AR 17 -72

URBAN DESIGN
UNIT – I
• Definition of Urban Design, its evolution
as a discipline interfaced between
Architecture, and Urban Planning.
• Need, scope and Objectives of Urban
Design
• Urban form of traditional cities and
historic place making from ancient-
medieval-renaissance industrial and
modern times
• Concepts of post-modern urbanism and
its influences in contemporary urban
space design and development.
 URBAN DESIGN -
DEFINITION
• Urban design is the art of making places
for people. It is the collaborative and
multi-disciplinary process of shaping the
physical setting for life in cities, towns and
villages.
• Hence it addresses the larger scale of
groups of buildings, of streets and public
spaces, whole neighborhoods and districts,
and entire cities, to make urban areas
functional, attractive, and sustainable.
• Urban Design is the process of organizing
the physical elements of the urban
environment to satisfy human objectives
(Social, Economic, and Physiological &
Psychological).
 URBAN DESIGN –
DEFINITION
Urban design is derived from but transcends
planning and transportation policy, architectural
design, development economics, engineering and
landscape. It draws these and other strands
together creating a vision for an area and then
deploying the resources and skills needed to bring
the vision to life.
• Urban design involves the arrangement and
design of buildings, public spaces, transport
systems, services, and amenities.
• Urban design is the process of giving form,
shape, and character to groups of buildings, to
whole neighborhoods, and the city.
Slide 27

• It is a framework that orders the elements into a

network of streets, squares, and blocks.
• Urban design blends architecture, landscape
architecture, and city planning together to make
urban areas functional and attractive.
• Urban design is about making connections
between people and places, movement and urban
form, nature and the built fabric.
 URBAN DESIGN – SCOPE
Urban Design is a discipline and a body of practice.
There are many concepts of what is Urban Design,
about what constitutes its object, role and methods.
Some focus on its role in physical planning or our
cities, including street layout, neighborhood
structure, blocks and parcels, buildings massing,
distribution and character of the open space:
"Urban Design is defined as the relationship
between different buildings; the relationship
between buildings and the streets, squares, parks,
waterways and other spaces which make up the
public domain; the nature and quality of the public
domain itself; the relationship of one part of a
village, town or city with 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
unbuilt space.
Urban design is not simply concerned with new
development but also with the maintenance and
enhancement of existing development.
URBAN DESIGN – INTERMEDIATE
SCALE BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE &
URBAN PLANNING
• Architecture is the art or practice of
designing & constructing buildings.
The three tenets of architecture are
Function, Form and Firmness.
• Urban design is concerned with the
functionality of spaces between
buildings & structures. It is the art of
making places for the city people. It
involves the study of Squares, Plazas,
Streets and Pedestrian precinct.
• Urban planning is the design and
organization of Urban spaces, building
blocks and infrastructure. It deals with
the layout of cities and regions to fulfil
the needs of the community & economy.
 Architectural
Design

* Relates to single building

* Insists on function of one building(residential –

commercial – office…)

* Form of one building (colors –

materials….)

* No focus on spaces between buildings or other

buildings
 Urban
planning

* Organizes the physical components of the city

*Deals with functional relationships between the elements of

the city uses of the buildings- streets- transportation-
infrastructure….

* focus on function not on aesthetics

 So, there is a need to an
intermediate scale

Urban Architectural
planning Design

Large scale Limited scale

* Deals with groups of
buildings and the urban
Urban
spaces between these
buildings Design
*open spaces like
“streets- pedestrian
paths- gardens-
squares……”
*Concerns with
aesthetics of physical
environment”
landscape- furniture of
open spaces……
*Focuses on the users of
these spaces
COMPARISION BETWEEN THE SCOPE OF ARCHITECTURE, URBAN DESIGN &
URBAN PLANNING
Urban
Architecture Urban Planning
Design
Scale Individual building Spaces between Whole neighbourhoods, districts &
buildings: street, park, cities
transit stop
Orientation Aesthetic and Aesthetic and Utility
functional functional

Treatment 2D & 3D 3D Predominantly 2D

of space
Time frame No definite time frame Short Term (<5 years) Long Term (5 to 20 years)
 SCALES IN URBAN DESIGN
URBAN DESIGN OPERATES AT 3 DIFFERENT
SCALES
the region the neighborhood the block
City & town District & corridor Street &
building

Urban design is designing the city without designing the buildings – Jonathan
 NATURE OF URBAN DESIGN
Another concept distinguishes between urban design
and other types of design and focuses on the process
rather than on a specific object or methodology.
- A clear framework provided by development plans
and supplementary guidance delivered consistently,
including through development control
- A sensitive response to the local context; judgments
of what is feasible in terms of economic and market
conditions.
- An imaginative and appropriate design approach by
those who design development and the people who
manage the planning process.
Urban design is a second-order design (because urban
design is design that is one step removed from the
designed object; where the first-order design could be
architecture, landscape architecture or interior
design).
Contemporary urban design constitutes multiple
clients, distributed decision-making, and a number of
factors including economic, political, social and legal
besides aesthetics, climate, and function."
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URBAN DESIGN – AIMS &

