University of Nizwa / Department of Architecture / Fall 2015-16

Lecture on Urban Design Basics

What is Urban Design?
• Urban design is the process of shaping the physical setting for life in cities, towns and
villages. It is the art of making places.

• It involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes, and
establishing the processes that make successful development possible.

• In practical terms, Urban Design provides a set of descriptive and analytical tools for
working with The tangibles of landscape, built form, land use, and hard infrastructure.

• Urban Design helps to create successful places where people want to live, work, and
play... Help create a place that will be used and enjoyed by a wide range of different
people for different purposes, not only now but in years to come.

• Its concepts and methods enable us to examine and make sense of how people use space.

Dimensions of Urban design

Urban Dimensions
1. MORPHOLOGICAL DIMENSION - Focuses on the layout and configuration urban form
and space.
2. PERCEPTUAL DIMENSION – Deals with awareness and Appreciation of Environmental
perception and experience of a place.
3. SOCIAL DIMENSION – This dimension deals with the relationship between people and
space.
4. VISUAL DIMENSION – Explains the aesthetic appreciation of the environment
5. FUNCTIONAL DIMENSION - Deals with how places work and how urban designers can
make a better place.
6. TEMPORAL DIMENSION - Deals with the influence of time on urban environment
Scope of Urban Design
• The process of giving physical design direction to urban growth, conservation, and
change
• The design of cities - 'a grand design‘
• The interface between architecture, landscape and town planning
• The complex relationships between all the elements of built and inbuilt space
• The architecture of public space
• Urban design is not land use policy, sign controls, and street lighting districts.
It is not strictly utopian or procedural.
It is not necessarily a plan for downtown,
however architectonic, nor a subdivision regulation.

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The basic framework of urban design

The basic framework of urban design includes:
• Place,
• Density,
• Mixed and compatible uses,
• Pedestrianization and human scale,
• Human culture,
• Public realm,
• Built environment
• Natural environment,
• Architectural values,
• Historic preservation and
• Urban conservation.

Role of Urban Design

Role of Urban Design
• Urban design as the interface between architecture and town planning, or the gap
between them.

• An Urban Planner is some one who is primarily concerned with the allocation of
resources according to projections of future need. Planners tend to regard land use as a
distribution of resources problem, parceling out land, for zoning purposes, without much
knowledge of its three-dimensional characteristics, or the nature of the building that may
be placed on it in the future. The result is that most zoning ordinances and Official land
use plans produce stereotyped and unimaginative buildings.

• Architect designs buildings. A good architect will do all he can to relate the building he
is designing to its surroundings.

Urban Design process

Four basic phases of urban design:

1. Analysis,
2. Synthesis,
3. Evaluation,
4. Implementation

ANALYSIS
Gathering of Basic Information,
It includes understanding the structure, organization, and pattern of urban areas.

Basic information is gathered on such items as land use, population, transportation,

natural systems, and topography.

Designers also examine the varied character of the site and the structure of
neighborhoods and business areas. Problems and design goals are identified.
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Visual Survey
The visual survey is a standard part of any urban design study.

It is an examination of the form, appearance, and composition of a city or neighborhood.

To conduct a visual survey, one must have a basic idea of the elements of urban Form, i.e. the
five basic elements of a city form. Those are Paths, Nodes, Edges, Districts and Landmarks.

Identification of hard and soft areas

The definition of hard (e.g. public parks) and soft areas (e.g. business district) helps to
designer to know what parts of the city can accommodate growth and change and what parts are
essentially fixed because they may be occupied, for example, by a historic landmark. Such
information is of considerable value in the latter stages of the urban design process when
proposed plans must be evaluated for feasibility of implementation.

Functional Analysis
The functional analysis examines the relationship of activities among the various land
uses and the way that relate to circulation systems.

This study builds on the work of the land-use planners. However, the urban designer
carries the study into three dimensions. (e.g. changing of building heights to street width ratio
over time.)

Urban .. process – contd..

SYNTHESIS
In this phase, the data gathered and the analysis of the problem must be translated into proposal
for action.
 The first component of synthesis phase is the evolution of concepts that address the
problem.
 Concepts are followed by the development of schematic design proposals. These
proposals are more specific in nature.
 Schematics are followed by preliminary proposals.

