LECTURE 1

Urban Design -- Introduction

 The art of creating and shaping cities and towns.

 Urban design concerns the arrangement, appearance and functionality

of towns and cities, and in particular the shaping and uses of urban
public space

 making connections between

- people and places,
- movement and urban form,
- nature and the built fabric.

 focuses on
- design
- quality,
- character and appearance of places, including buildings and the
spaces between them

 goal --- making urban areas functional, attractive, and sustainable

Definition
 Urban design is the . . . process of
giving physical design direction to urban
growth, conservation, and change. It is
understood to include landscape as well
as buildings, both preservation and new
construction, and rural areas as well as
cities.” - Jonathan Barnett
Urban Design ---
Emerging Discipline
 new (emerging) and old discipline

 coverage of a wide range of activities-

--- ambigious term

 Asa discipline and a practice, it is still

evolving . . . .
 Urban design as a
decision-making process
 Urban design is essentially a response to urban
developments and has to operate in a complex
contexts: social-economic, morphological,
technological and cultural . . .

 Like most design activities, urban design involves a

decision-making process that aims at changing an
urban environment from an existing state, to a
desirable or proposed state

 Two manifestations in practice: (a) design interventions

within an existing urban context, modification of an
existing structure etc.; (b) creation of new structures
 Urban design as a
decision-making process
 product
--- three-dimensional physical entity, comprises a private
realm (buildings and affiliated open spaces, facilities) and a
public realm (public space, place)
--- from a single building and its immediate surrounding
environment, to a neighbourhood or urban district, and to a
whole town
 Urban Design Spectrum
Agents of Individual property Social Institutions, Institutions, Commercial Local Authority Municipalities/Government
City Building owners Communities and Organizations
Local groups

Scale and Immediate area of Impact area of Neighbourhood buildings, City-wide development A City or a town, macro scope
aspects of individual buildings, development Complexes including the patterns, land uses, land use planning and
Urban private and open projects, local layout of buildings related infrastructures like development of regional
Design spaces, buildings system of public to physical components like expressways, infrastructure systems.
activities external appearance open spaces like circulation and space highways, local roads
streets, squares and and street networks,
parks open space and
natural features
Issues of Landscaping of Open Detailed design of 2D and 3D design of all Structure plan of land Land Use Plan
Urban spaces, beautification streetscapes, major physical components uses (2D)
Design of a development

Nature of Spatial Implications through design solutions to feed major Land use plans (2D and 3D Illustrations)
Urban
Design
Activities
 Linkage with architecture and
town planning
 Urban design as interface of three main professions of
built environment

Landscape
URBAN DESIGN
architecture

Urban
Architecture
Planning
 Linkage with architecture and
town planning
 Urban planning: uses (functions) and activities in space
 Architecture: design of building and complexes

 Where is the GAP?

 Scale and degree of intervention
 Role and responsiblity and nature of implementing authority
 Linking policies with physical intervention
 Linkage with architecture and
town planning

Level of intervention in built environment

URBAN PLANNING
A town or city or region

URBAN DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE
Immediate area of individual building