URBAN ISSUES II

AP - 344

SUBMITTED TO :
AR. SUNAKSHI SHOKEEN

SUBMITTED BY :
AVANTIKA CHAUHAN SHREYASH GUPTA APOORVA PRAKASH
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The success and outcome of this project were possible by the guidance
and support from many people. We are incredibly privileged to have got
this all along with the completion of our report. It requirred a lot of
efforts from each individual, involved in the making of this report with
us and we would like to thank each one of them.

We would also like to thank Ar. Sunakshi Shokeen, for granting us with
an opportunity to work on the various aspects of urban issues and
provided us with her continuous guidance, helpful comments and
tremendous support at every stage of our work. Without her valuable
inputs and remarks, this report would never have been able to reach
its final form.

In the end we would also like to extend our deepest gratitude to our
batch mates for always enlightening us with their comprehensive ideas
and valuable points which has also helped us in the completion of the
final report.
CONTENTS

URBAN GLOSSARY

BOOK REVIEW

PAPER REVIEW

CASE STUDIES

MORPHOLOGICAL MAPS

MASTER PLAN REVIEW

RESEARCH PAPER
WRITING
URBAN GLOSSARY

[1]
Accessibility
The ease of reaching destinations. In a highly accessible location, a person, regardless of age, ability or
income, can reach many activities or destinations quickly, whereas people in places with low accessibility
can reach fewer places in the same amount of time. The accessibility of an area can be a measure of travel
speed and travel distance to the number of places ('destination opportunities') to be reached. The measure
may also include factors for travel cost, route safety and topography gradient.

Active frontage

Refers to street frontages where there is an active visual engagement between those in the street and
those on the ground and upper floors of buildings.
This quality is assisted where the front facade of buildings, including the main entrance, faces and opens

URBAN GLOSSARY
towards the street. Ground floors may accommodate uses such as cafes, shops or restaurants. However,
for a frontage to be active, it does not necessarily need to be a retail use, nor have continuous windows. A
building's upper floor windows and balconies may also contribute to the level of active frontage. Active
frontages can provide informal surveillance opportunities and often improve the vitality and safety of an
area. The measures of active frontage may be graded from high to low activity.

Active use
Active uses are uses that generate many visits, in particular pedestrian visits, over an extended period of
the day. Active uses may be shops, cafes, and other social uses. Higher density residential and office uses
also can be active uses for particular periods of the day.

Activity centre
Activity centres within cities and towns are a focus for enterprises, services, shopping, employment and
social interaction. They are where people meet, relax, work and often live. Usually well-served by public
transport, they range in size and intensity of use from local neighbourhood strip shopping centres to
traditional town centres and major regional centres. An activity centre generally has higher intensity uses at
its central core with smaller street blocks and a higher density of streets and lots. The structure of activity
centres should allow for higher intensity development, street frontage exposure for display and pedestrian
[2]
access to facilities.
Adaptability (or 'adaptive re-use')
The capacity of a building or space to respond to changing social, technological, economic and market
conditions and accommodate new or changed uses.

Amenity
The features of an area, street or building, that provide facilities and services that contribute to physical or
material comfort and benefit, and are valued by users. An amenity can be either tangible, such as open
space, seating, a swimming pool or gym; or intangible, such as pleasant views, air quality, or proximity to a
local school or supermarket.

Arterial road

URBAN GLOSSARY
The principal routes for the movement of people and goods within a road network. They connect major
regions, centres of population, major transport terminals and provide principal links across and around
cities. Arterial roads are divided into primary and secondary arterial roads. Declared arterial roads are
managed by VicRoads. Also see 'Major roads'.

Barriers and fences

Barriers such as bollards and fences can define boundaries and protect people from traffic hazards and
level changes. They also protect trees and shrubs from people and vehicles. A barrier may be made as
bollards, screens, rails, fences, kerbs and walls. Barriers and fences can provide an opportunity for public
art or to communicate local stories. They may also provide opportunities for seating.

Blank wall

A wall which has few or no windows or doors, and has no decoration or visual interest. See also active
frontage.

[3]
Building line

The actual or apparent line created by a building's front wall along a street.
A consistent building line in a street can visually unify diverse building types and forms, and can assist new
buildings to fit in with the surrounding context. The building line, whether setback or situated on the street
edge, is an important aspect of urban character.

Buildings in activity centres

Buildings in activity centres accommodate a wide range of uses, such as living, working, shopping and
services. Buildings in these locations may be larger than those in surrounding neighbourhoods, occupy more
of the site area and be built to the front and side boundaries. They may incorporate a mix of uses that mean
people are present at different times of the day.

URBAN GLOSSARY
Built form
The height, volume and overall shape of a building as well as its surface appearance.

Car parking lot

Car parking lots are open areas of land used for parking cars. They can be publicly or privately owned and
are generally located in activity centres, at train and bus stations, and other facilities accessed by car.
Some higher density residential developments may incorporate private car parking lots.

Car parking, on-street (see On-street parking)

On-street parking is part of the movement network. On-street parking provides convenient, short-term
parking in close proximity to activities and destinations. On-street parking may be arranged as parallel,
indented, or angled bays, at kerbside or in centre-road islands. The street type and use pattern determines
the appropriate type of on-street parking used. It plays an important role in inner urban areas with limited
off-street parking.

[4]
Circulation space (or 'circulation area')
Circulation spaces are part of the common area of a commercial, mixed use or higher density residential
building and are used by occupants, residents and other building users. These spaces include foyers,
corridors, car parking areas, and garden and recreation areas.

Communal open space

An area within a private site providing for informal recreation activities for common use by building
occupants and, in some cases, visitors. It is distinct from private open space. Some communal open spaces
can be accessible to the public (such as that associated with a library or hospital) while other spaces can be
accessible to customers only (such as the courtyard of a restaurant or café).

Concealment place

URBAN GLOSSARY
Spaces that are not easily visible and provide the opportunity to conceal potential offenders, their victims,
illegitimate uses, antisocial activity or crimes.

Connectivity
The number of connecting routes within a particular area, often measured by counting the number of
intersection equivalents per unit of area. An area may be measured for its 'connectivity' for different travel
modes – vehicle, cyclist or pedestrian. An area with high connectivity has an open street network that
provides multiple routes to and from destinations.

Continuous accessible paths of travel (CAPT)

An uninterrupted path of travel to or within a building that provides access to all facilities. This kind of path
avoids any step, stairway, turnstile, revolving door, escalator or other impediment that would prevent it
being safely negotiated by people with disabilities

[5]
Crossover (vehicle crossover)
Part of a pedestrian path where motor vehicles cross to access a property. The pedestrian path section may
be raised to path level to alert drivers to the crossing, or the path may be dropped to form a ramp for
pedestrians.

Cul-de-sac
A street with only one inlet/outlet connected to the wider street network.
A closed cul-de-sac provides no possible passage except through the single road entry. An open cul-de-sac
allows cyclists, pedestrians or other non- automotive traffic to pass through connecting paths at the cul-de-
sac head.

URBAN GLOSSARY
Design response
Explanation and demonstration of how a proposed building development or public space design is informed
by and responds to the site and context analysis.

Design standard
A statement of function and performance criteria for the production of an object or place, often as agreed
by a professional, technical or representative body.

Desire-line (or 'pedestrian desire-line')

The desire-line path usually represents the preferred route and the shortest or most easily navigated route
between an origin and destination. Desire- lines can often be seen as alternative shortcut tracks in places
where constructed pathways take a circuitous route. They are almost always the most direct and the
shortest route between two points.

Enclosure (or 'sense of enclosure')

Where the building frontage height, street width and street tree canopy creates a feeling of a contained
space within the street.
[6]
Edge condition

A term used in urban design analysis to describe the transition or interface characteristics of a public space
with its adjacent land uses and structures. An edge may be 'active', with a building's doors and windows
addressing the space, or it may be 'inactive', with blank walls or a barrier edge, such as a water body, high
traffic volume road or infrastructure corridor. The edge condition assessment is part of the urban context
analysis.

Entrapment place
Small confined areas, shielded on three sides by some sort of barrier that may be used by criminal
offenders to trap potential victims or to conceal themselves. The area may be poorly lit, have limited
sightlines and have no possible escape route.

URBAN GLOSSARY
Escape route
An alternative and safe means of exit from an area. See also 'Entrapment place'.

Facade (or 'building facade')

The principal wall of a building that is usually facing the street and visible from the public realm. It is the face
of the building and helps inform passers-by about the building and the activities within.

Frontage (or 'front lot line')

The property boundary that abuts the street. If a property abuts two or more streets, it is the boundary the
building or proposed building faces.
faces.

Higher density residential building

Higher density residential buildings house a number of individual apartment dwellings in a single building, and
are five or more storeys in height. They may be residential only or residential combined with other uses
such as retail, offices or car parking [7]
Higher density residential precinct

A higher density residential precinct generally has larger lot sizes that are able to accommodate apartment
and mixed-use developments. The precinct may be in or adjacent to an activity centre or within a large
development site. The structure of a higher density residential precinct provides a high level of amenity in
public spaces, access to facilities and services, while protecting privacy and personal safety.

Informal surveillance

Observation, from the street or from adjacent buildings, provided by ordinary people as they go about their
daily activities. This kind of observation can deter criminal activity or anti-social behaviour and make places
feel safer.

URBAN GLOSSARY
Sometimes termed 'casual surveillance' and 'eyes-on-the-street'.

Key public space

Key public spaces may be located in parks, plazas, or streets. They are generally public places of
significance, with high levels of amenity. They may be identified through strategic assessment processes.
Key public space
Key public spaces may be located in parks, plazas, or streets. They are generally public places of
significance, with high levels of amenity. They may be identified through strategic assessment processes.

Land development
The construction, buildings or works made on a parcel of land to support the use to which the land is put.

Land use
The purpose for which the land has been or is being or may be developed. The activity on the land.

[8]
Lane

A travel path for a vehicle as part of a roadway. As in 'bicycle lane', 'traffic lane', or 'bus lane'.

Laneway

A vehicular way or pedestrian access way, often narrower that a street, located to the rear or side of lots
providing access to the service areas, parking and outbuildings, and it may accommodate utility easements.

Large development site

Large parcels of land within cities and towns sometimes become available for redevelopment and new uses.
Often in prime locations, these sites can be publicly owned (such as railway corridors, surplus government

URBAN GLOSSARY
land or dockyards) or they can be former commercial, industrial or institutional sites that are no longer
needed for their original purpose. They may be located in activity centres or are accessible to transport
connections, services and jobs.

Large format retail premises

Large format retail premises are mostly free-standing buildings or complexes with a single large building
footprint, and associated infrastructure. They are often single-level or low-rise buildings and they may
include large at-grade car parking lots or car parking structures. They can be shopping centres,
supermarkets, restricted retail premises or department stores. Large format retail premises differ from
other large buildings with regard to visitor patterns, goods delivery requirements, and goods display
practices. They are often located in high visibility places, for example at major road intersections or
adjacent to highways that are highly accessible by car.

Legibility

The ease with which a person is able to see, understand and find their way around an area, building or
development. A 'legible' layout is one that people find easy to navigate and move through.

[9]
Level-of-service (also called 'quality of service' or 'service quality')
The capacity and effectiveness of a system's functionality, as experienced by users, to provide the service
for which it is intended. For a pedestrian street or a park, the service can comprise various factors such as
active, interesting surroundings, path width, pavement surface, seating opportunities, obstacles, safety from
traffic, cleanliness.

Light spill
Unwanted light falling on areas outside those intended for illumination, and that causes annoyance,
discomfort, distraction, or a reduction in visibility. Often defined as light illuminating areas outside the
property line containing the lighting system. But may also be applied to lighting in public spaces that affects
amenity in private spaces.

URBAN GLOSSARY
Lighting
Lighting performs a number of functions, from supporting way-finding, orientation and safe movement at
night to providing a decorative effect for building facades, landmarks and paths. Lighting systems can be
large- scale and utilitarian, or small and ornamental. They may use overhead lamps, bollards, up-lights,
bulkhead or veranda lighting, feature and facade illumination. Shop display lighting can also contribute to
overall public realm lighting levels. Lighting is critical to creating a public realm that is safe and inviting for
users.

Local park
Local parks are green public spaces up to about one hectare in size and may include trees, grass, gardens
and playgrounds and are located within easy reach of users. Some local parks also include water features,
cafes or sports facilities. The location of a park in the movement network often influences its useability.

Main street
The principal retail and small business street in an area, a focus of many local trips, and accommodating
higher volumes of pedestrians.

[ 10 ]
Major road
Major roads accommodate high volumes of motor vehicle traffic including public transport and freight, and
have higher design speeds (60–100 km/h). Major roads can have two or more traffic lanes in each direction
and may provide for on-street car parking, bus lanes or tram tracks, bicycle lanes, as well as verge space
for pedestrian paths, infrastructure and landscaping. Also see 'Arterial roads'.

Mixed-use development
A range of complementary uses within the same building, site or precinct. The different uses may be
arranged floor by floor, or side by side. The uses may be residential, commercial, retail or institutional.

Movement network

URBAN GLOSSARY
The interconnected system of streets, roads and paths that accommodates pedestrians and cyclists, on-
road public transport, emergency and private vehicles. The movement network connects places and
activities, and allows people and goods to reach their intended destinations and to access private land. The
movement network is managed by a number of agencies, each with different responsibilities and interests.

Off-road public transport

Public transport that runs on a network largely independent of streets and arterial roads. It includes light
rail, metropolitan and regional rail. It does not include on-road public transport such as the metropolitan bus
and tram network.

Outlook

A place from which a view is possible; a vantage point.

Objects in the public realm (includes 'street furniture')

Objects in the public realm include those items located in streets and public spaces that are either for public
use and convenience, or for utilities infrastructure and services. Objects include street furniture, service
cabinets, trees and planting, barriers and fencing, lighting, signs and small public buildings and structures.
[ 11 ]
On-street parking

On-street parking is part of the movement network. On-street parking provides convenient, short-term
parking in close proximity to activities and destinations. On-street parking may be arranged as parallel,
indented, or angled bays, at kerbside or in centre-road islands. The street type and use pattern determines
the appropriate type of on-street parking used. It plays an important role in inner urban areas with limited
off-street parking.

Pathway
A pedestrian path, bicycle path or other area for use by people but not by motor vehicles.

Permeability

URBAN GLOSSARY
The extent to which the urban structure permits, or restricts, movement of people or vehicles through an
area, and the capacity of the area network to carry people or vehicles.

Plaza

A type of public open space connected to the street network that can range in size from a building forecourt
to a large city square. A plaza may be a wide mid-block pedestrian link, bordered by buildings or attached to
a public building such as a town hall, school, or entertainment and sports facility.

Podium

The lower levels of a tall building that are built up to or near the property boundary edges. The upper levels
(the tower component) are set back from the lower podium building edges. The podium and tower is often
arranged to achieve a relationship between the new building and existing streetscapes and urban context.

Primary use

Primary uses are those uses that have induced people to spend time in the area, such as workplaces,
businesses and residences, or institutions and services like museums or libraries.
[ 12 ]
Public realm

The public realm comprises spaces and places that are open and freely accessible to everyone, regardless
of their economic or social conditions. These spaces can include streets, laneways and roads, parks, public
plazas, waterways and foreshores.

Public space

An area in the public realm that is open to public access, provides a public use or recreation function, and
that is owned and maintained by councils or other government agencies. However, some privately-held land
is available for the public to access and use, such as a building forecourt, a walk-through, or a shopping mall.
The private land owner may control aspects of access and use - see Private land.

URBAN GLOSSARY
Public transport environs
Public transport environs includes the public spaces, streets, buildings and activities located around railway
stations, bus and tram interchanges, and adjacent to railway corridors.

Public transport interchange

Places where people can access or transfer between public transport modes and routes. For example,
between train, tram or bus mode, or a multi-route bus or train station. Interchanges vary in size and may be
stand-alone, adjacent to a railway station, or located at a transport node, such as a park- and-ride facility.

Public transport node

A tram or bus stop, interchange or train station, and the area immediately around it.
Public transport on roads (sometimes called 'on-road public transport')
There are two main types of public transport that use the road network: the fixed tram network, which is
usually located on major roads and streets; and the bus network, which operates within standard traffic
lanes or in bus priority lanes. Bus and tram priority routes have priority over general traffic.

[ 13 ]
Railway corridor environs

Railway corridor environs includes the land and activities adjacent to the railway operating corridor. Along
the length of the corridor, adjacent land may accommodate a variety of uses including streets and roads,
public open space, residential or commercial development. Railway corridor crossing points channel and
concentrate pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle movement to specific locations. Crossing points can be at-grade
or grade-separated.

Railway station precinct

A railway station precinct is the area in the immediate surrounds of a railway station. Local movement
networks converge on railway stations, concentrating activity in the precinct. Railway stations also provide
for pedestrian crossing of the railway line. The railway station precinct can function as a social space where

URBAN GLOSSARY
people meet or watch the world go by

Safer design

Specific public space design responses aimed at promoting personal safety and reducing people's fear of
and vulnerability to crime. Design actions focus on improving safety in places by increasing informal
surveillance and community usage of public spaces, reducing opportunities for crime and antisocial
behavior, and creating connected and integrated streets and public places.

Scale

The size of a building in relation to its surroundings, or the size of parts or details of the building,
particularly in relation to the scale of a person. Scale refers to the apparent size, not the actual size.

Secondary use
Secondary uses are those that capitalize on opportunities to serve people who are already in the area for
other reasons, such as their work place, residence, or visiting institutions, services or facilities. Secondary
uses may be service and convenience shops, or cafes.
[ 14 ]
Setback

The distance of a building wall from any lot boundary. A building front setback can add to the perceived width
of the street, provide additional public or private space, and allow space for landscaping. A building set on
the front property boundary has zero street setback.

Shared path

A path that is shared by both pedestrians and cyclists, but does not accommodate motor vehicles. On a
shared path, cyclists must give way to pedestrians.

Shared zone

URBAN GLOSSARY
A street where pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles share the roadway, and pedestrians outnumber motor
vehicles. A shared zone has no cross motor traffic.

Sightline

Lines of clear, uninterrupted sight from a viewer's location to other locations and distances.

Sign (see also 'Way-finding')

Signs give information about way-finding, directions, place and street names, cultural identity, buildings,
uses and activities, or for advertising products.
They can also act as a landmark. Signs may vary in scale and appearance, and may use maps, text, images
or symbols to convey information.

Site analysis

Detailed description and examination of the features of a site, to determine how these features will effect
and contribute to the design of a proposed development. A site analysis directly informs the design
response.

[ 15 ]
Street cross-section

A street cross-section is a diagram showing street details, generally from private property boundary to
boundary, and includes building frontage, street edge, footpaths, verges, kerbs, services, below ground
infrastructure and road space.

Street edge

The interface between building frontage or private property boundary and the street. The way a building,
space or wall meets the street affects the character of the street.

Streetscape

URBAN GLOSSARY
The visual character of a street space that results from the combination of street width, curvature, paving,
street furniture, plantings and the surrounding built form and detail. The people and activities present in the
street also contribute to the streetscape.

Subdivision

The act of subdivision means the division of a land parcel into two or more parts which can be disposed of
separately. It is also a term used for the resulting pattern of blocks and lots, and streets.

Traffic calming

Physical devices installed in streets to slow or reduce vehicle traffic and improve safety for pedestrians and
cyclists. Traffic calming devices include speed humps, chicanes and narrows, sized for the desired speed.
These measures can slow cars speed to between 15 and 40km per hour.

Urban design framework

A framework sets out, in words and graphics, the intentions, principles and actions to guide and manage
changes in the public realm in particular places. [ 16 ]
Urban context (or 'context')

Urban context refers to the broader setting of an identified area. The context may include the physical
surroundings of topography, movement patterns and infrastructure, built form and uses, the governance
structures, and the cultural, social and economic environment. The urban context can include the community
vision for the area, and preferred future character, form and function.

Urban context analysis

Similar to a site analysis, content analysis provides a detailed description and examination of aspects of the
wider area around a site, to determine how these aspects will effect and contribute to the design of a
proposed building development or public space design. An urban context analysis informs the building

URBAN GLOSSARY
development or public space design response.

Urban structure

The overall topography and land division pattern of an urban area including street pattern, the shapes and
sizes of blocks and lots. Urban structure also includes the location and types of activity centres, public
transport corridors, public space, community facilities, and urban infrastructure. Whether at the scale of a
city, town, neighbourhood, precinct or large development site, it is the interrelationship between all of the
elements of urban structure, rather than their individual characteristics, that together make a place.

Utilities infrastructure
In this document, the utilities and infrastructure installations that are located on and take up space within
street and public spaces. They may be traffic control boxes, fire hydrants, poles, overhead wires, traffic
control signs.
Utilities infrastructure may also be installed below ground and could affect development at ground level.

