ELEMENTS OF URBAN DESIGNIMAGE OF THE CITY

Submitted to: Ms. Sruthi Dhar.

Submitted by:P. Joseph

M.A.FarmaanM. Rishika

V.SiddharthaKamsani Rai varmaDept. of Urban & Regional Planning;

School of Planning & Architecture;Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture & Fine Arts

University.

Elements Of Urban Design

• Urban Design involves the design and coordination of all that makes up cities and towns

BUILDINGS:

• Buildings are the most pronounced elements of urban design - they shape and articulate space by forming the street walls of the city.

• Well designed buildings and groups of buildings work together to create a sense of place.

PUBLIC SPACES:

• Great public spaces are the living room of the city - the place where people come together to enjoy the city and each other.

• Public spaces make high quality life in the city possible - they form the stage and backdrop to the drama of life.

• Public spaces range from grand central plazas and squares, to small, local neighborhood parks.

• STREETS:

• Streets are the connections between spaces and places, as well as being spaces themselves.

• They are defined by their physical dimension and character as well as the size, scale, and character of the buildings that line them.

• Streets range from grand avenues such as the Champs-Elysees in Paris to small, intimate pedestrian streets.

• The pattern of the street network is part of what defines a city and what makes each city unique.

STREETS AND TRANSPORT

• LANDSCAPE:

• The landscape is the green part of the city that weaves throughout - in the form of urban parks, street trees, plants, flowers, and water in many forms.

• The landscape helps define the character and beauty of a city and creates soft, contrasting spaces and elements.

• Green spaces in cities range from grand parks such as Central Park in New York City and the Washington DC Mall, to small intimate pocket parks.

• Urban Design weaves together these elements into a coherent, organized design structure.

• The urban design structure defines the urban form and the building form.

IMAGE OF THE CITY -By Kevin lynch

• The Image of the Environment• He says “Every citizen has had long associations

with some part of the says, city, and his image is soaked in memories and meanings.”

• He also concerned with how we locate ourselves within the city, how we find our way around.

• To know where we are within the city, therefore, we have to build up a workable image of each part.

• Each of these images will comprise; • our recognition of its “individuality or

oneness” within the city as a whole,• our recognition of its spatial or pattern

relationships to other parts of the city, its practical meaning for each of us (both practical and emotional)

Legibility:• Definition: The ease with which type characters

can be read.• By Lynch : Legibility is essentially the ease with

which people understand the layout of a place.

IMAGIBILITY• The quality of a physical object which gives an observer a strong vivid image.

• A highly image able city would be well formed, would contain very distinct parts, and would be instantly recognizable to the common inhabitant.

• The contents of the city images so far studied, which are referable to physical forms, can conveniently be classified into five types of elements:

– paths,

– edges,

– districts,

– nodes, and

– landmarks ...

• These elements may be defined as follows:

• Each individual holds a unique image of his or her city, a visual representation that guides through daily life and maps out meaning.

• Researching a sample of these images can help planners discern a “public image” of their city.

• A person's perception of the world is known as a mental map.

• A mental map is an individual's own map of their known world.

• Mental maps of individuals can be investigated .

• This can be evaluated in terms of identity, what makes this particular image unique among cities structure, how the image is spatially formed and meaning, what values are attached to the image through which one can locate himself.

Public Image

Paths• Familiar routes followed- “Are the channels along

which the observer customarily, occasionally, or potentially moves.”

E.g.-streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads

• The continuity depends on:

– Width

– Gradient

– activity

Edges• dividing lines between districts- "are the linear

elements not used or considered as paths by the observer. They are boundaries between two phases, linear breaks in continuity.”

E.g.- shores, railroad cuts, edges of development, walls ...

• areas with perceived internal homogeneity- "are medium-to-large sections of the city, conceived of as having two-dimensional extent, which the observer mentally enters ‘inside of,’ and which are recognizable as having some common identifying character"

E.g.- center, midtown, its in-town residential areas, organized industrial areas, train yards, suburbs, college campuses etc.

Districts

Nodes• Center of attraction that you can enter- “Are points, the strategic spots in a

city into which an observer can enter.

• The nodes may be simply concentrations, which gain their importance from being the condensation of some use or physical character, as a street-corner hangout or an enclosed square .”

E.g.-primary junctions, places of a break in transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments of shift from one structure to another.

Landmarks• point of reference- “Are another type of point-

reference, but in this case the observer does not enter within them, they are external. They are usually a rather simply defined physical object which makes one orient oneself.

E.g.-building, sign, store, or mountain

Charminar

Taj mahal

Golconda fortBuddha statue

IMAGEABILITY OF MYSORE

• Mysore is designed studiously as a princely city, has an established urban form to include urban design elements, imageability of the city and built structures that contributed to the aesthetics and architecture.

• The city is characterized by the towering presence of Amba Vilas Palace, which is the landmark and focal point of the city.

• It has both architectural and urban design elements namely vistas, focal points, landmarks, avenues, and plazas made it undoubtedly the prominent heritage city.

• Mysore is characterized by heritage buildings, gardens, boulevards, and planned markets all these are the contributions of Maharajas, Dewans, and their talented workmanship.

• The combination of different styles applied in statues, clock towers and fountains are so well executed in terms of purity of style and located in right places with the right proportion of open spaces incorporated in it.

• The townscape of the city viewed from Chamundi hills present a skyline of clock tower, statues, palaces, mansions, etc., which exists with its beauty.

• The maintenance of beautiful gardens in the premises enhanced the appearance of the city.

