1. Urban Design
The term “urban design” may have been coined in the mid-1950s but 20 years later it was still largely unused outside a small circle of people concerned with the four-dimensional development of precincts of cities. It has a wide, almost boundary-less definition with different connotations depending on professional discipline or the particular context within which the urban environment is being assessed. It is the process of making or shaping physical forms through cognitive perception (senses) (Arnheim,
1969)-it is not simply an intellectual process nor can it be. Design is not linear and constitutes a sensual engagement with reality (not virtual reality).
Elements of Urban design:
Urban Design involves the design and coordination of all that makes up cities and towns:
a. Buildings,
b. Public spaces,
c. Streets,
d. Transport and
e. Landscape.
Urban Design weaves together these elements into a coherent, organized design structure. The urban design structure defines the urban form and the building form.
Design is also making of things through indirect or unintentional actions. It is the physical and geometric manifestation of underlying forces generated by human behavior and its interactions with the environment. The way you arrange your furniture in the living room to be “comfortable” is an act of design that has behind it significant underlying (cultural) forces and determinants (Hall,
1966).Consequently, as we approach design in our culture, we have basic approaches and conventions for interpreting human behavior and needs into design form.
People: need, want, aspiration, passion.
Program: what and how much of something satisfies the stated need.
Context: bio-physical, cultural, jurisdictional, historic/time, interrelationships.
Organization, structure, and process.
Design elements, principles, and relationships or compositions (art): space, enclosure, movement, and circulation.
References: and sources: URBAN MORPHOLOGY, URBAN LANDSCAPE AND FRINGE BELTS.