URBAN DESIGN II

ASSIGNMENT- PRINCIPLES OF URBANISM

Aiman Khurshid
F2017-030

Explain the principles of New Urbanism.

New Urbanism was a movement in architecture, planning and urban design that emphasizes a
particular set of design principles, including pedestrian and transit-oriented neighborhood design
and a mix of land uses, as a means of creating more cohesive communities. New Urbanists have
identified a set of principles that they believe should form the foundation of community
planning. Many different lists and sets of principles are circulating around the New Urbanism
movement, but most definitions include the following ideas:
Walkability: Neighborhoods would not be squandered in a sea of interchanges, subdivisions,
and shopping malls if there is a combination of parks, town centers, and other genuinely public
spaces. If the built environment is appealing and human scale, many people will walk at least
five minutes rather than get in a car Policymakers need to increase their efforts for creating
pedestrian friendly walkable environments with road connectivity, safety along streets, and
affluent amenities such as providing trees and gardens around pedestrians. As The opportunity to
walk or take public transportation to daily destinations reduces suburban residents' reliance on
automobiles and expands opportunities for children, the elderly, and the impaired. In addition to
walkability creating Pedestrian friendly street design is also important as Within the
neighborhood are a variety of housing types and land uses, a mix of shops, services, and civic
uses capable of satisfying many of the residents’ daily needs. Streets are designed for pedestrian
use, with generous sidewalks, street trees, and on-street parking to provide a buffer from street
traffic and make walking a safer and more appealing option.
 Increased Density: Buildings are generally low- to mid-rise, set close together, and built close
to the street to promote pedestrian use and help define neighborhood public space in the form of
streets, squares, and plazas. Small parks and civic institutions are given prominent sites and
dispersed throughout the neighborhood.
Connectivity- New Urbanism is dedicated to creating streets and buildings with a sense of place.
Through the development of streets, buildings and blocks, made them becoming the connection
for residents. The streets separate the diversified function of blocks, and connect the whole area
at the same time.
Inter connected Street Networks-street systems lead to fragmented and dispersed land uses at
the local, municipal, and regional levels. Traditional cities and towns are usually built on grids or
modified grids. In the view of New Urbanism,it is preferred to use the gridded street system of
traditional street patterns, and design the streets connect each other. In addition the concept of
shared street provide an effective method for solving the disadvantage of gridded street in the
community, it can reduce the traffic pressure within the residential community.
Sustainibility: Sustainability integrates many disciplines— and likewise New Urbanism is
fundamentally about breaking down silos. Sustainable Urbanism shares this multidisciplinary
approach. In addition to good design, this idea calls out for strong regional planning. In addition
it is preferred to use energy efficient technologies and land preservation tenchniques inorder to
minimize the harmful effects which are caused by the raipid evolution of urbanization.
Mixed-use developments : Another principle is Mixed-use developments will create walkable
environments, more open spaces, and more diverse social and economic activities for residents.
New mixed-use community developments should not be isolated from existing urban
communities. We thus suggest cluster development of new urbanist communities being
connected to existing inner cities and providing more diverse types of housing, educational,
commercial, and retail facilities.
Quality Architecture & Urban Design: Significant location of public uses and places within
community; emphasis on elegance, aesthetics, human comfort, and fostering a sense of place.
The human spirit is nourished by human scale architecture and beautiful surroundings Human
scale architecture & beautiful surroundings nourish the human spirit. The size and shape of a
plaza will help determine whether it is consistently alive with people or windswept and vacant.
The organization of buildings in a neighborhood will help establish its character. Combining
appropriate design elements makes places that are greater than the sum of their parts.  The
architecture stresses, strengthens and interprets the cultural character and uniqueness of the
surroundings.
How can we improve the situation of Lahore by using these principles?
Due to the excessive pursuit of economic and constructive speed, led to the urban construction
neglect human basic needs. The original urban fabric have almost disappeared, heritage buildings
of Lahore and many copied residential buildings spread throughout the metropolitan area. Along
with the process of urbanization and suburbanization, the urban population explosion, different
class polarization, shortage of construction land, traffic congestion, environmental degradation.
Inorder to improve the current condition of Lahore we can apply the principles of New
Urbanisnm. Firstly the pedestrian experience of Lahore is chaoatic and no proper are is
designated for the pedistrians thus there is little to no walkibillty in Lahore. Inroder to improve
that by Providing smaller scale blocks where informal public spaces and semi-public spaces such
as Neighbourhoods and blocks and small societies like Bahria town, Valencia offer a mix of
shops, houses apartments and basic accessibilities such as hospitals, grocery stores etc become
part of the larger urban fabric would help to promote walkability and other forms of transit
alternative to the car which also leads to traffic congestion. Another principle that can be
implemented is that architects can use the grid street system instead of the traditional clustering
methos used in residential areas of Lahore to interconnect streets so that there is more
walkability and less congestion. Furthermore New Urbanist streets can be designed for people
particulary in the commercial areas of Lahore where people come for shopping and recreational
purposes instead of using just cars which can accommodate multimodal transportation including
walking, bicycling, transit use, and driving in areas of Lahore.