CONTENTS:

Thoughtful terms:

1. Acculturation 42. Travel-time Grid

2. Agoraphobia 43. Typology and Type
3. Anthropology 44. Urban
4. Block level studies 45. Urban Block
5. Building Use 46. Urban Conservation
6. Central Business District 47. Urban Design
7. City Beautiful 48. Urban Ecology
8. City Center 49. Urban Form
9. Density 50. Urban Grain
10. Development Plan 51. Urban Insert
11. Diagram 52. Urban Renewal
12. Economic Base 53. Urban Transformation
13. Edges 54. Urbanism
14. Entourage 55. Urbanist
15. Figure-ground Studies 56. Urbanity
16. Fringe 57. Urbanization
17. FSI / FAR (Floor Space Index / 58. Zoning
Floor Area Ratio) 59. New Urbanism
18. Garden City 60. Post modern urbanism
19. Gentrification 61.Urban village
20. Heritage 62. Necropolis
21. Hypothesis
22. Land Use
23. Landmarks
24. Landscape Grain
25. Morphology
26. Neighbourhood
27. Nodes
28. Palimpsest
29. Pedestrianisation
30. Perspective Plan
31. Public Place
32. Public Realm
33. Public Space
34. Revitalization
35. Schema
36. Spatiality
37. Structure Plan
38. TDR (Transfer of Development
Rights)
39. Theory
40. Tissue
41. Traditional and Vernacular
1. ACCULTURATION

1. The modification of the culture of a group or individual as a result of

contact with a different culture.
2. The process by which the culture of a particular society is instilled in a
human from infancy onward.
The Oxford English Dictionary states that acculturation means to
assimilate or cause to assimilate a different culture, typically the dominant one.
It could also be defined as the process of assimilating new ideas into an
existing cognitive structure. The old and the new additional definitions have a
boundary that blurs in modern multicultural societies, where a child of an
immigrant family might be encouraged to acculturate both the dominant also well
as the ancestral culture, either of which may be considered "foreign", but in fact,
they are both integral parts of the child's development. The process is
asymmetrical and the result is the (usually partial) absorption of one culture into
the other. The usage of the term dates from the late 19th century.
Culture changes result from contact among various societies over time.
Contact may have distinct results, such as the borrowing of certain traits by one
culture from another, or the relative fusion of separate cultures.
Interactions with other peoples have, in fact, always been a significant
feature of social life. Early studies of contact called attention to resulting social
and individual psychological disturbances. Studies today often call attention to
the development of one complex world system, in which some societies
dominate others economically, politically, and socially. Many cultural theorists
also observe the ways in which cultural groups resist domination, often working
against acculturation in the process.
All culture is learned. No one is born with a particular culture imprinted on
his or her soul. Acculturation is the process by which an individual or group
changes their cultural patterns by adapting to or borrowing from another culture.
Four basic styles of acculturation can be spoken of:
Assimilation: Characterized by a high degree of participation in the new
culture and a rejection of the original cultural identity
Integration: Characterized by a high degree of participation in the new
culture while maintaining the original cultural identity
Separation: Characterized by a low degree of participation in the new
culture and maintenance of the original cultural identity.
Marginalization: Characterized by a low degree of participation in the new
culture and rejection of the original cultural identity.

Readings:
- Hobson, Archie; Oxford English Dictionary of Difficult Words; Oxford University
Press; New York; 2002.
- Internet Sources: http://www.wikipedia.com (Wikipedia),
http://www.encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia.com), http://www.m-w.com
(Merriam-webster online), http://dictionary.com (Dictionary.com)
2. AGORAPHOBIA

Agoraphobia has long been understood to be the fear of “open spaces”.

However, recent studies attest the incompleteness and the misconception
associated with the same definition. Agoraphobics are not necessarily afraid of
„open spaces‟. They are primarily driven by internal anxieties, which may begin,
to surface in the form of panic behaviour at places that may not essentially be
„open‟ but are nonetheless „public‟.
The behaviour is largely „avoidant‟ and with increased „attacks‟, the
sufferers begin to remain at home and not necessarily communicate or engage in
meetings with others in places, which are „crowded‟ or are atleast „open to
public‟.
In Europe, the medical practitioners associate the same with the fear of
entering shops, crowds, and public places, or of travelling alone in trains, buses,
or planes. Although the severity of the anxiety and the extent of avoidance
behaviour are variable, this is the most incapacitating of the phobic disorders and
some sufferers become completely housebound; while many are terrified by the
thought of collapsing and being left helpless in public.

3. ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology is composed of the Latin words „anthropos‟ which means

man and „logos‟ which means science.
Anthropology is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the study of
humankind in particular. Simply stated, anthropology is the study of man and his
cultures; or of man in his totality. This is a modern and relatively new discipline. It
also shares its objectives with other physical and social sciences.
Anthropology could be broadly classified as:
Physical anthropology: where man is viewed as a biological organism.
Cultural anthropology: where man is viewed as an animal of culture. In this
regard, studies of archaeology, linguistics and ethnology comprise cultural
anthropology.
Ethnology: where the racial and cultural distributions of man are studies.
Applied Anthropology: where applications of the findings of the study are applied.
Also, a classification of anthropology known as Urban Anthropology exists.
Studies in this field began shortly before World War 2.
According to this division of academics, cities are important research locales.
Anthropology is able to make important methodological and theoretical
contributions to the study of urban places.
Urban anthropology is of three varieties:
Anthropology of urbanism: This has a holistic approach and a cross-
cultural perspective. Robert Redfield (1941): as folk communities evolved into
urban societies, they changed from small, self-contained, isolated, highly
personalized, religious and traditional social locales into large, heterogeneous,
impersonal, scalar and innovative social milieus. Urban anthropologists
investigate the cultural roles played by cities on their societies, and they cross-
culturally analyze cities with distinctive physical forms and internal social
organization.
 Anthropology of urban poverty: This line of urban research maintains
greater continuity with traditional anthropological methods than does the
anthropology of urbanism. Study of ghetto populations, urban ethnic sub cultures,
and poverty-induced urban social adaptations allows the traditional intensive and
small-scale methods of tribal or peasant anthropology to be redefined in a city
context. This anthropology sees the city reflected through the ghetto and views
urban man mirrored in the customs of the poor. However, this urban
anthropology studies the city via the ghetto and often never moves beyond the
poverty or ethnic enclave.
Anthropology of urbanization: This form of urban anthropology comes from
the contemporary large scale physical movement of rural peoples to cities and
the adaptations of these immigrant populations to the new urban environment.
Here, the city represents a distinct arena of social arrangements and lifestyles to
which the immigrant must accommodate at least so long as he interacts within
the urban sphere, this anthropology of urbanization emphasizes the altered
social structure, interpersonal ties, associational life, and ethnic or tribal identity
that develop as tribesman or peasant becomes urbanite. These studies also
most often continue the nature of anthropology‟s traditional methods and units of
study.
A complete urban anthropology requires a combination of the urbanism,
urban poverty and urbanization approaches into a general framework for the
analysis of cities.

Readings:
- Haviland, William A.; Anthropology; Holt, Rinehart & Wilson; New York; 1979.
Majumdar, D.N.; Introduction to Social Anthropology; National Publishing House;
New Delhi; 1990
- Fox, Richard G.; Urban Anthropology: Cities in Their Cultural Settings; Prentice
Hall International Ltd.; 1977.
- Evans, Pritchard; Social Anthropology; Cohen & West Co.; London; 1962.
Bock, Philip K.; Modern Cultural Anthropology: An Introduction; Alfred A. Knopf
Inc.; New York; 1969.
- Vidyarthi, L.P.; Aspects of Social Anthropology In India; Classical Publishing
House; New Delhi; 1980.
- Levi-Strauss, Claude; Structural Anthropology; Penguin Books Ltd.; London;
1986.
- Narayanan, Shriram; Indian Anthropology; Gian Publishing House; Delhi; 1988.
Adam Southall; Urban Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies of Urbanization;
Oxford University Press; New York; 1974.
- Donald Hardesty; Ecological Anthropology; John Wiley & Sons; New York;
1977.
- Stein & Rowe; Physical Anthropology; McGraw Hill Publishers; New York; 1974.
Hobson, Archie; Oxford English Dictionary of Difficult Words; Oxford University
Press; New York; 2002.
4. BLOCK LEVEL STUDIES

The study of urban form in terms of relationship between building blocks

and streets is defined as Block level studies. This differs from the tissue level
studies as it involves relationship between building and street. While plans and
sections are useful at tissue level, axonometric, isometric and bird‟s eye
perspective are useful for block level studies.

5. BUILDING USE

The categorization of building as per its activities i.e.: residential,

commercial, institutional, industrial and mixed types such as residential –
commercial, commercial – industrial, residential – institutional, etc. This gives a
more detailed and better understanding of urban activities pertaining to individual
buildings. Hence the building plans can be coded likewise. Unlike the system of
landuse, based on zoning, in which a single carpet coloring denotes the
activities.
This system of landuse is more superficial, and denotes activity areas at a
larger scale such as that of the entire city. It does not also take into
consideration the stacking of various floors in a building, wherein multiple
activities can be accommodated. Therefore at an urban design level it is more
critical to use the term „building use‟ rather than „landuse‟.

6 and 8. CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT and CITY CENTRE

Central business district (CBD) and downtown are terms referring to the
commercial heart of a city. Downtown is the usual term in North America. In the
United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand the term "central
business district" is used by geographers and sometimes by others, but the term
city centre is much more common in colloquial usage. In the United Kingdom,
Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the term is often just shortened to the
single word "city" in general conversation among residents of a city, giving rise to
the phrase "going to the city". Some cities have a mixed-use district known as
uptown near the downtown area (in Minneapolis, for example, Uptown is a district
nearly adjacent to downtown, centered around the Uptown Theater on the
intersection of Lagoon St. and Hennepin Ave.)
The CBD or downtown is the central district of a city, usually typified by a
concentration of retail and commercial buildings. Although applicable to any city,
both terms usually refer to larger cities.
The term city centre (or center city) is similar to CBD or downtown in that
both serve the same purpose for the city, and both are seen by a higher-than-
usual urban density as well as the often having the tallest buildings in a city. City
centre differs from downtown in that downtown can be geographically located
anywhere in a city, while city centre is located near the geogOlphic heart of the
city.
Examples of a city centre can be found in Philadelphia, Houston,
Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Boston, London, Toronto, Sydney, and other cities. London
effectively has two city centers rolled into one, namely the Roman City of
London, and the medieval City of Westminster.
A CBD is likely to have many of the following characteristics:
. It has a distinct land use pattern that can be delimited from the rest of the
settlement.
. It is the geographical center of the settlement
. It contains the settlement's main public buildings
. It contains the major retail outlets (though this is becoming less often the
case, especially in the United States)
. Similar activities within it are concentrated in certain areas (functional
zoning)
. It features vertical zoning
. It has the greatest concentration and number of pedestrians and traffic in
general
. It is a focal point for transport
. It contains the greatest proportion of the settlement's offices
· It has the highest land values of the region
· It attracts people from outside its sphere of influence to work and spend
money inside
· It is advancing into new areas (assimilation) and/or losing old commercial
functions (discard)

References
INTERNET SOURCES: http://www.wikipedia.com (Wikipedia),
http://www.encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia. com), http://www.m-w.com
(Merriam-webster online), http://dictionary.com(Dictionary.com) 1300"5 Concept
plan: Sub CBD Shahdara (CEPT, library, no details of publisher available, UD
711.40954 K.R.C, 13259)
Unpublished Thesis
- Negi Vidya B. Marketing of Bandra-Kurla complex as an
alternative CBD for Metropolis (School of Planning, CEPT)
- Deshpande Dnyanesh H, Urban design guidelines for proposed
CBD at SUSMhalunge, Pune (School of Urban design, CEPT)

7. THE CITY BEAUTIFUL

(1890 to the Great Depression)

A certain wave towards an improvement in the „civic planning‟ and for the
„beautification‟ of the city had swept America in the late 19 th century. The driving
force being “…a new hope and a fresh image for our cities,
…Far nobler than the nobler towns of our many farming regions,
…Influential enough to displace the ugliness of our large industrial towns”
The movement was thus, primarily concerned with the creation of
„handsome works of civic art‟ underlined with deeper and more rooted social
concerns. The first widespread exposition towards the objectives was seen in the
Chicago World Fair and its “White City” in the year 1893. The visitors witnessed
„orderly, articulated plan with generous open spaces, regular cornice lines, trees,
canals, and other bodies of water”: all in all, a representation which was
indicative of the manner in which a „city could be re-planned‟.

