ELEMENTS OF URBAN FORM

ELEMENTS OF URBAN FORM

Urban morphology
 Urban morphology is the study of the form
and shape of settlements.
 Appreciation of morphology helps urban
planners and designers to be aware of local
patterns of development and processes of
change.
ELEMENTS OF URBAN FORM
• Initial work in the field focused on analyzing
evolution and change in traditional urban
space.
• Morphologists showed that settlements could
be seen in terms of several key elements.
• Among these elements the most determinants
in shaping urban areas are listed as:
Land form and Nature
Streets and street pattern
ELEMENTS OF URBAN FORM
Land uses
building structures
Open spaces
Monuments
Plot configurations and block arrangements
 Part One
Land form and Nature
 Land form and Nature
Every city is built on a piece of land. The form
of this land and its features are the foremost
determinants of a city’s form.
 Topography
 In speaking of landform, we are speaking
primarily of topography.
 In looking at landscape, we are seeking its
character.
 Land form and Nature
• For urbanism or for any architectural activity we
observe the form of the terrain—flat, gently
rolling, hilly, mountainous—in relation to the
architecture and the cities which are set in it.
• Land with 2.0-20 percent slope is suitable for
settlement and other urban functions.
• Land with >20 percent slope: This refers to land
characterized by gullies, ridges, and escarpments
 Land form and Nature
 Further classification of urban land according to
suitability for different urban functions with
respect to different slope gradient listed as:
Flat, 0-2 percent slope: suitable for agriculture
Gently rolling, 3-5 percent slope: suitable for
large scale development such us sport field,
industries, educational and health complexes
Gently rolling 6-8 percent slope suitable for high
density residential and commercial development
 Land form and Nature
Sloppy 9-12 percent slope suitable for low and
mid density residential
Hilly 13-15 percent slope suitable for low
density residential and terrace houses with
strict regulations and control
Hilly 15-20 percent slope restricted from any
construction activities and to be covered by
appropriate vegetation cover
 Land form and Nature
Prominent features
• The prominent features of a landscape should
be carefully noted— cliffs, mountain peaks,
ranges of hills on the horizon, plateaus, rivers,
or lakes.
• These are accenting landscape features which
can be employed actively as sites or passively
as vistas, supplementing architectural and
urban form.
 Land form and Nature
They can be used as major vista objectives
from points within the city or as special sites
for buildings.
Some are better left in their natural state.
 Land form and Nature
 Classification of native trees
 Indigenous greenery in terms of:
shape,
size,
character,
Practicability
and seasonal change.
 Land form and Nature
• Architects and urban designers needs a working
knowledge of the local flora and its suitability in
various uses.
• A thickly foliated tree, formally shaped, might be
proper for lining a road to shield the automobilist
from a low sun.
• A spreading shade tree of informal shape, might
be quite appropriate as a relaxing sitting place in
the bustle of the city.
 Land form and Nature

 Characteristic features
 Characteristic detail of the landscape:
a native rock or gravel,
a characteristic earth color,
the form of local streams,
and characteristic stands of trees.
 Land form and Nature
 Indigenous architecture should also be noted,
particularly in older towns.
 These are the result of evolution and may have
achieved a mature relationship with their
environment.
 Land form and Nature
The city in nature
• Buildings and small towns can often be seen in
their entirety in the framework of nature.
• As such, they are accents or counterpoints to
their natural settings, elements of vitality in a
setting of repose.
• A larger town, however, can seldom be seen in
its entirety, but only in part, from various
viewing places.
 Land form and Nature
• Here we have a one-to-one relationship, nature
being less a setting than a major component of
the whole scene balancing the sight of the city
rather than acting as a setting for it.
 Part Two
Streets and Street System
 Streets
 General
• “Streets are public rights-of-way, which unite
neighborhoods, provide access for motorists
and non-motorists, and promote urban
identity, health, comfort, and safety.”
(Moorish and Brown, Planning to Stay).
 Streets
 According to the Charter of the New Urbanism
• “A primary task of all urban architecture and
landscape design is the physical definition of streets
and public spaces as places of shared use”.
• Streets and squares should be:
 safe,
 comfortable,
 and interesting to the pedestrian.
Properly configured Streets encourage walking and
enable neighbors to know each other and protect their
communities
 Streets
 The street is really the City, organized along a
corridor.
 It is a continuous forum for gathering where all
those activities have their overture, making
city life what it is.
 It has economic, social, aesthetic, political,
ecological even philosophical-implications.
 And, all this is in addition to providing a right-
of-way for people and things.
 Streets
Definitions
 Several terms have
been used almost
interchangeably such
as:
 street, It would be possible to extend this
 path, list to include other words which
 avenue, have similar meanings such as:
 highway, road,
 Way and boulevard,
mall
 route. and promenade,.
 Streets
• For the purpose of this study the main
distinction to be made is between road and
street.
• Road is at once an act of riding on horseback
and an ordinary line of communication between
different places, used by horses, travelers on
foot or vehicles.
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 Roads are characterized by its:
movement between places ,the principle lines
of communication between places;
a two-dimensional ribbon; running on the
surface of the landscape;
and carried over it by bridge or beneath by
tunnel.
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• A street may have these attributes, but its more
common meaning is a road in a town or village,
comparatively wide as opposed to a lane or alley.
• More importantly it is a road, that is the linear
surface along which movement occurs between
the adjacent houses – ‘it runs between two lines of
houses or shops,’ says a dictionary definition
• According to Cliff Moughtin analysis the street
will be taken as an enclosed, three-dimensional
space between two lines of adjacent buildings
 Streets
Evolution of Streets:
• In all probability the square was the first way man
discovered of using urban space (Rob Krier).
• It is produced by the grouping of houses around an
open space.
• This arrangement afforded a high degree of control
of the inner space. Also facilitating a ready defense
against external aggression by minimizing the
external surface area liable to attack.
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• The street is a product of the spread of a settlement once
houses have been built on all available space around its
central square. It provides:
 a framework for the distribution of land
 and gives access to individual plots.

