TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF

uRBaN DeSIGn
(An Introductory Lecture for AR 413A and 421S2)
Eduardo F. Bober, Jr.
Industry Lecturer

According to your Understanding of Urban Design:

UD is a design outside of the bldg/property.
UD is complicated, a theoretical aspect
UD prioritizes or harmonizes with nature
UD is a about citieshelps people to live an easy life
UD is Urban Planning
UD is planning the whole site, large area
UD is architecture & a reflection of the buildings.
UD is making the city more beautiful & attractive

Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

It was coined in North

America in the late 1950s
Replaced the narrower
and outmoded term
civic design focus on the
siting and design of civic buildings
and their relationship to open spaces.

Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

It denotes a more expansive approach evolving from an initial, predominantly aesthetic,

concern with the distribution of building masses and the
space between buildings.

it has become primarily concerned with the

quality of the public realm (public space, public
environment or public domain - both physical and
socio-cultural - and the making of places for
people to enjoy and use.

Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

Public Spaces

Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

The term urban design is ambiguous

containing two somewhat problematical words:
URBAN suggests the characteristics of towns and cities
DESIGN refers to activities as sketching, planning,
arranging and pattern making.
Within the practice of urban design, URBAN has a wide and

inclusive meaning embracing not only the city and town but also
the village and hamlet. DESIGN, rather than having a narrowly
aesthetic interpretation, is as much about effective problem
solving and/or the processes of delivering or organizing
development.

Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

7 Areas of Ambiguity

1. Should urban design be focused at

particular scales or levels?
2. Should it focus only on the visual
qualities of the urban environment
or, more broadly, address the
organization and management of
urban space?
3. Should it simply be about
transforming spatial arrangements,
or about more deeply seated social
and cultural relations between
spaces and society?

PRODUCT

Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design
4. Should urban design be
the province of Architects,
planners or landscape
architects?
5. Should it be a public or
private sector activity?
6. Should it be seen as an
objective-rational process
(a science) or an
expressive-subjective
process (an art)?

7 Areas of Ambiguity

PROCESS

Towards an Understanding
of Urban Design

7. Should the focus of

urban design be its
product (the urban
environment) or the
process by which it is
produced?

PRODUCT-PROCESS
DILEMMA

7 Areas of Ambiguity

Urban Design is both

a product and a process

As a
PRODUCT

Ranges in scale from parts of an environment

Manifests in all aspects of the physical
environment
Involves what the place looks like, how it feels,
what it means, how it works for people who use
it
Concerns sensory and cognitive relationships
between people and their environment, with
how peoples needs, values, and aspirations can
best be accommodated in built forms.

Urban Design is both

a product and a process

As a
PROCESS

Involves the art of shaping the built landscape

which has been formed over time by many
different actors.
Tasks may have definite ends or be ongoing.
Implementation may or may not be under the
designers whole or partial control
Concerns with design ideas and possibilities, with
community choices and decisions, and with the
urban development process
It has to do with the processes for shaping
environments and with the experiential quality of
the physical forms and spaces that result.

What then is
Urban Design?
Falls between the profession of planning and
architecture
Concerns in particular the shaping and uses of
urban public spaces
Deals with the large scale organization and
design of the city, with the massing and
organization of buildings and space between
them, but not with the design of the
individual buildings

Distinguishing Factors
ARCHITECTURE

URBAN DESIGN

URBAN PLANNING

Single Building/Complexes

Large scale such as entire

neighborhoods or cities

Typically considers the entire city.

1, 2, 3 or 5 years

Long time frames

10-15 years

Can extend beyond 30 years

Specific Development Control Less direct control

Even less direct control

Deals only with the

functional requirements of
buildings and how it satisfies
users needs

Deals with large number of

variables: transportation,
identity, pedestrian
orientation, etc

Deals with interconnectedness.

Look beyond the bounds of the
city and understand how the city.
Allocates land uses among
competing functions

Employed by
individual/developers

Employed by developers on
variety of projects and also by
public bodies

Involved in political process where

public policy is formulated.

