Professional Documents
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Urban Design Vocabulary
Urban Design Vocabulary
Urban Design Vocabulary
Thoughtful terms:
Readings:
- Hobson, Archie; Oxford English Dictionary of Difficult Words; Oxford University
Press; New York; 2002.
- Internet Sources: http://www.wikipedia.com (Wikipedia),
http://www.encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia.com), http://www.m-w.com
(Merriam-webster online), http://dictionary.com (Dictionary.com)
2. AGORAPHOBIA
3. ANTHROPOLOGY
Readings:
- Haviland, William A.; Anthropology; Holt, Rinehart & Wilson; New York; 1979.
Majumdar, D.N.; Introduction to Social Anthropology; National Publishing House;
New Delhi; 1990
- Fox, Richard G.; Urban Anthropology: Cities in Their Cultural Settings; Prentice
Hall International Ltd.; 1977.
- Evans, Pritchard; Social Anthropology; Cohen & West Co.; London; 1962.
Bock, Philip K.; Modern Cultural Anthropology: An Introduction; Alfred A. Knopf
Inc.; New York; 1969.
- Vidyarthi, L.P.; Aspects of Social Anthropology In India; Classical Publishing
House; New Delhi; 1980.
- Levi-Strauss, Claude; Structural Anthropology; Penguin Books Ltd.; London;
1986.
- Narayanan, Shriram; Indian Anthropology; Gian Publishing House; Delhi; 1988.
Adam Southall; Urban Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies of Urbanization;
Oxford University Press; New York; 1974.
- Donald Hardesty; Ecological Anthropology; John Wiley & Sons; New York;
1977.
- Stein & Rowe; Physical Anthropology; McGraw Hill Publishers; New York; 1974.
Hobson, Archie; Oxford English Dictionary of Difficult Words; Oxford University
Press; New York; 2002.
4. BLOCK LEVEL STUDIES
5. BUILDING USE
Central business district (CBD) and downtown are terms referring to the
commercial heart of a city. Downtown is the usual term in North America. In the
United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand the term "central
business district" is used by geographers and sometimes by others, but the term
city centre is much more common in colloquial usage. In the United Kingdom,
Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the term is often just shortened to the
single word "city" in general conversation among residents of a city, giving rise to
the phrase "going to the city". Some cities have a mixed-use district known as
uptown near the downtown area (in Minneapolis, for example, Uptown is a district
nearly adjacent to downtown, centered around the Uptown Theater on the
intersection of Lagoon St. and Hennepin Ave.)
The CBD or downtown is the central district of a city, usually typified by a
concentration of retail and commercial buildings. Although applicable to any city,
both terms usually refer to larger cities.
The term city centre (or center city) is similar to CBD or downtown in that
both serve the same purpose for the city, and both are seen by a higher-than-
usual urban density as well as the often having the tallest buildings in a city. City
centre differs from downtown in that downtown can be geographically located
anywhere in a city, while city centre is located near the geogOlphic heart of the
city.
Examples of a city centre can be found in Philadelphia, Houston,
Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Boston, London, Toronto, Sydney, and other cities. London
effectively has two city centers rolled into one, namely the Roman City of
London, and the medieval City of Westminster.
A CBD is likely to have many of the following characteristics:
. It has a distinct land use pattern that can be delimited from the rest of the
settlement.
. It is the geographical center of the settlement
. It contains the settlement's main public buildings
. It contains the major retail outlets (though this is becoming less often the
case, especially in the United States)
. Similar activities within it are concentrated in certain areas (functional
zoning)
. It features vertical zoning
. It has the greatest concentration and number of pedestrians and traffic in
general
. It is a focal point for transport
. It contains the greatest proportion of the settlement's offices
· It has the highest land values of the region
· It attracts people from outside its sphere of influence to work and spend
money inside
· It is advancing into new areas (assimilation) and/or losing old commercial
functions (discard)
References
INTERNET SOURCES: http://www.wikipedia.com (Wikipedia),
http://www.encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia. com), http://www.m-w.com
(Merriam-webster online), http://dictionary.com(Dictionary.com) 1300"5 Concept
plan: Sub CBD Shahdara (CEPT, library, no details of publisher available, UD
711.40954 K.R.C, 13259)
Unpublished Thesis
- Negi Vidya B. Marketing of Bandra-Kurla complex as an
alternative CBD for Metropolis (School of Planning, CEPT)
- Deshpande Dnyanesh H, Urban design guidelines for proposed
CBD at SUSMhalunge, Pune (School of Urban design, CEPT)
A certain wave towards an improvement in the „civic planning‟ and for the
„beautification‟ of the city had swept America in the late 19 th century. The driving
force being “…a new hope and a fresh image for our cities,
…Far nobler than the nobler towns of our many farming regions,
…Influential enough to displace the ugliness of our large industrial towns”
The movement was thus, primarily concerned with the creation of
„handsome works of civic art‟ underlined with deeper and more rooted social
concerns. The first widespread exposition towards the objectives was seen in the
Chicago World Fair and its “White City” in the year 1893. The visitors witnessed
„orderly, articulated plan with generous open spaces, regular cornice lines, trees,
canals, and other bodies of water”: all in all, a representation which was
indicative of the manner in which a „city could be re-planned‟.
A more emphatic move in this direction was however, made in 1901 when
the American Institute of Architects (AIA) held a national conference on „city
beautification‟ in Washington D.C. A group (Macmillan Commission) was formed
to prepare a plan for the improvement of Central Washington, and the same was
constituted by country‟s foremost artists including Daniel Burnham, Augustus St.
