13

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 IMAGEABILITY

This section of the literature review critically examines

imageability, to understand its meaning, need and uses for the city and its
dwellers. The different elements of settlements and their design along with
elements of an image are discussed. The different classifications of image and
the parameters to measure imageability are listed out along with strong cues
for imageability. The section concludes with an analytical review of it, which
is taken for evaluating the imageability of the study area.

2.1.1 Definitions and Different Models of an Image

An outline for the definition of an image by various pioneers is

presented in Table 2.1. From this it is clearly understood that the word
‘image’ has different meanings for different people; it is a kind of experience
and may be a concept, plan, map and so on. Urban designers like Jacobs Jane,
(1962), Spreiregen Paul (1965), Rossi Aldo (1982) and Gosling David (1994)
had also defined urban imageability; they correspond to Lynch’s definition of
imageability.
 14

Table 2.1 Image as defined by various pioneers

Image as Defined by Various Pioneers

Study of Images is called “eikonics” (Boulding 1956) and is used to
emphasize that a city has different meanings for different people- the slum
dweller, commuter, geography teacher or planner, i.e. it is used
interchangeably with the perceived environment.
Imageability, the term coined by Lynch Kevin (1960), “is the quality of a
physical object, which gives an observer a strong and vivid image. … It
might also be called legibility.”
Image has also been used to describe conceptions of the city, either in
terms of images or such as the city as an important tower, a giant switch
board, a clover-leaf intersection etc. (Yadav 1987)
Images have been described as the “points of contact between people and
their environment” thus linking them to behavior (Downs and David Stea
2005)
An Image also refers to memory and this has become dominant in planning
and urban design (Lynch Kevin 1960, Carr. and Schissler 1969).
An image is an internalised representation and, regarding the environment,
it is “an individual’s mental representation of parts of the external reality
known to him via any kind of experience”, including indirect experiences
(Downs and David Stea 2005).
An Image stands for a notion, stereotype, plan or map, plan of action,
concept, self concept and so on (Rapoport Amos 1977).

In the primitive and vernacular design of human settlements, the

image was clear and shared, and it was relatively straightforward (Rapoport
Amos 1969). Later the pioneers in planning developed various urban ecology
models on human settlements-, concentric, sectoral and multiple nuclei
(Richard and Frederic Stout 2003). In fact, these models are developed for
different social characteristics-the ethnic status, family status, and economic
 15

status respectively. Their interaction created various urban social spaces using
lifestyle and environmental preferences and relating them to the physical and
social characteristics of areas which help in understanding cities. Even though
the specific choices differ, there was a common underlying process of choice
and selection based on preferences, referring to different priorities, standards
and ideals.

By critically analyzing the different definitions of imageability by

different pioneers in different periods, the definition of an image which refers
to memory, a dominant concept of planning and urban design, as the point of
contact between people and their environment, is adopted in this research.
Imageability, a term coined by Lynch Kevin (1960) as the quality of a
physical object, which gives an observer a strong and vivid image and also
called as legibility, is used for the evaluation of imageability for the study
area, Chennai city.

2.1.2 Imageability Need and Uses

This research focuses on the imageability of the urban environment,

its physical qualities, which relate to the different attributes of identity and
structure, which enhance the legibility, and are synonymous with
imageability.

A city is a dramatic event in the environment. We turn to the

faculty of sight, for it is almost entirely through vision that the environment is
apprehended. Cullen Gordon (1964) narrates vision thus: “If someone knocks
at our door step and we open to let him in, it sometimes happens that a gust of
wind comes in too, sweeping the room, blowing the curtains, and making a
great fuss”. Vision is somewhat the same; we often get more than what we
look for. Vision is not only useful, but it evokes our memories and
 16

experience, those responsive emotions inside us, which have the power to
disturb the mind when aroused. Enhancing the image is something similar to
enhance the vision, which is more than organizing the different physical
objects into a coherent pattern.

The skeleton, an image which appears, is a particularly useful

analogue for the idea of a city. For the skeleton links the city to history. It is
the history which is limited to a pure knowledge of the past, without which, to
determine the future is difficult. Thus, the skeleton, which may at one level be
compared to the urban plan, while a general structure of parts, is also a
material of artefact in itself: a collective artefact (Rossi Aldo 1982). The
concentration of one particular visual quality (the apparent clarity or legibility
of the cityscape) is grasped visually as a related pattern of recognizable
symbols.

In sum, the uses of city images can be listed out as they enhance the
aesthetic pleasure, the ease with which people move around, etc, as shown in
Figure 2.1.

1. Enhances the legibility of the city.

Uses of City Images 2. Increases the aesthetic pleasure which is related to the
(Harold Carter 1976) quality of the images of the city.
3. The scale of efficiency of a city depends on its imageability
for the ease with which people can get about, with which
motorists can find their way. This is closely related to its
legibility, that is, the ease with which distinctive images
produce a sequence that can be followed. On a small scale
these qualities become related to any single building. For the
city it depends upon the organization of different city
elements.
4. Image studies are of value related to the fact that they reveal
the images of the city to the everyday user and therefore also
indicate the existence of major problems.
5. Deficit of imageability means less identification and is an
indicator of the social and economical value of the city.

Figure 2.1 The different uses of city images

 17

2.1.3 A Good City and its Image

History tells us that a good city evolves on the basis of local

characteristics and design principles and not by mere chance. History also
tells us that good urban structures and forms enable and enhance urban
activities, and improve on the well-being of the citizens. A good city is
created by the balanced relationship between the local and global
environment. A good city image is preserved and therefore long lasting
because it functions well and expresses the history, the citizens’ collective
memory, values, beliefs, and pride.

Basic Dimensions of City Performance for Good City Form

(Lynch Kevin 1981)

Vitality Sense Fit Access Control Efficiency Justice

A vital city In a A city with a An A city with a An efficient A just city

is the one sensible good fit accessible good control city achieves distributes
that fulfils city the provides the city allows is arranged all the goals the benefits
the residents buildings, people of all so that its listed at least among its
biological can spaces, and ages and citizens have cost, and citizens
needs of the perceive networks backgrounds a say in the balances the according to
inhabitants and required for to gain the management achievement some fair
and provides understand its residents activities, of the spaces of the goals standard.
a safe the city’s to pursue resources, in which with one
environment form and their projects services, and they work another.
function. successfully. information and reside.
that they
need.

Figure 2.2 Basic dimensions of a good city form

Lynch Kevin (1981) has identified a sensible city as one of the

seven basic dimensions of city performance for good city form as shown in
Figure 2.2. For the residents to understand and perceive the city form, the city
should be legible, which in turn, enhances the imageability of the city.
 18

With today’s rapidly changing socio economic conditions, the city

changes rapidly as well. If this change occurs at the level of the private realm
without affecting the dominance of the long-lasting public realm then the city
maintains the identity generated by the public realm, and it continues to be
recognised as a unique, imageable place, both by its citizens and visitors
alike. If rapid changes occur in both the private and the public realms then the
city may continue to work well in functional terms, but it will lose its
imageability and identity, and the citizens may lose the ability to foster a
sense of belonging (Frey Hildebrand 1999).

Though a rapidly changing city, like Tokyo, may seem for some a
highly appropriate urban model for the twenty-first century, it does not have a
lasting identity, and is therefore likely to fail to provide the emotional security
and sense of belonging possessed by those who live in places with a unique
physiognomy and identity.

An urban design must consolidate and enhance the city’s public

realm in such a way that it preserves, improves and creates a long-lasting
image of a city and its urban districts, which are clearly identifiable as being
unique. The private realm should also be well designed; its development
must, however, be subordinated to the image-giving public realm, so that it
does not destroy or ever interfere with the city’s imaginable form and
structure.

However, all cities are different and some offer their citizens more
advantages than do others. It is the main objective of good urban planning and
design to create new advantages, or enhance the existing advantages a good
city has to offer. The various dimensions of the good city are based on the
measurement of the quality of the dimensions, and the establishment of
different levels of human needs and aspirations it could satisfy.
 19

2.1.4 Elements of Settlements and their Design

City planners weave a complex, ever-changing array of different

elements into a working whole, to accommodate the perennial challenge of
city planning. The physical elements of the city can be divided into five:
nature, man, society, shells and network (Doxiadis 1969), as shown in Figure
2.3. Many alternative arrangements of these components have been tried
throughout history, but no ideal city form has ever been agreed upon. In these
five elements, man and society interact with the other three important
elements, nature (open spaces), shells (buildings), and networks (streets) to
form a successful settlement, pertaining to a healthy, environmentally
responsive and visually pleasing form and image of a city. The imageability
elements are further grouped under these three major elements of urban city.

HUMAN SETTLEMENTS-
DIFFERENT ELEMENTS
(Doxiadis 1969)

NATURE- SHELLS NETWORK

(Open spaces) MAN SOCEITY (Buildings) (Streets)

Geological Biological Population Housing Water supply

Topographical Needs density Services Power supply
Soil Sensation and Social Shopping centres Transportation
Resources Perception (the Cultural Recreational Communication
Water ‘five senses’) Economic facilities Sewerage and
Plant Life Emotional Education Civic and drainage
Animal Life Needs Health Business centre Physical layout
Climate Moral Values Law Industry
administration Transport centers

Figure 2.3 Different elements of human settlements

 20

Meaning of Design Creating form to meet an expressed demand

(Hall 1996)

Outward appearance of buildings, their arrangements to

form spaces, the furnishing, paving and planting of these
spaces and the appearance and planning of other public
open spaces

Efficient functioning of the buildings and spaces with regard

to the activities of their users

Aesthetic enjoyment provided by the buildings and spaces for

the same users

Figure 2.4 The meaning of design

The imageability of an urban environment depends on how these

elements are arranged, as a design. The meaning of design in different
contexts and scales, defined by Hall (1996) is shown in Figure 2.4. For this
research, the meaning of designing the city is mainly concerned with the
design of the outward appearance of buildings, their arrangements to form
spaces, the furnishing, paving and planning of these spaces and the
appearance and planning of other public open spaces and their interaction
with the streets which gives an aesthetic enjoyment for the city users.