Involved with only with

physical design issues

Involved with a spectrum

of social, cultural and
physical design issues

Involved with a spectrum of

social, cultural and physical
design issues

Traditions of Thought
in Urban Design
More architectural and narrower
understanding of urban design
Predominantly product-oriented,
focused on the visual qualities and
aesthetic experience of urban
spaces rather than on the cultural,
social, economic, political and
spatial factors and processes
contributing to successful urban
places.
Largely failed to acknowledge
public perceptions of townscapes
and places.

The Visual-Artistic
Tradition

Traditions of Thought
in Urban Design

The Social-Usage
Tradition

Paths

Emphasized the way in which

Districts
people use and colonize space
Landmarks Nodes
Encompassed issues of
perception and sense of place.
Kevin Lynch's attempted to
shift the focus of urban design
in two ways:
In terms of appreciation of the urban
environment
In terms of the object of the study

Traditions of Thought
in Urban Design

Jane Jacobs also a key proponent

in her book: The Death and Life of
Great American Cities arguing that the
city could never be a work of art
because art was made by 'selection
from life', while a city was 'life at its
most vital, complex and intense
Concentrating on the sociofunctional aspects of streets,
sidewalks and parks, Jacobs
emphasized their role as
containers of human activity and
places of social interaction.

The Social-Usage
Tradition

Traditions of Thought
in Urban Design
From the synthesis of earlier
traditions, urban design is
simultaneously concerned with the
design of urban space as an aesthetic
entity and as a behavioral setting.

It focuses on the diversity

and activity which help to create
successful urban places, and, in
particular, on how well the
physical milieu supports the
functions and activities taking place
there.

The Making Places

Tradition
With this concept
comes the notion of urban
design as the design
and management of the
'public realm' - defined as
the public face of buildings,
the spaces between
frontages, the activities
taking place in and
between these spaces, and
the managing of these
activities, all of which are
affected by the uses. of
the buildings themselves, i .e.
the 'private realm'

Traditions of Thought
in Urban Design

vSeven (7 ) Objectives
of UD relating to
Concept of Place :
-

Character
Continuity and Enclosure
Quality of the Public Realm
Ease of Movement
Legibility
Adaptability
Diversity

The Making Places

Tradition
the relationship between
different buildings; the
relationship between buildings
and the streets,
squares, parks and other spaces
which make up
the public domain itself; the
relationship of one
part of a village, town or city with
the other
parts; and the patterns of
movement and activity
which are thereby established. In
short, the
complex relationships between
all the elements
of built and un-built space.

General Considerations
in Urban Design
v Urban Structure how a
place is put together and
how its part relate to its
other.
v Urban typology, density
and sustainability - spatial
types and morphologies
related to intensity of use,
consumption of resources
and production and
maintenance of viable
communities.

Contemporary Definition
of UD in place-making
Urban design involves place-making - the creation of a
setting that imparts a sense of place to an area.
This process is achieved by establishing identifiable
neighborhoods, unique architecture, aesthetically pleasing
public places and vistas, identifiable landmarks and focal
points, and a human element established by compatible
scales of development and ongoing public stewardship.
Key elements of place-making include: lively commercial
centers, mixed-use development with ground-floor retail
uses, human-scale and context-sensitive design; safe and
attractive public areas; image-making; and decorative
elements
in
the
public
realm.

Synthesis

Lewis Mumford, The

Culture of Cities (1938)

Mind takes form in the city; and in turn, urban forms

condition mind. For space, no less than time, is artfully
reorganized in cities: in boundary lines and silhouettes,
in the fixing of horizontal planes and vertical peaks, in
utilizing or denying the natural site, the city records the
attitude of a culture and an epoch to the fundamental
facts of its existence. The dome and the spire, the open
avenue and the closed court, tell the story not merely
of the different physical accommodations, but of
essentially
different
conceptions
of
mans
destinyWith language itself, it remains mans greatest
work of art.

