I T P I

ITPI JOURNAL
4 : 1 (2007) 70 - 72 JOURNAL
www.itpi.org.in

BASIC CONCEPTS OF URBAN DESIGN - A RESEARCH REVIEW

SANJAY S. JADON
Reader, Department of Architecture, MITS, Gwalior

ABSTRACT
This paper is a brief review of research studies in the field of urban morphology with respect to human perceptions. It briefly
overviews the elements and concepts of urban morphology with specific reference to imageability in perception studies. The author
is of the opinion that primary research studies in the field of image perception in Indian cities are marginal denying conclusive research
proof to urban design concepts and superimposing western concepts of urban planning and theories without acknowledging ground
realities of socio-cultural patterns and racial differences in perception, globalization notwithstanding, is self defeating.

1 INTRODUCTION psychological and philosophical approach to

Vitruvius described urban design as essentially an
ethical endeavor inspired by the vision of public
art and architecture. Every town, city or urban
region whatever its inherent natural characteristics
of site and terrain and man made problems has a
potential which stems from its own natural form,
sense of place, sense of history, spirit and ethos.
It urges us never to forget man’s fundamental
yearning for the beauty of nature and a respect
when he reshapes it for his use (Blessing, 1966).
People perceive a city in different ways and each
city has a public image which is the overlap of
many individual images. Imageability in a city may
be said to be more a perceptual concept than a
physical or visual entity. It is the interpretation of
various layers of a city’s images - its form, profile
and experiences over a period of time. Imageability
refers to the probability that an environment will
evoke a strong image from observers. Imageability
is probably the single most important factor in
the identity of a place (Lynch, 1960).
2 PIONEER STUDIES IN URBAN
DESIGN
Urban design as a specialized branch of
architecture emerged from the pioneering works
especially since the 1960s. Imageability is a prime
factor of study in urban morphology, urban
geography and urban design. Camillo Sitte (1843-
1903) can be said to be the pioneer of a
humanistic approach to urban design in the
modern age. His text (1889) based on a rigorous
analytical study of the perception of urban space
can be said to be the best text of modern urban
design theory. The concepts of proportions, vista
in public squares were analytically dealt with the
documentation of numerous examples in history.
It opposed the technocratic attitude of the
engineers and traffic planners and emphasized the
perception of form and space. Paul Zucker (1959)
emphasized space and its representation as central
to understanding architecture and urbanism. He
focused on the urban square as central to urban
space and has done a thorough spatial analysis
and categorization of squares. His analysis of
traditional squares as space and squares in
modernistic planning as voids shows the lacunae
in urban design in modern planning.
Generally, the approaches in architecture and
urban design have been more speculative than
based on a scientific approach. Kevin Lynch (1960)
pioneered a scientific approach to urban design
studying and analysed the components of urban
design parameters and human evaluation. He put
forth the image of the city as a concept which
can be perceived, evaluated and changed. His
seminal work lay in identifying basic elements of
an image of a city and in introducing a technique
of image analysis as the basis of a plan for a future
visual form of the city. His work was based on
American cities. In his words, the image analysis
may differ with other cultures or other races. Later
work in architectural research, landscape
architecture, environmental psychology has dealt
with specific studies in perception studies and
cognitive maps in America and Central America
(Potter, 1984). Ulrich Neisser (1967) in laying the
ground of cognitive psychology defined iconic
memory as the visual sensory memory.
Jane Jacobs (1961), one of the most serious critics
of modernist planning, defended traditional
neighborhoods, lively street life and crowded
pedestrian sidewalks. She emphasized the need
to understand cities in terms of combinations or
mixtures of uses rather than separate land uses.
She stressed on diversity as a measure of urban
vitality and put forth some indispensable
 Sanjay S. Jadon / ITPI Journal 4 : 1 (2007) 70 - 72
conditions to generate diversity in urban space.
Gordon Cullen (1961) in townscape brought forth
the relationships between the building and external
spaces in the urban context. He stressed on the
subjective values in relationships of elements vis-
à-vis the observer. Tricart (1963) deals with the
concept of scale and place in the study of social
content of the city. Spreiregen (1964) has
expanded the work of Lynch in terms of detailing
a methodology of visual survey and building a
vocabulary of working terms in urban design. He
extended the vocabulary of urban form to aspects
such as landform, natural verdure, climate, size
and density, pattern grain and texture and their
classification. The concepts of optics, relative place
and content are highlighted. Hall (1966) developed
his theory of proxemics with the precept that
human perceptions of space are molded and
patterned by culture. He defined personal space
and social distance which varies widely with cultural
origins.
3 FURTHER ANALYTICAL STUDIES
Robert Venturi et al (1972) through the study of
the image of Las Vegas analysed the vitality of
Main Street. Their studies on Las Vegas throw up
interesting aspects of image - the value of
symbolism and allusion in an urban environment
of vast space and speed. Rob Krier (1975)
redefines the elements of urban space and its
classification. Shadrach Woods (1975), a practicing
architect known for mega projects, has attempted
in his writings as well as his projects to maintain
the cultural continuities of the city while addressing