The spread of houses from

central square along channel of
movement
 Streets
• It has a more pronouncedly functional character
than the square, which by virtue of its size is a
more attractive place to pass the time than the
street.
• It is certainly worth trying to establish why certain
kinds of streets were created before and in the
17th century which we now identify with that
period.
• And it would be even more interesting to examine
the real reasons by 20th century town planning has
been impoverished and reduced to the lowest
common denominator.
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• Its architectural environment it is only perceived
in passing.
• The street layouts which in history were devised
for quite different functional purposes.
• They were planned to the scale of the human
being, the horse and the carriage.
• The street is unsuitable for the flow of motorized
traffic, whilst remaining appropriate to human
circulation and activity.
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Functions of the Streets
• The Athens Charter, resulting from the
Congress’ Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne
(CIAM) meeting in Athens in 1933, crystallized
the theory of the Modern Movement in
architecture and town planning.
• The ideas of the great men of the first half of the
twentieth century – Le Corbusier, Gropius,
Jacobus Oud and others – were revealed to the
urbanist as the dogma of rationalism.
 Streets
• In the 1950s this preoccupation with function,
structure, standardization was challenged and ideas
about human association and the softer social aspects
of urban planning and architecture given greater
emphasis.
• One outcome of this movement is change in thinking
among some architect-urbanists was the rehabilitation
of the street as a legitimate element of civic design.
 Streets
• In towns and cities a person performs outside the familiar
territory of his own home and for which he utilizes streets as,
for example:
 traveling to work;
 shopping and selling goods;
 recreations,
 leisure activities,
 sporting events,
 deliveries, etc.

Although the asphalt carpet that serves as a channel for the movement of cars is still
called a “street,” .
It retains no connection with the original significance of the term street
 Streets
 Certainly in 20th century the
motorized transportation of
people and goods is one of the
primary functions of the
town, but it requires no
scenery in the space around
it.
 However, the 21st century
Streets should serve a variety
of purposes. One is for the
circulation of:
 people,
 vehicles,
 goods,
 and services (utilities)
Streets also serve as:
shopping corridors,
restaurant rows,
linear parks,
residential front yards,
extensions of office
lobbies,
ceremonial gathering
places,
parade grounds,
racing courses,
display areas,
entertainment strips, etc.
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 Efficiency, safety and comfort
 The City recognizes streets as an important
element in shaping our urban form and
improving our neighborhood quality by:
 Balancing the needs of emergency vehicles
with everyday traffic concern through street
design such as:
vehicle speeding
and pedestrian safety
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 Promoting an interconnected street network that
includes:
 all modes of mobility
 and design of mobility according land form
permit.
 Creating a more attractive and safe pedestrian
environment through:
 the promotion of an active streetscape and
 the use of public art and artistic elements.
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 Reducing peak energy demand through the
incorporation of urban heat island reduction
measures into:
the appropriate site and street design
guidelines,
landscape standards,
and building codes.
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 Promoting pedestrian- and transit-friendly
design of City streets.
 Providing capacity and operational
improvements to streets to minimize
congestion and focus on:
persons and goods,
not just vehicles
 Streets
 Creating a sense of enclosure in streets will
enhance the visual and spatial quality of the
place
 If a street or a section of a street is to possess
the quality of enclosure then it must be
considered to have three main elements,
an entrance,
the place itself
and a termination or exit.
 Streets
 Since the street is also a path, and a path is two
directional, the place must terminate or close in
two directions.
 The sense of enclosure is heightened by
successively overhanging upper floors (Moughtin,
1992).
 Numerous researches suggest that, buildings along
streets are likely to provide a sense of definition
when height to horizontal distance ratios is at least
(1:4).
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 At height to distance
ratio of (1:3) there
always seem to be
definition and at (1:2)
definition is strong.
 As the ratios get
smaller to (1:5) and
beyond there is not a
sense of the street
being defined.
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2. Street Design
 The Street Design is divided into seven sections:
Street pattern
Roadway Design,  It is important to
understand how all
Pedestrian Design, six parts work.
Street Lighting,  All six parts
Parking Configurations, should be
considered, in
and Design Standards. order to design an
effective street
system.
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Street Pattern
• Every city has a general overall shape as a
result of their street pattern .
• There are several classifications of such
shapes.
• These classifications of street pattern have
definite implications for a city’s function.
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• They have advantages and disadvantages
related to:
circulation,
proximity to open space,
and articulation of neighborhoods or districts.
• Further, these classifications may be applied to
the city as a whole or to parts of the city.
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The figure below summarizes the evolution of the
town centers street pattern.
Streets
Streets
Streets
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Urban Roadway Design
 General: Geometric design is the design of the
visible dimensions of a roadway with the
objective of forming or shaping the facility to
the characteristics and behavior of:
drivers,
vehicles
and traffic.
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 Therefore, geometric design deals with
features of:
location,
alignment,
profile,
cross section,
intersection
and roadway types.
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 Functional Classifications
• The first step in the design process is to define
the function that the facility is to serve.
• The two major considerations in functionally
classifying a roadway are access and mobility.
• Access and mobility are inversely related- that
is, as access is increased, mobility is decreased.
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• Roadways are functionally classified first as
either urban or rural.
• The hierarchy of the functional highway
system within either the urban or rural area
consists of the following:
Principal arterial - main movement (high
mobility, limited access)
Minor arterial - interconnects principal
arterials (moderate mobility, limited access)
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Collectors - connects local roads to arterials
(moderate mobility, moderate access)
Local roads or streets - permits access to
abutting land (high access, limited mobility)
 Streets
• In urban areas, streets can be classified
according to their conventional Streets
functions and their character capacity to
accommodate the prevailing traffic.
Primary distributor or Main road : Routes
providing connections across the city
District distributor: Avenue or Boulevard
are streets with Formal, generous landscaping
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Local distributor: High Street with Mixed
uses, active frontages
Access road: Street or Square are mainly
residential, building lines encouraging traffic
calming
Cul-de-sac: Mews / Local access with dead
end or else courtyard that shared space for
parking and other uses
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Minor arterials

