URBS 4/531—Urban Design Criteria
Defining Space (Hedman, 1984):
- size
- shape
- continuity
- floor
configuration
- height
of frame
- architecture
- sculpture
Criteria for Design (Hedman, 1984):
1.
Context
- Contrast
- Setbacks
- Spacing
- Proportion
- Scale
(Massing)
- Entryways
- Silhouette
- Style
- Landscaping
- Shadows
Designing Streets (Barnett, 2003):
A. Urban Streets
- Leave
enough room for Pedestrians (8 ft. + 5 ft. for street furniture)
- Turn
arterial streets into boulevards
- Organize
signs & street furniture
- Make
street lighting friendly to motorists and pedestrians
- Traffic
signals don’t have to be yellow
- Keep
street trees alive
- Choose
paving material that can be maintained
B. Suburban Streets
- Make
streets connect
- Keep
street widths appropriate
- Provide
for pedestrian circulation
- Create
a sense of destination
C. Designing Parks
& Public Spaces
- Make
public spaces legible
- Plan
for a pleasant microclimate
- Make
seating available
- Create
opportunities for people-watching
- Provide
food
- Provide
good lighting
- Encourage
surrounding opportunities
- Design
for walkable distances
- Create
the right environment for pedestrians
Problems with presentation methods (Hedman, 1984):
- Elevation
- Width
of lines misleads the eye
- Inability
to present modeling through shadows
- Perspective
- Unreliable
- Commonly
fails to show surrounding buildings
- Axonometric
- Unrealistic
perspective
- Modeling
- “Cuteness”—small
scale presents “smoother” finish
- Mt. Olympus fallacy
- Photomontage
- Single
perspective
- Must
model the new construction
- Virtual
reality
- Still
very expensive and difficult to manage the software
- Still
must model any new construction
cf. Roger Hedman (1984) & Jonathan Barnett (2003)
© 2004 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 24 January 2005