03/08/2019

URBAN PLANNING
and DESIGN

Ar. Zhardei Alyson V. Naranjo

THEORIES AND PRACTICES

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THE CONSERVATIONIST and the

PARK MOVEMENT
• George Perkins Marsh : American conservationist.
:The founder of modern conservation.
:“Man and Nature” published in 1862
introduction to ecology.

• Frederick Law Olmsted : pioneer of the American park system

: was a social reformer, concerned with the
moral disintegration in large formless cities
: “Public Parks and the Enlargement of
Towns” published in
: cities planned for two generations ahead.
: maintain sufficient breathing space.

Central Park of New York won in 1859

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THE CONSERVATIONIST and the

PARK MOVEMENT
Daniel Schreber : a physician and educator
:“Schrebergarten”
: small gardens for children used by elderly.
: He insisted that playgrounds be built to insure that
children would get the proper socialization
: popularized the idea of Urban playground in Europe.

GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT

Ebenezer Howard : An English stenographer
• “Tomorrow: A peaceful path to social reform”
published in 1898
• Proponent of the “Garden City” concept

GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT : is a method

of urban planning in which self-contained
communities are surrounded by "greenbelts",
containing proportionate areas of residences,
industry, and agriculture.
The garden city would be self-sufficient and
when it reached full population, another
garden city would be developed nearby.
Howard envisaged a cluster of several garden
cities as satellites of a central city of 58,000
people, linked by road and rail.

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CITY BEAUTIFUL
MOVEMENT
• Golden Age of Urban Design
• from 1890 to the Great depression (1930’s)
• termed the “City Beautiful Era”
• City beautiful movement the intent of
introducing beautification and monumental
grandeur in cities.
• To not only enhance the city’s appearance
but also help the flow of vehicle and
pedestrian traffic, the City Beautiful
concept focused on incorporating a civic
Centre, parks, and grand boulevards.

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NEW COMMUNITY MOVEMENT

• “Superblock Concept” : City blocks are the space for buildings within the
street pattern of a city, and form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric.
• City blocks may be subdivided into any number of smaller land lots usually
in private ownership, though in some cases, it may be other forms of
tenure.

RADBURN
• organization of town into cohesive
neighborhoods
• Clarence A. Perry
• “The Neighborhood Unit”
published in 1929
• Community Planning

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IMAGE OF THE CITY

• The elements in a built structure
of a city are important in the
perception of the city.
• What does the city actually mean
to the people who live there?
What can the city planner do to
make the city’s image more vivid
and memorable to the dweller?

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THE CITY IMAGE

AND ITS ELEMENTS
• PATHS
 Paths are the channels along
which the observer customarily,
occasionally, or potentially
moves.
 They may be streets, walkways,
transit lines, canals, railroads.
 along these paths the other
environmental elements are
arranged and related.

THE CITY IMAGE

AND ITS ELEMENTS

• EDGES
 Edges are the linear elements not
used or considered as paths by the
observer.
 They are the boundaries between
two phases, linear breaks in
continuity: shores, railroad cuts,
edges of development, walls.

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THE CITY IMAGE

AND ITS ELEMENTS
• DISTRICT
 Districts are the medium-to-Iarge
sections of the city, conceived of as
having two-dimensional extent, which
the observer mentally enters "inside
of," and which are recognizable as
having some common, identifying
character.
 Always identifiable from the inside,
they are also used for exterior
reference if visible from the outside.

THE CITY IMAGE

AND ITS ELEMENTS
• NODES
 Nodes are points, the strategic
spots in a city into which an
observer can enter, and which are
the intensive foci to and from
which he is traveling.
 They may be primarily junctions,
places of a break in transportation,
a crossing or convergence of paths,
moments of shift from one
structure to another.

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THE CITY IMAGE

AND ITS ELEMENTS
• LANDMARK
 They are usually a rather simply
defined physical object: building,
sign, store, or mountain.
 Their use involves the singling our
of one element from a host of
possibilities. Some landmarks are
distant ones, typically seen from
many angles and distances, over
the tops of smaller elements, and
used as radial references.

IAN BENTLEY’S RESPONSIVE

ENVIRONMENT
Clearly demonstrates the specific
characteristics that make for
comprehensible, friendly and
controllable places; 'Responsive
Environments'
The design of a place affects the
choices people can make, at many
levels:
1. Permeability
2. Legibility
3. Variety
4. Robustness
5. Visual Appropriateness
6. Richness
7. Personalization

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PERMEABILITY
• It affects where people can go, and where they
cannot.
• Only places which are accessible to people can offer
them choice.
• The extent to which an environment allows people
a choice of access through it, from place to place, is
therefore a key measure of its responsiveness.
• The decline of public permeability three current
design trends work against permeable public space:
 Increasing scale of development.
 Use of hierarchical layouts. Smaller blocks, give more physical
 Pedestrian vehicle segregation. permeability for a given investment in
public space. They also increase visual
permeability, improving people’s
awareness of the choice available

VARIETY
• Variety of experience implies places with
varied forms, uses and meanings.
• Variety of use unlocks the other levels of
variety:
 A place with varied uses has varied building
types, of varied forms.
 It attracts varied people, at varied times, for
varied reasons.
 Because the different activities, forms and
people provide a rich perceptual mix, different
users interpret the place in different ways: it
takes on varied meanings.

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LEGIBILITY
• The quality which makes a place graspable.
• Legibility is important at two levels:
 Physical form.
 Activity patterns.

• Legibility in old days:

 Legibility worked well, Places that looked important
were important, and places of public relevance could
easily be identified.
 Important building stood out.

• Legibility in modern days:

 legible only in the sense that ‘buildings cannot lie.

LEGIBILITY ANALYSIS
THROUGH
5 ELEMENTS OF A CITY
(Kevin Lynch)

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ROBUSTNESS
• Environments which offer this choice have a quality.
• Places which can be used for many different purposes
offer their users more choice than places whose design
limits them to a single fixed use.
• Experience suggests that there are three key factors
which support long-term robustness,:
 Building depth : The vast majority of building uses require
natural light and ventilation.
 Access: All building uses need some links to the outside world.
 Height: The importance of access also affects building height.

• Preferred configuration:
 shallow in plan
 many points of access
 limited height

VISUAL
APPROPRIATENESS
• A vocabulary of visual cues must be
found to communicate levels of choice
• Is mostly important in the more
public spaces of the scheme.
What makes visual appropriate?
The interpretations people give to a
place can reinforce its responsiveness
at three different levels:
 by supporting its legibility, in
terms of form.
 by supporting its variety.
 by supporting its robustness, at
both large and use small scales.

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RICHNESS
• Variety of sense experiences that
users can enjoy
• Dealing with the smallest details of
the project. The planner must decide
whereabouts in the scheme to provide
richness, both visual and non-visual,
and select appropriate materials and
constructional techniques for
achieving it.
• Visual richness depends on the
presence of visual contrasts in the
surfaces concerned.

PERSONALIZATION
• Allows and encourages people to achieve an environment
that bears the stamp of their values and tastes
• The stages of design already covered have been directed
at achieving the qualities which support the
responsiveness of the environment itself, as distinct from
the political and economic processes by which it is
produced.
• Users personalize in two ways:
 to improve practical facilities.
 to change the image of a place.
• Personalization is affected by three main factors:
 Tenure
 Building type
 Technology

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PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

• PERMEABILITY : Designing the overall layout of routes and
development blocks.

• VARIETY : Locating uses on the site.

• LEGIBILITY : Designing the massing of the buildings and the

enclosure of public space.

• ROBUSTNESS : Designing the spatial and constructional

arrangement of individual buildings and outdoor
spaces.

• VISUAL : Designing the external image.

APPROPRIATENESS
• RICHNESS : Developing the design for sensory choice.

• PERSONALIZATION : Making the design encourage people to put their

own mark on the places where they live and work.

URBAN FORM AND FUNCTION

• URBAN FORM : The physical patterns,
layouts, and structures that make up an
urban center.

• Urban forms are ever changing, adapting with

every new building, park, sidewalk, road, or
gate that's erected.

• As urban forms develop and change, we can

identify two major variations.
 Organic urban form is one that develops
without centralized planning.
 Planned urban form is designed and
coordinated. The ways that urban centers grow,
whether in organic or planned ways, can tell us a
lot about the attitudes, beliefs, lifestyles, and
influences of people who live there.

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URBAN FORM AND FUNCTION

• Concerns:
 Landforms
 Shape
 Size and Density
 Routes
 Urban spaces
 Architecture
 Details
 Inhabitants
 Movement
 City Functions

LANDFORMS
• Topography • Relationship with Nature

Cities within Nature Cities and Nature

Nature
within
Cities

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SHAPE

MOSCOW, RUSSIA
RADIOCENTRIC

PARIS, FRANCE
SATELLITE
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA GRID

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SIZE AND DENSITY

• Physical extent : Measured in KM across, or center to outskirts, or
square KM.

• Density formula : number of inhabitants with respect to physical size;

can be computed in several ways:
 Number of people per sq.KM or hectare
 Number of families per block (residential density)
 Number of houses per sq,KM or hectare
 Amount of building floor area per section
 Automobile population, Floor Area Ratio (FAR), etc.

ROUTES

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URBAN SPACE
• well-defined public streets; plazas, parks, playgrounds, quadrangles, etc.

ARCHITECTURE
• Scale
• Character
• Texture

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DETAILS
• traffic signs, billboards, store
signs, etc. - sidewalks, street
furniture, urban landscaping,
pavers, etc.
• street vendors, traffic enforcers,
entertainers, etc.

INHABITANTS
• ethnic background, social class, sex, etc.
• activities

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MOVEMENT
• Vehicular
• Pedestrian

CITY FUNCTIONS
• ECONOMIC
 A basic and continuing function. The city acts as producers and
marketplaces.
 Locating cities at strategic points is important for the exchange of
goods.
• DEFENSE AND PROTECTION
 A basic and continuing function. The city acts as producers and
marketplaces -Locating cities at strategic points is important for
the exchange of goods
 Historic urban functions of the city, though quite obsolete at
present -Cities were once built to withstand sieges from migrating
tribes, or frequent raids from enemies.

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CITY FUNCTIONS
• WORSHIP AND GOVERNMENT
 The prime function of the city throughout history
 Cities were built around temples, shrines, and pyramids in ancient
Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
 The medieval cathedral was the center of the city, as were
renaissance palaces and castle
• TRANSPORTATION
 Greatly influences the location of cities since they are dependent on
geography
 New means of transportation have enabled people to live in much
larger more spread out cities

CITY FUNCTIONS
• Education and Culture
 Cities have always been the seat of academy and scholarship and is
a continuing function.
 Due to the diversity of people, ideas, jobs, etc., the city is seen as an
educator.
 Ancient theaters, religious festivals, city beautification, etc. is a
reflection of cultural pride.
• Housing
 The largest and simplest function of a city.
 Through the years, housing functions of the inner city have shifted
to outlying areas.

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URBANIZATION PROBLEMS
• High population density
• inadequate infrastructure
• lack of affordable housing
• Flooding
• Pollution
• slum creation
• Crime
• congestion
• poverty

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URBAN SPRAWL
• refers to the unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing,
commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with
little concern for urban planning.
• CHARACTERISTIC OF URBAN SPRAWL:
 Single-use development
 Job Sprawl
 Low density
 Conversion of agricultural land to urban use
 Housing subdivisions
 Commercial characteristics

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7 PRINCIPLES FOR BUILDING

BETTER CITIES
• 1. Preserve : the natural environment, the history and the critical
agriculture.

• 2. Mix : Mixed-use is popular but it is meant as, mixed incomes,

mixed age group, as well as mixed land-use.

• 3. Walk : There is no great city that you don’t enjoy walking in.

• 4. Bike : The most efficient means of transportation we know.

• 5. Connect : It’s a street network that allows many routes instead of

singular route and provides many kinds of street instead of just one.

• 6. Ride : We have to invest more on transit.

• 7. Focus : We have a hierarchy of the city based on transit rather than

an old armature freeways. It is a big paradigm shift but those two thing
have to get reconnected in ways that really shape the structure of the city

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END OF
PRESENTATION

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