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makingbetterplaces

Urban design qualities handbook

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Urban design is…

The planning frameworkarticulates a three-dimensional vision forimprovement of the area

A wonderful variety of architectural formsis included whilst fully integrating with theexisting townscape

• …the art of making places

Cowan, R (2000) Placecheck: a user’s guide. UDAL (The UrbanDesign Alliance)

• …the relationship between different buildings; the relationshipbetween buildings and streets, squares, parks and waterways andother spaces which make up the public domain; the nature and qualityof the public domain itself; the relationship of one part of a village,town or city, with other parts; and the patterns of movements andactivity which are thereby established: in short, the complexrelationships between all the elements of built and unbuilt space

Department of the Environment (1997) Planning Policy GuidanceNote 1: General policy and principles. Stationery Office

• The built environment [provides] its users with an essentiallydemocratic setting, enriching their opportunities by maximising thedegree of choice available to them.

Bentley, Ian et al (1985) Responsive Environments. ArchitecturalPress

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Urban design qualities

ı Permeability move and connect

ı Vitality exciting places

ı Variety diversity ‘the spice of life’

ı Legibility where am I? How do I get there?

ı Robustness change and adapt as required

Good qualities in urban design are achieved through urban design principles

Permeability - A desirable characteristic of a place is the ease with which one canmove through and get to other locations. Such places are therefore integratedphysically or connected to their surrounding areas.

Vitality - Places that are vibrant, safe, comfortable, varied, fun, and active.

Variety - A successful place also offers a mix of activities to the widest range ofpossible users.

Legibility - A successful and legible development is a place that has a clear imageand is easy to understand.

Robustness - A desirable quality of a development is to create a place which canbe used for many different purposes by different people and can change and adaptfor different uses.

Rules:

Urban design qualities are abstract theoretical concepts. Designing to ensure theinclusion of a particular quality means adopting some kind of rule or ‘urban designprinciple’.

When applying design principles to a particular part of town we must always placethem in the broader context of that town.

The principles are not rigid and are not to be followed slavishly. In real situationssome may have to be adjusted in order to benefit the largest number of people.Good design results from a consideration of the widest range of concerns andissues - imaginative, creative resolution of potential conflicts.

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Permeability

Permeability - A desirable characteristic of a place is the ease withwhich one can move through and get to other locations. Such placesare therefore integrated physically or connected to their surroundingareas.

A successful movement system:

• provides the maximum choice of how people will make theirjourney

• takes into full account all modes of movement; by foot, by cycle,by public transport and by car (in that order of importance)

• makes clear connections to existing roads and facilities.

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Permeability

Perimeter Blocks

A well-designed movement system should contribute to thedevelopment of small blocks: areas of land entirely surrounded bypublic routes within or beyond the site

Large block size decreases permeability.

Within the block, buildings need two faces: the public face is the front ofthe building which faces the street where the entrances are; the privateface is usually the back of the building and faces the inside of the block.

This building layout is called the perimeter block development.

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Permeability

A well-designed site has a network of connected spaces and routes forpedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles.

A network, where possible, should;

• encourage walking, cycling and using public transport as anattractive alternative to travelling by car. (Public transport shouldbe an integral part of the street system.)

• minimise walking distances to local facilities.

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Vitality

Vitality - Places that are vibrant, safe, comfortable, varied, fun, andactive.

• Places are more active when they have windows and doors whichconnect to the street rather than blank facades.

• Places feel safer with buildings overlooking them. Living spacesabove shops will encourage evening activities on city streetsbecause the streets are overlooked and feel safer.

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Variety

Variety - A successful place also offers a mix of activities to the widest rangeof possible users.

Variety / Mixed Use may be appropriate at different scales from global to localenvironments: village, town or city; within a neighbourhood or a street; or in asingle structure.

Benefits of mixed development

• More convenient access to facilities• Travel-to-work congestion is minimised• Greater opportunities for social interaction• Socially diverse communities• Visual stimulation and delight of different buildings within close

proximity• A greater feeling of safety, with ‘eyes on streets’• Greater energy efficiency and more efficient use of space and buildings• More consumer choice of lifestyle, location & building type• Urban vitality & street life• Increased viability of urban facilities and support for small business

(such as corner shops)(From the Urban Design Compendium, 2000)

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Variety

Above/below: Oxford’s Gloucester Greenhas housing, offices, shops and is usedregularly as an open market

Mixed use development works well in higher densities because thereare more people to support the variety of activities.