Collectors

Principal arterial

Local roads

Typical hierarchy of the functional road system in urban area

 Streets

Collectors

Local roads

Typical hierarchy of the functional road system at neighborhood level

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 Traffic Characteristics
• Information on traffic characteristics is vital in
selecting the appropriate geometric features of a
roadway.
• Necessary traffic data includes:
 Traffic Volume,
 Traffic Speed,
 and percentage of trucks or other large vehicles
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 Traffic Volume
• Traffic volume is an important basis for
determining what improvements, if any, are
required on a highway or street facility.
• Traffic volumes may be expressed in terms of
average daily traffic or design hourly volumes.
• These volumes may be used to calculate the
service flow rate, which is typically used for
evaluations of geometric design alternatives.
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 Traffic Speed
• Traffic speed is influenced by:
volume,
capacity,
design,
weather,
traffic control devices,
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posted speed limit,
and individual driver preference.
 For design purposes, the following definitions
apply:
Low-speed is 45 mph [70 km/h] and below
High-speed is 50 mph [80 km/h] and above
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Sight Distance
• One of several principal elements of design that
are common to all types of highways and streets.
• For design, the following four types of sight
distance are considered:
 Stopping Sight Distance
 Decision Sight Distance
 Passing Sight Distance
 Intersection Sight Distance
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 Horizontal Alignment
• In the design of highway alignment, it is
necessary to establish the proper relation
between design speed and curvature for
visibility.
• The two basic elements of horizontal curves
are:
Curve radius
and Superelevation
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 Curve Radius
• The minimum radii of curves are important
control values in designing for safe operation.
 Superelevation
• As a vehicle traverses a horizontal curve,
centrifugal force is counter-balanced by the
vehicle weight component due to roadway
superelevation and by the side friction between
tires and surfacing as shown in the following
equation:
 Streets
e + f = V2/15R
Where:
e = superelevation rate, in decimal format
f = side friction factor
V = vehicle speed, km/h
R = curve radius, m
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 Vertical Alignments
• Vertical curves provide gradual changes
between tangents of different grades.
• The simple parabola shown in Figure below is
used in the highway profile design of vertical
curves.
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Anchor: #i1044241grtop
Streets
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Design for Pedestrians
 The primary objectives of the design program for
pedestrians are:
 safety,
 security,
 convenience,
 continuity,
 comfort,
 system coherence
 and attractiveness.
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 Pedestrian safety:
• The first means to improve pedestrian safety is
reduction or elimination of pedestrian vehicle
conflicts by:
space separation, either horizontal or vertical,
or by time separation.
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 Pedestrian security:
• Building and street configurations should be
arranged to enhance clear observation by other
pedestrians and policing personnel.
• High lighting levels, unobstructed lines of
sight, and avoidance of building or
landscaping configurations that provide
concealment will assist in this objective.
.
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 Pedestrian convenience:
• Sidewalk obstructions could be avoided to
improve pedestrian flow at practically no cost,
such obstruction listed as:
 mailboxes,
 telephone booths,
 newsstands,
 refuse cans,
 and planters.
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 Other more stationary items that need special
consideration to be located with out
obstruction as part of pedestrian realm , such
as:
traffic light standards,
fire hydrants,
and fire alarm boxes
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 Ramped curb cuts provide convenience for:
handicapped pedestrians in wheelchairs,
persons wheeling baby carriages,
and for others who have difficulties with high
curbs.
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 Continuity:
 The pedestrian design must be direct, accessible
and in the common pedestrian pathway.
 If a pedestrian system is not continuous or dose
not allow direct access, it will be island without
linkages to other buildings or transit stations in
the area.
 The complex therefore provides little contribution
to the system wide deficiencies that exist in urban
areas
 Streets
 System coherence:
• Visual and functional coherence is a necessary
element of pedestrian design if the full utility of the
space is to be realized.
• All elements of the urban core should have clear
visual statements that convey their direction,
function and purpose.
• Such elements to be included listed as:
 street systems,
 transit facilities,
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office buildings,
civic center and theater complexes,
and shopping areas
 Attractiveness:
• The following elements would increase the
visual variety of the cityscape
Landscaping,
 pavement color and texture,
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well designed street furniture,
fountains,
and plazas.
• Opportunities for introducing elements of
surprise, through suddenly revealed vistas and
panoramic views, should not be overlooked.
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Street lighting
 Street lighting is one of the most important
design components of the vehicular and
pedestrian’s environment after dark.
 High levels of illumination have been found to
reduce accidents, and to improve pedestrian
security and area image.
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 Balanced light distribution is based on the use
of luminaries with:
efficient lighting patterns for the particular
space
and spacing lighting poles for efficient
overlapping of lighting patterns.
 If light poles are spaced without this overlap,
an uneven brightness occurs.
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 Street lighting can be enhanced with
floodlighting of pedestrian crosswalk areas and
special interest features, such as:
statues,
or architecturally attractive buildings.
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Parking Configurations
 Parking should be provided on the access
roads.
 It slows traffic, increases the number of
pedestrians moving along a street, and
encourages street-oriented development.
 Moreover, parked vehicles act as a physical
barrier between pedestrians and moving cars
and thus provide a sense of safety.
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 Parking should not dominate the pedestrian
realm but should be balanced with other uses.
 Parking along the outer edge of the median,
within the center roadway, should be avoided.
Access ways can include one or two rows of
parallel parking.
Parking lanes should be narrow. A width of 1.8
or 2.1 meters is possible and sufficient; 2.4 or
2.7 meters is the maximum.
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• Angled parking can be incorporated into wide
medians.
• Where an access way has two parking lanes,
widening either the median or the sidewalk at
intersections may help pedestrians.
• The presence of such a bulb or “neck” makes it
easier for pedestrians to cross the access lane,
and it slows cars that are entering or leaving it.
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• Parking may also be provided in:
underground parking garages beneath the
central roadway, with entries
and exits for cars from the access road and
from the medians for pedestrians.
• These access points should not disrupt the
pedestrian character of these spaces.
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Design Standards
 This section includes information on the
following cross sectional design elements:
Pavement Cross Slope
Median Design
Lane Widths
Sidewalks and Pedestrian Elements
Curb and Curb and Gutters
Rows of trees and tree spacing
Streets
 Streets

