Urban Design

Understanding Urban Design

Urban Design

 Definition?
 What is urban design to you?
Definition
 Lack of a universal/ cross-cultural definition: each age and culture has
produced its own definition based on its own expectations and
possibilities.
 The design of built up area at city or local scale, including the
grouping of buildings for different use, the movement systems and
services associated with them, and the spaces and urban landscape
between them.
 Organization of space, time, and communication. (Amos Rapoport,
1977).
 That part of town planning or architecture that determines the order
and form of the city with special emphasis on aesthetics (Frederick
Gutheim, 1963).
Multidisciplinary Subject
 Complex and multidisciplinary subject
 integrates the processes and expertise of many related disciplines
including:
 Art
 Architecture
 Landscaping
 Social sciences
 Economics
 Town Planning
 Engineering
 Transport
Urban Design
 The environment consists of tangible and intangible elements.
 Buildings, roads, footpaths, parks, open spaces, shops, commercial areas,
public facilities etc.
 Non-visual elements such as smell, noise, feeling of danger and safety
Scale of Urban Design

 Macro or micro scale

 Cities and settlements or parts of urban areas
 Different issues in either case
 Macro urban: focus on broad issues of organization of space and functions
 Micro urban: concentrated on public face of architecture, public spaces,
design at scale
Visual or Spatial Management

 Producing nice ‘images’

 Our first encounter is a visual experience
 We first see the object in front of us and later begin to understand how they
relate to each other.
 Attracting investors
 We create spaces which we can use for multiple purposes
 Study how they interact with each other
 Innovative rather than fashionable
Social Setting and Urban Design

 How people perceive things

 Jane Jacobs (the life and death of great American cities) describes in detail
how important a part social behaviors play in design.
 Behavior, perception and expectations of the user
Urban Movement
 Modes of transportation
 Fast moving traffic
 Slow moving traffic
 Animal carts
Urban Design

 Technical process
 Focus on multiple stakeholders
 Economic conditions
Urban Design

Ali Madanipour in his book “design of urban space: an inquiry into socio-spatial
process (1996)” states:
Urban design is a process through which we ‘consciously shape and manage
our built environments’, urban designers are interested in and engaged with
both, the process and the product.

It is a multidisciplinary field of activity rather than a discrete discipline or

profession.
Do we need iconic buildings every time
without regards to its surroundings?
Urban Design Framework

Francis Tibbalds (president RTPI 1988) wrote a book in 1992: making people
friendly towns. He suggested a more sophisticated urban design framework.
 Places matter most
 Learn lessons from the past
 Encourage the mixing and usage of activities
 Design on a human scale
 Encourage pedestrian freedom
 Build lasting environments
 Control change
 Contribute to greater whole
 Legibility
 Identity should remain intact
Review
Urban Design

 Organization of space: for different purposes and according to different rules

that reflect the needs, values, and desires of the groups or individuals
 Organization of Time: tempos and rhythms of human activity, past
versus future.
 organization of communication: a way of controlling interaction – its nature,
direction, rate, etc. who communicates with who, when, where, and how.
How the built environment and social organization are linked and
related…..social logic of space.
 organization of meaning: communicative and symbolic properties of space
through signs, materials, colours, forms, landscaping etc.
Criteria
 Function
 Appeal
 Quality of urban areas; (ambience)
 Community well-being:
 Environmental stress
 Behavioural support
 Identity
 Diversity
 Legibility
 Meaning/communication
 Development
 Perceptual engagements
 Regeneration
 Constraints
THANK YOU