design Information, UK
- Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, UK
- The Urban Design Alliance, UK
- The Urban Design Group, UK
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's HUD USER
- Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse, USA
- Urban Design Compliance Project, USA
- Professional network for Landscape Urbansim
- The Urban Design Compendium (UK)
- Urban Website Designers (UK)
Academic resources
- Urban Design Certificate Program, courses and free public lectures from Simon Fraser University
- Landscape Urbanism Program at the Architectural Associationand
Other resources
- Terreform: Nonprofit Urban Design Collaborative
- NewUrbanism.org
- Urban Design in the Postmodern Context, Koray Velibeyoglu
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