Urban Design

Question 1

Urban Design

Answer 1

The process of creating the physical setting for cities and urban spaces. Urban design can involve the design of buildings, spaces and landscapes

Question 2

Context-Sensitive Design (CSD)

Answer 2

Refers to roadway standards and development practices that are flexible and sensitive to community values. CSD allows design decisions to better balance economic, social and environmental objectives within the community. It promotes several key principles

1. balance safety, community, and environmental goals in all projects
2. involve the public and affected agencies early and continuously
3. usa an interdisciplinary team tailored to project needs
4. Apply flexibility inherent in design standards
5. incorporate aesthetics as an integral part of good design.

Question 3

Form-Based Code

Answer 3

a type of zoning code that regulates development to achieve a specific urban form. Form-based codes address the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks.

The regulations and standards in form-based codes, presented in both diagrams and words, are keyed to a regulating plan that designates the appropriate form and scale (and therefore, character) of development, rather than just setting distinctions in land-use types. In simple terms, a conventional zoning code focuses on land use rather than form, whereas form-based coded focus on form over use.

Question 4

New Urbanism

Answer 4

promotes compact, walkable neighborhoods. Its principles are defined in the Charter of the New Urbanism, which was adopted by the Congress for New Urbanism. These principles apply at regional, neighborhood and block levels.

New urbanism was formed, in part, as acounter response to what is known as modernist urbanism, exmeplified by Radiant City (Ville Radieuse), an unrealized project to hosue three million inhabitants designd by the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier in 1922. The project involved replacing Central Paris with sixty-story glass cruciform skyscrapers set in green space.

New Urbanism, in contrast, prmotes mixed-income, walkable neighborhoods with a variety of architectural styles. Neighborhoods are to be well defined, with an edge and a center, public space throughout, and walkable access to shopping, work, school and transit.

Question 5

The Transect

Answer 5

a conceptual device for orienting development on a rural to urban continuum. this concept is used in New Urbanist planning practices and is often the basis of a form-based code.

Question 6

Tactical Urbanism (AKA DIY Urbanism, planning-by-doing, urban acupuncture or urban prototyping)

Answer 6

refers to low-cost, temporary changes to the urban environment inteneded to demonstrate the potential impacts of change, for example, adding a tempory bicycle lane, street furniture, or turning empty storefronts into pop up shops. Parking Day which turns parking spaces into temporary park spaces, is one example of tactical urbanism.

Question 7

Transit-oriented Development (TOD)

Answer 7

a mixed-use development designed to maximize access to public transportation. This type of development typically has a light rail, bus or other types of tranist station located at the center of the development or nearby.

Question 8

Biophillic Design

Answer 8

concerns the need to create habitat for people as biological organisms. There are direct and indirect ways to accomplish biphilloic design:

Direct Experience of Nature:

• Light, air, water, plants, animals, natural landscapes and ecosystems, weather

Indirect Experience of Nature
- images of nature, natural materials, natural colors, mobility and wayfinding, cultural and ecological attachment to place, simulating natural light and air, naturalistic shapes and forms, evoking nature, information richness, age change and patina of time, natural geometries, biomimicry