[ 17 ]
Walkability
The extent to which the built environment supports walking for transport and for recreation, where the
walking environment is safe, connected, accessible and pleasant.

Walkable catchment

The area within a specified walking distance of a destination and where paths provide a specific level of
service and amenity. Often a 400m walking distance is defined as walkable, being about a five minute walk
for most people. More important destinations, such as train stations or major centres, may serve a wider
walkable catchment.

Walkable neighbourhood

URBAN GLOSSARY
A neighbourhood where travel on foot, and also by bicycle, is made easy, direct and safe as possible for all
members of the community including children, people with prams or shopping carts and those using mobility
aids.

Water efficient urban design

Integrating and managing the water cycle in an area through collection, treatment and reuse technologies,
to minimise environmental impacts and improve aesthetic and recreational appeal. It often includes
managing both potable water use, and stormwater, groundwater and wastewater. Also known as water
sensitive urban design.

Way-finding (see also 'sign')

The act of finding one's way around an area, and the experience of orientation and choosing a path within the
built environment. Wayfinding can be aided by logical space planning and a consistent use and organisation of
definite sensory cues, such as visual, audible or tactile elements along paths and at destinations. Signs can
aid way-finding.

White light
Illumination produced from lamps where colours appear as in normal daylight. [ 18 ]
THE CITY SHAPED
A BOOK BY SPIRO KOSTOFF

BOOK REVIEW BY AUTHORS

[ 19 ]
THE CITY SHAPED
A BOOK BY SPIRO KOSTOFF

The book is divided into five sections:

FIRST SECTION:
OVERVIEW:
• The first section titled Organic Patterns charts the ways in which cities have Kostof seeks to explain the evolution
come about and grown. of urban design through sociological
patterns of human settlements
SECOND SECTION:
dating back to Maya and
Mesopotamia. His introduction
• The second section focuses exclusively on the grid. It is a rightly weighty
section for a feature we employ on a daily basis. describes the possible origins of
urban design through the various
THIRD SECTION: human agglomerations, even if it is

THE CITY SHAPED

urbanism in an infantile form.
• Kostof devotes the third section to The City as Diagram. He gives significant
air time to Garden City theory here, and is less critical of Ebeneezer Howard
than of many the other city planners he includes as examples.

FOURTH SECTION:

• The penultimate chapter considers The Grand Manner. Kostof majors on

capital cities, and Washington unsurprisingly.

FIFTH SECTION:

• Kostof’s final section focuses on the urban skyline. It is here that he argues
for a much stronger voice for communities in the aesthetic vision of their
cities.

[ 20 ]
SPIRO KOSTOFF
A GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF AUTHOR

Spiro Konstantine Kostof (7 May 1936, Istanbul – 7 December 1991), Berkeley

was a leading architectural historian, and professor at the University of
California, Berkeley. His books continue to be widely read and some are routinely
used in collegiate courses on architectural history.

Born in Turkey, of Greek and Bulgarian ethnic origin, Kostof was educated
at Istanbul's Robert College. He came to the United States in 1957 for graduate
work at Yale University. Although he intended to major in drama, his interests
shifted to architectural history. He received his Ph.D. in 1961, then taught at Yale
for four years, before moving to the University of California to join the faculty of
the College of Environmental Design. He was to remain at Berkeley for the
duration of his career.

THE CITY SHAPED

Kostof's approach to architectural history emphasized urbanism as well as
architecture and showed how architectural works are embedded in their physical
and social contexts.

His books includes: history of profession or city of gods

In 1993, following his death, the Society of Architectural Historians established

the "Spiro Kostof Award", to recognize books "in the spirit of Kostof's writings,"
particularly those that are interdisciplinary and whose content focuses on urban
development, the history of urban form, and/or the architecture of the built
environment.

[ 21 ]
INTRODUCTION

This book attempts to describe the Universal Experience Of Making Cities.

THE CITY AS AN ARTIFACT:

It is the form and the process of city making that converts a city into an artefact. It is very well understood in
the tradition of Camillo Site , Joseph Stubben , Gordon Cullen, Kevin Lynch, Rob and Leon Krier to scrutinize
urban configurations and lessons drawn from such scrutiny.

DIMENSIONS:

Theories and actual town making: there is a vast modern literature about urban form- how to make it and how
to read it. But, Urban design cannot neglect the human behavior while shaping the cities. Hence, to study the
cities we might require numerous references to the social implications. We need to understand the Socio –
economic change vis-a vis the persistence of the artefact (buildings).

THE CITY SHAPED

HOW AND WHY DID CITIES TAKE THEIR SHAPE?

Form as a receptacle of meaning:

Kostof says that the form can be studied in various ways. Form could be studied as an abstract or form could
be studied for its behavioral possibilities but what urban designers are interested in is the study of the
evolution of form or architectural meaning of the form with respect to history and cultural contexts.

Cities are consciously shaped:

certain cities are designed on the inspirations derived from these old townscapes. The whole idea is to
incorporate the distinctive quality into their own designs. Hence history of Urban form can be used as a
design quarry.

Cities need understanding of cultural conditions:

The more we know about cultures, about the structure of society in various periods of history in different
parts of the world, the better we are able to read their built environment. The assembling of all the evidence
is what will explain how a particular downtown got the look it has now. For e.g.. For a form seeker a grid is a
grid. He might want to get into the details of the physical form of the grids. But for urban designers how and
what were the intentions for formation of such grids is of utmost importance. We might relate it to the social
structures, territorial aristocracy prevalent then. For us, then, the city form is neutral until it is impressed
with specific cultural intent.

[ 22 ]
WHAT IS MEANT BY PROCESS ?- 2 SENSES

1. One sense deals with to the people the forces and the institutions bring about the urban form.

What procedures and laws do they use? –

The legal and economic history plays a vital role in shaping the city. Ownership of land and land market,
building codes and other regulatory measures, instruments of funding urban change and administrative
structure are certain topics in itself which consists of procedures and laws for city making.

Who design cities?

Cities are given shape by all sorts of people, by military engineers, for example by ship’s gunners (like those
who laid out the early British port cities of India), by administrators and state officials, and now to modern
planning commissioners.

2. Physical change through time:

Second sense is the Urban Process which refers precisely to the physical change through time. The city

THE CITY SHAPED

however perfect in its initial shape is never complete, never at rest.

Physical traits through urban landscape:

City walls are pulled down and filled in; once rational grids are slowly obscured; a slashing diagonal is run
through close grained residential neighborhoods, railroad tracks usurp cemeteries and waterfronts, wars,
fires and freeway connectors annihilate city cores.

Fig 1: Baghdad (Iraq): the geometric 8 th Fig 2: By the 9 th century the sprawling
century ground plan, organized around the growth of thriving community had obliterated
caliph’s palace. the original autocratic diagram.

[ 23 ]
AFFILIATES OF METHOD:

Lewis Mumford, The City in History –

a sequential narrative It assumes a basic acquaintance with the main lines of western and non-western
urbanism as a sequential narrative.

Kevin Lynch, Good City Form –

city self-perception His normative models have less to do with political or economic order than they so with
the prime motivation of the city, or its self-perception.

Cosmic Model :

It takes plan to be an interpretation of the universe and of the gods . The characteristic design features are
the monumental axis, the enclosure and the protected gates, dominant landmarks, the reliance on regular grid
and spatial organization by hierarchy.

Practical Model :

THE CITY SHAPED

The concept of colonial towns and company towns. A city according to this model is made up of small,
autonomous, undifferentiated parts, linked up into a great machine in contrast has clearly differentiated
functions and motions.

Organic Model:

Organic Model: organic model or the biological city sees the city as a living thing rather than a machine.it
has a definite boundary and an optimum size, a cohesive, indivisible internal structure, a rhythmic behavior
that seeks, in the face of inevitable change, to maintain a balanced state. The creators of this model were the
likes of Frederic Law Olmsted, Ebenezer Howard, Pattrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford.

[ 24 ]
URBAN FABRIC COMPRISES OF THREE INTERLOCKING ELEMENTS.

1. The Town Plan itself: First there is the town plan itself, which consists of the street system; the plot
pattern, land parcels or lots; and the building arrangement within this pattern. This town plan the younger
Cozen - describes as “the cadastre or matrix of land divisions differentiated by legally protected
ownership.”

2. Land use, Pattern: The land use pattern shows specialized uses of ground and space.

3. Building Fabric: The building fabric is the actual three dimensional mark of physical structures on the
land ownership parcel.

But urban process in our senses of the phrase is in large measure the story of urban development within the
pre existing frame or “ground plan”. It manifests itself through changes in plot configuration and the size and
scale of the solid structures that occupy it. This so called morphogenetic approach, which puts all emphasis
on the urban landscape itself.

MAX WEBER HAS HIS OWN TAILOR MADE PARTICULAR BRAND OF HISTORY OF CLASSIFICATION OF CITIES.

THE CITY SHAPED

Type A, the open city : Here the town, whether walled or not, is “open to the surrounding countryside and on
terms of equality with it.

Type B, the closed city : it is self-sufficient, exclusivist and distrusts country folk and new comers alike in its
zealously guarded monopoly of industry and craft.

Type C : comprises the subjugated towns of early modern times, disciplined and sternly controlled by a
powerful prince or state.

Kostof for his Purposes prefers an equally drastic but more ecumenical differentiation.

(a) Pre-industrial City – Specifies small size (very rarely over 1,00,000 people); lack of land use
specialization; and little social and physical mobility. The social structure is primarily of two classes – an
elite and a lower class.

(b) Industrial city – May be said to have been prefigured by capitalism. The urban landscape was
fundamentally transformed when urban land came to be seen as a source of income, when ownership was
divorced from use and property became primarily a means to produce rent. It was this “land-rent gradient”
that, in the words of J.E. Vance, Jr., “ended the idea of the ordered city and economically encouraged the
segregation of uses.”

(c) Socialist city – The central operative principle here is the abolition of capitalist ownership of land and
property. Dominance of Central Planning.

[ 25 ]
WHAT IS A CITY?

Two sensible definitions of a city are good start points to describe a city.

• For L. Wirth, a city is “a relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous
individuals.”

• For Mumford. a city is a “point of maximum concentration of the power and culture of community.”

According to Kostof :

A. Cities are places where a certain energized crowding of people takes place. It has something to do with
settlement density.
B. Cities come on clusters. A town never exists unaccompanied by other towns. It is therefore inevitably
locked in an urban hierarchy.
C. Cities are places that have some physical circumscription, whether material or symbolic, to separate
those who belong in the urban order from those who do not.
D. Cities are places where there is specialized differentiation of work which create social hierarchies: the
rich are more powerful than poor, social heterogeneity is also axiomatic.

THE CITY SHAPED

E. Cities are places favored by a source of income – trade, intensive agriculture and the possibility of
surplus food, a physical resource like a metal or spring (Bath), geomorphic resource like a natural
harbor, or a human resource like a king.
F. Cities are places that must reply on written records. It is through writing that they will tally their goods,
put down the laws that will govern the community, and the establish title to property – which is extremely
important, because in the final analysis a city rest on a construct of ownership.
G. Cities are places that are intimately engaged with their countryside, that have territory that feeds them
and which they protect and provide services for.
H. Cities are places distinguished by some kind of monumental definition that is where the fabric is more
than blanket of residences. This means a set of public buildings that give the city the scale and citizenry
landmarks of common identity.
I. Cities are places made up of buildings and people. Kostoff claims that city forms their actual function and
the ideas and values that people attach to them make up a single phenomenon.

FIG 6:A- energized crowding FIG 7: B-urban clusters FIG 8: C- physical circumscription

[ 26 ]
FIG 9:D -differentiation of users FIG 10:E-urban resources FIG 11:F-written records

THE CITY SHAPED

FIG 12:G-City and countryside FIG 13:H-monumental framework FIG 14:I-buildings and people

[ 27 ]
CHAPTER 1 : ORAGNIC PATTERNS

PLANNED CITIES AND UNPLANNED

There are two kinds of cities.

• The first kind is the planned or designed or “created” city, - Pierre Lavedan’s Ville creed. Its pattern was
determined once and for all by some overseeing authority. Until the 19th century this pattern invariably
registered as an orderly, geometric diagram.

• The other kind is the Ville Spontunee - the spontaneous city, also called "grown," “generated," or, to
underline one of the evident determinants of its pattern, “geomorphic.” The resultant form is irregular,
non geometric," organic,”. In the making of such city-forms, one speak of “unplanned evolution” or
“instinctive growth.”

• The irregular city is the result of development left entirely to individuals who actually live on the land. !9th

THE CITY SHAPED

century has a imparted a direction to the pattern of the city. Western Urbanism has given us non
geometric layouts artfully designed to avoid the rigidity of geometric abstractions. Some cities are also
“Planned organic”. For example the preference for curvilinear street systems, the broken line, accented
spacing and spirited profiles, these layouts rephrase the tenets of “organic” cities in a self-conscious,
emulative mood.

FIG 15:Organic and planned layout

[ 28 ]
COEXISTENCE AND TRANSCRIPTION

• We would find that the two primary versions of urban arrangement, the planned and the "organic, "often
exist side by side. For e.g. Herat (Afghanistan). This split plan shows the coexistence of a variety of urban
geometries at differing street hierarchies.

• The city's super grid, right, organizes a secondary street network within large quadrants. When Herat’s
maze of courts and blind alleys is added to the plan, left, this overall organization all but disappears. (After
von Niedermeyer) A pair of relatively straight market streets intersecting at right angles divide the city
form into square quadrants; these are bounded externally by roads that run parallel to the city walls,
which themselves inscribe a near-perfect square. Within each one of the quarters a lively jumble of street
elements prevails. Or so it might seem at first glance.

• In reality, a network of secondary streets can be detected without difficulty, staring at the four arms of
the cross-axis and the peripheral roads, and crossing the quarters roughly north-south and east-west.
e.g. Roman town.

First, there is the freeing of movement from geometric order:

THE CITY SHAPED

The grid is inflexible in terms of human movement. The impairment of Municipal controls led to shortcuts
through rigid blocks. So ,the circulation patterns were rationalized to suit urban conditions.

Second, the reorganization of the blocks:

The blocks were merged together into solidly built superblocks; and an inward communication system was
installed in this dense fabric. As a result the reordering of Classical grid through new resident arrangement
occurred.

Third, the impact of new public foci on the urban fabric:

Earlier streets that had led to foci once important but now of no relevance will decline or atrophy.

THE EVOLUTION OF "ORGANIC” PATTERNS

Power designs cities, and the rawest form of power is control of urban land. When the state is the principal
owner, it can put down whatever pattern it chooses. Thus, we can say that there are certain Physical
determinants of irregular city forms and some Social determinants.

PHYSICAL DETERMINANT ARE :-

a. Cities as Organism :

• These were some visual parallel between organism and some town plans. The notion of the city as an
organism is not very old. Some town-plans were hard to resist; the pairing of human organs and elements
of urban form on the basis of functional similarities satisfied a simple urge of animation: it affirmed the [ 29 ]
primacy of urban life.
• Recently, this biological analogy had a startling revival based on economics. The urban lot or dwelling-
place, in this model, functions as the cell; things like the port, the banking district, the industrial plant and
the suburb are organs or specialized tissues and capital, whether in monetary form or in built form, is the
energy that flows through urban systems.

• Two other aspects of organisms, their structural logic and their pathogeny, have been considered apposite
to the behavior of “organic" cities.

b. The Role Of Topography:

Topography as a determination of urban form:

• Riverine settlement
• Natural harbor
• Defensive site
• Linear ridge
• Hilltop town
• Sloped terrain
• The start of an irregular city plan is often due to a small number of topographic peculiarities. The

THE CITY SHAPED

idiosyncratic shapes of evaded or generate cities is determined by the Topography. But there is perhaps
as widespread a tendency in city-making to amend the natural landscape as there is to work with it.

c. Land Division:

• Pre-urban land division may well be the most fundamental determinant for the irregular city-forms of all
ages. In the early stages of settlement, the occupation of land commonly takes place without the benefit of
a formal land survey. Fields, meadows and pastures have irregular boundaries, and the main lines of this
division demarcate large pieces of land for common use.

• When this agricultural land finds itself in an urban situation, these main lines become streets, and the land
parcels begin to be subdivided. Agrarian law in many ancient cultures is based on the principle of the
indivisibility of land.

Kostof explains various methods used for Subdivision of land :

• The two methods of land division-the practice of measuring by metes and bounds fixing boundaries in
relation to natural features), which yields "organic" patterns, and division according to a survey done with
proper instruments , which establishes orthogonal relationships-are both old.

• The author has explained various methods for subdivision of land. For e.g. the English used the head right
method of land distribution in the South, where individual plantations were claimed before a thorough land
survey had been made.

[ 30 ]
SOCIAL DETERMINANTS ARE:-

a. The Law And Social Order :

• Topography, land division, synoecism-these are all physical determinants of irregular city-form.

• The main thing is that city-form was allowed to work itself out subject only to the respect of custom,
ownership, visual privacy. The weakness of the public space of streets, could not support an artificially
pristine layout; rather, the public space was continually negotiated and redefined, as the buildings pushed
out and over, interlocked and diversified. There were also written building codes of local currency (though
little is now known about them), and universally applicable religious law.

• General rule Muslim were few. For e.g. During first 3 centuries literature addressed the laws related to
aspects of public & private life including question relative to building & therefore to city building. The later
literature was related to the religious law basically to adjudicate actual conflicts.

b. Order vs Disorder :

Without the force of tradition and a consolidated social agenda, unsupervised city-making will succumb to

THE CITY SHAPED

disorder. Disorder is a condition of order-unlike chaos, which is the negation of it. Disorder is provisional and
correctible. The range and history of squatter settlements document stages of disorder. “Organic” Patterns:
The process of upgrading begins instantly and never stops. They start out shantytowns on unoccupied land and
eventually the settlement matures in an elderly manner.

THE STRAIGHT AND THE CURVED:

• Cities were that way because they grew to be that way. In De re aedificatoria, he wrote: “The ancients in
all towns were for having some intricate ways and turn again streets, without any passage through them,
that if an enemy comes into them, he may be at a loss, and be in confusion and suspense; or if he pushes
on daringly, may be easily destroyed.”

• Albert granted the approximation of the organic plan for hilly sites, but also recommended it for small
towns with fortification. The idea of the greatness of the town, discover a new structure. Because
according to him Organic pattern of small towns, beauty & aesthetics made in small town more sense than
the organic pattern. Rigid grid: The greatness of town can be felt & a new structure could be discovered at
every step & trip.

ORIGINS OF THE PLANNED PICTURESQUE

The key element that changed from Medieval to Renaissance and to late 18th century was the street pattern &
culmination of streets. For e.g. During Renaissance period, the street converged at either end of town into an
irregular elongated green & In Medieval period, curvilinear pattern was exploited. The decisive swing toward
an open, reasoned endorsement of non-geometric urban design came in the later 18th century.

[ 31 ]
Were the irregular effects of some cities planned ?

• Often there is less perfection in works composed of several separate pieces and made by different
masters. For e.g. – England in 1750. These first, in the non-urban format of the picturesque garden. John
Nash’s project for Regent Street being the best-known instance. The Gothic Revival was of key importance.

• A social agenda, recovery of village: Early industrial model villages, aspiring to entrap the virtues of the
traditional English village along with its form. e.g. Port Sunlight, near Liverpool, goes back to 1887; it was
built from 1892. The plan of Port Sunlight was dictated by the creeks which penetrate the site from the
Mersdy.

• It was here that the "superblock" idea was first introduced, that is, the idea of having houses turn their
back on main streets and look inward toward a green from which traffic is altogether excluded. e.g.
Picturesque suburb : Bournemouth in Dorset. It was more of a resort town than suburb, it started in the
1830s. The planners abandoned the conventional terrace form along a street grid, in favor of a curvilinear
road scheme supporting self-contained villas in their own grounds. The guiding thought was the nature of
the site.

Garden City Paradigm

THE CITY SHAPED

• It all started with Ebenezer Howard the author of 1902 Garden Cities of To-Morrow. The Garden City would
have “all the advantages of the most active and energetic town life with all the beauty and delight of the
country.” That is the garden city would be more or less like a picturesque suburb.

• The chief originators of this idiom were Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker, the planning team for the first
Garden City - Letchworth, in Hertfordshire, So miles (130 km) north of London.

GARDEN CITIES:-

Anglo Saxon :-

• The main invention was the independence of the building line from the street line. The block system of land
division was rejected. The houses turned on their lots, to catch the sun and view.

• The blocks were irregular, and the houses were grouped around blind alleys, frequently T-shaped. Unwin
was most interested in was to create a series of street pictures.

