THEORY OF URBAN

DESIGN

I. Concept of space
Traditional definitions

Oxford English Dictionary:

Two meanings of space:
1.
Time or duration
2.
Area or extension (more common definition)

In physics, space has three dimensions (x-y-z

axes) and is considered as a volume not an
area.
Sir Isaac Newton (17th C) elaborated that space
is absolute.proper to itself..and independent
of the objects it contains (objects fit into space
an d not vice-versa)

New Approaches

1.
2.

Two main categories of space exist:

Mental Space (experiential)
Physical Space (existential)
The notion of space is said to originate in an
observers mind and is later imposed as a structure
on the physical world.mental space is an image of
physical space
The concept of space differs from culture to
cultureDifferent cultures have characteristic
spatial designs as expressed in their cities,
buildings, and art(ref. Dogon villages; japanese
Mandala e.t.c)
but space itself is universal! (transcends culture)

II. THE CONCEPT OF

AESTHETICS
Aesthetics

in urban design refers to the

creative arrangement of the elements
of a town in a beautiful and functional
manner.

Order

and beauty in a town are a

necessity, not an after thought..they
are as much a prerequisite to human
health as is fresh air.

Site-City-Observer Relationships
(viewing city from surrounding and viceversa)

Extracted form: harmony between buildings and

nature.e.g consider basic slopes, angle of hills, vegetation/tree canopies,

and rock outcrops. Reflects dominant and pervasive features of nature

Vistas and site supremacy:

Water: proximity to water and possible interplay a natural

view of landscape from the

citybeautifully framed countryside (panorama)
Expression: space markers /symbolgy/ ornamentation/detail e.g
towers and minarets; landmarks; accent of urban landscape and skyline
Entrance/Approach: profound impact of cities on the visitor
who traverses long, crowded streets/water.
Colour and light: choice of colour to reflect aesthetic
sensibility; quality of natural light an important visual factor.

asset; water edges, harbours, shorelines, islands, canals e.t.c

Geometry: form and relationships of angles, lines, curves
e.t.c
Human scale: how each inhabitant would use space and
how they would feel in it.

Aspects of Urban Form

(see BUR 203 notes)
Imageability: Physical Image v/s Functional
Image

Form-Function

Relationship
Main Variations of urban form and
structure: Linear, radial, grid, cluster e.t.c
Objectives of urban form (includes
growth; Meaning and identity e.t.c)

Growth

and decline

Existing Theories and

Practice

Theories that have motivated and still inform

the construction of cities are both normative
and functional.

Normative theories attempt to specify

"goodness.what is good city form?... and
discuss in detail the aspects that create good
cities..Prescriptive..What cities ought to be!

Functional theories attempt to explain how

cities perform by concentrating on city form
processes, spatial and social structure, and
form modelsDescriptiveWhat cities are!

Normative Theories
(selected examples)

1. The Cosmic Model

It assertions that the form of a permanent

settlement should be a magical model of the
universe and its gods.

Such a crystalline city has all of its parts fused into a

perfectly ordered whole and change is allowed to
happen only in a rhythmically controlled manner

specific phenomena included: such as returning,

natural items, celestial measurement, fixing location,
centeredness, boundary definition, earth images,
land geometry, directionality, place consciousness,
and numerology

2. The Machine Model

The analogy between city and machine has a long

history (ref. Egyptian and classical per strigas, Ron
Herons insect city; archigram movement; plug-in concept)

it occurs often when there is no long-term goal in

mind but the settlement has to be created
hurriedly and its future growth will be determined
by still unforeseen forces

Its form requires a few simple rules of

urbanization and the outcome is factual,
functional and devoid of the mystery of the
universe.

Among its attributes are convenience, speed,

flexibility, legibility, equality, and speculation .

