Urban Design

LECTURE 2
The Visual Dimension

Abhishek K. Venkitaraman
Assistant Professor

THE VISUAL DIMENSION

Architecture and urban design are often
described as the only truly inescapable,
and therefore public, art forms.
BARC0703 | URBAN DESIGN | 1-08-16

LITERATURE

PATTERNS AND AESTHETIC ORDER

We always experience
the 'whole' rather than
any single part in
isolation. To make them
more ordered, visually
coherent
and
harmonious,
however,
we select and choose
some
features
i.e.
mentally group certain
elements. Von Meiss (1
990, p. 32)

PATTERNS AND AESTHETIC ORDER

Smith (1 980, p. 74) argues
that our intuitive capacity for
aesthetic appreciation has
four distinct components:
Sense of rhyme and pattern
Appreciation of rhythm
Recognition of balance
Sensitivity to harmonic
relationships

PATTERNS AND AESTHETIC ORDER

Smith (1 980, p. 74) argues
that our intuitive capacity for
aesthetic appreciation has
four distinct components:
Sense of rhyme and pattern
Appreciation of rhythm
Recognition of balance
Sensitivity to harmonic
relationships
http://www.buy-lease.in/property/image1_363.jpg

PATTERNS AND AESTHETIC ORDER

Smith (1 980, p. 74) argues
that our intuitive capacity for
aesthetic appreciation has
four distinct components:
Sense of rhyme and pattern
Appreciation of rhythm
Recognition of balance
Sensitivity to harmonic
relationships

IMAGE OF A CITY

 American urban planner and author

He studied in Yale University
He received a Bachelor's degree in city
planning from MIT in 1947.
Became a full professor in 1963

The Image of the City (1960) and What

Time is This Place? (1972)

Lynch's core concept was the idea of the "legibility" of the built
environment.

That is, how easy can the parts of the cityscape be organized into a
recognizable pattern.
He conducted case studies in three U.S. cities: Boston, Los Angeles, and
Jersey City.
He used two primary methodologies. First, he conducted extensive
fieldwork observing the physical layout of the city. Then, in-depth
interviews with city residents were conducted to better understand the
mental image people have of their built environment.
Lynch identified five key elements that make up an individual's perception
of their city: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks.

IMAGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Legibility

Building the image

Structure and identity
Imageability

Apparent clarity
2 way process

Long familiarity
Identity
Striking features
Structure
New object
meaning
Well formed
Distinct
Remarkable
Invite eye and ear

His Concepts

Place legibility
Mental maps of a city
Paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks
Imageability

He used Boston as one of his case

studies.

There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the

overlap of many individual images.

This analysis limits itself to the effects of physical, perceptible objects

It is taken for granted that in actual design form should be used to

reinforce meaning, and not to negate it.

These images may be called a mind mapping system.

The contents of the city images, which are referable to physical

forms, can conveniently be classified into five types of elements
Paths
Edges
Districts
Nodes
Landmarks

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Paths
Paths are the channels along which the observer moves. They may
be streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, railroads.
For many people, these are the predominant elements in their
image. People observe the city while moving through it, and along
these paths the other environmental elements are arranged and
related.
How people associate and remember paths?
Customary travel along one specific path.
Concentration of special use or activity along a street may give it
prominence in the minds of observers.
Special faade characteristics were also important for path
identity.
People tended to think of path destinations and origin points:
they liked to know where paths came from and where they led

 The second common cause of misalignment to the rest of the city

was the sharp separation of a path from surrounding elements.
Los angeles freeways
The railroad lines
The subway

A large number of paths may be seen as a total network, when

repeating relationships are sufficiently regular and predictable. The
Los Angeles grid is a good example.
Almost every subject could easily put down some twenty major
paths in correct relation to each other. At the same time, this very
regularity made it difficult for them to distinguish one path from
another.

THE PATH

sense of progression

continuity

scaled

The dynamic
shaping of the
movement line
gives Identity

The presence of the

path may be made
evident by high
landmark along it.

a Melodic Line.

Edges
Edges are the linear elements not used or considered as paths by the
observer. They are the boundaries between two phases, linear
breaks in continuity: shores, railroad cuts, edges of
development, walls.

