ARC 331

URBAN DESIGN

Lecture 03

Is There a Need for Urban Design?

…….Criteria, Role, and Formal Elements of Urban

Design
Primary Reading: Beckley, Robert M. (1979), ‘Urban Design’, in Introduction to Urban Planning, New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. pp. 62 – 103.

Arguments Against

1. Design forces versus

other
forces

Today the city is more shaped by

economic / entrepreneurial forces
than planning and design forces.
Communications & transport
technology, markets and so on.
 Singapore CBD

Arguments Against (cont.)

2. Grand designs and Master Plans can go

wrong - Cities have in the past developed incrementally
and without master designs, with very good results; when
such designs were developed in the 1960s things went
dramatically wrong!

https://
www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/22/pruitt-igoe-high-rise-urban america-history-cities
Pruitt-igoe modern high-rise housing (1955) and its demolition
(1972)
https://www.moma.org/magazine/artic les/445
Arguments
Against (cont.)

3. Lack of adaptation
and change –

The city form is never finite,

but always changing.
Design tends to freeze
form and structure,
hence prevent the city from
adapting to changing
socio-economic changes.

Uttara, Dhaka, 2022

Arguments For
1. Significant interrelationship between
form and function of a city - Thus, we
can design for those related functions. Public art and

2. Ensuring public wellbeing - It is design fostering economic activities in the city, Raffles place,
Singapore
immoral for urban development to be left to
chance …it must be controlled through
planning and design frameworks to ensure
the city works well, is people friendly, and
has positive environmental impact.

Green urban
3. Reducing the deteriorating quality of
urban spaces - The enterprise culture, space enhances quality of life
with its laissez-faire attitude of the 1980s
and 1990s led to more amorphous growth
Arguments For
and remodeling of many cities, hence the
erosion of the qualities of urban spaces.
(cont’d):
4. Many of the problems of cities are
actually the result of the inadequacy
of: structure and form, their
distribution of population, their land
use patterns and transport systems
all of which are interdependent.

5. To enhance the city’s quality and Source:

identity as a place for people -

Economic forces must operate for https://www.ura.gov.sg/maps/

rather than against the city: their

manifestation in the physical, spatial,
structural, and land use terms must be
guided into forms that enhance the
city’s quality and identity as a place for
people.

6. Others? ….
Criteria for Urban Design
What may dictate an urban design
undertaking?
1. Appeal (…how places look….)

1. Function …(how places work…)

2. Quality of urban areas; (ambience)

3. Community well-being: Vitality;

safety;

Criteria for Urban Design (cont’d)

• Environmental stress
• Behavioural support
 • Identity
• Diversity
• Legibility
• Meaning/communication
• Development
• Perceptual engagements
• Regeneration
• Constraints

So many? Yes, might be more in complex scenerio

Role of Urban Design
• Urban Design can help enhance a city’s advantages:
– physical needs of citizens;
– safety,
– security and protection;
– an environment free of pollution,
– noise,
– accidents, and crime;
– a conducive social environment …
 – a sense of community;
– an appropriate image and prestige;
– creativity and self-expression in neighbourhoods;
– aesthetically pleasantness as a place of culture and
– a work of art.

• Design can help diminish a city’s disadvantages: containment of

size & population; the obligation to travel; social stratification
1. Enhance character of a place
 Santorini, Greece
2. Imagination/Clarification
…Increase legibility of function/form
 The use of

imagery/iconic design
(Guggenheim, Bilbao); different
materials and fabrics for different
circulation areas, use of
pedestrian/street furniture, and
signage. Design as catalyst.
3. Negotiation:
among conflicting interests; space contestation
 Central Park, New York Plaza in front of Seagram building, New York
4. Visualization:
scenarios-building; simulation; foresight
 B

ernard Tschumi Follies @ Park La Villette

5. Correction/ reconstruction:
defects/malfunctions; destruction (hazards: fires, earthquakes, flooding,
tsunamis, hurricanes, erosion,/landslides, glaciers etc.
 Rohinga camp, Bangladesh Tsunami housing by Shigeru Ban
6. Mitigation:
e.g. disaster preparedness, crime prevention
7. Prescription:
Show the way out of situations- sprawl, land use conflict, pollution
etc.
8. Prowess:
celebration of civic excellence (high-cost projects)
Elements and Materials of Urban Design
1. Space Frame:
Space and its definition; enclosure; built (+ve) versus unbuilt (-ve); skyscape;
landform
 2. Elements of
Form: Point, Line,
Plane, Solids
3. Urban Functions:
Living; Working; Leisure; Mobility; Administration, …
4. Urban Fabric:
Texture; water, vegetation; furniture; light etc.
5. Environmental Factors:
Precipitation; temperatures; humidity; wind; lighting etc.
Questions? / Discussion