URBAN

TYPOLOGY

Sub. By:-
Monika Sharma,2k6/615
Neetika Mor,2k6/619
Amit Kumar,2k6/632
Typology
 Typology; is concerned with the basic
 structures which are perceived as a strong
 image. A settlement, a street, a village, a
 house, a space may become a strong image as
 a result of spatial totalities. The components
 of the typology are;
 c.1. Type
 c.2. Activity patterns
 c.3. Circulation patterns.
 Urban patterns find their unique presence by
 the elements that repeat in various forms. The
 similarities of forms or patterns may be
 graped into common features which is called
 typologies. This grouping may be in the
 patterns of spaces-squares-buildings, streets urban
blocks types, etc. These types may be
 universal or culturally defined.
 Type is defined as the general form, structure or
character distinguishing a particular kind, group,
or class of being or objects -hence a model after
which something is made.


 Urban typologies connote the forms of spatial

 organisations in the settlements. Culture is the
 prime force that develops settlement types by
 trials in long time periods reaching to solutions
 which become reference for evaluation of new
types.
 Type is concerned with the particular type of
room or building which is perceived as a strong
image.In contrast to topology, typology analyses
spatial totalities and functional aspects of the
environment including activity patterns.


 Activity patterns: There is reciprocal

relationship between function and activities that
occur within a place. What happens in the
environment in terms of social and cultural
activities is of importance in urban design. From
behavioural point of view activity types include
dwelling, shopping, working, playing, meeting,
etc.
 An emphasis on typology is characteristic of
New Urbanism. New Urbanists believe it is
important to match the physical development
characteristcs of a place within the appropriate
typology for that place, as determined by local
preferences taken in context with urban patterns
as evidenced throughout history. Modernists, in
keeping with their general disinclination to keep
within the constraints of tradition and hierarchies
of patterns, are less likely to focus on identifying
the correct typology of a site.

 URBAN DESIGN
 Planners use terms such as rural, urban, and
suburban to characterize our environment. This
“urban typology” is a common language we can
use to describe our region. we’ve defined some
of the most common terms below:
 Urban typology(2000)
 Urban typology(2007)
URBAN TYPOLOGY(2000)
 Urban Cluster (UC) is a classification used by the
United States Census Bureau to define major
metropolitan areas. It is used to measure the size
of an urban area that extends across city, state,
and/or county lines. Urban clusters by definition
contain fewer than 50,000 people. An urban area
containing 50,000 or more people is defined as an
Urbanized Area.

 An urban area is characterized by higher
population density and vast human features in
comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas
may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term
is not commonly extended to rural settlements
such as villages and hamlets.
 The urban fringe generally consists of contiguous
territory having a density of at least 1,000 persons
per square mile.


URBAN TYPOLOGY(2007)
 The urban core is the dense center of an
urban area. This is the area along our
major freeways that extends from Onion
Creek in the south to downtown Round
Rock and Cedar Park in the north.

oA m et ropolit an area refers t o a labor m arket , or t he
area from which t he urban area draws it s em ployees .
The boundaries of t he Aust in-Round Rock m et ropolit an
area fall wit hin t he Capit al Area.
o
oSuburban areas are commonly defined as residential
areas on the outskirts of a city or large town.
Residents of suburbs tend to live in single-family
homes and commute by automobile to work. Suburbs
tend to have some degree of political autonomy and
lower population density than urban neighborhoods.
This is the portion of the urban area outside the urban
core. Great Hills, Forest Creek, and Plum Creek are
examples of suburban areas.
oExurban areas refer to non-rural development that is
within a metropolitan area, but outside the urban area.
Exurban areas can simply be suburban areas separated
by rural territory from the principal urban area, or large lot
residential development that is not of sufficient density to
be considered urban and is not agricultural.
A typology of urban open
spaces
Types of open spaces and their characteristics:



q PUBLIC PARKS
o Public/Central Park
 Publicly developed and managed open space as part of
zoned open space system of city; open space of city-wide
importance; often located near center of city; often larger
than neighborhood park.

o Downtown Parks
   Green parks with grass and trees located in downtown areas;
can be traditional, historic parks or newly developed open
spaces.

  
  
 o Commons
   A large green area de­veloped in older New England cities and
towns; once pasture area for common use; now used for
leisure activities.


o Neighborhood Park
  Open space developed in residential environments; publicly

developed and managed as part of the zoned open space of

cities, or as part of new private residential development; may
include playgrounds, sport facilities, etc.


 Mini/Vestpocket Park
 Small urban park bounded by buildings; may include fountain
or water feature.
 