A more emphatic move in this direction was however, made in 1901 when
the American Institute of Architects (AIA) held a national conference on „city
beautification‟ in Washington D.C. A group (Macmillan Commission) was formed
to prepare a plan for the improvement of Central Washington, and the same was
constituted by country‟s foremost artists including Daniel Burnham, Augustus St.
Gaudens and Frederick Law Olmstead. Inspiration was largely the more „orderly‟
European towns dotted with classical design imprints complete with „directional
axes, malls, focal points, and reflective pools‟.
Unfortunately the „City Beautiful Movement‟ failed to markedly change the
civic structure of great many American towns primarily because it failed to gain
substantial political patronage. It, however, left its most expansive mark in the
town of Washington D.C where the centralized government supported the „urban
visions‟ of the Macmillan Commission. Elsewhere the movement intervened in
the open „fragments‟ of the city…public parks, boulevards, parkways, waterfronts,
civic centers and „civic ornaments‟ like approach bridges and entrances. In other
words, it was strictly in the „public domain that the movement could exert any
influence‟.

Readings:
- Kostof, Spiro, The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings through History,
Thames and Hudson, London, 1991.
- Spreiregen, Paul, Urban Design: Architecture of Towns and Cities, Mc GrawHill
Book Company, New York, 1965.
- Whattick, Arcnold Ed., Encyclopaedia of Urban Planning, Mc GrawHill Inc., New
York, 1974.

9. DENSITY
In the case of residential development, a measurement of either the
number of habitat rooms per hectare or number of dwelling per hector constitutes
density.
Dwelling Unit: A House or part of house occupied as the living quarters of
one family or household. It mayor may not be equipped with individual facilities
for bathing or toilet.
The total number of person to be accommodates in the housing area;
divided by the area in acres. It is expressed as person per acre.
Housing area denseness or number of persons per unit of built up area or
room. It is expressed as person per habitable room or floor space in square
meter of feet.
Floor Space Rate:The ratio of floor space to the number of inhabitants in a
dwelling units or group of dwelling units. It is expressed as square meter or
square feet. 'Of floor space per person.
Floor Space:The total floor area of dwelling unites measured inside the
external and party wall, excluding common stairs, internal stairs, landings,
external corridor, ottas, veranda, Etc.
 Housing Area Ratio:The total space with in the housing area divided by
the housing in square mt. It is expressed to two pJaces of decimals.

Readings:
- RA-TH-0019, (Density And Its Living Condition). Thakore Valmik
M. (1970 A.D.)
- Google search (Density) wikipedia dictionary.

10. DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Document (a structure or a local plan) that seats out in writing and/or in
maps and diagrams a local planning authority's policies and proposals for the
development and use of land and buildings in the authority's area.
Development Plan:
I) As soon as may be after the constitution of an area development authority for
any development are a under section-5, after the declaration of such area as a
development area or within such time as the State Government may, form time to
time, extend, prepare and submit to the state Government, a draft development
plan for the whole or any part of development area in accordance with the
provisions of this act.
2) In draft development plan is not prepared and submitted to the state
Government, by any area development authority with in the period specified in
sub-sec. or with in the period extended under that sub-section, an offer appointed
by the state Government in this behalf may prepare and submit to State
Government in the prescribed manner a draft development plan and recover the
cost there of from such area development authority out of its funds.

Manner of preparation of draft development plan:

The draft development plan shall be on a scale not lower then eight meters to a
centimeter and shall show in distinguish prescribed colors the area or site and
the use to which they are proposed for.

Readings:
Gujarat town planning and urban development Act, 976.
Google search, (Development plan) wikipedia dictionary.

11. DIAGRAM

Diagram: integrating form of notation, a formal abstraction of given

complex reality, elusive abstract form that generates and structures the
design, conceptual input-output device. B. Lootsma
Diagrams: set of operative information with relevant information
describing context forces, boundary conditions, site conditions, activity
patterns, traffic flow, etc., information prepared for diagrammatic approach
to urban design, Stan Allen
Diagrammatic approach: design method based on diagrams,
allowing integrating different information and multiple orders into process of
developing new ideas. Diagrammatic practice multiplies signifying
processes of design.

Thinking with diagrams in Urban design

 Diagrams are "primary forms of representation" in design. In the early
design processes, designers draw diagrams and sketches to explore ideas and
solutions and communicate their thinking through the "act of drawing".
Design drawing is thus an iterative and interactive act involving recording ideas,
recognizing functions and meanings in the drawings, and thereby finding new
forms and adapting them into the design.
Design diagrams convey configurations, connections, topology, shape,
size, position, and orientations of physical elements. They also present symbolic
representations and forces that the designer must consider. The symbols
typically convey spatial characteristics.
Hence even the most abstract design diagrams are early efforts to explore
and resolve spatial layout concerns. For example, a 'bubble diagram' represents
functional spaces in a floor plan with rough sizes, adjacencies, and connections.
Diagrams are an important tool in the process of urban design and act
as means for design development. The ability to "diagram" a context depends on
designers' knowledge of related issues in a setting.
Diagramming can be used to explore variations of design problems and it
allows our mind to "see, comprehend and respond" to more visual information
than we can remember from verbal notes.
Diagrams transform verbal notation to an abstract graphic representation.
"Graphic Thinking" is a guide to making drawings for working out problems, and
communicating with others. A "diagram" thus acts as an abstract graphic
language. They are a means to express functions, the relationships between
functions, and the hierarchy of those functions. · Diagrams are drawn to focus
design knowledge and present points of concern. · According to Rowe diagrams
are used to establish guidelines or rules that help the designer plan andprepare
for subsequent exploration, for example, placing vertical elements to define the
street plaza. Diagrams are also used to explore, analyze and synthesize ideas.
He describes a diagram as an analytic statement that may be a "composite of
graphic marks and written notes." A diagram thus governs and transforms the
meanings of verbal statement into a graphic context to solve design problems.
He also argues that drawings are more than just a convenient strategy for
solving design problems and that they are "the designer's principal means of
thinking".
According to Ervin, a diagram deals with organizing principles and
relations between physical elements. He argued that the use of diagram in
designing is a sequence of refinement. For example, the urban design begins
with a diagram of elements of urban forms such as plaza, building blocks and
streets and with their topological relations, then adds details: such as size,
shape and tone and using design "rules" to develop the design. According to
Christopher Alexander diagram is the "starting point of synthesis," and the end
product is "a tree of diagrams." He describes design as matching program
requirements with corresponding diagrams argue "any pattern which, by being
abstracted from a real situation, conveys the physical influence of certain
demands or forces is a diagram"
Readings:
- Use of diagram by Christopher Alexander
- Designing the City: Towards a More Sustainable Urban Form, Hildebrand W
Frey - Political Science - 1999 - 176 pages
- Urban & Regional Planning by Peter Geoffrey Hall - Political Science - 2002 -
248 pages
- Maps & diagrams by Ruther F.J * City as a diagram
12. ECONOMIC BASE

Information about an area's future population is incomplete without a

parallel understanding of the local economy that largely shapes its future.
Definition: Economic Base can be defined as a theory for understanding the local
economy that breaks that economy into a basic and a non-basic sector.
Basic Sector. This sector is made up of local businesses (Firms) that are
entirely dependent upon external factors. E.g. builds and sells large airplanes to
companies and countries located throughout the world. Manufacturing and local
resource-oriented firms (like logging or mining) are usually considered to be
basic sector firms because their fortunes depend largely upon non-local factors;
they usually export their goods.

Non-basic Sector. The non-basic sector, in contrast, is composed of those

firms that depend largely upon local business conditions. E. g A local grocery
store sells its goods to local households, businesses, and individuals. Its clientele
is locally based and, therefore, its products are consumed locally. Almost all local
services (like drycleaners, restaurants, and drug stores) are identified as non-
basic because they depend almost entirely on local factors.
If the local economy is strong, as it has been in the Seattle Metropolitan
Area for the past several years, population growth is usually fast. In times of
economic trouble, though, an area often will experience a loss in population- a
direct result of a stagnant economy.
Economic Base asserts that the means of strengthening and growing the
local economy is to develop and enhance the basic sector. The basic sector is
therefore identified as the "engine" of the local economy.
Cities are extremely complex mechanisms, generated by many diverse
factors. Looking at them from one hand, they are the outcome of economic and
fiscal forces continuously at work in the society. Hence, considerations of
economical factors are paramount in the evolution of strong urban design.
There is a competition prevailing between the countries that are seeking to
get a larger piece from the global economy. Therefore the quality of the built
environment is the key factor that significantly affects local, regional and
international image of countries and sets the stage for all economic activity.
There is strong relationship between technological changes in the
economic production and structural changes in the quality and production of
urban spaces. In this context, urban design is an effective tool that advances the
quality of the urban environment.
There has been major alteration in the land use and the Ownership
patterns owing to the manifestation of new economic forces. These have initiated
and provided for lifestyle changes and a new urban environment.

References
- "Mechanics of the Urban Economic Base Andrews, Richard B. 1953:
Historical Development of the Base Concept." Land Economics 29: 161-167.
- "The Urban Economic Base Reconsidered." Tiebout, Charles M. 1956a. Land
Economics 31: 9599.
- "The Economic Base of American Cities" Ullman, Edward L., Michael H.
Dacey, and Harold Brodsky. 1971. Rev. ed. Seattle: University of Washington
Press.
- "The Economic Base of a Community." Blumenfeld, Hans. 1955. Journal of
the American Institute of Planners 21: 114:132.

13. EDGES

“Edges are linear elements not used or considered as paths by the

observer. They are lateral references rather than coordinate axis: Lynch Kevin.
Edges may also define boundaries between two domains or entities. E.g. River
edge, street edge etc. Such edges maybe a barrier more or less penetrable,
which closes one region from another, or they may be seam lines along the two
domains.

” When it is properly made, such an edge is a realm between the realms. It

increases the connection between the inside and the outside, encourages the
formation of the groups which cross the boundary, encourage movement which
starts on one side and ends on the other and allow activity to be either on or in
the boundary itself. A very fundamental notion…” – Christopher Alexander.

14. ENTOURAGE

The dictionary defines „entourage‟ as a group of people accompanying an

important or famous person. In urban design this word can be used in
association with an important or famous building vis-à-vis its surroundings; where
surrounding refers to context and important activities it caters to.