An illustration of space allocation for different uses of street space (source, ITE, 2006)
 Streets
 Pavement Cross Slope
• The operating characteristics of vehicles on
crowned pavements are such that on cross
slopes up to 2 percent, the effect on steering is
barely perceptible.
• A reasonably steep lateral slope is desirable to
minimize water ponding on flat sections of
uncurbed pavements due to imperfections or
unequal settlement
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 Median Design
• A median (i.e., the area between opposing
travel lane edges) is provided primarily to
separate opposing traffic streams.
• The general range of median width could vary
from 1.2 m to 22.8 m, with design width
dependent on the type and location of the
highway or street facility.
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Narrow and wide Medians

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 Lane Widths
• For high-speed facilities such as all freeways
and most rural arterials, lane widths should be
3.6 m minimum.
• For low-speed urban streets, 3.3 m or 3.6 m
lanes are generally used.
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 Sidewalks and Pedestrian Elements
• Sidewalks provide distinct separation of
pedestrians and vehicles, serving to increase
pedestrian safety as well as to enhance
vehicular capacity.
• Sidewalks are typically an integral part of the
transportation system in central business
districts (CBDs).
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• Sidewalk Location: For pedestrian comfort,
especially adjacent to high speed traffic, it is
desirable to provide a buffer space between the
traveled way and the sidewalk
• Sidewalk Width: Sidewalks should be wide
enough to accommodate the volume and type
of pedestrian traffic expected in the area. The
minimum clear sidewalk width is 1.525 m
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• Street Crossings: Intersections can present
formidable barriers to pedestrian travel.
• Intersection designs which incorporate properly
placed of the following elements can provide a
pedestrian-friendly environment
 curb ramps,
 sidewalks,
 crosswalks,
 pedestrian signal heads
 and pedestrian refuge islands.
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• Street Furniture: Special consideration should
be given to the location of street furniture
• Items intended for use by the public could be
listed as a street furniture are:
benches,
public telephones,
bike racks,
and parking meters
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• A clear ground space at least 760 mm x 1220
m with a maximum slope of 2 percent must be
provided and positioned to allow for either
forward or parallel approach to the element
• The clear ground space must have an
accessible connection to the sidewalk and must
not encroach into 1525 mm minimum sidewalk
width by more than 610 mm.
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 Curb and Gutters
• Curb designs are classified as vertical or
sloping.
• Vertical curbs are defined as those having a
vertical or nearly vertical traffic face 150 mm
or higher.
• Vertical curbs are intended to discourage
motorists from deliberately leaving the
roadway.
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• Sloping curbs are defined as those having a
sloping traffic face 150 mm or less in height.
• Sloping curbs can be readily traversed by a
motorist when necessary.
• A preferable height for sloping curbs at some
locations may be 100 mm or less because
higher curbs may drag the underside of some
vehicles.
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• Curbs are used in urban areas primarily on:
 frontage roads,
crossroads,
and low-speed streets
• They should not be used in connection with the
through, high-speed traffic lanes.
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 Rows of trees and tree spacing
• Trees mark the boundary between the central,
fast-moving realm and the slower pedestrian
realms.
• Trees also break down the visual scale of wide
rights-of-way, and create a pleasant
environment for pedestrians and drivers alike.
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• Trees should have a maximum spacing of 10.5
meters, 7.5 meters is better.
• Deciduous trees are preferable. They provide
shade in the summer yet allow sun into the street
in winter.
• To maintain the integrity of the street as one
whole, trees with dense foliage below eye level
should not be used.
• Trees should be planted in a regular pattern to
enhance the linearity and wholeness of the street.
Part Three
Open Space
 Open Spaces
Open Spaces
 General
• Urban shape, pattern, grain, size, density, and
texture are primarily aspects of solid form—
the building masses of the city.
• In architecture it is rather helpful to conceive
of a building not only as a solid but as spaces
modeled by solids.
 Open Spaces
• The spaces of the city range from the space of
the street to the space of a park system.
 It is helpful to think of these spaces as two
generic types:
Formal or “urban spaces,” usually molded by
building facades and the city’s floor; and
natural elements.
Informal or “open spaces,” which represent
nature brought into, and around, the city.
 Open Spaces
 Open space types and function
• Greenway: A network of spaces encompassing
cycle and footpath routes, but also acting as
‘wildlife corridors’ – enabling wildlife to travel
through urban areas.
• Water way: Includes lakes, ponds, rivers, canals and
streams, which provide:
 rich wildlife habitats,
 offer recreational value
 and can be used as movement corridors.
 Open Spaces
• Meadow:
 A public space for informal recreation, located on
the edge of a neighborhood.
 Often part of a flood plain comprising natural
grasses and wildflowers.
• Woodland:
 Trees left in the natural state, interlaced Nature
Reserves with internal footpaths.
 Sometimes designated as a nature reserve, with
restricted access to areas rich in wildlife.
 Open Spaces
• Playing field:
Open spaces formally laid out for active
recreation, such as football, basket ball or
other types of out door games.
Management /ownership can be shared
between schools, clubs and the wider
community to ensure facilities are well used.
 Open Spaces
• Churchyard: Located adjacent to a church
and often providing a green cemetery oasis at
the heart of a community.
• Allotments: A semi-public agglomeration of
gardening plots rented to individuals by the
local authority.
 Open Spaces
• Park: A variety of parkland distributed within
the urban area ensures a range of recreational
needs within close proximity to homes and
workplaces.
Regional parks and open spaces (Open Land
and Greenbelt Corridors)
Metropolitan parks (Weekend and occasional
visits by car or public transport)
 Open Spaces
District parks (Weekend and occasional visits
by foot, cycle, car and short bus trips)
Local parks (For pedestrian visitors)
Small local parks and open spaces (Pedestrian
visits, especially by old people and children)
Linear open space (Pedestrian visits)

