URBAN TERMINOLOGIES

1. Urban design
Design of public urban environments. The aspects of architecture and city
planning that deal with the design of urban structures and space. It is
concerned with the arrangement, appearance and function of our suburbs,
towns and cities, etc...

Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the

development and design of land use and the built environment, including air,
water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as
transportation, communications, and distribution networks.

2. Urban Sprawl
An unplanned development of open land, usually on the outskirts of a city.
Uncontrolled spread of urban and suburban development farther and farther
away from the urban core

3. Agora
An open public meeting place for assembly surrounded by public buildings, or
a marketplace
(Chief meeting place in ancient Greek eg. Antiphellus)

4. Forum
A Roman public square surrounded by monumental buildings, usually
including a basilica and a temple; the center of civic life was often purely
commercial. The center of civic life. (A forum sometimes was purely
commercial in aspect - eg. Forum of Trajan, Rome)

5. Vista - its a distant view through or along an avenue or opening: prospect.

2 : an extensive mental view (as over a stretch of time or a series of events)

6. Imageability - it is a measure of how easily a physical object, word or

environment will evoke a clear mental image in the mind of any person
observing it.

7. NODE - is a centralized hub outside of the city. It's where there's activity
and the infrastructure to support it, such as residential, commercial and retail
buildings, usually alongside public transport options

8. TRUNCATION or SHORTENING - cut views and making more

anticipations, not prolonging

9. URBAN GRAIN - Urban grain is a key part of the urban form of all places,
and it too has suffered from a lack of research and investigation. Urban
grain is essentially a description of the pattern of plots in an urban block and
when this pattern is dominated by small plots it is described as fine urban
grain
10. STREET FURNITURE

11. URBAN FABRIC - the physical material of a building, structure, or city,

connoting an interweaving of component parts

12. Urban Renewal - 3R's

13. CMDA, DTCP, CMA, URDPFI

14. PEDESTRIANISATION

15. Urban Structure - Urban structure is the arrangement of land use in urban areas,
in other words, how the land use of a city is set out. ... Urban structure can also refer
to urban spatial structure, which concerns the arrangement of public and private space
in cities and the degree of connectivity and accessibility.

16. Urban Poor

17. Population Density

18. Urban & Rural Area

19. Morpho + logy (Morphology) - The next step in evolution.

- physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, personally, philosophically,
grammatically, metaphysically, acrostically, pneumonically, or, quite possibly.
Logy - Science

20. Image of the city - Paths, Nodes, District, Landmarks & Edges

21. Urban Agglomeration -

An urban area, or built-up area, is a human settlement with a high population
density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created
through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities,
towns, conurbations or suburbs

22. Urban Context

Urban context refers to the broader setting of an identified area. The context
may include the physical surroundings of topography, movement patterns and
infrastructure, built form and uses, the governance structures, and the
cultural, social and economic environment. The urban context can include the
community vision for the area, and preferred future character, form and
function.

23. Traffic Calming -

Physical devices installed in streets to slow or reduce vehicle traffic and
improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. Traffic calming devices include
speed humps, chicanes and narrows, sized for the desired speed. These
measures can slow cars speed to between 15 and 40km per hour.
24. Streetscape - The visual character of a street space that results from the
combination of street width, curvature, paving, street furniture, plantings and
the surrounding built form and detail. The people and activities present in the
street also contribute to the streetscape.

25. Public Space - An area in the public realm that is open to public access,
provides a public use or recreation function, and that is owned and maintained
by councils or other government agencies. However, some privately-held land
is available for the public to access and use, such as a building forecourt, a
walk-through, or a shopping mall. The private land owner may control aspects
of access and use - see Private land.

26. Public Realm - The public realm comprises spaces and places that are
open and freely accessible to everyone, regardless of their economic or social
conditions. These spaces can include streets, laneways and roads, parks,
public plazas, waterways and foreshores.

27. Plaza - A type of public open space connected to the street network that
can range in size from a building forecourt to a large city square. A plaza may
be a wide mid-block pedestrian link, bordered by buildings or attached to a
public building such as a town hall, school, or entertainment and sports
facility.

28. Permeability - The extent to which the urban structure permits, or

restricts, movement of people or vehicles through an area, and the capacity of
the area network to carry people or vehicles.

29. Enclosure - Where the building frontage height, street width and street
tree canopy creates a feeling of a contained space within the street.

30. Cul - de - sac - A street with only one inlet/outlet connected to the wider
street network.
A closed cul-de-sac provides no possible passage except through the single
road entry. An open cul-de-sac allows cyclists, pedestrians or other non-
automotive traffic to pass through connecting paths at the cul-de-sac head.

31. CAPT - (Continuous Accessible Paths of Travel) An uninterrupted path of

travel to or within a building that provides access to all facilities. This kind of
path avoids any step, stairway, turnstile, revolving door, escalator or other
impediment that would prevent it being safely negotiated by people with
disabilities.

32. Adoptability ( Adoptive re use) - The capacity of a building or space to

respond to changing social, technological, economic and market conditions
and accommodate new or changed uses.