Beaux-Arts :-

• The shape of the first two Garden Cities –Letch worth and Welwyn – was certainly not pure. The effect of
formal Beaux-Arts urbanism can readily be seen in the composition of the town center. In the first two
decades of this century, the integration of "organic" and, Beaux-Arts components was widely attempted.
The popularity of the Garden City as a principle of planning was its extreme flexibility, its relatively easy
enouncement into any ideology .
[ 32 ]
• Certain policies of a country also disallowed the implementation of certain principle & ideology.
United States did not embrace Garden city ideal because of several things like

• communal ownership, controlled use of property.

• Settlement pattern that was prejudicial against traffic.

CONSERVATION AND THE LESSON OF HISTORY

Grand manner vs. Preservation:

• While England was looking to its traditional villages and their cottage architecture and learning something
about urban living in easy contact with nature, Europe found comfort in its storied medieval towns for its
own recipe against the effects of the Industrial Revolution on city-form. Demolitions in the old towns had
become endemic.

• Straight thoroughfares were cut through compact medieval fabrics to link up more easily with the
proliferating suburbs. It is best represented by Camillo Site (1843-1903) and his book of 1889, Der Stadte-
Bau nach seinen kunstlerischen Gnundsatzen (The Art of Building Cities, or more literally "City-Building
According to Artistic Principles"). The esthetic superiority of picturesque old towns to geometric modern

THE CITY SHAPED

street plans had been championed before site.

Urban Space:

• Site made a careful study of urban form, especially of the medieval towns of his own country which he
knew and loved, praising them for their "natural sensitivity.” He associated the vital irregularities of these
city-forms not only with visual interest, but also with wholesome social use.

• Cities were agglomerations of buildings and of people, the bond between them evolved and sustained
through time : neither must be segregated into classes, or zoned as to use and behavior. There is a
gradually developed harmony between public buildings and their physical context. Urbanism, according to
Site, is precisely the science of relationships. And these relationships must be determined according to
how much a person walking through the city can take in at a glance. Streets and squares must be
considered in three dimensions, as volumes. "The ideal street must form a completely enclosed unit."

The Outdoor Room :

• The ideal street must avoid bilateral symmetry; it must avoid cross streets that come into it, at regular
intervals and at right angles to its line. 13 It is mentioned in Lyautey’s declarations that “The mindless
destruction of our old fabrics erases our cultural identity.”

• The name of Patrick Geddes must always come first in this connection. He tirelessly promoted the idea of
a civic survey-a comprehensive study of the geology, geography, economic life, and above all the history
and institutions of the city-prior to any planning intervention. The survey would constitute "diagnosis
before treatment." Then would come "conservative surgery.”

[ 33 ]
MODERNISM AND THE PLANNED PICTURESQUE

The destinies of Modernist urbanism and the Garden City movement had been entangled before. After the
Second World War,

(1) The triumphant return of Modernism brought an end for a while, to the appreciation of the historic
picturesque of European cities.

(2) The planned picturesque of Garden Cities and their offshoots . The resurgence of historic preservation.
This was a counter reaction to modernist a historicism.

Townscape:

Townscape literature was an English phenomenon. Gordon Cullen’s influential Townscape of 1961,” Cullen
defined town-planning, much like Site, as "the art of relationships" and focused his analysis of historic fabrics
on serial vision, awareness of human scale, and what he called "content" which partook of mystery, relief,
immediacy and other comparable sentiments. A strong emotional element buttressed the authority of the
townscape school.

THE CITY SHAPED

New Urbanism:

After the terrifying Twenties and Thirties, where the old towns were attacked by Fascist / Nazis on one hand,
Modernist fanaticism was evolving on the other. After the Fifties and Sixties the frenzy of urban renewal
devastated the city centers which forced rethinking the wholeness of the cities. This was the emergence of
New Urbanism where modernists started thinking about of all kinds of urban space, the grand and the
incidental. These new aspects related to urbanism are mentioned in Rob Krier’s Urban Space (first published
in 1975) and Colin Rowe’s Collage City (1978) capture our imagination, which make us trust in the power of our
collective urban heritage.

[ 34 ]
CHAPTER 2 : THE GRID

THE NATURE OF RECTILINEAR PLANNING PECULIARITIES OF RECTILINEAR PLANNING ARE :

Planning peculiarities of rectilinear planning:

a. A standard scheme for equal distribution of land or Easy parceling and selling of real estate.
b. Defense – as it has advantage of straight through streets.
c. Surveillance of population.

The grid-or gridiron or checkerboard-is by far the commonest pattern for planned cities in history. No better
urban solution recommends itself as a standard scheme for disparate sites, or as a means for the equal
distribution of land or the easy parceling and selling of real estate. The advantage of straight through-streets
for defense has been recognized since Aristotle, and a rectilinear street pattern has also been resorted to in
order to keep under watch a restless population.

THE CITY SHAPED

FIG 16 : grid layout

[ 35 ]
SOME OF THE ISSUES OF RECTILINEAR PLANNING ARE:-

1. The size and shape of the blocks, and their internal organization.
2. The open spaces and their distribution The accommodation or public buildings
3. The nature of the street grid
4. The termination of the grid
5. The relation of the grid to the surrounding country and the features of the topography
6. The effect of the grid in three dimensions.

HYBRID VERSION OF THE GRIDS ARE:

1. Loose approximations, where the lines are not strictly parallel or the angles strictly right.
2. Gridded extensions of "organic" city forms
3. Gridded additions to an original grid plan
4. Grids combined with other geometric planning principles
5. The curvilinear grid of the modern residential development

THE GRID AND POLITICS

THE CITY SHAPED

Egalitarianism is no more natural to gridded patterns. The most persistent belief that urban grids represent
an egalitarian system of land distribution is expressed in the context of modern democracies, But it is not
intrinsically democratic. But it has examples.

The first is a late outcome of the great division in the Catholic Church. After the repeal of the Edict of Nantes
in 1685, over 200,000 Huguenots fled from France. They settled and founded towns and suburbs in Protestant
Germany and in England, Holland and Switzerland.

All the towns had the same form:

a regular street grid on a square site, uniform houses of identical shape, size and color, a small church, and
identical manufactories. Among the best known Huguenot settlements are Karlshafen near Kassel. Here
unequivocally the sameness was meant to express the social equality of all inhabitants.

Second the Mormons two centuries later. Joseph Smith drew up a scheme for the ideal Mormon city, known as
the "Plat of the City of Zion." The Plat was one square mile (2.6 sq. km.) in surface, divided by a grid of streets.
The dimensions were ample. All streets were to be 132 feet (40.25 m.) wide, the building blocks 10 to 15 acres
(4-6 ha.). The houses, to be built of brick and stone, were to be set back 25 feet (7.6 m.) from the street line.
The plan would grow infinitely as the faithful increased. All property would be deeded to the Church, and one
would then be assigned an inheritance or stewardship-a farm, a store or shop, a ministerial mission.

"Better Order" Or Routine There were two main purposes of grid:

1. The first is to facilitate orderly settlement, colonization in its broad sense.

2. The other application of the grid has been as an instrument of modernization, and of contrast to what
existed that was not as orderly.
[ 36 ]
HISTORICAL REVIEW

The Grid In The Ancient World

Pre-Classical Antiquity : The genuine urban grid makes its appearance in pre-Classical antiquity in at least
two regions of the ancient world.

1. Mohenjo Daro and Harappa in the Indus Valley, which came to a mysterious end about 1500 BC, had a
citadel on the western edge of own and blocks of roughly equal size. A distinction was made between
principal streets and the alleys onto which the houses looked.
2. The other archaeological region is Mesopotamia and Assyria, cities like Babylon and Borsippa. Hammurabi
about 2000 bc even though the visible street pattern that has been recovered dates back only to
Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC.

Herodotus describes Babylon as intersected by straight streets, some parallel and some at right angles to the
river." The division of the Greek grid was by strips rather than blocks, and the city walls.

The roman grid had developed its own identity- a more unitary palna with large squares blocks, a tight mural
frame locked into the lines of the grid, and the forum placed on or beside the crossing of two major axes. It

THE CITY SHAPED

also had a standardized fort plan. For Example. Timgad. Timgad is one of the purest in form and the best
preserved. The grid of Timgad measures about 380 yards(355 m) on each side. It consists of four parts of 36
blocks each, 144 blocks in all, of which 11 are eaten up by forum,6 by theatre and 8 by the baths.

NEW TOWNS IN THE MIDDLE AGES

At the end of the Classical world we lost track of the grid for several centuries . Orthogonal planning returned
in Europe in 1100. This was the re-emergence of grid for :

a) Creation of new towns

b) Extension of earlier organic city towns

The new towns were located in three general areas of Europe:

1. Southern France, northern Spain, England and Wales : Here we find towns founded by the royal houses,
by powerful noblemen and by other lords and abbots. In France especially, it came to be expected of a
lord of the first rank that in addition to his castle, monastery, and hunting ground, he would be the owner
of a new town or bastide. Defense, agriculture and trade were the motivation, and the towns were usually
an agency of settlement on land reclaimed.
2. Switzerland, Austria, and Germany east of the Elbe: This includes the towns of the dukes of Zahringen,
imperial towns under the patronage of the Holy Roman Emperor himself or his lieutenants, and
settlements founded by the crusading Teutonic Knights in the eastern expansion of Germany, By and
large, this area had the largest number, and the most carefully planned, new towns.
3. New towns founded by the city: states of Italy , In this category, a prime goal was to disengage serfs and
village folk from allegiance to landed magnates and readjust their loyalties to the political system of the
city-states. [ 37 ]
The Renaissance In Europe

Bastions : Around 1600 systems of bastioned curtains improved over several decades were universally
subscribed to. This meant that cities, old and new, were encased in an elaborate, often star-shaped, ring of
pointed low-spreading bastions with an enormous physical reach.

Within this ring, the vast majority of the new towns were straightforward grids; a few towns adopted radial-
concentric street systems inspired by Renaissance projects of ideal cities like Filarete‟s Sforzinda, as
subsequently reinterpreted by military engineers for the artillery age.

Baroque urbanism : Baroque urbanism was transforming European capitals. It was based on the dynamism of
the diagonal,: and came to be associated with absolutist states. Baroque city-form had developed connotations
of political centrality, and that the place of the king in the English scheme of things was very much in the
public mind during those decades of the later 17th century.

PASSAGE TO AMERICA

For the design of Washington, DC Jefferson's famous little grid was selected. The grid lost, and the
Frenchman's splendid imperialist diagram won, for he went on to subject the rest of the nation to a relentless

THE CITY SHAPED

gridding which permanently affected the structure of American space. The towns in New Spain, called pueblos
or villas, were designed according to directives emanating from the Spanish court.

These were collected under Philip II in a document known as the Laws of the Indies, a genuine product of
Renaissance thought. Its inspiration is ultimately the Classical treatise of Vitruvius, as a continuation of the
long medieval history of bastides. The grid with two main axes intersecting, and the large public square at the
intersection, were standard. This plaza is the key to the entire settlement; its size regulated the makeup of the
grid.

NATIONAL LAND ORDINANCE

The national land ordinance ensured that the urban blueprint for most of the united states would be the grid.
The grid became the standard for new sections of old towns as well- Boston, Baltimore, Richmond- but no
where more fanatically than in New York. Streets were in the form of identical blocks, unrelieved by open
spaces.

1811, COMMISSIONER’S PLAN FOR NEW YORK:

The 1811 plan of Manhattan represented the abandonment of the colonial closed grid for the open grid of the
new era of the republic.

Closed Grid : the closed grid is essentially a pre capitalist concept. It is seen as having firm boundaries and a
definite design within this fixed frame. The boundaries might be walls, or features of topography; they might
be determined by public buildings placed at the extremes of the major axes; or the grid might be encircled by
common lands and allocated farm plots which cannot be sold.

[ 38 ]
Open Grid : The open grid is predicted on a capitalist economy, and the conversion of land to a commodity to
be bought and sold on the market. The grid is left unbounded or unlimited, so it can be extended whenever
there is the promise of fast and substantial profit. In this state of affairs the grid becomes an easy, swift way
to standardize vast land operations by businessmen involved in the purchase and sale of land. Public places,
parks, and any other allocations that remove land from the market are clearly seen as a waste of profit
producing resource.

This is how New York's Commissioners justified their decision motto provide public space in their 1811 plan.

The Commissioners were merely applying these lessons unsentimentally and without exceptions and that is
how Grid dominated in Western U.S.

Spanish System:

• Under the Spanish system, land was the inalienable patrimony of each family and there were centrally
situated public open spaces and ample common lands for everybody's use. Under the Americans, this
enduring social structure of the pueblos was replaced by laissez-faire planning. The promenades along the
river or the ample plaza in the center of town became targets of development.

THE CITY SHAPED

• The new municipal administrations 19 allocated for community use only those parcels of land that could not
be sold or given away. The Laws of the Indies considered town and country to be one working unit. All
around the original city-form, the grid spread out unchecked. Speculative gridding did not require much
finesse.

• The worst offenders were the railroad companies, Railroad companies adopt Grid. The beneficiaries of
vast land, grants from the Federal Government, especially after [862, they laid out hundreds of towns
along their tracks, often on a standard plan, as a means to land speculation and the capture of national
traffic. The common rule about street grids is to seek a compromise between natural irregularities and
the abstract rigor of the right angle. It was only during the Renaissance that the possibility opened up to
survey and record geographic features and irregular city shapes.

• These new grids of the 19th century for most of the part had no more than 30 to 60 blocks, with 6 to 16
lots per blocks. The plan had two linear axes, one of them the industrial axis along the tracks with the
station, the rain elevator, coal sheds and water towers, the loadmaster's house, and a trackside park with
a bandstand; the other, the commercial axis along Main street.
• Sometimes the two coincided or else they were set at right angles, or in the form of T with the railroad
line as the bar.

LAYING OUT THE GRID

The word grid as it has been used so far is a convenient, and imprecise, substitute for “orthogonal Planning”.
Gridiron in the united states at least, implies a pattern of long narrow blocks, and “checkboard” a pattern of
square blocks. These are the two commonest divisions of a grid plan. Street grid and plot grid will always
interlock and be interdependent. The important considerations affect the quality of gridded urban form are:
the shape of the land; the technology of surveying and its relative sophistication at a given time and place.
[ 39 ]
Topography

As always one begins with the land. Where the land is flat, the grid is on its own. Even on flat land, the gridded
settlement patterns may reflect the broad physical facts of the site. River towns for example will tend to run
their main streets parallel to the waterfront, with a small number of connecting cross- streets. The incidence
of a pure, uncompromised grid over rolling topography is rare. The most celebrated instance from antiquity is
Prime's well thought out grid, from the 4th century BC. The common rule about street grids is to seek a
compromise between natural irregularities and the abstract rigor of the right angle. It was only during the
Renaissance that the possibility opened up to survey and record geographic features and irregular city
shapes.

Ichnographic plan:

The ichnographic plan shows the city from an infinite number of viewpoints, all perpendicular to each
topographical feature.

1. Unconcerned with actual appearance, this highly complicated abstraction the city to a two-dimensional
record of solids and voids.
2. New scientifically surveyed plan, and the consisted of a circular disc divided into contemporaneous

THE CITY SHAPED

development of mobile artillery, led to viewing cities.

COORDINATED SYSTEMS OF TOWN AND COUNTRY

Rural Grids

Roman land survey followed several methods, of which the commonest was centuriation. Two axial roads at
right angles to each other started the survey; then held tracks (limits) were driven parallel to their course
until a grid of squares or rectangles had taken shape.

The standard centuriation measure was the actus (120 feet/ca. 37 m). In the French bastides, a triple system
of land division prevailed. Settlers received building lots called ayrals (between ca. 1,000 and 3,300 square
feet), vegetable gardens called canals , and arable land for fields and vineyards called arpents or journaux
after the units of measurement. These allotments formed three concentric zones-, The urban parcels
stretched to the limits of the town, or the walls if they existed. The gardens were within or immediately
outside the walls. When the Spaniards arrived in the New World, land management was practiced on a regional
basis. The jurisdiction of the original colonial cities was extraordinarily large. Land tracts were generally
square, 10,000 varas or 5} miles (8.5 km.) on each side; these tracts were called sitios. The town proper was
in or near the middle of the tract. Common lands were reserved for the enlargement of the town. English in
North America had its own rural/urban order. Savannah, to take a celebrated case, was conceived as part of
a regional plan. Beyond the town limits were garden lots (half-squares in the form of triangles), and further
out still, larger plots for farms of major contributors.

Jeffersonian gridding of America:

The Jeffersonian gridding of America was based on the notion of "freehold", by which was meant property of a
certain size or value, or that produced a specified taxable income. Freeholders had political rights. They were [ 40 ]
enfranchised: they could hold office or they could vote. Property is the key to citizenship and suffrage.
GRIDDED EXTENSIONS

The existence of a coordinated array of town and country did not ensure an orderly extension of town grids
into the surrounding territory. Amsterdam is a special case. This great northern port, which always exercised
a remarkable element of public control over city-form, borrowed the best of the "organic" system and the
grid, to ensure a rational, long-range development. Without the centralized authority of cities like Turin and
Amsterdam gridded extension degenerates into a patchwork of small developments that meet at ownership
boundaries of rural holdings. The impression of an "infinitely extendable grid" is in most cases indebted to the
streamlining of this ad hoc patchwork by the traffic engineer's "super grid" of through-streets assembled for
the automotive age.

THE CLOSED GRID: FRAME, ACCENT, AND OPEN SPACES

Open grids with laissez-faire planning cannot aspire to a coherent design.

The Walled Frame:

A walled enclosure is the most obvious, but not the only, means of delimiting. The city wall where it exists may
or may not be integrated with the street grid.

THE CITY SHAPED

Spindle form Plan:

The city-form concentrates on a rationally designed center around the square, and reaches out to meet the
walled edge with distorted blocks that fit the pomerial space. Sometimes the streets parallel to the main axis
will curve gently at the two ends, and meet that axis at terminal gates. The Spindelform plan, so called on
account of its similarity to a weaver's bobbin. The purpose is to hold down the number of entry points into the
city.

The Walled Grid:

When the town lies on a level site and the defense therefore must be entirely manmade, the conditions are
favorable for an urban design that meshes street grid and town wall. Some of the best solutions of the walled
grid originated with military engineers. The Roman foursquare cestrum, standardized in every detail during
the late Republic, was one of these solutions.

Bastions:

With the advent of the bastioned defenses in the 16th century in response to artillery warfare, the total
independence of the city wall from the street grid became inescapable. The most effective bastioned curtain
was a polygon; any dovetailing of this shape to the orthogonal rules of the street grid was bound to be
ineffectual.

FINAL ASSESSMENT OF GRID (BY KOSTOF) :

It is the great virtue of the grid, of its ceaseless usefulness. The grid is free both of malerisch incident and of
ideological posturing. is repetitive, homogeneous, even redundant. The grid carries no inherent burden of its [ 41 ]
own. The grid is what you make it.
CHAPTER 3: CITY AS A DIAGRAM
PAOLO SOLERI’S IDEA OF CITY:

1. ARCOLOGY:

• Paolo Soleri coined the term archology which is a combination of architecture and ecology.
• It is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated, ecologically low-impact
human habitats.
• Archology was proposed to reduce human impact on natural resources. Archology designs might apply
conventional building and civil engineering techniques.

2. PAOLO SOLERI’S IDEA OF ARCOSANTI:

• Arco Santi is a city planned by Paolo Soleri in the paradise valley of Arizona.
• He began construction in 1970, to demonstrate how urban conditions could be improved while minimizing
the destructive impact on the earth.

THE CITY SHAPED

• The ultimate goal of Arco Santi is to house 5000 people in a single structure solar-powered archology 25
stories high; the rest to be reserved for agriculture, recreation & beauty.

3. SOLERI’S STYLE OF CITY PLANNING CHARACTERISTICS:

• Barrel vaults
• Quarter-sphere apses
• Sweeping half arches
• frameless round window holes.
• The detailing of the elements were crude.

PALMANOVA CITY

• Palma nova is a town and commune in Northeast Italy. The town is an example of star fort of the late
Renaissance, built up by the Venetian Republic in 1593.
• Palma nova is the only complete radial plan to be built in Italy in the 16th century. The frame is a nine-sided
polygon, but the central piazza is a hexagon and even then only three of the town’s nine bastions are linked
to it in a direct line

[ 42 ]

FIG 17 : plan of Palma nova city

UTOPIAN CITIES:

• Utopian cities : By their nature, these cities are most often transposed into design in perfect geometric
shapes, circles and focused squares and polygons of various kinds. They follow rigid modes of centrality –
radial convergence or axial alignment.
• A main example of this is the squaring of the Circleville (Ohio) .

Squaring of Circleville :

• The plan of Circleville Ohio was laid out in the 1810s by the town’s first Director Daniel Drawback. He sited
the town inside a large old circular earthwork built by members of the indigenous Hopewell culture.
• The plan took the form of two concentric circular streets, joined by straight streets radiating from the
center. At the very middle, on a mound, was the octagonal county courthouse.
• By the 1830s however the Circlevillians had become irritated with their town’s circularity. The conception
of the plan was dismissed as ‘childish sentimentalism’. It was proving difficult to fit buildings onto the
awkward-shaped lots, and odd bits of leftover land were wasted.
• The townspeople established the Squaring Circleville Company and petitioned the Ohio General Assembly in
1837 to allow the Company to convert the street layout – with the cooperation of landowners – into a
standard rectangular American grid-iron.