OBJECTIVES
1. Establish a comprehensive spatial development
framework and a set of development policies
2. A direct response to people’s needs and
creating a liveable environment. It covers all
dimensions like visual, perceptual, social,
cultural, historic and symbolic resources of
community.
3. Increase the functional efficiency by relating
the circulation, urban activities and use of land
to physical form.
4. Accommodating urban growth and should be
capable of adapting variables of unpredicted
growth.
5. Economically feasible solutions, geared to
incremental implementation over a substantial
time period.
6. Solving the environmental deficiencies that
exist in terms of physical, visual, perceptual,
social and psychological terms.
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URBAN DESIGN - ELEMENTS
Buildings: are the most pronounced elements of
urban design - they shape and articulate space
forming the street walls of the city.
Public Space: is the place where people come
together to enjoy the city and each other. . Public
spaces range from grand central plazas and squares,
to small, local neighborhood parks.
Streets: are the connections between spaces and
places, as well as being spaces themselves. They are
defined by their physical dimension and character as
well as the size, scale, and character of the buildings
that line them.
Transport: Transport systems connect the parts of
cities and help shape them, and enable movement
throughout the city. They include road, rail, bicycle,
and pedestrian networks, and together form the total
movement system of a city.
Landscape: is the green part of the city that weaves
throughout. It appears in form of urban parks, street
trees, plants, flowers, and water in many forms. The
landscape helps define the character and beauty of a
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URBAN DESIGN - ASPECTS
 Visual – aesthetic
 Appearance
 Townscape
 Public Perception
 Social usage of Public Realm
 Environmental- sustainability, energy/
resource optimization, waste
minimization
 Holistic- functional, social,
psychological, environmental
The creative articulation of space is the
most prominent aspect of Urban
Unity  Balance Proportion
design.
 Scale  Hierarchy  Symmetry
The artistic principles that are an
 Rhythm  Contrast  Context integral part of creating urban form
and spaces are given in the tabular
 Detail Texture Harmony
format in the adjacent image.
 Beauty  Order  
 NEED FOR URBAN DESIGN
Urban design is the key to making places
that are good to live & attractive to visit.
Urban design is essential in creating a
community identity & character to city
spaces.
SABARMATI RIVERFRONT
PROJECT, AHMEDABAD - Thoughtfully done Urban design can
HCP contribute to reduction in crime and
anti-social behavior.
Carefully done Urban design projects
make the city spaces successful socially
and economically.
Urban design ideas should be applied to
new growing sub urban parts of the city
to achieve orderly growth.
Urban design projects also include
revitalization of old city inner core areas.
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URBAN FORM OF
HISTORICAL CITIES
FORM DETERMINANTS OF EARLY
SETTLEMENTS
1. TOPOGRAPHY – SEA FRONT, RIVER
BANK, HILL & RIDGE TOP, FLAT
PLAINS
2. CLIMATE – SETTLEMENT
PATTERNS WERE CLOSE
TOGETHER IN HOT DRY CLIMATE
FOR INTERSHADING BUT FAR
APART WITH COURTYARDS IN HOT
HUMID CLIMATE FOR
VENTILATION.
3. LAND & WATER ROUTE JUNCTIONS
& CROSSINGS – SETTLEMENTS
EVOLVED AS TRADING OUTPOSTS.
4. POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS & DEFENSE
FACTORS – ALSO DETERMINED
URBAN FORM.
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MOHENJO DARO – RIVER BANK
Indus valley civilization flourished around 4000
BC on the banks of the Indus river which flows
through Pakistan. Mohenjodaro and Harappa
were the main cities which were excavated in
the 20th century
The city of Mohenjodaro is remarkable for its
orthogonal street layout & is one of the early
examples where a town was planned with
roads intersecting at right angles and the
settlements being located around important
public buildings such as the Great bath,
Granary, Assembly hall etc as focal points.
The houses were built on raised mud brick
platforms and the rooms were planned around
a square central court that was open to the
sky. It was one of the earliest examples
featuring underground drains for storm water.
The Great Bath was a public bath house that
could hold up to 100 persons bathing at the
same time.
ATHENS – 1000BC TO 300BC
ANCIENT CITIES – GREEK – HILL AREA
The plan of Athens shows one of the earliest examples of public space
which is well defined and functional in a city – 1.The Acropolis contains a
group of temples located on top of a plateau & hence is a space for religious
activities. 2. The Agora is a market square which also served as an
informal space of public gathering and had the Stoa which is a market
building surrounding it.
Athens has an irregular street pattern which has resulted from its rocky and
mountainous terrain and hence is a historic example of city form
responding to the contours of the site. The town has the Acropolis which is
the sacred precinct and the Agora which is the market square as its main
focal points with the temples, theatres and stadium forming the other areas
of public congregation.
The buildings in the Acropolis such as the Parthenon, the Erechtheon, the
Propylae, etc are all oriented in the east west axis. The Acropolis served as
the seat of power with the temples also serving as storehouse of valuables.
Moreover the Acropolis also served as a place of retreat during times of
siege.
Th Agora is a group of horizontal buildings enclosing an urban space which
as a visual composition exhibits asymmetrical balance. It served as a civic
center & a major market place. Agora is the first example of an urban space,
whose character keeps changing with the buildings that were constantly
altered or added. The lesson of the agora is that urban space is flexible and
constantly changing over time.
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ROMAN TOWN PLANNING -100BC TO 800AD URBAN FORM – ROMAN PLAN
•The roman colonial town was a system of
gridiron streets enclosed by a defensive
wall.
• The Romans also introduced the concept of
major and minor streets which intersected
each other at right angles and were called
Cardo and Documanus.
•The rectilinear town form had all the
buildings of public assembly such as the
theatre, the arena and the market placed
randomly.
• The diagram shows the plan of Timgad, in
North Africa, where the major streets divide
the town into four quadrants.
•However the central part of the town later
developed into the Forums which were
public urban spaces meant for congregation.
PLAN OF TIMGAD, NORTH AFRICA
 ROMAN FORUM – PUBLIC SPACE
• SIMILAR TO THE GREEK AGORA THE
FORUMS IN ROME WERE ONE OF THE
EARLIEST EXAMPLES OF PUBLIC SPACE
MAKING.
• IT WAS A PAVED OPEN SPACE USED FOR
PUBLIC GATHERINGS, SURROUNDED BY
IMPORTANT PUBLIC BUILDINGS SUCH AS
TEMPLES, BASILICAS, PALACES &
MARKETS.
• THE FORUM ROMANUM WAS THE
COMMERCIAL & ADMINISTRATIVE HEART
OF ROME – MEASURES ABOUT 1000 ‘
LONG ON THE EAST WEST AXIS.
• ARCHITECTURALLY IT WAS A LINEAR
SPACE WITH THE SENATE BUILDING AT
ONE END & ADORNED WITH
CEREMONIAL PILLARS & STATUES.
FORUM ROMANUM • IT MADE THE ROMANS REALISE THE
(LEFT) & IMPERIAL VALUE OF ENCLOSED URBAN SPACES.
FORUM (ABOVE)
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IMPERIAL FORUM, ROME
The Imperial forum was composed of
square, rectilinear and semi circular
plazas, each formed by a colonnade
and acting as a setting for an important
building such a temple or a basilica,
which was the roman court of justice. It
measured 200 x 120 M and was the
largest roman forum.
The open square of the forum was
flanked by colonnades and semicircular
exedra & the main view direction is
towards the massive basilica at one
end. Such a configuration was useful as
it created distinct spaces within a
larger place and the plazas were
connected by the colonnade that acted
both transition and link.
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URBAN FORM – MEDIEVAL
THE MIDDLE AGES WAS PREOCCUPIED WITH
CHRISTIANITY AS A RELIGION IN VARIOUS PARTS OF
EUROPE AND LED TO THE FORMATION OF VARIOUS
SECTS AND ORDERS.
EACH SECT BUILT A CHURCH AND AN ABBEY AROUND
WHICH A TOWN DEVELOPED IN DUE COURSE OF TIME.
THE WALL WAS THE FORTIFICATION, THE CHURCH WAS
USUALLY THE FOCAL POINT OF THE TOWN & THE
MARKET PLACE WAS THE MAIN STREETS OF THE
SETTLEMENT.
HENCE THE WALL, THE CHURC H AND THE MARKET
PLACE WERE ESSENTIALLY THE 3 MAIN COMPONENTS
OF URBAN DESIGN IN ANY MEDIEVAL TOWN IN
EUROPE.
FRA GIACONDA’S SKETCH SHOWS THE CENTRAL
CHURCH AND FORTIFICATIONS ENCIRCLING THE TOWN
WITH GATE TOWERS. THE SETTLEMENT WAS IN A
RADIATING PATTERN.
SIMILIARLY POLYGONAL SHAPE FORTIFICATIONS WITH
PROJECTING BASTIONS AND MOAT WERE FOUND VERY
USEFUL FOR DEFENDING THE TOWN FROM INVADERS.
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MEDIEVAL - AMSTERDAM
AMSTERDAM IS A FINE EXAMPLE OF
MEDIEVAL TOWN PLANNING THAT
HAS BEEN CREATED BY BUILDING THE
DYKES TO WITH HOLD THE SEA AND
CANAL WATER.
SHOWN ON THE LEFT ARE THE
DIAGRAMMATIC LAYOUTS OF FOUR
TYPES OF DUTCH SETTLEMENTS.
DYKES ARE BUILT ON THE CANAL SIDE
AND RIVER SIDE TO CREATE THE HIGH
GROUND ON WHICH THE
SETTLEMENTS ARE BUILT.
ON THE HIGH GROUND THE ROADS
GIVE ACCESS TO INDUVIDUAL HOUSES
& WHEREVER THE PERPENDICULAR
ROAD CROSSES THE CANAL BRIDGES
ARE BUILT FOR TRANSPORT.
AMSTERDAM - PLANNING
IN 1250 SETTLEMENT BEGINS AROUND
RIVER ARMSTEL AND SUBSEQUENTLY
DAMS & DYKES ARE CONSTRUCTED.
THE MEDIEVAL CENTRE IS THE AREA IN
THE CENTER AROUND RIVER AMSTEL
WHICH IS ALSO THE OLDEST. THEN THE
CANAL RING IS FORMED AROUND THE
MEDIEVAL CENTER & FINALLY THE OUTER
AREA KNOWN AS JORDAN WAS
DEVELOPED AS INDUSTRIAL ZONE.
THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM OF
METRO RAIL AND TRAM IS SUPPORTED BY
THE FERRY WATER TRANSPORT SYSTEM.
IT IS BASICALLY 16TH CENTURY
ARCHITECTURE BOUND BY CANALS AND
INTERSECTED BY NARROW STREETS AND
BRIDGES. AMSTERDAM IS PROTECTED BY
FORTIFICATIONS & MOAT ON 3 SIDES.
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REBUILDING
FERRARA
• Italian Rossetti prepared
a plan for rebuilding the
old town of Ferrara,
which provided for
widening of the major
streets, erection of new
buildings and improving
the encircling wall.
• He also made a plan for
enlarging the town to
more than double its size,
that specified gates,
roads, plazas and key
buildings.
THE OLD SETTLEMENT & PROPOSED LAY He planned 3 new broad streets for the extension, with
one of these along east west connecting the new town
OUT IS SHOWN ON THE RIGHT WHERE AS
with the old and the other two at right angles which
THE LATER DEVELOPED PLAN OF divided the city into four quadrants. He is regarded as
FERRARA IS SHOWN ON THE LEFT. one of the earliest urban designer because his plan
provided for a loose framework around which the town
would grow in a logical way.
RENAISSANCE URBAN PLANNING
REBUILDING ROME
Rome was confronted with the problems of
growth faced by all cities such as old ruins,
circulation, water supply, sanitation etc. the
popes realized that since Rome was also a
place of pilgrimage, they needed to improve
not only the churches & shrines but also the
connecting roads.
Architect Fontana’s plan is displayed in a
mural in the Vatican. He connected the
shrines and other monuments by a network
of streets and also earmarked the key points
of the city with tall obelisks left by the old
roman empire. In this way he ensured that
the new streets would not only connect the
key hubs but also were visually emphasized.
The obelisks were to act as guide points to the
city plan and serve as strong visual
landmarks in the jumble of hills and ruins
RENAISSANCE URBAN PLANNING
Renaissance was a period of renewed
interest in the Arts and Sciences.
Medieval streets focused on serviceability
and hence they were narrow lanes where as
during renaissance streets became wider as
the concept of perspective, symmetry and
balance was promoted by architects such as
Brunelleschi, Bramante, Michelangelo and
Palladio.
Cities and monuments were reconsidered for
their urban scenery comprising of building
facades, roads & vistas. Important buildings
were fronted by plazas and squares &
aggrandizement schemes implemented. The
aesthetic determinants were considered at
the center of plazas and road junctions and
emphasized with landmark elements such as
statues and fountains.
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RENAISSANCE – PLACE MAKING
The Piazza del Popolo (Plaza of the Pope) in the
Vatican is one of the masterpieces of
renaissance urban place making. The trident
formation of roads leading to the plaza has an
angle of 20 degrees from the central road so
that the entire lay out of the three roads falls
within the cone of vision of the human eye,
when viewed from the plaza. Designed
principally by Brahmante, Michelangelo and
Bernini the Plaza is formed by a symmetrical
arrangement of buildings from St. Peters
cathedral and enclosed by an elliptical
colonnade.
The flooring is laid out with pavement stones in
a pattern radiating from the central obelisk. The
colonnade is 2 floor in height, the buildings
flanking the axis from St. Peters are 3 floor in
height whereas the cathedral itself rises to a
height of about 5 floors and this arrangement
of buildings achieves symmetry and balance
and the entire space focusses on Peters basilica.
RENAISSANCE – PLACE MAKING
Michelangelo’s masterpiece of urban design is
the Campidoglio in Rome, where he was
commissioned to create a spatial setting for the
statue of Marcus Aurelius. There were 2
buildings on the top of the hill with slightly
acute angle to each other. Hence he proposed
the 3rd building as the Senatore and unified
the 3 buildings by adopting the giant orders for
their façade and rusticated treatment for the
ground floor. He also proposed a grand
staircase in front, which widens towards the
top creating the perspective effect of a shorter
stairs. At a distance the group forms an
enclosed space centered on a statue. As one
approaches the plaza the fine sculptural details
capture our interest and finally the visitor is
rewarded by the discovery of finer details and
monumental architecture while walking
towards the end. The view keeps on changing
with every step and thus becomes a visually
stimulating experience.
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RENAISSANCE URBAN PLANNING
Fra Carnivale - An ideal city is the concept of
a plan for a city that has been conceived in
accordance with a particular rational or
moral objective.
Several attempts to develop ideal city plans
are known from the Renaissance, and appear
from the second half of the fifteenth century.
The "ideal" nature of such a city may
encompass the moral, spiritual and juridical
P qualities of citizenship as well as the ways in
A which these are realized through urban
L structures including buildings, street layout,
M etc. The ground plans of ideal cities are often
A based on grids or other geometrical pattern.
N
O
The cities of Palmanova and Nicosia, whose
V Venetian forts were built in the 1590s by the
A Venetian Republic, are considered to be
practical examples of the concept of the ideal
city.
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URBAN PLAZAS IN FRANCE
Due to the growth & centralization of
political power the economic capacity
developed to promote complex urban
patterns for the aggrandizement of the
ruling class.
The first renaissance plazas in Paris were
the courtyards of palaces built on the
outskirts. The palace Dauphine had a
triangular plaza with buildings on three
sides and skirting the river Seine at the apex.
The Palace des Vosges had a renaissance lay
out for its plaza surrounded by buildings in
the gothic style.
English architect Inigo Jones copied the
arcaded plaza of Livorno in Italy, when he
designed the Bedford square in London.
Leicester square, Bloomsbury square etc
were built subsequently.
URBAN PLANNING IN FRANCE
In France architects such as Le Mercier were
trying to bring together the arts of Architecture,
Landscaping and Urban design into an
orchestrated whole, which can be inferred from
the design of Richelieu's palace. However the
landscape architect for this palace, known as
Lenotre went on to produce his greatest work
for King Louis XIV, which was the layout for
Versailles. In this he brought about a
complementary relationship between the town,
the palace, the garden and a huge park by
aligning the principal axis with the main
landscape features. The palace is the center of
the composition with 3 main roads converging at
the palace entrance at an angle of about 20
degrees. Thus the 3 roads can be perceived as a
single view by the cone of human vision that
extends to 120 degrees horizontally and 60
degrees vertically. The park of Versailles offers a
variety of vistas – long, short, single, multiple,
which related a variety of buildings and palaces.
 REBUILDING PARIS
The urban problems of Paris began in the 18 th
century and the city center was overcrowded
dark, dangerous & unhealthy. Napolean III
requested Baron Hausmann to start the
rebuilding of Paris. Hausmann’s renovation
started with the demolition of medieval
neighborhoods that were overcrowded &
unhealthy. He started building widen avenues,
parks and squares.
When Paris got enlarged, new walls were built
and the old ones were torn down which resulted
in the recovery of broad & long stretches of land
that were used to create wide streets called
Boulevards. The grandest example of
renaissance vista was executed in the
improvement of Champs Elysees with the Arc of
Triumph as the focal point built at the elevated
end of the avenue. Finally Baron Haussmann
contributed to the rebuilding of Paris by creating
new boulevards. The uniform design with trees
gave an effect of urban distinction.
URBAN DESIGN IN 18TH & 19TH
CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TOWN -After the Industrial revolution,
the place of manufacturing goods had shifted to the
Factories, which were mostly located in urban
areas. Hence there was large scale migration of
people from rural areas to urban areas since the
factories needed workers. Most of these migrating
workers lived with their families in shanty towns
which were congested, lacked basic services such as
water supply, drainage, sanitation etc.
These developments prompted architects and
thinkers to envisage the ideal town for workers or
what can be called as Industrial towns which were
mostly planned on the outskirts of existing cities.
Of these Ledoux’s plan for the town of salt workers
known as Chaux in France is noteworthy. He made
three plans of which the first had a quadrangle of
buildings about 1000’ square, with roads
intersecting at right angles. This quadrangle had
workers homes laid out with gardens and other
community buildings. The second shows an
elliptical layout and the third a semicircular layout
with roads radiating into the countryside.
URBAN DESIGN IN 18TH & 19TH
CENTURY
GARNIER’S PLAN FOR INDUSTRIAL CITY
Garniers ideal industrial city was a
hypothetical proposal for 32000 people
called Cite Industrielle. It was the first plan
that detailed out the location of the urban
facilities. The plateau contained the
housing, whereas the factories were located
in the valley. He used a grid plan for the
housing areas with 100’ by 500’ blocks. His
basic idea included the separation of spaces
by function through zoning into several
categories: industrial, civic, residential,
health related, and entertainment. It was
located between a mountain and a river to
facilitate access to hydroelectric power. The
plan allowed schools and vocational-type
schools to be near the industries they were
related to, so that people could be more
easily educated.
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AMERICAN GRID PLANNING
The grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan
is a type of city plan in which streets run at
right angles to each other, forming a grid. The
infrastructure cost for regular grid patterns is
generally higher than for patterns with
discontinuous streets.
Costs for streets depend largely on four
variables: street width, street length, block
width and pavement width. Two inherent
characteristics of the grid plan, frequent
intersections and orthogonal geometry,
facilitate pedestrian movement. The geometry
helps with orientation and wayfinding and its
frequent intersections with the choice and
directness of route to desired destinations.
One of the main advantages of the grid plan
was that it allowed the rapid subdivision and
auction of a large parcel of land. The
disadvantage was that it resulted in a repetitive
street geometry that was monotonous and all
parts of the town looked similar.
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URBAN DESIGN IN 18TH & 19TH
CENTURY
Viennese architect Camillo Sitte published
a book in 1889 which provided deeper
understanding about the urban design in
the past and delved into the principles of
arrangement, proportion and scale. He
criticized the emphasis on straight
boulevards, public squares etc which were
primarily constructed for traffic flow and
contended that urban planners had
neglected to consider the vertical
dimension of planning. His book defended
the contrived, irregular and picturesque
qualities of the medieval towns. He argued
for the sensitive application of town
planning principles – his design for civic
centers displays a formal layout where as
his plan for a small village is informal with
winding streets following the terrain.
 CAMILLO SITTE
He advocated the design of irregular shaped
plazas and asymmetrical placement of buildings
which result in changing views and enhanced
scenic capacity.
Sitte traveled extensively in Western Europe,
seeking to identify the factors that made
certain towns feel warm and welcoming. Sitte
saw architecture was a process and product of
culture. He made a forceful case that the
aesthetic experience of urban spaces should be
the leading factor of urban planning.
He challenged, among other things, a growing
tendency toward rigid symmetry in
contemporary urban design.
He also identified and advocates a host of
traditional approaches to creating public spaces
that had grown out of the town planning
traditions of Europe. He illustrates these
approaches with examples through sketches
and diagrams of numerous neighborhoods.
URBAN DESIGN IN 18TH & 19TH
CENTURY
THE PARK MOVEMENT
In 1862 american George Marsh wrote a
book titled “Man and Nature” which was
about ecology and how deterioration of land
was a result of man’s ignorant disregard for
the laws of nature. The American park
system was influenced by Marsh’s ideas and
Olmstead laid out the Central park in
Newyork city.
The Boston metropolitan park system was
also planned by Olmstead as a system of
interconnected parks with the Public gardens
located centrally. He followed it up with park
plans for Sanfrancisco, Detroit and Montreal.
Kesseler planned Kansas city with a system
of parks, parkways and boulevards and thus
many american cities came to have fine
urban parks.
 GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT
Ebenezer Howard, in his book published
in1898, discussed the attractions of the
town, country and the town-country by his
diagram of three magnets, wherein he
argued the case for setting up cities which
had the qualities of the countryside as well
as the facilities of a city.
The town dwellers live with little contact to
nature but have social opportunities,
amusement facilities, employment chances,
receive high wages, but pay high rent, live in
polluted conditions & slums. Life in the
Countryside is with nature, but no work, low
wages, lack of amusement & long hours of
work. So can the best of both worlds can be
incorporated in Garden cities which will
have the advantages of both town &
countryside such as low rents, high wages,
flow of capital, pure air & water, bright
homes with gardens?
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GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT
He envisaged a central city of 58000 people
surrounded by smaller garden cities of 32000
people each with a permanent green belt
separating them, but linked by rail and road.
Each garden city would have its own industries
with the nearby farms supplying fresh food.
The schematic diagram of the garden city
shows a central cultural hub surrounded by
gardens with many ring roads forming avenues
that accommodated housing which were
augmented with amenities such as schools,
churches, hospitals etc. Placed along the outer
avenues were the factories that were
supported by a rail network. This idea received
great acclaim and the garden cities of Letch
worth & Welwyn were started. The Central
hub would be the cultural center with places
of entertainment such as theatres, cinema
halls, museums, Art gallery, libraries etc.
Welwyn was the 2nd city. Howard’s garden city
is seen as the beginning of regional planning
and decentralization.
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URBAN DESIGN IN THE 20TH
CENTURY - Conurbation
Scottish planner Patrick Geddes was the first
to establish analytical tools to understand the
complex operations that take place in a city
that is perpetually growing. The analytical
survey was the principal groundwork from
which any plan could be conceived and he
stressed the social basis of the city. His book
‘Cities in evolution', published in 1915, talks
about ‘conurbation’ that refers to the
phenomenon of population inflow into a city
due to migration from rural areas, followed by
overcrowding and slum formation and then
the wave of backflow, the whole process
resulting in sprawl, waste and unnecessary
obsolescence. As a planner he laid out about
50 cities in India and Palestine. Thus after the
dawn of the 20th century the fundamental
ideas for building the modern city were in
place.
URBAN DESIGN IN THE 19TH
CENTURY
CITY BEAUTIFUL ERA
The years between 1890 to the great depression
in 1919 is termed as the city beautiful era, since
architects and planners drew upon every idea in
the history of designing cities. American
architects toured Europe for inspiration and
proposed a grand classical concept of landscape
architecture with axes, mall, focal points and
pools for Washington DC. The original plan by
L’Enfant was revived for Washington and a
countrywide program of civic improvement was
initiated. The city hall, County courthouse,
library, the Opera house, the Museum and plaza
were employed as the building blocks of civic
centers, all over the USA. A dome and clock
tower for the city hall were essential for
architectural accent. The movement spread to
embrace public works of all sorts. Bridges were
designed as pieces of sculpture, river
embankments were made into classical garden
terraces. Burnham made a plan for the whole of
Chicago.
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URBAN DESIGN IN THE 20TH
CENTURY – ZONING & COURT
In the USA, by the 1920s the City planning
profession had been established and Zoning
was generally adopted as a means of
enforcing city plans. Planners felt that the
common practice of laying out block pattern
streets long before the builder had arrived
prevented clustered community design and
affected the built form open space
relationship. The diagram above, on the left
shows the typical block development in the
1920s, for Long island. Duplex homes with
narrow side open space resulted in poorly lit
& poorly ventilated side rooms with no
common play space. The diagram on the right
shows the improved layout for Sunnyside –
row houses eliminated the useless side yards
and ample common space was provided in
the enclosed court which could be used as
play space etc.
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URBAN DESIGN IN THE 20TH
CENTURY – TRAFFIC FREE
By the 1920s automobile traffic was considered as
annoying intrusion and solutions for creating traffic
free groupings of houses were attempted. Chatham
village is a good example where an island of green
bordered by houses and skirting a peripheral
automobile road was envisaged. Parking areas
were conveniently located along the peripheral
roads in carefully sited clusters and this type of
arrangement came to be known as the superblock.
The next was an attempt to plan the entire town
free of traffic which was planned at Radburn
located in New Jersey. Here was a grouping of
houses located around a green spaces which were
interconnected. Within the green areas pedestrian
pathways led to schools, shopping etc. Where the
pathways crossed a street, they bridged over or
passed under it thereby the automobile circulation
did not endanger the pedestrian. Automobile
access to houses were by means of short dead end
roads called as the Cul de sac with houses arranged
around them. The main circulation roads were on
the periphery and were free of parked cars
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NEIGHBOURHOOD CONCEPT
Clarence Perry developed the idea of the
neighborhood unit by analyzing the things he
found good - including gardening and
community participation - about living in a Long
Island suburb named Forest Hills Gardens. The
neighborhood unit was focused on a community
centre, a place for debate and discussion.
Crucial to Perry’s concept was the idea of day-
to-day facilities: shops, schools, playgrounds,
etc. should be within walking distance of every
house. It was based on the superblock with
special roads built for access, while heavy traffic
was kept out, confined to arterial roads which
skirted around the neighborhood.
Perry estimated the optimum size for a
neighborhood to be around 5000 people; large
enough to provide for most people’s day-to-day
needs, yet small enough for a sense of
community to develop. Park was the backbone
of the neighborhood with complete separation
of pedestrian & cars.
 URBAN DESIGN – MODERN
ARCHITECTURE ERA
LE CORBUSIER – LA VILLE RADIEUSE
Among the city proposals given by many architects
the ideas of Le Corbusier had the most profound
impact. He accepted that cities would move
towards high density living and proposed a plan for
3 million people in a new type of arrangement. He
proposed 3 distinct areas – a central business
district with 4 lakh inhabitants accommodated in
24 skyscrapers, an encircling residential zone of 6
lakh people occupying multistoried continuous slab
and garden houses for 2 million people. The plan
had a crisp geometric form with roads creating
large rectangles interwoven with major diagonals.
His major objectives were to decongest the central
city, increase density, improve circulation and at
the same time provide more light, air and
greenery. In 1935 he proposed the La Ville
Radieuse (the Radiant city) reforming many of his
earlier concepts. Le Corbusier felt that pedestrian
and motorable roads have to be segregated and he
preferred the elevated road for the automobile.
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MODERN ARCHITECTURE &
PLANNING
CHANDIGARH
Le Corbusier’s plan for Chandigarh was
conceived in collaboration with Nowicki and
showed a series of neighborhood enclaves
called sectors, arranged in a grid pattern and
interconnected by a carefully articulated
circulation system. His study of Indian cities
revealed to him that the most congested parts
of the city were the ones around transportation
hubs such as the railway station and the bus
terminal. Hence Corbusier located the railway
station on the outskirts of Chandigarh but
nearer to the industrial zone. The commercial
district was located centrally and ribbons of
green spaces were articulated across the
sectors and leading to the Sukhna lake, which
was located on the east end of the town with a
recreation zone around it. He reasoned that the
public could walk across the town along the
swathes of green spaces from one end to the
other in shade.
 CHANDIGARH - PLANNING
Chandigarh city plan by Le Corbusier
conceived of 47 sectors for a population of
5 lakh with grid iron road pattern for fast
moving traffic. Each sector is a
neighborhood unit of 800m x 1200m,
having shops, schools, health centers,
recreation areas and serves a population of
3000 to 20000, depending on the size of
the sector which is determined by
topography.
The road system of tree lined boulevards
with key focal points was derived from
Paris, the capital complex which glorifies
the state seems to be inspired from New
Delhi and the overall rectilinear format of
Chandigarh has been compared to Beijing.
Le Corbusier also incorporated the 7Vs
road system for better traffic management.
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POST MODERN URBAN DESIGN
Two major themes were found in the
Post-modern reaction to the hegemony
associated with modern architecture:
New Rationalism – Rob krier, Ricardo
Bofill
REDEFINITION OF PRINCPLES AND
FORMAL EXPRESSION OF URBAN SPACE in
1950s.
Rationalism – promotes a concern for
public open space over a preoccupation
with individual buildings and incorporates
strongly defined geometric spaces as
ordering devices. It looks at historic
models and classical spatial structures to
derive principles for linking old and new,
high and low, and diverse materials,
colors, and textures for inspiration.
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POST MODERN URBAN DESIGN
NEO EMPIRICISM
HIGHLIGHTING PERCEPTUAL AND
SPATIAL QUALITIES OF THE URBAN
ENVIRONMENT
KEVIN LYNCH
ROBERT VENTURI
GORDON CULLEN
MOST OF THE OUTDOOR SPACES
CREATED BY MODERN MOVEMENT ARE
LOST SPACES – ISOLATED FROM ITS
TOTAL SURROUNDINGS – ROBERT
VENTURI
GORDEN CULLEN – TOWNSCAPE ARTIST
EXPLORED THE EXPERIENCE OF
SEQUENCE OF URBAN SPACES
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POST MODERN URBAN DESIGN
KEVIN LYNCH
URBAN ANALYSER IN EMPIRICAL TERMS
PRESENTED HIS PRINCIPLE RULES FOR
DESIGNING CITY SPACES AS:
LEGIBILITY: THE MENTAL PICTURE OF THE CITY
HELD BY THE USERS ON THE STREET
STRUCTURE AND IDENTITY: RECOGNIZABLE
COHERENT PATTERN OF URBAN BLOCKS,
BUILDINGS AND SPACES
IMAGEABILITY: USER PERCEPTION IN MOTION
AND HOW PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE SPACES OF
THE CITY
ACCORDING TO LYNCH:
SUCCESSFUL URBAN SPACE MEET THESE
REQUIREMENTS
PARTS OF THE CITIES - “ELEMENTS OF URBAN
FORM” SHOULD BE DESIGNED ACCORDING TO
THESE REQUIREMENTS
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POST MODERN URBAN DESIGN
GORDEN CULLEN
EXPLORED THE EXPERIENCE OF
SEQUENCE THROUGH URBAN SPACE
UNIQUE SENSE OF PLACE FROM STREET
LEVEL
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE OBJECT &
MOVEMENT
THE EVENT OF ARRIVING AT / LEAVING
CITY SPACES
EXPLAINED THE CONCEPT OF SERIAL
VISION & CLIMAX IN TOWNSCAPE
EXPLORED OTHER ELEMENTS OF
STREETSCAPE SUCH AS DEFLECTION,
RECESSION, PROJECTION ETC.