These edge elements, although probably not as dominant as paths,

are for many people important organizing features, particularly in
the role of holding together generalized areas, as in the outline of a
city by water or wall.

 Those edges seem strongest

which are not only visually
prominent, but also continuous
in form and impenetrable to
cross movement. The Charles
River in Boston is the best
example and has all of these
qualities. In Jersey City, the
waterfront was also a strong
edge, but a rather forbidding
one. It was a no-mans land, a
region beyond the barbed wire.

Districts
Districts are character areas perceived to have common
characteristics, a separate visual identity from the rest
of environment.
These areas can be recognized as a thematic unit.
Good physical characteristics of districts are determined by
continuities and homogeneities of facades materials,
textures, spaces, forms, details, symbols, building type,
uses, Activities, inhabitants, colors, skyline
topography, etc.(Lynch,1960).
All these features give a district its identity, create intimacy
between its parts, and identify the basic clues of the city.

 Districts may have various kinds of boundaries that offer different

characters, as some may be soft, hard, certain or uncertain, thus they
may reinforce or limit district identity.
Districts may be in relation with each other, well-connected together,
then they are in an extrovert character.
On the contrary, they may stand alone to their zone, in other words
they are not linked together, then they are in an introvert character
(Lynch, 1960).

The termination of a district is its edge. Some districts have no

edges at all but gradually taper off and blend into another district.
When two districts are joined at one edge they form a seam.

THE EDGES

Termination points
visibility
Structuring the city

THE LANDMARK
singularity, its contrast with its context or background.
Sense of orientation

arranged so that a whole journey is identified

Fig: Districts

Fig: District events

(source: Lynch, 1960)

 Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an

observer can enter, and which are the intensive foci to and from
which he is travelling.
They may be primarily junctions, places of a break in
transportation, a crossing or convergence of paths, moments
of shift from one structure to another.
Or the nodes may be simply concentrations, which gain their
importance from being the condensation of some use or physical
character, as a street corner hangout or an enclosed square.
The concept of node is related to the concept of path, since
junctions are typically the convergence of paths, events on the
journey.
It is similarly related to the concept of district, since cores are
typically the intensive foci of districts, their polarizing center. In any
event, some nodal points are to be found in almost every image, and
in certain cases they may be the dominant feature.

NODES

 According to Lynch Nodes are the strategic foci into which the
observer can enter, typically either junctions of paths, or
concentrations of some characteristic (Lynch, 1960: 72).
In fact, the city itself can be imaged as a node with respect to a large
enough level.
Nodes can be recognized even when they are shapeless, but when
supported by a strong physical form, then they become memorable
(Lynch,1960).
Good recognizable node should have its identity through singularity and
continuity of walls, floor, planting, lighting, topography, silhouette,
function, clarity of shape and intensity of use.
Location determines nodes utilization, as locating nodes on main routes
make movement economy more efficient than those located away
from.

NODES

THE NODES

THE DISTRICTS
an area of homogeneous character

Avoid locating nodes away

from the main routes

Nodes on main routes offer

More efficiency and best
Capture the movement economy

Fig: Best place for nodes.

LANDMARKS
Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case the
observer does not enter within them, they are external.
They are usually a rather simply defined physical object: building,
sign, store, or mountain. Their use involves the singling out of one
element from a host of possibilities.
Some landmarks are distant ones, typically seen from many angles
and distances, over the tops of smaller elements, and used as radial
references. They may be within the city or at such a distance that for
all practical purposes they symbolize a constant direction.
Such are isolated towers; domes, great hills.

Other landmarks are primarily local, being visible only in restricted

localities and from certain approaches, these are the innumerable signs,
store fronts, trees, doorknobs, and other urban detail, which fill in
the image of most observers.
They are frequently used clues of identity and even of structure, and
seem to be increasingly relied upon, as a journey becomes more and
more familiar.
Landmarks, the point
references considered to
be external to the
observer, are simple
physical elements that
may vary widely in scale.