Gaudens and Frederick Law Olmstead. Inspiration was largely the more „orderly‟
European towns dotted with classical design imprints complete with „directional
axes, malls, focal points, and reflective pools‟.
Unfortunately the „City Beautiful Movement‟ failed to markedly change the
civic structure of great many American towns primarily because it failed to gain
substantial political patronage. It, however, left its most expansive mark in the
town of Washington D.C where the centralized government supported the „urban
visions‟ of the Macmillan Commission. Elsewhere the movement intervened in
the open „fragments‟ of the city…public parks, boulevards, parkways, waterfronts,
civic centers and „civic ornaments‟ like approach bridges and entrances. In other
words, it was strictly in the „public domain that the movement could exert any
influence‟.
Readings:
- Kostof, Spiro, The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings through History,
Thames and Hudson, London, 1991.
- Spreiregen, Paul, Urban Design: Architecture of Towns and Cities, Mc GrawHill
Book Company, New York, 1965.
- Whattick, Arcnold Ed., Encyclopaedia of Urban Planning, Mc GrawHill Inc., New
York, 1974.
9. DENSITY
In the case of residential development, a measurement of either the
number of habitat rooms per hectare or number of dwelling per hector constitutes
density.
Dwelling Unit: A House or part of house occupied as the living quarters of
one family or household. It mayor may not be equipped with individual facilities
for bathing or toilet.
The total number of person to be accommodates in the housing area;
divided by the area in acres. It is expressed as person per acre.
Housing area denseness or number of persons per unit of built up area or
room. It is expressed as person per habitable room or floor space in square
meter of feet.
Floor Space Rate:The ratio of floor space to the number of inhabitants in a
dwelling units or group of dwelling units. It is expressed as square meter or
square feet. 'Of floor space per person.
Floor Space:The total floor area of dwelling unites measured inside the
external and party wall, excluding common stairs, internal stairs, landings,
external corridor, ottas, veranda, Etc.
Housing Area Ratio:The total space with in the housing area divided by
the housing in square mt. It is expressed to two pJaces of decimals.
Readings:
- RA-TH-0019, (Density And Its Living Condition). Thakore Valmik
M. (1970 A.D.)
- Google search (Density) wikipedia dictionary.
Readings:
Gujarat town planning and urban development Act, 976.
Google search, (Development plan) wikipedia dictionary.
11. DIAGRAM
References
- "Mechanics of the Urban Economic Base Andrews, Richard B. 1953:
Historical Development of the Base Concept." Land Economics 29: 161-167.
- "The Urban Economic Base Reconsidered." Tiebout, Charles M. 1956a. Land
Economics 31: 9599.
- "The Economic Base of American Cities" Ullman, Edward L., Michael H.
Dacey, and Harold Brodsky. 1971. Rev. ed. Seattle: University of Washington
Press.
- "The Economic Base of a Community." Blumenfeld, Hans. 1955. Journal of
the American Institute of Planners 21: 114:132.
13. EDGES
14. ENTOURAGE
16. FRINGE
Fringe areas could be discussed as areas that lie beyond some natural or
man-made boundaries, temporarily limiting the growth of the town. However, with
changes in social, demographic, and economic structure, the same too go
through phases of change, identified as the following:
Fixation (Conzen‟s fixation lines): A significant barrier, similar to Lynch‟s
edges, that creates a marked discontinuity in land that must be overcome for
the development of the city to go beyond. Examples include, the city wall, the
railway lines, natural ravines, gorges etc.
Expansion: Wherein the „uses within the fringe-belt‟ expand into the
surrounding areas, not yet desired for residential use.
Consolidation: Wherein the fringe is engulfed by the surrounding proliferating
growth of residential and other nature (Conzen op. cit. Rofe, 1995)
Thus, the fringes to any city mark significant changes in the mixture of new
land-use types. Interestingly, because the „institutions‟ are less dependent on
accessibility, many of them tend to locate themselves in these „fringe-belts‟. In
other words, the aforementioned changes manifest themselves in terms of not
ordinary residential accretions, but first by institutions, public utilities, open
spaces and country houses.
Readings:
Petruccioli, Attilio, Continuity and Disruption in the Typological Process of the
Islamic Mediterranean Building Landscape, Research Paper, Polytechnic of
Bari, Italy, 2000.
Barnow, Finn, City of Divine King: Urban Systems and Urban Architecture in
Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Nepal, and China, Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen, 2001.
Balsavar, Durganand, An Understanding of the City, A Human Construct, As
A Process In Time, Undergraduate Published Thesis, School of Architecture,
CEPT, Ahmedabad, June 1992.
Conzen, M.R.G., The morphology of towns in Britain during the Industrial Era:
The urban landscape, its historical development and management, Academic
Press, New York, 1981.
Derasari, Snehal, City – An Expression of Human Domain, Undergraduate
Unpublished Thesis, School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1999.
17. FSI/ FAR (Floor Space Index and Floor Area Ratio)
18. GARDEN CITY
Few communities in the United States were planned as a model towns
from its beginning. In 1869 Alexander T Steward, one of New York's leading
merchants, bought a track of over 7,000 acres of the Hempsted plain with the
idea of creating a 'garden city', a term adopted later by an English city planner Sir
Ebenezer Howard .He visualized his 'garden city‟, the Town County magnet as a
town in the countryside. The town would be a closely-knit center for 30,000
people, which in turn would be encompassed by a permanent greenbelt of
agriculture with farms and parks inhabiting 2,000 people. The town would
accommodate the residential and cultural activities. In 1903,the first Garden city
was established on Howard‟s plan 35 miles from London.
