URBAN FABRIC

URBAN DESIGN-THEORY
What is it?
Urban fabric is the physical form of towns and cities. Like textiles, urban fabric comes in
many different types and weaves. It also refers to the physical urban environment
(elements, materials, form, scales, density and networks), and to its psychological,
socio-cultural, ecological, managerial and economic structures.

It relates to cities as webs or lacework, containing patterns and weaves, based on physical
entities, those which tend to be permanent by nature. By implication. these patterns dictate
much of the resulting potential for any population, their ideals or aspirations, which may
change periodically.

“urban web” or “fabric” is the calculated method which makes successive planning of
human residential conglomerates possible on a convenient scale, (not for small settlements
or minor rural habitats). The associated terms are webs, patterns, networks or urban weaves
This figure shows that the method can be chaotic in appearance (Bologna), but will
have an internal order, not lacking in geometry,(an orthogonal mix with radial
guidelines);internal crystallization and mixtures of grids , similar blocks and radial
roads (Sofia , Bulgaria),a more modern planning with diverse symmetries , mirror
images , regularity and straight grids(in Cairo, Egypt). Those systematic resolutions in
various plans mark the strong resemblance to crystal structures, and their peculiarities
in their meeting and borderline zones, the result of internal physical laws. This is where
the “frozen”urban structure meets another one, also “solidified”.
TYPES
Like textiles, urban fabric comes in many different types and weaves. Simply can be divided into
two typologies: coarse grain and fine grain:

FINE GRAIN
COARSE GRAIN FINE GRAIN COARSE GRAIN

In this Google image of Hoboken, NJ,

we see two very different types of block.
On the left is a fine-grained block with
40+ lots. On the right is a coarse-
grained block with only a handful of
lots.
COARSE GRAIN
“Long blocks isolate the users of one street from the next one over. This isolation reduces the
capability of those living on these streets to jointly support retail establishments.” —
Jane Jacobs

Coarse grain urban fabric is like burlap: rough, large-scale weaves that are functional, but not
usually comfortable. Such places consist of one of two things. Large blocks, predominated by
big box stores and other car contract retail and corporate centers, or multi block mega project
dropped on a city without integrating the surrounding city or community.

FINE GRAIN
“Street patterns must be easily navigable and lattice like, with blocks that are not too big and
intersections that are not too far apart.” —Roger Lewis

Fine grained urban fabric is not imposed on a community like its coarse cousin. Rather, it
evolves over time; responding to what came before, and adapting to what came afterwards.
This evolutionary process creates place that are not frozen in the era when they were built, but
are dynamic and reflective of a neighborhood’s changing needs.
 Older urban areas in the United States are
typically very fine-grained.

While newer urban areas in the United States

tend to typically be very coarse-grained.
WALKABILITY
Walkability is a measure of how friendly an area is to walking. Walkability has health,
environmental, and economic benefits.  Factors influencing walkability include the
presence or absence and quality of footpaths, sidewalks or other pedestrian rights-of-way,
traffic and road conditions, land use patterns, building accessibility, and safety, among
others. Walkability is an important concept in sustainable urban design.
One proposed definition for walkability is: "The
extent to which the built environment is friendly to the
presence of people living, shopping, visiting, enjoying
or spending time in an area". Factors affecting
walkability include, but are not limited to:
• Street connectivity
• Land use mix
• Residential density (residential units per area of
residential use)
• Presence of trees and vegetation
• Frequency and variety of buildings
• Entrances and other sensations along street
frontages
• Transparency, which includes amount of glass in
windows and doors, orientation and proximity of
homes, and buildings to watch over the street
• Plenty of places to go to near the majority of
homes
• Placemaking, such as street designs that work for
people, not just cars
• Retail floor area ratio