brief 07 fronts and coding - udsu-strath.com€¦ · front analysis and coding brief 07, 2011/12. 2...

____________________________________________________________________________________ Front Analysis and Coding Brief 07, 2011/12.

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MSc/PgDip/PgCert Urban Design 2011 / 2012

FRONT ANALYSIS AND CODING BRIEF Sergio Porta, Ombretta Romice, and Tutors

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Introduction The MSc in Urban Design is articulated into four phases:

1. Case analysis. You students will work in groups on the study area as part of a larger urban sector, getting to know intimately this area, its links potentials and pitfalls (Studio 1a);

2. Urban Design Strategy. You will propose a Strategic Plan and a Concept Plan, together forming the Urban Design Strategy, for the improvement of this area envisaging actions and projects that deal with services, mobility, housing, and public realm provision (Studio 1b);

3. Street front analysis and coding. You will be requested to work out a complete morphological analysis of two street fronts that are assigned by staff. The “front analysis” is carried out by drawing each street front in two boards and by the quantitative analysis of morphological aspects as they appear on drawing. Once all cases have been worked out and all data is available, students and staff derive from that a synthetic Local Urban Code (Studio 1c).

4. Masterplanning and place design. You are led to the production of a Masterplan for sub-areas of the study area. You will learn how to take action for subdivision of large blocks, a correct management of density as related to transport and land use, how to design safe and liveable streets and how to interpret the existent urban fabric of public and private buildings in relation to streets, land uses, density and transport. Finally, you will be asked to deepen your Masterplan and Code by experimentally developing the design of streets and buildings in a small part of it (Studio 2).

One feature of this course is to strengthen the work on urban analysis by means of analytical “packages”, each of which will be carried out by one single group of students in the first phase of work, corresponding to “AB 931 - Urban Design Studio 1a”. In addition, by undertaking “Street front analysis and coding” you will be led to understanding the structural characteristics of the urban fabrics, their spaces and measures. The resulting learning experience is this year particularly dense of arguments and different methodologies will be taught in order to give you basic notions of what are the “tools” that an Urban Designer may apply to the interpretation and modification of urban spaces. All this results in a very challenging programme, which is still experimental this year, which will require highly committed students and staff to be successfully completed. On the other side, this programme is a very unique one, in that it blends operational tools with community involvement and a strong – even physical – immersion in the local reality, i.e. theory with hands-on approaches. Perhaps the most challenging phase of the entire course is the first, the analytical phase. Because all analysis must be completed in about one month time, and because such analysis are all very demanding, especially for students who have never approached urban studies before and are requested to work with mostly new team mates. For these reasons we decided to write these Analysis Briefs. We have written 5 Analysis Briefs, one for each “package” of analysis, which means one for each group of students:

1. Drawing the existing city. 2. History and stories 3. Planning framework 4. Experiencing and comparing place 5. Network analysis of streets

These briefs should be considered by all of you a constant reference during the work in phase 1. We have put into them all possible instructions for the correct completion of every task, with as much detail as we were able to manage. For the same reason these briefs are fully illustrated, so that at every step you will have an idea of the sort of thing the final result should look like. Of course, with all their details, these notes do not set compulsory rules: you are always welcome to do it differently upon a serious discussion of goals and methods, which we are certainly more than happy to help doing. This is a way for us to speed up the process of learning by doing. This also witnesses the investment that we as staff have done on this rather ambitious course, a dramatic bet addressed on the ground of our highest expectations on you. We recommend all of you to react by mobilizing all your personal, intellectual and motivational resources, without which there is no one chance to get this course – and your learning experience with it – actually complete and significant at the end of the year.


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7.1 Scope and objectives

Scope: The overall scope of the Front Analysis and Coding phase is to gather the foundation knowledge that will lead to the definition of the regulatory framework in the next and final phase of this course. Therefore at the end of this phase you will come up with:

- A comprehensive morphological analysis of street fronts selected (by staff) as for their representativeness of typical elements of the existent urban fabric in the study area and in Glasgow at large under different urban conditions (in particular different density, land use and building type).