Within the town, functional zoning is basic. Howard‟s garden city was to be
industrial and commercial with a balanced mixture of all social groups and levels
of income. The town is divided into wards. The central space is laid out into a
beautiful garden and surrounding this all around are situated majestically the
large public buildings. Surrounding the park is the Crystal Palace where
manufactured goods are kept for sale and most other shopping is done. Further
outward was to be the Grand Avenue, 420 ft. wide and forming an internal
greenbelt. This splendid avenue would have public school and their playgrounds
and churches. The outermost ring constituted all the warehouses and factories.
All opening out in front of the railway line that connected with national railway.
The houses have been accommodated in the outer internal space, all
have individual gardens, and all are within easy reach of factories, shops,
schools and the open countryside. The city is the healthiest in the nation. A low
density, a series of wide tree shaded avenues and homes surrounded by
greenery.
The garden city proper, is surrounded by an agricultural belt which is
reserved for farms and forests. This zone plays an important role in the economy
of the garden city. The 2000 farmers who live there supply the town with the bulk
of its food. Because the food is produced there itself, transport, expenses are
minimal, the farmers receives a good price. The agriculture also prevents the
town from the expansion out into countryside and ensures that the citizens enjoy
both the compact urban center and ample open countryside-all within easy
reach.
References:
- Green belt cities; Fredric J. Osborn
- Cities of vision; Rolf Jensen
- The city in cultural context; John Agnew,John Mercer,david Sopher
- The Town Planning Movement; Sir Ebenezer Howard Britannica
Encyclopedia.
19. GENTRIFICATION
A process by which dilapidated subdivided dwellings or slum
neighborhoods are taken over by the wealthy or their agents through purchase,
the non renewal of lease or occasionally, the harassment of tenants, and then
reconverted to expensive single-family housing. It occurs within the inner city
because the wealthy wish to live near central city job and recreational
'opportunities. Gentrification is a reversal of the normal FILTERING PROCESS,
for it involves old substantial dwelling that usually filter down the social hierarchy
but in this case get colonized and filtered back up.
Readings:
City Reader; Richard T. Legates and Federic Stout
Urban Future; Peter hall and Ulrich Pfeiftor
Urban Studies; vol. 40,12 Nov. 2003.
20. HERITAGE
Readings:
- Heritage as knowledge: capital or culture? Urban studies, vol. 39, nos 56, pg.
no. 1003-1017,2002.
- K.L.Bhowmik, PROTECTION AND Preservation of heritage. Inter-India
Publications.
- Dr.V.Raghavan, the Indian Heritage, an Anthology of Sanskrit Literature, the
Indian Institute of World Culture.
- Humayun Kabir , The Indian Heritage, Asia Publishing House.
- Lewis Mumford, The City in History, Its Origin, Its transformation.
21. HYPOTHESIS
Something supposed or taken for granted, with the object of following out
of its consequences. The concepts involved in the hypothesis need not
themselves refer to observable objects. But the initial condition should be able to
be observed or to be produced experimentally, and the deduced facts should be
able to be observed. While a hypothesis can be partially confirmed by showing
that what is deducted from it with certain initial conditions is actually found under
those conditions, it cannot be completely proved in this way. If the predictions
derived from the hypothesis are not found to be true, the hypothesis may have to
be given up or modified.
Readings:
- Paul k. Asabere and Peter F.Colwell, the relative lot size hypothesis: an
empirical note, urban studies (1985)22, pg. nO.355-357.
- Kevin lynch, what time is this place? MIT press Cambridge.
- Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 12, William Benton publisher.
- The world book encyclopedia- vol. 7, field enterprises educational
corporation.
Readings:
Bimal patel, Keywords in planning, school of planning CEPT, 1992
www.wikipedia.com
23. LANDMARKS
Readings:
Lynch Kevin, Image of the city ,MIT press
S.murugnandam, Landmark in the urban fabric: The physical and associational
qualities, In Indian context, school of architecture, undergraduate thesis, CEPT
24. LANDSCAPE GRAIN
25. MORPHOLOGY
The most noteworthy schools of „Urban Morphology‟ are the ones started by
M.R.G. Conzen (Urban Morphology Research Group at the University of
Birmingham), Saverio Muratori (the Italian School) and most recently the French
School at Versailles founded by Philippe Panerai and Jean Castex. Interstingly,
the Italian morphological tradition has always looked at tradition and innovation at
par with each other. The relation between tradition and innovation and hence a
pre-industrial and modern approach to „urban form‟ finds application in the
„typological studies‟. Specifically, the typological approach is distinguished from
all other Italian contributions by its classical concept of architecture as a tectonic
system legitimized by its derivation of principles and rules from the practice of
building and according to a strong integration of structural, distributional and
volumetric aspects.
Hence, the levels of resolution and specificity towards a more responsible „urban
form‟ making.
Readings:
Rasmussen, Steen Eiler, Towns and Buildings: described in drawings and
words, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1951.
Rossi, Aldo, The Architecture of the City, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1982.
Cataldi, Giancarlo; Maffei, Gian Luigi, and Vaccaro, Paolo, Saverio Muratori
and the Italian Planning Theory, Urban Morphology 6 (1), 2002.
Gauthiez, Bernard, The history of urban morphology, Urban Morphology 8(1),
2004.
Gosling, David, and Maitland, B., Concepts of Urban Design, Academy
Editions, London, 1984.
Hall, A.C., Dealing with Incremental Change: An Application of Urban
Morphology to Design Control, Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1997.