15. FIGURE GROUND STUDIES

An effectively designed map is one in which the intended message is

clearly communicated to the percipient, or map user. By employing the concept
of figure-ground, a viewer can easily distinguish between the main figure on a
map and the background information. Several concepts that are key to
developing good figure-ground in any cartographic design are differentiation,
closed form, centrality, articulation and good contour. In addition, by considering
the intended intellectual hierarchy, or the order of importance of each map
element, the author can develop a visual hierarchy on the map that corresponds
appropriately.
Figure-Ground Cartographic Elements
Differentiation is described as the ability to easily discriminate the main
figure from the ground. This can be accomplished by designing the desired figure
as visually heterogeneous and reducing the level of distraction caused by the
ground. By adding surface patterns or textures to the figure, visual differentiation
will lead to figure definition (Dent, 1972).
Incorporation of closure on a map is important because percipients
interpret the figure to be the object or objects in the map that are closed
(Robinson et al, 1995). Additionally, there is a tendency for the percipient to
complete or close unfinished objects. The location and shape of central figures
on a map can be adjusted by varying the scale, projection,and format (Dent,
1972).
The figure of emphasis should be centrally located and surrounded by
areas of a different character with contrast that lessens ground importance
visually and emphasized the main figure. Both alignment and centering can be
achieved through measurement or through visual approximation (Slocumet
aI.,2005).The concept of centrality is important because the object located in the
center of a map is most often assumed to be the figure. Other map elements can
be centered in the remaining visual space after the figure has been centered.
Articulation utilizes texture to differentiate figure from ground. One
common example of using articulation on a map is differentiating a continent from
the ocean. The ocean, in most cases, will be the ground and the continent will be
the figure (Dent, 1972). By adding fine-textured shading to water, the continent
pops out visually as the figure (Head, 1972). Another method that can be
employed for articulation called is vignetting, or the inclusion of brightness
gradients at the land-water edge.
Good contour on the map can be described as the viewer's ability to
continue the line throughout the map. The figure is formed by contour, the
common boundary between the figure and ground, usually through a brightness
contrast (MacEachren and Mistrick.1992)~If a figure is not separated entirely
from the ground, a simple black contour line can be drawn around the figure
enclosing it and thus differentiating it from the ground (Dent, 1972).
Intellectual hierarchy, also known as a scale of concepts (Monmonier,
1993), refers to the idea that some map features are more important than others.
The placement on a map or the ordering of information will convey relative
importance of map features to the percipient. If developed on the map correctly,
the intellectual hierarchy will correspond to the visual hierarchy established- on
the map. By developing a visual hierarchy, the percipient can distinguish relative
importance to map objects, drawing attention to the most important objects first
(Dent, 1972). By emphasizing the colors of important figures and fading out the
colors on less important figures, the perceived distance between the two is
increased. Also by employing color contrasts, contour sharpness is can be
adjusted (Dent, 1972).
Research in Figure-Ground Relationships
Fields other than cartography, such as psvchologv, neurology, and
computer science, have studied differentiation of figure from ground. Many
studies have employed different experiments, varying the shades, textures, and
orientations of test pictures to determine the best method for figure-ground
design with mixed results. A current application of figure-ground research is the
development of computer vision for robots. By studying the way humans perceive
figure and ground, methods can be developed to improve computer programmed
machine vision (Nordlund, 1998).

16. FRINGE

Fringe areas could be discussed as areas that lie beyond some natural or
man-made boundaries, temporarily limiting the growth of the town. However, with
changes in social, demographic, and economic structure, the same too go
through phases of change, identified as the following:
 Fixation (Conzen‟s fixation lines): A significant barrier, similar to Lynch‟s
edges, that creates a marked discontinuity in land that must be overcome for
the development of the city to go beyond. Examples include, the city wall, the
railway lines, natural ravines, gorges etc.
 Expansion: Wherein the „uses within the fringe-belt‟ expand into the
surrounding areas, not yet desired for residential use.
 Consolidation: Wherein the fringe is engulfed by the surrounding proliferating
growth of residential and other nature (Conzen op. cit. Rofe, 1995)

Thus, the fringes to any city mark significant changes in the mixture of new
land-use types. Interestingly, because the „institutions‟ are less dependent on
accessibility, many of them tend to locate themselves in these „fringe-belts‟. In
other words, the aforementioned changes manifest themselves in terms of not
ordinary residential accretions, but first by institutions, public utilities, open
spaces and country houses.

Readings:
 Petruccioli, Attilio, Continuity and Disruption in the Typological Process of the
Islamic Mediterranean Building Landscape, Research Paper, Polytechnic of
Bari, Italy, 2000.
 Barnow, Finn, City of Divine King: Urban Systems and Urban Architecture in
Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Nepal, and China, Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen, 2001.
 Balsavar, Durganand, An Understanding of the City, A Human Construct, As
A Process In Time, Undergraduate Published Thesis, School of Architecture,
CEPT, Ahmedabad, June 1992.
 Conzen, M.R.G., The morphology of towns in Britain during the Industrial Era:
The urban landscape, its historical development and management, Academic
Press, New York, 1981.
 Derasari, Snehal, City – An Expression of Human Domain, Undergraduate
Unpublished Thesis, School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1999.

17. FSI/ FAR (Floor Space Index and Floor Area Ratio)
18. GARDEN CITY
Few communities in the United States were planned as a model towns
from its beginning. In 1869 Alexander T Steward, one of New York's leading
merchants, bought a track of over 7,000 acres of the Hempsted plain with the
idea of creating a 'garden city', a term adopted later by an English city planner Sir
Ebenezer Howard .He visualized his 'garden city‟, the Town County magnet as a
town in the countryside. The town would be a closely-knit center for 30,000
people, which in turn would be encompassed by a permanent greenbelt of
agriculture with farms and parks inhabiting 2,000 people. The town would
accommodate the residential and cultural activities. In 1903,the first Garden city
was established on Howard‟s plan 35 miles from London.
Within the town, functional zoning is basic. Howard‟s garden city was to be
industrial and commercial with a balanced mixture of all social groups and levels
of income. The town is divided into wards. The central space is laid out into a
beautiful garden and surrounding this all around are situated majestically the
large public buildings. Surrounding the park is the Crystal Palace where
manufactured goods are kept for sale and most other shopping is done. Further
outward was to be the Grand Avenue, 420 ft. wide and forming an internal
greenbelt. This splendid avenue would have public school and their playgrounds
and churches. The outermost ring constituted all the warehouses and factories.
All opening out in front of the railway line that connected with national railway.
The houses have been accommodated in the outer internal space, all
have individual gardens, and all are within easy reach of factories, shops,
schools and the open countryside. The city is the healthiest in the nation. A low
density, a series of wide tree shaded avenues and homes surrounded by
greenery.
The garden city proper, is surrounded by an agricultural belt which is
reserved for farms and forests. This zone plays an important role in the economy
of the garden city. The 2000 farmers who live there supply the town with the bulk
of its food. Because the food is produced there itself, transport, expenses are
minimal, the farmers receives a good price. The agriculture also prevents the
town from the expansion out into countryside and ensures that the citizens enjoy
both the compact urban center and ample open countryside-all within easy
reach.

References:
- Green belt cities; Fredric J. Osborn
- Cities of vision; Rolf Jensen
- The city in cultural context; John Agnew,John Mercer,david Sopher
- The Town Planning Movement; Sir Ebenezer Howard Britannica
Encyclopedia.

19. GENTRIFICATION
A process by which dilapidated subdivided dwellings or slum
neighborhoods are taken over by the wealthy or their agents through purchase,
the non renewal of lease or occasionally, the harassment of tenants, and then
reconverted to expensive single-family housing. It occurs within the inner city
because the wealthy wish to live near central city job and recreational
'opportunities. Gentrification is a reversal of the normal FILTERING PROCESS,
for it involves old substantial dwelling that usually filter down the social hierarchy
but in this case get colonized and filtered back up.

Readings:
City Reader; Richard T. Legates and Federic Stout
Urban Future; Peter hall and Ulrich Pfeiftor
Urban Studies; vol. 40,12 Nov. 2003.

20. HERITAGE

Heritage itself is conceptualized as the meaning attached in the present to

the past and is regarded as a knowledge defined within social, political and
cultural context. It is capable of being interpreted differently within anyone culture
at anyone time, as well as between cultures and trough time. Heritage does not
engage directly with the study of the past. Instead it is concerned with the ways
in which very selective material artifacts, mythologies, memories and traditions
become resources for present.
The context, interpretations and representations of the resource are
selected according to the demands of the present. It follows, therefore, that, if
heritage is the contemporary use of the past and if it's meaning are defined in
present, then we create the heritage that we require and man age if for a range
of purpose defined by the needs and demands of our present societies. It is best
learnt from the living oral traditions, buildings, and other artifacts still useful in the
contemporary context.

Readings:
- Heritage as knowledge: capital or culture? Urban studies, vol. 39, nos 56, pg.
no. 1003-1017,2002.
- K.L.Bhowmik, PROTECTION AND Preservation of heritage. Inter-India
Publications.
- Dr.V.Raghavan, the Indian Heritage, an Anthology of Sanskrit Literature, the
Indian Institute of World Culture.
- Humayun Kabir , The Indian Heritage, Asia Publishing House.
- Lewis Mumford, The City in History, Its Origin, Its transformation.

21. HYPOTHESIS

Something supposed or taken for granted, with the object of following out
of its consequences. The concepts involved in the hypothesis need not
themselves refer to observable objects. But the initial condition should be able to
be observed or to be produced experimentally, and the deduced facts should be
able to be observed. While a hypothesis can be partially confirmed by showing
that what is deducted from it with certain initial conditions is actually found under
those conditions, it cannot be completely proved in this way. If the predictions
derived from the hypothesis are not found to be true, the hypothesis may have to
be given up or modified.
Readings:
- Paul k. Asabere and Peter F.Colwell, the relative lot size hypothesis: an
empirical note, urban studies (1985)22, pg. nO.355-357.
- Kevin lynch, what time is this place? MIT press Cambridge.
- Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 12, William Benton publisher.
- The world book encyclopedia- vol. 7, field enterprises educational
corporation.

22. LAND USE

The term land use refers to cultural use of land.

Land use is a pattern of construction and activity used in the urban context, land
use refers to location of activities like industries, hosing, recreation, trade and
commerce etc.
Urban land use planning focuses the location of these activities and their
spatial relationships with one another In the non-urban context land use assumes
a resource -use context. This refers to non urban activities like agriculture,
fisheries, and mining etc the focus of land use planning here is on the natural
productive attributes of land like fertility mineral content etc.
Land use is 'often confused with land cover. The latter describes the
actual material present on surface of the earth e.g. land cover of forested area
may be a certain species of trees while the primary use may be recreation.
Patterns of land use arise naturally in a culture through a customs and practices,
but zoning may also regulate land use.

Readings:
Bimal patel, Keywords in planning, school of planning CEPT, 1992
www.wikipedia.com

23. LANDMARKS

Landmarks are the points of reference, which are experienced at a

distance. They are three-dimensional sculptural objects in contrast to nodes,
which are places to entered and experienced from within.
Land marks become more easily identifiable, more likely to be chosen as
significant if they have clear form, if they contrast with their background, and if
there is some prominence of spatial location.
Some understand them as outstanding physical object with dominant
architectonic physical characteristic while according to them they are manifested
as buildings, towers, bridges, obelisks, flyovers etc.
The activity associated with an element also makes it a landmark.

