Urban Design Reader
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Prelims-H6531.qxd 11/7/06 1:40 PM Page iii Urban Design Reader Edited by Matthew Carmona and Steve Tiesdell AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier Architectural Press TEAM LinG Prelims-H6531.qxd 11/7/06 1:40 PM Page iv Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA First edition 2007 Copyright © 2007, Matthew Carmona and Steve Tiesdell. Copyright of individual chapters is retained by copyright holders as detailed at the end of each chapter. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 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Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made British Library Cataloging in Publication Data Urban design reader 1. City planning I. Carmona, Matthew II. Tiesdell, Steven 711.4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN-13: 978-0-7506-6531-5 ISBN-10: 0-7506-6531-9 For information on all Architectural Press publications visit our website at www.architecturalpress.com Typeset by Charon Tec Ltd (A Macmillan Company), Chennai, India www.charontec.com Printed and bound in Great Britain 07080910111110987654321 TEAM LinG Prelims-H6531.qxd 11/7/06 1:40 PM Page v Contents Introduction 1 Section One Understanding urban design 5 1 ‘Places’ matter most 9 F. Tibbalds 2 Ambiguities of urban design 12 A. Madanipour 3 Urban environments as visual art or as social settings? A review 24 R. K. Jarvis 4 An integrative theory of urban design 33 E. Sternberg 5 Postmodern urban form 43 A. Loukaitou-Sideris and T. Banerjee 6 A procedural explanation for contemporary urban design 52 R. Varkki George Section Two The morphological dimension 59 7 What is lost space? 63 R. Trancik 8 The grid as generator 70 L. Martin 9 Typology: an architecture of limits 83 D. Kelbaugh Section Three The perceptual dimension 99 10 On the identity of places 103 E. Relph 11 Reconsidering the image of the city 108 K. Lynch 12 The social production of the built environment: architects, architecture and the post-Modern city 114 P. L. Knox TEAM LinG Prelims-H6531.qxd 11/7/06 1:40 PM Page vi vi Contents 13 Invented places 126 J. Sircus 14 Learning from Disney World 130 S. Zukin Section Four The social dimension 139 15 Three types of outdoor activities; Outdoor activities and quality of outdoor space 143 J. Gehl 16 The uses of sidewalks: safety 147 J. Jacobs 17 The future of public space: beyond invented streets and reinvented places 153 T. Banerjee 18 The character of third places 163 R. Oldenburg 19 The rise of the private city 170 P. Goldberger Section Five The visual dimension 177 20 Townscape: introduction 181 G. Cullen 21 Path-portal-place 185 E. White 22 What makes a good building? 199 S. Cantacuzino/The Royal Fine Art Commission 23 A report from the front 204 P. Buchanan Section Six The functional dimension 209 24 Functionalism 213 J. Lang 25 The life of plazas 226 W. H. Whyte 26 Needs in public space 230 S. Carr, M. Francis, L. G. Rivlin and A. M. Stone 27 Understanding transactions 241 R. MacCormac 28 Cities as movement economies 245 B. Hillier Section Seven The temporal dimension 263 29 Images in motion 267 P. Bosselmann 30 The presence of the past 293 K. Lynch 31 Shearing layers 302 S. Brand TEAM LinG Prelims-H6531.qxd 11/7/06 1:40 PM Page vii Contents vii Section Eight Implementing urban design 307 32 The built environment 313 P. Knox and P. Ozolins 33 The politics of urban design 319 S. McGlynn and P. Murrain 34 Heroes and servants, markets and battlefields 323 I. Bentley 35 Private-property decision makers and the quality of urban design 332 A. Rowley 36 The debate on design review 344 B. Case Scheer 37 The inner city 352 A. Duany, E. Plater-Zyberk and J. Speck Bibliography 361 Index 363 TEAM LinG Intro-H6531.qxd 11/7/06 2:07 PM Page 1 Introduction An activity with ancient roots, but also one that has between what urban design seeks to do and what it been rediscovered and reinvigorated in recent years, actually does do. urban design has become a serious and significant Urban design also refers to products or out- area of academic endeavour, of public policy and of comes and to various processes. It is, for example, professional practice. This is reflected by the increas- variously a product (the design of the created envi- ingly widespread recognition of its value across pub- ronment), interventions into a process (e.g. a land lic and private sectors around the world. This change and property – or real estate – development process) has been matched by increasing demand for urban and a process itself (i.e. the design process). design practitioners and, more generally, for urban The notion of urban design as a process is a reoc- design skills throughout the built environment and curring theme in this book. Design is a creative, land and property professions, and by an increasing analytical and problem-solving activity through which demand for urban design education at universities objectives and constraints are weighed and balanced, and in the workplace. the problem and possible solutions explored and The new interest in urban design is as a form of – optimal resolutions derived. The process of design and contribution to – place-making. Carmona et al. should also add value to the individual component (2003), for example, defined urban design as the parts, so that the resulting whole is greater than the making of places for people. More precisely and real- sum of the parts. In the final analysis the quality of istically, they saw it as the process of making better the whole is what matters because it is this that we places for people than would otherwise be produced. experience. A definition that asserted the importance of four There are (very) few ‘hard-and-fast’ rules or themes – that urban design is for and about people; absolutes in urban design – substantially because the the significance of ‘place’; that the field of opportu- process of design involves relating general (and gen- nity for urban designers is typically constrained and erally desirable) principles to site and programme bounded by economic (market) and political (regu- requirements, where the context and creative vision latory) forces; and the importance of design as a will always vary. Indeed there is a danger of gener- process. ally desirable design principles being treated as It is useful to acknowledge the difference between inflexible dogma or of design being reduced to the an understanding of urban design for analytical pur- simplistic application of a formula – practices that poses (i.e. what is urban design?), by which all urban negate the active process of design. Design prin- development may be considered to contribute to ciples must always be used with the flexibility derived urban design, and a more normative understanding from a deeper understanding and appreciation of of urban design (i.e. what is ‘good’ urban design?), their basis, justifications and interrelations and the by which only some urban development might be context to which they are to be applied. In any design considered to be urban design. Seen analytically, process there are no perfect ‘right’ answers – there urban design is the process by which the urban envi- are only better and worse answers, the quality of ronment comes about; seen normatively, it is – or which may, in turn, only be known over time. should be – the process by which better urban envi- Who then are the urban designers? A good ronments come about. We must also be aware of the answer is that urban designers are those who make possibility and existence of implementation gaps decisions that affect the quality of the urban TEAM LinG Intro-H6531.qxd 11/7/06 2:07 PM Page 2 2 Urban Design Reader environment – only a (small) proportion of whom Heath and Taner Oc (Carmona et al., 2003). This might actively claim to be urban designers. There is book provided an exposition of the different, but inti- a continuum from ‘knowing’ to ‘unknowing’ urban mately related, dimensions of urban design thought designers (see Carmona et al., 2003: 15–16). and practice. Synthesising and integrating ideas and ‘Knowing’ urban designers are typically the profes- theories from a wide range of sources, it derived from sionals employed or retained on account of their a comprehensive reading of existing literature and urban design expertise (i.e. urban design practition- research. Taking a holistic approach, it neither focused ers).