Introduction to Urban Design

Dr. Bipasha Kumar

Professor
AIT SAP, G.NOIDA

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 Introduction to Urban Design
• Urban design is the art of making places for people

• Successful streets, spaces, villages, towns and cities

tend to have characteristics in common. These
factors have been analysed to produce principles
or objectives of good urban design.

• They help to remind us what should be sought to create

a successful place. There is considerable overlap between
the objectives and they are mutually re-inforcing.

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 Urban design

• A profession that makes decisions about how

natural (topography, vegetation) and built
(buildings, roads, plazas) elements in a
particular space will relate to one another.
• Urban designers consider
how people will perceive and interact with the
human-made environment
KEVIN LYNCH: Image of the City (1960)

ELEMENTS OF URBAN DESIGN

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Unique elements, which are defined by
Lynch as a network of
• paths,
• edges,
• districts,
• nodes, and
• landmarks.

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 Paths
Paths are channels by which people move along in their travels.
Examples of paths are roads, trails, and sidewalks.

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 Edges
Edges are all other lines not included in the path group.
Examples of edges include walls, and seashores.

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 Districts
Districts are sections of the city, usually relatively substantia
size, which have an identifying character about them.

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 Nodes
Nodes, are points or strategic spots where there is an extra focus,
or added concentration of city features. Prime examples of nodes
include a busy intersection or a popular city center.

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 Landmarks
Landmarks are external physical objects that act as reference points.
Landmarks can be a store, mountain, school, or any other object that
aids in orientation when way-finding.

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IMAGE OF THE CITY

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