Kristjansdottir, Sigriour, The integration of architectural and geographical
concepts in urban morphology: preliminary thoughts, Urban Morphology
Research Group, University of Birmingham, UK, 2002.
Kropf, Karl, M.R.G.Conzen, Gianfranco Caniggia, Oscar Wilde and Aesop: or
why urban morphology may be right but not popular, Urban Morphology 8(1),
2004.
Moudon, Anne Vernez, Urban Morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary
field, Urban Morphology 1, 3-10, 1997.
Nanda, Vivek, Urban Morphology and the concept of type: a thematic and a
comparative study of the urban tissue, Undergraduate Published Thesis,
School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1989.
Koster, Elwin Alexander, Urban Morphology: A taste of a form-oriented
approach to the history of urban development, Published Doctoral Student
Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2001.
Readings:
1. Whittick, Arnold, Encyclopedia of Urban Planning, McGraw Hill Book
Company, 1974
Website:
http://www.edsamuel.com/glossarv/realtv/html
27. NODES
28. PALIMPSEST
Readings:
- Rossi, Aldo, The Architecture of the City, translated by Diane Ghirardo and
Joan Ockman (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The MIT
Press, 1984).
- Benjamin, Walter, Selected Writings, Vol. 2 (1927-'1934) (Cambridge,
Massachusetts and London, England:The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 1999).
- Benjamin, Walter, The Arcades Project, translated by Howard Eiland and
Kevin McLaughlin (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999).
- Rilke, Rainer Maria, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, translated by M.
D. Herter Norton (New York:W.W. Norton Company, Inc., 1964)
- Rodolfo, Machado, Old Buildings as Palimpsest, (Progressive Architecture
November1976).
- Cooper, Daniel , The Aztec Palimpsest! Mexico in the Modem Imagination,
(Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1997).
- Beery, A.Q. and Brown, Erosion on Archaeological Earthworks: Its
Prevention, Control and Repair, (Clwyd County Council, 1994) · Macinnes, L,
and Wickham-Jones, All Natural Things: Archaeology and the Green Debate,
(Oxbow Monograph 21,1992) · Constantin, Goagea, About specters as
Poetical periphery of the existence
- Art . Dictlonuy http://www.artlex.com
- Dictionary.com
- http://dictionary.reference.com/
29. PEDESTRIANIZATION
Pedestrian
A person traveling on foot, a walker.
Adj.
1. Of, relating to, or made for pedestrians: a pedestrian bridge.
2. Going or performed on foot: a pedestrian journey.
3. Undistinguished; ordinary: pedestrian prose.
[From Latin pedester, pedestr-, going on foot, from pedes, a pedestrian,
from pes, ped-, foot.]
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In
modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road but this was
not the case historically.
During the 18th and19th centuries, pedestrianism was a popular spectator
sport. Since the nineteenth century, interest in pedestrianism has dropped.
Although it is still an Olympic sport, it fails to catch public attention in the way that
it used to. However, pedestrians are still carrying out major walking feats such as
the popular Land's End to John 0' Groats walk, in the United Kingdom, or
traversal of North America from coast to coast. These feats are often tied to
charitable fundraising and have been achieved by celebrities such as Sir Jimmy
Savile or Ian Botham as well as by people not otherwise in the public eye.
Nowadays, roads often have a designated footpath attached especially for
pedestrian traffic, called the sidewalk in American English and the pavement in
British English. There are also footpaths not associated with a road, which are
used purely by pedestrians, particularly ramblers, hikers or hill-walkers, and there
are roads not associated with a footpath. Such footpaths in mountainous or
forested areas are called trails. On some of the latter, pedestrians share the road
with horses and vehicles whilst on others they are forbidden from using the road
altogether. Also some shopping streets are for pedestrians only.
Some roads have special pedestrian crossings. A bridge solely for
pedestrians is a footbridge.
References:
- Houghton Mufflin Company Dictionary,
- (http://www.answers.com)
- (http://www.wikipedia.com)
- (http://www.transalt.org/campaigns/reclaiming/)
A public place is a destination and a purpose built stage for rituals and
interactions. The reference is to places we all are free to use. They are
themselves often defined by the private architecture of surrounding buildings. But
the distinction of purpose holds the fact that in public places we act in ways we
cannot or do not in the private realm.
Two aspects can be attributed to the concept of public places. One is a
familiar and chance encounter. The charter of public spaces here is freedom of
action and the right to stay inactive. The second aspect is a ritual one. Public
places host structured or communal activities - festivals, riots, celebrations,
public executions.
The fundamental aim of the public place is to ensconce community and to
arbitrate social conflict.
Hence the concept of public places can be destinations, which have been
custom built to promote human contact as settings for functions, gatherings and
rituals.
Readings:
Spiro Kostoff. 1992. The city assembled. London: Thames and Hudson limited.
Manish Sachdeva. 1999. Urban public realm: a methodology for analysis. CEPT
publications.
Readings:
- Mathew Carmona, Tim Health, Taner 0 C and Steven Tiesdell. 2003. public
places urban spaces. Architectural Press, Burlington.
- Manish Sachdeva. 1999. Urban public realm: a methodology for analysis.
CEPT publications.
Readings:
- (Carr S., Francis M., Rivlin L., Stone A., Public space, Cambridge university
press)
- (Boyer, Christine, The city of collective memory, Its historical & Architectural
perspective, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London.)
34. REVITALIZATION
The heart of the word "revitalization" is "vita," the Latin word for „life.