 Landmarks become more easily identifiable, more likely to be

chosen as significant, if they have a clear form; if they contrast
with their background; and if there is some prominence of spatial
location.
Location at a junction involving path decisions strengthens a
landmark,
Historical associations, or other meanings, are powerful
reinforcements. Once a history, a sign, or a meaning attaches to an
object, its value as a landmark rises.

THE KINAESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

Environments are experienced as a dynamic, emerging, unfolding
temporal sequence .
To describe the visual aspect of townscape Gordon Cullen (1961 )
conceived the concept of serial vision.

A view of an urban scene

The visual appearance of a town or urban area

Amalfi Coast, Campania, Italy

Townscape Madrid

Character and appearance of spaces and buildings in an identified area of a town

Serial Vision is a tool with which human imagination can begin to mould the city into a coherent
drama.
The human mind reacts to a contrast, to the difference between things, and when two pictures
with a vivid contrast is felt, the town becomes visible in a deeper sense.
Two elements of serial vision: existing view and emerging view

Here what could simply have been one picture reproduced four times
Serial vision as a means of comprehending, enjoying and designing the public spaces of a city
by creating memorable visual contrasts and images.

Approach from the central vista to Rashtrapati Bhavan

SERIAL VISION
The Rashtrapati Bhavan is gradually revealed and the mystery culminates
Role of levels & screening
Each view enlarging the centre of the previous view & bringing us near to the terminal building

SERIAL VISION
Sequence of revelations.
Manipulate the elements of town so that impact on emotions is achieved.
To walk from one end of the plan to another at a uniform pace will provide a
sequence of surprise. so an impact is made on eye.

Four of Bosselmann's walks in

(i) Rome, Italy; (ii) London, UK; (iii)
Copenhagen, Denmark; and (iv)
Kyoto, japan.
The walks illustrated are the same
length in terms of distance but the
perception of time taken and the
experience
of the walk vary.
(source: Bosselmann, 1 998, pp. 70,
76, 79 and 81)
Walking through an environment
that engages the mind, one is less
aware of the passing of time, but
when one reflects on that
experience and the variety of
sensations contained within it, one
assumes more time must have
passed.
Conversely,
in
an
environment that does not engage
the mind one is more aware of the
passing of time, but in retrospect
the absence of sensations leads to
the belief that less time passed.

Principles of spatial containment and enclosure

(adapted from Booth, 1983)

STREETS AND SQUARES

Streets and squares can be characterised as
either 'formal' or 'informal'

A picturesque approach to
urban space design.
Series of artistic principles:
i) ENCLOSURE

A good sense of contained and enclosed

space - Piazza Santa Croce, Florence, Italy

One means for achieving this was

the 'turbine' plan.
The royal square

Piazza della Signoria,Florence

Series of artistic principles:

ii) FREESTANDING SCULPTURAL MASS
iii) SHAPE
iv) MONUMENTS

Rothenburg,Tauber square

For e.g.,
The square in Rothenburg,Germany has a building dividing the square
appropriately based on the thoroughfares existing there. Generally the built is
built with remaining built on site. this square stands out but with a reason. The
clarity of void is what was of utmost priority.

Town Squares
Most important factors for distribution:

Its function
Traffic patterns
Examples of types of squares and how they originated:
Port town - main square at the waterfront
City gates - space on either side often developed into squares, channelers of traffic and
long distance commerce
Palace square - exists universally
Square for nobility
" palace square" Could be extended to nobility - the granting to the private residence
the dignity of a public square
Traffic pressures at crossroads
Seen in Baroque city form - plazas inserted where radial avenues join

Urban Square ?...

An urban square is an
open public space
commonly found in the
heart of a city used for
community gatherings.
a forum for exchange,
both social and economic
ideas

Their significance and

intensity of meaning is
expressed through
harder intensively used
landscaping.