- A Draft Foundation Masterplan, that: a) defines the boundary of the Masterplan Area, and within those boundaries: b) the proposed street layout in a preliminary version, along with the hierarchy of streets; c) the street front types referred to every street in the proposed hierarchy; d) areas for main transformation; e) areas for regulation.

Early in next Masterplanning phase the street front analysis will be then translated into the Local Urban Code (LUC) and the Draft Foundation Masterplan into the final Foundation Masterplan (FMP). These two documents will constitute the regulatory framework, which sets the overall rules for the development the study area; it will then be applied by you students in a subset of the study area of your choice on which you will develop the final Masterplan: that sub-area is therefore named Masterplan Area. At the end of this phase, you will be able to:

- Describe the range and types of urban fabric to be present in the study area (in terms of density, uses and street front types);

- Qualify each front type in terms of essential morphological characteristics; - Produce a proposed street layout along with a clear street hierarchy. - Attribute these front types to selected places in the study area that are targeted by significant

transformation in your project, according to the proposed street hierarchy. -

Objectives:

1. To formulate a complete Street Front Analysis.

2. To delineate a Draft Foundation Masterplans (draft_FMP) for your selected Masterplan Area.


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7.2 Working instructions Timetable:

All groups: Block Analysis and Coding

Activity Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

WP1. STREET FRONT ANALYSIS1. Field analysis 1.1. Understanding standards 1.2. Working remotedly 1.3. Working on the field2. Representation of Street Front Analysis 2.1. Using the graphic standards 3. Quantification 3.1. Working out computations 3.2. Embedding tables into drawings

WP2. DRAFT FOUNDATION MASTERPLAN1. Producing Draft Foundation Masterplan 1.1. Scaling/combining Strat. and Conc. plans 1.2. Defining Transf. areas and coding

WP4. FINAL LAYOUT1. Producing the final layout 1.1. LUC and DFM: final layout

Dec 20 Dec 27 Jan 17 Jan 03 Feb 07 Jan 10 Jan 24 Jan 31

The activities in this phase are organized in three Work Packages. They will be presented, as usual, in a draft format in view of preliminary marks at the end of Week 5 (Jan 31st), while final marks will be confirmed or possibly raised on Feb 7th if suggestions have been followed and ameliorations provided in between. The programme is about:

- Understanding what are the spatial characteristics featured by different types of street fronts in Glasgow and identifying what are those that mark their typicality and give them their unique and defined nature (WP1). Such typical characters will then be measured and tabled.

- Then you will select a sub-area in the study area as your Masterplan Area (MA). In this area you will be transferring strategies drawn from your previous work, define a proposed street layout and apply the knowledge achieved in the Street Front Analysis by attributing proposed street front types to all street fronts on the basis of envisaged density, land-use, building type and street hierarchy.

- Finally you will refine your drawings bringing them to a final format. The whole phase sets the stage for the next Masterplanning phase which will lead to the completion of the course.


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WP1 – STREET FRONT ANALYSIS The Street Front is a mostly built-up space defined by one street, that takes the name of reference (ref) street, and one pertinence line. The pertinence line is the line that lays on the inner limits of plots that abut on the ref street. Therefore the Street Front is not here to be intended as a set of buildings facades identified in elevation. Rather, it is identified in plan, and constituted by the whole urban area covered by the set of one or more plots that defines one side of the ref street According to the definition above, the “building block” of a street front is the urban plot. In traditional urbanism identifying the urban plot and therefore the street front is rather trivial. Quite on the contrary, doing that in a conventional XXth century periphery is sometimes very tricky, as the plot structure itself is often not really present. In such cases, the definition of the pertinence line may be a highly subjective exercise.

WP1 (Street Front Analysis) is about measuring and comparing street fronts in the study area as well as in the larger urban area of Glasgow. Fronts are selected by staff in representation of a range of combined different options based on density, land-use and building type. This organizational framework, or Local Transect, is structured as follows:

01_HIGH DENSITY 01.A. Mixed Use

01.A.a. Aggregated 01.A.b. Isolated

01.B. Mostly Residential 01.B.a. Aggregated 01.B.b. Isolated

02_MEDIUM DENSITY

02.A. Mixed Use 02.A.a. Aggregated 02.A.b. Isolated


03_LOW DENSITY

03.A. Mixed Use 03.A.a. Aggregated 03.A.b. Isolated


Fronts are coded accordingly: for example, a street front labelled “Front 3Aa_01” is supposed to be a low density, mixed-used street front predominantly constituted by aggregated buildings (the final “01” just identifies the specific street front).