Refer Urban Design Compendium - I , pp 53 table 3.5, to see parkland distribution,

hierarchy ,scale, function and locational suitability within the urban area .
Open Spaces
 Open Spaces
• Green: An informal grassed public space
associated with the focal point of village life,
that sometimes incorporates a football or
basketball field.
• Square: A formal public space, no larger
than a block and located at focal points of
civic importance fronted by key buildings,
usually hard paved and providing passive
recreation.
 Open Spaces

Square centered on key civic building Plaza as extended forecourt space

 Open Spaces
• Plaza: A public space associated with the
extended forecourt of commercial (office /
retail) buildings, with formal landscaping.
• Communal garden: A semi-private space not
accessible to the general public, usually located
within the interior of a perimeter block, providing
a centrally managed green space for residents.
• Private garden: A private space located within
the plot of an adjacent building.
 Open Spaces
• Playground: A small area dedicated for child’s
play, that is fenced and located within close
walking distance to nearby houses, overlooked
by residents.
• Courtyard: A private open space often for
vehicular servicing/parking.
• Atrium: A glass covered semi-public or private
space serving as a thoroughfare, seating area
and sun trap for building occupants or visitors.
 Square
Square
 General description
• The premise underlying in this lecture is the
conviction that in our modern cities we have
lost sight of the traditional understanding of
square.
• What has to be clearly defined is the term
square and what meaning it holds within the
urban structure.
 Square
• One can go on to examine whether the concept of
square retains some validity in contemporary
urban design and planning and on what
grounds.
 Square
 Definition:
 The concept of “urban space”
• We are compelled to designate all types of
space between buildings in urban areas and
other localities as urban space.
• These spaces are geometrically bounded by a
variety of elevations.
 Square
• It is only the clear legibility of its geometrical
characteristics and aesthetic qualities which
allows us consciously to perceive external
space as urban space (Rob Krier).
 Square
• Internal space shielded from weather and
environment is an effective symbol of privacy.
• External space is seen as open, unobstructed
space for movement in the open air, with:
public,
semipublic
and private zones.
 Square
• The two basic elements of urban space are the
street and the square.
• In the category of “interior space” one would
be talking about the corridor and the room.
• The geometrical characteristics of corridor
and the room are the same as street and the
square.
 Square
 Square
• In history several public spaces appeared as
an outdoor enclosed space.
• Frequently it came to bear a symbolic value
and was therefore chosen as the model for the
construction of numerous places:
agora,
forum,
 Square
cloister,
mosque
and courtyard
 Square
• In the public sphere, the square has
undergone through the same development as:
Marketplaces,
Parade grounds,
Ceremonial squares,
Squares in front of churches and town halls
 Square
• All these remainders of the Middle Ages, have
been robbed of their original functions today.
• Thanks for the activities of conservationists,
in many places their symbolic content are still
kept.
 Square
• No contemporary public squares have been
laid out which could be compared with urban
squares like:
the Place Vendome and the Place des Vosges
in Paris;
Piazza Erbe in Verona;
Place des Victoires in Paris
and others
 Square

Place des Victoires, Paris.

 Square

Place Vendome, Paris. Section of Turgot’s plan, 1731

 Square

Verona: Piazza Erbe

 Square

Engraving of Saint Peter by Giambattista Piranesi.