Piazza Grande - Roman

They tend to be formal

and urban in nature in
contrast to parks and
open space, which are
typically soft landscaped,
larger and less
intensively used.
Piazza del Campo,Siena, Italy

The History of Urban Squares

The first urban formations appeared 6000 years ago
Urban squares were established at the crossroads of important trade routes

Greek Agora

Roman Fora

The Renaissance- Place des Vosges,Paris

Medieval Square -Piazza St.Marco,Venice

The Baroque

General Classification of Urban Squares according to use

Ceremonial

Rossio ,Lisboa,Portugal

court

elm court, london

Cathedral, Temple

St.Peters Rome

street,
shopping

Times square,new york

Traffic Circle

Xinghai Square - Dalian

Social

Trafalgar square,UK

CITY GATE PLAZAS

Parisier Platz in Berlin

CITY GATE PLAZAS

knigplatz in Munich

Design over Time Piazza Del Popolo

The Primary North entrance to the city for

centuries.

Plaza del Popolo

Multiple systems
Renaissance and Baroque - towns squares arranged into systems of urban design
Often abstract rules of composition
Multiple systems of squares in Renaissance - Cataneo (1554) and Scamozzi (1615) treatises
Gridded schemes with squares inserted
Penn, Savannah
Even Versailles, a zenith of Baroque design
But as a rule:
Baroque - a rich variety of geometric shapes

Constantinople, reconstruction of the citys

appearance in the 9th-11th centuries,showing
the string of forums.

Disencumbering
High point was 1880 - 1910 (although related
to 1950's and 1960s - Albany)
Setting monuments out in open spaces
Building isolation - seen as early as the
Renaissance
Laws of Indies advocated it
A church with a space around it = a cake on a platter (Sitte)
Must everything be seen all at once?
This was discussed even more so at mid-19th c.
Brought on in part by Haussmann
The ideology is that public buildings should be treated as
works of art
How much space was needed around the building to view it?

Typologies
Public places vary by use and by form
But they have multiple uses that change over time
Versatility is a central issue

The more specific the design, the less versatile

If designed deliberately for one purpose, then locked into that

The Classifiers
Josef Stubben
Manual for city planning, Der Stadtebau
Paul Zucker, 1959, Town and Square: From the Agora to the Village Green
Focused on space
Stops at 1800 because "awareness of third dimension vanishes in 19th c."
Rob Krier, Urban Space, 1979
Urban spaces as systems
Typology without history (examples come from everywhere, in any time)
Urban space in 3 main groups, according to the pattern of their ground plan:
1. the square
2. the circle
3. the triangle

The Closed Square

The Dominated Square The Nuclear Square

Classification by
Paul Zucker

The Grouped Squares The Amorphous Square

Closed Square:

Paris, France

Urban Square

Place des Vosges,

Closed Square:

Arcade in Place des Vosges

Urban Square

Colonnade in Agora - Priene

The Dominated Square:

St. Peters, Rome

Place de lOdeon,
Paris

Urban Square

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

The Dominated Square:

Squares subordinate to the
Street gate axis

Pariser Platz,
Berlin

Piazza del Popolo, Rome

Fontana di Trevi, Rome

Urban Square

Fountain dominating the Square,

The Dominated Square:

Maria Theresien strasse, Innsbruck

Subordinating Square to the continuous axis

Piazza Vittorio Veneto, Turin

Dominating element is a broad river

Praca do Comercio, Lisbon

Urban Square

Dominating element may also be a Void

The Nuclear Square:

Donatellos equestrian figure

Piazza del Santo in Padua,

Italy

Trafalgar square, London

Urban Square

Nelsons column

The Grouped Square:

Imperial Fora, Rome

Urban Square

Sequence of Squares developed in a

straight axis

The Grouped Square:

Piazza and Piazzetta in Venice

Urban Square

Non-axial organization of Squares

The Grouped Square:

Palazzo Podesta in Bologna, Italy

Urban Square

Squares around one Dominant building

The Grouped Square:

Piazza dErbe and Piazza dei Signori

Urban Square

Two seperated squares

with coherence

The Amorphous Square:

Place de lOpera in Paris

Urban Square

Boulevard and Metro ruin Dominated Square

Classification by Rob Krier

Classification by Rob Krier

Classification by Rob Krier

Classification by Rob Krier

Classification by Rob Krier

Shapes of squares
Triangle - usually a result of crossroads; Place Dauphine was deliberate triangle, but at the
point of an island
Trapezoid Square - a perfect one is rare; Place de Vosges in Paris; because sides are equal, emphasis is
difficult
Rectangle is much more common, and allows emphasis on monument at one end
L-shape
Circle - the rond-point; the Place de L'Etoile; English version is the "circus"