  



 q Squares and Plazas
o Central Square
  Square or plaza; often part of historic development of city
center; may be formally planned or exist as a meeting places
of streets; frequently publicly developed and managed.


q Memorials
  Public place that memorializes people or events of local and

national importance.


q Markets
o Farmers Markets
   Open space or streets used for Farmer's Markets or Flea
Markets; often temporary or occur only during certain times
in existing space such as parks, downtown streets or parking
lots.


  

 q Streets
o Pedestrian Sidewalks
  Part of cities where people move on foot; most commonly

along sidewalks and paths, planned or found which connect

one destination with another.
o Pedestrian Mall
  Street closed to auto traffic; pedestrian amenities provided

such as benches, planting; often located along main street in

downtown area.
o Transit Mall
  Development of im­proved transit access to downtown areas;

re­placement of traditional pedestrian malls with bus and

"light rail" malls.



 o Traffic Restricted Streets
 Streets used as public open space; traffic and vehicle
restriction can include pedestrian improvements and side­
walk widening, street tree planting.


o Town Trails
 Connect parts of cities through integrated urban trails; use of
streets and open spaces planned as setting for
environmental learning; some are designed and marked
trails.

  
q Playgrounds
o Playground
 Play area located in neighborhood; frequently includes
traditional play equipment such as slides and swings;
sometimes include amenities for adults such as benches; can
also include innovative designs such as Adventure
Playgrounds
 

o Schoolyard
 

 Schoolyard as play area; some developed as place for

environmental learning or as community use spaces.



 q Community Open Spaces
o Community Garden/Park
 Neighborhood spaces designed, developed or managed by
local residents on vacant land; may include viewing gardens,
play areas, and community gardens; often developed on
private land; not officially viewed as part of open space
system of cities; often vulnerable to displacement by other
uses such as housing and commercial devel­opment.
  

o Greenways and Linear Parkways

 Interconnected recreational and natural areas connected by
pedestrian and bicycle paths.




 q Urban Wilderness
   Undeveloped or wild natural areas in or near cities. Often
popular for hiking, dog walking and recreation. Frequently
involves conflicts between users and ecological
preservation/restoration.
q
q Atrium/Indoor/Marketplaces
o atrium
   Interior private space developed as indoor atrium space; an
indoor, lockable plaza or pedestrian street; counted by many
cities as part of open space system; privately devel­oped and
managed as part of new office or commercial develop­ment.


o Marketplace/Downtown Shopping Center

   Interior, private shopping areas, usually freestanding or
rehabilitation of older building(s); May include both interior and
outdoor spaces; sometimes called “Festival marketplaces”;
privately developed and managed as part of new office or
commercial development.

 q Found/Neighborhood Spaces
o Everyday spaces
   Everyday Spaces Publicly accessible open places such as
street corners, steps to buildings, etc., which people claim
and use.
  
o Neighborhood Spaces
 Publicly accessible open space such as street corners, lots,
etc. near where people live; can also be vacant or
undeveloped space located in neighborhood including vacant
lots and future building sites; often used by children and
teenagers, and local residents.


q Waterfronts
o  Waterfronts, Harbors, Beaches, Riverfronts, Piers,
Lakefronts
   Open space along waterways in cities; increased public
access to waterfront areas; development of waterfront parks.
 


A critique of design review practice

 Many planners instinctively understand, however,

that the patterns of buildings and open spaces
comprising an existing environment are
fundamental to the creation and preservation of
the context. In other words, the basis of the
coherence they seek to restore (or preserve) with
aesthetic controls is typological. Aesthetic control
as commonly practiced fails to address the real
reasons for the visual blight it is meant to remedy.

Facade control
The application of typology to urban
control
 The most common definitions are associated with
generic building programme. These definition have
these components:
o A type is characterized by a certain morphological
configuration governing its internal organization
and its relationship to adjacent structures and
spaces. For example whether a house has a porch,
how it sits on its lot, and how much spaces exist
between adjacent houses could be defining
characteristics of a type.

 o The elements of a given type usually have
“global” functions associated with them such as
circulation, entry, public space, private space
and so on. Specific functions such as sales,
reading, learning, etc. are not considered
aspects of a type. A building designed for a
specific use may change its function over time
without undergoing a typological transformation.
o Types exist at a variety of scales. Individual
buildings (even rooms) may belong to a type; so
may streets, blocks and entire urban districts,
The typologies found at the urban scale are of
course much different than those found at the
scale of individual buildings.

o The typology at a given scale is partially
determined by those at smaller scales which are
present in the same environment. A given type
of two- family house, for example, tends to
create certain Street types which in turn tend to
create certain block and district types.
o There may be critical scale relationships among
the elements of a given type which must be
respected. This is sometimes necessary if the
exemplars of the type are to insert themselves
properly in the typological hierarchy of their
urban environment. For example, the proportion
between the solid base of a storefront and the
glass above it cannot vary too much from
building to building if a street type requiring a
row of such storefronts is to be created.

