Monday, June 13, 2011

urban designing of streets & squares



















INTRODUCTION

Streets and Squares that make up the public face of towns and cities. It also emphasizes on the meanings and the roles of these elements played in the urban design, the ways they are arranged, designed and detailed is the subject matter.
• Urban design is at the interface between architecture and planning, but is quite distinct from both disciplines.

• In short, planning can be defined as the process by which resources are distributed. On the other hand, architecture is concerned with the design and construction of individual buildings.

• Urban design is allied to architecture and
planning. For its practice one requires some of the skills and knowledge of both disciplines. The subject matter of urban design is the arrangement of many buildings so that they form a single composition.


• CHAPTER ONE—
Deals with the methods of urban design and programme Formulation, a fundamental study for establishing
Discipline. It poses the question: “Where do design ideas
Originate?”. Urban form is defined as a physical
Expression of culture and, as such, it is related directly
to user satisfaction.
• CHAPTER TWO—
Examines the laws of composition in architecture in order
to determine how and in what ways they apply at the
larger scale of urban design. This chapter examines the
grammar and syntax of urban design.

• CHAPTER THREE--
Examines the ways in which buildings can be arranged,
both within space and to form space. It develops an idea
for a general typology of built forms.

• CHAPTER FOUR— Discusses the design of the square or plaza. It starts
with an outline of the role and functio
n of the square in
the built environment.

• CHAPTER FIVE—
Discusses the design of streets—the other main element
in urban design.

• CHAPTE SIX-- Examines the role water in the design of public spaces. It discusses the form and function of the river, canal and seafront.

• CHAPTER SEVEN—
Introduces the principles of sustainable development as
they affect the design of streets and squares.

• CHAPTER EIGHT— Concentrates on the use of visual analysis as a tool for
Understanding the role of street and square in the
urban quarter.
• CHAPTER NINE—
Has five case studies, bringing together the main ideas of previous chapters.

• CHAPTER TEN—
A concluding chapter, examines why it proved so difficult
in the 20th century to design and develop lively streets
squares of real quality


THE SQUARE OR PLAZA

INTRODUCTION:-

• A square or plaza is both an area framed by buildings and an area designed to exhibit its buildings to the greatest advantage.
• The empty windswept place surrounded by under-utilized buildings is all too common in the modern city, while its counterpart, the busy traffic island or faceless car park around which are scattered collections of non-related b
uildings, is also endemic in the urban scene.

FUNCTION AND THE SQUARE:-

• Activity in a square is important for its vitality and visual
attraction.• Vitruvious commented in the designs of sqares that” the
sqares should be proportionate to the number of
inhabitants, so that it may not be too small a space to be
useful, nor look like a desert waste for lack of
population”.
• The single most important function of an element in city
in the city is the symbolic meanings attached to it.
• It acts the counterpiece of public realm, the place where
the major public works, the major publi
c expenditure and
the greatest civic art is located.

FAMOUS EXAMPLES:-

1. ST. PETER’S SQUARE, ROME
2. PIAZZA DEL POPOLO, ROME
3. ST. MARK’S SQUARE, VENICE


FORM OF THE SQUARE:-

Zucker was able to distinguish five archetypal forms
of
squares:-
1. Closed square—where the space is self-contained.
2. Dominated square—where the space is directed towards the main building.
3. Nuclear square—where the space is formed around a center.
4. Grouped square—where the spatial uni
ts are combined to form larger compositions.
5. Amorphous square—where the space is unlimited.




















STREETS

INTRODUCTION

• Any classification of streets must start with Vitruvious and his description of the three street scenes for use as his backdrop in a theatre. There are three kinds of scenes:-

1. Tragic scene—they delineated with columns, pediments, statues and other objects suited to kings.
Example—Classical form of architecture.

2. Comic scenes—they exhibit private dwellings, with balconies and views representing rows of windows, after the manner of ordinary dwellings.
Example—Gothic style.

3. Satyric scenes—they are decorated with trees, caverns, mountains and other rustic objects delineated in landscape style.
Example—Landscape outside the city.


DEFINATIONS—
Streets, paths, avenue, highways, way, route, road, boulevard, mall and promenade all have similar meanings.


ROAD AND STREET—

• A road is an ordinary line of communication between
different places, used by travelers on foot or vehicles. It is any path, way or course to some end or journey. The emphasis is on movement between places—a two dimensional ribbon, running on the surface of the landscape, carried over it by bridge or beneath by tunnel.

• A street may have these attributes, but its more common meaning is a road in a town or village, comparatively wide as opposed to a lane or alley. More importantly it is a road, that is the linear surface along which movement occurs between the adjacent houses. On the other hand a street is an enclosed, three dimensional space between two lines of adjacent buildings.








FUNCTIONS OF THE STREET—


1. A street is not only a means of access, but also an arena for social expression.

2. A street provides a link between the streets and in the city at large.

3. As a link it facilitates the movement of people as
pedestrians or within vehicles and also the movement
of goods to sustain the wider market and some
particular uses within the street.

3. Its expressive function also includes recreation,
conservation and entertainment as well as use as a site
for ritual observations

4. A better street is all important and so the new street address becomes the symbol of self-esteem.


THE FORM OF THE STREET—


• The form of the street can be analyzed in terms of a number of popular qualities such as, straight or curved, long or short, wide or narrow, enclosed or open, formal or informal.

• Street form can also be analyzed in terms of scale, proportion, contrast, rhythm or connections to other streets and squares.


• The streets should be made bulged in the middle of the public path, and narrower, so that the path forms an enclosure which is a place to stay, not just to pass by.
























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