• The imageablity of city’s aesthetics of urban design elements are expressed through the following elements:

– Land Marks

– Focal Point

– Public Square

– Vistas

– Nodes

– Edges

– Path

– Streets

IMAGEABILITY OF MYSORE

Landmarks • “The position of a prominent or well-known

object in a particular landscape is called the landmark, which attracts attention”.

• There are two important landmarks in the City of Mysore and they are Ambavilas Palace and Chamaraja Circle.

• Ambavilas Palace is a prominent landmark, a three storied structure having the tallest tower with the gilded dome rising to a level of 145 ft from the ground.

• The palace exhibits the following characters namely

a. reveal the strength and power of the place,

b. most visited tourist place and derives income from tourist

c. architectural style, domes, arches, decorations, carvings etc., makes it significant

Focal point

• ‘Focal point is a critical point of a distance function.

• Focal point focuses specifically a point of interest which makes a place unique in streets, market places of town.

• Focal point will be column, cross, clock tower which crystallises the situation and confirms this in the spot’.

• Seventy Five (75’0) feet square tower topped with Indo Saracenic style and vertical symbol of congregation.

• It is located in the centre of the city and acts as a main focal point, located on the old procession street.

Public Square

• Public Square is a space used by the public.

• A public square can acts as the focal point, land mark and enclosure’.

• The circle is geometrically designed with six gateways facing each other.

• Vasavi circle in front of the Devaraja market including the Chikka Ghadighara form a public square.

• In an intersection wherein the JLB road and Irwin road meets near railway station, the Statue of Dr.Babu Jagajeevanram is installed in this intersection by replacing the beautiful water fountain circle with landscaped traffic rotaries which with urban form.

Vista • Foreground linked by background through different elements like landscape,

water bodies or pathways etc., closed by a mass of building and it produces a sense of power and omnipresence’.

• The stretch of buildings on either side of the road creates a vista, with the foreground circle.

• Albert Victor Road leading from Harding circle to DC office via Chamaraja circle and Krishnaraja circle forms a vista.

• The pathway leading from Ashoka circle is a very good example of vista.

Nodes and Edges• Nodes are strategic points in a city which the observer can enter.

• Primary junctions, transport transit, terminals and convergence of path.

• The circles and junctions forms the nodes.

• There are many nodes and the buildings or open spaces around them form the edges’.

• Krishna Rajendra Circle is a node, and four roads converge at this junction.

• The buildings at the edges respond to the node.

• One of the interesting characters of Mysore city is that the building responds to the road edges in K.R.Circle, Ashoka circle and other prominent places.

• At all these points, the buildings respond to geometry of curvilinear pattern by converging towards the focal point which can either be a fountain, statue, and island. Even though, the buildings differ in their functions, the building styles follow the pattern of uniqueness.

Path• Paths are the channels along which the observer customarily moves.

• Paths are nothing but pedestrian networks, which links the town together in a viable pattern.

• Continuity and access are always maintained’.

• All main roads in city core have pathways and are well regulated for the movement of traffic and pedestrians with signal synchronization in the central area.

• Paths were provided with street furniture like lamp post, railings, ornamented sign boards etc.

TRANSPORT:

• Transport systems connect the parts of cities and help shape them, and enable movement throughout the city.

• They include road, rail, bicycle, and pedestrian networks, and together form the total movement system of a city.

• The balance of these various transport systems is what helps define the quality and character of cities, and makes them either friendly or hostile to pedestrians.

• Historically, movements within cities tended to be restricted to walking, which

made medium and long distance urban linkages rather inefficient and time-

consuming.

• Thus, activity nodes tended to be agglomerated and urban forms compact.

Many modern cities have inherited an urban form created under such

circumstances, even though they are no longer prevailing.

• The dense urban cores of many European, Japanese and Chinese cities, for example,

enable residents to make between one third and two thirds of all trips by walking and

cycling.

• The amount of urban land allocated to transportation is often correlated with the level

of mobility. In the pre-automobile era, about 10% of the urban land was devoted to

transportation which was simply roads for a dominantly pedestrian traffic.

• State, regional, and local transportation and land-use policies and guidelines directly

affect how land is developed, designed, and accessed

• The role of transit in shaping urban form is as important as its role in meeting

transportation needs. The type and nature of development around a transit station will

greatly influence that station’s effectiveness. Transportation Oriented Development

(TOD) plans provide focus for regulatory and infrastructure improvements that allow

full realization of the benefits of a transit investment.

Urban transportation is organized in three broad categories of collective,

individual and freight transportation.

Collective Transportation (public transit):It includes modes such as

tramways, buses, trains, subways and ferryboats.

Individual Transportation: Includes any mode where mobility is the

outcome of a personal choice and means such as the automobile, walking,

cycling and the motorcycle.

Includes any mode where mobility is the outcome of a personal choice and

means such as the automobile, walking, cycling and the motorcycle.

Freight Transportation: As cities are dominant centers of production and

consumption, urban activities are accompanied by large movements of

freight.

Challenges Facing Urban Transportation

• Traffic congestion and parking difficulties

• Longer commuting

• Public transport inadequacy.

• Difficulties for non-motorized transport

• Loss of public space

• Environmental impacts and energy consumption

• Accidents and safety

• Land consumption

• Freight distribution.

Examples :Metro rail Foot over bridge (delhi)Sky walks (mumbai)

Source:• Image of city by Kevin lynch• International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER)

Vol.2, Issue.2, Mar-Apr 2012 pp-134-138• http://www.ijmer.com/papers/vol2_issue2/W022134138.pdf http://sdapa.org/download/Daniel_Haufschild.pdfhttp://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch6en/ch6menu.htmlhttp://urbanindia.nic.in/programme/ut/urban_transport.htm