Introduction to Urban Design

Urban Design LECTURE 1 Introduction

Abhishek K. Venkitaraman

Assistant Professor

Urban Design • What is it? • Many ways of interpreting it

• The art of making successful places for people

Urban design • What is good design?

Firmness Will it last?

Functionality Does it work?

Delight Does it look good?

Urban Design Is this good design?

Urban design • Creating a “sense of place”

Urban Design: Definitions Urban Design is the process of organizing Physical elements of the Urban environment to satisfy human objectives (Social, Economic, Physiological & Psychological).

 City Planning according to „artistic principles.‟ (CAMILO SITTE)  Architecture of Towns and Cities. (PAUL D SPREIREGEN )

Urban Design: Definitions

 The Art of Ornamentation and Decoration (MOUGHTIN)

 As an interdisciplinary gap between architecture and planning (REYNER BANHAM)  That part of city planning which deals with physical form of the city.  The most creative phase of city planning, in which imagination and artistic capacities play the important part.  It's a professional discipline that is concerned with buildings and the spaces between them, the public and the private realm‟- Not just the way things look and aesthetic experiences they provide but with all aspects of human needs in the external built environment.

Urban Design: Definitions Draft Master Plan, New Delhi A city is an assemblage of buildings & streets, system of communication, utilities, Places of work, Transportation, Leisure & Meeting places. A process of arranging these elements both Functionally & Aesthetically is the essence of Urban Design.

Urban Design: Definitions University of Westminster: Urban Design Unit • “UD is concerned with the physical form of cities buildings and spaces between them.

• The study of UD deals with the relationships between the physical form of the city and the Social forces that produce it. • It focuses in particular on the physical character of the public realm but is also concerned with interaction between Public & private development and the resulting impact on urban form”.

Urban Design: Definitions As per Planning Policy Guidance (PPG): • Relationships between different buildings, streets, squares, parks & spaces that make up the Public Domain. • The complex relationship between all the elements of the Built & Un-built space. • The appearance & treatment of spaces between & around buildings, as is importance to the buildings itself, along with landscape design all be considered as an integral part Urban Design.

Urban Design: Definitions • Urban design is the art of making places for people. It includes the connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric and the processes for ensuring successful villages, towns and cities

• Urban design is a key to creating sustainable developments and the conditions for a flourishing economic life, for the prudent use of natural resources and for social progress

Urban Design: Objectives Objectives of urban design Character – a place with its own identity. Continuity & Enclosure – a place where public & private space are clearly distinguished. Quality of the Public Realm – a place with attractive & successful outdoor areas. Ease of movement – a place that is easy to get to & move through. Legibility – a place that has a clear image & is easy to understand.

Adaptability – a place that can change easily. Diversity – a place with variety & choice.

8 PUBLIC SPACES DESIGNED TO MANIPULATE YOUR ACTIONS Source: techinsider

8 PUBLIC SPACES DESIGNED TO MANIPULATE YOUR ACTIONS Source: techinsider

8 PUBLIC SPACES DESIGNED TO MANIPULATE YOUR ACTIONS Source: techinsider

8 PUBLIC SPACES DESIGNED TO MANIPULATE YOUR ACTIONS Source: techinsider

8 PUBLIC SPACES DESIGNED TO MANIPULATE YOUR ACTIONS Source: techinsider

8 PUBLIC SPACES DESIGNED TO MANIPULATE YOUR ACTIONS Source: techinsider

8 PUBLIC SPACES DESIGNED TO MANIPULATE YOUR ACTIONS Source: techinsider

THE ROLE OF

URBAN DESIGN GUIDANCE

Urban Design Guidance • Urban design guidance is a generic term for documents that guide developers and their designers in planning and designing development • It can be prepared by local authorities, land owners, developers, partnerships, business and community organizations(all involved in the process), or by several jointly

• Urban design can support planning policy, facilitate collaboration, express vision, set design standards indicate the next steps.

