Republic of the Philippines

SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE

Engineering-Architecture Department
Sorsogon City

FUNDAMENTALS OF URBAN DESIGN AND

COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE
(AR DESIGN VIII)

SUBMITTED BY:
JESUS ROMMEL S. LLADONES
RACHEL L. DOLLISON
EUNICE J. ESTREMERA
EDWIN D. JAMOSO
CHRISTIAN B. ANTONIO
MELLIZENT CLARENCE E. BONGON
B. S ARCHITECTURE 4A

Submitted to:
ARCH. RAFAEL J. BALICANO, UAP
INSTRUCTOR

1ST SEMESTER S.Y. 2016-2017

FUNDAMENTALS OF URBAN DESIGN AND COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE

URBAN DESIGN concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality of towns and cities,
and in particular the shaping and uses of urban public space. 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. However, with its increasing
prominence in the activities of these disciplines, it is better conceptualized 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 real estate development, urban economics, political economy and social theory.
Urban design theory deals primarily with the design and management of public space (i.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 Christopher
Alexander, Michael E. Arth, Edmund Bacon, Ian Bentley, Peter Calthorpe, Alex Krieger, Gordon Cullen,
Andres Duany, Jane Jacobs, Jan Gehl, Kevin Lynch, Roger Montgomery, Aldo Rossi, Colin Rowe, Robert
Venturi, William H. Whyte, Bill Hillier, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.
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 established planning methods and programs, and other
statutory development controls.
COMMUNITY PLANNING is a forward planning process, which identifies human and material
resources and puts in place potential response system. It involves active participation from the people
residing in that locality in making decision about the implementation of processes, programmed and
projects, which affect them.
In other words, a community plan is a list of activities a neighborhood, community or a group of
people agree to follow to prevent loss of life, livelihoods and property in case of warning or a disaster. The
Plan identifies in advance action to be taken by individuals, in the community so that each one knows
what to do when a warning is received or when a disaster strikes. The major thrust is to address
possible scenario of an event and focus on the impact the humanitarian operations.
Community Architecture is built upon the principle that involving the people and/or end users in
the planning, design, and building process will yield more positive results of the end products. Community
Architecture is the architecture that promotes the active involvement of the people in the community in the
building projects. The practice Community architecture took many names and forms around the world but
with the same goals and objectives.
In the fifteenth century in Renaissance Italy, the main cities like Venice and Florence had groups
of influential individuals who met together regularly to think about and plan about the issues they were
facing. These were called Operas.
The terms universal design or inclusive designs are now being used how might we enable
sustainable accessible multi cultural communities and work together strategically and in detail to enable
equality, ecological orientation and economic sustainability or durability?
We are able to:
1. Undertake research, enable community participation, project manager, hold meetings, world cafes
and conferences and develop and implement an agreed co-operative mutual vision with you.
2. Evolve personal solutions, and assist with the creation of strong social networks and life plans or maps.
These would be multi-dimensional maps:
Where someone has come from, where they are now, where do they wish to go
Their geographical environment how accessible is it, issues, strengths, weaknesses
Their social environment their relationships with institutions, communities, businesses and
individuals. The attitudes they meet.
Instead of negotiating a probably incomplete and institutionalized set of services for which someone
may or may not be eligible we want to plan and map in detail a multi dimensional change architecture
that is right for the person, their family and their community.
ELEMENTS OF URBAN DESIGN
Urban Design involves the design and coordination of all that makes up cities and towns:
Buildings

Buildings are the most pronounced

elements of urban design - they shape and
articulate space by forming the streetwalls
of the city. Well designed buildings and
groups of buildings work together to create
a sense of place.
Public Space
Great public spaces are the living room of
the city - the place where people come
together to enjoy the city and each other.
Public spaces make high quality life in the
city possible - they form the stage and
backdrop to the drama of life.
Streets
Streets are the connections between
spaces and places, as well as being
spaces themselves. They are defined by
their physical dimension and character as
well as the size, scale, and character of
the buildings that line them. Streets range
from grand avenues such as the ChampsElysees in Paris to small, intimate
pedestrian streets. The pattern of the
street network is part of what defines a city
and what makes each city unique.
Transport
Transport systems connect the parts of cities and help shape them, and enable movement throughout the
city. They include road, rail, bicycle, and pedestrian networks, and together form the total movement
system of a city. The balance of these various transport systems is what helps define the quality and
character of cities, and makes them either friendly or hostile to pedestrians. The best cities are the ones
that elevate the experience of the pedestrian while minimizing the dominance of the private automobile.