THE CITY SHAPED

• The process was carried out by stages in the four quadrants of the circle and was completed by 1856

FIG 18 : The process of squaring of Circleville Ohio

[ 43 ]
SPECIALSIED ENVIRONMENTS:

The design of regimentation:

• Military camps and garrison towns readily fall into line because of the pre-established ranking and
routines of their inhabitants such as the Assyrian relief camp in the throne room of Assurbanipal shows
the military camp as two crossing roads in a fortified circle.
• The Roman cestrum had a rigid rectangular layout determined by two crossing streets, the via principals
and the via Quintana, that led to four principal gates and divided the camp into four quadrants.
• Spanish presidios, on the other hand, had small houses for the limited number of soldiers, married for the
most part and the expansion of mission and pueblos. And the single men mostly lived in the barracks.
• The Indian cantonment areas designed precisely under the British rule had residential and development
areas designed for the militants and their families.

HOLY CITIES:

Specifications of holy cities:

• Holy cities can also be example of religions symbolism.

THE CITY SHAPED

• They are those cities of concentrated sanctity whose physical organization displays a deliberate program
of ritual intent.
• These are cities, like mecca and Jerusalem, where particular religions place their origin; cities where the
worship of principal deities is condensed, as with Amon at Thebes or Shiva at Benares (Varanasi); or cities
where a king seeks to anchor hos reign, as did Jayavarman VII at Angkor Thom.
• The attempt of designing all these cities was to represent spatial structure of heaven.

POLITICAL DIAGRAM

The political diagram of the city celebrates the centrality & monocentric dominion. And its main components
are circle and axis.

LINEAR SYSTEMS

• Axial alignment is commonly used in association with an overall urban diagram. It depends on one of two
inducements: cosmology, and physical and cultural topography.
• One prime example of this is the china city planning.
• Chinese planners invariably emphasized the north-south axis, image of the meridian, to order their
capitals.
• This was in coordination with a precise structure of thought regarding the universe and the place of the
ruler within it.
• The earth in Chinese cosmology was a stable cube; the heavens were round. Space was conceived of as a
series of imbricated squares, at the center of which lay the capital of the empire strictly oriented to the
points of the compass.

[ 44 ]
CHARACTERISTICS OF CAPITAL CITIES OF CHINA:

• The first model is represented by Chang’an under the Tang dynasty. Here the imperial palace is at the
north end of a central axis.
• In the other capital scheme, the palace is in the middle of the city; this is the case with Beijing
• The terminologies like Kings way, Queen’s way, Government House, Viceroy’s official residence etc. were
used to describe a city.
• The spatial structure of the cities was also based on:
1. Race
2. Occupational Rank

THE CITY SHAPED

FIG 19: palace at centre of axis FIG 20: palace at the end of axis

CENTRALIZED SYSTEM

The other device for charting political order is to expand the city form in bands of diminishing importance out
of a center. The two related variants here are the concentric and the radial.

Concentric organization:

• Concentricity implies the circle, but in city diagram this is at best a relative matter. The castle towns or
jokamachi of Japan, the symbol of an all-powerful feudal aristocracy. They hardly show the geometrical
purity of ideal cities, yet they are unequivocal diagram of centralized power. Seat of the daimyo, the new
feudal lord these towns, among them Edo, Osaka, Tokashima, Kochi and Kumamoto, were focused upon the
castle.
• The term Jōkamachi refers to a type of urban structures in Japan in which the city surrounds a feudal
lord's castle.
• Most of the world's walled cities comprise a castle and a city inside the defensive walls. While Japan did
have towns and villages surrounded by moats and earth mounds such as Sakai and Jinaicho (temple town),
Jokamachi initially had moats and walls only around the feudal lord's castle and did not build walls around [ 45 ]
the entire city.
RADIAL ORGANIZATION:

• The combination of concentric space and street rays that join center to periphery made sense in terms of
circulation; but more to the point in political terms, the composite diagram was a strong visual projection
of the all-pervasive nature of absolute power, while the radiating streets might also play a secondary role
as dividers for some intermediary organization.
• Greeks & Romans went with ideal cities, Radial organization of a city was unknown to Greeks & Romans.
Romans tried to find a functional rationale for it.

Sforzinda’s Example

• Filarete’s Sforzinda is first example of radial city. It was designed in 1457-64 for Francesco Sforza, tyrant
of Milan. The basic form was an eight-point star derived by superimposing two quadrangles in such a way
that their angles are equidistant. This particular figure is in fact an ancient magic sign, and it was
sometimes used in the Renaissance as a diagram that interlocked the four elements and the four
Aristotelian qualities-dryness, humidity, cold and heat.
• Significance of this city : Sforzinda is the archetype of the humanist city of the High Renaissance, where
perfect form is the image of a perfect society. Fila rete's diagram shows a second alternative of the radial
power-city, which was a combination of Radial concentricity Axis.

THE CITY SHAPED

• For e.g.. Versailles. They combine radial-concentricity with axially, in that all roads converge upon the
royal palace, which responds at the same time to a grand, axial avenue that leads to the center of its main
façade. Later on, this scheme became widespread in the 17th & 18th century.

THE FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM

• The Logic of Defense The greatest interpretation of the radial scheme is by Renaissance military
engineers. Francesco di Giorgio (1439-1501) was the first Renaissance architect and military engineer to
articulate the ways in which a radial system of streets, a bastioned periphery wall, ad a public space in the
center could be made to work together.
• He tried out variations where this central space is circular or polygonal, and where the street system has
to be accommodated to a number of topographical situations.
1. A main complication arose from the fact that the bastions had to defend their own circuit if they were to
defend the city at large behind them. In that context, from a military point of view, the circle and the
square, were equally unsatisfactory.
2. The circle was inadequate because the military planner permitted efficient defense by the flanks. The
square was inadequate because it afforded the least flexibility to bastions which were forced to be blunt
given the right angles. A rectangular polygon was the best solution. The ideal plan was most effectively
executed on flat, open plains unmarred by natural impediments.

FINAL ASSESSMENT DONE BY KOSTOF :

All ideal city-forms are a little dehumanizing. Life cannot be regimented in the ways that would like except in
totally artificial units like monasteries and cantonments and concentration camps where inhabitants submit
willingly or are constrained without choice. The city as diagram, in the end, is the story of dreamers who want
the complexity and richness of the urban structure without the problems, tensions and volatility
[ 46 ]
CHAPTER 4: GRAND MANNER

It was some time in March1791 that President Washington assigned Major Pierre L, Enfant the task of drawing
up a plan for the new Federal capital. L'Enfant's plan for the city was very much influenced by Baroque
planning.

Characteristics of the Baroque esthetic in urban das these are revealed in L'Enfant's work:

1. A total, grand, spacious urban ensemble pinned on focal points distributed throughout the city.
2. These focal points suitably plotted in relation to the drama of the topography, and linked with each other
by swift, sweeping lines of communication.
3. A concern with the landscaping of the major streets.
4. The creation of vistas.
5. Public spaces as settings for monuments.
6. Dramatic effects, as with waterfalls.
7. All of this superimposed on a closer-grained fabric for daily, local life.

THE CITY SHAPED

HISTORICAL REVIEW

Antiquity In pre-Classical antiquity, we cannot point to entire urban systems that could be called Baroque. In
the Hellenistic period, there is an important development.
The planning of in Atta lid Pergamon in the 3rd and 2nd centuries bc seems to attest to a distinctive school of
urban design which employs a sophisticated array of "Baroque" devices in a coordinated system.
The city form of Pergamon, laid out on a narrow mountailesn ridge in western Asia Minor, is an integrated
series of visual and kinetic experiences

The Compositional features of the city are:

European Baroque

The roots, of European Baroque are in the 16th century, and even earlier. This phase of the Grand Manner is
bound up with broad intellectual, political and technological developments, such as the Counter- Reformation,
the rise of authoritarian, one-man rule, advances in astronomy, and the spectacular discoveries of previously
uncharted corners of the world.

With the Copernican shift from an earth centered to a sun-centered universe, the world is now seen instead
as infinite space, an object moving around the sun. This critical change, new developments in science and
especially in mathematics, optics as well as astronomy are the aspects in which European Baroque urbanism
was exercised.

The European Baroque is a phenomenon of capital cities. It served the tastes and representational needs of
absolutism. The term "Age of Absolutism”, is too coarse a characterization that obscures wide differences ire
politics and society. Invention of a Baroque language of urbanism is inseparable from the Renaissance. It was
in the 14th century BC that the attitude towards looking at streets changed. They will no longer be thought of [ 47 ]
as the space left over between buildings, but as a spatial element with its own integrity
Contribution of Baroque:

Baroque adds to this element of urban design is the sense of continuous planes continuous uniform facades.
The first articulation of the famous master plan of Sixtus V (1585-90) and his architect Domenico Fontana.
Peculiarities of this master plan are: 1. Succession of long straight streets. 2. Piazzas and central obelisks. 3.
Geometric order for its own sake.

THE GRAND MANNER Outside ITALY:

France appropriates the Baroque esthetic after 1650, and develops it into a rational system of urban design.
French Baroque is also an outcome of state sponsored urbanism.

Specific contributions by Baroque:

The tree lined avenue
The residential square, defined by continuous uniform facades
Central monumental statue
Absolute power explains the appeal of the Grand Manner for the totalitarian regimes of the Thirties-for the
likes of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin.

THE CITY SHAPED

Baroque and Modernism : The Baroque esthetic was endowed in stages with the blessings of modernity. The
openness of the city form and the flow of fast-paced traffic, already important in the thinking of planners like
L'Enfant who set out to make "the real distance less from place to place," were also pre-eminent modern
concerns issues like modern transportation and a healthful urban environment will also be central to the
proponents of Garden Cities and later on of Modernist planning.

The Garden City and Modernism rejected a monumental public realm, the Grand Manner celebrated it. Where
they singled out the residential component as the crux of the urban experience, the Grand Manner swept it
into a comprehensive monumentality affecting the city form as a whole.

BAROQUE ELEMENTS

The Straight Street

1. The straight street promotes public order by doing away with the nooks and crannies of irregular
neighborhoods.
2. shortest path between 2 points: The straight street has a practical superiority, in that it connects two
points directly and so speeds up communication.
3. The straight streets can express an ideology: the straight street can direct the social and practical
advantages it sees into a discourse of ideology.

Markers And Monuments

The Grand Manner has employed freestanding monuments for two purposes-to accent a vista, and to fix the
space of a formal square. When the squares and the avenues leading into and out of them are correlated, a
single monument can fulfil both purposes. The staging of monumental accents is quite limited, and most
originate in Classical antiquity. [ 48 ]
Triumphal arches, commemorative columns, and equestrian statues were all familiar to Roman practice.
Triumphal arches: Triumphal arches began to replace the simpler arched city gates in the Augustan era, the
late 1st century BC and early 1st century AD. They also formed the entrance to enclosed spaces like forums.
Some city gates gained historical legitimacy for their triumphal form by commemorating an actual victory.
But the most celebrated monument of this kind is free standing structure which is an official approach road to
the city.

Commemorative columns:

The survival of two Classical commemorative columns in Rome itself, that of Trajan in his Forum and the
Column of Marcus Aurelius kept this urban example of imperial triumph in the public eye until the revivalist
swell of the Renaissance. Statues: In the traditions of the Grand Manner, the chief use of public statuary has
been along ceremonial streets and within squares.

A pre-Classical convention had rows of statues set on the ground flanking ceremonial way (e.g., the Avenue of
the Sphinxes at Thebes). The equestrian statue was a rather late idea in Roman Imperial history. The
Ceremonial Axis Grand Manner is an urbanism of dominion. It is about empires and their capital outlets. It is
about the staging of power. The staging of power: All cities are, of course, repositories of power in varying
degrees and patterns. Cities designed in the Grand Manner employ conventions that make power physically

THE CITY SHAPED

manifest.

TRIVIUM AND POLYVIUM:

n building up a plan in the Grand Manner, the main skill lies in the coordination of diagonal arteries. The
simplest systematic grouping is the trivium. The trivium, a meeting of three radial streets: at, or their
divergence from, a piazza, is of course affiliated with Renaissance experiments with radial schemes of
urbanism; but it is less totalitarian and much more flexible. It was the prestigious and magisterial example of
Versailles that popularized the trivium, and even then convincing urban successors are few. Polyvium: The
fanning out of radials in groups larger than three can proceed from orthogonal, polygonal, or circular cores.
Four diagonal streets may emanate from the corners of a square or rectangular public space, more or less
regularly. The ideal of the circular arrangement is the full round-point. The round-point originates in
landscape design, where it refers to a large circular clearing in the woods. The English version of the urban
round-point is the so called "spider web," in which main hubs are connected with straight feeder street drawn
at right angles to the radials.

[ 49 ]
FIG 21 : trivium and Polyvium layout
Its structure rests on the defensive wall, which by the Baroque period was usually an earthen rampart rather
than a stone curtain. The practice of planting trees on ramparts goes back to the late 16th century. These
tree-lined ramparts eventually became a system of connected public promenades, "a recreational zone at the
edge of the city." They were not intended as transportation arteries. First they were called courts or
ramparts, but soon the name that stuck was boulevards.

POST MODERN BAROQUE:

In postmodern baroque, Modernist ideal rejected as destructive and vacuous. Ricardo Bofil said” Everyday life
will take the center of the stage, while the public edifice and facility will recede into the background.” In
Seaside, a north Florida resort town, the axes, the vistas terminating in identifiable landmarks, the tree-lining
of avenues are all there in two dimensions, as in a Burnham fragment. This formal urban diagram is in fact the
covenant of a public realm. But though the building lines are held firm, the buildings are mostly evocative
suburban residences.

THE CITY SHAPED

[ 50 ]
CHAPTER 5 : THE URBAN SKYLINE

INTRODUCTION:

In an international competition , Melbourne realized it that it needed a big idea – something unique, something
remarkable , something to give us more pride in ourselves and a far more significant place in global itinerary.
Two things stand out in this extra ordinary initiative: the urgency to have a signature building that would fix
the city’s identity, and put Melbourne on that elusive world map.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SKYLINES

Our word "skyline," traditionally, meant "the line where earth and sky meet." The use of "skyline' to refer to
buildings on the horizon is recent-not earlier than 1876. Tall buildings that have existed throughout history
from ziggurat to Eiffel tower. They were unique beacons and were public beacons. The skyscraper was the
product of private enterprise, so that the primacy of the public order, as against private interests, would be
made palpable on the skyline.

THE CITY SHAPED

THE SKYLINE POTRAYED

The central issue was whether the shape of the skyline matters to the residents. The skyline of cities, by
whatever it might be called, has always been indebted to the artist’s representation of it.
Civic Pride: With the complication of defenses during the era of artillery warfare, the purpose in
commissioning city views became primarily military. Representing cities accurately to these ends was of
prime importance, and princely patronage bolstered experiments in graphic techniques. The medium was
usually a print of some sort-a woodcut or an engraving-and the diffusion was carefully controlled.
There are two ways to fix a skyline”
1. Through extraordinary landscape features (the Acropolis and Lycabettos in Athens, Sugar Loaf at Rio,
Table Mountain at Cape Town).
2. through pre-eminent Buildings.
To address the landscape first: cities with a complicated topography might try to emblematize nature, as with
the so-called Seven Hills of Rome, a conceit transposed along with other distinctive attributes to its eastern
pendant, Constantinople. On the second point, the intended reading of the skyline, cities with a long history
might tellingly juxtapose the symbols of competing powers, or of changes in their structure, within the urban
profile. But often the nature of the skyline is not determined by one or more distinctive building shapes, ns
much as it is by the repetitive use of one architectural feature: minarets, domes, spires, industrial chimneys,
and the like

[ 51 ]
FIG 22 : the London skyline
Until recently, the dominant accent of the skyline was the architecture of sacred buildings. These were often
situated on eminences, natural or artificial, their architectural mass was piled up high, and their visual
prominence was enhanced by sky-aspiring props. The native religions of Southeast and East Asia developed
early on a variety of such skyline accents. Hindu temples themselves were built as great ornamented mounds,
but they were often overshadowed by tall multistory portal towers (gopuras). Buddhist stupas, dome-shaped
grave mounds, were surmounted by an ornamental capping structure ending in an umbrella shape. The classic
dominants of church architecture are bellowers and domes.

DESIGNING THE SKYLINE

Some Principles A number of design criteria can be isolated which determine the physical validity of the
skyline. Among them are height, shape, and approach. The first two refer to the landmark features of the
skyline, the third to the skyline as a whole.

Height : Height is a relative matter - relative to a landmark’s surroundings. There is pride in being the tallest
building in Europe, or east of the Rockies, or in the world. But the actual impression the building will make
depends on what is around it. Restrictions on high-rises existed probably as early as the 1880s in Chicago.
New York’s zoning ordinance of 1916 legalized the concept of the setback.

THE CITY SHAPED

Shape : "The general mass and shape of buildings is a good device to distinguish different competing
programs within one historical frame-castle versus town hall.

Approach : The issue concerns the direct experience of skyline features by the visitor to the city. The
traditional city was small and was experienced more directly because it was seen without suburban sprawl. In
fact, the walls were usually the first element of the skyline to be encountered. Today, the cities are large and
uncircumscribed, and all sorts of skyline features begin to appear in the urban fringe before we are allowed
to read the symbolic relationships of the city center even were they to be preserved by law.

Traditionally, there were three kinds of urban skyline views that mattered-

 Those you had from approach roads by land;

 waterfront views along a river or the seacoast;
 and the views to be had from high vantage points within the city limits and in the environs. Previously the
city was more or less a composed city.

Color And Light : That kind of multicolored skyline is rare not only in Europe but in the world at large. Yet color
has always been a standard means to highlight the urban silhouette. In Asia, gopuras and pagodas were
brilliantly colored. German Expressionism, used shaded brick starting with deep purple at the base and
graduating to light grey at the top. This was an optical device said to make a building look taller and to give the
illusion of sunlight even on an overcast day.

THE MODERN SKYLINE

A general increase in the scale of ordinary buildings overpowered the traditional public symbols of the skyline.
Civic and religious buildings no longer are distinguished by height. The first impulse was to build monumental [ 52 ]
towers in commemoration of important cultural or political events.
FORGING THE STADTKRONE

The Germans gave much thought to the Stadtkrone, the crown of the modern city. In the 20th century the
search was for a structure that would be a symbol of communal life -a focal building that would make people
noble, brotherly and good. During the First World War, Bruno Taut promoted with passion this visionary
agenda of a new physical environment consonant with a world free of conflict. Taut’s preoccupations were
with new materials, especially the potential of an all-glass architecture. His book of 1919 called Die Stadtkrone
argued that the most damaging consequence of the modern metropolis or Grossstadt was "the loss of the
center," the cultural core with its cumulative symbolic content around which the old city had grown. According
to taut,
The traditional city had:
1. Organic connectivity
2. Skyscraper was equal to monument to self interest

Skyscraper City

To Utopian Expressionists and Nazi purists alike, the American skyscraper was an unacceptable urban symbol.
It was a monument to self-interest and the aggressive competitiveness of capitalism. In the 1870s and 1880s,

THE CITY SHAPED

the first skyscrapers began to go up in Chicago and New York - elevator buildings of exceptional height,
laboriously built in traditional masonry construction, and then, from about 1890, as fireproofed steel frames
on which the exterior sheath hung like a curtain. To distinguish the public monuments of government and
culture from this vertically disposed skyline of business, their architectural character had to be different. The
attempts to ennoble these monuments to commercial success with borrowed symbolism are nonetheless
expressive of the inflationary value Americans came to attach to private enterprise at the expense of the
public realm by the end of the 19th century; they are expressive of a general willingness to find communal
pride in the atomized monumentality of office buildings. In America it was possible to build higher. The trick
was to line streets and squares with these tall buildings, while reproducing smooth continuities and the
uniform order of the French capital.