Readings:
Lynch Kevin, Image of the city ,MIT press
S.murugnandam, Landmark in the urban fabric: The physical and associational
qualities, In Indian context, school of architecture, undergraduate thesis, CEPT
24. LANDSCAPE GRAIN

25. MORPHOLOGY

Morphology or „Urban Morphology‟ is defined by Carlo Aynomino as “the

study of the built form considered from the point of view of its production in
relation to the urban structure”. The term essentially relates to the study of the
form and structure of an urban set-up or a complex whole wherein the
component parts are expectedly interrelated and interconnected. It is to be noted
here that importance to „urban from‟ is the result of its capacity to enable an
„urban‟ system to be „read‟ and „analyzed‟ through the following:
a. A morphological analysis wherein the urban form is defined by three
fundamental physical elements: the street, the block and the plot.
b. A morphological analysis wherein the urban form is made to understand at
different levels of resolution corresponding to the city, the street, the block,
and the building form.
c. A morphological analysis wherein the urban form is understood historically
since the aforementioned elements undergo change, although at different
rates (the building/land use being most vulnerable while the street layout
being the most resistant).

The most noteworthy schools of „Urban Morphology‟ are the ones started by
M.R.G. Conzen (Urban Morphology Research Group at the University of
Birmingham), Saverio Muratori (the Italian School) and most recently the French
School at Versailles founded by Philippe Panerai and Jean Castex. Interstingly,
the Italian morphological tradition has always looked at tradition and innovation at
par with each other. The relation between tradition and innovation and hence a
pre-industrial and modern approach to „urban form‟ finds application in the
„typological studies‟. Specifically, the typological approach is distinguished from
all other Italian contributions by its classical concept of architecture as a tectonic
system legitimized by its derivation of principles and rules from the practice of
building and according to a strong integration of structural, distributional and
volumetric aspects.
Hence, the levels of resolution and specificity towards a more responsible „urban
form‟ making.

Readings:
 Rasmussen, Steen Eiler, Towns and Buildings: described in drawings and
words, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1951.
 Rossi, Aldo, The Architecture of the City, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1982.
 Cataldi, Giancarlo; Maffei, Gian Luigi, and Vaccaro, Paolo, Saverio Muratori
and the Italian Planning Theory, Urban Morphology 6 (1), 2002.
 Gauthiez, Bernard, The history of urban morphology, Urban Morphology 8(1),
2004.
 Gosling, David, and Maitland, B., Concepts of Urban Design, Academy
Editions, London, 1984.
 Hall, A.C., Dealing with Incremental Change: An Application of Urban
Morphology to Design Control, Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1997.
 Kristjansdottir, Sigriour, The integration of architectural and geographical
concepts in urban morphology: preliminary thoughts, Urban Morphology
Research Group, University of Birmingham, UK, 2002.
 Kropf, Karl, M.R.G.Conzen, Gianfranco Caniggia, Oscar Wilde and Aesop: or
why urban morphology may be right but not popular, Urban Morphology 8(1),
2004.
 Moudon, Anne Vernez, Urban Morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary
field, Urban Morphology 1, 3-10, 1997.
 Nanda, Vivek, Urban Morphology and the concept of type: a thematic and a
comparative study of the urban tissue, Undergraduate Published Thesis,
School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1989.
 Koster, Elwin Alexander, Urban Morphology: A taste of a form-oriented
approach to the history of urban development, Published Doctoral Student
Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2001.

26. NEIGHBORHOOD/ NEIGHBORHOOD UNIT:

An integrated, planned, urban area related to the larger community of

which it is a part and consisting of residential districts, a school or schools,
shopping facilities, religious buildings, open spaces and perhaps a degree of
service industry.
An early exponent of the neighborhood theory was Clarence Arthur Perry
who contributed a memorandum on the neighborhood unit to volume VII of the
Regional Survey of New York and its Environs (New York 1929). Among the
features of this scheme was the provision of an elementary school and other
institutions required by the residents , provision of one or more shopping districts
on the periphery of the unit, preferably near the traffic junctions and adjacent to
shops in other neighborhood, a street system designed to facilitate circulation
within the unit but to discourage through traffic and arterial roads at the
boundaries to facilitate bypassing of the unit.
These principles influenced the preparation of plans for cities and towns
during and immediately after the Second World War, Sir Patrick Abercrombie and
l H Forshow in the County of London Plan, 1943, advocated the neighborhood as
a valuable unit in the planning of communities. They decided that: The
elementary school should be the determining factor in the size and organization
of the subsidiary or neighborhood units and those communities in which large
scale reconstruction is proposed. The desirable scholar capacity of the
elementary school and the desirability of fixing a maximum walking distance from
home to school make the latter the one suitable building on which base the size
and arrangement of the neighborhood units.
According to the authors, a population for neighborhood units of between
6,000 and 10,000 persons. It was the intention that the children living in the
neighborhood should not cross the main road. Each neighborhood would have a
center, preferably near the school as well as local shops, community buildings
and smaller amenity open spaces.
A neighborhood geographically localized community located within a
larger city or suburb. Traditionally, a neighborhood is small enough that the
neighbors are all able to know each other. Real estate definition: An area of a
municipality that is identifiable by a common use, a common atmosphere or a
common business area.
It will be seen that the neighborhood unit is a persistent them of modem
planning, a theme subject to many variations that provide a rewarding field of
study.

Readings:
1. Whittick, Arnold, Encyclopedia of Urban Planning, McGraw Hill Book
Company, 1974
Website:
http://www.edsamuel.com/glossarv/realtv/html

27. NODES

28. PALIMPSEST

Palimpsest as a word is used for an object or a place whose older layers

or aspects are apparent beneath its surface.
Palimpsest is from Latin palimpsestus, from Greek palimpsestos, scraped or
rubbed again, from palin, again + psen, to rub (away).
The word is often referred to historic and archeological sites. Sometimes it
is possible to make out the traces of several previous incarnations lying behind
the one that survives today. In a historic landscape it may be possible to 'read' a
whole series of past uses written over each other. Sites can therefore be studied
archaeologically, by analyzing the way in which features relate to each other.
They provide evidence of past people and their relationship with the environment,
as well as providing the context for individual sites and monuments. This
characteristic is often referred to as a 'palimpsest'.
According to Daniel Cooper, author of The Aztec Palimpsest, "Palimpsest"
serves as a useful term for the ongoing process of the construction of cultural
identity through layering of partial erasures and of partial superimpositions upon
previous cultural realities. .
Theorist Aldo Rossi considers it indispensable to study the persistence of
traces from the past in the city of the present. He believes that each urban fact
has a complex individuality: a singular quality arising from the successive marks
that history's changes have left in its space over time. The architecture of the city
comes to be the testimony par excellence of daily life because in its fixity the
vicissitudes of humankind are registered throughout time. This idea of the city as
a palimpsest where traces of heterogeneous times accumulate gives rise to
images of great plasticity, as described in the beginning of U The Architecture of
the City".
Walter Benjamin is another theorist who backs the idea of -City as
Palimpsest. In a review on a book of walks through Berlin (Spazieren in Berlin),
Benjamin wonders how the obsolete, nineteenth-century figure of the
Baudelairean has managed to be so belatedly reincarnated by the book's author,
Franz Hessel. Benjamin concluded that a phenomenon is better perceived the
closer it is to disappearing. In his book Hessel strolls through the new Berlin
seeking the trail of its old inhabitants precisely because the current architecture
and city planning do not favor a way of life that leaves traces, as Benjamin
states:
"The coming architecture is dominated by the idea of transparency ['..J
Only a man in whom modernity has already announced its presence, however
quietly, can cast such an original and "early glance" at what has only just become
old.
Rome as we find it is a supreme palimpsest. The ruins of pagan temples
have become the foundation of Christian churches, ancient theaters have been
made into medieval family fortresses, and Corinthian columns have become part
of new walls. Layers of the ages exist, one on top of the other.

Readings:
- Rossi, Aldo, The Architecture of the City, translated by Diane Ghirardo and
Joan Ockman (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The MIT
Press, 1984).
- Benjamin, Walter, Selected Writings, Vol. 2 (1927-'1934) (Cambridge,
Massachusetts and London, England:The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 1999).
- Benjamin, Walter, The Arcades Project, translated by Howard Eiland and
Kevin McLaughlin (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999).
- Rilke, Rainer Maria, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, translated by M.
D. Herter Norton (New York:W.W. Norton Company, Inc., 1964)
- Rodolfo, Machado, Old Buildings as Palimpsest, (Progressive Architecture
November1976).
- Cooper, Daniel , The Aztec Palimpsest! Mexico in the Modem Imagination,
(Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1997).
- Beery, A.Q. and Brown, Erosion on Archaeological Earthworks: Its
Prevention, Control and Repair, (Clwyd County Council, 1994) · Macinnes, L,
and Wickham-Jones, All Natural Things: Archaeology and the Green Debate,
(Oxbow Monograph 21,1992) · Constantin, Goagea, About specters as
Poetical periphery of the existence
- Art . Dictlonuy http://www.artlex.com
- Dictionary.com
- http://dictionary.reference.com/

29. PEDESTRIANIZATION

Efforts are underway by pedestrian advocacy groups to restore pedestrian

access to new developments, especially to counteract newer developments
where 20 to 30 percent do not include sidewalks.
Some activists advocate large auto-free zones where pedestrians only or
pedestrians and some non-motorized vehicles are allowed. Many urbanists have
extolled the virtues of pedestrian streets in urban areas. Many urban streets in
the USA lack street lighting (lamp poles), based on the reasoning that cars have
headlights to illuminate their own way. This policy severely restricts or effectively
prohibits pedestrian traffic and contributes to excessive car use on short distance
trips.
 In contrast pedestrian traffic is officially encouraged in some parts of the
European Union and construction or separation of dedicated walking routes
receives a high priority in most large European city centers, often in conjunction
with public transport enhancements. In Copenhagen the world's longest
pedestrian shopping area, the Stroget, has been developed over the last 40
years principally due to the work of Danish architect Jan Gehl.

Pedestrian
A person traveling on foot, a walker.
Adj.
1. Of, relating to, or made for pedestrians: a pedestrian bridge.
2. Going or performed on foot: a pedestrian journey.
3. Undistinguished; ordinary: pedestrian prose.
[From Latin pedester, pedestr-, going on foot, from pedes, a pedestrian,
from pes, ped-, foot.]
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In
modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road but this was
not the case historically.
During the 18th and19th centuries, pedestrianism was a popular spectator
sport. Since the nineteenth century, interest in pedestrianism has dropped.
Although it is still an Olympic sport, it fails to catch public attention in the way that
it used to. However, pedestrians are still carrying out major walking feats such as
the popular Land's End to John 0' Groats walk, in the United Kingdom, or
traversal of North America from coast to coast. These feats are often tied to
charitable fundraising and have been achieved by celebrities such as Sir Jimmy
Savile or Ian Botham as well as by people not otherwise in the public eye.
Nowadays, roads often have a designated footpath attached especially for
pedestrian traffic, called the sidewalk in American English and the pavement in
British English. There are also footpaths not associated with a road, which are
used purely by pedestrians, particularly ramblers, hikers or hill-walkers, and there
are roads not associated with a footpath. Such footpaths in mountainous or
forested areas are called trails. On some of the latter, pedestrians share the road
with horses and vehicles whilst on others they are forbidden from using the road
altogether. Also some shopping streets are for pedestrians only.
Some roads have special pedestrian crossings. A bridge solely for
pedestrians is a footbridge.