Town Design-Town is beautiful means the whole

environment, down to the most insignificant detail, Buildings
should be beautiful. (Frederick Gibberd 1962)
Lamp posts

Pavings

Posters

Trees

Form, Colour and Texture

Time

Necessity of Design Control (Hall 1996) Quality of the physical environment

Figure 2.5 Elements of town design and the need for design control
 21

To have quality in a physical environment, the design control

within the planning system operates at two levels. The first one is aesthetic
control and the second is urban design or townscape.

In town planning, the term aesthetic refers to the external design of

buildings. The need for design control and the elements of town design are
shown in Figure 2.5. According to Gibberd Frederick (1962), a town is
beautiful, when the whole environment, down to the most insignificant detail,
is beautiful. A good design should be the aim of all those involved in the
development process, but it is primarily the responsibility of the designers and
their clients. A city design represents the subject area where town planning
and architecture meet; that is, where the design and the layout of the urban
spaces meet.

2.1.5 Ancient Planning Principles and Imageability Elements

The city “is the ultimate memorial of our struggles and glories: it is
where the pride of the past is set on display”. For L. Wirth, a city is “a
relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous
individuals.” For Lewis Mumford (1969), a city is a “point of maximum
concentration of the power and culture of the community” (Grahame Shane
David 2005). As per Lynch (1981), “city forms, their actual function, and the
ideas and values that people attach to them, make up a single phenomenon”.
Cities will continue to change, grow or shrink, expand or contract, in order to
adapt to changing socio economic conditions. The urban fabric is comprised
of three interlocking elements. The first is the city plan itself, which consists
of the street system, the plot pattern, land parcels or lots, and the building
arrangement within this pattern. The second is the land use pattern, which
shows specialized uses of the ground and space. Finally, there are the
building fabrics, which are the actual three dimensional marks of physical
structures on the land ownership pattern. Early cities came in many shapes.
 22

Frey Hildebrand (1999) questions the need for designing and planning a city
as an entity, if its form and structure emerge, and change is a long and
ongoing development process and never finite, unless the city is to become a
museum. In the long history from camp to village, a handful of innovations
accelerated the art of settlement design (Spreiregen Paul 1965). Kostof Spiro
(1991) outlines the characteristics of cities, as shown in Figure 2.6

Characteristics of cities Cities are places where certain energized

crowding of people takes place
(Kostof Spiro 1991)
Cities come in clusters

Cities are places that have

some physical circumscription

Cities are places where there is a

specialized differentiation of work

Cities are places favoured

for a source of income

Cities are places that must rely

on written records
Cities are places that are intimately
engaged to their countryside

Cities are places distinguished by

some kind of monumental definition

Cities are made up of

buildings and places

Figure 2.6 The different characteristics of cities

The relation of a city to its parts is similar to that of the human

body to its parts; the streets are the veins. A comparative assessment of the
imageability elements from the ancient 8th century to the modern 20th century
(Gandhi 1973) for India as well as for the World is shown in Table 2.2.
 23

Table 2.2 An outline of different historic planning concepts in India

and the World

Period World India

Early river valley civilization. Sindhu
Up to 8th century
Early river valley civilization. Nile, Tigris Physical planning as per the social
BC
classifications.
Greek and Roman Civilization
( Classical Cities)-
8th Century BC
to 6th Century Greek Rome
AD Hippodamus, grid iron road Great builders and Buddha Period -The Maurya
system. Chief Components engineers. Chief and Guptha Period
are Agora, Acropolis, The components are large
assembly hall, Council baths Collosseum,
Chamber Forum. Grid pattern
Roads
6th -10th century AD- Dark ages- Medieval ages-
6th Century AD Absence of city planning
Rajput period-End of Hindu period
to 14th Century and birth and growth of Islam
AD 10th -14th century AD- Picturesque towns. Grouping of
public buildings.
Moghul Period –Architectural style-
14th Century AD Renaissance and Baroque (Neo Classic Cities)-
palaces and Forts and monumental
to 18th Century Monumental Planning – Planning of Washington
buildings. No town planning -Jaipur
AD
only planned city.
British Period-Public Health Acts-
Industrial Revolution-lack of planning ideas- Barlow Report, The Scott Report,
19th Century AD epidemics-Public Health Acts -, Sanitary and Building Uthwatt Report, T and C Planning
Bye Laws- Bye law Planning development of town. Act 1947, Sub division of land and
zoning ordinance.
Planning for people in UK and USA. The concept of Planning in India Planning in India
Modern aspects
Zoning was first introduced by Germany. Pooling and before after
of 20th Century
redistribution of land in Germany-Done in Frankfurt Independence Independence

Table 2.2 clearly demonstrates that we have to learn from yesterday

to plan today for a better tomorrow. The origins of many cities were humble,
their form was simple and growth was gradual. In the 8th Century B.C, the
edge was a strong imageability element. From the 6th Century A.D to the 18th
Century A.D, both the social and physical imageability elements were present
strongly. During the industrialization in the 19th Century A.D, the by-laws
were introduced to safe guard the health of the citizens, and the imageability
criteria were never considered. In the modern 20th Century, land use zoning
was introduced, and there is no clarity in the elements of imageability.
 24

Skylines have become urban signatures and they are the short hand
of urban identity. The city plan emerged as a result of the process of the
implementation of many speculative design projects, a process which
Alexander (2003) see as being responsible for the plan of wholeness in
traditional towns. In contrast the master plan approach adopted in the 1950s
and 1960s, resulted in the loss of much historical fabric and traditional urban
development pattern, and the brave new world soon proved inadequate in
many ways (Frey Hildebrand 1999).

2.1.6 Different Elements of an Image

Lynch Kevin (1960) has identified five important elements of

imageability- paths, landmarks, nodes, districts and edges as shown in
Figure 2.7. It is understood that the uniqueness of the design of these elements
helps in enhancing the imageability. The meaning of the elements helps to
make things noticeable and can be shared by groups. Associations of different
elements are generally unimportant; the location of physical elements is more
important than their appearance, and paths are the most important element.

When these imageability elements are looked into, it is understood

that paths are often treated as edges and tend to be major edge elements,
which means that the classifications used by various studies need to be
discovered (Rapoport Amos 1969). Districts are defined as large areas into
which one enters, and which are distinguishable from the surrounding area,
but this definition can also be subjective and variable. Nodes are equivalent to
small districts, and distinguished by their importance, so that their definition
involves many parameters. Different elements may be used at different scales
and the different categories brought together into cognitive wholes, so that a
market square is not just a district area but also a node, a meeting point of
paths defined by edges and landmarks (John Douglas Porteous 1977).Thus,
these elements are likely to vary in different groups, so that associations,
unimportant in one place may be important elsewhere. Also, it appears that
landmarks are selected differently by various people (Rapoport Amos1969).
 25

Components of Imageable Environment (Lynch, 1960)

Identity Structure Meaning

Noticeable features of Spatial relation Symbolic content and

the Environment between these associational connotations of the
different elements place

i) PATHS ii) LANDMARKS iii) NODES iv) DISTRICTS v) EDGES

i) Paths - familiar routes followed.

ii) Landmarks - point of reference.

iii) Nodes - centres of attraction that

we can enter.

iv) Districts - areas with perceived

internal homogeneity.

v) Edges - dividing lines between districts.

Figure 2.7 The different elements of imageability

A city has two fundamentally important characteristics upon which

the guidelines and frameworks are formulated: to be both imageable and
adaptable (Frey Hildebrand 1999). To build a broader vocabulary upon this
basic framework, we must consider landform, natural verdure, climate,
several aspects of urban form itself, certain details and several lesser facets of
form (Spreiregen Paul 1965) as shown in Figure 2.8.
 Fundamentally important characteristics of the city upon which guidelines are prepared ( Spreiregen Paul 1965).

Landform Radio centric

Imageable Adaptable Natural Greenness Rectilinear

Local Climate Star

Shape Ring

Size and Density Linear

Pattern, Grain Branch

and Texture

Sheet
Urban spaces and
Open spaces
Articulated Sheet
Different shapes of cities
as per the street pattern
Constellation

Satellite

Figure 2.8 The important characteristics upon which the guidelines and frameworks are formulated with the broader
vocabulary

26
 27

On this basic framework stand embellishing characteristics, which

all together constitute the image of a city. A city or town is generally thought
of in terms of size—its population and physical extent. Size is closely linked
to shape—the physical outline in a two dimensional plan form and vertical
profile or contour. The size and shape are qualified by pattern—the
underlying geometry of the city form. Size, shape, and pattern are further
modified by the density and intensity of the use of land by people and
buildings. Density is determined by the urban texture and grain, which is the
degree of homogeneity or heterogeneity of use by people or buildings.

Order, unity, balance, symmetry, scale, proportion, rhythm,

contrast, and harmony are among the important tools used to define good
building architecture, and these concepts can be used to analyse the aesthetic
qualities of an urban environment, though they are not used in precisely the
same way for large scale urban development (Cliff Moughtin 2005).

As discussed, the density and intensity of the use of land by people

and buildings are determined by the urban texture and grain, which show the
degree of homogeneity or heterogeneity of use by people or buildings; in the
city of Chennai this is adopted in the research to evaluate the imageability,
along with Lynch’s elements of Imageability, with path as an important
element.

2.1.7 Different Classifications of an Image

An outline of the different classifications of an image is shown in

Table 2.3. From this it is clear that there are various images at various scales
and have different meanings for different groups of people. This research
evaluates the urban image at the spatial scale, which helps to picture the
individual’s location in the space.
 28

Table 2.3 The different classifications of an Image

The different classification of Images (Rapoport Amos 1969).