3. The Organic Model

The analogy between city and living organism is

fairly recent arising with the growth of biology in the
18th and 19th centuries (ref. metabolists)

Model is critical of others, especially the machine

model with its "simple grids" as static

It asserts that an organism:

- is an autonomous being, with a definite boundary and is of a
specific size.
-does not change merely by adding parts but through reorganization as
it reaches limits or thresholds.
- contains differentiated parts but form and function are always linked.
- is homeostatic, self-repairing and regulating toward a dynamic
balance.

- undergoes cycles of life and death as is rhythmic passage from

one state to another.

Organic model (contd)

From this flows the notion of the form of the organic

city:
- A separate spatial and social unit made up internally
of highly connected places and people .
-A healthy community of heterogeneous and diverse
nature
- The micro unit is the neighborhood, a small
residential area, defined by Clarence Perry in 1929 as
the support area for an elementary school, to which
children, the most vulnerable of the human species,
can safely walk.
- Like organisms, settlements are born, grow and
mature, and if further growth is necessary, a new entity
has to be formed.Thus there are states of optimum
size, beyond which pathological conditions ensue.

Organic model (contd)

- Greeenbelts not only ensure an intimate contact
with nature but enclose healthy growth.

-A model with typical physical forms, among which

radial patterns, anti-geometrical layouts, and a
proclivity for natural materials.
- Often the organic idea is extended regionally to
connect settlements to valleys, trails and other
extended natural systems.
-There is an attraction to small-scale modes of
production or services as opposed to large-scale
synthetic processes. Often the model aligns itself
with a socio-economic philosophy that sees
increases in urban value as the result of
communal rather than individual endeavor.

4. The Contextual Model

This relates new development to an analysis of existing urban

structure.

A prominent concept of this canon is that of serial vision .

the sequential and unfolding nature of urban experience
(foreground/middle ground/background), with its
corners, divisions/modules, protrusions, and recesses/setbacks
e.t.c creating aspects of interest and surprise.

Context is something that has no clear or common spatial

definition; thus the impact of contextualism will vary with
geographical location and cultural influence.

The mainstream urban design has been strongly influenced by

contextualism in terms of a new respect for the overall form of
the traditional urban street and block and a concern for public
realm

(ref:Imageability (Kevin Lynch); permeability (Jane Jacobs);

adaptability/robustness (Standford Anderson). These ideas were later published
as Responsive Environments (Alcock et al)

5. The pragmatic Model

This is whereby urban design is defined according to

the needs of the epoch.. where the tools and
concepts are used selectively and exclusively in
regard to the locality.

The danger with this model lies in:

-Likely loss of understanding of the larger processes
affecting urban form
- Possible inability of making informed decisions at
urban scales
- Failure to embrace environmental disciplines that are
currently excluded and isolated from mainstream
urban design.

6. The Constructivist model

This explores techniques of form to create urban

interventions that express the spatial and temporal
complexity of a given age.

Deconstructionists are constructivists who use

unconventional techniques of form to express the essential
fragmentation in city environments.

Ref.
Peter Eisenman applies an approach that is more mathematical
and rational in nature, which tends to reject any hint of historical
contextualism.
Rem Koolhaas makes free use of the typologies of modernism,
recombining them in new and ironic ways
Bernard Tschumi, exploits the random collisions that results from
the layering of unrelated activity frameworks.
Frank Ghery and Zaha Hadid use unconventional techniques of
form to express order among chaos of modern cities

7. Functionalist Model

This was dedicated to exploring new

interwoven urban structures that would
allow opportunities for social
encounter/contact and exchange whose
end result is a humanising influence.

The interpretation of this philosophy,

however, varied widely in practice: low-,
medium-, and high- density; vehicular and pedestrian
segregation e.t.c

( Ref:Aldo van Eyck, Ralph erskine, Giancarlo De Carlo)

8. Rationalist Model

This offered a morphological/structural approach to urban

design that related new urban development to the historical
structure of the city and typologies of urban space .

The figure-ground drawing was widely used as a design tool.

As critical reconstruction, this method was used to

maintain and restore the traditional 19th century street
pattern and form of the urban block, street and square,
without constraining the contemporary architectural
expression of new building additions.