[ 53 ]
CONCLUSION
As long as man has sought to interpret the city, this has been mainly though the visual arts and architecture,
terminating in the present century in the ideologies of the Garden City, the City Beautiful, and the Modern
Movement. But, throughout history, there has always been an alternative view. From ancient times, towns and
cities have been classified into those which grow 'naturally' or 'organically' and those which are 'artificial' or
'planned'. Distinction between these types is manifold and often blurred. There exists a continuum from
organic to planned growth. If we study the evolution of cities carefully we see that most towns are being
formed from elements of both organic as well as planned. One of the key distinctions between the organic and
the planned cities involve the speed at which cities change. The other key element is the scale of their
development. Organically growing cities develop much more slowly than those which are planned. It is because
their progress is dependent on self-growth. Cities which grow naturally are formed from a countless
individual decisions at a much smaller scale than those which lead to planned growth which invariably embody
the actions of somewhat larger agencies. It is evident that the cities could also be a resultant of power.
Planned cities or their parts are usually more monumental, more focused and more regular, reflecting the will
of one upon the many or, at best, reflecting the will of the majority through their elected representatives.
Organic change involves both growth and decline, while planned change is more asymmetric, frequently

THE CITY SHAPED

embodying growth but rarely dealing with decline. Thus in this sense, a more complete picture of urban
development is based on a background of natural or organic growth interwoven both in space and time by
planned development. Certain historic events like the Industrial revolution and the City beautiful movement
have also lead to the emergence of certain urban design aspects. In terms of the doctrine of visual and
statistical order, organic towns when viewed in plan form resemble cell growth, weaving in and out of the
landscape, following the terrain and other natural features. They represent the technology of movement
through main transport routes, like spider webs or tree-like forms focused on centers which usually are the
origins of growth. In contrast, planned towns display a geometry of straight lines and smooth curves, built on
a directness of movement which can only be imposed from above, embodying some sense of man's direct
control over nature through technology. The first evidence we have of highly ordered geometric forms is
associated with either very rapid physical development, such as in military camps, or with more monumental,
larger scale building related to the demonstration of political-religious-economic power within the city, such
as in palace and temple complexes. It is of interest that circular geometries are much less obvious and by
association, much less used in city building up to the middle ages. Circular forms in a sense represent a
natural bound for any city which is based on some central focus around which the major economic and
political activity takes place. In this sense, most cities when examined in terms of their boundaries and edges,
unless heavily constrained by physical features, are organized in some circular form, perhaps distorted along
transport routes into a star shape, about some central point, usually the origin of growth.

During the present century, there has been a distinct shift to geometries which combine perfect circles and
squares and smooth curves. There has also, in the last 50 years, been a major shift towards conceiving cities
in terms of ideal network geometries based on communications routes, largely road systems. Architects and
urban designers have showed more confidence in their quest to build the city of pure geometry, suggesting
larger and larger idealizations of the old ideas. In the late 19th century, more abstract conceptions of the ideal
city system based on social and economic ideas of utopia became important in movements such as the Garden
Cities (Howard, 1898). The geometry of the ideal town has been relaxed slightly during the 20th century; it is
more curvilinear, but still linear nonetheless. It is more organized around new transportation hubs and it is
more concerned with land uses and activities than with specific building shapes. However, these ideals are [ 54 ]
still largely visual in organization and intent, and rarely portray any sense of urban evolution which is so
important to the development of cities
WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESIGN
RESEARCH PAPER BY:
FORSYTH AND ANN ( 2015 HARVARD UNIVERSITY )

RESEARCH PAPER REVIEW BY AUTHORS

[ 55 ]
Walkability In Urban Design

A Research Paper Review ABSTRACT:

The main objectives of this research are:

In professional, research, and public
debates the term is used to refer to
Features
several quite different kinds of
This research at first aims to highligt the subsequent characterictics or notable phenomena. Some discussions focus
features of walkable environments such as: on environmental features or means
a. Traversable of making walkable environments,
b. Compact including areas being traversable,

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

c. Safe compact, physically-enticing, and
safe. Others deal with outcomes
Outcomes
potentially fostered by such
Another aim of this r e s e a r c h is to also focus on the outcomes environments, such as making places
walkable environments and how it affects our lives. lively, enhancing sustainable
a. Making places lively or socialable transportation options, and inducing
b. Enhancing sustainable transportation options. exercise.
c. Inducing exercise Hence the prime objective is to
analyze the true meaning of
Solutions
walkability in urban practice.
Walkability as a proxy to urban problems and highlights the solutions which it
proposes to various problems such as:
a. Lack of central city vibrancy
b. Traffic congestion
c. Environmental injustice
d. Social isolation

[ 56 ]
 APPROACH
In order to achieve the three main objectives; the research has also
been divided into three subsequent parts which are:

Nine key themes or dimensions have been defined through this research which are further
seggregated into two categories depending upon the features and outcomes of walkability:

Features

The First Set Of Definitions Focuses On Features:

1. Traversability

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

2. Compactness
3. Safety
4. Physical Enticing

Outcomes

The Second Set Of Definitions Focuses On Outcomes Of Walkability:

1. Lively Or Socialable
2. Sustainable Transport Options
3. Exercise Inducing

Finally, walkability of is often used as a kind of proxy for better design. These proxies involve compilations of
dimensions and very broad claims about outcomes.

Solutions

The Two Major Conclusie Definitions For Walkability Are:

1. Multi- Dimensional
2. Holistic Approach

[ 57 ]
IDENTIFYING WALAKABILITY
Why do we define walkability as a definition

We need to analyze and compare the various literature definitions of the term walkability because:

• Indeed, one of the motivations for this paper was a frustration that systematic reviews of the literature on
aspects of walkability often come up with a set of very mixed findings because the definitions of walkability
vary among studies.
• When practitioners, who may have yet another conceptualization of walkability, then try to apply the
findings to design and planning proposals, there are further problems. By mapping out the range of

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

definitions, this review can help provide a more specific language for future comparisons and proposals.
• Hence nine defininte themes and dimensions have been identified through this research in order to provide
a definite direction to practitioners and urban designers.

Related concepts:
Workable space as a concept is often misconfused with pedestrian oriented spaces but the difference here lies
in the following:

• The term pedestrian is likely to be defined in legislation while walkability is not. Pedestrians certainly
walk, but many regulations define the term more broadly to include people in wheelchairs and even, in
some cases, those standing and not moving

Fig 1: Image showing the approach of pedestrian Fig 2: Image showing the true approach of
movement walkable spaces [ 58 ]
IDENTIFYING WALAKABILITY
Confusion over walkability

A lot of confusion and doubts are often involved with the term walkability:
• Some of the confusion over walkability is due to the issue of purposes and motivations. Walking can be
done for many purposes such as transportation, exercise, and recreation.
• Further, each purpose may have a different underlying motivation. For example, exercise or recreational
walking may be done for stress reduction, increasing fitness, losing weight, getting out of the house,
meeting people, even to enjoy a beautiful place.

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

Strategies and factors:

• Many urban design theories implicitly assume physical features will make people want to walk. However,
the field of health has created a number of different theories of behavior change, many of which focus on
personal characteristics, individual behaviors, and social contexts, with the physical environment only
incidental.
• Hence to create “walkable” places, block and neighborhood designs are not enough in themselves but
cerain strategies and factors are also involved:

Strategies

1. Restricting parking
2. Educating motorist
3. Making driving expensive
4. Providing support to pedestrains

Factors

1. Income
2. Individual prefernce
3. Cultural values
4. Climate
[ 59 ]
GRID AND SUPERBLOCK

The two patterns of walkability:

These two patterns reflect the kind of planning and design for the walkable environmets:

• At the larger level of the neighborhood or city, two main clusters of approaches contend for dominance in
the area of physical community design
• On the one hand is the fine-grained multifunctional street pattern seen in compact city, New Urbanist,
Jane-Jacobs-inspired, mixed-use, transit-oriented approaches that cluster people and destinations close
together. This is typically in a grid or small block street pattern lined with sidewalks, but may take more

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

organic forms based on historic city patterns
• On the other side are the various forms of superblocks, where vehicular traffic is kept largely to the
outside, or moves through with difficulty, and pedestrians infiltrate the center.
• It is interesting that the grid/small block and superblock approaches emphasize some similar dimension
such as traffic safety, personal safety, and sociability and have both been touted as holistic solutions to
urban problems. However, their designs are quite different in how they mix people and cars and in their
emphasis on green space.Overall, a walkable place is a complex and contested phenomenon.

Fig 3: image showing the characteristics Fig 4: image showing the characteristics

of grid layout of superblock layout

[ 60 ]
GRID AND SUPERBLOCK

The two patterns of walkability:

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

1 3

2 4

Fig 5: images showing the grid and superblock layout where 1 and 2 represents grid and 3 and 4 represents
superblock pattern

1. With traditional footpath/sidewalk: Washington, DC, USA,

2. With shared street: Chiba, Japan
3. Low-density version: Stockholm, Sweden
4. High density version: Hong Kong

[61 ]
THE 9 THEMES
The first set of definitions focusing on features:
Traversability:
• Traversable environments have the basic physical conditions to allow people to get from one place to
another without major impediments, for example, relatively smooth paths.
• Walkability in this sense is about the very basic physical infrastructure to get from one place to
another—is there a continuous path with some reasonable surface and no major hazards

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

Fig 6: The traversbility factor Fig 7: The compactness factor

Compactness:
• Compact places provide short distances to destinations for those who are walking for utility.
• A related but slightly different definition of a place being walkable is that destinations are close enough
to get to in a reasonable time on foot. Thus the compact place—with a high density or proximity of
destinations and people—is a walkable place
• More popular discussions also feature the issue of proximity. For example, an Irish Times article on
“Making urban areas more walkable is a step towards fitness” paraphrases the words of a planner:
“One of the major reasons for this [lack of walking and cycling], he says, is because of the poor design
of pedestrian routes and the distances people have to travel to get to basic amenities such as schools,
parks, shops, bus stops and work” .

Physical enticing:
Physically-enticing environments have full pedestrian facilities such as sidewalks or paths, marked pedestrian
crossings, appropriate lighting and street furniture, useful signage, and street trees. They may also include
interesting architecture, pleasant views, and abundant services attractive to those who have other choices
for getting around and getting exercise.

[62 ]
The second set of definitions focusing on features:

Safety:

• Several different dimensions are key to places being safe for walking--perceived and actual crime and
perceived and actual traffic safety. Both are about potential harm to the person.
• While safety is intimately related to other features of the walkable environment, it deserves a section of
its own because the lack of safety is a key barrier to walking.
• Street design: Sidewalks and safe crossings are essential to walkability. Appropriate automobile speeds,
trees, and other features also help.
• Safety from crime and crashes: How much crime is in the neighborhood? How many traffic accidents are

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

there? Are streets well-lit?”

Concept Of Complete Streets:

• Complete Streets are streets for everyone. They are designed and operated to enable safe access for all
users. People of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across streets in a community,
regardless of how they are traveling. Complete Streets make it easy to cross the street, walk to shops,
and bicycle to work. They allow buses to run on time and make it safe for people to walk to and from train
stations” .

Fig 8: The safety factor Fig 8: The complete street factor

[63 ]
lively and socialable:

• A walkable environment is often attractive because it is lively and sociable--pleasant, clean, and full of
interesting people. Such definitions are much used in relation to shopping areas and mixed-use
neighborhoods.
• Walking for socializing or just to be out and about in a lively environment near other people has a long
history —for example, window shopping or promenading.
•
sustainable transportation options:

• In other cases, walkability is seen as a way to achieve both the environmental preservation and social

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

equity components of sustainable urban form providing sustainable transportation options. This both saves
energy and provides opportunities for those who can’t use cars because of age, income, or disability.
• “Walkable communities offer more transportation choices, higher levels of social interaction, greater
opportunities for physical activity, and reduced emissions from automobile travel.”

Fig 10: The sustainable transport options

Exercise inducing:

• Many search for an exercise-inducing environment with features that lead to higher than average levels of
walking either in total or for transportation or exercise.
• . In this work, the term walking may be used interchangeably with the term physical activity. However,
physical activity is obviously broader, including work-related tasks, recreation and sports, household work,
cycling, moving around in buildings, and the like.

[ 64 ]
THE FINAL APPROACH
Conclusively the two final definitions proposed here are:

Multi dimensional and measurable:

• “walkability is” focus on it being multidimensional and state that those dimensions are measurable
individually or combined into an index or indicator. Measuring walkability has become a thriving industry
among researchers, practitioners, and the wider public.
• “Walkability is a quantitative and qualitative measurement of how inviting or un-inviting an area is to
pedestrians”
• including sidewalk presence and maintenance, universal access, directness and connectivity, safety (at

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

grade crossings, traffic, buffering), land use, landscaping, aesthetics, and security (perceived and actual
crime).
Holistic approach:
• Finally, walkability can be a proxy for better environments that generate investment, are more
sustainable (in economic and social terms as well as environmental), and that are generally good places
to be.
• “Walkability is the cornerstone and key to an urban area's efficient ground transportation. Walkable
communities put urban environments back on a scale for sustainability of resources (both natural and
economic) and lead to more social interaction, physical fitness, diminished crime and other social
problems.

Fig 11: the conclusive approach

[ 65 ]
CASE EXAMPLES
The Chongae cannal South Korea:

The history of the river:

Originally the Cheonggyecheon river was a place for daily chores and celebration of traditions. It served a place
for social gathering that brought together the community As urbanization of the city and industrial developments
progressed, the stream was full of trash and waste.
Due to overpopulation, the poor settled in the area resulting in the disease, pollution, and mistreatment of the
Cheonggyecheon river. As a result, the river was covered with concrete in 1958 to prevent further degradation.
In 1976, an elevated freeway was completed paving the way for automobile transportation. Citizens soon believed

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

the highway symbolized the modernization of post-war Korea.

Fig 12: Image showing the very initial and earlier Fig 13: Image showing the flyover which was
situation of the area and the cheongycheon river constructed above the cannal

The issues faced:

1. Ecosystem and livelihood

• Urban ecosystems suffered degradation due to industrialisation and urbanisation, which lessened the
number of green spaces available for public recreation.
• Heavy monsoons also resulted in water clogging and floods related issues in the area.

[ 66 ]
2. Traffic movement and congestion

• In 2003, the large amounts of cars passing through the area daily, caused serious traffic and poor air
quality.
• The pedestrian movement and safety was also not properly regulated in the area.

3. Culture and heritage

• The developments taking place in the south side of Cheonggyecheon created an unequal balance of
social and economic growth
• The area was significantly loosing its cultural identity and heritage due to the lack of any cultural or

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

heritage promoting token in the area.

The features and impacts of the project:

1) Biodiversity

In addition to the place making qualities of the space, the project also provides economic and environmental
consequences. The project has allowed wind passage through the area thus decreasing air pollution by 36
percent; decreased heat island phenomenon of the area and increased local biodiversity.

2) Water levels

The design was guided by the water levels from hour to hour and season to season, while addressing the
catastrophic flooding that occurs during intense storms in the Monsoon season. The unique sloped and
stepped stone elements allow for a reading of the various levels of water while encouraging direct public
engagement with the river.

3) Culture and heritage

Regional stone quarried from each of the eight areas, eight source points of water and fiber-optic light
highlight this collaborative effort of reunification and restoration.

[ 67 ]
4) Cbd area or the commercial area

Today, the space encourages people to slow down and celebrate nature providing a setting for communities to
come together. It also reinvents how people use this space. In a city in dire need of public space, the ‘sunken
stone garden’ provides a gathering place, for residents and visitors alike, to redefine the space in inventive
ways especially during festivals and events.

5) Economic growth for market

Further the presence of this major tourist attraction helps in the economic growth and buisness of seoul folk
flea market.

6) Sewage an clogging

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

The ingenious design addresses the water quality by filtering storm water run-off through retention and
purifying system before letting it enter the waterway. Sewage is directed to separate sewage purification and
storage facility.

Conclusion:

Analysis of the project on the basis of the nine broad themes of walkability and thereby
analyzing the usability of the project:

Travesability :

The area is highly traversable as it offers all the basic amenities requirred for comfortable walking because it
has access to rudiment free and clear pedestrian pathways.

Compactness :

The region somewhat lacks the compactness factor as after the creation of the cannal the connecting highway
was destroyed which is why now commuters have to spent comparatively more time in reaching their
destinations as they did earlier.
[ 68 ]
Physical enticing :

The area is a very attractive location for the people and the tourist as along with providing a rich
interactive space to the people it also has certain very interesting and intriguing elements such as the
spring tower or candle light fountain which also increases the aesthetical factor hence making it physically
enticing thereby engaging the people and improving the walkability factor.

Safety :

The safety factor has indeed been kept in mind and the area along with having been equipped with street
lights also has been completely converted into an interactive usable urban space which experiences heavy

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

footfall on a daily basis so the area is never left isolated and unsafe.

Lively and socialable :

The area is ver lively and a highly interactive space which has not only improved the living conditions of the
space but has also accordingly helped in improving the economical growth and development of the region
because of the increased tourist attraction which now it faces.

Fig 14: Image showing the night view of the canal and thereby highlights its safety and
liveliness factor

[69]
Sustainable transport option:

The project on the basis of this category is also primarily ideal as people now do prefer walking over using the
the vehicles and this has also helped in the overall ecological development of the city.

Exercise induscing:

This is another very obvious and a very important factor because creation of this cannal has induced the
fitness factor in the residents of the city and the area has a large percent of its footfall dedicated to the
bicyclist and the joggers.

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

Fig 15: Image showing a view of the canal and thereby highlights it provides an
alternative to the people to walk rather than using the vehicles

Therefore :
Adding on a conclusive approach to the study; the region has indeed increased the walkability factor of the
region where keeping aside the compactness factor, this region has completely been designed and has
inculcated all the other important elements and features to make it a considerable and a substantial option
for a walkable space providing the pedestrians all the requirred amenities.

[ 70 ]
CASE EXAMPLES
The Hazratganj market Lucknow:

The history of the market:

• The credit to make this place into a city hub goes to the first nawab of Lucknow, Nawab Saadat Ali Khan. In
1810, he identified the place on the sugegestion of Claude Martin's words and started building structures in
European style.
• Gradually, in 1827, the then Nawab Nasiruddin Haider introduced the China Bazaar and Kaptaan Bazaar, which
were set up near the Buddha Park. Since the nawab was fond of imported products, these markets served

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

stuff from various countries such as China, Japan and Belgium. The foundation for the market was laid with
this.
• In 1842, a major changes was done and that was the change in the name of the place. The place was named
after Nawab of Oudh, Amjad Ali Shah, who was popularly known as 'Hazrat' by his alias.
• After the Britishers took charge post the First War of Independence in 1857, Hazratganj was modelled after
London's Queen Street. The hotels, bars, theatres, cinemas and dancing room all started to come up at that
time only.

The issues faced:

• Disposal of Waste on the Street of Hazratganj.

• Encroachment on footpath by vendors and illegal parking.
• Traffic jam during peak hours because of rules not are followed and point of congestion formed by
intersection of primary and secondary road.
• The illegal parking on the both sides of the Janpath market street.This also becomes the point of
congestion and results into the traffic jams. In the day time only two wheelers and pedestrians can only
pass from this street. No movement of 4 wheelers is possible at the day time.
• Street Light falls on because of poor Maintenance.

[ 71 ]
The features of the redevelopment project:

• In 2010, to celebrate 200 years of Hazratganj, the then government, started a programme for the makeover
of the area.
• The original makeover plan designed by country’s noted architect Nasir Munjee several years ago worked as
the base for the final plan that entailed an expense of Rs 30 crore.
• Hoardings from rooftops and encroachments on the road were removed.
• Buildings were painted in a uniform crème and pink, same size and colour signages, stone pavements and the
Victorian style balustrades, lamp posts, waste-bins, benches, an open air tiny amphitheatre and colourful
fountains were constructed.
• About 100 years old Fire Station was demolished and shifted to new place so as to build modern multi-level

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

parking which aims at solving parking problem

Fig 16: Image showing a view of the previous Fig 17: Image showing a view of the improved
condition of the area condition of the area

[ 72 ]
Conclusion:

Analysis of the project on the basis of the nine broad themes of walkability and thereby
analyzing the usability of the project:

Travesability :
The area is on the basis of traversability stands ideal as it offers the basic condition requirred for walking.
Compactness :
The region somewhat lacks the compactness factor as a major solution to the traffic congestion in the area was
to make the convert major supassing road to a one way traffic access and hence acts as a major drwaback
because the commuters devote more time to get back to their previous destination.
Physical enticing :

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

• The area although is an interactive space but slightly because of the congestion and choas which is very
often experienced by the area and also the lack of proper maintenance by the authorities has somewhat
affected its physically appealing factor despite of it being equipped with the necessary appealing features
which can is reflected through the following factors:
• The areas near the food joints like (Marksman, royal cafe, the experiment, sahu cinemas etc) are becoming a
dump yards .Dustbins cannot be easily identified and if found then these dustbins are mostly full. No time to
time maintenance is done by the authorities of the dustbins.
• The color of the lamp post, waste bins, benches, balustrades is not matching the heritage looks. These lamp
post and waste bins are not being maintained by the authorities.And the condition of the lamp post and
fountains are very poor and are even not working.
• The uniform creme and pink color theme is also not followed by shop owners. There is now no regular theme
being followed .Theme designed in 2010 for the black and white signage are also not being followed by the
different shop owners.

