TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF

uRBaN DeSIGn
(An Introductory Lecture for AR 413A and 421S2)

Eduardo F. Bober, Jr.

Industry Lecturer
According to your Understanding of Urban Design:
• UD is a design outside of the bldg/property.
• UD is complicated, a theoretical aspect
• UD prioritizes or harmonizes with nature
• UD is a about cities–helps people to live an easy life
• UD is Urban Planning
• UD is planning the whole site, large area
• UD is architecture & a reflection of the buildings.
• UD is making the city more beautiful & attractive
Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

• It was coined in North

America in the late 1950’s
• Replaced the narrower
and outmoded term
“civic design” – focus on the
siting and design of civic buildings –
and their relationship to open spaces.
Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

• It denotes a more expansive approach -

evolving from an initial, predominantly aesthetic,
concern with the distribution of building masses and the
space between buildings.
• it has become primarily concerned with the
quality of the public realm (public space, public
environment or public domain - both physical and
socio-cultural - and the making of places for
people to enjoy and use.
Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design Public Spaces
Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

• The term “urban design” is ambiguous –

containing two somewhat problematical words:
URBAN – suggests the characteristics of towns and cities
DESIGN – refers to activities as sketching, planning,
arranging and pattern making.
• Within the practice of urban design, URBAN has a wide and
inclusive meaning embracing not only the city and town but also
the village and hamlet. DESIGN, rather than having a narrowly
aesthetic interpretation, is as much about effective problem
solving and/or the processes of delivering or organizing
development.
Towards an Understanding
7 Areas of Ambiguity
of Urban Design

1. Should urban design be focused at

particular scales or levels?
2. Should it focus only on the visual
qualities of the urban environment
or, more broadly, address the
organization and management of
urban space?
3. Should it simply be about
transforming spatial arrangements,
or about more deeply seated social
and cultural relations between
spaces and society?
PRODUCT
Towards an Understanding 7 Areas of Ambiguity
of Urban Design
4. Should urban design be
the province of Architects,
planners or landscape
architects?
5. Should it be a public or
private sector activity? PROCESS
6. Should it be seen as an
objective-rational process
(a science) or an
expressive-subjective
process (an art)?
Towards an Understanding
7 Areas of Ambiguity
of Urban Design

7. Should the focus of

urban design be its
product (the urban
?
environment) or the
process by which it is
produced?

PRODUCT-PROCESS
DILEMMA
Urban Design is both As a
a product and a process PRODUCT
• Ranges in scale from parts of an environment
• Manifests in all aspects of the physical
environment
• Involves what the place looks like, how it feels,
what it means, how it works for people who use
it

Concerns sensory and cognitive relationships
between people and their environment, with
how people’s needs, values, and aspirations can
best be accommodated in built forms.
Urban Design is both As a
a product and a process PROCESS
• Involves the art of shaping the built landscape
which has been formed over time by many
different actors.
• Tasks may have definite ends or be ongoing.
Implementation may or may not be under the
designer’s whole or partial control
• Concerns with design ideas and possibilities, with
community choices and decisions, and with the
urban development process

It has to do with the processes for shaping
environments and with the experiential quality of
the physical forms and spaces that result.
What then is
Urban Design?
• Falls between the profession of planning and
architecture
• Concerns in particular the shaping and uses of
urban public spaces
• Deals with the large scale organization and
design of the city, with the massing and
organization of buildings and space between
them, but not with the design of the
individual buildings
 Distinguishing Factors
ARCHITECTURE
Single Building/Complexes
1, 2, 3 or 5 years
Specific Development Control Less direct control
Deals only with the
functional requirements of
buildings and how it satisfies
users’ needs
Employed by
individual/developers
Involved with only with
physical design issues
URBAN DESIGN
Large scale such as entire
neighborhoods or cities
Long time frames
10-15 years
Deals with large number of
variables: transportation,
identity, pedestrian
orientation, etc
Employed by developers on
variety of projects and also by
public bodies
Involved with a spectrum
of social, cultural and
physical design issues
URBAN PLANNING
Typically considers the entire city.
Can extend beyond 30 years
Even less direct control
Deals with interconnectedness.
Look beyond the bounds of the
city and understand how the city.
Allocates land uses among
competing functions
Involved in political process where
public policy is formulated.
Involved with a spectrum of
social, cultural and physical
design issues
 Traditions of Thought The Visual-Artistic
in Urban Design Tradition
• More ‘architectural’ and narrower
understanding of urban design
• Predominantly ‘product-oriented’,
focused on the visual qualities and
aesthetic experience of urban
spaces rather than on the cultural,
social, economic, political and
spatial factors and processes
contributing to successful urban
places.
• Largely failed to acknowledge
public perceptions of townscapes
and places.
Traditions of Thought The Social-Usage
in Urban Design Tradition
Paths
• Emphasized the way in which Districts
people use and colonize space
• Encompassed issues of Landmarks Nodes
perception and sense of place.
• Kevin Lynch's attempted to
shift the focus of urban design
in two ways:
– In terms of appreciation of the urban
environment
– In terms of the object of the study
Traditions of Thought The Social-Usage
in Urban Design Tradition