This was not a plea for unthinking preservation or for

regarding the city as a museum; rather, the aim was to
explore the deep structure inherent in building types and how
built forms accommodate changing, living uses over time.

(ref. Robert Venturi, Aldo Rossi, Scott Brown, Colin Rowe, Rob & Leon
Krier)

Functional
DescriptiveTheories
These are founded on the following characteristics:

Urban history: the city is regarded as a unique historic

process... explaining cities as derivative of their own culture (ref

Sjoberg, Rapoport).

Urban Ecology: city is regarded as an ecology of people,

each social group occupying space according to economic

position and class. (Ref. Burgess [concentric model], Weber,
Simmel and Spengler)

City economy: regards the city as an economic engine in

which space, unlike in the previous category, is both a
resource and an additional cost imposed on the economy
for production or consumption.location of cities an
optimization of raw materials, labour and market locations
(ref. Isard,Von Thunen,Christaller)

Functional Descriptive Theories

(contd)

Urban Communication: regards the city as a field of forces, a

communications network of particles which attract and repel
each other much as they do in physics.
Sub-sets of these ideas include population potential maps,
gravity models, communications flows, and various topological
models.

Urban Politics/Governance: understanding the city as a system of

linked decisions...affluence, imminent domain, citizen
participation in a democratic city; the game theory, in which
people interact together according to fixed rules and produce
agreed-upon outcomes

Urban Chaos: rejects previous theories of competition and posits

the city as an arena of conflict, in which the city's form is the
residue and sign of struggle, and also something which is shaped
and used to wage it. (Castells, Harvey. Lefebvre, Gordon)

Design Principles and

Techniques

Together these help in the correlation and

synthesis of spaces, functions, circulation,
sites, and orientation

Their choice and application (singly or

combined) will depend on the problem
context (modus operandi)

Overall they facilitate the conceptualizing

process..entailing decisions and choices

1. Design Principles
i)

Scale: refers to any system of measurement

appropriate to the context. Proportion as an
aspect of measurement introduces the aspect of
relativitybetween two objectsthe measured
and a universally known objecte.g headroom
describes space relative to human height.
A module is one part of a system of relative
proportions, where one part can combine with
other parts to form a larger object
(ref. Le corbusiers Modulor)

Applications of Scale in urban

design

Scale and Human vision: our eyse have two fields

of view general and detailed. General cone of vision
30 deg up; 45 deg down; 65 deg to either side.
The above determines urban scale in several ways:
we cannot see an object that is further from us than
3500 times its size8 feet is normal conversation
distance; a person between 3 and 10 ft is in close
relationship to ususe of normal voices; we can pick
facial details up to about 75ft. Beyond this, there is
need to complement with gesturesup to about
450ftalso maximum for distinguishing man from
womanmaximum viewing distance for human
figures is around 4000ft.

Scale and circulation: scale is determined

by the means we employ for movement
around the city as well as the way we move
between cities across the country.
Scale is determined by the different modes of
movement based on their speeds and sizes,
but also characteristics in movement
express versus stop-over/interactive
Scale and neighbourhood size: The citizen
numbers and levels of services will
determine the scale of a neighbourhoodthe
scale of a network of neighbourhoods would
determine the scale of the entire town.

Scale in neighbouring buildings and

spaces:
Buildings and spaces have to be in scale
with people, as well as in scale with each
other.this will also apply to other
variables like materials, colour, bulk, and
siting.
Intentional variations in scale could be used
to achieve emphasis and hierarchy in
design of buildings and spaces
Scale and parameters: This is where we
use attributes of familiar and known
objects and details such as cars, trees,
humans, light poles e.t.c to judge the sizes
of other things near them

Scale versus Age, time, convenience and habit:

Our sense of urban scale varies with our ages and
habits.the world of a child begins with the home
as one grows the world enlarges and separate parts
are linked togetherthe scale of their world enlarges
Our sense of urban scale is also determined by what
we are accustomed topeople adapt to
environments with timesay getting used to the
skyscrapers around us.
Urban scale may also vary with the temporal cycles
of the citythe rush hour with its fast traffic has a
different view of scale to the sluggish period of the
day, when people have all the time to observe and
pick details about the city.

ii) Urban Space: may be isolated or linked;

may be purposely designed to display
linkage or to emphasize buildings and
objects they contain.
Space may be linear/corridors; squares; or
reservesbased on their sizes they define
the hierarchy of spatial types..from small
intimate sizes to urban squares and the
natural space within which the city is set.
Spaces may also be enclosed or open.45
deg is full enclosure; 30deg is optimal; 18
deg is minimumanything less is lack of it!

iii) Urban Mass; This refers to the arrangement of

ground surface, buildings, and objects to influence
the quality of urban space and to shape urban
activity patterns on both large and small scales.
In terms of massing, buildings may be projecting
into space, be on a space, or in a space.
Our vision and light conditions govern the way we
perceive masses
Vision: 45deg is for details; 30deg is for whole
objects; 18deg is for object plus context
Light: under bright, clear sunlight the individual parts
of objects will tend to stand out..as light subdues
we tend to see less of details and more of the
overall object. Sculptured objects are best viewed
under even light such as shadow lightthus
northern and southern facades may transmit details
differently..depending our position in relation to
solar patterns.

iv) Responsiveness; these could be sensual or

environmental

Sensual: attempt to cater for all the senses:

Visual,Tactile, Auditory, Olfactory, Kinaesthetic

Environmental; that which provides users with

essentially democratic settings and enrich their
opportunities by maximising the degree of choice
available to them; the available techniques include:

i) Permeability
This refers to the number of alternative routes
through an environment; it affects where people
can go and where they cannot. This offers choice
through accessibility and must be considered at
early stages of design.

ii) Variety
This refers to the range of uses availed to
people in a given environment; it is the
experience of a degree of choice provided by
intermix of uses
iii) Legibility
This refers to the ease with which people can
understand the layout of a given environment
and the kind of opportunities it offers.
iv) Robustness
This refers to the degree to which an
environment can be used for different
purposes as opposed to those with a single
fixed use.

v) Visual appropriateness
This refers to the detailed appearance of a place
that makes people aware of the possible uses; it
affects the interpretations people put on places.
vi) Richness
This refers to the degree of choice in sensory
experiences that a place offers to its users.
vii) Personalisation
This refers to the extent to which people can put
their own stamp on a place; decisions about forms
and materials of the scheme must be carefully
made to support personalization but also protect
public role.

Other techniques

Open space technique: where to build

versus where to keep open; a variety of
usesparks, watersheds, public transit
lines, airports, e.t.c

An open space structure would be the

framework for relating land development
to transportation and also allow for other
decisions related to community life:
schools, churches, playfields e.t.c.

Transportation system technique;

patterns of movement as primary land
shapers; morphology of networks against
that of the land parcels they define.density
of development versus intensity of
circulation. Varios levels of network, their
hierarchic connectivity, as well as terminal
facilities.

Plug-in Technique; where a modular

system such as that of a grid is created and
within these defined uses and objects can be
inserted and removed with ease (flexibility)
initially used as a technique for design of
functions in individual buildings but later
replicated in city-wide design

Theory Versus Practice

(Why urban design matters)
We design spaces to attract people (public
realm)

Urban design creates a framework for our

lives.
understanding how humans perceive the
physical scale and form of cities is essential to
mastering design.

We feel and experience urban design every day

Every road width and building height delivers a

message to their users on how to use the public realm

Design brings order and relation into human

surroundings

Different designs affect residents in different ways,

and make the citys image more vivid and
memorable

Embedded in urban design theories is the

fundamental goal of balancing private
development and public good in a way that
incorporates the social, economic, and
cultural needs of a diverse urban population

Urban design must solve practical problems of

functionality first and foremost, as it creates tools for
people and their quality of life.