Fig 18: Image showing a view of the degraded Fig 19: Image showing a view of
conditions and improper garbage disposal the shop not following the theme
issues still prevailing the area of the design [ 73 ]
Conclusion:

Analysis of the project on the basis of the nine broad themes of walkability and thereby
analyzing the usability of the project:

Safety :
The safety factor has indeed been kept in mind and the area along with having been equipped with street lights
also has been completely converted into an interactive usable urban space which experiences heavy footfall on
a daily basis so the area is never left isolated and unsafe.
However the pedestrian movement is most often hindered by the unauthorized two wheeler parking on the
footpaths which increases the congestion nodes in the area.
Lively and socialable :

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

The area is indeed lively and interactive as people not only during the day but also at night visit here in their
leisure time to explore the rich heritage and culture of the city reflected in the traditional shops and cuisines
served.
Sustainable transport option:
Despite of the redevelopment project the area has scope for improvement in traffic management:
• There are certain nodes which are becoming the point of congestion because of its neighbouring land use
or streets around it. These nodes are becoming source and reason for the traffic jams.
• The Traffic jams occurs mostly in the office time. i.e. (in morning from 9:30 to 11:00 and in evening from
17:00 to 20:00) . There is no sufficient amount of persons for traffic management and traffic regulation.
• Parkings by the private persons are mostly full and a high amount of money is charged from the individual
.The multilevel parking and the parking by the government authority is not being used frequently by the
individuals because of the poor maintenance.
Exercise induscing:
This factor also seems to be missing in the area as the degraded conditions and lack of maintenance has been
responsible for not being able to inculcate that desire to walk in a large proportion of users and the people
eventually tend to prefer vehicles over walking and exploring the area

[ 74 ]
 Fig 20: image showing a view of the traffic congestion faced by the area

WALKABILITY IN URBAN DESGN

Fig 21: image showing how two wheelers are parked on the footpaths thereby hindering pedestrain movement

Therefore :
The redevelopment project which aimd at improving the overall urban factor of the area has not been so
sincerely successful in achieving it and hence it is the reason why the walkability factor of the area is good
but poses certain objections and issues which have to be tackled further.

[ 75]
THE URBAN DESIGN CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY - I
THE CHONGAE CANAL
A RESTORATION PROJECT

BY AUTHORS

[ 76 ]
INTRODUCTION
An Overview Of The Study
ABSTRACT:

The study primarily highlights these specific points:

the Cheongycheon river re-
development project is one of the
The Chongae canal, flowing through Seoul, played a key role in the city’s pre-
ideal and a highly recognized project
industrial development. However, with the population swell, it soon became a
of south korea in this century and
dumping ground for industrial waste and raw sewage.
hence it simply highlights how a river
In an attempt to mask sanitation and flooding problems, the city entombed the canal
can have a significant impact on the
under culverts and concrete pipes and further constructing an elevated highway on
urban scenario of a country.

CHONGAE CANNAL SOUTH KOREA

top of it.
This study highlights how the issues
But soon as the time passed this immediate solution posed many problems for the
which were earlier posed by the
residents of the city which then immediately called for the need to start with a new
dilapidatd condition of the river were
development project which focused on the revival of the Cheongecheon river.
tackled by certain very simple and
requirred measures. And these
History of the river
measures also collectively helped

Originally the Cheonggyecheon river was a place for daily chores and celebration restore the central vibrancy of the

of traditions. It served a place for social gathering that brought together the city.

community As urbanization of the city and industrial developments progressed, the

stream was full of trash and waste.
Due to overpopulation, the poor settled in the area resulting in the disease,
pollution, and mistreatment of the Cheonggyecheon river. As a result, the river was
covered with concrete in 1958 to prevent further degradation. In 1976, an elevated
freeway was completed paving the way for automobile transportation. Citizens
soon believed the highway symbolized the modernization of post-war Korea.

[ 77 ]
ISUES FACED BY THE REGION

Following are the issues faced by the region:

1. Ecosystem and livelihood

• Urban ecosystems suffered degradation due to industrialisation and urbanisation, which lessened the
number of green spaces available for public recreation.
• Heavy monsoons also resulted in water clogging and floods related issues in the area.

2. Traffic movement and congestion

CHONGAE CANNAL SOUTH KOREA

• In 2003, the large amounts of cars passing through the area daily, caused serious traffic and poor air
quality.
• The pedestrian movement and safety was also not properly regulated in the area.

3. Culture and heritage

• The developments taking place in the south side of Cheonggyecheon created an unequal balance of social
and economic growth
• The area was significantly loosing its cultural identity and heritage due to the lack of any cultural or
heritage promoting token in the area.

Fig 1: Image showing the flyover which was constructed above the cannal [ 78 ]
INITIALIZATION OF THE PROJECT

The comprehensive approach of the project included these aspects:

The initial thought

• Cheonggyecheon is an 8.4 km (5.2 mi) stream flowing west to east through downtown Seoul, and then
meeting Jungnangcheon, which connects to the Han River and empties into the Yellow Sea.

• Seoul’s Metropolitan Government then decided to restore the river. The intention behind their actions was to
recover the flow of the river, reintroduce biodiversity back to the area, and develop a space for interaction

CHONGAE CANNAL SOUTH KOREA

with nature.

• The Seoul Metropolitan Government decided to launch a campaign in 2003, in consonance with the new vision
of sustainability of the city. The first step of the proposal by Mikyoung Kim was removing the four miles of
elevated highway and creating a park, the ‘Sunken Stone Garden’, to reinvent this space as a vibrant
cityscape and connecting the people to this historic waterway in the process.

Fig 2: Image showing the Central buisness district of Fig 3: Image highlights the land use pattern of
Seoul is the country's heart and soul and longest- the area.
serving business districts and also the major Commercial
Religious
shopping areas of Seoul.
Institutional

[ 79 ]
 MIKYOUNG KIM
ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Following are the certain highlights of the architect:

• Mikyoung Kim, is a landscape architect, urban designer, and founding

CHONGAE CANNAL SOUTH KOREA

principal of Mikyoung Kim Design and Professor Emerita at the Rhode

Island School of Design.
• Mikyoung Kim was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Korean parents.She
graduated with a BS in Sculpture/Art History in 1989.
• She subsequently studied landscape architecture at Harvard Graduate
School of Design, graduating in 1992.
• She is the recipient of the Smithsonian Museum Cooper Hewitt Design
Award, the American Society of Landscape Architects Design Medal and
her firm was named in 2019 by Fast Company as one of the world's most
innovative businesses.
• Her work is featured in the Smithsonian Museum American Voices
Collection.
• In 2019 she was appointed by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as
Commissioner of the Boston Civic Design Commission.

[ 80 ]
DESCRIBING THE PROJECT

A brief overview of the approach:

• The ChonGae Canal Restoration Project is an ambitious redevelopment initiative that transformed the
urban fabric of Seoul, Korea.
• Requirement was to highlight the future reunification of North and South Korea. The project symbolizes
this political effort through the use of donated local stone from each of the eight provinces of North and
South Korea.
• The ChonGae River Restoration Project is located at the important source point of this seven-mile green
corridor that begins in the central business and commercial district of the city. The goal was to restore

CHONGAE CANNAL SOUTH KOREA

this highly polluted and covered water-way with the demolition of nearly four miles of at grade and
elevated highway infrastructure that divided the city.

Major hurdles for the project:

• Initially the project was resisted by the local shopkeepers and the community who wanted to preserve its
historic properties. However, the City Hall provided an alternative by opening up a flea market on the
grounds of an old school for the displaced shopkeepers.
• The Seoul Folk Flea Market also known as the Pungmul Flea Market (Pungmul means “regional specialties”
in Korean) now plays a large role in preserving the traditional Korean marketplace as the unique Korean
charm of its folk items draw visitors from all around. The people victimized by the authoritarian creative
urban development became active participants in extending the creative and cultural economy.

Important features of the project:

1) Spring Tower
• “Spring” is a sculpture by Swedish pop artist, Claes Oldenburg and serves as a striking backdrop for the
wide variety of cultural events held at theplaza.
2) Dongdaemun Design Plaza
• It comprise of a park, a fashion plaza, an underground mall, and display of a number of restored items of
national heritage.Organizers aim to make Dongdaemun the fashion hub of South Korea and possibly the
[ 81 ]
entire Asia-Pacific region.
 3) Candle light fountain
• The Candlelight Fountain is a 4 m long, two-layered waterfall that flows into the stream, and marks the
start of Cheonggyecheon’s flowing current towards the Hangang. Candlelight Fountain is particularly
stunning at night with its multi-colored illuminations.

Fig 4: Image of the spring tower in south Fig 5: Candle light fountain

CHONGAE CANNAL SOUTH KOREA

korea

Impacts of the project:

1) Biodiversity

In addition to the place making qualities of the space, the project also provides economic and environmental
consequences. The project has allowed wind passage through the area thus decreasing air pollution by 36
percent; decreased heat island phenomenon of the area and increased local biodiversity.

2) Water levels

The design was guided by the water levels from hour to hour and season to season, while addressing the
catastrophic flooding that occurs during intense storms in the Monsoon season. The unique sloped and stepped
stone elements allow for a reading of the various levels of water while encouraging direct public engagement
with the river.

3) Culture and heritage

Regional stone quarried from each of the eight areas, eight source points of water and fiber-optic light
highlight this collaborative effort of reunification and restoration.

[ 82 ]
4) Cbd area or the Commercial area
Today, the space encourages people to slow down and celebrate nature providing a setting for communities to
come together. It also reinvents how people use this space. In a city in dire need of public space, the ‘Sunken
Stone Garden’ provides a gathering place, for residents and visitors alike, to redefine the space in inventive
ways especially during festivals and events.
5) Economic growth for market
Further the presence of this major tourist attraction helps in the economic growth and buisness of seoul folk
flea market.
6) Sewage an clogging
The ingenious design addresses the water quality by filtering storm water run-off through retention and
purifying system before letting it enter the waterway. Sewage is directed to separate sewage purification and
storage facility

CHONGAE CANNAL SOUTH KOREA

Fig 6: Image showing the water levels of the Fig 7: The position and names of the
chongae cannal stones quarried from the seven provinces

6 5

1 4

[ 83 ]
Fig 8: Image showing the position of the chongae cannal and the immediate context
CASE STUDY - II
CHANDNI CHOWK
A REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT

BY AUTHORS

[ 84 ]
INTRODUCTION
An Overview Of The Study ABSTRACT:
The objectives of this project are to:
• Historically, every city started as a small agglomeration along or around a
1.Infuse life into the walled city
water body and over the years it grew in size and value, into a unique
2.To use the heritage, crafts and
settlement, rich with stories and culture. The evolution of Delhi is similar. What
culinary experiences of
is different however, is that based on evidence found, it is not one, but seven
Shahjahanabad to make it a global
historic cities, that have merged to finally form the megalopolis that we now
tourist destination
know as Delhi.
3.Improve the quality of public
• “SHAHJAHANABAD” is one such city of Delhi which withstood the test of
spaces.
time and development. Till date, it holds a diverse population and a pulsating
At the same time developing open
economy within its walls. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan laid the
public spaces, creating windows for
foundation of this city in 1639, thereby founding the Seventh city of Delhi.

CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

revenue generation and enhancing
• With the British Siege, “Shahjahanabad” became the “Old City” of Delhi and
services was also looked into, so as to
the focus shifted to newer settlements further southwest. A shift of land use
facilitate and ease a person’s visit to
from predominantly residential to trade and commerce can be observed,
the area, as well as improve the
establishing Old Delhi as one of Asia’s largest wholesale markets.
quality of space for its residents.
Recommendations were proposed to
History of Chandni Chowk create a sense of ownership and
pride amongst all stakeholders, while
• Chandni Chowk was the dominant axis of the Walled City, it ran through the
increasing the financial and
middle of the walled city, from the Lahori Gate of the Red Fort to Fatehpuri
experiential value of the city
Masjid.The original Chandni Chowk had octagonal chowks with a water
channel running through the centre. Its wide boulevard with prestigious
buildings and bazar created a vista between the magnificent Red Fort and
Fatehpuri Mosque.
• Chandni Chowk thus has access to the most congested yet the most
significant markets which includes:
• Dariba kalan, Ballimaran, Kinari Bazar or the Gali Bhojpura.
[ 85 ]
 Fig 9: Image showing the various important and significant areas of the market

ISSUES ON THE SITE

CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

Describing the issues faced by the stretch from Fatehpuri Masjid to
Red fort:
Chandni Chowk at present, gives a distinct image of itself which varies across generations. For an average
Delhite, this distinct image comprises mosques, temples, bazaars, havelis, katras, maze of narrow by-lanes.

Evolving over centuries, the area tells many stories. In today’s times, the story being narrated is of
negligence and an existing mess of choked market movement, intense commerce, a maze of dark, narrow
alleyways and a great tangle of billboards and electric cables; these give identity to this area.

5
3
1
2
6

8 4

Fig 10: Image showing the stretch of Chandni Chowk from the Fatehpuri Masjid to Red fort
[ 86 ]
Following are the issues faced by the region:

1. Parking

Irregular on-street parking of both commercial and private vehicles due to non-demarcated spaces lead to
heavy encroachment of ROW in this area.

2. Row enchroachment

Inadequate walking space & encroachment of row makes it unusable and congested for the pedestrians in the
area.

3. Infrastructure deterioration
The area is plagued with problems of infrastructure deterioration and unauthorized construction.
Dilapidated housing conditions and conversion of residential premises to nonresidential uses is another issue
posessed by the area.

4.Movement of buses

CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

Buses ply on this road but lack of bus stops is a hindrance for connectivity, but the encroachment of row’s
makes it dificult to provide space for them.

5. Cul-de-sacs and narrow lanes

Much of the dependence for connectivity between the built forms is through narrow bylanes which are
insuficient in catering to larger footfall witnessed by the area due to its commercial nature. Vehicular
movement gets restricted due to cul-de-sacs and narrow road widths of the bylanes
6. Transmission lines

Dangerous exposed mess of electric wire that almost touched the heads of the pedestrians.

[ 87 ]
 PRADEEP SACHDEVA
ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Following are the certain highlights of the architect:

• Pradeep Sachdeva has extensive expertise in designing public

spaces, urban renewal of heritage precincts and hotels.
• The practice is known for its contextual and sensitive
development of projects.He studied architecture at IIT Roorkee.
CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

• Apart from leading the design practice he is actively engaged

with the city on various policy matters.
• Responsible for pioneering work in the planning of public spaces
and the design of streets. This includes designing well integrated
urban environments that apart from functioning as
transportation corridors are also amenity-rich public spaces
with facilities for improved walkability, street-vendors, non-
motorised vehicles and the disabled.
• Some of the better known projects in the public realm include
Dilli haat, development of the Godavari riverfront as well as
streets in the city of nanded, redevelopment plan for the jama
masjid area in delhi, the bamboo dome for the india pavilion at
Shanghai expo 2010 etc.

[ 88 ]
DESCRIBING THE PROJECT
THE IMPORTANT FEATURES

Following are the important features of the project:

1. Defined hawker spaces

Designated hawker areas to accommodate the current activities and to prevent their encroachment on the
pedestrian and vehicle areas

2. Vehicular movement

•Appropriate locations and designs of bus stops

•Para transport stands for auto rickshaws, cycle rickshaws etc.
•Improved junctions for safety and efficient traffic flow

CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

3. Improved public amenities
•Improved street lighting
•Better public amenities - toilets, dust bins, garbage collectors etc.

4.Lane seggregation

Segregation of NMV lanes from the MV traffic.

5. Pedestrianization

• Wider footpaths to make the space comfortable for the very large numbers of pedestrians

• Designated space for an avenue of trees

6. Transmission lines

The transmission line or electric lines have been taken underground.

[ 89 ]
DESCRIBING THE PROJECT
The important section and components of the projects:

CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

Fig 11: Image showing the section of the street

Location of street components on the median

Fig 12: Image showing the first pahse of the median provided with the requirred
facilities [ 90 ]
Fig 13: Image showing the second pahse of the median provided with the requirred
facilities

CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

Fig 14: Image showing the third pahse of the median provided with the requirred
facilities

Fig 15: Image showing the fourth pahse of the median provided with the requirred
facilities
[ 91 ]
IMPACTS OF THE PROJECT
A brief overview:

Following are the important impacts of the project on the site

• While pedestrians are seen happily strolling in the redesigned Chandni Chowk, shopkeepers share mixed
reactions.
• Primarily the shopkeepers and their customers are facing certain issues which have been caused by
pedestrianizing the road.
• Since the road has been entirely pedestrianized hence vehicles are allowed only between 9 am to 9pm
and, most shops in this market are wholesalers, who will have to unload, are compelled to
use galiwalas (coolies) to bring supplies from one of the main roads. That is both inconvenient and costly.
• Their customers who are retailers and buy in bulk too have to spend more to carry their purchase to
their car or tempo.

CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

• And it is not just the shopkeepers who have complaints. Another major issues which was also pointed out
by the BJP leader Vijay Goel is that the redevelopment is only for the 1.3 kms of the road but without
developing the whole of the old city, there is no use developing just one road, Chandni Chowk.
• A concern here is that pedestrianizing just one road puts a major traffic stress and burden in other
streets, mohallas and gallis of the market.

Fig 16: Image showing the earlier condition of Fig 17: Image highlighting the present
the area condition of the area

[ 92 ]
CONCLUSION
• The restroration project has collectively contributed towards the overall development of the areas in
different ways with a common approach of public realm from a pedestrian space to a walkable space ,
• Both the the projects focus on different themes or dimensions of walkability, such as making it a
travesable or physically enticing space , lively and socaiability are the outcomes of this walkable space.
Providing a holistic solution , a multidimensional approach has been initiated which defines the indication
of livability and development at these respective projects.

CHANDNI CHOWK DELHI

Fig 18: Image showing the of the before and after comparison of the chongae canal

Fig 19: Image showing the earlier condition of Fig 20: image highlighting the present
the area condition of the area

[ 93 ]
MORPHOLOGICAL MAPS
BY AUTHORS

[ 94 ]
NOLLI’S MAP
A two-dimensional plan drawing used to understand and document the accessibility and flow of
space within a city.

Objective:

The main objective of Nolli’s map is that a city can be experienced as a series of spaces, rather than a series
of objects and hence highlights the relation between open and built spaces and understands how a built space
might interact with the existing fabric of the neighbourhood, particularly in terms of the mass, proportions
and edge conditions. Hence white here represents the built spaces and black represents the open spaces.

MORPHOLOGICAL MAPS

[ 95 ]
Fig 1: image showing the Nolli’s Map
FIGURE GROUND MAP
A drawing which uses contrast to show the relationships between positive and negative spaces, solids and
voids, or shadows and light.

Objective :
• Figure (positive spaces) are solids, the things which have a physical presence in space: buildings, walls,
chairs and tables.
• Ground (negative spaces) are the spaces around the figures: the air in the room, the gaps between
neighbouring buildings, the open streets and parks of the city.
• A figure ground diagram represents the relationship between built and unbuilt space wherein white
represents unbuilt space while black represents the built space.

MORPHOLOGICAL MAPS

[ 96 ]
Fig 2: image showing the Figure-ground Map
BUILT-USE MAP
A drawing which highlights the intensity of development and the range of different uses which a particular built-
up structure possess.

Objective :
• The balance of open space to built form, and the nature and extent of subdividing an area into smaller
parcels or blocks.
• It takes into consideration the hierarchy of street types, the physical linkages and movement between
locations, and modes of transport.
• The intensity of development and the range of different uses (such as residential, commercial, institutional
or recreational uses).

MORPHOLOGICAL MAPS

[ 97 ]
Fig 3: image showing the Built-use Map
BUILT-USE MAP
Following are the various aspects covered under the built-use map:

Residential :
• The residential category is to incluse the residential apartments or the housing areas along with other
accomodation spaces such as the hostels or the hotels.

Mixed :

• The mixed category involves those spaces which incorporates mixed uses such as the residential cum
commercial spaces.
• A common example to site for the same can be the shops operating with the residential areas.

MORPHOLOGICAL MAPS
Commercial :
• The commecial category aims to point out the mercantile or the buisness related areas or the areas which
primarily operate for revenue genration.
• Examples of this category includes the shopping complexes, markets etc.

Public and semi public :

• This category includes all publicly accessible areas which serve as a source of an important ammenity for
the citizens and hence includes major portions of the social infrastructure of a city such as schools,
colleges,banks and hospitals etc.

Public infrastructure :

• This category includes the basic ammenities or services which are requirred in every region to meet up
the demands and the needs of the citizens.
• This category includes structures such as the overhead tanks, treatment plants etc.

Public parks:

• This category simply includes all the open and green spaces which can be accssed by the citizens for
sppending leisure time and are major sources of interaction spaces in any areas.
• This category thus includes all the public parks, open patches etc.

[ 98 ]
BUILT-HEIGHT MAP
A drawing which highlights or specifies The scale of buildings in relation to height and floor area.

Objective :

• The scale of buildings in relation to height and floor area, and how they relate to surrounding land forms,
buildings and streets.
• It also incorporates building envelope, site coverage and solar orientation.
• Height and massing create the sense of openness or enclosure, and affect the amenity of streets, spaces
and other buildings.

MORPHOLOGICAL MAPS

[ 99 ]
Fig 4: image showing the Built-height Map
CHANDIGARH MASTER PLAN 2031

STUDY OF THE MASTERPLAN 2031

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

REVIEW BY AUTHORS

[ 100 ]
Preamble

A General Oerview ABSTRACT:

The beginning Chandigarh is a

city, district and union territory in
• After the partition of India and Pakistan, the then government of India decided
India that serves as the capital of the
to built the new capital for the state of Punjab as the state lost its capital city
two neighbouring states
Lahore to Pakistan after partition.
of Punjab and Haryana.
• The first team of architects engaged for planning and designing the city was
Chandigarh being developed on the
lead by American planner Albert Mayer and architect Mathew Nowicki.
orders of the first Prime Minister of

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

• However Due to the sudden demise of architect Mathew Nowicki in an air
India to act as the new capital city of
crash, second team of architects lead by Le Corbusier ,Pierre Jeanneret,
punjab after Lahore has been
Jane B Drew and Maxwell Fry took over.
designed by Le Corbusier.
The city got its name inspired from
The original plan
the Chandi devi hindu goddess and
the garh fortress. It acts as a symbol
• The original plan was divided into a grid of 30 sectors with the Capitol
of post independent India’s step
Complex as well as the Civic Centre its focal points.
towards development and
• The First Phase or the first 30 sectors were designed for 150,000 in low rise
advancement.
plotted development.
• Phase Two from sector 31 to 47 for the remaining targeted 350,000 was with
4-storeyed apartments for government employees with an increase in the
ratio of smaller plots/lesser open areas / nearly 4 times increase in density.
• Phase III comprises of ‘Group Housing Schemes’ and four storeyed flats built
by the Chandigarh Housing Board and cooperative house building societies
instead of plots resulting in higher densities.

[ 101 ]
TRACING BACK TO THE ROOTS
The different steps or the events which marks the notable history of the city

1952
Creation of an 8 km radius agricultural belt in the periphery of Chandigarh through the PERIPHERY CONTROL
ACT, 1952

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 1: image showing the creation of 8km periphery

1962
Establishment of the Army Cantonment, Air Force Station and, the township of Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT)
with their offices and other facilities. Extension of the Periphery Control Area to a 16 km radius

Fig 2: image showing the creation of 16km periphery

[ 102 ]
1966
Reorganisation of the State of Punjab into States of Haryana & Punjab with Chandigarh functioning as the
State Capital of both. Creation of the Union Territory of Chandigarh in 70 sq km as Capital City and 26
adjoining villages in 44 sq km

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 3: image showing the distribution of areas between Punjab,Haryana and Chandigarh

Fig 4: Image showing the Establishment of Mohali township of Punjab in periphery

covering 5500 acres and, Panchkula township of Haryana covering 5000 acres.

[ 103 ]
GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR THE MASTER PLAN

The basic and notable features which have eventually contributed in the making of the chandigarh master plan
2031 are:

Keeping in mind of the historical legacy and the geographical conditions of the city where Chandigarh lies near
the foothills of the Shivalik ranges; the plannning has been done on a total area of 144 sq km with 60 sectors
and periphery areas around it.
Therefore the major guiding principles included:
• Chandigarh shall be planned in the context of the region emerging as a result of dedicated efforts of
Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh which surround the city.
• Hence the development of chandigarh correlates with the development of the neighbouring states.

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

• Moreover another major thought behind its development included the efforts to retain the substantial
identity of the neighbouring villages which were precisely located in the peripheral areas of Chandigarh.
• Development of an integrated metroplan to connect the main city with the sub-regional areas of Punjab
and Haryana and thereby establishing an integrated transport and infrastructure policy.
• Public open spaces shall be created as vibrant community spaces and the left out monuments envisaged
by Le Corbusier shall be completed. Urban design shall be the guiding principle for improving the quality of
inner and outer spaces.
• To make the city more green, more eco friendly, more people friendly, more walking and biking friendly.
Mechanism of creating city forests shall be used for improving the micro environment and flora and fauna
in the city.
• Due regard shall be given to preserve the bountiful natural heritage of forests, wild life sanctuary, green
spaces and water bodies within and around.
Sustainable development
• Inclusion of Climate change and sustainable development measures
• Improving the degrading ecology of the northern lower himalayan shivaliks
• Addressing green agenda vs real estate issues.
• Promoting tourism alon with ecological wellness in the area.
• Addressing the issues of a bipolar city along with maintaining the infrastructure services such as the
storm water drainage,water supply and waste management etc.
[ 104 ]
APPROACH TO MASTER PLAN PREPARATION
The Approach and process for Master Plan preparation focuses on the;
• Analysis of the city’s current situation
• Vision for future development
• Strategies for development
• Guidelines for plan monitoring

CHANDIGARH VISION

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

• Chandigarh Capital City poised to develop as an administrative city and protect, retain, enhance its Green
City character and conserve its architectural & planning idiom, whilst striving to reduce spatial socio-
economic disparities. The capital city can become a Knowledge Center on new frontiers for generating
employment opportunities and become an Education/Health Care Hub with good facilities for sports.
• The city shall continue to facilitate, promote and enhance the capital functionsfor which it was originally
designed. Considering the ecological footprint and climate change reality, this capital city can be a torch
bearer in eco friendly state of art technologies.
• Synergizing development for shared responsibilities in management of critical infrastructure - Solid Waste
Management (SWM)/ Water Supply (WS)/ transport/ drainage/ roads etc.) alongwith “Housing for all”
while maintaining a low to medium density profile shall be the agenda of the city. The city shall continue to
nourish itself through its green spaces and pedestrian friendly development encouraging the use of
bicycle. “Public transport shall be encouraged as preferred mode” with the adoption of an appropriate
‘City Mobility Plan’ complementary to the Chandigarh Master Plan-2031.

[ 105 ]
REGIONAL CONTEXT
• After studying the growth strategies of Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana one can easily identify the
interdependence of the three on each other.
• Chandigarh became a mother city for fulfilling social infrastructure needs at regional level. As the
maximum population residing in neighbouring towns and villages depends on Chandigarh for bigger
markets, better education dependable healthcare.

CONSOLIDATED VIEW OF THE PERIPHERY

• . Effects of this demand are felt strongly in the transport sector resulting in congestion on some arterial

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

roads specially at peak times. Floating population and daytime visitors also make demands on water supply
and sanitation. These critically affect the day to day problems related to infrastructure.
• The CMP 2031 expects a symbiotic relationship with the regional urban areas. It expects that the three
partners in development, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh UT, should have an understanding and
coordination between themselves.
• . A sensitive and coordinated development is required to safeguard the regions natural and man made
heritage.
• The current Chandigarh Master Plan 2031 alongwith the GMADA Plan 2056 and the Haryana Development
Plan should together arrive at a METROPOLITAN PLAN for the perspective year 2031..
• The area distribution in the periphery is as under:
a) Chandigarh 44 sqkm (3.23%)
b) Haryana 295 sqkm (21.70%)
c) Punjab 1021 sqkm (75.07%)
d) Total 1360 sqkm (100%)
• The integrated elements of the three independent Plans, (called the “METROPOLITAN PLAN”) which should
collectively form a “Public Transport Strategy” mutually agreeable to all.

[ 106 ]
 CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031
Fig 5: Image showing the area distribution of Chandigarh and the peripheral areas

ISSUES OF COMMONALITY WITH NEIGHBOURING

STATES
• Need for a Comprehensive Plan for Environmental Protection
• Protection of forest cover in the Shivalik Hills and other such natural areas .
• Protection of water bodies and seasonal rivulets against water pollution and waste disposal .
• Facilities and services to provide for collection, treatment, disposal of sewage and other chemical and
municipal wastes of the community.
• Planning against pollution, avoiding new problems in the future in the course of development and
redevelopment.
• Legislating for effective controlsto be placed for pollution.
• Air Control Zones
• Noise Control Ordinance
• Road Traffic and Exhaust Emission Standards

[ 107 ]
PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHANDIGARH

The CMP 2031 has projected a population of 16,00,000 persons. Of these, nearly 6,16,031 are expected to be
contained within the existing 47 sectors within Phase I and II; these constitute 38% of the total projected
population. ⁻ Remaining 9,60,000 persons (60%) are expected to be housed partially in the Sectoral grids of
48 to 56 as well as parts of Sectors 61 and 63, and partially in the remaining Periphery in 17 designated
pockets. ⁻ The quality of these neighborhoods shall imply a much higher density (averaging at nearly 175
persons per acre) than the sector neighborhoods of both phases and special measures shall have to be taken
to ensure the availability of adequate physical and social infrastructure at par with the rest of the city.

The Master Plan recognizes that land available with the UT in the Periphery has to be judiciously utilised to

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

enable the sustainable development of the city. ⁻ Chandigarh shall have to strategize on imposing a severe
limitation to locating large scale industries , high bulk material stores requiring heavy freight containers etc
for transportation on the fragile and limited land resource available

[ 108 ]
 LOCATION, EXTENT AND PHYSIOGRAPHY

LOCATION:

The Union Territory of Chandigarh is located near the foothills of the Shivalik Range in the north-western
region of the country and lies between 30 degree 39’ N and 30 degree 49’ N latitude and 75 degree 41’ E and
76 degree 51’ E longitude

TEMPERATURE:

. The annual temperature varies between 1 degree c to 45 degree c.

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

RAINFALL:

The average annual rainfall ranges between 700-1200 mm

RAINFALL:

Winds are generally light and blow from North West to South East direction.

SEISMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SITE

• Chandigarh lies in Zone-IV of the Seismic Zonation Map (2002) of India. The Union Territory is located on
Indo-Gangetic Alluvium, very near to the active tectonic zone.
• As per the studies of geological survey of India:
1. The seismic tectonic status of the area reveals that Chandigarh is broadly associated with seismic
intensity of VIII on MSK scale and has been categorized in High Hazard Zone.
2. The predominant frequency map suggests that taller structures, particularly of 10 or higher storeys, would
experience much greater resonance and, therefore, are likely to have maximum damage under the
influence of large earthquakes.
[ 109 ]
SUKHNA LAKE

• Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh having an area of 3 sq km India is an artificial lake at the foothills of the
Himalayas, the Shivalik Hills and forms part of the Capitol Parc designed by Le Corbusier. This rainfed lake
was created in 1958 by damming the Sukhna Choe, a seasonal stream coming down from the Shivalik Hills
and was a gift to Chandigarh citizens for enjoyment of peace and tranquillity. The area was declared as a
‘Silence Zone’ in 2002 .

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 6 : image showing the backdrop of sukhna Fig 7 : image showing the entry to the lake
lake

HOLISTIC APPROACH TO DESIGN

A holistic approach was adopted for the planning of Chandigarh which combined with the farsightedness,
vision and enthusiasm of the leaders have together contributed to the making of a city a social organism and a
work of art. These interactive-interdependent disciplines are:
• Urban Design
• Architecture
• Planning
• Visionaries Of Original Plan
• Art
• Landscaping

[ 110 }
THE ORIGINAL CHANDIGARH PLAN : PLANNING

• Le Corbusier conceived the Master Plan of Chandigarh as analogous to Human Body in terms of Head (the
Capitol Complex, Sector 1), Heart (the City Centre, Sector 17), Lungs (the Leisure Valley, innumerable open
spaces, and sector-greens), the Intellect (the cultural and educational institutions), the Circulatory System
(the network of roads, the 7Vs) and the Industrial Area.

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

LIVING

WORKING

MIND BODY + SPIRIT

Fig 8 : image showing the four major connections based on CIAM theories

• Working Areas – The Capitol Complex Sector 17,

• commercial belts along Jan Marg, Madhya Marg, Himalaya Marg , Udyog Path, Dakshin Marg.
• Living - the Sectors
• Care of body and spirit – Leisure Valley, Sukhna Lake, parks, green belts, cultural belts and the educational
belts
• Circulation – the 7v network of roads on a modular grid iron pattern .

[ 111 ]
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE CHANDIGARH PLAN

• Sector size - 800m x 1200 m determined by maximum 10 minute walking distance from facilities.
• Introvert planning with sealing walls along main roads so as not to be disturbed by the fast vehicular
traffic outside.

Emphasis on family life and community living :

• Schools along green belts safe for children, dispensaries, shopping, community centres, centrally located
in 10 minutes walk and bus stops on main road within walking distance.
• Parks within 300m

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

• Meandering profile of the V4/V5 to enable slow carriageways Comfortable vehicular and pedestrian
accessright to the doorstep of the house Inter-sectoral connectivity along NS green belts.

[ 112 ]
Fig 9 : image showing the sector size by walking distance
THE PLANNING CONCEPTS
The green city concept
• Planned as a Green City with abundance of open spaces, Chandigarh ensures that every dwelling has its
adequate share of three elements of Sun, Space and Verdure.

Hierarchical distribution of population

Hierarchical distribution of population with the density lowest in the northern sectors and gradually increasing
towards the southern sectors.

Pure landuse planning

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

keeping in mind of the different kind of activities accordingly areas have been alloted for
residential,commercial,industrial and institutional purposes.
However, the residential sectors were planned to include all infrastructure, facilities and amenities
subservient/supporting human living involving health care, education, shopping, recreation, open spaces etc.
Industries were located on eastern side of the city segregated by 500’ green belt from the residential area in
order to protect the residential areas from industrial noise etc

Concept of 7v’s
A well-defined hierarchy of Circulation based on Le Corbusier’s V7s road-system was designed. The features of
this concept included:
• V1- Fast roads connecting Chandigarh to other towns
• V2- Arterial roads
• V3- Fast vehicular roads around the sectors
• V4- Meandering shopping streets
• V5- Sector circulation roads
• V6- Access roads to houses
• V7- Footpaths, cycle tracks
• Buses will ply only on V1, V2, V3 and V4 roads. A wall shall seal the V3 roads from the sectors.

[ 113 ]
THE CONCEPT OF 7 V ‘s

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 10 : Map showing the road network of Chandigarh [ 114 ]
URBAN DESIGN: SALIENT CONCEPTS
The creation of a city as a social organism and work of art involves the use of three main disciplines which
collectively contributes towards urban design and are:
• Town plan
• Architecture
• Landscape

Chandigarh stands apart from other cities by virtue of its order, and harmony of the Built-Environment with
rich Landscape, Design and thus includes the following features:

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

• Plan in consonance with nature’s magnificent backdrop.
• Orientation of the major roads directed to enable an uninterrupted view of the Shivalik Hills.
• Location of the Capitol Complex at the highest point of the city-site on the foothills.
• Low-rise, low-density development in the first phase of the city.
• Green City concept based on the planning postulates of Sun, Space, and Verdure.
• Urban legislations for harmonious development of the Built- Environment.
• Mechanism to regulate the city’s urban form is an extensive range of architectural controls, zoning,
building rules, etc. These devices have resulted in a very distinct and harmonious picture.

Fig 11 : image refling the green concept Fig 12 : image showing the use of green concept which
implements the postulates of sun,space and verdure

[ 115 ]
HOUSING

• Provision of good quality housing was central to Chandigarh’s planning objective of offering “all amenities
to the poorest of the poor to lead a dignified life.

HOUSING

PUBLIC PRIVATE OTHERS

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

• Government Housing • Phase 1: plot size • Co-operative Housing
I. Phase 1: single and vary from 125 sqm Societies
double storey to 4000sqm • Cheap Houses
II. Phase 2: 4-storey • Phase 2: 4-storey • Provision of
flats flats, maximum plot Students/Working women
• Institutional Housing size 1000sqm hostel
• Chandigarh Board • 70% of city’s • Residential accommodation
Housing housing area is to be through paying guest
covered privately scheme
• Housing in unauthorised
settlements

Fig 13 : image showing the Chandigarh Fig 15 : image showing the Cooperative
board housing housing society

Fig 14 : image showing the private [ 116 ]

housing sector 19
 OTHER TYPE OF HOUSING

CO-OPERRAYIVE HOOUSING

• Buit in Phase 3 of city as high density area.

• Various housing Societies and CHB constructed flats under HIG, MIG, LIG and EWS categories

CHEAP HOUSES

• A special category of low cost houses was built for low income non-government workers.
• Their ownership transferred to the allottees on payment of nominal charges.
• Initially built as single storied units, additional floors have been added to them by the owners over.

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

PROVISION OF STUDENTS/ WORKING WOMEN HOSTEL

• Due to lack of hostels students opt for paying guest accommodation in villages and city.
• The limited hostel facilities are often used by the premier institutes of the neighbouring states which
lack in adequate facilities.

RESIDENTIAL ACCOMMODATION THROUGH PAYING GUEST SCHEME

• In 2006, the Chandigarh Administration permitted the use of residential buildings for paying guest
accommodation.
• The minimum area of the house for paying guest accommodation has been fixed as 10 marla (250sqm)
with a condition that portion of the house has to be used by the owner.
• No extra/new kitchen is allowed.
• A minimum of 50 sq. ft. area is to be provided for each paying guest.
• Provision of toilets at one W.C. for five persons.

HOUSING IN UNAUTHORISED SETTLEMENTS

• Despite being a totally planned new city the emergence of non-plan settlements and services was an
inevitable outcome of the non-integration of socio-economic planning in implementation of the
Chandigarh Plan and the virtual absence of holistic housing and employment policies.
• Various rehabilitation schemes for residents of unauthorized settlements have been provide like one
room tenements in diverse locations, EWS houses in Mauli Jagran Maloya, Dadumajra etc.

[ 117 ]
TYPES OF HOUSING IN CHANDIGARH

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 16 : Map showing the types of housing in Chandigarh
[ 118 ]
LOCATION OF UNAUTHORIZED COLONIES

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 17 : Map showing the unauthorized colonies in Chandigarh
[ 119 ]
PROPOSAL OF HOUSING AT A GLANCE

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

[ 120 ]
PROPOSAL FOR MASTER PLAN
• Ensured provision for EWS in all new housing schemes - It is proposed that all future new housing schemes or housing built through redevelopment of existing government housing stock must
ensure that at least 15% of the total units in them are built for economically weaker sections

• Augmentation of infrastructure in relation to population - It shall ensure expansion of infrastructure, services and amenities in relation to population to maintain the quality of life.

• Group Housing in vacant plots of second phase- All vacant residential plots in the Phase II sectors which were earlier planned as plotted development should as far as possible be replanned
and used for group housing instead of individual plots.

• Mixed landuse development along Vikas Marg-

i. The mixed land use, high rise and high density development proposed in the reserved belts flanking both sides of the Vikas shall have residential development on the upper floors and
commercial and institutional areas on the lower floors.
ii. The proposal shall open up large areas for housing of various categories as per modern day requirements which shall include service apartments, guest houses, hostel accommodations

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

etc. along with provisions for the essential community facilities.

[ 121 ]
FIG 18 : Plan showing status of vacant land along vikas marg
SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The followng part gives a brie account of the social infrastructure of

Chandigarh

• In Chandigarh, the social infrastructure includes educational and health facilities, places of worship and
recreation which range from neighborhood level to city level facilities. The high order of the social
infrastructure, generous numbers and its equitable distribution for the targeted population of 5 lakh in the
original plan (Phase-I & II) have contributed to the high standards of quality of life of the city residents.
• The provisions made were inherently farsighted and progressive which have not only helped cope up with

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

the additional population pressure of the city but also have been able to serve the neighbouring towns and
the expanding northern region.
• However with increase in advancemets in the social infrastructure the pressure on the city is also
increasing as the highly developed social infrastructure of the main city attracts the population from the
peripheral neighbouring areas as a result of which the demand considerably increases.
• The endeavour of the Chandigarh Master Plan 2031 is to ensure that the city continues to maintain the high
standards of health, educational, recreational, institutional, religious facilities for the projected population
of 16 lakhs by 2031 despite the constraints of its limited land resources.

An overview of the status and requirements of social infrastructure in the city:

• The planned provision of social infrastructure is catering reasonably well for the present population.
• There is a deficit of primary schools, community centres, places of worship, dispensaries etc. in some of
the existing sectors for the projected population as per holding capacity.
• As per UDPFI guidelines the shortage of high schools is in sectors 15, 16, 19, 20 west of 38, 41, 42 & 49
etc.
• Shortage of dispensaries is in sectors 7, 15-23, 29-32, 37, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 48, 49, 50 & 63. However, a
number of charitable dispensaries running in religious buildings, bhawans are also catering to the
requirements of public

[ 122 ]
THE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES OF CHANDIGARH

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 19 : Map showing the educational institutes of Chandigarh
[ 123 ]
THE MEDICAL FACILITIES OF CHANDIGARH

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 20: Map showing the medical facilities of Chandigarh
[ 124 ]
THE FIRE STATIONS

The serviceability range

Fire stations at
chandigarh are designed
to be able to cater to the
needs of every 2,00,000
Fire stations
persons in the city.