Fronts are first drawn on paper in plan, then drawings are processed in order to derive quantitative information that is stored in tables and elaborated. Some 31 indicators (19 or the Street Fronts and 12 for the Plots) are calculated that allow to understand differences in the spatial structure of fronts.

1. Field Analysis (weeks 1-2):

- Understanding standards. Field analysis of street fronts starts with achieving sample files and other informative material from staff, having a view of them and becoming familiar with the lexicon used and the process of analysis. Standards are also reported here in this brief extensively, so getting through this brief is part of the work. In this particular step it is important that students understand the two legends proposed for the two different drawings that will constitute the analysis of one street front, as illustrated in next paragraph “Using the graphic standard”.

- Working remotely. A considerable part of all the information to be gathered on fronts can be grasped simply by interrogating the Internet. In many cases mapping tools such as Google Earth (you can download the free version from: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html) or Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps) cover the most of that, especially in areas where Street View is available. This primary information can be usefully integrated by other tools such as About


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My Place (http://www.aboutmyplace.co.uk/) which covers all UK cities, and Bing Maps (http://www.bing.com/maps/) which has a much larger coverage. In addition, remember that OS maps store an amazing amount of information some of which, such as plot boundaries, is of crucial relevance in front analysis and is sometimes difficult to capture from the web.

- Working on site. If the remote part of the work is done properly, the on-site part can be very straightforward. It has to do in fact with just a visual check or a limited integration of missed information. In particular, the direct observation of the site allows to report major updates in the block structure (web mapping images are 2 to 5 years old in general), or to sort out what remained unclear from the web.

2. Representation of Street Front Analysis (week 3):

- Using the graphic standard.

Please refer to the files provided in the directory “Fronts_MATERIALS”. Summary: In table 1 you students are asked to draw a map reporting the main functions and accesses at the ground floor. In table 2 the map will describe the building typology which are present in the Street Front. Suggestion: Please, bring the camera with you and take a lot of pictures of the fronts to double check the Google Maps and Google Street Views survey. Table 1 and Table 2 not necessarily should be conceived as two separate drawings. They are two separates layouts that may be composed into 1 drawings if the size of the diagrams is reasonable. TABLE 1 First you should define the perimeter of the Street Front. Again: The Street Front is a mostly built-up space defined by one street, that takes the name of reference (ref) street, and one pertinence line. The pertinence line is the line that lays on the inner limits of plots that abut on the ref street. Therefore the Street Front is not here to be intended as a set of buildings facades identified in elevation. Rather, it is identified in plan, and constituted by the whole urban area covered by the set of one or more plots that defines one side of the ref street. Therefore our suggestion to trace the perimeter of the Street Front is as follows: Start from the ref street and trace the perimeter just on the line of the plots’ fronts; then, follow the perimeter of the last plot and turn following the back of the plot; go ahead following all plots’ backs until you reach the last plot on the opposite side; finally close the perimeter The first survey deals with the land uses and accesses you can find at the ground floor of each building in each plot of the Street Front. For instance, you have to identify the main functions according to the legend. Open spaces (green areas, pavements) and indoor spaces (residential, services, commerce and tertiary) are listed with different colours in the legend. Some notes: • Please, pay attention in the distinction between public, collective (or semi-public or semi-private) and

private spaces: private spaces define the ownership of a single person/family, whereas collective spaces are typically shared spaces in private properties (for ex. common gardens or courtyards in multi-storey buildings).

• “Mixed used building” is a building that presents different functions aggregated under the same roof, whereas “single function building” hosts one use only (typically a supermarket).

• Within the category “specialized public buildings” you have to include all those functions of public utility, even if they are of private ownership (like pharmacies or hospitals).

