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Lecture 16 - Urban Patterns, Visual Dimensions and Aesthic Order
Lecture 16 - Urban Patterns, Visual Dimensions and Aesthic Order
Contents
Contents
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Urban Space
• Closed • Shapeless
• Can be measured • Left-over around buildings
• Has boundaries • Lacking perceivable edges
• Static • Lacking perceivable form
• Surrounded by buildings
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Urban Space
Creating positive space
Urban Space
Streets and Squares
Urban Space
Streets and Squares
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Urban Space
Streets and Squares
Formal Informal
Urban Space
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Aesthetic preferences
• Visual – Kinesthetic
• We move but the space is static (unmoving)
• All senses of the body
• Visual appreciation perception and cognition
‘stimuli’ we perceive
How we perceive
How we process, interpret and judge the information
How it appeals to our mind and emotions
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Aesthetic preferences
• Perception and cognition
Individual level
Cultural level
“notions of ‘beauty’ are socially and
culturally constructed”
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
• Harmony concerns the relationships between different parts, and how they fit
together to form a coherent whole.
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Place perceptions
• Perception means the process of becoming aware of physical
objects/phenomenon through senses
• We embrace images, experiences and meanings that are attached to the built
environment
• Place images are characterized by three key attributes according to Lynch:
• Identity
• Structure
• Meaning We live in time places!
Beyond Images
• Mental/cognitive mapping
• Understanding of the essence of a city that
stays in a individual’s memory
• Visual Survey
• An examination of the form, appearance and
composition of a city as well as evaluation of
its assets and liabilities
• Attaches a ‘sense of a place’
• Strong bond between a person and the
environmental setting
Temporal perceptions
• According to Kevin Lynch, affect of time on space can be experienced by two
ways:
1. rhytmic repetition which refers to breathing/sleeping/walking/cycles of
sun/moon/the seasons
2. progressive and irreversible change which refers to growth and decay
time and space are related to each other.
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Temporal dimensions
• Three key aspects of temporal dimension of urban design are;
• Time cycles and management of activities in space.
• Continuity and stability.
• Changing urban design projects and policies.
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Time Cycles
Main time cycles are based on natural
cycles(our bodily cycles). The use of urban
space differs according to these cycles of day,
night, seasons. At different times of the day,
night, urban environment is perceived and used
differently and also users differ according to
changing time cycle.
Urban designers need to understand activity patterns, how to encourage activities through different time
periods and how to achieve synergies from activities happening in the space and time.
Street design can change according to time. As people visit an area to see what is going on, urban vitality
further stimulates and the public realm becomes animated by having more people on the streets and in cafes.
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
References;
1. ARCH355 Process of Urban Design, Eastern Mediterranean University,
https://arch355.wordpress.com/
2. Department of Architecture
3. Sennett Richard 1969, Classical Essays on the Culture of Cities, Prentice Hall,
New Jersey
4. The American City: What Works and What Doesn't
by Alexander Garvin (1995)
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Thank You