 Square
• This spatial type awaits rediscovery.
• This can only occur:
firstly, when it can be endowed with
meaningful functions,
secondly, when planned in the right place
with the appropriate approaches within the
overall urban layout
 Square
• What functions are appropriate to the square?
commercial activities
activities of a cultural nature;
public administrative offices;
community halls and youth centers;
libraries and museums;
theaters and concert halls.
 Square
• Where possible in the case of central squares,
there should be functions that generate
activities throughout twenty-four hours a
day.
• Residential use should not be excluded in any
of these cases.
 Square

The square as intersection of two roads, fixed point of orientation, and meeting place.
 Square
• One of the most important elements of city
design is the square or plaza.
• It is possibly the most important way of
designing a good setting for public and
commercial buildings in cities.
• There are two main methods of categorizing
squares – by function and by form.
 Square
Function and the square
 Activity in a square is important for its
vitality and, therefore, also for its visual
attraction.
 The types of space needed to serve as a square
in a city are:
the setting for a civic building; the principal
meeting places;
places for great ceremonial occasions;
 Square
spaces for entertainment around buildings such
as theatres, cinemas, restaurants and cafes;
spaces for shopping, shopping street, arcades
and markets;
spaces around which offices are grouped;
spaces of a semi-public nature around which
residential accommodation is arranged;
and, finally, the spaces associated with urban
traffic junctions.
 Square
• Some spaces will take on heightened meaning
as the centers or portals for places, while
others may serve a number of overlapping
functions.
• The most successful city squares:
they may have a dominant function
 and those that sustain activity through the
diversity of uses in the surrounding buildings.
 Square
• The single most important function of the
square in the city is the symbolic meaning
attached to it.
• The great square or plaza, like the great
building, is linked with the world of fantasy, in
the context of feeling (Cliff Moughtin,2003).
 Square
 Square as a urban center
• Man’s perception of space is centered upon
himself.
• Each group has its own centre like:
the centre of the Muslim world is Mecca;
that of the Catholic world is the Vatican in Rome;
while the world of Judaism is centered in
Jerusalem.
 Square
• Design, physical definition or reinforcement of
these centers which is at the core of the
disciplines of architecture, urban design and
planning.
• The Image of the City, Lynch found the node to
be one of the elements by which a city is
recognized and understood.
• In short, the node is an important element which
gives the city ‘imageability’ or a strong image
 Square
• As Lynch says:
‘Nodes are points,
the strategic spots in a city into which an
observer can enter,
and which are the intensive foci to and from
which he is travelling.’
• Or in other words the nodes are ‘the
conceptual anchor points in our cities’
 Square
• This then, is the centerpiece of the ‘public
realm’:
the place where the major public works,
the major public expenditure
and the greatest civic art is located.
• It is only when the main square of most old
towns is reached that one has really ‘arrived’;
all the streets lead naturally to this focal point.
 Square
• The centre dominates the town in size and
magnificence; it gives meaning to its existence
as a place distinct from other places.
• The square or plaza is for the city what the
atrium represents for the family home.

“It is the well equipped and richly appointed

main hall or reception room”
 Square

City node

Paris-Bonne Nouvelle. Plan in urban context, 1963.

 Square
• St Peter’s Square in Rome is a prime example
of such a place.
• St Peter’s Square is, however, something more
than an important node in Rome’s urban
fabric; it is the centre of the Catholic universe.
 Square

St Peter’s Square in Rome

 Square
Form and the Squares
 There have been a number of attempts to
classify the form that squares may take.
 Two of the most influential theories were
outlined by Paul Zucker and Camilo Sitte.
 From his work on squares Zucker was able to
distinguish five archetypal forms:
 Square
the closed square where the space is self-
contained;
 Square
the dominated square where the space is
directed towards the main building;

Paris. Notre Dame Cathedral and parvis before its remodeling in the nineteenth century
 Square
grouped squares where spatial units are
combined to form larger compositions;

Rothenburg ob der Tauber:

Parma: (a) Palazzo Communale (I) Market Square, (a) City Hall, (b)
Fountain, (c) Café.
 Square
the nuclear square where space is formed
around a centre, that directed through the
visual magnetism of the governing structure
or the dominant vista
and the amorphous square where space is
unlimited
 Square
• For Sitte, enclosure was taken as the
prerequisite of the square.
• He concluded that there were only two types of
square in formal terms.
• The character of either being determined by
the nature of the dominant building.
• The two categories of square distinguished by
Sitte were, ‘the deep type and the wide type
 Square
 Human Scale and Appearance
• According to Paul Zucker, Design of square
shall consider the size of the human body and
the range of human vision as the basic
principles.
Experiments have proved that the human eye
without moving perceives an expanse of a little
more than 60 degrees in horizontal direction.
 Square
In vertical direction, an angle of 27 degrees is
most favorable for the perception of an
individual work of architecture.
However, in order to fuse various
architectural units with their surroundings
into a total impression, the eye can employ an
angle of 18 degrees only
 Square
• Finally the appearance of each individual square
represents:
a blend of intrinsic lasting factors (topographical,
climatic, national)
and of changing influences (stylistic, period-
born), i.e., of static and dynamic forces.
 Part Four
Block, Parcels & Plots
 Block, Parcels & Plots
1. Blocks
 The development block is the land area
defined by the street .
 It can vary considerably in shape and size
according to:
the configuration of streets,
preferred orientation
and topography.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
 The nature of plot sub-divisions and building
types that are to be accommodated also
determine the form of the block.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
Superblocks
• Superblocks with great green interiors had
been built in America.
• Before 1660, the Dutch in Niece Amsterdam
(New York) built their homes around the
periphery of large blocks, with farms behind
and sometimes with a great garden core.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• Throughout the nineteenth century and the
early twentieth, most city growth was based on
the repetitious geometric gridiron:
a plan for simplistic plotting,
surveying,
and legal recording
• Such development expressed as plan for land
management, not a plan for living.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• So Henry Wright and Clarence Stein went to
Britain, on a special investigation to study
superblocks with cul-de-sac, before they
started planning Radburn.
• Cul-de-sac is local access street with dead
end that could have shared space for parking
and other uses.
Block, Parcels & Plots
Cul-de-sac
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• They concluded that, because of the greater
use of the automobile in America, they were
justified in increasing the size of superblocks
over those at Welwyn, Letchworth and
Hampstead Garden Suburb.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• The Radburn blocks were 30 to 50 acres (12 to
20 ha) in size.
• Their outlines were determined by their
internal needs and by topography.
• Because of heavier automobile traffic they
faced fewer houses on main highways than
most of the British examples.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• “The Radburn Idea” to answer the enigma “How
to live with the auto,” or if you will, “How to
live in spite of it,” met those difficulties with a
radical revision of relation of :
houses,
roads,
paths,
 Block, Parcels & Plots
gardens,
parks,
blocks,
and local neighborhoods.
 Block, Parcels & Plots

