Fundamentals Of Urban Design

This book explains the fundamental tools for achieving a more cohesive and satisfying environment. Using more than 100 photographs and drawings, Hedman illustrates the basic components of urban design. A great book for teaching planning students about urban design and a helpful tool for introducing citizens to the importance of good design. The book is essential reading for planners, city managers, and other public administrators who need to understand design principles to defend their commuinities against well-intentioned-even attractive-but nevertheless damaging projects.

This book begins with an introduction describing current societal transformations that merit new urban designs, including depletion of non-renewable natural resources, elevated levels of greenhouse gas emissions, large numbers of aging “Baby Boomers,” and climate change. Dr. Friedman then examines these challenges through thirty chapters of interest to urban designers, architects, civil and construction engineers, and town planners. Each of these topics represents an aspect of urban design and describes an innovative solution and offers a detailed description of underlying principles. The highly illustrated text presents innovative urban design strategies based on sustainable principles. Integrated with each chapter are several international case studies illustrating design implementations.

Urbanism creates the spatial conditions needed for society to function. The distinction between the public and private domains is fundamental to civil society. The core task of urbanism within that society is designing the urban ground plan, which defines the way land is divided into public and private zones. When that design is being created, developments in the programme and the utilization of space in the city play a role as the public space is designed and furnished and the rules for building are formulated. These four aspects of the task of urbanism (designing the urban ground plan, the programme and utilization of space, the design of public space and the rules for building) should be seen in relation to a fifth aspect: the way the territory is reshaped. How can a new expansion or modification of a city take account of the special conditions and the consequences for the territory itself? 'Urbanism' provides an overview of the foundations of urbanism as a discipline and discusses the relevance of those fundamentals to the challenges of the twenty-first century. This work is based on the centuries of experience and tradition as well as current practice in Dutch urban planning, yet its relevance extends far beyond national borders.

The second edition of The Urban Design Reader draws together the very best of classic and contemporary writings to illuminate and expand the theory and practice of urban design. Nearly 50 generous selections include seminal contributions from Howard, Le Corbusier, Lynch, and Jacobs to more recent writings by Waldheim, Koolhaas, and Sorkin. Following the widespread success of the first edition of The Urban Design Reader, this updated edition continues to provide the most important historical material of the urban design field, but also introduces new topics and selections that address the myriad challenges facing designers today. The six part structure of the second edition guides the reader through the history, theory and practice of urban design. The reader is initially introduced to those classic writings that provide the historical precedents for city-making into the twentieth century. Part Two introduces the voices and ideas that were instrumental in establishing the foundations of the urban design field from the late 1950s up to the mid-1990s. These authors present a critical reading of the design professions and offer an alternative urban design agenda focused on vital and lively places. The authors in Part Three provide a range of urban design rationales and strategies for reinforcing local physical identity and the creation of memorable places. These selections are largely describing the outcomes of mid-century urban design and voicing concerns over the placeless quality of contemporary urbanism. The fourth part of the Reader explores key issues in urban design and development. Ideas about sprawl, density, community health, public space and everyday life are the primary focus here. Several new selections in this part of the book also highlight important international development trends in the Middle East and China. Part Five presents environmental challenges faced by the built environment professions today, including recent material on landscape urbanism, sustainability, and urban resiliency. The final part examines professional practice and current debates in the field: where urban designers work, what they do, their roles, their fields of knowledge and their educational development. The section concludes with several position pieces and debates on the future of urban design practice. This book provides an essential resource for students and practitioners of urban design, drawing together important but widely dispersed writings. Part and section introductions are provided to assist readers in understanding the context of the material, summary messages, impacts of the writing, and how they fit into the larger picture of the urban design field.

Essentials of Urban Design explains the fundamental concepts of urban design, providing the understanding and tools needed to achieve better design outcomes. It is equally useful for designing places and evaluating designs. Each chapter outlines the key steps in designing or assessing a different type of development. All common types of urban development are addressed, from infill buildings to whole urban growth areas, residential to employment uses, and centres to public transport interchanges. For each development type, widely accepted urban design principles are explained, and 'rules of thumb' provided. This practical handbook is liberally illustrated with diagrams, photos of 'good' and 'bad' examples of urban design and handy checklists for common urban design tasks. It will be a valuable reference tool for architects, developers, urban planners, traffic engineers, landscape architects, councillors, planning lawyers, planning tribunal members and residents concerned about development.

Architects and urban planners need to describe cities in the course of their work, be it through maps, diagrams, sketches, computer renderings or models. Drawing for Urban Design explores a wide range of ways to represent the city, from freehand sketching to sophisticated computer models. The book provides a practical introduction to these techniques for students while explaining the processes associated with describing and designing urban environments – it is an invaluable visual handbook for representing the contemporary city.

Ron Kasprisin's skills as both an artist and Professor of Urban Design and Planning are combined to guide students in how to use illustrations and graphics to elevate their projects beyond the everyday. Sketches and plans from basic design elements, to complex projects, show the methods and skills students can use in forging their own design paths. A must for all those on planning and urban design courses, both in the design studio and out.