Get the mix right!

A successful mix of use results when the uses are compatible andinteract with each other positively.

A successful mix is achieved when uses create a balanced communitywith a range of services, without increasing the need for the car.

• Narrow plot frontages allow small scale shopping and commercialactivities to flourish.

• Big shared structures such as superstores or multiplex cinemas canbe wrapped by small plot units to create active frontages.

• To promote social inclusion, social housing is not distinguishablefrom private housing by its design or its location in less desirablesites.

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Legibility

Legibility - A successful and legible development is a place that has aclear image and is easy to understand.

Kevin Lynch, a well-respected and often-quoted American planneridentified five physical features which play a key role in creating legibleplaces.

• Paths

• Edges

• Nodes

• Landmarks

• Districts

Though these elements are abstractions, being aware of thecontributions to the issue of legibility should help you, as a designer, tofocus on the type of physical forms worth creating in a development aswell as helping to analyse key features in a proposed development.

Lynch, K (1960) The image of the city. MIT Press

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Legibility

Examples of path, edge, node, landmark and district

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Legibility

Paths• The channels of movement: alleys; streets; motorways; railways.• Structural and organising qualities.• Directional quality.• Defined by various clues (tree-lined avenues, landmarks).• Develop the site to enhance existing views and vistas and create

new ones.

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Legibility

Edges

• Linear elements which are not paths (rivers, elevated motorways,walls of buildings.

• Continuity and visibility are important with an edge.

• Edges as unifying seams.

• Directional quality.

• Well-designed corners enhance legibility by creating visualinterest and contributing to a distinctive identity.

• Legibility can be improved through detailing and quality ofmaterials.

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Legibility

Landmarks

• Points of reference which most people experience from theoutside.

• Individual and local character.

• Isolated or in groups.

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Legibility

Nodes

• Considered focal places such as junctions of paths and roadsfrom roundabout to market squares.

• Could be introvert or extrovert.

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Legibility

Districts

• A medium to large section of the city recognisable as having someparticular identifying character.

• Defined by soft or hard boundaries.

• Activity-bound districts.

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Robustness

Open space can accommodate many activities

Above: Former market hall is now a museumBelow: Interior provides space for exhibits

Robustness - A desirable quality of a development is if it can be used for many differentpurposes by different people, and can change and adapt for different uses. Robustness isimportant to outdoors as well as indoors, but design implications for buildings differ fromthose for outdoor places.

Robust BuildingsBuildings are distinguished between large-scale and small-scale robustness.

• Large-scale robustness concerns the ability of the buildings as a whole or largeparts of them to be changed in use.

• Small-scale robustness concerns the ability of specific spaces within the building tochange to accommodate a wide range of activities.

Three key factors support long term robustness:• building depth: the majority of building uses require natural light and ventilation• Access: all buildings need some link to the outside world• building height: the upper floors of tall buildings have restricted outside links.

Active and Passive Areas - some activities within a building may benefit from being able toextend outward into the adjacent outdoor space. Other indoor activities may contribute byvisual contact. These are active areas. The design implication of this is that the groundfloor of buildings should be occupied by active areas

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Robustness

Microclimate - the design of public space should take into account themicroclimate.

The layout and massing of development should respond to the localclimate conditions: daylight; sunlight; wind; temperature; and frostpockets.

Considerations:

• building orientation

• degree of enclosure

• protection from wind, down draughts, or tall buildings.

Trees and climbers can filter heat and pollution in the summer yet allowsunlight in winter.

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Robustness

Below: This Amsterdam street is shared bypedestrians, trams and other vehicles

Outdoor spacesThere are public and private outdoor spaces.

• Private outdoor spaces, usually within the perimeter block,greatly increase the robustness of the surrounding buildings,i.e. housing.

• Public outdoor spaces are more complex to design. They cancapitalise on the active elements already located on the groundfloors of the surrounding buildings and should enable a varietyof activities to co-exist in the public realm without inhibiting eachother.

• Vehicular Activity and Pedestrian Activity - usually a majoractivity in the central parts of public space is vehicularcirculation. There are ways to support pedestrian use againstthe inhibiting effects of vehicular circulation, e.g. traffic calmingmeasures and shared street spaces.