• Jane Jacobs – also a key proponent

in her book: The Death and Life of
Great American Cities arguing that the
city could never be a work of art
because art was made by 'selection
from life', while a city was 'life at its
most vital, complex and intense’
• Concentrating on the socio-
functional aspects of streets,
sidewalks and parks, Jacobs’
emphasized their role as
containers of human activity and
places of social interaction.
Traditions of Thought
in Urban Design
• From the synthesis of earlier
traditions, urban design is
simultaneously concerned with the
design of urban space as an aesthetic
entity and as a behavioral setting.
• It focuses on the diversity
and activity which help to create
successful urban places, and, in
particular, on how well the
physical milieu supports the
functions and activities taking place
there.
The Making Places
Tradition
With this concept
comes the notion of urban
design as the design
and management of the
'public realm' - defined as
the public face of buildings,
the spaces between
frontages, — the activities
taking place in and
between these spaces, and
the managing of these
activities, all of which are
affected by the uses. of
the buildings themselves, i .e.
the 'private realm'
Traditions of Thought
in Urban Design
Seven (7 ) Objectives
of UD relating to
‘Concept of Place’ :
- Character
- Continuity and Enclosure
- Quality of the Public Realm
- Ease of Movement
- Legibility
- Adaptability
- Diversity
The Making Places
Tradition
…the relationship between
different buildings; the
relationship between buildings
and the streets,
squares, parks and other spaces
which make up
the public domain itself; the
relationship of one
part of a village, town or city with
the other
parts; and the patterns of
movement and activity
which are thereby established. In
short, the
complex relationships between
all the elements
of built and un-built space.
Traditions of Thought The Making Places
in Urban Design Tradition
7 Objectives of UD relating to ‘Concept of Place’ :
Character – a place with its own identity
Continuity & Enclosure – a place where public & private spaces
are clearly distinguished
Quality of the Public Realm – a place with attractive & successful
outdoor areas
Ease of Movement – a place that is easy to get to and move
through
Legibility – a place that has a clear image and is easy to
understand
Adaptability – a place that can change easily
Diversity – a place with variety and choice
General Considerations
in Urban Design
 Urban Structure – how a
place is put together and
how its part relate to its
other.
 Urban typology, density
and sustainability -
spatial types and
morphologies related to
intensity of use,
consumption of resources
and production and
maintenance of viable
communities.
General Considerations
in Urban Design
 Accessibility–
providing for ease,
safety and choice when
moving to and through
places
 Legibility and way
finding - helping
people to find their way
around and understand
how a place works.
General Considerations
in Urban Design

 Animation–
designing places to
stimulate public
activity
 Function & Fit-
shaping places to
support their varied
intended use
General Considerations
in Urban Design
 Complementary Mixed
Uses– locating activities
to allow constructive
interaction between
them
 Character and
Meaning - recognizing
& valuing the
differences between
one place and another
General Considerations
in Urban Design
 Order & Incident –
balancing consistency
and variety in the urban
environment in the
interests of
appreciating both
 Continuity and Change
- locating people in
time and place,
including respect for
heritage and support of
contemporary culture
 Contemporary Definition
of UD in place-making
Urban design involves place-making - the creation of a
setting that imparts a sense of place to an area.
 This process is achieved by establishing identifiable
neighborhoods, unique architecture, aesthetically pleasing
public places and vistas, identifiable landmarks and focal
points, and a human element established by compatible
scales of development and ongoing public stewardship.
 Key elements of place-making include: lively commercial
centers, mixed-use development with ground-floor retail
uses, human-scale and context-sensitive design; safe and
attractive public areas; image-making; and decorative
elements in the public realm.
 Lewis Mumford, The
Synthesis Culture of Cities (1938)
“Mind takes form in the city; and in turn, urban forms
condition mind. For space, no less than time, is artfully
reorganized in cities: in boundary lines and silhouettes,
in the fixing of horizontal planes and vertical peaks, in
utilizing or denying the natural site, the city records the
attitude of a culture and an epoch to the fundamental
facts of its existence. The dome and the spire, the open
avenue and the closed court, tell the story not merely
of the different physical accommodations, but of
essentially different conceptions of man’s
destiny…With language itself, it remains man’s greatest
work of art.”
Sources and References

• M. Carmona, T. Heath, T. Oc, S. Tiesdell (2003). Public Places,

Urban Spaces: The Dimensions of Urban Design. Architectural
Press, Oxford
• Levy, John M (2009), Contemporary Urban Planning, 8th
Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Educational Institute, Upper
Saddle River, NJ, USA
• Various internet sources: http://www.urbandesign.org/
• M. Roberts, C. Greed (2001). Approaching Urban Design: The
Design Process. Pearson Education Ltd., England.
Activity for this week
READ the REQUIRED Reading 1 on “Basic Concepts
of Urban Design: A Research Review” and answer
the following:
Who were the personalities mentioned in the
reading that were mentioned also in the lesson
presented and the ideas/concepts they espoused
about urban design?
What were the findings/conclusion of the research,
and given your initial understanding of urban
design, what is/are the factor/s that can be used
to create a successful urban design?