URBAN DESIGN IV

Lecture 1:

Urban Settlements

Lawrence Ogunsanya
lawrencesanya@yahoo.com
ogunsanya@ukzn.ac.za

Definition: Urban
Settlements

Urban Settlement :
a geographical area constituting a city or town
An urban settlement is an area that is more densely

populated than surrounding areas

An urban settlement is characterized by higher
population density and vast human features in
comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may
be cities, towns or metropolitans
Urban settlements feature an abundance of manmade structures as opposed to rural areas, which
contain more open space.

Origins of urban
settlements:
Around 10,000 years ago the Neolithic humans began

to stop living nomadic lifestyles and began to establish

permanent settlements
In order for these settlements to grow they needed:
A favourable physical environment
Advances in knowledge and technology
Social organization
Population growth

Origins of urban settlements:

A favourable physical environment. The river valleys provided:

fresh water (drinking, cooking, washing, irrigation). Fertile alluvial

soils for farming, food supply and a mode of transport for trade
Advances in technology. Overtime the development of
technology meant that humans were able to go from small scale
farming (just for their families) to having surplus food left to trade.
Over time advances were made and other industries began to
establish themselves e.g. leather, cloth and mining.
Social Organisation. The class system, Rules and laws were
important in early urban settlements. They provided peace,
security and order.
Population Growth. At the most around 10 million people lived in
these early Neolithic settlements. By 1650 AD it had reached
about 500 million

Formation of urban settlements:

Urban settlements are formed or developed

through the following reasons:

Physical environment
Religious
Cultural
Political/Military
Economic

Formation of urban settlements:

Physical environment river , fertile ground

Maliseet village , South America

Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq)

Formation of urban settlements:

Cliff palace Colorado

The Pueblo people, the Native Americans
of the US southwest, flourished between
900 and 1200 AD. Cliff Palace was
constructed in this Golden age of the
Anasazi.

Formation of urban settlements:

Ancient Egypt and the river nile

Formation of urban settlements:

Religious - churches, temples, graves

Vatican: Rome

Mount temple: Jerusalem

Formation of urban settlements:

Cultural Heritage sites, ancient civilisations

Athens , Greece

Ile Ife, Nigeria

Formation of urban settlements:

Political/Military King or leaders house, defensive walls

Forbidden city, Beijing

Formation of urban settlements:

Economic Cities or ports of trade and economic activities

Antioch, Turkey

Growth of urban settlements

Urbanisation :
Urbanization - the process by which an area changes

from being rural to being urban. It includes a great

increase in population density and includes expansion
of urban functions like manufacturing and services
Urbanization occurs because of changes in the
economy,
Advance in technology and lifestyle
More creation of jobs
Migration

Growth of urban settlements

Reasons for urban growth :
Manufacturing
Transportation
Resource Use
Service Centre
Cumulative causation
Decentralization
Gentrification
Industrial growth
Mall development
Urban renewal
Urban sprawl

Growth of urban settlements

Manufacturing
manufacturing made sense because there were raw materials

(mainly agricultural) that could be used. Markets were also

interested in buying the products of the factories - some of these
customers were local and others were outside the area and
received it by rail
Transportation - railways were constructed and allowed people
to move to and from the town. It also encouraged the growth of
manufacturing
Resource Use - clay and mineral deposits led directly to the
existence of a town or city. The multiplier effect is a result - ie. a
new brick factory opens and employs 100 workers.
These workers and their families need housing, schools, stores,
banks, restaurants, medical facilities, and other services. In order
to supply these, perhaps 900 other workers and their families
would come to live in the rapidly growing city. As a result 1200
people would be added to the population because of the 100 jobs
opening up in the new factory.

Growth of urban settlements

Cumulative Causation
the process by which one region of a country becomes

increasingly the centre of economic activity.

Service Centre
there is a hierarchy of urban services. A small town will offer a
grocery store, a post office, an elementary school.
A larger town will offer shopping, a hospital, and a high school.
Very large cities will offer television production, large universities,
specialized hospitals, and entertainments (sports teams or opera
companies)
Decentralization
the spread of power, economic activities and development away
from the centre to neighbouring areas.
Gentrification
The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by
middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of
lower-income people.

