THE URBAN DESIGN PROCESS:

DOCUMENTING THE CITY:

THE SYSTEM OF DESIGN & PROCESS OF
DOCUMENTATION & PRESENTATION
Goal of Urban Design

 To design and build urban developments

which are both structurally and
functionally sound while at the same time
giving pleasure to those who see the
development.
Urban design shares with its sister art, architecture,
these three qualities of utility, durability and the
ability to bring to the user a sense of well-being and
emotional satisfaction.
What is good urban design?
a. Unity and Coherence

b. Minimum conflict between vehicles and

pedestrians

c. Protection from rain, noise, wind and so on

d. Ease of orientation

e. Compatibility of land uses

f. Availability of places to rest, observe, and meet

g. Creation of a sense of security and pleasantness

Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

I. Preparing a design brief

- once basic planning requirements are established,
a design concept should be established for the site.

The design brief should consider the following main

subject areas:
 means of access by road and by other modes of

transport
 the relationship of the pedestrian, cyclist and the

car
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

I. Preparing a design brief

 safety in the public realm
 quality of design in street and public square including
notes on achieving vitality and permeability
 the identity and legibility of place
 features of sustainable development
 open space and landscape strategy

- these development framework and site development

guidance is to encourage and guide development.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

II. Survey
- Survey techniques depend upon the nature and scale
of the project.
- Techniques used in moderate- to large-scale projects:
-

 Historical Analysis
Understanding the genius loci or the spirit of the
place provides the key to charting the direction for
future development. Peeling back the layers of history
which encrust the modern city reveals the reasons for
its present form and function.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

II. Survey
 Townscape Analysis

There are 3 main aspects of townscape analysis:

1. Legibility of the urban structure
2. Ways in which people perceive, understand
& react to the environment. It concerns those qualities
of a place which give it an immediate identity, one
which is quickly perceived or grasped by its users.
3. Permeability of the environment The choice
it represents to the user.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

II. Survey
 Visual study

Studies of urban space, the treatment of facades,

pavement, roofline, street sculpture, and an
analysis of the complexity of visual detail which
distinguishes one place from another.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

III. Analysis

a. gathering of basic information

- suitability of the topography
- land area required for the new units
- adequacy of public utilities
- amount of traffic generated and necessary roadways to
accommodate it
- parking space requirements
- additional requirements for schools, parks, and
playgrounds
- relevant zoning and subdivision ordinance
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

III. Analysis
b. visual survey
Analysis of urban space is acquired though responses by
the “faculty of sight”, as the environment is apprehended
“almost entirely through vision”.
c. identification of hard and soft areas
d. functional analysis
IV. Synthesis
V. Evaluation
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

 Commercial and residential uses oriented toward the water &

designed to create varied public spaces can add visual
interest to the waterfront.
 Best way to understand its workings is to dissect its parts.
 Body of the community is composed of its land-use areas, i.e.,
various types of residential, commercial, & cultural properties.
Size & disposition set the general outline or shape.
 The skeleton to which they relate is the natural topography
with its geologic structure, which determines the basic 3-
dimensional form and much of its landscape character
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

 Veins and arteries are the circulation ways, including streets,

transit routes, pedestrian walks, and perhaps canals
 Lifeblood is provided by the commerce and industry
 Energy and communications serve as the nerves
 Mind and spirit is symbolized by the institutions – the schools,
libraries, museums, and churches
 Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

The total aspect is attractive only if each of the features are well
formed to serve its purpose, and the composite body is healthy
and thriving.
a. Consider the type of community you would like yours to be.
 What is its purpose?
 Does it serve the purpose well?
 Is it a trade center?
 Does it have industrial & manufacturing districts as well as commercial,
residential, & recreation areas?
 Are they awkwardly jumbled together and full of frictions?
 Are they well related & interconnected, yet separated by natural buffers
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

b. Analyze each community component

 Are all of the parts in good working order?
 Are they well planned, efficient, and attractive?
 Do the shopping and business areas have safe and pleasant
access?
 Are the schools designed as neighborhood focal points and
gathering places?
 Are they combined with recreation areas and open space as
neighborhood centers?
 Are churches, libraries, and auditoriums so located as to serve as
neighborhood centers
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

c. Think in terms of systems

 Community services that are to be jointly administered, operated,
or maintained should be coordinated in the planning stage
 Lines of movement or transmission, being continuous by nature,
are best planned as integral segments of a comprehensive system.
 streets, walks, and trails have been laid out by developers of
adjacent properties without interconnection.
 Park, recreation, and open space lands have been often acquired
on a spotty basis, rather than as well-considered and integrated
units of a comprehensive plan.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

Beauty is the perceived harmonious relationship of all

elements in any object, place, or action.

Most attractive communities are those in which

everything seems to be working well together. This is
largely a matter of the allocation and distribution of the
land use areas for housing, schools, shopping, and so
on, in relation to each other, the circulation routes, and
the topographical features.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

 Provide suitable areas for all required land uses.

 Best possible size and shape to express and accommodate the
community's workable program.
 Soil suitability/land capability.
 Leave greenbelt areas in between
 Canals, highways, railroads, or transmission corridors often serve
well as separators between various community districts.
 Preplan the transportation routes
 Compatible routes for all types of traffic movement must be
devised to serve them
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

 Group the compatible uses

 Homes, schools, and convenience centers form a complementary
grouping, as do parks, zoos, and botanical gardens.
 Business offices and shopping malls are mutually supportive, as
are universities, hospitals, and cultural centers.
 Fit the size to the use requirements
 Each use has its own general order of magnitude that it seems
most desirable
 Preserve the topographical features.
 Protect lakes and lagoons with borders of green parklands
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

People, Streets and Buildings

Old tradition , man has built his structures along public streets
which have afforded access, address, and some degree of
protection. But conditions have changed, public streets have
become massive
thoroughfares for
often high-speed,
traffic movement and
bringing in pollution
and danger.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

 Face homes away from the street

 Design dwelling clusters around courts or culs-de-sac
 Plan isolated living compounds
Develop traffic free
residential
neighborhoods
Plan entire
communities as
residential parks.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

The livability, amenity and character of residential areas

are greatly enhanced by trees, more so than by any
other single element.
Urban Design Process: Documenting the City

In areas where houses have no front yards, a sense of

nature can be provided by planting in the sidewalk area.