Name of the Image Explanation
Spatial Image The picture of the individual’s location in space
A representation of the stream of time and man’s
Urban Temporal Image
place in it.
Images
The picture of the universe around an individual
Relational Image
as a system of regularities.
The picture of the individual in the midst of the
Personal Image
universe.
The ordering on a scale - better or worse of the
Value Image
Ideal various parts of the whole image
Images Affectional Emotional image by which various items in the
Image rest of the image are imbued with a feeling.
Division of Images Conscious, Subconscious, and Unconscious areas.
Dimensions of Images Certainty or Uncertainty and Reality or Unreality
Scale of Images Public and Private

2.1.8 Parameters to Measure Imageability

Rapoport Amos (1977) identifies the parameters to measure an

image under the overall satisfaction with places, which is related to three
major characteristics-

i. Identity - The ability to identify with a home area

ii. Accessibility - Accessibility to desired places, people

and services and

iii. Physical Setting - A physical setting corresponding to the

image of an ideal environment
 29

The overall views of different Imageability parameters identified by

various pioneers for the physical components in measuring an urban area with
respect to Identity are listed as shown in Figure 2.9.

IDENTITY - The ability to identify with a home area

The physical components of the image of a Residential area and Neighborhoods

Location, type of housing unit, attractiveness, access to parks

Housing maintenance, density, noise, adequate outdoor space,

privacy, low traffic level, trees, clean air

Topography and view

Up keep of area, streets, spaciousness, beauty, quietness

Physical quality, harmony with nature, variety and richness

Materials and style of dwelling

Traditional appearance

Variation in architecture

Distinction of front and back

spaciousness, beauty, country like character, low density, privacy, front

and backyards, greenery-large shade trees, quiet, newness and cleanliness

Wide spacing, purely residential

Views from the living room, general appearances, noise

Figure 2.9 Physical components in measuring an urban area with

respect to identity

An overall view of different Imageability parameters identified by

various pioneers with respect to the physical components in measuring an
urban area with respect to the physical setting is outlined in Figure 2.10.
 30

The physical Setting and components of the Image of the Different

Elements and Parts of City

total massing, levels of complexity, scale and size, orientation, building

Built Space
Buildings

height, building use, colour, materials, details, fenestrations, signs, activity

levels, noise level, light level, smells, maintenance and cleanliness,
landscape etc.

Degree of enclosure, size of space, character of

Urban space
space, nature of enclosing elements and amount of
Open Spaces

greenery.

Recreational The physical components are scenic beauty, visual quality-signs, distinct
area districts, orientation, air quality and weather, transportation etc.

Spatial quality, intrinsic interest of feature, specific

buildings, nature of traffic and parking (Lynch,
Streets

Urban Street
1970)

Elimination of utility poles and overhead wires

more important than elimination of billboards

Signs important–not seen as problem, to

enhance legibility and orientation

Traffic hazard, noise, vibration, pollution and trash, maintenance,

privacy, greenery, complexity, variety, spaciousness, clean air,
microclimate, and topography and view

Different
Parts of the
Special Districts

urban area
Natural preferred to artificial, variety and contrast

Natural character, views without obstructions,

special dislike utility poles

Maintenance level, low pollution, noise at night, traffic disliked,

ownership and identity of house, detached houses, low density,
openness, spaciousness, greenery, hilliness and views

Rural character or desirable older central areas, topography, proximity to water

General appearance of each area, elevation or apparent

elevation, extensive views of water or trees but no industries,
detached houses, newness, greenery, spaciousness, individuality

Figure 2.10 An overall view of different imageability parameters

identified with respect to the physical setting
 31

All of which, in fact, are embodied in an image of a preferred

lifestyle. All the elements in both Figure 2.9 and Figure 2.10 are grouped
together to list out the elements of imageability.

2.1.9 List of Cues for Strong Imageability

Further, cues from which people choose to make a place more

“distinguishable” lead to strong imageability. This list of cues is with respect
to the physical difference, social difference and temporal difference, and is
outlined in Figure 2.11.

The list of cues from which people choose to make a place more “distinguishable”-
leads to strong imageability

Physical Social People Temporal

Differences Differences Activities Difference
Uses
Objects
Vision 1. Objects How the city is
2. Space quality used 1. Long term
Change of 3. Light and Shade Hierarchy and 2. Short term
Kinesthetics
level, 4. Greenery Symbolism
curves, 5. Visual aspects of
speed of Sound Perceived Density
movement 6. New vs Old
7. Order vs Variety
Smells 8. Well maintained and
badly maintained
9. Scale and Urban Grain
Air 10. Road pattern
Movement 11. Topography
12. Location
Temperature

Tactile

Figure 2.11 The List of cues for strong imageability

The most important cue from which people choose to make a place
more distinguishable, and which leads to strong imageability is the physical
difference. In this, the vision is measured by parameters, such as the type of
objects, space quality, light and shade, greenery, visual aspects of perceived
density, new vs. old, order vs. variety, well maintained and badly maintained,
 32

scale and urban grain, road pattern, topography and location. These are also
included in the list of imageability parameters to evaluate the image of the
city.

2.1.10 Imageability - Quantitative and Qualitative Parameters

In continuation of identifying the imageability parameters under

different characteristics of the urban area, they are further grouped into two. A
list of thirty one quantitative parameters and nineteen qualitative parameters
are shown in Figure 2.12. This research is limited to evaluate the identified
quantitative parameters from this list, and these are taken into consideration
for enhancing the imageability for the study area, Chennai city.

The list of quantitative Parameters and cues from The list of qualitative Parameters
which people choose to make a place more and cues from which people choose
“Distinguishable”- leads to strong imageability with to make a place more
strong identity and Physical setting ( Rapoport,1977) “Distinguishable”- leads to strong
imageability with strong identity
and Physical setting

1. Beauty
1. Adequate outdoor space 18. Nature of ground floor 2. Country like Character
2. Trees abutting the street 3. Privacy
3. Clean air 19. Building height 4. Newness and Cleanliness
4. Physical quality 20. Building use 5. View from the Living room
5. Harmony with nature 21. Colour 6. Richness
6. Amount of greenery 22. Materials 7. Appearance
7. Nature of building 23. Fenestrations 8. Distinction of Front and
Elements 24. Appearance & Elevation Back
8. Signs 25. Type of housing units 9. Attractiveness
9. Noise level 26. Density 10. Activity levels
10. Degree of enclosure 27. Style of dwelling 11. Smells
11. Character of space 28. Variety 12. Visual quality-signs
12. Nature of enclosing 29. Total massing 13. Distinct districts
elements 30. Levels of complexity 14. Topography and view
13. Transportation and Parking 31. Orientation 15. Natural character
14. Access to parks 16. Views without obstructions
15. Safety and Comfort 17. Traffic disliked
16. Street Length and 18. Newness
Proportion 19. Individuality
17. Paving and Street
Furniture

Figure 2.12 List of the quantitative and qualitative parameters of

imageability
 33

2.1.11 Conclusion

From the literature, the importance of imageability and its need is

established, as shown in Figure 2.1 This research aims to evaluate the
imageability of a city; the definition of the image which refers to memory, a
dominant concept of planning and urban design, and as the point of contact
between people and their environment is adopted, as shown in Table 2.1. City
images are useful and are needed in enhancing the aesthetic pleasure, the ease
with which people can move around, etc. The density and intensity of the use
of land by people and buildings which is determined by urban texture and
grain and shows the degree of homogeneity or heterogeneity in the city is
adopted in this research along with the path, as an important element. This
research focuses mainly on evaluating the urban image at a spatial level on a
public scale, taking into account selected quantifiable parameters from the list
shown in Figure 2.12. In this research an attempt has been made to achieve
one of the basic dimensions for good city form, sensible city by enhancing the
imageability.

2.2 AN APPRAISAL OF THE URBAN PLANNING TOOLS AND

MODELS

This section of the literature review analyses current planning tools

and models, and the basis, on which they are framed, are discussed. This is
critically analysed with the thrust on the master plan, zoning, new zoning
techniques and the principles adopted for framing the development
regulations.
 34

2.2.1 Introduction

In the current age of the automobile and new communication

technology, the city of today may be divided into two parts:

An inner zone, coextensive with the boundaries of the old

central city.

Suburban areas, dating from the 1920s, which have been

designed for the automobile from the beginning.

We have reached a new stage of urbanization beyond the

metropolis. Most major cities are no longer focused exclusively on the
traditional downtown. New sub- centers have arisen round the periphery, and
these sub centers supply most of the daily needs of their adjacent populations.
The old metropolis has become a multi-centered urban region. Urban Planner
Doxiadis (1969) has speculated that similar vast corridors of urbanization will
appear throughout the world during the next century. However, New Town
and greenbelt programs in Britain and the Scandinavian countries have, to
some extent, prevented a formless sprawl from engulfing the countryside.
This leads to the formation of a master plan and the introduction of
development control measures (Vance 1977).
 City forms are shaped (Vance 1977)

Through Institutional Forces By Natural Environmental Through Inheritances from urban

Processes morphology in previous times

Institution working Institution - an instrument of Zoning-

as a body an individual will Legislation
Erection of
right building
Govern- Industrialization Health and Safety, in the right
ment Morals or the form in the Regulate and
General welfare of right place Restrict the
the Community 1. Building Height
Financial laws 2. Number of storeys
institutions 3. Size of Buildings
4. Building coverage
5. The size of Open
yards
Tools of Land Use Planning- Sub-Division Regulations Each 6. Density of
Land Use Controls District Population
7. Location and Use
Zoning Ordinances of Buildings
8. Land for trade,
Master Plan industry, residence
or other purposes.

Figure 2.13 The different forces which shape the city form

35
 36

One of the major forces shaping the city is the institutional force, an
institution working as a body, government (the local governing body),
through zoning regulations and building regulations as shown in Figure 2.13.
The form of the city is determined primarily by thousands of private decisions
to construct buildings, within a framework of public infrastructure and
regulations administered by the city, state, and central governments. The goal
of city planning is to intervene in this game in order to protect widely shared
public values such as health, safety, environmental quality, social equality,
and aesthetics, through the Master Plan with zoning regulations and building
development regulations.

