Transcript Urban Design and Planning. ppt

Urban Design & Planning
Tom Turner
University of Greenwich
School of Architecture and
Construction
0208 331 9100
Email [email protected]
Website
www.landscapeplanning.gre.ac.uk
Questions
IS TOWN DESIGN = URBAN DESIGN?
ARE THEY = TOWN PLANNING?
Origins
• ‘Town’ is a noun and ‘town design’ would be the art of
designing a physical object. One of the UK’s modernist
architect-planner-landscape architects (Sir Frederick
Gibberd) wrote a book on Town Design
• A ‘City’ is a place where people, and buildings, behave in
‘civil’, ‘polite’ or ‘considerate’ manner to each other
• ‘Urban’ (from the Latin urbs, meaning city), is an adjective
so that ‘urban design’ is the art of making a place more
‘city-like’
• ‘Urban Design’ is more process than product
• Therefore URBAN DESIGN is not = TOWN DESIGN
Town Planning
Even if not ‘designed’ in advance, all towns have a plan. Lets
look at some historic examples and see what influenced
their ‘plans’ .
•
•
•
•
•
Catal Huyuk, 6,000 BCE
Iron Age Hut, 600 BCE
Greek-Roman Town, 79 CE
Medieval City, c1300 CE
Baroque City, c1750 CE
[BCE=Before Common Era CE=Common Era]
A City c6000BCE
The world’s oldest city is
said to be Catal Huyuk
(pronounced ‘chatal
hooyook’) in Central
Turkey. Access to the
dwellings was from roof
level. Living here, you had
to behave in a much more
‘civic’ manner than living
in a rough hut on a bare
hill.
Iron Age Camp c 500BC
This is how people who did not live in ‘cities’ lived, all over
Europe, until the Roman conquest. The only ‘planning’
principle was a ring of defences, to make a Hill Fort
The City in 79 AD: Pompeii
Pompeii was buried by
Vesuvius and can
represent most of the
‘planned’ cities in Europe
from 500 BC to 500 AD,
as well as most of the
colonial cities (eg in
South America) from
1452-1700 AD). It was a
walled city, designed to
be able to defend itself.
Photographs of Pompeii
The main features of
Pompeii are exactly
as described by
Vitruvius
• A grid of streets
• Pavements +
stepping stones
• Water supply
• Drainage system
• Public buildings at
important positions
• No windows
• Internal courts
The Medieval City (c1300)
The main consideration was
defense, provided by a high
wall and narrow streets.
Nuremberg in 1516 (below,
from Benevolo) The city was
founded in 1040 AD.
Planning: origins
• Now let us consider the word planning
• It comes from the activity of drawing a ‘plan’ in 2 dimensions on
a flat surface
• Maps and Plans have a very important place in human history.
• They enable the organisation of land, and travel, and the creation
of empires.
• This type of ‘Planning’ produced the Baroque City
The Baroque City c 1750
Baroque cities were
dominated by stars of
avenues, designed to
glorify the autocrat
and facilitate the
movement of soldiers
and the firing of
canon at revolting
peasants,
Industrial City (c1900)
(=baroque city+more blds+railways+parks+sewers
Organising Principles:
mostly single–objective
• Catal Huyuk, 6,000 BCE: Defense against nomadic
herders
• Iron Age Hut, 600 BCE: Defense against other
agriculturalists
• Greek-Roman Town, 79 CE: Defense against armies
• Medieval City, c1300 CE: Defense against knights
• Baroque City, c1750 CE: Defense against revolutionaries
• Industrial City, c1900: Defense against cholera
• 21st Century City, c2000: One could argue that the new
organising principle will be Defense against crime
Interim Conclusions
• City planning has been dominated by considerations of
Engineering + Security
• When this fact was appreciated (eg by the Viennese
architect Camillo Sitte The art of building cities, 1889) it
led to a campaign for architects to take responsibility for
‘Town Design’, ‘Civic Design’ and the ‘City Beautiful
Movement’.
• Architects tended to see cities as ‘architecture writ large’,
with buildings instead of rooms and streets instead of
corridors. It was a bit like arguing that a Beautiful Body is
the main thing in life
‘Town design’
Planning: Modern & Post-Modern
• Marx and Lenin believed that all economic and
social activity could and should be planned.
• It did not work.
• But it does not follow that ‘planning’ is
impossible.
• Rather, planning is something to be done by many
organisations in many ways for many reasons.
• It has changed from a Modernist Activity to a
Post-Modernist Activity.
There was also a tendency to draw
plans on white paper
‘Existing Site’ Drawing
City as landscape
I wrote that (p.103) “Too often,
architects have seen the land on which
they build as sheets of white parchment
on which to write new projects. In
reality, every work of architecture is a
conversion of the existing
environment. When writing on the
parchments of history, new buildings
should converse with the stones, listen
to the wind and speak to the flowers.
The languages of the post-modern
environment are of prime importance”.
I also, bravely, wrote a chapter on
The Tragedy of Feminine Design
The Tragedy of Feminine Design
This illustration shows the ‘natural’ roles of men and women
This illustration shows the ‘natural’
roles of men and women on design
projects
Here we see the brilliant results of a
‘male’ (hunter) approach to urban design
Here is the result of arrogant male urbanism
(Pruitt-Igoe, July 15, 1972 at 3.32pm)
•
‘Happily, we can date the death of Modern Architecture to a precise moment in time’ (Charles Jencks
The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, Part 1, Chapter 1)
Now lets turn to the animal kingdom
• The Male Emperor
(left) shows great
prowess in puffing
out his chest
• The Female Empress
looks more thoughtful
Here is a cow - slain by the ‘hunter’
2-dimensional
views of the city
• From Modern Town
and Country Planning
• (Thomas Adams,
1932, revised by JWR
Adams, 1952)
• Thomas Adams did a
plan for New York
City in the 1930s
2-dimensions ->3-dimensions
Frontispiece to: Modern Town and Country Planning
(Thomas Adams, 1932, revised by JWR Adams, 1952)
The trouble with males…..