References:
- Houghton Mufflin Company Dictionary,
- (http://www.answers.com)
- (http://www.wikipedia.com)
- (http://www.transalt.org/campaigns/reclaiming/)

30. PERSPECTIVE PLAN

31. PUBLIC PLACE

A public place is a destination and a purpose built stage for rituals and
interactions. The reference is to places we all are free to use. They are
themselves often defined by the private architecture of surrounding buildings. But
the distinction of purpose holds the fact that in public places we act in ways we
cannot or do not in the private realm.
Two aspects can be attributed to the concept of public places. One is a
familiar and chance encounter. The charter of public spaces here is freedom of
action and the right to stay inactive. The second aspect is a ritual one. Public
places host structured or communal activities - festivals, riots, celebrations,
public executions.
The fundamental aim of the public place is to ensconce community and to
arbitrate social conflict.
Hence the concept of public places can be destinations, which have been
custom built to promote human contact as settings for functions, gatherings and
rituals.

Readings:
Spiro Kostoff. 1992. The city assembled. London: Thames and Hudson limited.
Manish Sachdeva. 1999. Urban public realm: a methodology for analysis. CEPT
publications.

32. PUBLIC REALM

In simple tenns public realm can be defined as 'an unrestricted field or

sphere, open to all persons of, in or characteristic of cities. ' Although public
areas/spaces have always existed in any kind of human settlement, the concept
of "public realm" gains importance in urban situations as apart from a place for
gathering and exchange. It is in this realm that a range of activities takes place
involving human interactions and social relations. It is a realm where, questions
of ethnicity, religion, economics and politics between individuals and groups are
raised and multiplicity of intentions, actions and associations are revealed.
The public realm has physical (space) and social (activity) dimensions. The
public realm is understood here to mean the spaces and settings- publicly or
privately owned - that support or facilitate public life and social interaction.
Defined as the sites and settings of public life and including some notion of
'public space' the public realm ideally functions as a forum for political action and
representation, as a neutral or common ground for social interaction,
intenningling and communication and a stage for social learning, personal
development and infonnation exchange.
Although these functions are rarely wholly attained in practice, their definition
provides a measure of the degree to which 'real' public realms fall short of the
ideal state.

Readings:
- Mathew Carmona, Tim Health, Taner 0 C and Steven Tiesdell. 2003. public
places urban spaces. Architectural Press, Burlington.
- Manish Sachdeva. 1999. Urban public realm: a methodology for analysis.
CEPT publications.

33. PUBLIC SPACE

In general, the definition of "public space", has traditionally meant streets,

squares, and parks in an urban context,
We see public space as the common ground where people carry out the
functional & ritual activities that bind a community, whether the normal routines of
daily life or in periodic festivities.
The notion of the public space has been changing. Before 18th century it
was designed as honorific place celebrating power of aristocracy where as the
great political revolutions of the 18th & 19th century transformed this ritual
conception into the democratic public sphere, meaning places of public debate &
gatherings where rational voice of the people could be heard.
Public space should entail a continuous urban topography, a spatial
structure that covers both rich & poor places, honorific & humble monuments,
permanent & short-lived forms, and should include places for public assemblage
& public debate as well as private memory walks & personal retreats.
Public space is a place where anyone has a right to come without being
excluded because economic or social conditions (fees, paying an entrance, being
poor ...). It also does not impose any time limitations.

Readings:
- (Carr S., Francis M., Rivlin L., Stone A., Public space, Cambridge university
press)
- (Boyer, Christine, The city of collective memory, Its historical & Architectural
perspective, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London.)

34. REVITALIZATION

The heart of the word "revitalization" is "vita," the Latin word for „life.
Generally referred as urban revitalization means bringing back life or „vitality‟ into
areas of the city, that might have lost such life.
The term „revitalization‟ (or in American English „revitalization‟) is used in
many fields dealing with urban structures development: town planning, sociology,
geography, monuments‟ conservation. Its appearance was preceded by many
terms of a close but not identical meaning, like: renewal, rebuild, restructurion,
regenerating and rehabilitation.
Revitalization is often described as a process of stimulating city spatial
modifications/transitions – mainly of the functional and economic character –
aiming at reversing degradation process and increasing city competitiveness.
„Revitalization – the process of spatial, social and economical transitions, which
goal is to bring the revitalized area out of the crisis state and leading to its
development, including improvement of local community living conditions”.
Revitalisation of city central areas can be characterized as a process of structural
changes increasing activity and attractiveness of its space due to the coordinated
strategies of private and public sectors
Readings:
- (Anna Wojnarowska,Spatial aspects of the revitalization process - Integrated
Revitalization Programme PROREVITA for Lodz central areas)

35. SCHEMA

i) A diagrammatic representation; an outline or model

ii) The word schema comes from the Greek word “skhēma” that means
shape or more generally plan. While a scheme refers to a loosely
described plan, a schema usually refers to specific, well documented,
and consistent plans. In English literature, both schemas and
schemata are used as the plural form of "schema".
We define a “schema” a typical stereotyped reaction to a situation that is as a
typical attitude or a characteristic coherence system of intentional poles. We
understand that the schemata are formed during socialization, and their
importance is so great that may almost put a sign of equality between schema
and perception. Generally we perceive properties which may not be present, and
discover that our perception is wrong, as we usually are not conscious of our
schemata. When we discover that our reaction is unsatisfactory, that the schema
does not allow a sufficient intentional depth, we are forced to revise it. Thus
schematization therefore is a process which never comes to close.

Readings:
- http://www.wickipedia.com
- Norberg Schulz Christian: Intension in architecture – George Allen & Unwin ltd.
London 1963

36. SPATIALITY

i) Of, relating to, involving, or having the nature of space, any property relating to
or occupying space
ii) Spatial scale provides a "shorthand" form for discussing relative lengths,
areas, distances and sizes. A microclimate, for instance, is one which might
occur in a mountain valley or near a lakeshore, whereas a mega trend is one
which involves the whole planet

Readings:
http://www.wickipedia.com

37. STRUCTURE PLAN

38. TDR: TRANSFER OF DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS

A mechanism by which the development rights of a property are separated

from the property and can be exercised and can be exercised else where.
In the case of Bombay it is a mechanism by which development rights are given
as compensation to a plot owner whose land has been acquired. The owner can
utilize the development rights himself on some other plot or can sell them to
someone else.
This is a way to eliminate the pressure of development on the parcel,
which could then be put to other social, but not necessarily the most economical
use. Thus the owner of the plot is not deprived of the economical benefit of his
property. The rule hence solves the dilemma of individual rights against
community.
In this mechanism the development rights are separated from the plot,
where development is to be discouraged and is allowed to be used on a plot,
where development is desirable. The aim of the system is to encourage desirable
social objective. It purposes varying from Acquisition of private land for public
purpose.
Conserving landmark by discouraging demolition. Presence of
environmentally sensitive areas the receiving areas were demarcated after
considering the market demand for development and the areas capability to
support the additional density in terms of infrastructure.

Readings:
- Chavooshian Budd B.Norman Thomas, Nieswand H.George, Transfer of
Development of Rights; A new concept in land use management.
- Davin - Drabkin Hain Land Policy and Urban Growth.
- GIHED ; Bombay's Development Plan- New Dimension of Urban
Development.
- Mehta Jaswant: Transport of Development Rights: A vital instrument of Town
Planning {Ambuja Lecture Series 1994}.
- Pizor Peter.J: Making Transfer of Development of Rights work: a study or
programme implementation.
- Lukachan, Biju, School of planning postgraduate thesis: Transfer of
development rights: an enabling mechanism for urban planning and
management.

39. THEORY

40. TISSUE LEVEL STUDIES

Tissue-level studies essentially expose the components of an urban

ensemble, to indicate the inherent organization and the inter-relatedness of the
same with the delineated environs. They hold immense significance in reading
and illustrating the inside-outside relationship; representative of the varying
degrees of public intrusion or private revelry.
In fact „urban tissue‟ remains the most central element in the morphological
analysis, wherein the same is looked at as an organic whole, whose overall form
is seen in the light of three distinct levels of resolution:
 At the level of streets and blocks
 At the level of plots in the identified urban blocks.
 At the level of building forms within the identified plots.
The concept of „tissue‟ thus evokes ideas of interweaving and of connections
between parts, together with a capacity for adaptation. The „urban tissue‟, which
is the superimposition of several structures acting at different scales, but which
appear as a system with linkages in each part of the city, can be defined as the
culminating point of three systems:
 Roads as movement corridors and distributaries
 Plot sub-divisions and the respective ownerships
 Buildings and their uses.

Readings:
 Rossi, Aldo, The Architecture of the City, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1982.
 Hall, A.C., Dealing with Incremental Change: An Application of Urban
Morphology to Design Control, Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1997.
 Petruccioli, Attilio Ed., Typological Process and Design Theory, Proceedings
of the International symposium sponsored by the Aga Khan Program for
Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the MIT, Cambridge, March
1995.
 Panerai, Phillipe ; Castex, Jean; Depaule, Charles Jean; Samuels, Ivor,
Urban Forms: the Death and Life of the Urban Block, Architectural Press,
Oford, 2004.

41. TRADITIONAL AND VERNACULAR

TRADITION:
A tradition is a series of cultures or industries, which appear to develop on
from one another over a period of time. Tradition means any long established
custom, practice or belief, which are handed down from generation to generation.
It is not synonymous with stagnation. Tradition and art are intertwined. Tradition
must be perpetuated for the realization of art. .
Tradition patterns are responses to forces that exerted themselves over a
long period of time. To most, including architects, tradition involves the
maintenance of past social structures and past architectural patterns rather than
the use of past processes of change.
Tradition is something that is not static, but is ever changing. It is in the
process, whether conscious or unconscious, by which elements are continuously
transformed and readopted.

References:
- Lang,John; Desai,Miki & Desai, Mdhavi, 'Architecture And Independence'
,1997,Oxford Univ. Press,New Delhi,
- Venturi,Robert, 'Complexity And Con tradition In Architecture.', 1966,
Newyork: Museum Of Modern Art.

VERNACULAR:
A built environment belonging to a particular group of people can be
termed as vernacular, when the individuals are not just owners or buyers but are
also participants in the building process which has been evolved over a long
period of time, and are to an extend capable of building on their own.
Vernacular dwellings and settlements are expressions of a complex
interaction of potentialities of available materials, cultural skills, climatic
conditions and economic levels of a place arrived at through a process of trial
and error over a long period of time.
A study of vernacular form gives one an understanding of the basic human
responses to the built environment. It also teaches one the link between built
form and tradition, customs, social values and physical factors such as
topography, materials and climate.
Vernacular building shapes, floor plans, materials, construction
techniques, and other characteristics are often generated from centuries-old local
patterns.
These patterns are continually changing, but do so slowly. An early work
was Bernard Rudofsky's 1964 book "Architecture Without Architects: a short
introduction to non-pedigreed architecture", based on his MoMA exhibition.
The book was a gentle reminder of the legitimacy and "hard-won knowledge"
inherent in vernacular buildings, from Polish salt-caves to gigantic Syrian water
wheels to Moroccan desert fortresses, although it was considered iconoclastic at
the time." Christopher Alexander attempted to identify adaptive features of
traditional architecture that apply across cultures in his book A Pattern Language.
Howard Davis's book The Culture of Building details the culture that enabled
several vernacular traditions.
The term "commercial vernacular", popularized in the late 1960s by the
publication of Robert Venturi's "Learning from Las Vegas", refers to 20th century
American suburban tract and commercial architecture. Unlike traditional
vernacular, however, the design and construction of these types of buildings is
remote from their eventual users, and they do not represent long cultural
traditions; those who study traditional vernacular architecture hold that these
characteristics define a more useful and fundamental partition of architecture into
vernacular and non-vernacular than whether or not a kind of architecture is
accepted within academia.