The next step is to record the accesses (pedestrian and vehicular) on the ref street. We count both accesses to buildings and retails. On the accesses to dwellings we have to note the number of served dwellings, so that by summing those numbers we can easily derive the number of inhabitants in the Street Front. We have to note: the front is active, i.e. if it has an osmotic exchange with the street (windows, doors); the front is built or not (in other words, if the front defines a street canyon or if the front is laid back); if we have arcades or canopies.


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TABLE 2 In this table we have to define the types of distributive schemes that best characterize the built fabrics. Please, refer to the distributive schemes presented in Appendix B of this document. The colour scale defines the increasing density of the typology from low density residential units (yellow) to high density aggregated solutions (brown, black). In this table we also have to indicate the accesses following a set of building types: • Black triangles define the accesses from public spaces to the private or collective space; • Gray triangles are accesses from collective spaces (ex. From the collective garden to the staircases); • White triangles define the access to private spaces from collective spaces (the house door facing the

staircase)


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3. Quantification (week 4):

- Working out computations. Once the survey has been completed and the maps of tables 1 and 2 are drawn, we can move to the computation of morphological indicators. In order to do this, please refer to the Appendix A: “Measuring the Street Front: the glossary”. We measure 31 indicators. Of these, 19 describe the front, and 12 the plots within the front. The glossary follows a subdivision in 2 main sections: Street Front indicators (F00) provide quantitative information at the scale of the whole Street Front while plot indicators (P00) offers data at the scale of the single plot. In the glossary you can find a detailed definition of each indicator. Please, note that all indicators can be computed by using Tables 1 and 2 alone: all required information is reported on the maps.


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WP2. DRAFT FOUNDATION MASTERPLAN The scope of this work package is for each student to select the Masterplan Area and gradually zoom in with design of increasing detail ending up with a Draft Foundation Masterplan (DFM). The Masterplan Area is one portion of the study area already explored with the strategic and concept plans developed in the preceding phases. You may choose to follow whatever Strategic Plan you like among the ones developed in the previous phase by all strategic groups, but once you have chosen a strategy. On the Masterplan Area, you will at this stage undertake three activities:

1. Defining the boundary of the Masterplan Area, and within those boundaries: 2. Representing all decisions taken in the strategic phase (Strategic + Concept Plans); 3. Proposing a street layout in a preliminary version, along with the hierarchy of streets; 4. Defining “transformation areas”, i.e. areas that are targeted by substantial transformation in terms

of density and/or land use; 5. Defining “regulation areas”, i.e. areas that are NOT targeted by substantial transformation in

terms of density and/or land use; 6. Within the limits of transformation areas, attributing to each street front a proposed street front

type selected among those investigated in the Street Front Analysis; This is the Draft Foundation Plan (DFM). In short, it is the initial step of the Masterplan. 1. Producing Draft Foundation Masterplan (weeks 3-5)

- Scaling and combining Strategic and Concept plans. Think of all strategies developed in the previous phase by all strategic groups. You are the author of one, so while it would seem natural that you have by now grown attached to it, we particularly appreciate that you find parts of another’s group strategy more interesting or that you integrate your ideas with others. Find, within the strategy that you have selected, one area amongst those characterized by significant change that you now want to design in more detail with a Masterplan. As rule of thumb, this area should be of a significant size, of around 400 (or more) mts of radius. This is an indicative figure: if you want to study a strip you can do so by any means!! As a result, you have now identified your Masterplan Area; from now on, you will work on this area at a 1:1000 scale. Report and combine, from the strategies selected, all major ideas that will interest your Masterplan Area. Broadly map them with attention to possible combinations and side effects that ideas taken from different contexts may bring in the picture. Then look at the Concept Plan (proposed), and map down broadly:

- The areas suggested for development at different densities; - The proposed hierarchy of centres (nodes); - The proposed hierarchy of streets; - The proposed hierarchy of public transit routes; - The proposed ecological network.

This image (or document, including annotations), should be a zoomed in version of a combination of both Strategy and Concept Plans. Do not be worried, at this stage, do develop an actual detailed version of the two: this is meant to be just a preparatory document: the actual passage of scale will happen in the successive Masterplanning phase.