Conurbation
A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities,

large towns, and other urban areas that, through population

growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one
continuous urban and industrially developed area.
In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urban
agglomeration, in which transportation has developed to link
areas to create a single urban labour market or travel to a
work area
A conurbation can be confused with a metropolitan area. As
the term is used in North America, a metropolitan area can
be defined by the Census Bureau or it may consist of a
central city and its suburbs,
while a conurbation consists of adjacent metropolitan areas
that are connected with one another by urbanization.

Conurbation and
Megalopolis

Conurbation: examples
Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni (East Rand), and Tshwane
(greater Pretoria)
Lagos
Manila, Philippines
Mumbai Metropolitan Region
Germany has three conurbations along the River Rhine,
namely Rhine-Main, Rhine-Neckar and Rhine-Ruhr.
Greater London is by far the largest urban area and is
usually counted as a conurbation
New York

Urban hierarchy
A ranking of settlements according to their size and

functions.
The settlements of it (in order from smallest to
largest):
There is a hierarchy of urban services. A small town
will offer a grocery store, a post office, an elementary
school.
A larger town will offer shopping, a hospital, and a high
school. Very large cities will offer television production,
large universities, specialized hospitals, and
entertainments (sports teams or opera companies)

Urban hierarchy

Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl refers to the outgrowth of urban areas

caused by uncontrolled, uncoordinated and unplanned

growth.
the expansion of human populations away from central
urban areas into previously remote and rural areas,
particularly resulting in low-density communities reliant
upon heavy automobile usage.
The term "sprawl" is most often associated with land
use.

Urban sprawl

Low-density Sprawl
Low-density continuous sprawl is a phenomenon caused by
outward spreading of low-density suburban land use as currently
being experienced by many of cities as their population becoming
bigger and bigger and there is no lack of land supply.
this highly consumptive use of land for urban purposes is
supported by piecemeal extensions of basic urban infrastructure
such as water, sewer, power and roads.

Urban sprawl

Ribbon sprawl is a type of sprawl

characterized by concentration of development along major
transportation arteries, primarily roads.
While development occurs on land adjacent to the major roads, areas
without accessibility to the roads tend to remain as green areas, waiting
for conversion into urban land uses when land values increase and
infrastructure is extended from the major roads.

San Jose, California

Virgina, USA

Urban sprawl

Leapfrog Development Sprawl

Leapfrog development sprawl is a scattered form of urbanization with
disjointed patched of urban land uses, interspersed with green areas.
Leapfrog development may be caused by obvious physical limitations
such as prohibitive topography, water bodies and wetlands or by more
subtle reasons such as differences in development policies between
political jurisdictions.

Florida, USA

Crays Hill, UK

Urban structure Models

Urban structure models are used to help explain where different

types of people tend to live in urban areas and the use of land.
There are 3 types: Concentric, sector and nuclei models
Concentric Zone Model
Conceived by E.W. Burgess (1923)
City grows outward from a central area in a series of concentric
rings
Precise size and width of rings vary, but basic types of rings
appear in all cities in the same orders

Urban structure Models

Sector Model
Developed by Homer Hoyt (1939)
City develops in sectors, not rings
As cities grow, they do so outward in a wedge from the center

Urban structure Models

Multiple Nuclei Model

Conceived by C.D. Harris and E.L. Lillman (1945)

Cities are complex structures which has more than one center
around which activities revolve
Some activities are attracted to certain nodes while others try to
avoid them
Incompatible land-use activities avoid locating in the same area

Urban structure Models

Durban

THE BIG QUESTION IS!!!!!

How does architecture relate to the

urban context?

Architecture and the Urban

Context
Architecture is the physical language of city
Architecture is part of implementing an urban

design project which entails gathering insights

into urban fabric and how people use urban
spaces.
Society, culture, religion is represented and
reflected through the architecture of public
buildings and public spaces.

Questions