“….is that they only ever
want one thing”
The Tragedy of Feminine Design
• “The tragedy of feminine design is that it
receives so little official support” (Turner,
T., City as landscape p.132)
• Does anyone agree?
• We need urban design to based on wisdom,
pluralism, subtlety, common sense
Levi-Strauss Landscape
•
•
•
The structuralist philosopher was interested in surface structures and deep structures
He believed you must look beneath the surface to understand the world
One then finds all sorts of sophisticated processes: geology, hydrology, ecology, colour,
emotion, ownership, tradition, trust,
Rubber Bands
Overlapping Zones
Venn Diagrams of City Planning 1
Venn Diagrams of City Planning 2
Here is what
Modernism did
to rivers
The four stages of
scientific ‘river’
planning.
Multiple uses are
converted to a
single use. The
fish dies.
Modernist/Scientific Road Planning
Planning with GIS
• Just as the political basis for planning has
changed so the technology of planning has
changed.
• The 2-dimensional ‘plan’ has been replaced by the
multi-dimensional ‘Geographical Information
System’
• I have thrown out my rapidographs and given up
Autocad
• Perhaps we should speak of ‘Gis-ing’ instead of
‘Planning’
• The chief theorist of this approach is the ScotsAmerican Ian McHarg
McHarg Richmond Parkway (Ch4)
The great strength of the method was the use of
descriptive overlays AND evaluative overlays
McHarg Richmond Parkway
(Ch4)
• ‘X-Ray’ Overlay
Route Determination
McHarg
Diagram
This method,
apparently to
logical, has had a
bad influence on
GIS-based
planning.
Planning by
Layers
• Layers are needed for
future plans, as well as
information about the
present
• Layers represent sets of
ideas (eg ‘geology’)
• Layers can translate
directly into visual
images
Hyde Park Montage (Ben Jarrett)
• Historical Layer + Lifestyle Layer
Video Wall (Ben Jarrett)
• Historical Layer (Speaker’s Corner) + Futuristic
Layer (‘Internationalism’)
An error
• We must not think that GIS, being a more
powerful technology, gives more power to those
who use the technology. At best, GIS is a ‘decision
support system’. Ian McHarg was wrong to
suggest that it can be a ‘decision making system’
and that ‘anyone using the same method will come
to the same conclusion’.
• But McHarg is, rightly, recognised as a pioneer by
the GIS community and many share the old
scientific-modernist dream of (mad!) scientists
taking over from politicians as the ultimate
decision-makers.
• It was a non-democratic/autocratic procedure
Where?
and
What?
What
if?
Both the following
procedures allow
questions land to be
planned to protect and
create Public Goods
• The Environmental
Assessment (EA) System
• The Development
Control system (UK)
Landscape Assessment & Design
An opportunity to seize
• Joining the word ‘Landscape’ with a GIS approach
to ‘Planning’ gives us a great opportunity.
• We can use GIS to conserve and improve the
‘environment’ with this word used to describe a
very wide range of objectives. They relate to:
• NATURAL PROCESSES
• SOCIAL PROCESSES
• AESTHETIC IDEAS
• DESIGN ARCHETYPES
Pattern Analysis Diagrams
PAKILDA
PatternAssistedKnowledgeIntensiveLandscapeDesignApproach
Zone of
Visual
Influence
ZVI
Skyline Planning
Examples
I will finish by looking at Hydrology as an
example of a subject for Pattern Analysis
and Design
Hydrological
Planning
Planning for the Song Thrush
Water Infiltration (Recharge) Policy
(Jessica Read)
Water Detention (Retention) Policy
(Jessica Read)
Cities as Concepts
One needs a concept of what a city IS in order
to plan its future.
Landscape Planning: BookCover
Statutory & Non-Statutory Planning
• The UK enacted the Town and Country Planning
Act in 1947
• Since then every municipality has had a statutory
duty to prepare a Local Plan
• This has done no good at all for planning Public
Open Space
• Much more has been achieved with Non-Statutory
plans
• This is very encouraging!
• ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ & ‘The idea
is mightier than the law’
Conclusions
• ‘Planning’ is an inherently Modernist activity. It
suggests: One Authority; One Way; One Plan; One
Result [The ‘International Modern’ City]
• ‘Urban Design’ is a more Post-Modern
conception. It is multi-cultural, suggesting: Many
Authorities; Many Ways; Many Plans; Many
Results.
• This requires Many Layers & Many Approaches
& Many Professions
• A final question: What should the 21st Century
City Symbolise?
Symbolism
•
•
•
Mumford sees the hieroglyph (left) as a defensive enclosure with a crossroads dividing
the city into four quarters and comments that ‘if this is in fact a symbolic plan it would
be the best possible symbol for the classic city’
Osiris tomb chamber (centre), covered by a mound and representing The Creation (an
island coming out of the primordial waters)
The Baroque City was a symbol of the Sun King & autocracy
• What should the twenty-first century city symbolise?