Evo l u t i o n o f Urban Design in P ra c t i c e

urban design / Ar. Sarath Mohan 1

Evo l u t i o n o f We ste r n U r b a n D e s i g n T h e o r i e s

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Giambattista Nolli 1701
Italian architect and surveyor

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01 Pre twentieth century
After the Industrial revolution1760 to 1840
American cities in the nineteenth century were
industrial cities; ugly, poverty-stricken, congested
and in constant threat of epidemics.

architects and urban designers called for an aesthetics of order

in the cities.

Across the Atlantic in Europe, Camillo Sittes ideas of city

design which he derived from the study of medieval cities,
influenced design of many Europeans cities.

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A Parks Movement Frederick Law Olmsted
1840
the father of American landscape architecture.
city problems such as congestion and relationship of urban space with that of the
separation from nature could be countryside.
resolved through the
efficient planning of urban services, urban parks in the midst of the city
an adequate use of technology and
creation of suburban Parks would also be a means of social leveling and
communities. educating the city people to maintain the
sense of order amidst the citys heterogeneous
population and congested neighborhoods

Central Park in New York designed by

Olmstead reflected organic design and related the
park to the city.

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 Parks Movement Frederick Law Olmsted
A Central park, New York

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B City Beautiful Movement
1890
1. to beautify and establish monumental
grandeur in cities to counteract the
perceived moral decay of poverty-stricken
urban environments.
thus provide a harmonious social order
that would improve the lives of the inner-city poor.
emphasized the necessity of order, dignity,
and harmony.
views, vistas and axis.
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Camillo Sitte
strongly criticized the broad,
straight boulevards, public squares
arranged primarily for the convenience of
traffic, and efforts to strip major public or
religious landmarks of adjoining smaller
structures that were regarded as encumbering
such monuments of the past
advocated curving
or irregular street alignments to
provide ever-changing vistas
widely accepted in Austria, Germany,
and Scandinavia.
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02 The First Decade (1901-1910)
Daniel Burnhams Plan of Chicago was an
outgrowth of City Beautiful Movement which
would inspire city designers for two decades.
Daniel Burnham
breakthrough theory of the decade was
the Garden City concept by
Ebenezer Howard
Sir Ebenezer Howard.

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A The Garden City concept Ebenezer Howard
1902 Garden cities of tomorrow.
This book offered a vision of towns free of
slums and enjoying the benefits of both
town (such as opportunity, amusement and
high wages)

and country (such as beauty, fresh air and

low rents).

Contrasting rural and urban life. The possibility

that the best of urban and rural could be
incorporated on a Garden City
eg : Letchworth (1903) and Welwyn Garden City
(1920),UK. He actually planted a tree in every
garden in WGC.
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creation of new suburban towns
of limited size, planned in advance, and
surrounded by a permanent belt of
agricultural land (green belt).

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A The Garden City concept Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.

Forest Hill Gardens,

a 142 acre suburban development,
first American Garden City

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03 The Second Decade (1911-1920)
First World War (1914 -1919). Tony Garniers Une cite Industrielle.
The Bauhaus Movement which would define the Modernist
movement in architecture and urban design was initiated in Germany.

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A Tony Garniers Une cite Industrielle (Industrial City).
French architect and planner.
35,000 inhabitants.
in 1917 Garnier proposed the Une cite zoning, circulation, hygiene, and industry.
industrielle (Industrial City) in the mountainous
landscape of the Lyons region. production, housing and health facilities

Residential grid = 15 by 15 meters.

Garniers idea of separation of spaces by
function became the key to modernist city Each building was linked to a pedestrian
planning route so that people could cross the city in
all directions independently of the roads.

a true socialist city with

no churches or law enforcement buildings

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B Bauhaus: Architectural and Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, and
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Artistic Movement (1919-
1933)
modern art and architecture must be responsive
to the needs and influences of the modern
industrial world and that good design must be
both aesthetically pleasing and technically
sound.

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04 The Third Decade (1921-1930)
A Neighborhood Unit Concept Clarence Arthur Perry
served by an elementary school, and bounded by
major roads with shopping centers at
intersections.