Activity for this week

Due on Thursday, June 27, 2012
Discuss your points of view on the phrase taken
from Lewis Mumfords, The Culture of Cities (1938)
shown in the previous slide. How is it related to the
evolution of urban design? What previous
thoughts do you have about urban design that
has been supported and/or contrasted by the
lesson presented?
Essay should be hand-written on a short bond paper and should not be less
than two (2) full pages. Read additional references you could find in the library
or the internet to support and/or add to this lesson.

Sources and References

M. Carmona, T. Heath, T. Oc, S. Tiesdell (2003). Public Places,
Urban Spaces: The Dimensions of Urban Design. Architectural
Press, Oxford
Levy, John M (2009), Contemporary Urban Planning, 8th
Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Educational Institute, Upper
Saddle River, NJ, USA
Various internet sources: http://www.urbandesign.org/
M. Roberts, C. Greed (2001). Approaching Urban Design: The
Design Process. Pearson Education Ltd., England.

Narrowing at UD
Problems
DESIGN, rather than having a
narrowly aesthetic interpretation, is as
much about effective problem solving
and/or the processes of delivering or
organizing development.
Urban Design, like any other design
process, combines rational method
and inspiration. Design involves
planned change in the real world and
involves envisaging the future and the
likely impact of change.

Task1: DESIGN BRIEF (sets the agenda

for change and defines the design
problem)
Identify the existing conditions (where
we are), and evaluate if it could be
improved (where we want to be)
design objectives
Make a detailed analysis of the
existing conditions; list opportunities
and challenges (issues and concerns)
Analysis should enable benchmarks to
be
set,
against
measurable
improvements. Taken together, these
give a set of criteria which identify
need.

Task 2: DESIGN SOLUTION (setting new

design scenarios what if? try on, see )
Test new scenarios against the design
criteria (vital part of the design process is
new ideas generation creativity)
Creativity is a decision, a deliberate
intention, entailing lots of hard work
Creative come up with ideas (finding good
problems)
Analytical to decide whether the ideas are good or
not (finding good solutions)
Practical to make the ideas functional (making the
solutions work)

The essence of creative work is to formulate the

right vision deciding firmly where to go. (Dr.
Robert Sternberg, Successful Intelligence)

Design solutions are synthesis of several

scenarios and forms the basis for action

Task 2: DESIGN SOLUTION (setting new

design scenarios what if? try on,
see )
Design here is not a simple linear
process but an open-ended process
where there is always room to introduce
innovations.
Design solution emerges from the
iterative process when most of the
criteria have been met to some degree.
Design solutions are unique.

Design solutions are synthesis of several

scenarios and forms the basis for
action

Task 3: IMPLEMENTATION (sets the agenda for

action and requires decision making process)

AS A DECISION - MAKING PROCESS (some

considerations)
Cities are product of myriad of particular
decisions about the urban environment,
taken individually or collectively and at
variety of scales. UD involves all types of
people, e.g. local people, engineers,
architects, etc.
Since it involves decisions about the
allocation of resources to shape the physical
environment, UD is inevitably an economic
and political, as well as aesthetic and
functional process.
UD can take place in a variety of
development contexts public, private and
community, and in contexts that combine all
these three elements.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DESIGN PROCESS:

It is cyclic and open-ended, there is always
room for improvement.
Proposing design solutions leads to a
redefinition of the design problems.
Because criteria are often conflicting there
is no right or wrong solution but rather
solutions that are more or less for the better.
Design requires us to be inventive in
creating new scenarios but rational in testing
them against criteria.
The analysis phase is an integral part of the
design process. To get the right answers we
need to pose the right questions.

INITIAL TASKS FOR THE PRELIM ACTIVITY:

Start profiling or making the briefs of your chosen UD development area
(Strategic Urban Designs for the Areas in-between 2 LRT stations)
Gather data and information covering the UD development area
(city/barangay/LRT stations maps, statistics, photo docs, CLUP, etc)
Process data/information to define the UD problems and set the UD
development area objectives and initial UD criteria. UD should cover
spaces within the public realm.