Landscape
The landscape is the green part of the city that weaves throughout - in the form of urban parks, street
trees, plants, flowers, and water in many forms. The landscape helps define the character and beauty of a
city and creates soft, contrasting spaces and elements.

ORIENTATION AND IDENTIFYING IN COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE

Dozens of exercises exist to cultivate collaborative development planning and action. These are
the tools with which social scientists and other development practitioners encourage and enable
stakeholder participation. Some tools are designed to inspire creative solutions; others are used for
investigative or analytic purposes. One tool might be useful for sharing or collecting information, whereas
another is an activity for transferring that information into plans or actions. These brief descriptions are
intended to provide the reader with a glossary of terminology that practitioners of participatory
development use to describe the tools of their trade.
Access to resources
A series of participatory exercises that allows development practitioners to collect information and
raises awareness among beneficiaries about the ways in which access to resources varies according to
gender and other important social variables. This user-friendly tool draws on the everyday experience of
participants and is useful to men, women, trainers, project staff, and field-workers.
Analysis of tasks
A gender analysis tool that raises community awareness about the distribution of domestic,
market, and community activities according to gender and familiarizes planners with the degree of role
flexibility that is associated with different tasks. Such information and awareness is necessary to prepare
and execute development interventions that will benefit both men and women.
Focus group meetings
Relatively low-cost, semi structured, small group (four to twelve participants plus a facilitator)
consultations used to explore peoples' attitudes, feelings, or preferences, and to build consensus. Focus
group work is a compromise between participant observation, which is less controlled, lengthier, and more
in-depth, and preset interviews, which are not likely to attend to participants' own concerns.
Force field analysis
A tool similar to one called "Story With a Gap," which engages people to define and classify goals
and to make sustainable plans by working on thorough "before and after" scenarios. Participants review
the causes of problematic situations, consider the factors that influence the situation, think about
solutions, and create alternative plans to achieve solutions. The tools are based on diagrams or pictures,
which minimize language and literacy differences and encourage creative thinking.
Health-seeking behavior
A culturally sensitive tool for generation of data about health care and health related activities. It
produces qualitative data about the reasons behind certain practices as well as quantify able information
about beliefs and practices. This visual tool uses pictures to minimize language and literacy differences.
Logical Framework or Log FRAME
A matrix that illustrates a summary of project design, emphasizing the results that are expected
when a project is successfully completed. These results or outputs are presented in terms of objectively
verifiable indicators. The Logical Framework approach to project planning, developed under that name by
the U.S. Agency for International Development, has been adapted for use in participatory methods such
as ZOPP (in which the tool is called a project planning matrix) and Team UP.
Mapping
A generic term for gathering in pictorial form baseline data on a variety of indicators. This is an
excellent starting point for participatory work because it gets people involved in creating a visual output
that can be used immediately to bridge verbal communication gaps and to generate lively discussion.
Maps are useful as verification of secondary source information, as training and awareness raising tools,
for comparison, and for monitoring of change. Common types of maps include health maps, institutional
maps (Venn diagrams), and resource maps.
Needs assessment
A tool that draws out information about people's varied needs, raises participants' awareness of
related issues, and provides a framework for prioritizing needs. This sort of tool is an integral part of
gender analysis to develop an understanding of the particular needs of both men and women and to do
comparative analysis.
Participant observation
A fieldwork technique used by anthropologists and sociologists to collect qualitative and
quantitative data that leads to an in-depth understanding of peoples' practices, motivations, and attitudes.
Participant observation entails investigating the project background, studying the general characteristics
of a beneficiary population, and living for an extended period among beneficiaries, during which
interviews, observations, and analyses are recorded and discussed.
Pocket charts
Investigative tools that use pictures as stimuli to encourage people to assess and analyze a given
situation. Through a "voting' process, participants use the chart to draw attention to the complex elements
of a development issue in an uncomplicated way. A major advantage of this tool is that it can be put
together with whatever local materials are available.
Preference ranking
Also called direct matrix ranking, an exercise in which people identify what they do and do not
value about a class of objects (for example, tree species or cooking fuel types). Ranking allows
participants to understand the reasons for local preferences and to see how values differ among local
groups. Understanding preferences is critical for choosing appropriate and effective interventions.

