Master in Urban

Design
Lecture 1
 Difference between Urban Design and Urban Planning

There are very distinct differences. 

Urban planners work with policies that shape urban development. For example, an urban
planner can write policy recommendations for mass transit infrastructure, business development
strategies for economic development & job creation, or land use plans for transit-oriented
development. 

Urban designers work with the physical form of cities. For example, an urban designer can any
day be working on designing streetscapes and major transportation corridors; parks, open spaces,
waterfronts, and plazas; architectural design guidelines for neighborhoods & downtowns.
 What is Urban Design?

Urban design is concerned with the arrangement, appearance and function of our suburbs, towns
and cities. It is both a process and an outcome of creating localities in which people live, engage
with each other, and engage with the physical place around them.

Urban design involves many different disciplines including planning, development, architecture,
landscape architecture, engineering, economics, law and finance, among others.

Urban design operates at many scales, from the macro scale of the urban structure (planning,
zoning, transport and infrastructure networks) to the micro scale of street furniture and lighting.
When fully integrated into policy and planning systems, urban design can be used to inform land
use planning, infrastructure, built form and even the socio-demographic mix of a place.

Urban design can significantly influence the economic, environmental, social and cultural
outcomes of a place.
 What is Urban Design?

Urban design can influence the economic success and socio-economic composition of a locality

—whether it encourages local businesses and entrepreneurship; whether it attracts people to live
there; whether the costs of housing and travel are affordable; and whether access to job
opportunities, facilities and services are equitable.

Urban design determines the physical scale, space and ambience of a place and establishes the
built and natural forms within which individual buildings and infrastructure are sited. As such, it
affects the balance between natural ecosystems and built environments, and
their sustainability outcomes.

Urban design can influence health and the social and cultural impacts of a locality: how people
interact with each other, how they move around, and how they use a place.
Although urban design is often delivered as a specific ‘project’, it is in fact a long-term process
that continues to evolve over time. It is this layering of building and infrastructure types, natural
ecosystems, communities and cultures that gives places their unique characteristics and identities.
List of Books for reference-

Broadbent, Geoffrey. Emerging Concepts of urban Design

Bacon, Edmund, N. Design of Cities
Gosling, David & Maitland, Barry, Concepts of Urban design
Morris, Anthony, J.E. History of Urban Form
Kostof, Spiro, The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History
Kostof, Spiro, City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings through History