City Vitality and Urban Design

Urban Design 2020

Rabia Ezdi
Daniya Atta
Urban Design involves the design of the public
realm: the open space, streets, sidewalks, and
plazas between and around buildings and the
public interest issues of buildings
The arrangement and the qualities of the public
space affects the way people react, interact,
behave, and feel...
vistas, focal points, axis, enclosure, inner pattern, magnetic
points, scale, location and mixed use, texture, expression
Vistas and Focal
Points
 Vistas and focal points…

Paris: broad boulevards accommodate traffic and parking and

create grand vistas focusing on buildings and monuments
(Haussman’s paris?)
Schools as focal points in residential neighbourhood
Temporary focal points
Vistas..
Safdarjungs tomb entrance New Delhi
Isovists- A single isovist is the volume of space visible from a given point
in space, together with a specification of the location of that point. Isovists are
naturally three-dimensional, but they may also be studied in two dimensions:
either in horizontal section ("plan") or in other vertical sections through the
three-dimensional isovist
 Focal points

Built almost 1,500 years ago, the Hagia Sophia (Istanbul) was for centuries
Chritianity’s greatest church, a focal point of the Byzantine Empire.
Alamgiri Gate Lahore Fort: View from Badshahi Mosque Steps
Enclosure
-the 100m idea
-security, surveillance, and ‘eyes‘ on the space
-the idea of memory and association
 Enclosure
Plan of ancient city of Jarash
(presnt-day Jordan) including the
presumed principal features of
the early Islamic town. Legend:
1) Umayyad mosque; 2)
Possible Islamic administrative
centre; 3) Umayyad 'House' as
excavated by the Polish mission
- potential market area (suq); 4)
South tetrakonia - built over; 5)
Macellum & Southern Cardo; 6)
Oval Piazza - domestic quarter;
7) Zeus temple forecourt -
potential industrial area; 8)
Hippodrome and Bishop
Marianos church; 9) SS Peter
and Paul church; 10) Churches
of SS Cosmas and Damianus, St
George and St John the Baptist;
11) Christian complex of two
churches, a bath and housing all
occupied under the
Umayyads/Abbasids; 12)
Artemis compound - Islamic
ceramic production; 13)
Synagogue church; 14) North
Theatre - industrial area with
large kilns; 15) Naghawi's
'Umayyad mosque' discovered in
1981; 16) Central cardo with
blacksmith's shop. (Copyright ©
Alan Walmsley/ IJP)
Image from House, Form and Culture
 Inner pattern- every city has its
intimate inner pattern. Streets, squares, and other openings that make
buildings accesible and liveable
Town squares, Europe
St Mark’s Square, Venice (Italy)
Piazza del Campo- Sienna, Italy
 Piazza del
Campo-
Sienna, Italy
Spatial analysis by Sajjad Ali 2015
Axis
Axis
Axis: Islamabad (Doxi Adis)
Magnetic points along axis: Budapest
 Axis:
Niagara
Falls
USA
Level
Scale
Scale…’human’, monumental, or larger-than-life…
Scale: Singapore
Amsterdam- public transport defining urban scale
Tokyo
Rome- monumentality and the ‘image of time’
Florence, skyline
Manhattan, New York, USA
 Axis, Scale, Monumentality:
Lutyen’s British New Delhi, 1911

Designed as the “City

of Monuments” as part
of the City Beautiful
movement – the
underlying concept of
design was to create a
Grand, ‘Monumental’,
‘larger-than-life’ city
space which would
inspire awe among the
conquered colonial
citizens and be
symbolic of the implied
socio-cultural,
architectural and
political superiority, and
dominion of the
imperialist British
Empire.
Punjab University 1959- the ekistic grid and human scale

Doxiadis was involved in the

design of this new campus in
Pakistan and used ekistic
principles to create a campus
he believed was built for true
"human scale." Doxiadis
limited the number of roads
on campus, banning them
from the classroom areas. All
the educational buildings are
interconnected to permit
people to walk from one to
the other. Courtyards provide
a place for meetings between
people.

*ekistic:The science of human

settlements, including city or
community planning and design.
 Location and the
Mix of Uses
• Jane Jacobs
 Public
Expression
Urban Graffiti as Public Expression…
East Berlin
Anti-Muslim graffiti defaces a Shi'ite mosque at the Islamic Centre of
America in Dearborn, Michigan
Texture
Texture…
What is the Role
of Urban Design?
What are Quality
Public Places?