Role playing
Enables people to creatively remove themselves from their usual roles and perspectives to allow
them to understand choices and decisions made by other people with other responsibilities. Ranging from
a simple story with only a few characters to an elaborate street theater production, this tool can be used
to acclimate a research team to a project setting, train trainers, and encourage community discussions
about a particular development intervention.
Seasonal diagrams or seasonal calendars
Show the major changes that affect a household, community, or region within a year, such as
those associated with climate, crops, labor availability and demand, livestock, prices, and so on. Such
diagrams highlight the times of constraints and opportunity, which can be critical information for planning
and implementation.
Secondary data review
Also called desk review, an inexpensive, initial inquiry that provides necessary contextual
background. Sources include academic theses and dissertations, annual reports, archival materials,
census data, life histories, maps, project documents, and so on.
Semi structured interviews
Also called conversational interviews, interviews that are partially structured by a flexible interview
guide with a limited number of preset questions. This kind of guide ensures that the interview remains
focused on the development issue at hand while allowing enough conversation so that participants can
introduce and discuss topics that are relevant to them. These tools are a deliberate departure from
survey-type interviews with lengthy, predetermined questionnaires.
Socio-cultural profiles
Detailed descriptions of the social and cultural dimensions that in combination with technical,
economic, and environmental dimensions serve as a basis for design and preparation of policy and
project work. Profiles include data about the type of communities, demographic characteristics, economy
and livelihood, land tenure and natural resource control, social organization, factors affecting access to
power and resources, conflict resolution mechanisms, and values and perceptions. Together with a
participation plan, the socio-cultural profile helps ensure that proposed projects and policies are culturally
and socially appropriate and potentially sustainable.
Surveys
A sequence of focused, predetermined questions in a fixed order, often with predetermined,
limited options for responses. Surveys can add value when they are used to identify development
problems or objectives, narrow the focus or clarify the objectives of a project or policy, plan strategies for
implementation, and monitor or evaluate participation. Among the survey instruments used in Bank work
are firm surveys, sentinel community surveillance, contingent valuation, and priority surveys.
Tree diagrams
Multipurpose, visual tools for narrowing and prioritizing problems, objectives, or decisions.
Information is organized into a treelike diagram that includes information on the main issue, relevant
factors, and influences and outcomes of these factors. Tree diagrams are used to guide design and
evaluation systems, to uncover and analyze the underlying causes of a particular problem, or to rank and
measure objectives in relation to one another.
Village meetings
Meetings with many uses in participatory development, including information sharing and group
consultation, consensus building, prioritization and sequencing of interventions, and collaborative
monitoring and evaluation. When multiple tools such as resource mapping, ranking, and focus groups
have been used, village meetings are important venues for launching activities, evaluating progress, and
gaining feedback on analysis.
Wealth ranking
Also known as wellbeing ranking or vulnerability analysis, a technique for the rapid collection and
analysis of specific data on social stratification at the community level. This visual tool minimizes literacy
and language differences of participants as they consider factors such as ownership of or use rights to
productive assets, lifecycle stage of members of the productive unit, relationship of the productive unit to
locally powerful people, availability of labor, and indebtedness.
Workshops
Structured group meetings at which a variety of key stakeholder groups, whose activities or
influence affect a development issue or project, share knowledge and work toward a common vision. With
the help of a workshop facilitator, participants undertake a series of activities designed to help them
progress toward the development objective (consensus building, information sharing, prioritization of
objectives, team building, and so on). In project as well as policy work, from preplanning to evaluation
stages, stakeholder workshops are used to initiate, establish, and sustain collaboration.

Urban Planning Basics

The goal of planning is to guide the development of a city or town so that it furthers the welfare of its
current and future residents by creating convenient, equitable, healthful, efficient and attractive
environments. Most urban planners work in existing communities, but some help develop communities --

