Urban Design

L-1
Introduction to Urban design
VII th SEM
BRAR15F7520

Ar Shama Parween
Assistant Professor
School of Architecture, REVA University
 Spectrum of urban design activities
- Regional scale, a whole city or a town

- City wide, an urban district, or a large, self-

contained community

- Neighbourhoods, building complexes

- Impact area of a developments project

- Immediate area of individual buildings

 ‘Urban Design’ involves the design
of buildings, groups of buildings,
spaces and landscapes and brings
together issues of planning,
transport, architectural design,
landscape and engineering to create
a vision for an area and then ensure
it is delivered.

It is also the complex inter-relationship between different buildings and the

relationship between buildings and streets, squares, parks and other spaces that
make up the public realm. It is also concerned with the nature and quality of the
public realm itself.
Why Urban design?

a sense of civic pride greater social

inclusion and interaction,
improved safety and access to goods and
services for the community,
enhanced heritage and ecological value,
increased energy efficiency and reduced
waste and pollution.
Good urban design brings people together
and will encourage a vibrant mix of self-
supporting uses and activities within the
City Centre. It will help create a place
which is greater than the sum of the
individual parts and allow an urban life
and culture to evolve out of a collection of
buildings and spaces
 Urban design and urban planning

Urban, city, and town planning

It integrates land use planning and
transportation planning to improve the
built, economic and social environments of
communities.

Urban design
It concerns the arrangement, appearance
and functionality of towns and cities,
and in particular the shaping and uses of
urban public space.

8/26/2018
While the two fields are closely related, 'urban design' differs from
'urban planning' in its focus on physical improvement of the public
environment, whereas the latter tends, in practice, to focus on the
management of private development through established planning
methods and programs, and other statutory development controls.
It has traditionally been
regarded as a disciplinary
subset of urban planning,
landscape architecture, or
architecture and in more
recent times has been linked
to emergent disciplines such
as landscape urbanism.
However, with its
increasing prominence in the
activities of these
disciplines, it is better
conceptualized as a design
practice that operates at
the intersection of all
three, and requires a good
understanding of a range
of others.
Urban design theory deals primarily with the design and management of
public space (i.e. the 'public environment', 'public realm' or 'public domain'),
and the way public places are experienced and used.
Public space includes the totality of spaces used freely on a day-to-day basis
by the general public, such as streets, plazas, parks and public infrastructure.
Some aspects of privately owned spaces, such as building facades or domestic
gardens, also contribute to public space and are therefore also considered by
urban design theory
Urban design may encompass
the preparation of design
guidelines and regulatory
frameworks, or even legislation
to control development,
advertising, etc. and in this
sense overlaps with urban
planning.
It may encompass the design
of particular spaces and
structures and in this sense
overlaps with architecture,
landscape architecture,
highway engineering and
industrial design.
It may also deal with ‘place
management’ to guide and
assist the use and maintenance
of urban areas and public
spaces.