- Defining Transformation areas and coding. Once you have selected your Masterplan Area and reported on it a rough indication of all decisions taken at the strategic level, including street hierarchy, the first thing to do is getting a bit deeper with your coding indications by undertaking two steps:

1. Identifying Transformation Areas. Map with boundaries as precise as possible those areas

which will undergo major changes in density, land-use or street layout to deliver and accommodate the strategy (they are termed Transformation Areas), and those that will only be subjected to minor changes (these are termed Confirmation Areas); Confirmation Areas are those which are not supposed to change significantly in density, land-use or street layout in the next 25 years. Do this on your map as another level of information.


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2. Assigning Coding types to street fronts. Now take into account only Transformation Areas in your Masterplan Area, and within those:

a. Consider densities broadly proposed in the previous step as drawn from the Concept Plan. You have there three levels of density: high, medium and low.

b. Transform those broad Concept Plan density indications into specific density indications attributed to every Street Front. Please notice that there is here a crucial passage of scale:

i. While information on proposed density drawn from the Concept Plan is schematically represented in terms of circles, through this passage you are now translating them into actual zones for development that of course can not (and should not) take the form of a circle.

ii. Moreover, while the Concept Plan indications of density possibly cover entire blocks, now you are assigning different densities to every Street Front. Please pay a lot of attention to this passage which is essential for the whole work of Masterplanning: within the range established in the broad Concept Plan indications you should now attribute higher densities to Street Fronts on main streets and lower densities to those on local streets. In short, it is essential that there is coherence in your proposal linking proposed densities on Street Fronts to both those proposed in the Concept Plan and, within those, to the street hierarchy that characterises every street in your proposal. This should be done by detailing the three levels of density set in the Concept Plan, i.e. high, medium and low, into further sub-levels, i.e.:

1. high+, high=, high-; 2. medium+, medium=, medium-; 3. low+, low=, low-.

c. Once you have attributed densities to every Street Front, you should now go back to your Street Front Analysis and consider, for every Street Front, all analyzed cases that belong to the broad category assigned (high, medium and low): now, by looking at those cases, their actual density, their aggregation and building types, try assigning to every Street Front a reference case that will act as an example of what the development of that Street Front should look like according to your proposal.


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WP3. FINAL LAYOUT 1. Producing the final layout (weeks 5-6)

- Local Urban Code and Draft Foundation Masterplan: final layout. In this Work Package you elaborate the final drawings in the format that will be discussed in studio. The aim is to prepare your best draft layouts for the preliminary marking and, after the final review, ameliorate your product along the lines suggested and get revised marks at the last final exams the week after.


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A Appendix

Measuring the Street Front

The Glossary


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Street Fronts

Trait Name Num Name

F01 Street front length mLinear extension of the street front. If the street front includes crossings with streets orthogonal to the reference street, the width of the crossings should not be taken into account.

F02 Built front ratio m/mLinear extension of the street front that presents buildings within the band obtained by offsetting the perimeter 8m Inside, on the total extension of the street front.

F03 Active street front ratio m/mLinear extension of the street front that presents non-residential activities at the ground floor, on the total extension of the street front.

F04 Plot edge on street (mean) mAverage extension of the plot front on street.

F05 Plot edge on street (st dev) mStandard deviation of the extension of the plot front on street calculated over all the plots in the street front.

F06 Accesses from street (pedestrian ratio) n/mThe number of pedestrian accesses from street on the total extension of the street front. One access leading to many units counts as 1.

F07 Accesses in plot (ratio) n/nThe number of pedestrian accesses located in the inner space of the plot on the total number of accesses from the street.

F08 Street section (width) mWidth of the reference street (average).

F09 Street centrality CBThe betweenness centrality of the street.

F10 Distance from city centre mDistance from the centre of the city (George Square) to be measured along a straight line (not along the streets).

F11 Single Family Houses, Isolated in field/plot/alplotment n Number of Single Family Houses, Isolated in field/plot/alplotment on the total number of

houses.