known as new towns, new cities or planned communities -- from scratch. Either way, urban planners must
consider three key aspects of a city as they map out their programs:
The physical environment: A city's physical environment includes its location, its climate and its
proximity to sources of food and water. Because drinking water is so crucial, many cities are founded at
the head of a river or at the fall line, the point where rivers descend from the regions of older, harder
rocks toward the softer sediments of the coastal plain. The rapids that often form at the fall line mark ideal
locations for towns and villages to evolve. Coastal cities also have a great advantage in that their
accessibility positions them to become important trading centers.
Planners must often consider an area's geologic history to understand the full character of a city. For
example, the physical environment of New York City and the surrounding region reflects the culmination
of a billion years of geologic activity. Over this great span of time, mountain ranges formed and were worn
away. Seaways came and went. Most recently, episodes of continental glaciation covered the area with
ice sheets that eventually retreated. All of this activity makes New York City what it is today and affects
how it might change in the future.
The social environment: The social environment includes the groups to which a city's residents belong,
the neighborhoods in which they live, the organization of its workplaces, and the policies created to
impose order. One of the biggest issues in most cities is the inequitable distribution of resources. For
example, more than 50 percent of the population of Mumbai and New Delhi (cities in India) live in slums,
while in Lagos and Nairobi (cities in Africa), more than 60 percent of households aren't connected to
water [source: United Nations Human Settlements Programme]. As a result, the social environment can
be a risk factor for disease and mortality as much as individual risk factors.
Planners work with local authorities to make sure residents are not excluded from the benefits of
urbanization as a result of physical, social or economic barriers.
The economic environment: All cities work hard to support the retention and expansion of existing local
businesses. Primary employers, such as manufacturing as well as research and development companies,
retail businesses, universities, federal labs, local government, cultural institutions, and departments of
tourism all play strong roles in a city's economy. The programs of an urban planner should encourage
partnerships among public agencies, private companies and nonprofit organizations; foster innovation
and competitiveness; provide development opportunities and resources to small businesses; and nurture,
preserve and promote local arts and creative industries in order to sustain a city's cultural vitality.
As you can imagine, urban planners must do a great deal of research and analysis to fully understand
how the physical, social and economic aspects of a city interact. Before they ever put pen to paper, they
study:

The current use of land for residential, business and community purposes

The locations and capacity of streets, highways, airports, water and sewer

The types of industries embedded in the community

The characteristics of the population

Employment and economic trends

They also gather input from residents, government officials, politicians, business executives and special
groups. Armed with all of this information, planners develop short- and long-term strategic alternatives for
solving problems in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. They also show how these programs can
be carried out and how much they will cost.
All of these details are captured in a formal document known as a comprehensive plan or a master plan.
Any municipality, from small village to sprawling metropolis, can have a master plan. Small communities
will hire a private planning firm to prepare a plan and submit it to the local government for approval. In big
cities, the department of city planning prepares the master plan.
The plan itself is a document, sometimes hundreds of pages long, that shows a community as it is and
recommends how it should exist in the future. It often contains diagrams, aerial photos, maps, reports and
statistical information that support the planner's vision.
A typical master plan addresses the following:

Transportation and traffic: A good master plan takes all of a city's transportation
corridorsinto account. A transportation corridor is any channel along which people and goods
move from place to place.

Community facilities: Cities support an array of community facilities that satisfy its demand
for social and cultural enrichment. These include public and charter schools, police and fire
departments and community centers.

Parks and open space: Parks are vital to cities because they serve as the focal points of
neighborhoods and often have community and cultural facilities grouped around them. In
addition to parks, cities maintain a variety of open spaces, which may be undeveloped lands
or land set aside for health and safety reasons or for preservation.

Neighborhoods and housing: Although they have unique characteristics, neighborhoods in

vibrant cities are interconnected and enjoy a dynamic exchange of commuters, ideas and
influences. Successful neighborhoods also emphasize community, livability, appearance,
transportation opportunities, convenience and safety for all residents.

Economic development: A master plan recommends how a city's design can be enhanced
to attract new businesses and protect existing businesses. For example, a plan might call for
redevelopment of a downtown area to include a public market and a conference/convention
center, with the goal of better serving the city.

Land use: The major land use recommendations presented in a master plan result from
analysis of a city's environmental and physical conditions, as well as the planner's vision for
future growth. A map of future land use is generally included and makes recommendations
about land set aside for parks and open space; residential areas; commercial, office and
industrial uses; civic and institutional uses; and mixed-use areas.