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B La Ville Contemporaine Le Corbusier
(The Concentric City 1922) Swiss born French Architect and
city planner
philosophy
to create urban surroundings as definitely
contrasting to rural areas.

congestion and slum conditions in cities

1. excessive coverage
2. persistence of old street patterns
3. unrestricted land speculation.
High density living should provide for
1. classified street system,
2. parking areas,
3. adequate open areas for parks,
4. sport fields and community services.

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 Critic
"...the car would abolish the human street, and possibly the human foot. Some people
would have aeroplanes too. The one thing no one would have is a place to bump into each
other, walk the dog, strut, one of the hundred random things that people do ... being
random was loathed by Le Corbusier ... its inhabitants surrender their freedom of
movement to the omnipresent architect."

Robert Hughes ~ The shock of the new

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C The Plan Voisin de Paris (1925) Le Corbusier

The design is based on vertical expansion of the city.

60 storey sky-scrapers office buildings were

placed in the vast open space.
The main traffic highways were defined with
complete separation of traffic and parking
spaces for vehicles.
rectangular arrangement of streets but local and
through traffic is distinctly separated and large
open spaces are treated with informal pedestrian
circulation and are landscaped.

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D The Radiant City (1930) Le Corbusier

The Radiant City grew out of the new conception of CIAM (1928-1959)
capitalist authority. The plan had much in common with
the Contemporary City - clearance of the historic
cityscape and rebuilding utilizing modern methods of
production.
pre-fabricated apartment houses, les unites,
were at the center of urban life. Les unites were
available to everyone (not just the elite) based upon the
size and needs of each particular family. Sunlight and
recirculating air were provided as part of the design.
The scale of the apartment houses was 50 meters
high, which would accommodate, according to
Corbusier, 2,700 inhabitants with 14 sq meters of
space per person.

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E Design of Chandigarh, India (1952) Le Corbusier
western urban design ideologies
each sector measures 800 m x 1200 m
. neighborhoods, Its own
self-sufficient
market,
places of worship,
schools and
colleges
- all within 10 minutes walking distance

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Buildings in Chandigarh
Taureau. (Bull). Cover of the Assembly
Building in Chandigarh (India)
http://www.nclurbandesign.org/architecture/chandigarh-le-corbusiers-
master-piece/
Plan of parliament building
The Monument of the Open
Hand, Chandigarh. (About 1951-
'52)
05 The Fourth Decade (1921-1930)
Clarence Stein
design of Radburn,

Frank Lloyd Wrights

Broad Acre City
heavily influenced by the use of automobiles..
the use of automobiles in city design.

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A Design of Radburn(1952) Clarence Stein
2 square miles of irregularly shaped land.
population of about 25,000
area sufficient for three neighborhoods,
an integrated self-sustaining community,

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B Broad Acre City(1952) Frank Lloyd Wright
intended to show the principles of
building cities for American Democracy
a good community would be formed when
individual families are given a
one acre (4,000 m) plot of land from the federal
lands reserves.

automobiles and futuristic

helicopter taxis.

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C Philadelphias downtown,(1949 to Edmund Bacon
1970) American architect and
urban planner.
vision of urban renewal
Philadelphias downtown
commercial district

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06 The Seventh Decade (1961-1970)
The era marked the end of (1960-61)
the modernist approach of city designing.
1. The Death and Life of Great American
Cities by Jane Jacobs
criticism for the "rationalist" planners
2. The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch
Jacobs argued that modernist urban planning rejects
the city, because it rejects human beings living in a 3. Townscape by Gordon Cullen
community characterized by layered complexity and
seeming chaos.

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A Jane Jacobs

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Jacobs argues that modernist urban planning rejects the city,
because it rejects human beings
living in a community characterized by layered complexity and
seeming chaos.

the separation of uses (i.e. residential, industrial, commercial).

Policies for urban renewal , she claimed, destroy communities
and innovative economies by creating isolated, unnatural urban
spaces.

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 Greenwich village ,NY
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