2.2.2 The role of Master Plan, Zoning and Development Regulations

on City Form and Image

Gibberd Frederic (1962) classifies the three broad patterns of

landscape, building groups and circulation in terms of the Master Plan, which
correspond to the three important elements of human settlements; nature,
shells and networks. As shown in Figure 2.14, these are taken in a sequence
and in the actual process of designing; all the three groups are coordinated for
the design of the city. When it comes to the designing of building groups, it
corresponds to the different land use zones earmarked in the city. Landscape
and open spaces are reserved in the city in the form of reserve forests,
ecologically / environmentally sensitive areas, agriculture areas, recreational
areas, gardens etc. The circulation part of the master plan deals with the
policies on the total connectivity (streets) of different zones to other regions,
upcoming mass transportation proposals, suggested terminals and segregates
areas for pedestrians, cyclists etc.
 37

Master Plan (Gibbered Frederic 1962)

Building Groups (Shells) Landscape (Open spaces) Circulation (Streets)

Principal areas/ Zones Agricultural areas Principal road system

required for Housing, surrounding the town, connecting the various
industry, institutions, natural landscape for building zones and to other
shopping, social centres, preservation, areas created regions, various transport
civic centres etc. for passive recreation, etc. terminals, suggests the
routes of public transport,
defines spaces for
pedestrians and cyclists.

Figure 2.14 The broad patterns of a master plan

Cliff Moughtin et al (1999) points out the two ways in which the
coordination between macro and micro level planning, (the city as a whole
entity and its parts) can take place. The first one is by setting the overall
design policies and guidelines for developments and allowing other people to
make their own decisions within them, and secondly, by having one set of
hands in control of the whole design and development process. In the case of
the former, urban design is closer to city planning, and in the latter case, it is
closer to architecture. While some attention has been paid to land uses in the
city, surprisingly little thought has been given to what makes a good third
dimension for cities except in having regulations on maximum building
height, maximum coverage, maximum built up area and minimum setbacks.

The principles for framing development, and the formulation of

standards based on the usefulness of a single set of planning and design
standards are not possible / viable; variable standards for different parts are
much more likely. Rather than dealing with highly generalized basic needs /
guidelines, the specific aspects of
 38

A situation,

The context,

The images involved, and

The latent and symbolic aspects of function should be considered.

The preferences and variable standards apply to density; it involves

the perception of various characteristics, leading to perceived density and its
evaluation against preferred levels of stimulation and controls available. The
subjective evaluation of places as dense, or not, depends on a large number of
physical characteristics, e.g., the degree of enclosure, the nature of space,
activities and uses, certain temporal rhythms, the presence of people and their
traces, light, noise, vegetation, and so on, with varying preferences for such
levels by different groups.

The process of constructing spatially, temporally or socially

cognitive schemata seems to involve decisions about whether things are alike
or different. Discrimination among elements, and deciding whether they are
alike or unlike, can be done either through identity categorization or equivalence
categorization. This can be done using five major modes; perceptible (on the
basis of colour, shape, size and position), functional (on the basis of use or
function), affective (in terms of evaluation, emotion aroused), nominal (by
attaching readymade names from the language) and fiat equivalence.

2.2.3 Zoning as a Planning Tool

Zoning, as its name implies, is a process of dividing the city into

zones, each of which has different legal requirements; and within each zone,
regulations specify the size and shape of the building that can be placed on the
land, and the uses to which buildings can be put (Barnett Jonathan 1974). The
first American zoning ordinance was enacted in New York City in 1916, with
the aim of imposing some minimum standards of light and air for streets,
 39

which, particularly in lower Manhattan, had become increasingly dark and

canyon- like, as buildings grew taller and taller. The regulations specified the
activities which could take place in each zone, and imposed setbacks on
buildings, above a certain height to permit sunlight to fall on the streets and
the sidewalks, and light and air to reach the interiors of the buildings. The
legal rationale for zoning is the so called “police-power” of the States to make
regulations to protect public health safety and general welfare. The zoning of
land became, and still is, the most forceful instrument available to city
planners for controlling urban development.

Zoning is not the same as planning: it is a legal tool for the

implementation of plans. Zoning should be closely integrated with the master
plan or comprehensive plan that spells out a logical path for the city's future in
areas such as land use for transportation, parks and recreation, environmental
zones, and public works construction. In the early days of zoning this was
often neglected, but this lack of coordination between zoning and planning is
less common now. The goal is to prevent shabby, deficient developments that
produce headaches for both the residents and the city.

When zoning was first undertaken, there were no scientific data as

to the relative amount of land needed for various types of urban land use.
Lacking such data and standards, it was but natural that early zoning was
unscientific and, consequently, failed to exert a beneficial influence in
stabilizing the population and in moulding the form and character of the city.
 40

Zoning with a Difference

Variances Use Variances

Area/ Bulk
Variances

Spot Zoning Recent Developments “Bonus” or “Incentive”

(Neutral land use) in Zoning-Flexible Zoning

Down Zoning (Rezone to a use Transferable Development

of Lower Intensity) Rights-TDR

Inclusionary Zoning
Conditional or Contract Zoning (Uniform
conditions within the zone/ districts)
Planned Unit
Cluster Zoning and Planned Unit Development; PUD Development (PUD)
(Uniform conditions within the zone/ districts)
Cluster Zoning
Floating Zoning
Performance Zoning
Zoning Amendments
Development agreements
Special District Zoning
Exactions

Figure 2.15 The new zoning techniques

Barry Cullingworth (1993) outlines the new techniques related to

zoning that have been developed to control urban growth and change as
shown in Figure 2.15. The four most significant of these are

i) Planned Unit Development, which submits a master plan for

the entire area ear- marked for the same with the same over-all
density, and produces higher density clusters of housing,
leaving significant areas of the tract in their natural state.

ii) Urban Renewal Control, known as “urban removal” or “the

federal bulldozer”, is the right to acquire private land by
compulsory purchase for a public purpose. This technique, at
least in theory offers a high degree of design control, since the
local Authority, as the owner of the land, can set whatever
 41

conditions of sale it likes. In practice, urban renewal plans

have seldom produced good city design.

iii) Zoning Incentives was a major attempt to use zoning

incentives based in part on urban design considerations.

iv) Special Zoning Districts is a way towards applying the

incentive principle on an area-wise basis, comparable in scale
to an urban renewal district.

In the UK, in addition to the structure plan and local plans, they
operate with what is known as Bebaungsplane, i.e., plans which are regulating
not only the land use but also the built form of streets, squares, streets,
districts and city. It might be appropriate to call such plans as ‘Urban Design
Frameworks’ (Frey Hildebrand 1999). The degree to which such plans
regulate the physical form of development depends on the individual places or
districts for the city. Design rules may be stringent for significant places and
areas, prescribing even the small details of physical development, maybe
including the detailing of facades and the formation of the roofs of buildings;
or they may be rather relaxed for less significant places, prescribing only the
overall massing of development or leaving it entirely open and restricting
perhaps only the height of development. A set of such urban design
frameworks may, therefore, be orchestrated to control the important features,
places and districts of a city, and to grant relative freedom for development in
the less important areas. The city as a physical entity is composed of many
different elements which relate to each other functionally and spatially. The
conventional land use zoning was modified with new flexible zoning
techniques, and this has been further developed as urban design frame works
and special districts.
 42

2.3 CASE STUDIES ON CURRENT URBAN PLANNING MODELS

To get an overall view of the planning models of other cities, to

understand how they have been formulated and how they regulate the
imageability of the city, selected Indian cities from ancient to modern times
and some East Asian cities in general, and Singapore in particular, have been
analysed.

2.3.1 East Asian Cities’ Master Plan, Development Regulations and

Imageability Elements

The Asia-Pacific region has experienced faster and more

intense urbanization than any other region in the world. About 60 per cent
of the total world population will live in urban areas in 2030; up from
40 per cent in 1950. The largest portion of this increase will be
concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region. The cities in this region have
different urbanization histories from those in the United States and Europe.
Since most Asian countries have a history of colonization by Western
countries, their cities have mixed models of urban development and
planning. While some countries or regions may have benefited from
British or French architecture and urban planning models, others have
suffered due to inappropriate Western models. While the benefits and
appropriateness of past development can be debated, it is evident that
most Asian cities need a new strategy or principle for their urban
development due to the rapid growth and changing environments brought on
by globalization (Belinda Yuen 2007).

Primate cities—cities which house a large portion of a country’s

population, and dominate industry and politics—have led to spatial
disparity and social polarization in some countries. In terms of cities, Asia
and the Pacific can be divided into four subgroups: South Asia, South-East
Asia, East Asia, and Australia and the Pacific islands. Each subgroup has a
 43

unique history and pattern of urbanization. Among these subgroups, East

Asia is the most urbanized and boasts of some world cities.

The spatial planning system in each country has its unique

characteristics in response to its social and historical background. In principle,
it can be grouped into three approaches: the detail planning approach, the
zoning plan approach and the master plan approach (Choi Hyunsun 2008).

Many Asian countries began land use control systems in the 1970s
and many countries have created master plans for the long-term development
of cities. In accordance with these master plans, the necessary preparations
have been made for land use control systems, such as land use control plans
that serve as the legal basis for regulating and encouraging actual
development, and development approval systems that serve as regulatory
methods (Tetsuo Kidokoro 2007). An outline of the elements of smart growth
in Asian cities is shown in Table 2.4.