Public support of a master plan, no matter how comprehensive or visionary, is crucial to its overall
success. Strong public opposition can arise if city residents believe the proposals of a plan are too costly,
aren't fair and equitable or could interfere with their safety and well-being. In situations like this, urban
planners may have to explain their plans to planning boards, interest groups and the general public. If
opposition cannot be overcome, governments sometimes refuse to act on proposals of a master plan.
Planners must also be aware of zoning laws, which are another way cities control the physical
development of land. Zoning laws designate the kinds of buildings permitted in each part of a city. An area
zoned R-1 might allow only single-family detached homes, whereas an area zoned C-1 might allow only
certain commercial or industrial uses.
Zoning is not without controversy. Zoning ordinances have been challenged as unconstitutional several
times, and some argue that they are tools of racial and socioeconomic exclusion. As we'll see in the next
section, this is just one of many criticisms leveraged against urban planning.
Citizens' List Of Urban Design Principles
While the boundaries of the field may be elusive, we can and should set forth some of the most obvious
urban design principles that will help you improve your community.
1. Centers And Nodes Set Up The Pattern For The City.
A village, town, or city needs one or more focal points, depending on size. Traditionally these were the
downtowns. Now most regions are multi-centric (sometimes called polycentric). It's actually fine to have
more than one center in a large city, but sound urban design principles would describe a hierarchy of
centers. And downtown should the king of the hill.
Node is simply a term more likely to be used by professionals for the idea of an activity center or an area
where traffic, money, information, or other flows come together.
Each center or node should exude a strong sense of place. If you were a tyrant and you could make the
perfect hierarchical set of nodes within a major city, you also should make each center or node have
some distinctive elements.
So cultivating a dynamic and exciting community center or hierarchy of centers, that most people can
"read" intuitively, is perhaps the most important of the urban design principles. When applied to a city or
town, "legible" means that people from the same culture have an intuitive sense of what is coming next
and how to navigate; thus we say that they can read their surroundings.

2. Creating A Strong Sense Of Place Is Key To A Successful Neighborhood.

Certainly distinguishing this place from other places on the basis of history, culture, well-preserved natural
systems, and distinctive human inventiveness and ornamentation somehow stimulates the brain in a
pleasant way.
Recognizing history, including human history, natural history, and cultural history, contributes greatly to the
collective memory that helps form a great community.
Along these lines, a district needs to feel like a district, that is, a relatively cohesive place with boundaries.
In the influential 1961 book The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch called these boundaries "edges," and they
should be discernible. If you work at the neighborhood scale, it's important to define your neighborhood
boundaries. The edges enhance sense of place also, because they reinforce the notion that we are
leaving one place and entering another.
3. Theme And Variation Is Among The Key Urban Design Principles.
Over and over in these pages, we are reminded that urban design principles are similar to the key
concept behind music, which is the enunciation of a theme or two, and then endless variations and
complexities rendered on the themes.
This is especially true when we consider architecture. Buildings on a street may be generally two-story
brick, but we might want to see different colors of brick, slightly varying building heights, slightly varying
window and door patterns, inventive use of accent color, and even the occasional three-story brick or
stucco building that is in sympathy with other building members on the face of the block. Maybe the
cornice type and height varies along the block face.
So theme and variation is among the key urban design principles. In a town, you want some slight degree
of predictability about buildings, in a neighborhood a little more predictability, and on a block, still more
predictability.
4. Decide Where To Make A Design Statement, Make It, But Don't Make It Everywhere.
Attention to quality, detail, and workmanship count in the public realm.
You would like each design element to look as though someone thought about it, at least a little, and fit
the form to the function.
So decide where urban design principles need to be subtle and functional, versus conscious and even
decorative. Architects would remind us that this means that there should be some thoughtful "articulation"
(doors, windows, details, and "relief" in the form of different vertical planes on the front wall) on walls
facing the public realm, rather than simply blank walls.
Landmarks are important in making people feel comfortable in a place, but each building can't be a
landmark. That would defeat the purpose.
5. Urban Design Should Promote And Facilitate Social Interaction.
Seriously, social interaction is important because the wealthy develop empathy for the poor, and vice
versa, only when there are places for accidental association among classes and people with diverse
outlooks.
In the professional community, you will hear about related urban design principles of "human scale" and
"pedestrian scale." Designing for the human scale implies everything from keeping street lighting at a
height that lights the way for pedestrians, rather than only for cars, to designing some places that are
appropriate for intimate and semi-private conversations in the public realm.
When you build a great cathedral you want it to be awe-inspiring and to point to something far greater
than human scale. But for most everyday interactions, including commerce, people unconsciously
respond very well to keeping street level features at the human scale.
6. The Social System Should Be More Important Than Vehicular Systems.
People are more important than machines. But I know that some of you really don't, because I see you
build highways that bisect neighborhoods, parishes, and extended families. When there is only one path,
and that path accommodates only machines, which could describe how the interstate highways function
in some parts of cities, we're all in trouble.