33. Conurbation: The urban equivalent of the Blob: an area formed by

multiple towns and cities merging together to create one district.
34. Coving: An urban planning method of winding roads and non-uniform lots.
Sounds fun until you drive by the same house 4 times and realize you have
no idea where you are.

35. Ekistics: The fancy science behind urban planning. A term used by
people who really care about "The Power of Design"

36. Green belt: A policy used in urban planning to retain a “belt” of the natural
environment around urban areas, because if there’s still a tiny strip of green
we can keep pretending we’re not destroying the Earth.

37. Isovist: A measurement referring to the set of points visible from a certain
point in space.

38. New Urbanism: An urban design movement that promotes pedestrian-

friendly cities that are environmentally sustainable and built for communities.

39. NIMBY: An acronym for Not In My Backyard. The sort of people who
believe shelters should be built for the homeless as long as they’re not
anywhere within a 5-mile radius of their own house.

40. Ribbon development: When developments occur alongside a ribbon,

usually main roads and railway stations. Leads to urban sprawl.

41. Smart city: Similar to the conscious city, the smart city uses data
collection to gain information about its residents in order to manage the city
effectively. Has the potential to vastly improve how we live, but also sounds
like a Black Mirror episode

42. Tactical urbanism: Similar to a tac munt (see: tactical spew), it involves a
small-scale, temporary intervention for the greater good.

43. Terminating vista: Super important buildings that stand at the end of a
road, so you can’t escape the view.

44. Urban prairie: Urban land that has reverted to green space. For those of
us that live outside America, it conjures up a vague image of green fields and
blonde little girls in bonnets.

45. Urban Acupuncture: Surprisingly exactly what it sounds like: the

intersection of urban design and traditional Chinese acupuncture. Consists of
targeting small areas to relieve the stress of the overall city and listening to
chanting music while trying to ignore the fact that thousands of needles are
being stabbed into your body.

46. Walkability: The degree to which an area loves its pedestrians.

47. Zone of transition: A zone of flux and change in the

concentric urban model created by Ernest Burgess.
48. Comprehensive planning is a process that determines community goals
and aspirations in terms of community development. The result is called a
comprehensive plan and both expresses and regulates public policies on
transportation, utilities, land use, recreation, and housing. Comprehensive
plans typically encompass large geographical areas, a broad range of topics,
and cover a long-term time horizon.

49. Downtown is a term primarily refer to a city's commercial, cultural and

often the historical, political and geographic heart, and is often synonymous
with its central business district (CBD). It is marked by a cluster of tall
buildings, cultural institutions and the convergence of rail transit and bus lines.

50. Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are
adjacent to a major city. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and
employment bases sufficient to support their residential populations.
Conceptually, satellite cities could be self-sufficient communities outside of
their larger metropolitan areas. However, functioning as part of a metropolis, a
satellite city experiences cross-commuting (that is, residents commuting out of
and employees commuting into the city).

51. Synekism is a concept in urban studies coined by Edward Soja. It refers

to the dynamic formation of the polis state — the union of several
small urban settlements under the rule of a "capital" city (or so-called city -
state or urban system). It is basically the stimulus of urban agglomeration

52. Axis
a real or imaginary straight line around which the parts of a structure or space
are symmetrically or evenly
arranged or composed

53. Cluster Development - a development design technique that

concentrates buildings in specific areas on a site to allow the remaining
land to be used for recreation, common open space, and preservation of
environmental resources; units are grouped on smaller parcels than zoning
would otherwise permit, but the average density for the tract is maintained

54. Compatibility
• the characteristics of different uses or activities which allow them to be
located near each other
in harmony; some elements affecting compatibility include intensity of
occupancy as measured
by dwelling units per acre, floor area ratio, pedestrian or vehicular traffic; also,
complimenting
uses may be compatible, like residential and retail uses
• the characteristics of different designs which allow them to be located near
each other in
harmony, such as scale, height, materials, fenestration, etc.

55. Gentrification -
a term used to describe what happens when new residents (gentry) purchase
and renovate older, inner-city housing in an otherwise distressed area;
gentrification often causes the displacement of lower income residents - as
real estate values rise so do rents and property taxes

56. Scenic Corridor

a strip of land on either side of a right-of-way or resource such as a stream
that is generally visible to the public
and is valued for its scenic qualities

57. Scenic Easement

a restriction on the use of land or buildings to protect an important view or
scenic corridor

58. Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND)

a compact, pedestrian-oriented development with a mix of uses, traditional
buildings and streets, convenient
services, and well-defined public spaces

59. Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)

a system of land development control wherein rights, or development units,
are assigned to parcels of land
based upon planning studies and density control factors; these rights are
separable and maybe transferred from
properties in “sending” zones to properties in “receiving” zones; thus they are
marketable; once a development
right is transferred or sold, a restriction is placed on the “sending” parcel;
TDRs have been used to protect
agricultural land and historic resources, and permit increased density in target
areas