Table 2.4 Elements of smart growth in Asian cities (Tetsuo Kidokoro 2007)

Elements of smart growth in Asian cities

Element Purpose
Centralized policy To ensure a reliable and effective policy system
environments with political support and accountability
Visioning to maximize To maximize people’s participation/share
participation development goals
Public-private To increase the feasibility of the projects with
partnerships proper partnership and financing with private
sectors
Development and To invest for future generations/preserve the
environment in harmony natural environment, open space and historic
built environment
 44

2.3.1.1 Planning of Singapore with the Master Plan and Development

Regulations of Imageability

Singapore is a city as well as a country, with the city centre

occupying an area of about 110 sq km in the southern part of the main island.
Under a program of deliberate intervention by the state- ‘deliberate
urbanization’, an entire new townscape of high-rise, high-density buildings
has all but replaced the low-rise, predominantly shop house colonial city of
British rule. The city has chosen an overtly interventionist approach towards
urban development, adopting a strategy of integrating social, economic,
political and spatial visions through the overarching process of planning, and
legitimizing its control through performance in the provision of public goods.

The Concept Plan first adopted by the Singapore Government in

1971 is a non-statutory plan that shows in structural terms the distribution and
relationship between major land uses and transportation. The latest release of
the concept plan in 2001 has built upon the earlier plans to unfold a vision of
Singapore as a ‘dynamic, distinctive and delightful city’ in an increasingly
globalizing world.

The key strategies of the 2001 Concept Plan include:

Creating a more livable city: provide a wider choice of housing

types and locations and raise the quality of our living environment;

Creating a fun and exciting city: provide a wider choice of

facilities, places and greenery for all to enjoy;

Creating an economically vibrant city: provide greater flexibility

for businesses, and further improve transportation and connectivity;

Creating a distinctive city: focus on identity, to retain and enhance

a sense of place identity.
 45

There are 55 development guide plans for the whole of Singapore.

The preparation of each of these plans applies the principles of the concept
plan within the more localized context of a specific planning area. With the
development potential of a particular site set out in the development guide
plans, public and private sector developers can obtain a clear idea of what
they can or cannot build on their land parcels. This helps to provide not only
certainty but also transparency in the planning system. The development
guide plans are an important component in the Singapore planning system, if
development control is not to be arbitrary, unpredictable and unaccountable.

Development control is an essential part of building and

programming for development. The notion of development is confined to the
use and development of land; it is a process of change from one state of the
built environment or use of land to an alternative state. It introduced two new
concepts in the control of land use:

The regulation of land use through zoning, and the control of intensity
of development through density (for residential use) and plot ratio (for
non residential use); and

The British planning ideas of new town and urban containment.

Creating a distinctive city: focus on identity, to retain and enhance a sense
of place identity. Additional attention is given to greenery, place identity
and heritage conservation.

The 55 Development Guide Plans for the whole of Singapore

applies the principles of the concept plan within the more localized context of
a specific planning area. The core policy of development set out was
essentially on decentralization, with a proposed green belt to arrest continued
expansion of the city area and the accommodation of further growth in three
new towns outside the existing city. Thus revised, businesses will have the
flexibility of having a mix of uses and creating work-live-play-learn
environments within the same site to suit their needs and market demand.
 46

2.3.2 Indian Cities Master Plan Development Regulations and

Imageability Elements

The urban settlement in the Indian subcontinent dates back to 3000

B.C. Through the ages, Indian cities grew around early settlements and were
planned on the basis of the principles canonized in a number of ancient
medieval texts and treatises of town planning and architecture, such as the
Vastushastra, the Manasara and the Samarangana Suthradhara; these
principles reflected a deep concern for the pragmatics of town planning in
terms of site selection, street networks, zoning controls, and even expansion.

A characterizing feature of the traditional urban settlement in India

is a built environment that responds to the topographical and geological
character that is unique to it. Each traditional city has a distinct character that
is unique to it. This character is generated through the articulation of the built
environment in terms of the various hierarchical levels of the city, its
dominant institutions, its streets and open spaces and the building elements
used. Generally, in each city, the building elements used respond to the
climate of the region and the materials available. The built fabric of the city
works as a passive climate control device. The various components of the
cities relate to the whole resulting in a coherent and integrated entity. After
the Islamic intervention, the influence of the rulers on building and town
planning was well assimilated into the local systems, to generate some
beautiful cities and architecture. During the British period, their system of
planning was radically opposed to the traditional Indian. The dense urban
fabric was associated with problems of hygiene, sanitation and fire hazards as
in the case of British towns in the 18th and 19th centuries, and to establish a
distinction with the rulers there were differences in the built form too. Post
independence, the high urbanization and urban agglomeration resulted in
overcrowding the urban core with high energy and high resource consumptive
 47

and does not respond to the lifestyle of the people, their traditions and
contemporary needs (Doshi 1991). Table 2.5 gives a chronological outline of
the major planning principles and image elements of different Indian cities.

Table 2.5 A chronology of major planning principles and image

elements - Indian cities (Doshi 1991)

Major Planning Principles and

Name of the City
Image Elements
The inner city streets running straight and aligned north to
1. Mohenjo Daro and Harappa
south and east to west, intersecting at right angles. The city
(Beginning of the
structure was dense and oriented as a protection against the
civilization)
climate.
The social division of Pataliputra was typical of royal cities
with large areas for it, and traders and crafts man had a
separate street or bazaar, a pattern which is still there. Most
2. Pataliputra ( founded in the
part of the city is constructed with mud, had a flat roof and a
5th century B.C)
verandah around an enclosed court. The city was 10 miles
long and 2 miles wide with a ditch all round, 600’ in width
and 30’ in depth and had 570 towers and 64 gates.
The structure of the town arises partly out of the geography
of the place. The limits and zones of the city territory are
3. Varanasi: Benaras- maintained by the pilgrimage. The GHATs form the major
Beginning of the urban element, being monumental and picturesque, reflective
civilization in North India of the close relation between the city and the river. The
buildings on the Ganges waterfront are distinctive and
unique.
The layout is composed around the central temple complex
and is based on four important ritual movements associated
with the temple, the ceremonial access and the
4. Suchindram, circumambulatory paths. East –West axis us the main axis of
Kanyakumari- 9th the town. The main circumambulatory route, the Car Street,
Century A.D which is the major organizing element of the town structure,
is very large and with similar facades on either side,
widening at the south-eastern and south-western corners to
form two large irregular squares.
Agra lies in a vast level plain with an extreme hot-dry
climate. The city can be broadly divided into three areas: the
fort area, a city within the city housing the royal functions,
the city wall area for local commercial and public functions
5. Agra -founded in 1506 A.D and the outer city wall area for regional commercial
activities. Mostly it was mixed use and there exists a caste
system with different areas for different groups of people.
The proximity to the river and water system incorporated in
the city structure helped to cool the hot winds.
 48

Table 2.5 (Continued)

Major Planning Principles and

Name of the City
Image Elements
The city was designed and built within a span of half
generation and was provided with all facilities. The Jami
Masjid forms an important urban element in terms of both its
orientation and entire urban composition. Another important
element is the continuous pattern of gardens, north-west and
6. Fathepursikri-16th south-east of the ridge. Axiality is used extensively in both
Century A.D monumental road alignments and abstract geometric
references. In an attempt to control the unitary form of the
city, the modular grid has been used as a systematic design
instrument at all scales. The planning of each building is
Islamic in character; the ornamentation follows the Hindu
tradition.
The city’s form, dictated by the Sabarmati river, is roughly
semicircular with the main complex at the centre. The city
with in the fort wall had mixed activities. The fabric of the
city is dense built form punctuated with house courts, public
7. Ahmadabad- 1411 AD-1572 spaces and narrow winding streets. The buildings are of 2/3
storied structures. Primary streets were commercial in nature,
secondary streets with specialized commercial and third order
form housing clusters. Each cluster with one community,
which gives the texture and climatically controlled.
Oldest continuous urban settlement- Persian urban design
principles of formalism and symmetry of palaces, gardens and
boulevards and tempered by long standing Hindu tradition of
city building. Surrounding the fort were the gardens, palaces
and mosques of the royal family and the sites behind this
8. Shahjahanabad- 17th century
were for the noblemen of the court. Around these were the
clay and thatch huts for the rest of the population, Mohallas.
The spatial configuration was around the nodes than on
edges, and the fabric was tightly knit with the open spaces
closely complementing the built ones.
The city was designated to be a replica of paradise and
literally, the dominant elements of the plan and architectural
landmarks of the urban spaces represent the characteristic
features of the organic gardens of eternity. Hyderabad was
9. Hyderabad- 1951 laid out around a monumental building in the centre, the
Charminar with a Mosque on the ground floor and a large
cistern above. This structure dominates at the main cross
roads of east-west axis and north-south axis. The overall
configuration is of a strong Islamic character than Hindu.
The city is not inhabited for more than 400 years but the
ancient glory is still visible through the remains of urban
elements such as malls, gateways, palaces, pavilions, towers,
10. Vijayanagara- mid stables, baths, fountains, aqueducts, tanks temples, sculptures,
14th century inscriptions, ceramics etc. Three urban zones can be
distinguished; the sacred centre beside the Tungabhadra river,
the urban core at the level areas and sub-urban centers in the
plains beyond.
 49

Table 2.5 (Continued)

Major Planning Principles and

Name of the City
Image Elements
The largest urban agglomeration in India today. The city grew
into five parts; the fort area, the government area at the north
of the fort, the town area at the south of the fort, The Maidan
–a huge park surrounding the fort, The Indian business and
11. Calcutta- 1690
residential area further to the north. The character of
buildings ranged from hidden villas/bungalows in great
gardens to the overcrowded single room huts. Three fourths
of the population is in overcrowded tenements.
The integration of formal and informal sectors. The seven V’s
system. Self contained sectors were planned with all facilities.
12. Chandigarh- 1947 One /two storeyed brick houses built for economy, in terrace
formation and developing a street facade.