The park in the center of the superblock

Radburn: plan of the residential districts, 1929. Courtesy New York City is shown at the top; the motorways to the houses are at
Housing Authority. right angles to the park.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• The Superblock in place of the characteristic
narrow, rectangular block.
• Specialized roads planned and built for one use
instead of for all uses.
• Complete separation of pedestrian and
automobile, or as complete separation as
possible.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• Houses turned around.
Living and sleeping rooms facing toward
gardens and parks;
service rooms toward access roads.
• Park as backbone of the neighborhood
 Block, Parcels & Plots
Perimeter blocks
 Face the street
• Fundamentally in block arrangements, clear
distinction between public fronts and private
backs is needed .
• Buildings which front streets, squares and
parks present their public face to the outside
world and give life to it.
 Block, Parcels & Plots

Perimeter blocks can accommodate a range of building types and densities

 Block, Parcels & Plots
 Respect people’s privacy
• The distance between backs of properties
needs to be considered in terms of privacy.
• This has a strong bearing on land-take and thus
density.
• A privacy distance of 20 meters should be
provided (i.e. back-to-back 10 meters rear
gardens or service courts)
 Block, Parcels & Plots

A 10m block depth is able to accommodate double aspect buildings with good day
lighting to the internal space (Block 1 IBA-Kothener Strasse 35-37, Berlin)
 Block, Parcels & Plots
 Line the perimeter
• Lining the edges of blocks with a perimeter of
buildings is the best way to accommodate a
diversity of building types and uses at
medium-high densities.
• For master planning purpose a perimeter block
of the following depth are useful.
10m for fine-grained mixed-use or housing
and 20m for retail / commercial development
 Block, Parcels & Plots
 Encourage continuity of street frontage
• Continuous building lines along a block edge
are more successful:
at providing good enclosure to a street or
square;
generating ‘active frontage’, with frequent
doors and windows animating the public
realm.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• In centers, a direct frontage to pavement
relationship assists commercial viability and
street vitality.
• Use continuous frontages as far as possible, by
adhering to a common building line
 Block, Parcels & Plots

Maintaining a consistent building line ensures a strong street frontage

 Block, Parcels & Plots
 block size (Small is beautiful)
• In considering the optimum size of
development blocks, a trade-off has to be
struck between:
Ease of access ;
The ability to sustain a variety of building
types and uses;
The ability to change and adapt over time.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
100m

125m

Chicago, USA
180m 180m
130m
130m

Mixed use neighborhoods should contain a range of block sizes to

promote variety (adapted from Baulch, 1993)

Edinburgh, New Town, UK

 Block, Parcels & Plots
 block shape (Shape for change)
• Square blocks are generally thought to offer
the most flexible basis for accommodating a
range of commercial and residential buildings
and more options for internal treatment.
• Rectangular blocks with depths of (say) 110m
are more comfortably able to accommodate
larger buildings, such as factories and
warehouses, without exposing rear / side walls
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• Irregular blocks can be molded to respond to
topography and the creation of focal points such
as greens or squares with building frontages
that need not be parallel.
 Block, Parcels & Plots

Rectangular and Irregular blocks juxtaposed in the same locality Irregular blocks
 Block, Parcels & Plots
 block interiors (Design for internal
flexibility)
• The perimeter block structure enables a variety
of treatments to the interior to be provided,
including:
car parks or service yards;
private / communal gardens with children’s
play spaces;
 Block, Parcels & Plots
mews houses, offices, workshops or live-work
units; or indeed
a park or civic square to occupy part / whole of
the block.
Block, Parcels & Plots
 Block, Parcels & Plots
2. Parcels
• Development parcels are tracts of land, usually
under a single ownership, and are the basis of
most new developments, especially those driven
by volume house builders.
• Plots, on the other hand, are usually much
smaller increments or land holdings that form
the basis for much of our built heritage - giving
established centers their variety and fine urban
grain.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
 Parcel size (Keep the grain fine)
• In master planning large areas there is sometimes
the opportunity to subdivide development parcels
and distribute them to different developers.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• Enabling a range of developers to participate is
usually desirable to generate a richer mix of
building types, tenures and uses.
As a guide, parcels of 1 to 2 hectares avoid a
‘monoculture’ in any area.
This grain should be made finer towards the
centre.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
3. Plots
 plot size (Keep plots small and narrow)
• Sub-dividing development parcels into plots,
which are as small and narrow as is practical.
• It encourages a diversity of forms, uses and
tenures and allows a rich variety of buildings to
emerge.
• This also:
 generates more active frontage;
 Block, Parcels & Plots
encourages a ‘human scale’ and fine pedestrian
grain;
enables higher densities to be achieved
provides a flexible basis for amalgamation if
necessary and enables future incremental
growth to take place;
minimizes costly and wasteful leftover space.
Block, Parcels & Plots