Generally referred as urban revitalization means bringing back life or „vitality‟ into
areas of the city, that might have lost such life.
The term „revitalization‟ (or in American English „revitalization‟) is used in
many fields dealing with urban structures development: town planning, sociology,
geography, monuments‟ conservation. Its appearance was preceded by many
terms of a close but not identical meaning, like: renewal, rebuild, restructurion,
regenerating and rehabilitation.
Revitalization is often described as a process of stimulating city spatial
modifications/transitions – mainly of the functional and economic character –
aiming at reversing degradation process and increasing city competitiveness.
„Revitalization – the process of spatial, social and economical transitions, which
goal is to bring the revitalized area out of the crisis state and leading to its
development, including improvement of local community living conditions”.
Revitalisation of city central areas can be characterized as a process of structural
changes increasing activity and attractiveness of its space due to the coordinated
strategies of private and public sectors
Readings:
- (Anna Wojnarowska,Spatial aspects of the revitalization process - Integrated
Revitalization Programme PROREVITA for Lodz central areas)
35. SCHEMA
Readings:
- http://www.wickipedia.com
- Norberg Schulz Christian: Intension in architecture – George Allen & Unwin ltd.
London 1963
36. SPATIALITY
i) Of, relating to, involving, or having the nature of space, any property relating to
or occupying space
ii) Spatial scale provides a "shorthand" form for discussing relative lengths,
areas, distances and sizes. A microclimate, for instance, is one which might
occur in a mountain valley or near a lakeshore, whereas a mega trend is one
which involves the whole planet
Readings:
http://www.wickipedia.com
Readings:
- Chavooshian Budd B.Norman Thomas, Nieswand H.George, Transfer of
Development of Rights; A new concept in land use management.
- Davin - Drabkin Hain Land Policy and Urban Growth.
- GIHED ; Bombay's Development Plan- New Dimension of Urban
Development.
- Mehta Jaswant: Transport of Development Rights: A vital instrument of Town
Planning {Ambuja Lecture Series 1994}.
- Pizor Peter.J: Making Transfer of Development of Rights work: a study or
programme implementation.
- Lukachan, Biju, School of planning postgraduate thesis: Transfer of
development rights: an enabling mechanism for urban planning and
management.
39. THEORY
Readings:
Rossi, Aldo, The Architecture of the City, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1982.
Hall, A.C., Dealing with Incremental Change: An Application of Urban
Morphology to Design Control, Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1997.
Petruccioli, Attilio Ed., Typological Process and Design Theory, Proceedings
of the International symposium sponsored by the Aga Khan Program for
Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the MIT, Cambridge, March
1995.
Panerai, Phillipe ; Castex, Jean; Depaule, Charles Jean; Samuels, Ivor,
Urban Forms: the Death and Life of the Urban Block, Architectural Press,
Oford, 2004.
References:
- Lang,John; Desai,Miki & Desai, Mdhavi, 'Architecture And Independence'
,1997,Oxford Univ. Press,New Delhi,
- Venturi,Robert, 'Complexity And Con tradition In Architecture.', 1966,
Newyork: Museum Of Modern Art.
VERNACULAR:
A built environment belonging to a particular group of people can be
termed as vernacular, when the individuals are not just owners or buyers but are
also participants in the building process which has been evolved over a long
period of time, and are to an extend capable of building on their own.
Vernacular dwellings and settlements are expressions of a complex
interaction of potentialities of available materials, cultural skills, climatic
conditions and economic levels of a place arrived at through a process of trial
and error over a long period of time.
A study of vernacular form gives one an understanding of the basic human
responses to the built environment. It also teaches one the link between built
form and tradition, customs, social values and physical factors such as
topography, materials and climate.
Vernacular building shapes, floor plans, materials, construction
techniques, and other characteristics are often generated from centuries-old local
patterns.
These patterns are continually changing, but do so slowly. An early work
was Bernard Rudofsky's 1964 book "Architecture Without Architects: a short
introduction to non-pedigreed architecture", based on his MoMA exhibition.
The book was a gentle reminder of the legitimacy and "hard-won knowledge"
inherent in vernacular buildings, from Polish salt-caves to gigantic Syrian water
wheels to Moroccan desert fortresses, although it was considered iconoclastic at
the time." Christopher Alexander attempted to identify adaptive features of
traditional architecture that apply across cultures in his book A Pattern Language.
Howard Davis's book The Culture of Building details the culture that enabled
several vernacular traditions.
The term "commercial vernacular", popularized in the late 1960s by the
publication of Robert Venturi's "Learning from Las Vegas", refers to 20th century
American suburban tract and commercial architecture. Unlike traditional
vernacular, however, the design and construction of these types of buildings is
remote from their eventual users, and they do not represent long cultural
traditions; those who study traditional vernacular architecture hold that these
characteristics define a more useful and fundamental partition of architecture into
vernacular and non-vernacular than whether or not a kind of architecture is
accepted within academia.
Readings:
- Alexander,Christopher, 'Timeless Way Of Building', 1979,Oxford Univ. Press.
- Rudofsky ,Bernard, 'Architecture Without Architects - A Short Introduction To
Non-Pedigreed Architecture', 1965, New York: Museum Of Modern Art.
- Alexander,Christopher And Others, 'Pattern Language: Towns,Buildings,
Construction', 1977, New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
The earliest reference to „type‟ dates back to the time of Plato, Aristotle,
and Epicurius when the writings on philosophy and psychology ideated the term
„typos‟, describing a set of characteristics present in a group of concrete
individuals. However, it was in France that „type‟ as a theory took a definitive
footing; as a reaction to the perceived decline of the Baroque and the Rococo.