Industrial township-layout is radial and divided into five

residential zones. The town centre has all the common
facilities with high density buildings. The arteries from each
13. Durgapur-after 1947
of the five zones meet at the ‘big square’, where all the civic
buildings are located. Each zone is divided into smaller
neighbourhoods, which are provided with basic amenities.
The city centre is at the physical centre of the city adjoined by
the main civic buildings. The roads are oriented to run 300
north of west and 600 north of east to avoid direct facing of
the morning and evening sun, during the journey to and from
the work place. This orientation is also suitable for the design
of the buildings, enabling them to conveniently avail the
14. Gandhi Nagar
natural breeze. The city is divided into 30 sectors by this road
system. Peripheral areas of each sector have houses that
exhibit a large variety in architectural design, unrestricted by
any by-laws. Each sector has the basic amenities and
vehicular entry is restricted to four points making each sector
largely for pedestrians and cyclists.

In ancient India, a sense of civic integrity gave rise to certain

conditions, which can be referred to as controls. Some pertained to the order
in which various tasks must be carried out. The town was to be laid out first
and only then the houses were to be planned. The trees were to be planted first
and then the buildings were to be erected (Dutt 1924). Building heights are
specified to give a ward/sector a distinct identity. More structures were
prescribed to be taller. The houses of the Brahmans were to be the Chatursala
(four storied), Kshatrias, Trishalas (three storied). Vaisyas, Dwishala (two
storied) and the Sudras, Ekshala (one storied) and the imperial palaces were
prescribed to be eleven storied. The correspondence between the width of the
 50

street and the height of the street was worked out, such that the taller
buildings of the elite were along the wider roads, while the shorter buildings
of the lower classes were along the narrow streets. The harmony of built form
was important. The heights of buildings along the same street were to be
similar. Deviation from the fixed measurements of the prescribed length,
breadth and height of buildings as per occupants was not desirable. The
Manasara states that the footpaths on either side of the street must be raised.
All houses have to face the royal roads and their backs had to open onto back
lanes that allowed the disposal of garbage and night soil. The space between
two buildings was specified along with appropriate fenestration requirements.
These different rules ensured a certain degree of harmony in the built form of
the town, levels of sanitation and also an active interface between the building
and the street.

India has characteristically drifted with history, rising periodically

to accomplish great things. In no field has this been truer than in town
planning. From prehistoric Mohenjo Daro, to the imperial city of New Delhi,
to Corbusier's Chandigarh, India has pioneered in town building. The
technique of diagnostic survey, commonplace in planning practice today, is
the somewhat belated result of Patrick Geddes' work in India eight decades
ago: the City Improvement Trusts in existence since the 1800s are models of
their kind.

After the birth of the institutionalized education of architecture and

town planning, British India undertook major efforts to create a new model of
urbanism through its experiment in the Presidency cities and in the formation
of New Delhi, and after independence, through founding a new breed of
capital centres such as Chandigarh, Bhuvaneshwar and Gandhigram, and
industrial town complexes, such as Jamshedpur, Rourkela and Bokaro.
 51

2.3.3 Conclusion

The various case studies discussed reveal that there was always a
thought process on the overall form and image of the city and its parts, with
respect to the different parameters addressing imageability and sense of place,
and firmly establishing the relation between the built environment and the
public realm. In addition, the regulations were created with the formulation of
planning guidelines. In the current design and planning policies for an urban
environment, some of the major aspects of imageability, namely, legibility
and identity are lacking, and this research tries to fill the gap. The research
starts exploring the new approaches and planning techniques adopted in New
Urbanism, to understand its policies and guidelines in enhancing the
imageability of the urban environment.

2.4 NEW APPROACHES AND PLANNING TECHNIQUES

The literature review on imageability and the current urban

planning models reveals that the parameters to enhance imageability are
seldom addressed in the master plan, in the form of land use zoning and
development regulations. To evaluate the imageability of a city and to
enhance the same as a whole and its different important / special parts,
alternative planning approaches and techniques are looked for through the
review on new urbanism.

New Urbanism is concerned with both the city and its parts. It
applies to principles of urban design for the region in two ways. First,
urbanism, defined by its diversity, pedestrian scale, public space and structure
of bounded neighborhoods, which is applied throughout a metropolitan region
regardless of location: in the suburbs and new growth areas as well as within
the city. And second, the entire region shall be designed according to similar
urban principles. It shall, like a neighborhood, be structured by public space,
 52

its circulation system supporting the pedestrian, be both diverse and

hierarchical, and have discernible edges (Katz Peter 1994).

Increasingly, architecture has become the instrument of excessive

self expression. Individual buildings are often conceived as solely private,
self-referential objects, incapable of generating the public realm. Conversely,
our public regulation system of zoning that controls the growth of the city has
become too verbal and complicated, and is incapable of accurately guiding the
physical image. New urbanism seeks a fresh paradigm to guarantee and to
order the public realm through individual buildings. Buildings, blocks and
streets are interdependent. Each one contains to some degree the ingredients
of all the others. Any decision to design streets in a particular manner, seals
the formal fate of blocks and buildings. Buildings of particular qualities
dominate the blocks that contain them and the streets that are around them.
The Matrix of addressing the totality of the street, block and building
principles of new urbanism is design, not policy planning, and amounts to an
aesthetic position. Buildings are the smallest increment of growth in the city.
Their proper configuration and placement relative to each other, determines
the character of each settlement.

As discussed, the fundamental organizing elements of new

urbanism are the neighborhood, the district and the corridor. Neighborhoods
are urbanized areas with a balanced mix of human activity; districts are areas
dominated by a single activity, and corridors are connectors and separators of
neighborhoods and districts (Parolek et al 2008. According to Duany the heart
of new urbanism is in the design of neighborhoods, which can be defined by
thirteen elements as listed below.

1. The neighborhood has a discernible center. This is often a

square or a green and sometimes a busy or memorable street
corner. A transit stop would be located at this center.
 53

2. Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the

center, an average of roughly 1/4 mile or 1,320 feet (0.4 km).

3. There are a variety of dwelling types — usually houses, row

houses, and apartments — so that younger and older people,
single, and families, the poor, and the wealthy may find places
to live.

4. At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices

of sufficiently varied types to supply the weekly needs of a
household.

5. A small ancillary building or garage apartment is permitted

within the backyard of each house. It may be used as a rental
unit or place to work (for example, an office or craft
workshop).

6. An elementary school is close enough so that most children

can walk to and from their homes.

7. There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling —

not more than a tenth of a mile away.

8. Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network,

which disperses traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian
and vehicular routes to any destination.

9. The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees.

This slows traffic, creating an environment suitable for
pedestrians and bicycles.

10. Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the

street, creating a well-defined outdoor room.
 54

11. Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is
relegated to the rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys.

12. Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in

the neighborhood center are reserved for civic buildings.
These provide sites for community meetings, education, and
religious or cultural activities.

13. The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing. A formal

association debates and decides matters of maintenance,
security, and physical change. Taxation is the responsibility of
the larger community.

The Charter of the New Urbanism (www.cnu.org) has asserted nine

principles to guide public policy, development practice, urban planning, and
design on the basis of I) The region: Metropolis, City, and Town, II)The
Neighborhood, the District, and the Corridor, and III) The Block, The Street,
and The Building, and is enclosed as Appendix 1.

Duany Plater-Zyberk and other new urbanists use the transect to

describe the way things ought to be (Brower Sidney 2002). The use of urban
design concepts and categories of urban or rural character to define and
manage the future, is characteristic of most form-based zoning codes, and is
especially evident in a pattern image, a parallel and separate Dutch version of
the Transect. However, the key to the Duany Plater-Zyberk Transect lies in
giving legal weight to concepts of morphological urban analysis (Andrews
Duany Andrews and Emily Talen 2002).
 55

NEW PLANNING TECHNIQUES (NEW URBANISM)

TRANSECT (as a whole)

From the whole to parts according to the context

FORM -BASED SMART HYBRID

TND TOD WC BFD GFD ID CODE
CODES CODE

REGULATING PLAN, PUBLIC SPACE STANDARDS, BUILDING FORM STANDARDS, FRONTAGE TYPE
SPECIAL DISTRICTS

STANDARDS, BUILDING TYPE STANDARDS, ARCHITECTURAL STANDARDS, LANDSCAPE STANDARDS,

OTHER CONTEXT SPECIFIC STANDARDS, ADMINISTRATION, DEFINITIONS AND GLOSSARY

TND- Traditional Neighborhood BFD- Brown Field Development

Development GFD- Green Field Development/
TOD- Transit Oriented Development Grey Field Development
WC- Walkable Communities ID- Infill Development

Figure 2.16 The outline of the approaches of new urbanism

As discussed, the new urbanism concept is practised from the

whole of the city to the different parts of the city. Figure 2.16 clearly indicates
that the transect is the principle used for the division/parts/zones/ the city as a
whole and suitable special districts like TND/TOD/WC/BFD/GFD/ID are
identified in context with the different parts of the city. A regulating plan with
public space standards, building form standards, administration and
definitions suitable to the specific requirement is formulated in the form of
Form-Based Codes, Smart Code or Hybrid Code. The research adopts the
principles of the transect to prepare the regulating plan for the study area,
Chennai city.
 56

2.4.1 Form-Based Codes (FBC)

At the start of the 21st century, urban planners rediscovered how to

regulate the design of cities with rules about building form, called Form-
Based Codes (FBC). “A Form-Based Code is one that is based primarily on
“form”—urban form, including the relationship of buildings to each other, to
streets and to open space, rather than based primarily on land use”. A Form-
Based Code is a development code that provides the developer / applicant
greater flexibility in permitted land uses in exchange for more stringent
regulations controlling urban form. These types of codes support mixed-use,
pedestrian-friendly and mixed housing development more effectively than
conventional codes, because they provide greater guidance on how buildings
are expected to face the street, adjacent residential neighborhoods and open
spaces. Form-Based Codes are becoming increasingly attractive to
municipalities that want greater control over how buildings look and feel.
(Katz Peter 1994)

The FBC is a method of regulating development to achieve a

specific urban form. Form-Based Codes create a predictable public realm,
primarily by controlling the physical form, with a lesser focus on land use as
shown in Figure 2.17. Form-Based Codes address the relationship between
building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in
relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks as shown
Figure 2.18. Form-Based Codes are drafted to achieve a community vision
based on time-tested forms of urbanism (The Form-Based Codes Institute
2008).
 57

Typical Development Regulations

Approach (More thrust on land use zoning
and less thrust on design of building) LAND USE BUILDING
DESIGN
Typical Form-Based Codes Approach
(More thrust on design of building and LAND USE
less thrust on land use zoning) BUILDING DESIGN

Figure 2.17 Differences between development regulations and the FBC

approach

FBCs constitute a significant different approach from the way

development has been regulated in the United States in the last century.
Instead of concentrating on bulk land use, these codes focus on the
dimensions and locations of buildings, streets, frontages, and other elements
that constitute the physical design of place (Katz Peter 1994).