Urban coherence depends m uch m ore on t ypological
consist ency defined in t his way t han on uniform it y of
archit ect ural st yle, signage, m at erials or colors. It is
easy t o see why t his is so oft en overlooked.
Hist orically, a cert ain t ype evolves in associat ion wit h
part icular st yles and const ruct ion t echniques based on
cert ain m at erials.
 When people visit a well-preserved historic town, they
see both typological and stylistic/material consistency.
If a community’s goal is to create a coherent physical
environment capable of adapting to changing
conditions (rather than to recreate a “vintage”
atmosphere), it is much better served to look at its
typological structure than the details of its building
architecture.
By basing design controls on typology, the legitimate
goals of design guidelines can be achieved while
eliminating most of the problems with routine design
guidelines practice. The result is a flexible and
responsive system which respects the historical
continuity of the city without embalming the
architecture. Since typology reflects the complex,
organic relationships among such urban factors as
economics, function and social structure, basing design
controls on typology tends to reflect ongoing processes
of change and growth within the city.

 Urban plan based on typology
 The concept of type is different from style or use. For
an example, look at the two commercial types. These
buildings have a variety of appropriate uses and these
uses may change over time. They may be detailed with
different style characteristics: classical, modern, and so
on. While these aspects of design are important for the
individual building, in the context of the whole
community it is the adherence to the type that builds
consistency. Buildings of different styles and uses can
sit very comfortably side by side if they have certain
elements in common. Types help define fundamental
relationships between a building and its neighbors; how
it sits on its site and how it relates to the street and the
sidewalk.
Advantages of typologically based
design
 The following summarizes the advantages of using typo
morphological analyses as the bases for urban design
guidelines:
1. Analysis helps establish why things look and operate
the way they do. Simply observing a “hodge podge” is
not definitive enough a diagnosis to begin treatment. In
sorting out the aesthetic problems, for example, one of
ten finds that the underlying typological order of the
area is quite sound, while the aesthetic problems are
really problems of maintenance, economic
obsolescence, subtle transformations in progress, or (as
in Fairborn) conditions of morphological change outside
the study area.
 2. Although the analysis and the subsequent urban
design guidelines are unique and precisely developed
for a particular area, many types are common to towns
and cities through the region. It is valuable to have a
store of comparative experience with typomorphology
to aid the diagnosis of urban design problems.
 3. Design guidelines or controls which use typology as a
basis are relatively easy to translate into regulation,
even with a typical zoning code. Zoning codes already
regulate setbacks and height. By rethinking the code as
describing typomorphologies rather than land uses,
town planning may be implemented with a minimum of
discretionary decision making.

 4. Approaching the urban design problem from this
perspective decreases the importance of specific
building design or style and allows the planner to be
effective without being dictatorial. In existing
environments which are not valued historic districts, it
is important to allow great flexibility in building design
or redevelopment, for two reasons. One, it is not
appropriate or beneficial to the public for local
government planners to be specifying awning colors,
sign typefaces, or even material choices. Second, urban
areas need the chance to change, to transform over
time. Original, even startling, interpretations of building
types and the subtle transformations of these types
over time is vital to the evolving relevance of city form.
 5. Preparation of guidelines based on typomorphology is
a way of imbedding planning and urban design
decisions within the context of the existing city in a
systematic and flexible way. Working within the existing
typologies also makes the process of urban
improvement work faster.
Disadvantage of using typology
 There are some disadvantages of using
typomorphology as well:
1. Using this method requires a high degree of specific
area analyses that preparation of typical design
guidelines and zoning maps do not require. For
example, our project in Fairborn called out seven
distinct sub-areas within a relatively small downtown.
Each sub-area needed one or two pages of specific
description and guidelines.

 2. Restricting design review to the review of typological

elements means a certain amount of “letting go”. For
some design reviewers, this is especially difficult. They
see poor design decisions about materials or signs or
other non-type elements and do not understand the
need to allow such flexibility. While we were concerned
with minimizing controls, other planners may not share
this concern or be able to defend it as an ideal.



3. Judgments about which elements are essential to the

definition of a building or street type can be difficult to
make. In our case, we had a running battle about
whether the proportions of a storefront were
“typological”. Other examples include whether
traditional sign placement, or the use of materials in
specific locations (e.g. the same material on upper and
lower floors) could be considered important to the
urban continuity.
 THANK YOU