Quatremere de Quincy, at the end of the eighteenth century, brought forth a
completely new understanding of „type‟, until then regarded as a „model‟, and
based it on history, nature and use.
Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, however, elaborated the understanding of the
„type‟, substituting it by the term „genre‟ and deviating from Quicy‟s pre-
occupation of the same with stylistic categorixation, to developing a principle-led
following categorization: Historical (Egyptial Temples, Roman Palaces, Moorish
details); Functional (Theatres, Markets, Hospitals); Round Temples (From
considered as a distinctive feature of a building).
„Type‟ could thus be regarded as a „set of common formal characteristics,
presenting less the image of a thing to copy than the idea of an element, which
ought to serve as rule. Hence while all is precise and given in a model; all is
more or less vague and subject to variation in the type‟ (Encyclopedia
Methodique, Paris, 1825).
Readings:
Anderson, Stanford, Types and Conventions in Time: Towards a History of
Duration and Change of Artifacts, Perspecta 18, 1982.
Aymonimo, Carlo, Ten Opinions on the Type, Casabella 509/510, 1985.
Aymonimo, Carlo, Type and Typology, AD 55 5/6, London, 1985.
Braham, William, After Typology: The suffering of diagrams, Architectural
Design, Vol. 70, No. 3, May-June, 2000.
Burelli, Augusto Romano, Unearthing the Type, AD 55 5/6, London, 1985.
Colquhoun, Alan, Typology and Design Method, Arena, The Journal of the
Architectural Association, June 1967; Republished in Charles Jencks and
George Baird, Meaning in Architecture, London, 1969.
De Carlo, Giancarlo, Notes on the uncontrolled ascent of Typology, Casabella
509/510, 1985.
De Mauro, Tullio, Typology, Casabella 509/510, 1985.
Ellis, W.,Type and Context in Urbanism: Colin Rowe Contextualism,
Oppositions no. 18, 1979, p. 2-27.
Findley, R.J. (1983) Rob Krier: Urban Projects 1968-1982, Progressive
Architecture, vol. 64, 1983, p.231.
Frampton, Kenneth, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 1980.
Goode, Terrance, Typological Theory in the United States: The Consumption
of Architectural “Authenticity”, Journal of Architectural Education, September
1992.
Madrazo, Leandro, Durand and the Science of Architecture, Journal of
Architectural Education, September 1994.
Moneo, Raphael, On Typology, Oppositions 13, 1978.
Nanda, Vivek, Urban Morphology and the concept of type: a thematic and a
comparative study of the urban tissue, Undergraduate Published Thesis,
School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1989.
Petruccioli, Attilio Ed., Typological Process and Design Theory, Proceedings
of the International symposium sponsored by the Aga Khan Program for
Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the MIT, Cambridge, March
1995.
Polesello, Gianugo, Typology and Composition in Architecture, Type and
Typology, AD 55 5/6, London, 1985.
Scolari, Massimo, The Typological Commitment, Casabella 509/510, 1985.
The Luck of Aldo Rossi: Notes on the critical success of his works,
Architecture + Urbanism No. 65, 1976.
Vidler, A., The Third Typology, Oppositions, N. 7, 1978.
Vidler, Anthony, Dictionnaire Historique de l’Architecture, Oppositions 8,
Spring 1977.
44. URBAN
Readings:
Barnow, Finn, City of Divine King: Urban Systems and Urban Architecture in
Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Nepal, and China, Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen, 2001.
Thapar, Romila, From lineage to State: Social formations in the mid-first
millennium BC in the Ganga Valley, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,
1984.
Kostoff, Spiro, The City Shaped: Urban Pattern and Meanings Through
History, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1991.
Champakalakshmi, R., Trade, Ideology and Urbanization in Southern India:
300 BC to AD 1300, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999.
„The „Urban Block‟, in other words, may also be referred to as the „built
mass‟ of the city that constitutes an agglomeration of buildings. Its form is defined
by the peripheral conditions of the open-spaces that either generate the block or
are generated by the articulation of the block. In the traditional cities, the urban
block was essentially formed by a single and continuous built mass that
represented the extent of the block and in turn gave the street a certain definition.
Today, however, the block is the result of individual and isolated buildings that
stand in space but not necessarily establish coherence‟. (Gothoskar, Vineeta, An
Enquiry into the aspects of Urban Edge as an element of participation,
Undergraduate Unpublished Thesis, School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad,
1988).
The „urban block‟ thus emerges as a part of the urban area „isolated‟ from
the neighboring parts if the larger territory by streets. It is in this respect not an
architectural form but a group of interdependent building plots. It has a meaning
only in relation with the network of streets that define its boundary.
Readings:
Panerai, Phillipe; Castex, Jean; Depaule, Charles Jean; Samuels, Ivor, Urban
Forms: the Death and Life of the Urban Block, Architectural Press, Oford,
2004.
Gothoskar, Vineeta, An Enquiry into the aspects of Urban Edge as an
element of participation, Undergraduate Unpublished Thesis, School of
Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1988.
Readings:
- Lang, Jon, Urban Design: The American Experience, Van Nostrand, New York,
1994
- Jacobs, Jane, Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Failure Of Town
Planning, Vintage, New York, 1961
- Cullen, Gordon, Townscapes, Architectural Press, London, 1961
- Alexander, Christopher, A New Theory Of Urban Design, Oxford University
Press, New York, 1987
Readings:
Croall, Stephen and Rankin, William, Ecology for beginners, Icon Books Ltd.,
Cambridge, 1992.
