URBAN DESIGN

Art of Creating and Shaping Cities and Town

CREATED BY: BAUTISTA, JOBERT G.
YEAR AND SECTION: ARCHI-3E
 URBAN DESIGN
Urban design is the art of creating and
shaping cities and towns. It involves the
arrangement and design of buildings, public
spaces, transport systems, services, and
amenities. It is the process of giving form,
shape, and character to groups of buildings,
to whole neighbourhoods, and the city. It is
a framework that orders the elements into
a network of streets, squares, and blocks.
Urban design blends architecture, landscape
architecture, and city planning together to
make urban areas functional and attractive.
What is Urban Design ?

• Urban design is the process of designing and shaping cities, towns and villages.
• In contrast to architecture, which focuses on the design of individual buildings,
urban design deals with the larger scale of groups of buildings, streets and public spaces,
whole neighbourhoods and districts, and entire cities, with the goal of making urban areas
functional, attractive, and sustainable
• Urban design is concerned with the arrangement, appearance and function of our
suburbs, towns and cities.
• It is both a process and an outcome of creating localities in which people live,
engage with each other, and engage with the physical place around them.
• It involves the design and coordination of all that makes up cities and towns.
Urban design can significantly influence the economic,
environmental, social and cultural outcomes of a place:

• Urban design can influence the economic success and socio-economic

composition of a locality—whether it encourages local businesses and
entrepreneurship; whether it attracts people to live there; whether the costs of
housing and travel are affordable; and whether access to job opportunities,
facilities and services are equitable.
• Urban design determines the physical scale, space and ambience of a place and
establishes the built and natural forms within which individual buildings and
infrastructure are sited. As such, it affects the balance between natural ecosystems
and built environments,and their sustainability outcomes.
• Urban design can influence health and the social and cultural impacts of a
locality: how people interact with each other, how they move around, and how
they use a place.
Who are Urban Designers?

Urban designers are typically architects,

town planners or landscape architects. Their
skill is to bring together ideas from
developers, local communities, architects,
planners, traffic engineers, landscape
architects, transport planners and many
others, to resolve problems and conflicts in
order to create better places for everyone.
Sometimes this will result in new places
being built or a new appreciation of existing
urban areas in cities, towns and villages.
Urban designers can be employed by
developers, local planning authorities or
community groups, including neighbourhood
planning groups.
SO WHAT IS GOOD URBAN DESIGN?
PLACES FOR PEOPLE
For places to be well-used and well-loved, they must be safe, comfortable, varied and
attractive. They also need to be distinctive, and offer variety, choice and fun.Vibrant places
offer opportunities for meeting people, playing in the street and watching the world go by
ENRICH THE EXISTING
New development should enrich the qualities of existing urban places. This means
encouraging a distinctive response that arises from and complements its setting. This
applies at every scale – the region, the city, the town, the neighbourhood, and the street.
MAKE CONNECTION
Places need to be easy to get to and be integrated physically and visually with their
surroundings. This requires attention to how to get around by foot, bicycle, public transport
and the car – and in that order.
WORK WITH THE LANDSCAPE
Places that strike a balance between the natural and man-made environment and utilise
each site’s intrinsic resources – the climate, landform, landscape and ecology – to maximise
energy conservation and amenity.
MIX USES AND FORMS
Stimulating, enjoyable and convenient places meet a variety of demands from the widest
possible range of users, amenities and social groups. They also weave together different
building forms, uses, tenures and densities.
MANAGE THE INVESTMENT
For projects to be developable and well cared for they must be economically viable, well
managed and maintained. This means understanding the market considerations of
developers, ensuring long term commitment from the community and the local authority,
defining appropriate delivery mechanisms and seeing this as part of the design process.
DESIGN FOR CHANGE
New development needs to be flexible enough to respond to future changes in use,
lifestyle and demography. This means designing for energy and resource efficiency; creating
flexibility in the use of property, public spaces and the service infrastructure and
introducing new approaches to transportation, traffic management and parking.
ELEMENTS OF URBAN DESIGN
ELEMENTS OF URBAN DESIGN

This diagramshows the

approximate hierarchical
relationship between the elements
of urban design, followed by a brief
definition of each of the elements.
The section below provides basic
explanations for terms that are
commonly used for urban design in
the Australian context
URBAN STRUCTURE
The overall framework of a region, town or precinct, showing relationships between zones
of built forms, land forms, natural environments, activities and open spaces. It encompasses
broader systems including transport and infrastructure networks.
URBAN GRAIN
The balance of open space to built form, and the nature and extent of subdividing an area
into smaller parcels or blocks. For example a ‘fine urban grain’ might constitute a network
of small or detailed streetscapes. It takes into consideration the hierarchy of street types,
the physical linkages and movement between locations, and modes of transport
DENSITY + MIX
The intensity of development and the range of different uses (such as residential,
commercial, institutional or recreational uses).
HEIGHT + MASSING
The scale of buildings in relation to height and floor area, and how they relate to
surrounding land forms, buildings and streets. It also incorporates building envelope, site
coverage and solar orientation. Height and massing create the sense of openness or
enclosure, and affect the amenity of streets, spaces and other buildings.
STREETSCAPE + LANDSCAPE
The design of public spaces such as streets, open spaces and pathways, and includes
landscaping, microclimate, shading and planting.
FACADE + INTERFACE
The relationship of buildings to the site, street and neighbouring buildings (alignment,
setbacks, boundary treatment) and the architectural expression of their facades
(projections, openings, patterns and materials)
DETAILS + MATERIALS
The close-up appearance of objects and surfaces and the selection of materials in terms of
detail, craftsmanship, texture, colour, durability, sustainability and treatment. It includes
street furniture, paving, lighting and signage. It contributes to human comfort, safety and
enjoyment of the public domain.
PUBLIC REALM
Much of urban design is concerned with the design and management of publicly used space (also referred
to as the public realm or public domain) and the way this is experienced and used.
The public realm includes the natural and built environment used by the general public on a day-to-day
basis such as streets, plazas, parks, and public infrastructure. Some aspects of privately owned space such as
the bulk and scale of buildings, or gardens that are visible from the public realm, can also contribute to the
overall result.
TOPOGRAPHY, LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENT
The natural environment includes the topography of landforms, water courses, flora and
fauna—whether natural or introduced. It may be in the form of rivers and creeks, lakes,
bushland, parks and recreational facilities, streetscapes or private gardens, and is often
referred to as ‘green infrastructure
SOCIAL + ECONOMIC FABRIC
The non-physical aspects of the urban form which include social factors (culture,
participation, health and well-being) as well as the productive capacity and economic
prosperity of a community. It incorporates aspects such as demographics and life stages,
social interaction and support networks.
SCALE
The size, bulk and perception of a buildings and spaces. Bulk refers to the height, width and
depth of a building in relation to other surrounding buildings, the street, setbacks and
surrounding open space. For example, a large building set amongst other smaller buildings
may seem ‘out of scale’.
URBAN FORM
The arrangement of a built up area. This arrangement is made up of many components
including how close buildings and uses are together; what uses are located where; and how
much of the natural environment is a part of the built up area.
URBAN DESIGN