Classifying according to use

More about social history
Markets (already discussed)

Civic center
Place for public business, not necessarily communal self-government
Greek agora
Its function is political and social
Later commercial
Place for public meetings
Expression of collective political power
Middle ages
There is a religious center and a separate civic center
Two public forums
Age of Absolutism
Civic spaces vs. space for nobility
19th c., end of absolutism
civic center disperses into multiple squares
Place d'armes
Place for the army to show its muscle
State ceremonies with troops involved very common (in many cultures)

Democratic Civic Centre: The Greek

Agora

Games
Brueghel, 16th c.

Traffic
Throughout history there has been a debate about the conflict between the needs of traffic
and of people
Roman forum was closed to traffic
Ways to offset traffic, if open to it
turbine plaza, common in medieval; once inside traffic goes around
The English square was exclusive on principle, 17th and 18th centuries
French, in contrast, thought the public square should be free and open to everything

Eugene Henard's carrefour a gyration, 1906, Paris

Combines pedestrian underpasses, raised platform, traffic

The residential square

Housing and town squares are very
compatible
Since at least the middle ages
Residential squares are uniform, exclusive
Originate in Renaissance, in Italy
French had royal places, sponsored by Kings
English square - less likelihood of shops on
the square
Originally stark, but now with large trees
Many squares remained unplanted until
1800

As horizontal lines are visually faster

than vertical lines, the character of
streets (as of squares) can be
modified to make them more or less
dynamic.

TOWNSCAPE

Relationship of HERE and THERE

Enclosure, pinpointing, truncation, change of level, netting, silhouette, grandiose vista, division of
space, screened vista, handsome gesture, closed vista, deflection, projection and recession, incident,
punctuation, narrows, fluctuation, undulation, closure and recession.

ENCLOSURE

The Piazza Navona

Plaza mayor Madrid

A space enclosed by the walls or other boundaries of a

particular place or building, or by an arbitrary and
imaginary line drawn around it.

CLOSURE
cutting up of the linear town system (streets, passages, etc.) into visually digestible
and coherent amounts whilst retaining the sense of progression

MULTIPLE ENCLOSURE

Enclosure on the other hand

provides a complete private world
which is inward looking, static and
self-sufficient.

separate enclosures combined into one interpenetrating whole

Visual survey
Graphic examination of the key physical elements and functional character
of an area.

A vocabulary of symbols exist: edge, path, node, landmark, district (after

Lynch) that enables an urban designer to characterize, in graphic form, the
key elements of the urban fabric.
Visual survey is an urban design tool used to communicate the perceptions
of the structure and organization of a city.
Imageability/legibility: A more legible city makes us feel less anxious
about finding our way about in the city

Visual Analysis
The visual analysis has three main parts:
a study of a three dimensional public space,
a study of the two dimensional surfaces which enclose public space,
and
a study of architectural details which give an area its special character.
The most common
tools for recording
spatial
composition are
the camera and
the threedimensional
perspective drawn
from the normal
eye level.

 A visual survey is an examination of the form, appearance,

and composition of a cityan evaluation of its assets (to be
protected) and liabilities (to be corrected.
As an analysis of a city, its objectives are twofold:
- To establish the relationship between spatial components as
well as assessment of their condition
- To determine where the area investigated needs
improvement /reshaping/remodelling
A visual survey can be made at different urban scales: macro
to micro

 A visual survey calls for a descriptive vocabulary for

identification and relation of spatial elements in
order to understand the form, function, and
consequent appearance of given space.

A good survey generates ideas for action:

areas of improvement
correction
total replacement.

Components of a visual survey

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.

Image of the city

Landform and Nature
Local Climate
Shape of urban form
Size and Density
Pattern, Grain, and Texture
Urban Spaces and Open Spaces
Routes of movement
Districts/Enclaves/Sectors
Activity structure
Orientation
Details
Pedestrian areas
Vistas and skylines
Non-physical Aspects
Problem Areas