URBAN DESIGN

PLANNING 3
AR NIKKO D CASAS
The building of
cities is one of
man's greatest
achievements

Edmund Bacon
American Urban Planner,
and Architect
WHAT IS URBAN DESIGN?
THE ART OF CREATING AND SHAPING CITIES AND TOWNS

• Urban design involves the arrangement and design of buildings,

public spaces, transport systems, services, and amenities.

• Urban design is the process of giving form, shape, and character to

groups of buildings, to whole neighborhoods, and the city.

• Urban design is about making connections between people and

places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric.
WHAT IS URBAN DESIGN?
URBAN DESIGN INCLUDES INFRASTRUCTURE, ARCHITECTURE, PUBLIC SPACES
Urban design is derived from but transcends
• planning and transportation policy
• architectural design
• development economics
• engineering
• Landscape

It draws these and other strands together creating a vision for an area
and then deploying the resources and skills needed to bring the vision to
life.
 Urban Design
Urban design operates at 3 scales

Regional Neighborhood Block

District and Corridor Streets and Buildings
Cities and Towns
What does the city's form
actually mean to the people
who live there?

What can the city planner do to make

the city's image more vivid and
memorable to the city dweller?

Kevin Andrew Lynch

Urban Planner and Professor,
Author of Image of a City
 Image of a City
LEGIBILITY (WAY FINDING)
It means the ease with which its parts can be recognized and can be
organized into a coherent pattern.

• Create an identity at each location, different from all others.

• Use landmarks to provide orientation cues and memorable locations.
• Create well-structured paths.
• Create regions of differing visual character.
• Don't give the user too many choices in navigation.
• Use survey views (give navigators a vista or map).
• Provide signs at decision points to help way finding decisions.
• Use sight lines to show what's ahead.
 Image of a City
IMAGEABILITY (SENSE OF PLACE)
Physical qualities which relate to the attributes of identity and
structure in the mental image. It is that shape, color, or arrangement
which facilitates the making of vividly identified, powerfully structured,
highly useful mental images of the environment.

• Distinct identity
• Recognition of Subjective Meaning
• Connection or Emotional Attachment to the Area
 Image of a City
FIVE BASIC ELEMENTS
 paths
Paths are the channels along which the observer moves. They
may be streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads.
 edges
Edges are the linear elements not used as paths by the observer.
They are the boundaries and linear breaks in continuity (shores, railroad
cuts, edges of development, walls).
 districts
Districts are the medium-to-large sections of the city which the
observer mentally enters "inside of," and which are recognizable as
having some common, identifying character.
 nodes
Nodes are strategic spots in a city into which an observer can
enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from which he is traveling.
They may be primarily junctions or concentrations.
 landmarks
Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case
the observer does not enter within them, they are external. They are
usually building, sign, store, or mountain.
 Site Planning and Design
Determining the site’s relationship to the total environment
Site planning is the art and science of arranging the uses of
portions of land.
Site Planning
• The site planner designates these uses in detail by selecting and
analyzing a site, forming a land use plan, organizing vehicular and
pedestrian circulation, developing visual form and materials concept,
readjusting the exiting landform by design grading, providing proper
drainage, and finally developing the construction details necessary to
carry out a project.
• Site planning is professionally exercised by landscape architects,
architects, planners, and engineers.
 Site Analysis and Selection
Analysis of the site should be consider all existing features, both natural and
man-made, in order to determine those inherent qualities that give a site its
personality. A topographical analysis of its existing features is mandatory.

Natural Factors
• Geologic base and landforms
• Topography (topographic maps, slope analysis)
• Hydrography (stream, lakes, watershed, drainage)
• Soils (classification of types and uses)
• Vegetation and Wildlife
• Climatic Factors (solar orientation, winds, precipitation, etc.)
 Land Use and Circulation
One of the site planner’s major concerns is the development of
the vehicular and pedestrian circulation systems, but utility and
communication networks are directly related to road and walk
patterns.
 Vehicular Circulation Patterns
Grid System
• Comprised of equally spaced streets which run perpendicular to each other
Radial System
• Directs flow to a common center
Linear System
• Connects flow between two points (railroad lines or canal)
Curvilinear System
• Takes advantage of the topography by following the land as closely as
possible
 Visual Design Factors
Plans must be structured so that its parts not only work together but are
visually unified and coherent as well.

Elements of Order
• Sequence
• Repetition and Rhythm
• Balance

Characteristics of Object in the Landscape

• Shape, size, and scale
• Proportion
• Texture and color
• Hierarchy
 Visual Design Factors
Plans must be structured so that its parts not only work together
but are visually unified and coherent as well.

Natural Elements
• Earth
• Rock
• Water
• Plant Material Arrangement
 Other Site Considerations
• Who the future users are and to provide the services they will require
• Need to assess the development feasibility
• Analysis of the size, shape, and access to the land
• Consider topography and slope to assess opportunity for building
residences, roads, and recreational facilities
• Soil characteristics where multi storey buildings will be erected and other
construction types permitted
• Resources of the site. (Natural beauty, trees, stream, water frontage, views)
• Accessibility and road network where the site connects to
• Ecological factors
• Cost of the site must be evaluated and financial means to develop