Readings:
- Alexander,Christopher, 'Timeless Way Of Building', 1979,Oxford Univ. Press.
- Rudofsky ,Bernard, 'Architecture Without Architects - A Short Introduction To
Non-Pedigreed Architecture', 1965, New York: Museum Of Modern Art.
- Alexander,Christopher And Others, 'Pattern Language: Towns,Buildings,
Construction', 1977, New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

42. TRAVEL TIME GRID

43. TYPOLOGY AND TYPE

The earliest reference to „type‟ dates back to the time of Plato, Aristotle,
and Epicurius when the writings on philosophy and psychology ideated the term
„typos‟, describing a set of characteristics present in a group of concrete
individuals. However, it was in France that „type‟ as a theory took a definitive
footing; as a reaction to the perceived decline of the Baroque and the Rococo.
Quatremere de Quincy, at the end of the eighteenth century, brought forth a
completely new understanding of „type‟, until then regarded as a „model‟, and
based it on history, nature and use.
 Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, however, elaborated the understanding of the
„type‟, substituting it by the term „genre‟ and deviating from Quicy‟s pre-
occupation of the same with stylistic categorixation, to developing a principle-led
following categorization: Historical (Egyptial Temples, Roman Palaces, Moorish
details); Functional (Theatres, Markets, Hospitals); Round Temples (From
considered as a distinctive feature of a building).
„Type‟ could thus be regarded as a „set of common formal characteristics,
presenting less the image of a thing to copy than the idea of an element, which
ought to serve as rule. Hence while all is precise and given in a model; all is
more or less vague and subject to variation in the type‟ (Encyclopedia
Methodique, Paris, 1825).

Readings:
 Anderson, Stanford, Types and Conventions in Time: Towards a History of
Duration and Change of Artifacts, Perspecta 18, 1982.
 Aymonimo, Carlo, Ten Opinions on the Type, Casabella 509/510, 1985.
 Aymonimo, Carlo, Type and Typology, AD 55 5/6, London, 1985.
 Braham, William, After Typology: The suffering of diagrams, Architectural
Design, Vol. 70, No. 3, May-June, 2000.
 Burelli, Augusto Romano, Unearthing the Type, AD 55 5/6, London, 1985.
 Colquhoun, Alan, Typology and Design Method, Arena, The Journal of the
Architectural Association, June 1967; Republished in Charles Jencks and
George Baird, Meaning in Architecture, London, 1969.
 De Carlo, Giancarlo, Notes on the uncontrolled ascent of Typology, Casabella
509/510, 1985.
 De Mauro, Tullio, Typology, Casabella 509/510, 1985.
 Ellis, W.,Type and Context in Urbanism: Colin Rowe Contextualism,
Oppositions no. 18, 1979, p. 2-27.
 Findley, R.J. (1983) Rob Krier: Urban Projects 1968-1982, Progressive
Architecture, vol. 64, 1983, p.231.
 Frampton, Kenneth, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 1980.
 Goode, Terrance, Typological Theory in the United States: The Consumption
of Architectural “Authenticity”, Journal of Architectural Education, September
1992.
 Madrazo, Leandro, Durand and the Science of Architecture, Journal of
Architectural Education, September 1994.
 Moneo, Raphael, On Typology, Oppositions 13, 1978.
 Nanda, Vivek, Urban Morphology and the concept of type: a thematic and a
comparative study of the urban tissue, Undergraduate Published Thesis,
School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1989.
 Petruccioli, Attilio Ed., Typological Process and Design Theory, Proceedings
of the International symposium sponsored by the Aga Khan Program for
Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the MIT, Cambridge, March
1995.
 Polesello, Gianugo, Typology and Composition in Architecture, Type and
Typology, AD 55 5/6, London, 1985.
 Scolari, Massimo, The Typological Commitment, Casabella 509/510, 1985.
 The Luck of Aldo Rossi: Notes on the critical success of his works,
Architecture + Urbanism No. 65, 1976.
 Vidler, A., The Third Typology, Oppositions, N. 7, 1978.
 Vidler, Anthony, Dictionnaire Historique de l’Architecture, Oppositions 8,
Spring 1977.

44. URBAN

Interestingly, there have been several ideologies pertaining to the

understanding of settlements with respect to their „urban‟ and „rural‟ designations,
all essentially discussing in the light of the pre-industrial era, when every
settlement thriving on agriculture was seen as rural. Thus in rural societies, lands
were a collective possession, and agriculture, a singular force representative of
collective behaviour and control. Apportioning of land, emergence of a class of
landowners, land becoming a subject of transaction, the resultant emergence of
a mixed group of people and the subsequent diversity in occupation: all, on the
other hand, shaping up the beginnings of an „urban system‟ (Barnow, 2001).
There is however, another ideology, which goes beyond this simplistic
differentiation and imparts urban status to settlements that gradually arise as
commercial magnets, notwithstanding their agricultural predominance or the
relatively controlled homogeneous densities (Thapar, 1984). The theory outrightly
regards the basic phenomenon of migration of population to safer riverine
hinterlands as the most primitive type of „urbanization‟ giving rise to most
rudimentary urban centres. Urban civilizations are thus recognized as those that
were linked by river traffic, what with the expansion of trade, allowing for the
intensification of the urban culture, and the choice of site, and the subsequent
establishment of an economic and political base then becoming a criterion for the
coveted designation (Thapar, 1984).
Interestingly thus, the qualitative difference between „urban‟ and „rural‟ is
made synonymous with the planned efforts of the settlement dwellers towards
the laying of basic infrastructure, drainage and soakage pits, as also wells for
availability of water, and the act of erecting a solid and relatively impermeable
fortification for defense: (fortifications being sharp reminders of the several layers
of separation between the Royal Court from the townspeople, as well as the
urban from the rural).
Add to this, the size of the settlement also contributed to the status of an
„urban‟ set-up. Hence, the hierarchies –
 Fortified settlements (Pura)
 Market settlements (Nigamas)
 Town (Nagara)
 Large Town (Mahanagara)
 Township (Qasba)
 City (Shahr)

Completely abandoning, however, this concept of separation between the

town and country, emerges yet another perspective that acknowledges the
inseparability of the town from the larger social environment and „regards towns
as sites in which the history of the larger social systems – states, societies,
modes of production, world economies – is partially but crucially worked out
(Champakalakshmi, 1999). Infact urban sociologists treat towns as „fields of
social realization of power, stressing upon the continuity of social stratification
between the town and the country‟.
To conclude, plurality in the ownership of land, its control and use (Barnow,
2000) as well as the coexistence of agricultural and commercial base, trade, and
a sense of permanence attested by a political and a military structure: all become
the determinants for regarding a settlement formation, „urban‟. As Kostoff (1991)
neatly puts it:
 An entity which has a positive ecological base,
 A site favourable for trade,
 A sense of technology which improves the agricultural base,
 A complex social organization,
 A strong political structure.

Readings:
 Barnow, Finn, City of Divine King: Urban Systems and Urban Architecture in
Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Nepal, and China, Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen, 2001.
 Thapar, Romila, From lineage to State: Social formations in the mid-first
millennium BC in the Ganga Valley, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,
1984.
 Kostoff, Spiro, The City Shaped: Urban Pattern and Meanings Through
History, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1991.
 Champakalakshmi, R., Trade, Ideology and Urbanization in Southern India:
300 BC to AD 1300, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999.

45. URBAN BLOCK

The „Urban Block‟ is essentially a typological element in the overall urban

composition. It primarily refers to an entity which is defined on all sides by a
network of traffic routes: planned or unplanned, and which remains constituted by
building types that may (ideally) or may not (necessarily) contribute towards its
edge definition.

„The „Urban Block‟, in other words, may also be referred to as the „built
mass‟ of the city that constitutes an agglomeration of buildings. Its form is defined
by the peripheral conditions of the open-spaces that either generate the block or
are generated by the articulation of the block. In the traditional cities, the urban
block was essentially formed by a single and continuous built mass that
represented the extent of the block and in turn gave the street a certain definition.
Today, however, the block is the result of individual and isolated buildings that
stand in space but not necessarily establish coherence‟. (Gothoskar, Vineeta, An
Enquiry into the aspects of Urban Edge as an element of participation,
Undergraduate Unpublished Thesis, School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad,
1988).
 The „urban block‟ thus emerges as a part of the urban area „isolated‟ from
the neighboring parts if the larger territory by streets. It is in this respect not an
architectural form but a group of interdependent building plots. It has a meaning
only in relation with the network of streets that define its boundary.

Readings:
 Panerai, Phillipe; Castex, Jean; Depaule, Charles Jean; Samuels, Ivor, Urban
Forms: the Death and Life of the Urban Block, Architectural Press, Oford,
2004.
 Gothoskar, Vineeta, An Enquiry into the aspects of Urban Edge as an
element of participation, Undergraduate Unpublished Thesis, School of
Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1988.

46. URBAN CONSERVATION

47. URBAN DESIGN

“Urban designing involves the planned intervention in the marketplace and

in the legal processes of allocating and designing the combination of land and
building uses and building configurations that constitute the three-dimensional
physical nature of human settlements. Such a planned intervention is based on a
model of the human being, an image of an ideal world, a model of the
environment, and a set of values. These models and values are seldom clear
and almost never stated explicitly.
Urban design is concerned with the built environment of cities (and other
human settlements) and the public welfare. Urban design is always both a public
and a political act” - Jon Lang
"The science of city planning and the art of city design, in real life for real
cities, must become the science and art of catalyzing and nourishing these close-
grained working relationships. These are conditions required for generating
useful great city diversity" - Jane Jacobs
"There is an art of relationship just as there is an art of architecture. Its
purpose is to take all the elements that go to create the environment: buildings,
trees, nature, water, traffic advertisements and so on, and to weave then
together in such a way that drama is released. The aim is not to dictate the
shape of the town or environment, but is a modest one: simply to manipulate
within the tolerances" - Gordon Cullen
"Urban design is Architecture and not a separate entity mediating between
planning and building. It is the physical expression of society's hopes and
intentions and a means of using and developing human and architectural
potential, involving areas of concern which do not recognize boundaries between
public and private domains. Urban design should integrate physical design with
the power of policy-making to shape the large-scale public/private environment
and manage its growth and change." - Michael Wilford.
"We propose a discipline of urban design which is different, entirely, from
the one known today. We believe that the task of creating wholeness in the city
can only be dealt with as a process. IT cannot be solved by design alone, but
only when the process by which the city gets its form is fundamentally changed.
Thus, in our view it is the process above all which is responsible for wholeness,
not merely the form. If we might create a suitable process there is some hope
that the city might become whole again. If we do not change the process, there is
no hope at all." - Christopher Alexander

Readings:
- Lang, Jon, Urban Design: The American Experience, Van Nostrand, New York,
1994
- Jacobs, Jane, Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Failure Of Town
Planning, Vintage, New York, 1961
- Cullen, Gordon, Townscapes, Architectural Press, London, 1961
- Alexander, Christopher, A New Theory Of Urban Design, Oxford University
Press, New York, 1987

48. URBAN ECOLOGY, ECOLOGY, ARCOLOGY.

„Ecology is essentially a term of Greek origin, from Oikos, meaning a

house or a dwelling place, and Lagos, meaning the study of life habits of over a
million different kinds of plants and animals, including the manners of influences
and interaction among them‟. Ecology as a discipline of study extends itself to
not only the life sciences but also to others like archaeology, chemistry,
anthropology, geography, as well as the entire natural and social sciences.
Interestingly, the traditionalists‟ idea of ecology pertaining to the natural
and geographic settings has witnessed a tremendous change in the recent times
in both meaning and vision, what with the „urbanization‟ assuming the role of the
most significant phenomenon of the post-industrial era: a world where the
„natural settings and the built environment have begun to constitute distinctive
variables‟ of a larger urban ecological setting.
Hence the emergence of a new discipline, urban ecology, which concerns
itself with as much as the structure of the cities, as much as its location in a
particular eco-system, the impact on the neighbourhood, the existence of
concentric environments: internal and external, and the impact of urbanization on
the „ecological field‟ of the city. In other words, the same sees the urban built
environment in conjunction with various values of the space context (economic,
social, ethnic, and environmental).
Interestingly, in response to the increasing divide between the natural and
the built environment, there were worldwide concerns, but one idea which
evolved from conception to actual realization is the concept of Arcology by
Paolo Soleri. „The concept is essentially that of a structure called Arcology or an
ecological architecture, which would take the place of the natural landscape in as
much it would constitute the new topography to be dealt with‟: an organism which
lives and lets live, consumes only requisite resources but in turn also contributes
to the enrichment of the ecology.

Readings:
 Croall, Stephen and Rankin, William, Ecology for beginners, Icon Books Ltd.,
Cambridge, 1992.
 Dendrinos, Diminos and Mullaly, Henri, Urban Evolution: Studies in
Mathematical Ecologies of Cities, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985.
 Gilpin, Alan, Dictionary of Environmental Terms, Routledge and Kegan Paul,
London and Henley, 1976.
 Kormondy, Edward J., Concept of Ecology, New Delhi Prentice Hall, 1971.
 Leutsher, Alfred, Ecology of Towns, Franklin Walts Ltd., London, 1975.
 Simonds, John Ormsbee, Landscape Architecture, Illefe Books Ltd., London,
1961.
 Sinha, Dr. S.P., Urban Environment and Cotemporary Ecology, The Indian
Publications, Ambala Cantt, 1986.
 Soleri, Paolo, Arcology: The City in the Image of Man, The MIT Press,
Cambridge Massachusetts, 1981.

49. URBAN FORM

Exploring the links between the concrete physicality of the built form and
the complex social, economic, political processes through which the physical
urban form is produced and consumed. Physical form and spatial structure of the
city gives it its form. The pattern of development in an urban area, including
aspects such as urban density; the use of land (residential, commercial, industrial
or institutional); the existence of denser “nodes”, centers or corridors; and the
degree to which urban development is contiguous or fragmented at the fringes.
Typo morphological studies use building types to explain urban form and the
process of shaping the fabric of cities.

References:
Lang, Jon, Urban Design: The American Experience, Van Nostrand, New York,
1994

50. URBAN FABRIC

The urban fabric is the physical form of towns and cities. The habitual use
of the singular - „the‟ urban fabric - implies that there is only one per urban area,
however it may locally be contorted or riven. The urban fabric, like urban
structures and spaces, also embodies the concept of continuity, in contrast to
built form, which could easily be regarded as being a collection of freestanding
objects.
The urban fabric is also differentiated from urban structure, whose name
connotes conscious and incremental construction, as urban fabric is often cast as
a passive entity to which things are done. In this sense the urban fabric may
therefore be seen as representing the idea of a pre-existing, primal form, the urban
landscape as found. Just as the surface of the earth is as a thin skin over the
global mass, the urban fabric may be likened to a cloak overlaying this skin,
forming a new surface. Perhaps the urban fabric is always conceptually „what was
there before‟ at a given point in time, something that may be cut or disrupted - and
healed once more - by new interventions, rather than being a unitary construct,
deliberately assembled as such.
It is no coincidence that the term „urban fabric‟ has a garment-like
resonance, it is not truly two-dimensional, as it incorporates the vertical
dimension of built form: the urban fabric may be said to be „torn apart‟ even when
the street plan on the ground remains largely intact. Neither is the urban fabric
fully three-dimensional, as its significance is associated with the concave street
spaces occupied by people as they move through „it‟. The system of streets,
which binds the built form into the urban structure of the road network, creates a
continuous urban fabric and in a sense confirms the coherence of urbanity.

Readings:

- Alexander C. A City is Not a Tree, Architectural Forum, Thames and

Hudson, London, 1966.
- Alexander C. A Pattern Language: Towns, buildings, construction. Oxford
University Press, New York, 1977.
- Bacon, E.N. Design of Cities, Thames and Hudson, London, 1967.
- Website: www.urbanity.50megs.com/urbanfabric

51. URBAN INSERT

The urban fabric of a city which is usually conceived as „what was there
before‟ at a given point of time and is subject to change whether it be in terms of
it being cut or disrupted or modified and healed once more, by new interventions
is considered as an urban insert.
The conventional plan is to drive a new imposed order, “a better
environment” through congested and unsanitary areas which is quite unsparing
to the old homes and to the neighborhood life of the area, leaves fewer homes
and the large population expelled would again as usual be driven into creating
worse congestion in other quarters. If the original inhabitants have been shifted
then the new spaces thus formed from their removal will have newer inhabitants
and different functions as compared to the previous order. If cavernous squares
and heroic avenues are proposed they will upset the subtle spatial play between
small buildings and large, monumental nodes and the standard tissue that gives
these monuments their status, their impressiveness, and, such planning is also
never innocent of political or social ends “Urban planning” that was actually
implemented bears faithful testimony to a concentration of authority. Much of the
planning we recognize today in ancient, medieval or renaissance cities was the
work of kings, princes, prelates, aristocrats or oligarchies, each powerful enough
to define the urban order.
Haussmann, the “ demolition artist ” as he was called by many of his
detractors, was the great precursor of pitiless massive urban surgery causing the
destruction of entire sections of a city, which was condoned to make room for the
public theatres of Napoleons regime.
Urban inserts in more modern times are undertaken to “relieve
congestion” and “restore decorum” and create a “better environment”.
Readings:
- Ward V Stephen, Planning the Twentieth Century City: the advanced
capitalist world, London UK, 2002.
- Mum ford Lewis, The Culture of Cities, USA, 1970.
- Tyrwhit Jacqueline, Patrick Geddes in India, Great Britain, 1947
- Spiro Kostof, The City Shaped: Urban Patterns And Meanings Through
History, Canada 1991.
- Function and Metaphor, Design Quarterly, Article by Spiro Kostof: His
majesty the Pick: The Aesthetics of Demolition, Minneapolis, 1982.

52. URBAN RENEWAL

Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in British English) is a

movement in urban planning that reached its peak in the United States from the
late 1 940s through the early 1970s. Urban renewal is controversial, as it often
imples the use of eminent domain law to enforce reclaiming private property for
civic projects. And while envisionoo as a way to redevelop residential slums and
blightoo commercial areas, "renewal" often resulted in the creation of urb,m
sprawl-vast areas being demolishoo and replaced by fTeeways and
expressways, housing projects, and vacant lots-some of which remained vacant
at the beginning of the 21st centUlY.

Urban Renewal physically takes things and turns them to new uses. It
essentially means rehabilitation of impoverished urban neighborhoods by large-
scale renovation or reconstruction of housing and public works. Homes are
destroyed or rehabilitated; new structures rise or the uses of old structures are
changed; streets and community facilities are rearranged. Urban renewal is not a
goal, but a tool. It is a method whereby a great variety of ends could be served.
In some places, renewal has meant erecting a civic monument in a downtown
plaza; in others, rehabilitating sound but decaying homes to improve living
conditions for residents; in others, getting 'Undesirables' out of 'Desirable'
neighborhoods by spot clearance; in others, stabilizing blighted(diseased)
neighborhoods and encouraging residents to improve their properties; in others,
developing land that will attract new businesses into the community or clearing
land that will get unpopular businesses out of the community.

Bibliography:
- Wilson James, Urban Renewal: the record and controversy; M.LT. Press,
Cambridge, 1968.
- Gavin McCrone, Urban Renewal: Scottish Experience, Urban Studies, voL28,
December 1991.
- David Smith, Urban Renewal in Asian context: A case study in HongKong,
Urban Studies, January 1 976, vo1. 13, October 1976.
- P. R. Mehta, Urban Renewal, A+D, Augustl998.
53. URBAN TRANSFORMATION

The term Transformations predominantly means 'change'. Cities are in

constant evolution and where the main changes in our society take place.
Economic, social and cultural progress today takes place in large cities and
relates directly to the modification of the physical space involved and the living
conditions of the people. The consequences of the process of transformation
often differ in the various parts of a city. Urban Transformation is a process and a
tool of intervention, which should become a commonly used urban design
method to attain historical and spatial quality for urban spaces.
There are two most prominent modes of Urban growth of a city namely:
1. Growth by Extension- characterized by the urbanization of open areas around
the peripheries of the city 2. Growth by substitution- involving the demolition of
existing Urban elements and their replacement by new elements.
The second aspect deals with the issue of Urban Transformation, wherein
a generator brings about a change in the existing conditions (social, economic,
cultural), which thereby influences a change in the urban fabric. These
transformations need to be guided to derive a coherent and 'transformed' urban
environment, after having addressed the inherent growth pressures and the
generators of such a condition.

Readings:
- Rodrigo Perez De Arce, Urban Transformations and the Architecture of
Additions, Archit(;.'Ctural Association, London; 1990.
- Leon Krier, Urban Transformations, Architectural Design, vol. 48, April 1978.
- Lewis Mumford, City: its origin, its transfonnations and its prospects, Seeker
& Warburg, London,1963.
- Smith Michael Peter Ed., Cities in Transfonnation : class, capital and state,
no.26;Urban Affairs Annual Reviews, Sage publication, London, 1984.

54 and 56. URBANITY and URBANISM

Urbanity refers to the relation between the urban environment and the city
dweller. It is the expression of a built-form to form a physical as well as a social
setting for the city‟s dwellers – where the street space is not simply a public open
space but can be used freely by the pedestrians without having been invited or
inhibited any one. (Gothoskar, Vineeta, An Enquiry into the aspects of Urban
Edge as an element of participation, Undergraduate Unpublished Thesis, School
of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1988).
Also, the term „urbanism‟ is referred to a „holistic consideration of the built
environment within its physical, historical and social contexts‟. One of the earliest
reference to the term dates back to 1938, when it first appeared in the essay by
Louis Wirth in order to mean „the way of life of the city dwellers‟. Giurgola, on the
other hand, defined the term „urbanism‟ as an art and discipline whose “aim is an
architectural synthesis of all those values, which represent the urban aggregate
in the broadest sense of the word…besides denoting the material act of
planning”.
Readings:
 Tafuri, Manfred, Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT, 1973.
 Goodman, Paul, Growing up absurd, Random House, New York, 1956.
 Giurgola, Ronaldo, Architecture in Change, Marcus Whiffin, 1966.
 Chermayeff, Serge and Alexander, Cristopher, Community and Privacy:
Towards a new architecture of humanism, Doubleday, New York, 1963.
 Scully, Vincent, American Architecture and Urbanism, Henry Holt, New York,
1969.
 Ellin, Nan, Postmodern Urbanism, Princeton Architectural Press, New York,
1999.
 Desai, Monika, Morphology of the Urban Block: A Study, Unpublished
Undergraduate Thesis, School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad,
 Nanda, Vivek, Urban Morphology and the Concept of Type: A Thematic and
Comparative Study of the Urban Tissue, Published Undergraduate Thesis,
School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1990.
 Rao, Dinesh, Building Typology and Urban Morphology: A Study,
Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, School of Architecture, CEPT,
Ahmedabad, 1989.