Dendrinos, Diminos and Mullaly, Henri, Urban Evolution: Studies in
Mathematical Ecologies of Cities, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985.
Gilpin, Alan, Dictionary of Environmental Terms, Routledge and Kegan Paul,
London and Henley, 1976.
Kormondy, Edward J., Concept of Ecology, New Delhi Prentice Hall, 1971.
Leutsher, Alfred, Ecology of Towns, Franklin Walts Ltd., London, 1975.
Simonds, John Ormsbee, Landscape Architecture, Illefe Books Ltd., London,
1961.
Sinha, Dr. S.P., Urban Environment and Cotemporary Ecology, The Indian
Publications, Ambala Cantt, 1986.
Soleri, Paolo, Arcology: The City in the Image of Man, The MIT Press,
Cambridge Massachusetts, 1981.
Exploring the links between the concrete physicality of the built form and
the complex social, economic, political processes through which the physical
urban form is produced and consumed. Physical form and spatial structure of the
city gives it its form. The pattern of development in an urban area, including
aspects such as urban density; the use of land (residential, commercial, industrial
or institutional); the existence of denser “nodes”, centers or corridors; and the
degree to which urban development is contiguous or fragmented at the fringes.
Typo morphological studies use building types to explain urban form and the
process of shaping the fabric of cities.
References:
Lang, Jon, Urban Design: The American Experience, Van Nostrand, New York,
1994
The urban fabric is the physical form of towns and cities. The habitual use
of the singular - „the‟ urban fabric - implies that there is only one per urban area,
however it may locally be contorted or riven. The urban fabric, like urban
structures and spaces, also embodies the concept of continuity, in contrast to
built form, which could easily be regarded as being a collection of freestanding
objects.
The urban fabric is also differentiated from urban structure, whose name
connotes conscious and incremental construction, as urban fabric is often cast as
a passive entity to which things are done. In this sense the urban fabric may
therefore be seen as representing the idea of a pre-existing, primal form, the urban
landscape as found. Just as the surface of the earth is as a thin skin over the
global mass, the urban fabric may be likened to a cloak overlaying this skin,
forming a new surface. Perhaps the urban fabric is always conceptually „what was
there before‟ at a given point in time, something that may be cut or disrupted - and
healed once more - by new interventions, rather than being a unitary construct,
deliberately assembled as such.
It is no coincidence that the term „urban fabric‟ has a garment-like
resonance, it is not truly two-dimensional, as it incorporates the vertical
dimension of built form: the urban fabric may be said to be „torn apart‟ even when
the street plan on the ground remains largely intact. Neither is the urban fabric
fully three-dimensional, as its significance is associated with the concave street
spaces occupied by people as they move through „it‟. The system of streets,
which binds the built form into the urban structure of the road network, creates a
continuous urban fabric and in a sense confirms the coherence of urbanity.
Readings:
The urban fabric of a city which is usually conceived as „what was there
before‟ at a given point of time and is subject to change whether it be in terms of
it being cut or disrupted or modified and healed once more, by new interventions
is considered as an urban insert.
The conventional plan is to drive a new imposed order, “a better
environment” through congested and unsanitary areas which is quite unsparing
to the old homes and to the neighborhood life of the area, leaves fewer homes
and the large population expelled would again as usual be driven into creating
worse congestion in other quarters. If the original inhabitants have been shifted
then the new spaces thus formed from their removal will have newer inhabitants
and different functions as compared to the previous order. If cavernous squares
and heroic avenues are proposed they will upset the subtle spatial play between
small buildings and large, monumental nodes and the standard tissue that gives
these monuments their status, their impressiveness, and, such planning is also
never innocent of political or social ends “Urban planning” that was actually
implemented bears faithful testimony to a concentration of authority. Much of the
planning we recognize today in ancient, medieval or renaissance cities was the
work of kings, princes, prelates, aristocrats or oligarchies, each powerful enough
to define the urban order.
Haussmann, the “ demolition artist ” as he was called by many of his
detractors, was the great precursor of pitiless massive urban surgery causing the
destruction of entire sections of a city, which was condoned to make room for the
public theatres of Napoleons regime.
Urban inserts in more modern times are undertaken to “relieve
congestion” and “restore decorum” and create a “better environment”.
Readings:
- Ward V Stephen, Planning the Twentieth Century City: the advanced
capitalist world, London UK, 2002.
- Mum ford Lewis, The Culture of Cities, USA, 1970.
- Tyrwhit Jacqueline, Patrick Geddes in India, Great Britain, 1947
- Spiro Kostof, The City Shaped: Urban Patterns And Meanings Through
History, Canada 1991.
- Function and Metaphor, Design Quarterly, Article by Spiro Kostof: His
majesty the Pick: The Aesthetics of Demolition, Minneapolis, 1982.
Urban Renewal physically takes things and turns them to new uses. It
essentially means rehabilitation of impoverished urban neighborhoods by large-
scale renovation or reconstruction of housing and public works. Homes are
destroyed or rehabilitated; new structures rise or the uses of old structures are
changed; streets and community facilities are rearranged. Urban renewal is not a
goal, but a tool. It is a method whereby a great variety of ends could be served.
In some places, renewal has meant erecting a civic monument in a downtown
plaza; in others, rehabilitating sound but decaying homes to improve living
conditions for residents; in others, getting 'Undesirables' out of 'Desirable'
neighborhoods by spot clearance; in others, stabilizing blighted(diseased)
neighborhoods and encouraging residents to improve their properties; in others,
developing land that will attract new businesses into the community or clearing
land that will get unpopular businesses out of the community.