a large canvas of transformations in modern city.
Christopher Alexander et al (1977) have woven
in elements of urban design as a pattern language
which can be used by an individual, a
neighbourhood, a designer or a city planner.
William Whyte’s (1980) detailed study on small
urban plazas brought forth characteristics of
successful urban plazas which showed how or
when people used urban common spaces. His
studies on urban open spaces and urban plazas
in New York brought forward some interesting
observations on how people use public spaces and
measure of vitality of urban spaces in terms of
user density.
Aldo Rossi’s (1984) analysis on urban structure is
important to the history of urban design. He has
stressed the urban themes such as memory and
monumentality taking the city as a whole than
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building in the urban design theory. Alice Coleman’s
(1985) work on Design Dis-advantagement
carried forward Oscar Newman’s premises on
crime and architectural design. Wayne Attoe
(1989) has discussed the catalyst theory in terms
of urban elements in practical urban design. Spiro
Kostof (1992) has provided a detailed
documentation of elements of urban design in
world history. Scheer B.L. has reviewed the issues
of perception of citizens with respect to physical
surroundings. Lalli Marco (1992) has developed a
framework for urban related identity and
introduced a urban identity scale. Nasar J.L.
(1997) has dealt extensively with methodological
issues in evaluative studies of spaces. He has dealt
extensively with evaluation of the image of the
city with particular application to open spaces and
crime prevention. Ramadier Thierry and Moser G.
(1998) studied the field experimentation the
concept of legibility within an urban space with
respect to two cultural groups. Their results have
shown that the characteristics of environmental
meanings depend upon cultural origins of the
perceiver. The New Urbanism (2001) movement
advocated since 1993 espouses re-establishing the
relationship between art of building and
community building through participatory
planning and design. Nahoum Cohen (2002),
working with heritage precincts, proposes a
conservation potential matrix as a tool. He
espousing urban conservation has worked on
creating an urban profile assessment.
4 IMAGE AND PERCEPTION
Perception is a process that uses our previous
knowledge together, and interprets the stimuli that
our senses register. It is a constant process that
operates between man and his environment. The
process of perception is responsible for selecting
stimuli and arranging them into meaningful
patterns. This process is influenced by the internal
factors of learning, motivation and personality. The
framework of response to sets of stimuli is called
the perceptual set (Buchanan and Hucyznski,
1985). Each individual has a personal perceptual
set and with it a personal and unique vision of
what is out there in the environment. However,
groups within the society share features of the
perceptual sets and it is this shared set that urban
designers address. Cognitive maps are the internal
representations of the way our spatial environment
is arranged (Ormrod et al, 1988). Most researches
have raised the issue that cognitive maps are both
 Sanjay S. Jadon / ITPI Journal 4 : 1 (2007) 70 - 72
analog and propositional in nature, which means
that there is a picture like image of streets as also
information such as turn left at the next junction
and that building is next to the pink building.
It has been seen that cognitive maps are
reasonably accurate and variations of such maps
from reality stem from a rational or logical strategy.
For example, we think of places in terms of road
route distance rather than physical proximity
(Mcnamara 1984, 1986), our mental maps are
more regular or symmetrical than reality (Maar
and Bower, 1983, Tversky and Schian, 1989).
Franklin and Twersky (1990) have shown in their
research how we create mental maps from verbal
descriptions. Their study concluded with the
precept that humans follow the spatial framework
model in which our conceptions of space is different
from our perceptions of space and certain spatial
directions are especially prominent in our thinking
such as the above or below, front or behind or
left or right come later. These studies are based
on space models rather than street models. Halt
E.D. (1966) developed his theory of proxemics
with the precept that human perceptions of space
are molded and patterned by culture and that
there are differences in the way spaces are
perceived among different races.
In the Indian context primary research studies
on the concept of urban space design have been
marginal. Traditional urban spaces have been
studied in the documentation studies under
various heritage areas of Ahmedabad, Jaipur,
Mumbai, Jaiselmer, etc. under the aegis of INTACH,
etc. Eminent professionals have discussed the
images of urban India. I (1992) have explored
concepts of urban space, serial vision and skyline
within the walled city of Delhi. Dongre (1992) has
explored image perception within a small Indian
town as a database towards planning process.
Shirodkar V.A. (2005) has analysed
transformations of specific streetscapes of Goa
over a historical period of time. All general studies
and researches have emphasized that Indian
spaces have certain intrinsic characteristics such
as mixed land-use, multi-functional use of urban
elements, and community as identifying factors.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The basic conclusion drawn from this review are
(i) primary research studies in the field of image
perception in Indian cities are marginal denying
conclusive research proof to urban design
72
concepts necessary to back up design decisions
in urban planning; and (ii) superimposing western
concepts of urban planning and theories without
acknowledging ground realities of socio-cultural
patterns and racial differences in perception,
globalization notwithstanding, is self defeating.
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