Urban Design, Form & Structure Flashcards
What factors influence location for Urban Dev?
- Natural crossroads
- Break of bulk points
- Access to raw materials
- Amenity-rich areas
- Administrative, military, political influence
- Religious, historical or educational
Influence & constraints of urban forms
- Climate
- Physical
- Economic
- Social
- Institutional
Elements of Urban structure
Urban planners have to take into account the many physical elements within a city and organise them into a functional and efficient system.
What are the 3 categories of physical elements?
- Network that transports people, goods, utilities and information:
- Transportation routes/channels and infrastructure
- Utilities - Buildings that house people, goods and activities:
- Uses of buildings
- Types of buildings
- Arrangement of land uses - Open spaces that enhance the qualities of life:
- Hard spaces
- Soft spaces (dont understand)
Urban Design
Involves the design and coordination of
- Transportation Networks
- Buildings
- Open spaces
The urban design weaves these 3 elements into a coherent, organized urban design. it defines both urban form and building form
Urban forms of ancient cities
Ancient cities have both planned and organic urban forms such as wall and gate access (purpose/ natural)
Ancient Greeks - haphazard and irregular adapting to the historical events and topography of the area
Ancient Rome- well planned and organised in a grid format
Anciet China- complex grid system with teh capital in the heart of the grid
Colonial cities- planned prior to settlement/ divides the land for urban development and easy to administer
(grid)
Urban forms of industrial cities
City centre - CBD
Working-class population - slum close to city centres/ work in order to save cost of travelling and time
Upper class population- live in the spacious suburbs to avoid congestion, pollution and crime
Urban forms of Modern cities
Inner zone - an old industrial city that has undergone urban renewal to become a modern CBD that focuses on finance, IT and administration
Fringe area- slums, old mixed use buildings that houses the urban poor
residential suburbs- working and upper class population who commute to work with modern transport
industrial suburbs- factories, business parks, R&D, warehouses
Shape of a city GI
Grid iron cities - run at right angles to create regular city blocks and to facilitate movement of people and products. (American cities) Regular land lots and minimises dispute over lot bounderies. This maximises the no. of lots could front a street
Shape of a city R
Radiocentric- pre-industrial cities that radiates out from a common centre, reflects the importance of defense. Conceived as an instrument of social control to survey surrounding areas, workers and population.
Grow in a ring like fashion from a central core which houses the governing authorities
in the past no airstrikes
Shape of a city S&L
Star and linear shaped:
based on the spread of railway and road transportation network
concentrates urban development around the transportation infrastructure. It economizes the distribution and avoids damage to natural environment
What are the classical models of urban structure?
- concentric zone model
- axial model
- sector model
- multiple nuclei model
What is mulitple nuclei model?
This model assumes that urban areas are formed through diversification and development into distinct districts of activity and land use.
How are districts differentiated?
some types of activities require specific types of access and facilities (ie, low skilled labour near factories)
Some activities congregate to enjoy the advantages of complementarity
some are segregated to avoid the disadvantage of incompatibility
some are better off away from CBD
This model is not predictable as there is no basic pattern.