POLICY Urban Design Guidance can:

Allow public policy to set the framework for urban design without becoming involved in inappropriate level of detail Provide a framework for developmental control, relating the council’s policies to a particular area or site Contribute to the process of reviewing the local authority’s plans and policies

COLLABORATION Urban Design Guidance can:

Reflect the views and values of all stakeholders, including local people Provide a clear basis for dialogue or negotiate between a local authority, partnership, developer, local people and other interests Save time and effort in negotiating amendments to a planning application Provide a means for establishing consensus and support

VISION Urban Design Guidance can:

Express a coherent vision of how an area or site can be developed Provide a degree of certainty about what the local authority, partnership and other agencies will require from developers Create greater awareness of commercial and practical aspects of a development proposal, and its potential contribution to the local economy, early in the process Provide a basis for assembling the values of sites

Support the process of assembling development land

DESIGN STANDARDS Urban Design Guidance can:

Describe and illustrate the proposed urban form in three dimensions, explaining how that form will achieve the intended vision for the place Provide the information on which successful development and high standards of design depend Inspire better and more imaginative architecture by initiating a creative response to the site Provide a design concept to coordinate the design of individual sites or buildings Test alternative design and development scenarios

Educate professionals and the public in the value of good design

INDICATION OF NEXT STEPS Urban Design Guidance can:

Provide a basis for producing more detailed guidance. Urban design frameworks can be followed by development briefs or streetscape manuals, for example Help in promoting and marketing an area or site

Provide the basis for bidding for public sector funds and securing private sector support

Provide a common basis for comparing developers’ proposals

Multidisciplinary approach to Urban Design Urban design is a multiple-disciplinary activity involving planners, architects, landscape architects and engineering working together to create and implement a vision for our cities, towns and villages, for our neighbourhood and for new and existing developments.

Urban design is the collaborative and multi- disciplinary process of shaping the physical setting for life in cities, town and villages, the art of making places, design in an urban context. Urban design involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes and the establishment of frame works and processes that facilitates successful development. URBAN DESIGN GROUP- LONDON

Various aspects and approaches of Urban Design • • • • • • •

Visual – aesthetic Appearance Townscape Public Perception social usage of Public Realm Environmental- sustainability, energy/ resource optimization, waste minimization Holistic- functional, social, psychological, environmental

Urban Design: Perceptions • Many equate Urban Design with, Town scape, Urban Conservation, Architecture, Town planning etc. • Urban Design as part of Town planning. • Architects may believe it as “Architecture writ large”, across the whole urban fabric, where as some Urban Designers may believe as “strategic city wide urban policy issues”.

Urban Design: Perceptions • Some Urban designers think that planners imagine Urban Design as beautifying detailed aspects of planning such as; pedestrianization, Boulevards, townscape schemes. • Conversely architects may see UD as a larger extension of architecture in the process of designing every thing. • Traffic engineers may see it as Traffic Calming.

Urban Design: Perceptions Although the agenda of UD may appear new and different related to modern town planning, in fact UD is an ancient profession which has shaped towns and cities over the centuries all over the world.

UD is perhaps the oldest of those activities of what might be called planning. But its base might have been superficial.

Urban Design: Perceptions • A key feature of modern Urban Design practice is the ability to integrate a concern with the Visual and Aesthetic aspects of Urban Form with a strong social awareness of the need of User groups. Plus, a sensitivity to wider environmental and sustainability issues. Visual and aesthetics aspects

Social awareness of the need of user groups

URBAN DESIGN

Environmental and sustainability issues

Levels of Planning and design Regional Planning

• Network • Economic Activities

-People -Natural Resources

• Allocation and determining the size and nature of city City Planning

• The three dimensional perception of urban environment Urban Design

Urban masses and architecture

• Buildings or group of buildings • Other than buildings in urban design

WHAT IS GOOD URBAN DESIGN? Urban design can significantly influence: • the economic success and socio-economic composition of a locality – whether it encourages local businesses and entrepreneurship; whether it attracts people to live there; whether the costs of housing and travel are affordable; and whether access to job opportunities, facilities and services are equitable; • the physical scale, space and ambience of a place. As such, it affects the balance between natural ecosystems and built environments, and their sustainability; • the social and cultural nature of a locality: how people interact with each other, how they move around, and how they use a place.

PLACE MAKING Urban design aims at the creation of useful, attractive, safe, environmentally sustainable, economically successful and socially equitable place.

https://architecturehereandthere.com/2015/04/01/april-fool-project-for-public-spacesnational-trust-preservation/

Plaza of Boston City Hall. (Project for Public Spaces)

“The way that these plazas inhibit the natural human instinct to connect with others is a unique part of our cultural heritage, and it is as worthy of preservation as the Petroglyphs on Indian God Rock or Jefferson’s home at Monticello,” said National Register program manager Paul Loether. “We need to guarantee that these places not be experienced in the way they were intended to not be experienced.”