URBS 110—The City

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The Evolution of Urban Form, Brenda Case Scheer (2010)

“Types” of Urban Form

1. 4 Types

a. Use types

b. Form(al) types

c. Innovation types

d. Prototypes

2. Key characteristics of type

a. Circulation

b. Overall shape & scale (Walnut Towers & Martin Bldg)

c. Entrance, conditions

d. Situation on site

3. History of concept of “type”

a. Result of local conditions (place, history, culture)

b. Result of geometry & rational calculus

c. Result of society (industrialization)—prototype based on universality, modularity, repetition

d. Return to form (organic, vernacular, lot/block/street)

4. Transformation of types (How types morph)

a. Social/cultural/economic/technological constraints

b. Functional shifts (“form follows function”)

c. Variation on theme

i. Phenomenological reduction—eidetic essence

ii. Successful variations become evolutionary change

iii. Proliferation of variation encourages evolution

d. Examples

i. Most common type: insula, 2, 3, 4

ii. New types: gas station (but what do you do with abandoned ones?), fast food restaurant (repurposed)

5. Types of design

a. Joined

i. Courtyard

ii. Block

b. Free-standing

i. Orientation to street

ii. Number of stories

iii. Circulation

Transformation of Urban Space

1. Urban tissue (arrangement of lots/blocks/streets)

a. Streets & lots persist; buildings are ephemeral (e.g., Pike St. in Mankato)

2. Evolution

a. Combining lots to build larger structures (Mankato Place)

b. Building more densely and greater lot coverage (eg., Sticks & Stones)

c. Deterioration & vacant lots

3. Types of urban tissue (different urban tissue supports different building types)

a. Static tissue (small scale, consistent pattern, organic change, dispersed ownership)

i. Examples: New Orleans, LA; Savannah GA

ii. Euclidean zoning (zoning map, land use map)

1. Directs use & function, not form

2. Separation of noxious uses

3. Response to high urban density

4. Controls lots, but ignores larger context

5. Controls lot size & orientation, setback, height, density—with variety in materials, color, details

iii. Form-Based Codes (standards & comparison to Euclidean zoning)

1. Directs form, only lightly controls use

2. Depends on small-scale, lot-block tissue

3. Conservative—legitimizes some building types & ignores others (strip malls, gas stations, suburban office space)

b. Campus tissue

i. Example: Corporate head office complexes, hospitals

ii. Master-planned & single owner/developer

iii. Often multiple buildings & private streets

iv. Discontinuous islands in urban fabric

v. Grows by accretion (internally & externally)

vi. Problems of access, visibility, orientation

c. Elastic tissue

i. Example: Arterial strip malls

ii. Common ownership, leased in smaller blocks

iii. “Theme” or image-focused (rapid change in appearance)

iv. Services in rear, parking in front, continuous sidewalk serving all stores

4. “Projective urbanism”—slow-moving, evolutionary transformation (rather than imposed “grand” solutions)

5. Anticipating change (from least to most easily changed):

a. Site

b. Pre-urban features (trails, etc.)

c. Tissue

d. Buildings

e. Objects

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MSU

© 2006 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 24 August 11