F12 Single Family Houses, Aggregated in row/court n Number of Single Family Houses, Aggregated in row/court on the total number of houses.

F13 Multi Family Houses, Line simple, Isolated in field/plot n Number of Multi Family Houses, Line simple, Isolated in field/plot on the total number of

houses.

F14 Multi Family Houses, Line simple, Aggregated in row n Number of Multi Family Houses, Line simple, Aggregated in row on the total number of

houses.

F15 Multi Family Houses, Line double, Isolated in field/plot n Number of Multi Family Houses, Line double, Isolated in field/plot on the total number of

houses.

F16 Multi Family Houses, Line double, Aggregated in row/court n Number of Multi Family Houses, Line double, Aggregated in row/court on the total number

of houses.

F17 Multi Family Houses, Line double coupled, Isolated in field/plot n Number of Multi Family Houses, Line double coupled, Isolated in field/plot on the total

number of houses.

F18 Multi Family Houses, Line double coupled, Aggregated in row/court n Number of Multi Family Houses, Line double coupled, Aggregated in row/court on the total

number of houses.

F19 Multi Family Houses, Line multiple, Single/Aggregated n Number of Multi Family Houses, Line multiple, Single/Aggregated on the total number of

houses.


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Plots

Trait Name Num Name

P01 Plot area m2Area of the plot.

P02 Private buildings area m2Ref. Legend Table 01, Land-use at the ground floor (1.1).

P03 Public buildings area m2Ref. Legend Table 01, Land-use at the ground floor (1.2).

P04 Residential area m2Ref. Legend Table 01, Land-use at the ground floor (1.3).

P05 Uncovered area m2Uncovered Area includes all un-built spaces inside the plot, for example permeable/green spaces as well as paved open spaces.

P06 Covered area m2Specialized Private Buildings Areas + Specialized Public Buildings Area + Residential Areas: P06 = P02 + P03 + P04

P07 Mixitè index -

The mixite’ index can be measured for the main three uses (Specialized private areas + Specialized public areas + Residential areas) applying the diversity index:

Where: p = proportion of the area occupied by the considered function (for each of the 3 uses mentioned above) to the total covered area, (i.e. the sum of the areas of the three destinations of use) N = number of categories, i.e. the 3 uses. The higher D, the greater the mix of functions in the area. D will instead be equal to zero when only one of the three intended uses is present on the plot.

P08 Total floor area of the plot m2The covered area of each building in the plot by its number of storeys (basements to be counted only when inhabitable).

P09 Perimeter of the plot mPerimeter of the plot.

P10 Plot front mLinear extension of the plot front on the reference street.

P11 Compactness Index -

The ratio between the Plot Area (11) and the area of the circle within which the plot itself can be inscribed:Compactness = Aplot / (π* r2);NB. The radius r is the longest radial taken from the centre of mass to the perimeter of the plot. For ease, the circle in which the plot is inscribed can be determined graphically with Autocad.

P12 Plot density Un/ha

Density in Units per Hectare. Units are conventionally calculated on the basis of one unit = 100m2. Calculate the floor area of each bulding (covered area by number of storeys) and divide it by 100: this is the n. of units in that building. Repeat for all buildings and sum up. Then divide by the area of the plot in hectares (1ha=10,000m2).


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B Appendix

Typologies of Building Type


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1. Single family houses

Single, Isolated in field

Single, Isolated in lot

Single, Isolated in allotment


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Single, Aggregated in row

Single, Aggregated in court


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2. Multi family houses

Line simple , Isolated in field DETACHED

Line simple , Isolated in lot DETACHED

Line simple , Aggregated in row ATTACHED


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Line double , Isolated in field ATTACHED

Line double , Isolated in lot ATTACHED

Line double , Aggregated in row ATTACHED


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Line double , Aggregated in court


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Line double coupled , Isolated in field

Line double coupled , Isolated in lot Isolated


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Line double coupled , Aggregated in row

Line double coupled , Aggregated in court


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Line multiple , Aggregated in court

brief 07 fronts and coding - udsu-strath.com€¦ · front analysis and coding brief 07, 2011/12. 2...

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