FBC (Duany
Andrews 2002)

Codes and Laws Regulations Regulations for Regulations for Generative

concerning the for Streets Frontages Buildings Code
larger urban
realm.

Figure 2.18 The Different regulations / codes for which the FBC is
formulated

Form-Based Codes are municipal development regulations that go

beyond the conventional zoning controls of segregating and regulating land
use types and defining building envelopes by setback requirements and height
limits. Form-Based Codes address instead, the details of relationships
between buildings and the public realm of the street, the form and mass of
buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and type of streets and
blocks. Form-Based Codes are based on specific urban design outcomes
 58

desired by the community that may be identified through an inclusive, design-

focused public participation process. The regulations in Form-Based Codes
are applied to property through regulating plans that map the community with
geographic designations that are based on the scale, character, intensity,
density, and form of development rather than differences in land uses (Katz
Peter 1994).

The Form-Based Code is a mechanism through which the built

form is regulated by addressing the parameters that are listed under the broad
headings; public space standards, building form standards, frontage type
standards, block standards, building type standards, architectural standards,
green building standards, landscape standards and other specific standards
(Parolekl et al 2008).

1. Building Height 12. Look and feel of the

2. Mass of the building building

3. Specific form of the building 13. Location of the building

4. Scale of the building 14. Frontage design

5. Building elevation details 15. Predictable public realm

6. Relationship between the buildings 16. Other design elements

7. Relationship between the building and a. Material

the street b. Fenestrations
8. Relationship between the building c. Colour
and the open spaces d. Roof form
9. Orientation of buildings e. Shading devices
10. Building entrances from the street f. Special elevation features
11. Design –focused public participation etc
process g. Character of the building
 59

The literature review and discussion of the Form-Based Codes

reveals that this is a technique for regulating urban development to achieve a
specific urban form. The parameters addressed in Form-Based Codes also
indicate that this can be used to enhance the imageability of an urban
environment by incorporating this as a regulatory guideline, and how this can
be done is explored with further enquiry into the FBC in all other aspects.

2.4.2 Comparison of the Imageability Parameters with the FBC

The understanding of the different aspects of Form-Based Codes

has led to a comparison of the quantifiable imageability parameters with the
parameters addressed in the formulation of the Form-Based Codes. As shown
in Figure 2.19, it clearly states that out of the thirty one quantitative
parameters of imageability, eighteen parameters are addressed in the
components of the Form-Based Codes, which shows that the imageability of
an urban environment can be enhanced by formulating the Form-Based Code.
The research design explains the further steps for the formulation of the FBC.
 60
Transect Based Code
Right of Way Width
Building Type Based Code

Organizing Principle Curb to Curb Width Code

Components of FBC Street Based Code

Implementation Traffic Lanes

Frontage Based Code
Regulating Plan
Thoroughfares Bicycle Lanes

Public Space Standards Replacing Existing

Code
Civic Parking Lanes
Spaces
Optional/ Parallel
Building Form Standards
Curb Type
Overview Mandatory/ Integrated
Administration of the Zone
Planter Type
Floating Zone
Building
Landscape Type
Frontage Type Standards Placement
Movement Type

Walkway Type
Building Form
Block Standards Design Speed
Regulations

Lighting
Pedestrian Crossing
Building Type Parking
Time
Standards Regulations
Curb Radius
Transect Zone
Architectural Standards
Allowed land use types
Distance between
and detailed use Table
Intersections
Green Building
Standards
Allowed frontage types
Components of the FBC and Imageability
Allowed Encroachments 1. Adequate outdoor space
Landscape Standards
2. Harmony with nature
Allowed Building types 3. Signs
4. Degree of enclosure
Glossary 5. Nature of enclosing elements
Historic Preservation
Standards 6. Parking
7. Safety and Comfort
Community Specific Needs
Other Context Specific Standards 8. Paving and Street Furniture
9. Nature of ground floor abutting the street
Storm water Management 10. Building height
Standards
11. Building use
Signage 12. Colour
13. Fenestrations
14. Appearance & Elevation
The list of quantitative Parameters and cues from which 15. Materials and style of dwelling
people choose to make a place more “Distinguishable”- leads 16. Variety
to strong imageability with strong identity and Physical setting
17. Total massing
18. Orientation

1. Adequate outdoor space 11. Character of space 21. Colour

2. Trees 12. Nature of enclosing elements 22. Materials
3. Clean air 13. Transportation and Parking 23. Fenestrations
4. Physical quality 14. Access to parks 24. Appearance & Elevation
5. Harmony with nature 15. Safety and Comfort 25. Type of housing units
6. Amount of greenery 16. Street Length and Proportion 26. Density
7. Nature of enclosing 17. Paving and Street Furniture 27. Materials and style of
Elements 18. Nature of ground floor dwelling
8. Signs abutting the street 28. Variety
9. Noise level 19. Building height 29. Total massing
10. Degree of enclosure 20. Building use 30. Levels of complexity
31. Orientation

Figure 2.19 Comparison of the imageability parameters with the

components of the form-based code
 61

2.5 ANALYSIS OF FORM- BASED CODES

A critical examination and comparison of the parameters of Form-

Based Codes with imageability shows, that the FBC can be adopted as a tool
to evaluate and enhance the imageability of a city. Further to this, to attain an
in depth understanding of the FBC, the history of the FBC, different processes
of the FBC, components, steps involved in the preparation of the FBC,
different forms of organizing the FBC, different approaches to and methods of
the Form-Based Codes, different implementation methods, advantages of the
FBC and important points to be incorporated in formulating the FBC are
discussed in the following literature.

2.5.1 History of the Form-Based Code

The direct and indirect effects of the rules and codes on urban form
from ancient to modern times are shown in Figure 2.20 (Emily Talen 2009).
This clearly establishes the direct or indirect effect of the rules and regulations
on the built form.

Regulating/ Law/ Rule/ Code Intent Effect

Modern Form-Based Codes Urban Form

Times and Regulating Plans

Laws controlling Order Urban Form

Ancient social behavior and
Times
Health Laws Health Urban Form

Note: Solid lines indicate direct influence and dashed lines indicate indirect influence
(Emily Talen 2009)

Figure 2.20 Direct and indirect effects of rules and codes on urban form
 62

Table 2.6 outlines the effect of the codes on the form of the cities
with respect to the overall city form and image, and to parts of the cities over
different periods in different cities in the world and in India for the past
centuries. This validates that the laws / rules / regulations / policies always
had an effect on the built form, and thus on the overall city form and image.
This research looks into all the details of the Form-Based Code, which
directly dictates the urban form and image.

Table 2.6 The form and code through history in the world and in
Indian cities

Period World India

th
Up to 8
Overall Form Overall Form
century BC
Greek and Roman
Civilization
8th Century ( Classical Cities)
BC to 6th Overall Form
Century AD Greek Rome
Overall Overall
Form Form
6th Century
Regulations for Streets
AD to 14th Islamic Code- Generative Code
and Frontages
Century AD
14th Century
Regulations for Streets, views and vistas Islamic Code-
AD to 18th
Frontages and Buildings Generative Code
Century AD
19th Century Health Acts -Generative Public Health Acts- Generative
AD Code Code
Planning in India Planning in
Modern before India after
aspects of The concept of Zoning - Independence Independence
the 20th Overall Form Development Industrialization
Century Authority Overall policies-
Form Overall Form
 63

2.5.2 Form-Based Codes Processes

There are three phases in the process of formulating the Form-

Based Codes (Parolek et al 2008). The first one - pre phase1, consists of
scoping and documenting at the macro and micro levels. Visioning happens in
phase 2 with an illustrative plan and imagery at the Regulating Plan level
using the Transect. Phase 3 consists of assembling the works of the previous
two phases with splicing and formatting the Form-Based Codes, as shown in
Figure 2.21.

Form-Based Coding Processes (Paroleket al 2008)

Pre Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

Scoping and Visioning Assembling

Documenting

Illustrative Plan and 1. Splicing

1. Macro scale Imagery (Additional code
1. Illustrative Plan text)
(Existing Frame
work Diagram) (Transect Zone 2. Formatting
2. Micro scale vision sheets) (Form-Based
(Existing Transect 2. Regulating Plan Codes)
matrix and Micro) (Transect Regulation
matrix)

Figure 2.21 Outline of different steps in form-based coding process

2.5.3 Components of the Form-Based Code

The following are the various components of the Form-Based

Code, as outlined in Figure 2.19.

1. Regulating Plan- A plan or map of the regulated area

designating the locations, where different building form
standards apply based on clear community intentions
regarding the physical character of the area.
 64

2. Public Space Standards- Specifications for the elements within

the public realm (e.g., sidewalks, travel lanes, on-street
parking, street trees, street furniture, etc.).

3. Building Form Standards- Regulations controlling the

configuration, features, and functions of buildings that define
and shape the public realm.

4. Administration- A clearly defined application and project

review process.

5. Definitions- A glossary to ensure the precise use of technical

terms.

Form-Based Codes also include:

1. Architectural Standards- Regulations controlling external

architectural materials and quality.

2. Landscaping Standards- Regulations controlling landscape

design and plant materials on private property as they impact
public spaces (e.g. regulations about parking lot screening and
shading, maintaining sight lines, ensuring unobstructed
pedestrian movements, etc).

