What Is Urban Design
What is Urban Design? “The art of creating and shaping cities and towns...”
The word design is used as a verb as well as a noun. It refers to the process and activity of designing as well as the end result and/or product. Much confusion takes place unless this clearly understood.
The process
The process of designing (certainly in urban design) has two aspects. One aspect is the process of making decisions and choices which directly affect the physical forms and qualities of a city or town. Those decisions and choices are made by people who are usually regarded as designers but it also includes surveyors, engineers, architects, landscape architects and many others.
Where are the streets and roads? How wide are they? Where are the buildings placed, what form are they? What are the landscape elements? Where a road or a sewer is placed will affect the form and arrangement of a place, sometimes for centuries.
The other aspect is the process of making decisions which do not immediately bear upon the physical forms of the built environment but nevertheless affect it very significantly. This part of the process is the making of laws, regulation and plans usually by non-designers. It also includes how the community is involved in urban decision making.
An example is the regulations affecting the formal consumption of food and drink out on the footpath. If a bicycle is defined as a vehicle then it will not be allowed in places intended only for pedestrians. How those regulations work will have a major impact on the urban design quality of a place. How decisions are arrived at will bear upon their end outcome and effectiveness. This part of the process also includes politics.
The outcome (the product)
The other part of urban design is the end result. This is usually seen as the physical arrangement of a city or town (the product). However, it would be more desirable to think in terms of outcomes rather than products. The outcomes may be buildings which enclose
The word design is used as a verb as well as a noun. It refers to the process and activity of designing as well as the end result and/or product. Much confusion takes place unless this clearly understood.
The process
The process of designing (certainly in urban design) has two aspects. One aspect is the process of making decisions and choices which directly affect the physical forms and qualities of a city or town. Those decisions and choices are made by people who are usually regarded as designers but it also includes surveyors, engineers, architects, landscape architects and many others.
Where are the streets and roads? How wide are they? Where are the buildings placed, what form are they? What are the landscape elements? Where a road or a sewer is placed will affect the form and arrangement of a place, sometimes for centuries.
The other aspect is the process of making decisions which do not immediately bear upon the physical forms of the built environment but nevertheless affect it very significantly. This part of the process is the making of laws, regulation and plans usually by non-designers. It also includes how the community is involved in urban decision making.
An example is the regulations affecting the formal consumption of food and drink out on the footpath. If a bicycle is defined as a vehicle then it will not be allowed in places intended only for pedestrians. How those regulations work will have a major impact on the urban design quality of a place. How decisions are arrived at will bear upon their end outcome and effectiveness. This part of the process also includes politics.
The outcome (the product)
The other part of urban design is the end result. This is usually seen as the physical arrangement of a city or town (the product). However, it would be more desirable to think in terms of outcomes rather than products. The outcomes may be buildings which enclose