EVALUATION
Evaluation occurs at many levels, ranging from meeting technical demands to the ability to gain
public acceptance. After the design proposals are complete, it is essential that they be evaluated
in the light of the original problem or issue they were intended to address. One of the more
complicated tasks associated with evaluation is determining what criteria should be employed.
There are two basic categories:
(1) how well the solutions fit the problem and
(2) how readily the proposals can be implemented.

IMPLEMENTATION
During the implementation, the strategy for actual financing and construction is formulated.
Detailed phasing studies and tools
are considered to realize the project.

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Urban Design Theories

A. Figure-Ground Theory
The figure-ground theory is founded on the study of the relative land coverage of Solid
masses (“figure”) (buildings) & Open voids (”ground”) (parks, streets, squares).

A predominant “field” of solids and voids creates the urban fabric.

The figure-ground approach to spatial design is an attempt to manipulate the solid-void

relationships by adding to, subtracting from, or changing the physical geometry of the pattern.

The figure-ground drawing is a graphic tool for illustrating mass- void relationships; a
two-dimensional abstraction in plan view that clarifies the structure and order of urban spaces

Urban Solids & Voids

Urban Solids:
a. Public Monuments or institutions (Ziggurat, Pyramid, Gothic or Baroque Churches etc)

b. Urban Blocks (Krier’s mission is to reconstruct the traditional urban block as the definer of
streets and square)

c. Edge-defining Buildings -establish an edge of the district- (Berlage’s Housing district in

Amsterdam, 1915)
Urban Voids:
a. Entry foyer space –establishes the important transition from personal domain to common
territory- (fore court, mews, niche, lobby, front yard)

b. Inner block void –a semi private residential space for leisure or utility- (courtyard and covered
passage)

c. Network of streets and squares –places to spend time in and corridors through which to move-

d. Public parks and gardens –nodes for the preservation of nature in the city, places for
recreation-

e. Linear open-space system commonly related to major water features such as rivers,
waterfronts, and wetland zones.

B. Place Theory
• The place theory adds the components of human needs and cultural, historical, and
natural contexts.

• Advocates of the place theory give physical space Additional richness by incorporating
unique forms and details indigenous to its setting.

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• In place theory social and cultural values, visual perceptions, of users and an individual’s
control over public environment are as important as principles of enclosure and linkage.

URBAN PATTERN
Generally urban areas in the world can be categorized in to two major classifications.
These are planned and organic (unplanned) urban areas.

A. PLANNED CITIES
These are cities that are laid with the intention of founding cities.
They are designed on paper and finally realized with careful control of professionals.
General characteristics of these cities are.
- Have regular type of layout,
- Have standard street patterns,
- Well studied land use,
- Fair distribution and location of services,
- Future expansion schemes.
B. ORGANIC CITIES
These are cities that have evolved with the need and day to day activities of the society.
They grow by the unintended or unplanned actions of the society.
General characteristics of these cities are
- Irregular type of layout,
- Narrow, winding streets,
- Irregular pattern of land Use,
- Need oriented location of services,

Planned Cities
The planned cities are further classified in to five categories according to their shapes.
1. Grid-iron pattern
– A simple rectangle divided up into square blocks for building with streets.
Examples : Chandigarh, Washington, New Delhi, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
2. Radial pattern
– A pattern where roads from different directions forming a nodal group. Towns
established at this junctions took the form of a radial plan. Examples : Washington, New Delhi,
and Versailles
3. Spider web pattern
– When there is a radial plan a series of circumferential roads are introduced, closed
spaces between roads are created resulting in controlled development.
4. Composite of grid and radial pattern
– where the grid-iron is used for the sake of convenience of repeating the same or similar
unit.
5. Irregular pattern
–The difficulties of land undulation, presence of natural features may demand a layout
befitting the site, an irregular plan will be obtained

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 University of Nizwa / Department of Architecture / Fall 2015-16

Grid Iron

Radial Spider Web

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 University of Nizwa / Department of Architecture / Fall 2015-16

Organic

Composite

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