And when accommodating all the automobiles at the regional shopping mall du jour for the Saturday
before Christmas means that we should asphalt acres and acres, we're forgetting that people are more
important than our machines.
7. De-Emphasize Utilitarian, But Gray Portions Of The Public Realm.
We mean those gray, brown, or rusty streets, roads, stormwater inlets, manholes, utility boxes, ugly
bridges, and so forth. With determined effort, you can design an attractive and brightly colored street and
you certainly can build a good-looking bridge.
However, making every road an art statement isnt the answer. The answer is skinnier roads and more
options for walking, cycling, and transit. Look into a complete streets policy and see if you don't like it.
Land use patterns and the amount of private land that each residence is allowed to absorb are major
determinants of how much of a metropolitan or micropolitan area must be devoted to roads and other
gray infrastructure.
So your urban design principles should emphasize compact development patterns and the most narrow
and unobtrusive infrastructure that will accomplish the goal of a well-functioning flow of people and goods.
8. Functional Methods Of Transporting People Of All Abilities, Goods, And Utilities Are Essential.
Is it really functional to have every desirable destination lined up along a single roadway, which then
becomes ridiculously congested along about 5:00 p.m. every Friday? Surely not.
Is it useful for people to have to commute to work for 30 miles? Maybe somewhat useful, but not
economically efficient or friendly to the environment.
In most contemporary American cities, the pedestrian, the cyclist, the scooter user, the baby carriage, and
the skateboarder are all but forgotten. Making it safe and easy for these people to move over the land is
an essential part of a functional transportation system.
The flows of people, electricity, water, freight, and so forth literally comprise the urban structure. So the
distribution of people, goods, and energy should be redundant, intelligible, and efficient..
For example, when a freeway is being rebuilt, we need an alternate street system. This is why it's a
mistake to destroy a historic street grid, which allows for abundant detours that are only slightly less
efficient than the route of choice.
A system of cul-de-sacs may provide a comforting sense of familiarity, and thus meet the intelligibility
factor for those who live there. However, visitors from outside the neighborhood won't find it so easy to
navigate because it isn't redundant. And systems that don't have ready substitutes are unforgiving of
small mistakes, or if people who don't drive.
Kids, the frail elderly, and the temporarily or permanently disabled actually comprise a substantial portion
of the population, so we need to accommodate their movement also.
9. Land Use Is Usually Secondary To Building Scale, Mass, And Setbacks.
Elsewhere we describe how segregating land uses through zoning was the norm in urban planning until a
paradigm shift that began in the 1980s. And we're pretty consistent proponents of mixed-use
development. But that doesn't mean a complete hodge-podge.
Imagine trying to walk down a sidewalk by a street, and in this order you pass
A dry cleaner with a small amount of suburban type parking in front of it
A typical big box discount store
An apartment complex with three or four driveways onto the public street and two rows or parking in
front of the first buildings
A large old single-family house
A four-story brick office building of vaguely Colonial architecture
So not every mix of uses is a good one. Complete lack of consistency in building setback and height, as
well as a disparate set of uses, isn't comfortable. So the soundest of urban design principles is that the

land and building uses need to be compatible with their neighbors, particularly if you can see from one to
another.
Is a concrete plant likely to need to be close to a Five-Star restaurant? I think not. But would a loft
condominium development marketing to young people need to be near a moderately priced, loud, and
popular restaurant? Yes.
10. Civic And Public Gathering Space Should Be Generous.
Probably civic space is simply another twist on the idea of a sense of place, but let's emphasize that there
should be a physical place where people can have chance encounters and also purposeful gatherings.
Every culture needs to demonstrate its pride in some heritage or accomplishment, and every democratic
country needs places where those who are unhappy can assemble.
But what makes a good civic space is appropriate scale, visibility from one end to the other, a sense of
spaciousness adequate for the likely number of participants, the look and feel of being "on purpose"
without being overly formal, and the capability for random patterns of movement.
And pay attention to the new urbanist idea of giving civic buildings and spaces a prominent place within
the community. Don't put them down by the railroad track where no one else wants to be; make them the
end point of a great long view.
11. Urban Design Is Valuable But Complexity Should Be Proportionate To The Population.
The larger the city, the more complexity it can bear in design elements, and indeed some cityscapes
thrive on nearly complete chaos.
Yet that can only be a pleasant experience when the human flow and other flows within the city is large,
random, and slightly chaotic itself. So complexity or simplicity needs to be compatible with the number of
inhabitants, whether permanent or on a seasonal or daytime basis.
In a small town, you can still manage layers of complexity, and the best small towns do. But the scale is
drastically reduced. By this I mean that you might have a complex rose garden 20 feet across, rather than
the cacophony of businesses, street vendors, street performers, entrances, signs, art, whimsy, and
honking taxis that are part of the fun in a New York City block.

Reference: