URBAN DESIGN ELEMENTS &

GENERAL PRINCIPLES
VS
URBAN DESIGN ELEMENTS
URBAN DESIGN ELEMENTS
URBAN DESIGN ELEMENTS
URBAN DESIGN ELEMENTS
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC
URBAN DESIGN

Be sharply focused
Designing should be about efficiently using resources and have a clear purpose. It is easy for strategic design ideas
to become unwieldy and cover a wide range of issues that are adequately addressed either by regional or national
policies.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC
URBAN DESIGN

Be genuinely strategic
Designing should deal only with issues that require treatment at a level higher than individual buildings. Strategic
Design ideas need to set out where major investments in housing, transport and economic growth will take place.
Decisions taken at the right geographic level will ensure appropriate experience, environmental safeguards and a
degree of fairness between localities.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC
URBAN DESIGN

Be spatial
Designing should make choices between places, not simply establish general criteria for later decision-making. All
designers, not just planners, must recognize that some activities for example, large scale housing, employment and
higher education within a city, county or region than others, and act for their design accordingly.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC
URBAN DESIGN

Be collaborative
Multidisciplinary people must work together to deliver each other’s agendas and collaborative governance
structures can ensure proactive engagement by all stakeholders. This contrasts with what might be termed
“cooperation”, where participation is restricted to proposal consent as long as it does not interfere with respective
agendas. There are also strong advantages to permitting strategic planning collaborations to determine their own
internal governance arrangements.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC
URBAN DESIGN

Be accountable to local electorates

The process should ensure that governance arrangements are sensitive to the interests of local culture and
communities. A common approach is to have a joint board comprising elected representatives of each area
dedicated to strategic designing. Another is for a leaders’ board to take strategic decisions. The latter has the
advantage of facilitating closer links between spatial designing and other objectives.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC
URBAN DESIGN

Be responsive
Strategic designing needs to be efficient, with a dynamic review mechanism capable of adapting to change.
 URBAN DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
The Design Guidelines encourage careful and thoughtful design that promotes quality urban design
outcomes by discussing desirable architectural treatments and design outcomes. The following are key urban
design principles to consider.
Respond to Physical Context & Site Features
The site design and placement of building(s) should respond to context and contribute positively to the
natural and built environment.
 URBAN DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Respond to Physical Context & Site Features
The site design and placement of building(s) should respond to context and contribute positively to the
natural and built environment.
 URBAN DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Reinforce the Public Realm and Public Life
Good design addresses the issue of how buildings interface with the adjacent sidewalk, street, and public
realm with pedestrian connections, transparency, open spaces, and amenities.
 URBAN DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Reinforce the Public Realm and Public Life
Good design addresses the issue of how buildings interface with the adjacent sidewalk, street, and public
realm with pedestrian connections, transparency, open spaces, and amenities.
 URBAN DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
High Quality Building Concept, Design, Materials, and Construction
Facades should therefore be designed to have a pleasing scale and appearance, proportion and rhythm,
solid-to-void relationship, and materiality.
 URBAN DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
High Quality Building Concept, Design, Materials, and Construction
Facades should therefore be designed to have a pleasing scale and appearance, proportion and rhythm,
solid-to-void relationship, and materiality.
 NEIGHBOURHOOD URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES
What are neighborhood design guidelines?
Design Guidelines define the qualities of architecture, site design, and open space that make successful
projects, and are a tool for guiding individual projects towards successful design outcomes. The goal of the
design guidelines is to foster design excellence in private development of new multifamily and commercial
projects throughout the city.

How are the District/State Design Guidelines used?

Design Guidelines will identify specific qualities of building and site design that reinforce unique design
characteristics of the District. Design Review Boards will use the guidelines to provide design guidance on
the design of proposed development. The design guidelines also guides building heights, massing, façades,
openings, spaces to leave and use, open and built spaces around the building, streets, regulations for
buildings around the streets, street furniture, use of natural elements, etc.

The example below shows how a neighborhood specific design guideline can shape project design.
NEIGHBOURHOOD URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES