Evolution of contemporary urban design theory.pptx

URBAN
DESIGN
MODULE – III
OVERVIEW OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF URBAN THEORISTS IN UNDERSTANDING
PUBLIC SPACES- CAMILLO SITTE,
JANE JACOBS, DONALD APPLEYARD, WILLIAM H. WHYTE, LE CORBUSIER,
F.L.WRIGHT, EDMUND BACON,CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER, PETER CALTHORPE,
ALDO ROSSI, BILL HILLIER, ROB KRIER, RICHARD ROGERS,
CHARLES CORREA, JAN GEHL, JOHN LANG ETC. EMERGING CONCEPTS IN URBAN
SPACE DESIGN: NEIGHBOURHOOD CONCEPT; SPACE SYNTAX THEORY, TRANSIT-
ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT, NEW URBANISM, MIXED USE DEVELOPMENTS,
SMART CITY CONCEPTS

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. 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.

JANE JACOBS WAS AN AMERICAN – CANADIAN
WRITER WHO WROTE ABOUT THE SOCIAL THEORY IN
URBAN DESIGN. SHE LED THE RESISTANCE TO THE
REPLACEMENT OF URBAN COMMUNITIES BY HIGH
RISE BUILDINGS AND THE LOSS OF COMMUNITY
SPACE TO EXPRESSWAYS.
ALONG WITH LEWIS MUMFORD SHE IS CONSIDERED
AS THE FOUNDER OF THE “NEW URBANISM”
MOVEMENT. NEW URBANISM IS A PLANNING AND
DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLE BASED ON WALKABLE
BLOCKS AND STREETS, HOUSING AND SHOPPING IN
CLOSE PROXIMITY AND ACCESSIBLE PUBLIC SPACES.
SHE OBSERVED THAT “REVITALIZATION” OFTEN CAME
AT THE EXPENSE OF THE COMMUNITY. AFTER
INVESTIGATING URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN
PHILADELPHIA & EAST HARLEM, SHE CAME TO
BELIEVE THAT MUCH OF URBAN RENEWAL PROJECTS
HAD LITTLE COMPASSION FOR THE PEOPLE
INVOLVED ESPECIALLY AFRICAN AMERICANS.
SHE BECAME AN ACTIVIST AND LED THE OPPOSITION
TO TEAR DOWN EXISTING BUILDINGS IN GREENWICH
& REPLACE THEM WITH HIGH RISES. SHE WARNED
AGAINST THE OVER EXPANSION OF NEWYORK
UNIVERSITY. AFTER RELOCATING TO CANADA SHE
CONTINUED HER WORK IN QUESTIONING
CONVENTIONAL CITY PLANNING IDEAS.

DONALD APPLEYARD IS AN ENGLISH AMERICAN
URBAN DESIGNER & THEORIST WHO TAUGHT AT
BERKELEY. HIS 1981 BOOK TITLED “LIVABLE STREETS”
QUANTIFIED THE IMPACT OF TRAFFIC ON SOCIAL
TIES. IT CONTAINED THE COMPARISON OF THREE
STREETS WITH SIMILAR MORPHOLOGY IN SAN
FRANCISCO WHICH HAD DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CAR
TRAFFIC PER DAY – ONE WITH 2000 CARS, THE NEXT
WITH 8000 CARS & THE LAST ONE WITH 16000 CARS.
HIS RESEARCH DEMONSTRATED THAT PEOPLE LIVING
IN LOW CAR TRAFFIC STREETS HAD THREE TIMES
MORE FRIENDS THAN PEOPLE LIVING IN HIGH
TRAFFIC STREETS.
WILLIAM WHYTE IS AN AMERICAN URBANIST AND
JOURNALIST WHO WROTE THE BOOK “ CITY:
REDISCOVERING ITS CENTER”. HE IS CONSIDERED AS
THE MENTOR FOR PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
BECAUSE OF HIS STUDY ON HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN
PUBLIC SPACES. FOR SIXTEEN YEARS HE WALKED THE
STREETS OF NEWYORK & OTHER CITIES CONDUCTING
PIONEERING RESEARCH ON STREET LIFE, PEDESTRIAN
BEHAVIOR AND CITY DYNAMICS. HE PRODUCED AN
EXCEPTIONAL STUDY ON HOW PEOPLE USED URBAN
SPACES.

RADIANT CITY WAS AN UNREALIZED PROJECT BY THE
FRENCH- SWISS ARCHITECT LE CORBUSIER. IT WAS
ENVISAGED FOR A POPULATION OF 3 MILLION PEOPLE
WITH THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT COMPRISING
OF 24 SKY SCRAPERS ACCOMMODATING OFFICE
SPACES. THESE WERE SURROUNDED BY TEN FLOOR
HEIGHT APARTMENT BLOCKS WITH ZIG ZAG SHAPE
MEANT FOR HOUSING THE URBAN POPULATION.
FINALLY ON THE PERIPHERY OF THE TOWN WERE
PLANNED INDEPENDENT VILLAS MEANT FOR THE RICH
PEOPLE.
IT REPRESENTED THE DREAM OF REUNITING MAN
WITH A WELL ORDERED ENVIRONMENT. THERE WAS A
HIERARCHY OF ROAD SYSTEM, FROM THE MAJOR
ARTERIAL ROADS TO THE RING ROADS WHICH BYE PASS
THE CITY AND THE SMALL NEIGHBORHOOD STREETS.
THE TALL BUILDING BLOCKS WERE LIFTED ON MASSIVE
CONCRETE PIERS KNOWN AS ‘PILOTIS” SO THAT THE
VIEW OF THE GREEN GROUND COVER WAS NOT
HINDERED IN ANYWAY. LE CORBUSIER WANTED TO
HAVE LARGE EXPANSES OF LAWN AREAS SO THAT
PEOPLE FELT THAT THEY WERE LIVING IN A LARGE PARK
AREA.
LE CORBUSIER GOT THE OPPORTUNITY TO MANIFEST
SOME OF THESE IDEAS WHEN HE WAS COMMISSIONED
TO DESIGN THE CITY OF CHANDIGARH.

LE CORBUSIERS RADIANT CITY
LA VILLE RADIEUSE
The ideas of Le Corbusier had the most profound impact which was the Radiant city. 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 apartments rising to 10 floors 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 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. His plan advocated grid layout & hierarchy of road system.

F.L.WRIGHT – BROAD ACRE CITY
BROADACRE CITY - A model of four square miles of a typical countryside developed on the acre as
unit according to conditions in the temperate zone and accommodating around 1,400 families.
THE PRINCIPLES OF BROADACRE CITY - Decentralization and redistribution Symmetry with rhythm,
no standardization Architectural reintegration Free use of the ground Public utilities and government
itself owned by the people of Broadacre City (the architect is the agent of the state)Economic
independence.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF BROADACRE CITY - Quality of the buildings is the same - Coordination
wherein all are employed. All public utilities are concentrated in the hands of the county government
.Materials used at constructions: fireproof materials, glass, copper - Every citizen has his own car.
THE COMPONENTS OF BROADACRE CITY - houses 4 types; farms; factories; markets -General park a
flowered meadow Traffic multiple-lane highways; no grade crossing; no signals or lamp-posts -Trains
only for long-distance; Schools placed in the interior of the city; include art galleries, concert hall,
gardens, zoo, pools and green playground.

EDMUND BACON
Design of Cities, first published in 1967, is an illustrated account of the development of
urban form, written by Edmund Bacon. The work looks at the many aspects that influence
city design, including spatial form, interactions between humans, nature and the built
environment. Bacon identifies eight elements of 'Involvement' in Architecture and Urban
Design - he argues the urban designer should be aware of these elements and use them
as tools when developing a 'design idea' of what the city or place ought to look like.
1. Meeting the sky - Bacon points to akroterion of Greek temples as an excellent
example of how buildings and built form meet the sky. He points to a revival of this
style in the Baroque and Victorian period, and comments that this element is an
identical to a city skyline, which he identifies as a city's signature.
2. Meeting the ground - Bacon argues that this second element is where built mass
meets the ground to act as a pedestal for built form. This pedestal allows the
involved to scale buildings and relate their size to one another. Bacon points to
buildings that utilized staircases as pedestals in the Renaissance period, and notes
that many of these were placed at the focal point of cities, such as city squares and
town commons.
3. Points in space - Bacon's third element is used to create tension and relief between
elements. He argues great places have prominent points in space that are identifiable
work to interplay with other elements.

Recession planes - Recession planes are used
in urban form to heighten dramatic power of
structures. This is done by allowing the
involved viewer to have a reference to scale,
frame and position relative to the viewer.
Design in depth - Relating two arches to one
another allows the involved viewer to
understand the depth of buildings, provide
scale for that depth, and identify egress
areas.
Ascent & Descent - By varying levels of floor,
designers have the ability to toy with
emotions of the involved viewer. Upward
movement has can symbolize power,
achievement, or anticipation. Downward
movement can symbolize the depth and
grandeur of space.
Relationship to man - One of the most critical
pieces of Bacon's work is the identification
and reiteration of built forms relationship to
man. Bacon argues that our urban built form
should be reflective of our human scale and
aid in establishing a connection between built
environment and man.

CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
Alexander has proposed very stimulating theories about the harmony and beauty seen in natural and
man-made artifacts. City structure is composed of primary entities called Centers. These centers
support each other through repeated occurrences of 15 geometric properties – Levels of scale,
Boundaries, Good shape etc as given above.

CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is a
1977 book on architecture, urban design, and community
livability. It was authored by Christopher Alexander et al at
Berkeley, USA.
The book creates a new language, what the authors call a
pattern language derived from timeless entities called
patterns. The 253 patterns together form a language.
Patterns describe a problem and then offer a solution. In
doing so the authors intend to give ordinary people, not
only professionals, a way to work with their neighbors to
improve a town or neighborhood.
The pattern language is a set of inherited tried-and-true
solutions that optimize how the built environment
promotes human life and sense of wellbeing. It combines
geometry and social behavior patterns into a set of useful
relationships, summarizing how built form can
accommodate human activities.

PETER CALTHORPE
Developed in the early 1990's by Peter Calthorpe, the concept of transit-oriented
development (TOD) encourages the development of full and vibrant communities
designed to be centered on transit facilities. A transit-oriented development (TOD) is a
mixed-use community within an average 2,000- foot walking distance of a transit stop
and core commercial area. It provides moderate and high density housing, along with
complementary public uses, jobs, retail and services.
In essence, TOD integrates land use and transport planning and aims to develop
planned sustainable urban growth centers, having walkable and livable communes with
high density mixed land-use. Citizens have access to open green and public spaces and
at the same time transit facilities are efficiently utilized. At first it was The city of
Chicago which started building TODs around rail stations throughout the metropolitan
area. Now in India the planning of Navi mumbai was based on TOD by Charles correa.

ALDO ROSSI
Aldo Rossi was an Italian architect and designer who achieved international
recognition in four distinct areas: architectural theory, drawing and design
and also product design. He was one of the leading exponents of the
postmodern movement.
In his book titled “Architecture of the cities”, Rossi criticizes the lack of
understanding of the city in current architectural practice. He argues that a
city must be studied and valued as something constructed over time; of
particular interest are urban artifacts that withstand the passage of time.
Rossi gained international attention at the Venice Biennale in 1979 when he
designed the Teatro del Mondo, a floating theatre. The wood-clad structure,
featuring an octagonal tower, recalled the Venetian tradition of floating
theatres and, Rossi believed, tapped into the collective architectural memory
of the city.
He describes the architecture of the city with two different meanings; first,
the city is seen as a gigantic man-made object, growing over time; second, as
urban artifacts characterized by their own history and form. These two
aspects relate to the quality and uniqueness of the urban artifact.

ROB KRIER
Rob krier wrote the book 'Urban Space' in which he aims to search how the
traditional understanding of urban space has been lost within the modern
cities. By explaining the terms of urban space and its structure, he has
examined whether the concept of urban space retains some validity in
contemporary town planning and on what grounds.
Urban space is an open, unobstructed space for movement in the open air,
with public, semi public and private zones. Furthermore, the ‘concept of
urban space’ is to designate all types of space between buildings in towns and
other localities as urban space. If we take the aesthetic criteria into
consideration, every urban space has been organized according to its socio-
political and cultural attitudes.
The spatial forms of urban space derive from the three basic geometric
shapes: (square, circle and triangle). These three shapes are affected by
modulating factors which are angling, segmentation, addition, merging,
overlapping and distortion. These factors can produce regular and irregular
results on all three spatial types.

RICHARD ROGERS
Rogers devoted much of his later career to wider issues surrounding
architecture, urbanism, sustainability, and the ways in which cities are used.
One early illustration of his thinking was an exhibition at the Royal Academy
in 1986, entitled "London As It Could Be” which put forth a series of proposals
for transforming a large area of central London, subsequently dismissed as
impractical by the city's authorities.
In 1998, he set up the Urban Task Force at the invitation of the British
government, to help identify causes of urban decline and establish a vision of
safety, vitality, and beauty for Britain's cities. This work resulted in a
white paper, Towards an Urban Renaissance, outlining recommendations for
future city designers. Design Philosophy - He had a very environmental
conception of designs. The notion of social integration is one of the other
most important points of the Richard Rogers' architectural concept. According
to him social problems can find solutions in the construction of “compact
cities with multiple centers”. Architecturally he was famous for designing the
Pompidou center, Paris, with Renzo piano & the Millennium dome.

CHARLES CORREA
In 1960s, Correa began working as an
urban planner and built Navi Mumbai,
which is an urban centre that caters to
three million people. Mumbai is built on
what was once a set of seven islands:
Bombay Island, parel, Mazagaon,
mahim, colaba, worli, and Little
Colaba. Formerly Bombay, is the
commercial and financial centre of India,
with a population of about twelve
million at 2010.
Mumbai‘s particular topography – it is a
long, narrow peninsula – meant that the
constantly needed extension of the city
limits was possible in one direction only,
northwards. The prominent authors of
the twin city concept were Charles
Correa, & Shireesh patil who proposed
Navi mumbai on the eastern mainland,
creating living space and setting up Mass
transportation system.

CHARLES CORREA
Navi mumbai covers an area of 344 sq.km and
was based on polycentric model of growth
where there are many nodes which are
connected by a MRTS. The central nodes
indicated in blue colour were the Central
Business (CBD)district areas around which the
residential nodes were planned.
The principles were 1. Decentralization by the
design of self sufficient townships (nodes) & 2.
Residential neighborhoods (sectors) comprising
of low rise housing blocks. Each node is self-
contained for 100,000 to 200,000 people.
The nodes contain residential, commercial,
infrastructure and recreational uses. At a larger
scale, nodes share some common facilities such
as water reservoirs and transport facilities.
The structural plan of New Bombay: three linear
spines arranged in a pinwheel around the
CBD(Central Business District) at one end tied to
the regional transport network at the other,
anchoring the new city into the surrounding
region..

JAN GEHL
Jan Gehl is a danish architect who is the author of the book “Life between
buildings: Using public space”. According to him, Public space should be a
place for everyone that includes unique qualities and benefits of a particular
urban environment, open to a variety of activities and opportunities.
A good public space should be conceived with common vision between the
Architect & the community and should incorporate qualities such as
Aesthetics, Sociability, Comfort, Flexibility, Accessibility, Safety while
including landmark elements.
There is an unique work methodology which has been proposed by Jan gehl:
1. Space can be planned according to the parameters of the desired route,
destination, user groups and activities as part of a vision. 2. The basis of
planning has to be a vision of public life in the given area. Who are its
potential users? What activities would take place in it? 3. data should be
collected in the form of counting of people & traffic, mapping of activities,
Tracing of movements & photographing natural & manmade elements.
Gehl concentrated on Making cities for people and some of his theories
were put into practice in the city of Copenhagen, the danish capital.

NEIGHBORHOOD CONCEPT
The neighborhood concept is one of the major
planning ideas of 20th
century - A cluster of
superblocks was to form a self-contained
neighborhood & a group of neighborhoods
together formed the city. The concept of the
neighborhood unit, crystallized in early 1900s
by Clarence Perry, was diagrammatic planning
model for residential development in
metropolitan areas. It continues to be utilized
as a means of ordering and organizing new
residential communities in a way which satisfies
contemporary "social, administrative and
service requirements for satisfactory urban
existence”. Perry’s concept was influenced by
separation of vehicular & pedestrian traffic and
cellularization of planning units. It would
contain housing for 5000 -9000 residents with
school & community facilities at the center &
arterial streets along the perimeter with 10%
open space for recreation and parks. Shopping
area also should be in the periphery.

SPACE SYNTAX THEORY
• Space Syntax is a set of theories and methods for modeling and analyzing cities, using space as
the fundamental generator of the city. A major virtue of this approach is that it is supported by a
powerful social theory of space. Space Syntax models explain existing movement patterns and
forecast future scenarios by demonstrating the relative influence of a number of key factors. The
modeling process begins by transforming the street pattern of an area, or room layout of a
building, into a network 'graph'. The theory focuses on analyzing the spatial structure in all its
diverse forms, cities, settlements and buildings, to investigate the relationship between human
societies and space organization. The theory was formally introduced in 1984 by Hillier and
Hanson in their book “The Social Logic of Space”. It refers to a set of principles and techniques to
investigate and reveal the characteristics of urban settlements via concrete measures.

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Transit-oriented development, or TOD, includes a mix of commercial, residential,
office and entertainment centered around or located near a transit station. Dense,
walkable, mixed-use development near transit attracts people and adds to vibrant,
connected communities. The following principles are general guidelines for planning
TOD districts and neighborhoods.
1. Put stations in locations with highest ridership potential and development
opportunities.
2. Designate 1/2 mile radius around station as higher density, mixed-use, walkable
development.
3. Create range of densities with highest at station, tapering down to existing
neighborhoods.
4. Design station site for seamless pedestrian connections to surrounding
development by creating a public plaza directly in front of any side of the
station.
5. 5. Create retail and cafe streets leading to station entrances along main
pedestrian connections.

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
6. TOD, it's the creation of compact, walkable, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use
communities centered around high quality train systems. This makes it
possible to live a lower-stress life without complete dependence on a car for
mobility and survival.
7. TOD enables a city to be more corridor-oriented, making it easier to
provide infrastructure and is instrumental in preventing Urban sprawl.
8. It enables the planner to increase densities in potential areas , facilitates
walkability and bicycling for commuting.

NEW URBANISM
New Urbanism is an urban planning and design movement that began in the United
States in the early 1980s. Its goals are to reduce dependence on the car, and to create
livable and walkable, neighborhoods with a densely packed array of housing, jobs, and
commercial sites.
The principles of new urbanism include walkability, mixed-use development and
diversity, quality urban design, environmental sustainability, and smart transportation.
There are 10 characteristics that every new urbanism neighborhood has in common –
Walkability - The street grid is interconnected to encourage walking, not driving, Mixed
Use developments prevent escalation of real estate cost, Diversity results in strong
sense of place, Quality architecture & urban design, Traditional neighborhood
structure, Increased density, Green Transportation & Sustainable quality of life,
Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas, &
create a range of housing options.
New Urbanism has been criticized for being a form of centrally planned, large-scale
development, "instead of allowing the initiative for construction to be taken by the final
users themselves".
Criticism of New urbanism - its effective area is confined to the neighborhood
boundaries, it may be used as a marketing scheme by developers, and it is hard to
implement in existing neighborhoods.

SMART CITY CONCEPTS
In many ways, the smart city concept is simply good urban planning that
incorporates both advances in digital technology and new thinking in the age-old
city concepts of relationships, community, environmental sustainability,
participatory democracy, good governance and transparency.
In general, a smart city is a city that uses technology to provide services and
solve city problems. A smart city does things like improve transportation and
accessibility, improve social services, promote sustainability, and give its citizens
a voice. Smart cities bring together infrastructure and technology to improve
the quality of life of citizens and enhance their interactions with the urban
environment. ... Created as part of the smart technology movement, the IoT
enables various objects and entities to communicate with each other through
the internet.
The set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for smart sustainable cities,
allowing cities to set goals, collect data and measure progress in five major
areas: the use of ICTs; physical infrastructure; social inclusion and equity of
access to services; quality of life; and environmental sustainability.
The Government of India has launched the Smart Cities Mission on 25 June 2015.
• The objective is to promote sustainable and inclusive cities that provide core
infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and
sustainable environment and application of 'Smart' Solutions.

SMART CITY CONCEPTS
Giffinger and Gudrundefine the smartness of a Smart City with six characteristics,
where the city should perform well, that can be considered general smart city
application domains: (1) smart economy, (2) smart people, (3) smart governance,
(4) smart mobility, (5) smart environment and (6) smart living.
Accordingly, the purpose of the Smart Cities Mission is to drive economic growth
and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and
harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to Smart outcomes.
Smart cities use IoT devices such as connected sensors, lights, and meters to
collect and analyze data. The cities then use this data to improve infrastructure,
public utilities and services, and more.
Four components to a smart city are 1. Putting data Analytics to work 2. Smart
transportation solutions 3. Health – building safer & healthier communities 4.
creating resilient Urban environments.
GIFT City is India's first smart city in India which is a joint venture among BSE
Institute Mumbai, Ryerson University and Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Smart City is a concept of utilizing technologies and connected data sensors to
enhance and become powerful in terms of infrastructure and city operations.
Bhubaneswar & Pune are ranked as the Number 1 And 2 smart cities in India.

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