Bibliography:
- Wilson James, Urban Renewal: the record and controversy; M.LT. Press,
Cambridge, 1968.
- Gavin McCrone, Urban Renewal: Scottish Experience, Urban Studies, voL28,
December 1991.
- David Smith, Urban Renewal in Asian context: A case study in HongKong,
Urban Studies, January 1 976, vo1. 13, October 1976.
- P. R. Mehta, Urban Renewal, A+D, Augustl998.
53. URBAN TRANSFORMATION
Readings:
- Rodrigo Perez De Arce, Urban Transformations and the Architecture of
Additions, Archit(;.'Ctural Association, London; 1990.
- Leon Krier, Urban Transformations, Architectural Design, vol. 48, April 1978.
- Lewis Mumford, City: its origin, its transfonnations and its prospects, Seeker
& Warburg, London,1963.
- Smith Michael Peter Ed., Cities in Transfonnation : class, capital and state,
no.26;Urban Affairs Annual Reviews, Sage publication, London, 1984.
Urbanity refers to the relation between the urban environment and the city
dweller. It is the expression of a built-form to form a physical as well as a social
setting for the city‟s dwellers – where the street space is not simply a public open
space but can be used freely by the pedestrians without having been invited or
inhibited any one. (Gothoskar, Vineeta, An Enquiry into the aspects of Urban
Edge as an element of participation, Undergraduate Unpublished Thesis, School
of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1988).
Also, the term „urbanism‟ is referred to a „holistic consideration of the built
environment within its physical, historical and social contexts‟. One of the earliest
reference to the term dates back to 1938, when it first appeared in the essay by
Louis Wirth in order to mean „the way of life of the city dwellers‟. Giurgola, on the
other hand, defined the term „urbanism‟ as an art and discipline whose “aim is an
architectural synthesis of all those values, which represent the urban aggregate
in the broadest sense of the word…besides denoting the material act of
planning”.
Readings:
Tafuri, Manfred, Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT, 1973.
Goodman, Paul, Growing up absurd, Random House, New York, 1956.
Giurgola, Ronaldo, Architecture in Change, Marcus Whiffin, 1966.
Chermayeff, Serge and Alexander, Cristopher, Community and Privacy:
Towards a new architecture of humanism, Doubleday, New York, 1963.
Scully, Vincent, American Architecture and Urbanism, Henry Holt, New York,
1969.
Ellin, Nan, Postmodern Urbanism, Princeton Architectural Press, New York,
1999.
Desai, Monika, Morphology of the Urban Block: A Study, Unpublished
Undergraduate Thesis, School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad,
Nanda, Vivek, Urban Morphology and the Concept of Type: A Thematic and
Comparative Study of the Urban Tissue, Published Undergraduate Thesis,
School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, 1990.
Rao, Dinesh, Building Typology and Urban Morphology: A Study,
Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, School of Architecture, CEPT,
Ahmedabad, 1989.
55. URBANIST
Despite the confusing counter claims made upon it , the term „organic‟
suggests an amoral development process, evolving naturally with the needs of
the society as it exists. I this. In this, it contrasts sharply with another powerful
tradition- the utopian or the ideal – in which town design is closely allied to the
design of the society itself. Whereas the organic town can exist only in fact, as
the physical result of a multitude of small forces and actions, the ideal town can
exist only in theory, as one designer‟s formulation of a possible complete solution
to the design problem „town‟.
The propagators of such utopian thinking are generally referred to as
„Urbanists‟. Thus Urbanists like Campanella, Bacon, Fourier, Le Corbusier,
Wright and Howard devised their utopian models. A second major theme
explored by the social utopias, and which became increasingly urgent as the
industrial revolution developed, was the relation between the city and the
country. The three alternative formulations of this relationship were expressed by
Wright‟s Broadacre City, Howard‟s Garden City and Le Corbusier‟s Ville
Radieuse.
After the revolution in Russia, two attitudes seem to have emerged-
„urbanist‟ with a capitalist attitude; and „disurbanist‟ advocating a Marxian
development.
Readings:
- Gosling David, Concepts in Urban Design, London academy editions, 1984.
- Tafuri Manfredo,Architecture and Utopia:Design and Capitalist Development,
MITpress, Cambridge,Mass,1976.
- www.wikipedia.com
57. URBANIZATION
58. ZONING
Readings:
Panerai, Phillipe; Castex, Jean; Depaule, Charles Jean; Samuels, Ivor, Urban
Forms: the Death and Life of the Urban Block, Architectural Press, Oford,
2004.
Katz, Peter, Notes on the History of the New Urbanism, in T. Bressi (ED.),
The Seaside Debates, Rizzoli, New York, 2002.
Katz, Peter, The New Urbanism, Mc-Graw Hill, New York, 1994.
Ellin, Nan, Postmodern Urbanism, Princeton Architectural Press, New York,
1999.
Salingaros, Nikos, The Future of Cities: Absurdity of Modernism, an interview
with Leon Krier, Urban Land 61, January 2002.
Readings:
- The contents and discontents of urban villages, Smriti Sachdeva
- Mathew Carmona, Tim Health, Taner 0 C and Steven Tiesdell. 2003. public
places urban spaces. Architectural Press, Burlington.
- The urban villagers.Group and class in the life of ltalianAmericans.Herbert J.
Gans.
62. NECROPOLIS
Readings:
- Mumford, Lewis, The City in History, its Origins, its Transformations and
its prospects, Secker and Warburg, London, 1961.
- Website: www.wikipedia.com