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

The requirement
Although at present 7 fire
stations are present in The proposal
the city but keeping in Although at present 7 fire
mind of the future stations but they are not
expansion in the city 2 adequate for the future
more stations are population and hence one
requirred. fire station at the IT
sector and one in the
southern sector has been
proposed.

Fig 21 : Map showing the fire stations in Chandigarh [ 125 ]

THE POLICE STATIONS

The serviceability range

Chandigarh has 13 police
stations present in the
city and each police
station is meant to serve
Police stations
a population of 90,000

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

persons.

The requirement The proposal

Although at present 13 While Phase-II sectors
police stations are have several police
present but keeping in stations, Phase-III
mind of the future sectors are found lacking
population a total of 18 although the density is
police stations are high in these sectors.
requirred to cater to the Hence remaining five
needs of the projected stations are proposed in
population o f 16 lacs of these areas.
the city.

Fig 22 : Map showing the police stations in Chandigarh [ 126 ]

AN OVERVIEW OF THE STATUS AND REQUIREMENTS OF SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE CITY:

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

[ 127 ]
INTRODUCTION
• Chandigarh is known all over the world as an outstanding example of architecture, planning and
landscaping.
• Today, after nearly 60 years of its inception, the city stands out for its high quality of life and clean,
relatively pollution free environment, unlike other growing urban areas in the country. Its citizens enjoy a
direct relationship of the built-form with nature, and have abundant access to green spaces all over the
city
• The conservation of this green heritage in future is a major concern with regards to the rapid
development of the city in the last few decades.
• The intent of the founding fathers of the city was very clear-- that the new city would be a place where the

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

buildings and the built form would nestle in close communion to the elements of nature, and the residents
of the city would enjoy direct and immediate accessto natural settings. The city residents would be
endowed with the joy of parks, gardens, neighborhood open spaces and tot-lots available in abundance and
in close proximity to their door ste

MASTER PLAN PROPOSALS FOR OPEN SPACES

• Open/Green spaces in the city should be recognized as inviolable open spaces to prevent them from being
diverted to other land uses.
• Develop an open space system of pedestrian greenways and nature walking systems which link existing
and future open spaces, parks and forest areas.
• Twelve longitudinal Green Corridors have been proposed connecting the greens of the city in the North
South direction which will offer diverse experiences as one moves across them .
• Protect, manage and enhance areas of significant biodiversity and natural resources.
• Ensure public participation in the development and maintenance of parks and open spaces/green belts and
in organizing community events. This will give the citizens a sense of belongingness and pride of
achievement and persuade them to look after such spaces. The zoning plans of sectors to be rectified so
that no other land use except those associated with the parks come up in the open spaces. Area along
both sides of the railway line wherever cutting across the city plan to have thick plantation on both sides. [ 128 ]
HEIRARCHY OF OPEN SPACES

• As mentioned above, there is a well structured and order in the hierarchy of open spaces in the city
ranging from the neighborhood level to the city le
• Over the last 60 years, this pronounced green aspect of the city has become its hallmark and a proud
heritage and also taken root as something very dear and precious for its inhabitants, that not only needs
to be protected carefully but also nurtured
• The phenomenal growth and the population upsurge of the city far beyond its planned capacity, have been
reasonably well absorbed, essentially because of the abundance of greenery and the rich tree foliage of
the city.
• The Urban Development (UDPFI) norms for open spaces recommend that the overall quantum of town level

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

/city level parks should range between 10 sq. meter to 12 sq. meter per person, which would include parks,
play fields ,specified parks, amusement parks, maidans, multi-purpose open spaces, botanical garden,
geological park and traffic park etc.
• An analysis of such-like open spaces within the city brings out that in the first phase 1850.33 acre
(19.69%) was planned as open spaces. In the low density sectors developed in the first phase having
large- sized plotted development with low ground coverage and FARs, the overall ambience is that of a lush
green city interspersed with low rise buildings with generous presence of natural elements.
• Another very precious legacy of the city’s green identity is the establishment of long clear cut vistas
available in the first phase of the city connecting the residents to the skyline of the hills through
continuous green spaces such as sector greens, Leisure Valley, Sukhna Lake promenade etc. in
conjunction with low-rise, built forms and low boundary walls - is now seemingly under threat in the
second phase, where smaller and lesser plotted development took place. It is the least in the third phase
essentially, because of housing blocks and apartments built more than plotted development.
• The zoning plans of group housing mandates 15% of community open spaces within campuses to maintain
closeness with nature and for outdoor activities.

[ 129 ]
OPEN SPACES AND LANDSCAPING OF CHANDIGARH

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

Fig 23 : Map showing the major city level open spaces in Chandigarh [ 130 ]
THE MASTER PLAN OF CHANDIGARH

CHANDIGARH MASTER PLAN 2031

Fig 24: Master Plan of Chandigarh [ 131 ]
CONCLUSION
A General overview of the origins of the city
• Le Corbusier conceived the master plan of Chandigarh as analogous to human body, with a clearly defined
head (the Capitol Complex, Sector 1), heart (the City Centre Sector-17), lungs ( the leisure valley,
innumerable open spaces and sector greens), the intellect (the cultural and educational institutions), the
circulatory system (the network of roads, the 7Vs) and the viscera (the Industrial Area). The concept of
the city is based on four major functions: living, working, care of the body and spirit and circulation.
Residential sectors constitute the living part whereas the Capitol Complex, City Centre, Educational Zone
(Post Graduate Institute, Punjab Engineering College, Panjab University) and the Industrial Area constitute
the working part. The Leisure Valley, Gardens, Sector Greens and Open Courtyards etc. are for the care of

CHANDIGARH MASTERPLAN 2031

body and spirit. The circulation system comprises of 7 different types of roads known as 7Vs. Later on, a
pathway for cyclists called V8 were added to this circulation system.
• Chandigarh is known all over the world as an outstanding example of architecture, planning and
landscaping. The seeds of extensive landscaping and verdure were embedded in the city layout plan by its
architect-planner Le Corbusier right at the beginning, with the provision of large number of open spaces,
green belts, city parks and neighborhood parks
• Planned as a Green City with abundance of open spaces, Chandigarh ensures that every dwelling has its
adequate share of three elements of Sun, Space and Verdure. Location of green belt was in north south
direction to link all sectors with the Shivalik range of hills / mountains.
• There is international acceptance of taking the regional context into account while planning cities.
Chandigarh had pioneered the conceptualization, planning, legislating and reserving land for future urban
growth , thus introducing the regional context into the city plan.

THEREFORE,

Chandigarh has considerably incorporated various schemes and policies which attempts to envisage the
various aspects of development within the city and hence all the policies seemingly address the problems of
the society to a great and considerable extent. The master plan policies tthus endeavours to prepare the city
and thereby mitigate for and anticipate any future risks and occurences caused as a result of any drastic
changes. [ 132 ]
RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE
Research Paper

BY AUTHORS

[ 133 ]
ABSTRACT

The complex paradigm and the emerging advancements of the contemporary cities, challenges the existing
conditions and infrastructure available and thus highlights the need to incorporate urban resilience as a
powerful lens to understand and engage with the changing world. To this regard the concept of resilience can
be defined as the capacity of a community to anticipate, plan for, and mitigate the risks and seize the
opportunities, associated with environmental and social change. This paper hence attempts to envisage the
various policies opted by the smart cities to facilitate the fast pace of urban life. Further this study
subsequently analyzes the extent to which these smart city policies cater to the needs and relates to the
diverse extents of the urban form. The study also aims to highlight the crucial implications of the fast paced
development processes on the rural as well as the peri urban areas. Thereby traversing through the

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

resilience theory, the study coherently defines five main proxies of resilience in urban forms namely diversity,
redundancy, modularity, connectivity and efficiency. Thus it highlights the interdependencies between, several
constituent elements of the physical city in the light of the five mentioned proxies. Finally it answers to the
question that how can urban fabric become resilient in this era of change.

INTRODUCTION
DEFINING URBAN RESILIENCE

As this contemporary era is flocked up by diverse climatic changes and thriving urban advancements, the need
to make our cities resilient has considerably increased in order to sustain and traverse through the drastic
changes. But at first there is a need to understand the true meaning of the term ‘resilience’. As this productive
term is advancely gaining popularity over time, the heated debates and varying opinions over its true definition
are also increasing. However as a basic robust definition, the term resilience can be defined as the:
Capacity of a city’s physical, social, economic and environmental systems to absorb shocks and stresses,
whilst still retaining their basic function and structure.( Simon Blackwell 2020 ).

[ 134 ]
This report hence endeavours to capture a brief insight of the various aspects involved with the term
resilience and thus a few key points assosciated with the same are:

Concurring With Changes:

This contemporary era faces broadly two categories of changes namely the positive and the negative changes.
Whilst the positive changes can include the thriving technological advancements; the negative changes be
referred to the drastic climatic changes. And urban resilience in this regard can be defined as the capacity of
a city to withstand the distress caused by such changes.

The Equitable Key:

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

With increasing advancements and opportunities; the economical inequality in the society is also increasing.
Today’s global inequality is the consequence of two centuries of unequal progress. Some places have seen
dramatic improvements, while others have not. ( Max Roser Oxford University )
And it is the result of these social inequalities that the propituous well-positioned sections of the society
manage to seize the opportunities and also sustain themselves against any of the unprecedented risks
brought about by the changes whilst the marginalized group are left behind to suffer and struggle to keep up
with the pace of this advancing new era. And hence in this regard mainataining equality between the groups is
an important aspect of urban resilience to mitigate and anticiapate the risks and opportunities of the
contemporary era.

The Multidimensional Approach:

To inculcate and absorb the thriving advancements of the contemporary era, the smart cities have
incorporated various solutions and policies to enable efficient comfort of its citizens. However the policies
created with an aim to offer a complete holistic solution to the issues faced by the different parts of the
society may also stand out to cause considerable damage and potential risks to other sections of the society.
And hence a brief analysis of the various modern day policies is requirred before their implementation in
order to make cities resilient to the changing era.

[ 135 ]
 Therefore ,

Resilience can subsequently be defined as the potential of the urban environments to sustain themselves and
traverse through the acute-short term shocks and chronic long-term stresses. The acute short term shocks
refers to the less frequent yet highly catastrophic disasters or pandemics. While the long term chronic
stresses apply persistent and evolving pressure over time and include climate change and its associated
effects such as the demographic shifts, ecological imbalance etc.

And hence most of these factors are inter-dependent and interelated to one another through some or the other
subsequent way. Thereby a brief analysis of these factors makes this paper envisage the five basic proxies of
resilience which cohesively impacts the stability of urban morphology in this changing and advancing era.

Drawing out the analysis on the basis of the 5 attributes is important as only then can we acknowledge the

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

various functions of urban resilience and how it seeks to improve the performance of the entire system annd
community rather than simply reducing the impact of a single specific disaster.

KEY ATTRIBUTES TO RESILIENCE

In today’s world there is no official agreement on a unified list of all the prime attributes which can highlight
the major functions of the term resilience. However of a total of more than 40 publications over the last 40
years a total of 5 key attributes have been shortlisted for the study and these are namely:

Diversity

Redundancy

Modularity

Connectivity

Adaptability

RESILIENCE ATTRIBUTES ACROSS THE SCALE OF CHANDIGARH:

Further analysis of the five attributes of resilience has been made by citing the example of Chandigarh and
hence the various ammendments and policies implemented by the city has been studied in great detail to figure [ 136 ]
out what kind of measures does the cities of the modern era require to become resilient to changing phases.
DIVERSITY

A core concept in resilience theory, diversity enables systems to implement multiple coping strategies
(Marcus and Colding 2011 ), helping them remain relatively stable through change and providing them with
higher potential for innovation. Thus Diversity can be inferred to as the inclusion of various functional
components or multiple physical infrastructure options available for use by the different sections of the
society. Diversity thus gives multiple component options such as the housing types, transport modes or the
electricity generation sources etc. and thereby reduces the persistent evolving pressure over the system.

DIVERSITY IN CHANDIGARH

Chandigarh stands at par when diversity is taken into consideration as an aspect of resilience as Chandigarh
is inclusive of a multiple components for the ease and comfort of its citizens and hence the wide variety of

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

options available can be seen in various prominent aspects such as housing, commercial areas etc.
• Primarily focusing on housing Chandigarh offers rich diversity and Provision of good quality housing has
been central to Chandigarh’s planning objective for offering “all amenities to the poorest of the poor to
lead a dignified life.
• Chandigarh reveals high diversification in the arena of housing and includes three types of housing namely:

• Government Housing
I. Phase 1: single and
double storey
II. Phase 2: 4-storey flats
• Institutional Housing
• Chandigarh Board Housing
• Phase 1: plot size vary from
125 sqm to 4000sqm
• Phase 2: 4-storey flats,
maximum plot size 1000sqm
• 70% of city’s housing area is
to be covered privately
• Co-operative Housing Societies
• Cheap Houses
• Provision of Students/Working
women hostel
• Residential accommodation
through paying guest scheme
• Housing in unauthorised
settlements

Fig 1 : diversity of housing in Chandigarh ; Source : Chandigarh MPD 2031

[ 137 ]
REDUNDANCY

In a system, redundancy is the availability of multiple components or pathways “performing the same, similar
or backup functions” (Ahern 2011:342) providing an insurance mechanism for anticipating change, damage or
failure. Redundancy thus can be defined as the inclusion of not so essentially important components in a
system which are not requirred on a daily basis but can be of immediate importance in case of system
rupture and failure.

REDUNDANCY IN CHANDIGARH

With redundancy as an important aspect of resilience, Chandigarh stands out as a very appropriate and
efficient example because the green corridor facility running through the various parts of the city makes it

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

ideally a redundant city and also highlights its preparedness to face any unpreceedented challenges during
difficult times.

Fig 2 : Map showing the Green corridor facility provided in Chandigarh ; Source : Chandigarh MPD 2031

[ 138 ]
CONNECTIVITY

Connectivity describes the ease of flow within a system and across systems. Hence connectivity can further
be referred to as the linkages between the various components of the urban system.

CONNECTIVITY IN CHANDIGARH
A well-defined hierarchy of Circulation based on Le Corbusier’s V7s road-system was designed. The features
of this concept included:
• V1- Fast roads connecting Chandigarh to other towns
• V2- Arterial roads
• V3- Fast vehicular roads around the sectors
• V4- Meandering shopping streets

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

• V5- Sector circulation roads
• V6- Access roads to houses
• V7- Footpaths, cycle tracks
Hence Chandigarh thereby also endeavours apprehensive connectivity services linking the various
components of the urban system together. (Source : Chandigarh MPD 2031 )

[ 139 ]
Fig 3 : Map showing the different types of roads facility provided in Chandigarh ; Source : Chandigarh MPD 2031
ADAPTABILITY
Adaptability is the possible attribute of resilience which focuses to highlight the subsequent circumstances to
which the ascertain members of a community or particular section of society adapt to or evolve through the
impending situations which can include prominent population increase or climate changes.

ADAPTABILITY IN CHANDIGARH
Adaptability as a very important criteria for the term urban resilience is clearly refelective In the city of
Chandigarh as it sets the most ideal example of adaptability over a period of time. Chandigarh is a living
example of how societies and the communities mitigate to and anticipate for the future scenario and adapt to
the various changes and unpreceedented circumstances as per their respective desires and concerns.
To quote as a prime example of this attribute, the various incentives and ammendments incorporated by the

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

government in the areana of housing can be taken. It clearly reflects how the societies and the people adapted
through the increase in population change as a result of which some of the below mentioned policies were
incorporated:
• The biggest problem being faced by most categories of private housing is the need for additional habitable
space. This is evident from the large number of building violations being witnessed all over the city,be it in
small marla houses or houses on larger plots. Chandigarh Administration has already accorded relaxations
to provide relief to all categories of residences. Some of the important relaxations included in this sector
are:
I. The FAR of marla houses has been increased up to 2.0 with ground coverage upto 70%.
II. The FAR of one kanal but less than two kanal category plots has been increased upto 1.50 and ground
coverage upto 50%.
III. Additional covered area has been permitted in cheap houses by allowing construction of additional floor
and increasing the maximum permissible ground coverage from an average of 57% to 75%.
IV. For the purpose of storage, basement is now allowed under the entire ground floor area instead of the
maximum 50% allowed earlier. (Source : Chandigarh MPD 2031 )

[ 140 ]
MODULARITY
Modularity can be defined as the system where functions or services are locally distributed and spread
across decentralised sub-systems (Ahern 2011 ). Thus it defines how changes associated with one particular
element of an urban system brings an eventual impact on the other cohesive elements and affects their
functioning.

MODULARITY IN CHANDIGARH

Modularity as another core aspect of resilience can be used to cohesively analyze Chandigarh on two broad
scales:
I. The first analyzes the separate sectors of the city collectively forming into various as the different
modules which are Internally tied by strong close-range internal connections while externally, they are

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

kept together by relatively weak long-range connections (Salingaros 2000). Individually, each module is
structurally and functionoally unitary and independent while, as a whole, modules are loosely
interdependent enabling them to form a complete whole aggregate without losing on’s own identity.
II. And hence each of chandigarh’s sector has been designed to become completely self sufficient and
complete in its own way. Each of the sector has its own access to all the important amenities such as
the schools, hospital or police station etc.

[ 141 ]
Fig 4 : Image showing the specific layout of a sector in Chandigarh; (Source : Chandigarh MPD 2031 )
iii. The second scale on which the modularity factor has been tested includes the Chandigarh and its
immediate peripheral areas where, the urbanization patterns observed within the city has led to a drastic
overwhelming change on the city of the neighbouring peripheral villages as these villages in order to keep up
the pace with the advancing changes, these villages have also subsequently lost their original identity and
have been transformed completely into semi-urban or urban areas.
iv. The following impact has indeed made the lives of the villagers suffer and this has happened because the
policies ammended did not come about to incorporate neccesarry directives for villagers or the nearby
peripheral areas of the city which has led to such a drastic impact on these areas.
v. Hence in terms of modularity Chandigarh needs to come up with certain further comprehensive measures
to inculcate the impacts on the nearby villages as well. And make it as a whole complete aggreagte where
each of the modules will be independent of each other’s individual changes and will retain their own individual

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

identity.

A QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION IN CHANDIGARH

DIVERSITY

Chandigarh offers diversity in housing, commercial or landscape areas.

REDUNDANCY

The presence of Green corridors makes the city highly redundant.

CONNECTIVITY

A well defined hierarchy of roads based on the concept of 7V’s makes the city ideal in terms of
connectivity.

ADAPTABILITY

The city makes itself highly adaptable by including various relaxations in various policies being
ammended.

MODULARITY

Chandigarh’s separate sectors forming into various phases acts as the ideal example of stable
modules. However on a broader scale when Chandigarh itself acts as a module; the changes
brought about in the city has drastically affected the peripheral areas. [ 142 ]
 CONCLUSION

Hence conclusively we can define resilience as a key feature of any city to withstand and face the
unpreceedented risks and circumstances and get itself prepared for the same. However complete resilience
is a theory which can be ammended on any particular urban system only when the above mentioned proxies or
the attributes of the resilience theory are properly ammended whilst inculcating or implementing any specific
policy within the urban structure. It is thus with the apt combination of these five attributes together within
the functional system which makes any specific urban structure or a city resilient to any specific change and
thus making it capable to withstand the impacts of the new and contemporary era of thriving advancements.

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

URBAN RESILIENCE

MODULARITY

ECONOMICAL CRISIS

ADAPTABILITY
ENVIRONMENTAL
DEGRADATION
ACCUTE SHORT-TERM SHOCKS

CONNECTIVITY
TRANSPORATATION
HINDRANCE

REDUNDANCY
SOCIAL INSTABILITY

DIVERSITY
DEMOGRAPHIC
SHIFTS

PANDEMICS TERRORISM/SECURITY EXTREME WEATHER CLIMATE CHANGE CATASTROPHE

EVENTS

CHRONIC LONG-TERM STRESSES

Fig 5 : Resilience Attribute Graph

[ 143 ]
REFRENCES AND RESOURCES

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/urban-resilience-simon-blackwell/
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316557645_Design_for_Change_Five_Proxies_for_Resilience_
in_the_Urban_Form
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236236994_Urban_resilience_towards_an_integrated_appro
ach
• https://www.usgbc.org/education/sessions/urban-resilience-era-climate-change-12845516
• https://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/resilient_europe_baseline_study.pdf
• http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol19/iss4/art55/
• http://chandigarh.gov.in/cmp_2031.htm

RESILIENCE IN THE ERA OF CHANGE

[ 144 ]