• Small, regularly shaped and

narrow sub-divisions of, say
5m x 20m accommodate a
range of buildings and make
the most efficient use of land
in mainly residential
districts.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• Larger plots are often required for commercial,
industrial or civic buildings.
• Sub-divisions of 15-20m wide and 30-40m
deep provide flexible land increments for
central areas.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
4. Urban Pattern - Grain and texture
• Urban areas have distinct patterns.
• Usually these are seen in their block and street
layouts.
• Identification of basic design pattern can be
very helpful in planning a residential
neighborhood or the entire urban area.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• An urban pattern is the geometry, regular or
irregular, formed by routes, open spaces, and
buildings.
• Grain is the degree of fineness or coarseness
in an urban area.
• Texture is the degree of mixture of fine and
coarse elements.
 Block, Parcels & Plots
• A suburban area with small houses on small
plots has a fine grain and a uniform texture.

Perspective, 1929, Courtesy New York City Housing Authority.

 Block, Parcels & Plots
• With small houses on varying size lots, it could
still have a fine grain but an uneven texture.
• In the city, large blocks with buildings of
varying sizes could be described as having a
coarse and an uneven texture.
• If the buildings are uniform in size, they could
be described as having a coarse grain but a
uniform texture.
Block, Parcels & Plots

Baltimore block plan. (Source: City of Baltimore.)

 Part Five
Monuments
 Monuments
Monuments
 General
• On a smaller scale, there are autonomous three
dimensional decorative elements, such as:
 obelisks,
 fountains
 and sculptures.
• Some of these features are either large or distinctive
enough to act as landmarks.
 Monuments
• In the second category of his typology, Zucker
(1959) noted that the placement of a
monument can be sufficiently strong in its
impact to create around it a significant place
in its own right.
• His archetype of a nuclear square relates to an
urban space which is given coherence by the
‘magnetism’ of its monument.
 Monuments
 The geometric placement of civic monuments
• In highly geometric or monumental civic design
schemes autonomous three dimensional elements
were employed for the overall design to :
articulate,
interrupt
and accent
 Monuments
• Throughout the Renaissance and the Baroque
several dominant design considerations
determined general attitudes to urbanization in
all those countries affected by monuments .
• There was a preoccupation with:
symmetry of design elements to make a
balanced composition about one or more axial
lines;
 Monuments
 the closing of vistas by the careful placing of
monumental buildings, obelisks or suitably
imposing statues, at the ends of long, straight
streets;
and individual buildings integrated into a
single, coherent, architectural ensemble,
frequently through the repetition of a basic
elevational design.
 Monuments

Engraving in Rome by Giambattista Piranesi.

 Monuments

Engraving published in Rome in 1612.

 Monuments
 Organic placement of the monuments
• Camillo Sitte recommended that the location
of monuments, fountains and other foci of
interest should not be determined by
geometry.
• They should be the result of an artistic
activity guided by the invisible hand of
creative sensibility.
 Monuments
• General principles of organic placement of
monuments as outlined by Camillo Sitte and
modified by his followers listed as:
the need for a neutral background for the
monument;
monuments should be placed in areas that do
not conflict with traffic movement,
and the centre of the square should be kept
free for activities associated with the square.
 Monuments
 Civic monuments as a decorative elements
• ‘non-utilitarian furnishings are elements with
which we decorate our Cities and Towns’, for
example:
Monumental Arches,
Monumental Columns,
Obelisks
and Clocks.
 Monuments
 Monumental Arches
• There are three main types of monumental arch.
 The first one is Triumphal Arch, which is of
mainly Roman origin.
 The second one is Portal Arch, which has often
been a defensive structure in the walled cities of the
middle age .
 The third and final Monumental Arch is the
temporary structure erected to celebrate a particular
event.
 Monuments

Triumphal Arch, Arch of Constantine, Rome

 Monuments

Portal Arch, City gateway, York

 Monuments
 Monumental Columns
• There are two main types of monumental
columns.
The first has its origins in Hellenic and
Hellenistic Greece.
The second type is associated with Ancient
Rome and is the development of the Greek
column on an altogether grander scale.
 Monuments

Place Vendôme, Paris

 Monuments

Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square, London

 Monuments
 Obelisks
• The origin of the obelisk is undoubtedly
Egyptian.
• Its popularity as a special decorative element
in the city is attested by the way in which
other peoples have, from time to time, raided
Egypt for this particular treasure.
 Monuments
• More than forty Egyptian obelisks have
survived though few remain in their original
location:
twelve were transported to Rome,
five to Britain,
one to New York,
one to Paris
and several are in Istanbul.
 Monuments
• The obelisk with its vertical emphasis has no
horizontal directional quality.
• It can therefore be used to mark the centre of
an axis or the crossing point of two or more
axes.
• It does not however form a stop or point of
termination to a vista.
 Monuments

Obelisk Southport ,England

 Monuments
 The town clock
• The town clock is an object with a inclination
for registering a strong impression on the eye
and the mind of the passer-by.
• The clock, if carefully sited and with
sensitively designed setting, is a potential
landmark with a strong visual image.
 Monuments
• There are four types of decorative clock used
to furnish the city:
the tower clock;
the bracket clock;
the monumental clock,
and the post mounted clock
 Monuments

Clock monument, New market The bracket clock ,

Clock, Old Square, Prague