55. URBANIST

Despite the confusing counter claims made upon it , the term „organic‟
suggests an amoral development process, evolving naturally with the needs of
the society as it exists. I this. In this, it contrasts sharply with another powerful
tradition- the utopian or the ideal – in which town design is closely allied to the
design of the society itself. Whereas the organic town can exist only in fact, as
the physical result of a multitude of small forces and actions, the ideal town can
exist only in theory, as one designer‟s formulation of a possible complete solution
to the design problem „town‟.
The propagators of such utopian thinking are generally referred to as
„Urbanists‟. Thus Urbanists like Campanella, Bacon, Fourier, Le Corbusier,
Wright and Howard devised their utopian models. A second major theme
explored by the social utopias, and which became increasingly urgent as the
industrial revolution developed, was the relation between the city and the
country. The three alternative formulations of this relationship were expressed by
Wright‟s Broadacre City, Howard‟s Garden City and Le Corbusier‟s Ville
Radieuse.
After the revolution in Russia, two attitudes seem to have emerged-
„urbanist‟ with a capitalist attitude; and „disurbanist‟ advocating a Marxian
development.

Readings:
- Gosling David, Concepts in Urban Design, London academy editions, 1984.
- Tafuri Manfredo,Architecture and Utopia:Design and Capitalist Development,
MITpress, Cambridge,Mass,1976.
- www.wikipedia.com
57. URBANIZATION

Urbanization is the expansion of a city or metropolitan area, namely the

proportion of total population or area in urban localities or areas (cities and
towns), or the increase of this proportion over time. It can thus represent a level
of urban population relative to total population of the area, or the rate at which
the urban proportion is increasing. Both can be expressed in percentage terms,
the rate of change expressed as a percentage per year, decade or period
between censuses.
For instance, the United States or United Kingdom have a far higher
urbanization level than China, India or Nigeria, but a far slower annual
urbanization rate, since much less of the population is living in a rural area while
in the process of moving to the city.
The rate of urbanization over time is distinct from the rate of urban growth,
which is the rate at which the urban population or area increases in a given
period relative to its own size at the start of that period. The urbanization rate
represents to the city.
In terms of a geographical place, urbanization means increased spatial
scale and/or density of settlement and/or business and other activities in the area
over time. The process could occur either as natural expansion of the existing
population (usually not a major factor since urban reproduction tends to be lower
than rural), the transformation of peripheral population from rural to urban,
incoming migration, or a combination of these.
In either case, urbanization has profound effects on the ecology of a
region and on its economy. Urban sociology also observes that people's
psychology and lifestyles change in an urban environment.
The increase in spatial scale is often called "urban sprawl". It is frequently
used as a derogatory term by opponents of large-scale urban peripheral
expansion especially for low-density urban development on or beyond the city
fringe. Sprawl is considered unsightly and undesirable by those critics, who point
also to diseconomies in travel time and service provision and the danger of social
polarization through suburbanites' remoteness from inner-city problems.

58. ZONING

59. NEW URBANISM

The recent times have seen a shift from the much practiced, yet the much
maligned, „use-based‟ zoning to „type-led‟ zoning primarily to govern the
character of the sprawl at the edge of the cities. The type essentially being „form-
al‟ and hence in many a case, used primarily to recreate the old world charm
through „neo-traditionalism‟. This has however, assumed a new wave of
ideational thinking and practice, popularly referred to as New Urbanism and
practiced in many a States of Northern America (the chief proponents in the field
being Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyber). The solutions are however;
such that they apply to all cities irrespective of regional differences (Salingaros,
2001) and presently stand in complete contrast to the principles of typo-
morphology that recognizes the „urban landscape‟ as not being „form-centric‟ but
as a hierarchic structure with the town-plan, pattern of building forms, and pattern
of urban land-use as the chief components (Conzen, 1973), each responding to
the dynamics of the city through different pace of change and transformation.

Readings:
 Panerai, Phillipe; Castex, Jean; Depaule, Charles Jean; Samuels, Ivor, Urban
Forms: the Death and Life of the Urban Block, Architectural Press, Oford,
2004.
 Katz, Peter, Notes on the History of the New Urbanism, in T. Bressi (ED.),
The Seaside Debates, Rizzoli, New York, 2002.
 Katz, Peter, The New Urbanism, Mc-Graw Hill, New York, 1994.
 Ellin, Nan, Postmodern Urbanism, Princeton Architectural Press, New York,
1999.
 Salingaros, Nikos, The Future of Cities: Absurdity of Modernism, an interview
with Leon Krier, Urban Land 61, January 2002.

60. POST MODERN URBANISM

Themes of Post modem Urbanism

Post Modernist idea of the city emerged as reaction against modernism. In
"The Condition of Post Modernity" David Harvey defines the postmodern city with
the rise of historical eclecticism, (as inventing tradition by imitating the older
forms) multiculturalism, (reference with the locality and ethnicity) and spectacle.
(a theater scene. commercialization of built environment) He explains the turn
from "modernism" to "postmodernism" reference with the change of economic
system and cultural codes. He asserts a correlation between the shift to
postmodernism in the cultural sphere and the shift to "flexible accumulation"
(post-war fordism) in the economic sphere. In a chapter entitled "Postmodernism
in the city: architecture and urban design" Harvey demonstrates a link between
Fordist methods of mass production and the international high modernism of Le
Corbusier. He shows the usage of industrial methods of Ford ism as a model for
mass housing projects in response to the crises of the Great Depression and the
Second World War. Harvey also indicates that when the decline in the rate of
profit forced the rigid "Fordist system" to the "flexible accumulation", there was a
corresponding shift in architecture and urban design. The functional universalism
of high modernism (International Style) gave way 10 new forms of particularism.
(anti-universalism)
Another commentator Stuart Hall thought postmodern city as
discontinuous and fragmented space self-contained 'alternative' cities, and
rediscovery of the local. Collectively there is wide variety of overlapping themes
in the postmodernists' vocabulary. These themes, according to ElIin, include
contextualism, historicism, the search for urbanity, regionalism, anti-universalism,
pluralism, collage, self-referentiality, reflexivity, preoccupation with image/decor
scenography, superficiality, depthlessness, ephemerality, fragmentation,
populism, apoliticism, commercialism, loss of faith, and irony. Harvey views
postrnodernism as enveloping modernism and adds "there is much more
continuity than difference between modernism and postmodernism." In this sense
postmodern urbanism can be seen as a more diversified and ephemeral
discourse on the pre-existing structure of modern urbanism. The rising values
and fields of postmodern urbanism are community participation (based on
pluralism and regionalism), mixed use (associated with ecological approaches),
pedestrian fiiendly design (addresses the vitality and livability) and urban design
(maintained mainly by historic preservation and environmentalism).

Urban Design in the Post modem Context

In the beginning of our century urban planning had evolved as the branch
of architecture dealing with urban design issues. During this early period design
had a central role in urban planning, as best demonstrated in the modernists'
Charter of Athens. (1933) However, in postmodern period the structural change
in the economy, from mass production for a mass society to flexible production
for a fragmented society brought about a new interest in the built environment.
The center of the urban design has moved from producing good and beautiful
forms to drawing inspirations from mass culture, the social context, the site and
the past New attention to the qualities of built environment has been given after
1980s in response to global competition of cities and their parts. This made the
role of urban design more significant in the production of the built environment.
The postmodern school of thought in urban design promoted the "return to
vitality" after late 1960s under the guidance of prominent designers such as
Rapoport, Appleyard and Altman. They suggested that vitality could be restored
by creative land use allocation and sound urban design principles by
encouraging integrated and mixed land use and making these uses more
pedestrian oriented. They aimed to create an intimate physical environment that
supports the communal identity. However this romantic reaction against the
boredom of modernist's projects failed to success due to the ignorance of the
social equity and prevailing economic forces.
Another group of postmodem architects and urban designers (neo-
classicists) advocated the return to vitality and the beauty of pre-industrial forms.
Ingersol criticizes this new type of historicism: "pre-industrial forms and spaces
are not necessarily suited to post-industrial ways of life". Then he asks, "if one
proposes all kinds of nice public spaces, connected streets and figured piazzas,
will there still be an audience in a highly technological society for their use?" No
doubt that, the search for urbanity based on historical eclecticism may become
misguided when it ignores the contemporary context. One the other hand there
was some between the historicists and modernists. In their works "Collage City"
Rowe and Cotter proposed a harmonization between old and new, present and
past In sum, we can not mention about the single and dominant theme and
approaches in postmodern urbanism. This complexity and chaos is explained as
"schizophrenia" by Jencks.
Urban design in postmodern urbanism, therefore. reflects wide variety of
design approaches, contexts and applications. But the current implications in
urban design chiefly refer to downtown revitalization projects, historic
preservation, and public space enhancement projects. (i.e. street design, traffic
calming etc.)
61. URBAN VILLAGE
The definition used by DDA:
"Traditional rural settlements, which have been changed and merged with
urban areas"
Urban villages Size - small enough for all places to be within walking
distance of each other and for people to know each other.
Size - large enough to support a wide range of activities and facilities and to be
able to stand up for itself if its interests come under threat.
A range of uses - mixed within street blocks as well as within the village as
a whole.
A balance of houses and flats and workplaces - such that there is a
theoretical one-to-one ratio between jobs and residents able and willing to work.
A pedestrian fiiendly environment - catering for the car without encouraging its
use.
A mixture of different building types and sizes, including some degree of
mixed use with buildings.Robust building types.
Mixed tenure - both for residential and employment uses.
The former kind of area, typically, is one in which European immigrants-
and more recently Negro and Puerto Rican ones-try to adapt their non-urban
institutions and cultures to the urban milieu. Thus it may be called an urban
village.

Readings:
- The contents and discontents of urban villages, Smriti Sachdeva
- Mathew Carmona, Tim Health, Taner 0 C and Steven Tiesdell. 2003. public
places urban spaces. Architectural Press, Burlington.
- The urban villagers.Group and class in the life of ltalianAmericans.Herbert J.
Gans.

62. NECROPOLIS

A necropolis (plural: necropolises or necropolis) is a cemetery or burying-

place, literally a "city of the dead". Apart from the occasional application of the
word to modern cemeteries outside large towns, the term is chiefly used of burial
grounds near the sites of the centers of ancient civilizations.
The dead were the first to have a permanent dwelling; a cavern, a mound
marked by a cairn, a collective barrow. These were landmarks to which the living
probably returned at intervals, to commune with or placate the ancestral spirits.
The city of the dead antedates the city of the living, and in a sense is a
forerunner, almost the core of every living city.
Necropolises were built for many reasons. Sometimes their origin was
purely religious: the Valley of the Kings in Egypt is a prime example; infact most
of what is left of that great civilization is its temples and tombs. Other cultures
created necropolises in response to prohibitions on burials within city limits.
Roads immediately outside towns therefore came to be lined with funerary
monuments, especially in the Roman Empire. Examples of this kind of necropolis
can be found on the Appian Way just outside Rome and at the Alyscamps in
Arles, France.
 During the 19th century, necropolises enjoyed a revival spurred by the
Victorian fashion for large, elaborate memorials.
The word is often used with a different connotation in fantasy literature; for
instance, it might refer to a city populated by zombies or other undead creatures.

Readings:

- Mumford, Lewis, The City in History, its Origins, its Transformations and
its prospects, Secker and Warburg, London, 1961.
- Website: www.wikipedia.com