3. Signage Standards- Regulations controlling allowable signage

sizes, materials, illumination, and placement.

4. Environmental Resource Standards-Regulations controlling

issues, such as storm water drainage and infiltration,
development on slopes, tree protection, solar access, etc.

5. Annotation- Text and illustrations explaining the intentions of

specific code provisions (www.formbasedcodesinstitute.org).
 65

2.5.4 Steps to Prepare the Form-Based Code

Planner Paul Crawford’s Model (2003) gives us the different steps

involved in the preparation of the Form-Based Codes as outlined in
Figure 2.22. These steps are followed for this research except step 2- public
visioning and charrette.

Steps for preparing the Form-Based Codes

1. Street types
2. Block types
Steps 1- Existing conditions analysis and inventory 3. Building types
4. Open space types
5. Parking types and location
Steps 2- Public visioning and Charrette 6. Natural features

Steps 3-Determine appropriate spatial basis for regulation (districts,

transect, streets or special zones) 1. Neighborhoods, districts,
corridors
2. Transect
3. Street-based regulating plan
Steps 4- Develop Urban Standards (streets, blocks, 4. Special purpose zones
building placement, height, land uses, etc.)

Steps 5- Develop Architectural Standards (building or

frontage typologies, etc.)

Steps 6- Allocate and illustrate standards

Figure 2.22 Steps to prepare the FBC

2.5.5 Different Forms of Organizing the Form-Based Code

The different forms of organizing the FBC in detail are discussed

below.

i. Street-based: The Regulating Plan locates the private realm

development standards by the street type; that is, the development
standards for all site and building characteristics are governed by the
site’s relationship to pre-defined street types. In addition to setting the
private realm standards, the Regulating Plan defines elements within the
public realm (e.g. sidewalks, travel lanes, on-street parking, street trees,
 66

street furniture, etc.). This type of form-based code can be useful for
areas where streets have not yet been planned.

ii. Frontage-based: The Regulating Plan locates the private realm design
standards by the frontage type; that is, the development standards for all
site and building characteristics are defined by the edge condition where
it meets the primary street (frontage). Frontage-based FBCs may also
define the street types, but the development standards are not (or not
always) tied to the street type. This type of form-based code can be
useful for areas where streets are already designed and/or built.

iii. Street-Frontage Hybrid: Development standards are tied to specific

frontage/street combinations.

iv. Building Type-based: The Regulating Plan controls the locations of

pre-defined building types. The development standards define the
configurations, features, and functions of buildings.

v. Transect-based: The Regulating Plan articulates a cross section of street

types, frontage types and/or building types along an urban/rural
continuum, to understand where different uses or building types fit or are
inappropriate. The “pure” transect-based FBC uses the Smart Code
transect with clearly defined zones fromT1 to T6; this system was first
created by DPZ (Duany Plater Zyberk).

vi. Modified Transect: The concept of the transect is modified to correlate

with the existing or zoned local urban to suburban characteristics.

2.5.6 Different Approaches to and Methods of the Form-Based Code

Despite significant variations in the practice of Form-Based Codes,

there is an emerging consensus on a common approach. The following are
descriptive terms illustrating the key principles for guiding code-writing
 67

towards sustainable urban development. They are vision-centered, purposeful,

place-based, regionally diverse, consequential, precise, integrated, binding,
comprehensible and adjustable.

There are a number of different approaches, which are used to

regulate the form-based code. Although there is some overlap between these
approaches, Planner Crawford describes four basic alternatives that are
typically used by different practitioners:

Neighborhoods, districts, corridors

Transect

Street-based regulating plan

Special purpose zones/ Special districts

This process entails identifying which parts of the community are

appropriate for different types of development. This research has adopted the
transect, in a modified format as the Context Specific Transect (CST), the
organizing method to prepare the regulating plan. It has been further zoned
down in identifying the special districts within the Transect, which also
includes neighbourhoods and the street frontage design.

2.5.7 Different Implementation Methods of the Form-Based Code

Form-Based Codes replace existing zoning codes and can be either

mandatory or optional. There are several options for the implementation of the
FBC and they are:

1. Comprehensive Replacement of the Existing Code (Mandatory

and Free Standing): The Form-Based Code replaces the pre
existing conventional zoning code for all parts of a
 68

community, and all development within the FBC’s defined

application area must abide by the regulations in it.

2. Optional Parallel and Freestanding: The FBC is created as a

standalone code, but does not replace the pre existing
conventional zoning code. Alternatively, it can take the form
of an optional parallel code system-- self- contained, special,
with unique provisions, not cross-referenced to other parts of
the code, available as an option in designated zones.

3. The specific plan with the FBC: This replaces the pre existing
conventional zoning code regulations for the specified area.

4. Mandatory and Integrated (Embedded “Form Based Zones”):

The pre existing conventional zoning code is updated by
adding new Form Based Zones with appropriate regulations. A
new regulating plan is prepared. This is the “hybrid code”
method. A form-based code can be integrated into the existing
code, applied as a “by right” designation to selected zones,
and cross-referenced to existing code provisions, such as
administrative procedures and/or land uses.

5. Floating zone/ TND; Traditional Neighbourhood

Development/ TOD; Transit Oriented Development: The pre
existing conventional zoning code is updated by adding a
single new zone. The FBC takes the form of a floating zone
(either integrated or optional/parallel) which is triggered by an
application to rezone a specific area. Form-Based Codes are
often confused with design guidelines; however, they are not
discretionary. While they offer flexibility just like design
guidelines, they do so by offering choices between objective
standards, rather than by offering multiple ways of meeting an
aspiration guideline.
 69

According to each context specific urban environment and the

administrative regulatory system any of the methods discussed can be adopted
in a modified format to implement the Form-Based Code.

2.5.8 The Advantages of the Form-Based Code

Katz Peter (1994) and the Form-Based Code Institute list out the
following advantages of the FBC

1. Form-Based Codes are better at illustrating community plans

and vision.

2. Building and street design are coordinated.

3. Urban form is more predictable.

4. A more gradual transition between adjacent areas with

different development intensities is easier to achieve.

5. Can specify the tapering of height, bulk, massing and lot

coverage of buildings toward residential and/or natural edges.

6. High density development is more carefully designed,

attractive and compatible.

7. Form-Based Codes are graphic and easy to understand and

use. They are often more readily understood by the public,
which reduces code interpretations and can shorten the review
process over a long term.

8. Because form-based zoning is prescriptive (it states what we

want), it creates a desired “place” unlike conventional zoning
codes (Katz, FBCI).
 70

9. Form-Based Codes can deliver predictability for both the

developer and the community. This saves time and money for
all these involved in the development process.

10. Form-based zoning encourages walkable communities and

transit-oriented development.

11. Form-based zoning focuses on the quality of the pedestrian

environment, while still accommodating the automobile.

12. By primarily focusing on building form, and secondarily on

use, Form-Based Codes result in a high quality built
environment.

13. Private developments are integrated with the public realm

since Form-Based Codes address the character of public
streets and public places.

14. Form-Based Codes are successful in established communities

since they define and codify the community or
neighborhood’s character. Thus, traditional and desirable
building types are encouraged; promoting infill that is
compatible with the surrounding development.

15. Form-based zoning concepts can be applied to many different

communities and situations.

16. Form-based zoning is very detailed, providing a thorough

approach to development. This creates predictability and can
eliminate the need for design guidelines, which are difficult to
enforce.

17. Because they are prescriptive rather than proscriptive, Form-

Based Codes (FBCs) can achieve a more predictable physical
 71

result. The elements controlled by FBCs are those that are

most important to the shaping of a high quality built
environment.

18. FBCs encourage public participation because they allow

citizens to see what will happen where - leading to a higher
comfort level about greater density, for instance.

19. Because they can regulate development at the scale of an

individual building or a lot, FBCs encourage independent
development by multiple property owners. This obviates the
need for large land assemblies and the megaprojects that are
frequently proposed for such parcels.

20. The built results of FBCs often reflect a diversity of

architecture, materials, uses, and ownership, which can only
come from the actions of many independent players operating
within a communally agreed-upon vision and legal
framework.

21. FBCs work well in established communities because they

effectively define and codify a neighborhood's existing
vernacular building types that can be easily replicated,
promoting infill that is compatible with the surrounding
structures.

22. Non-professionals find FBCs easier to use than conventional

zoning documents, because they are much shorter, more
concise, and organized for visual access and readability. This
feature makes it easier for non planners to determine whether
compliance has been achieved.
 72

23. FBCs obviate the need for design guidelines which are
difficult to apply consistently, offer too much room for
subjective interpretation, and can be difficult to enforce. They
also require less oversight by discretionary review bodies,
fostering a less politicized planning process that could deliver
huge savings in time and money, and reduce the risk of taking
challenges.

24. FBCs may prove to be more enforceable than design

guidelines. The stated purpose of FBCs is the shaping of a
high quality public realm, a presumed public good that
promotes healthy civic interaction. For that reason,
compliance with the codes can be enforced, not on the basis of
aesthetics, but because the failure to comply would diminish
the good that is sought. While enforceability of development
regulations has not been a problem in new growth areas
controlled by private covenants, such matters can be
problematic in already-urbanized areas due to legal conflicts
with first amendment rights.

2.5.9 Important Points to be Incorporated in the Form-Based Code

Parolek et al (2008) observes the important points to be

incorporated in the formulation of the Form-Based Code the guide lines of
which are listed out below:

1. No land use table

2. For each Context Specific Transect Zone (CSTZ) - one page

write up about the building use which is allowed should be
listed out.
 73

3. Density is not used in the FBC (No FSI / FAR).

4. Parking standards should be included.

5. Open space requirements should be part of the transect zone.

6. Placement of buildings along with building code and use, and

not with transects.

7. Maximum Building Coverage is not used in the FBC.

8. Maximum Building Depth can be used in the FBC.

9. Distances between the buildings and the size of the buildings

are taken into consideration.

10. Importance given to frontage design.

2.5.10 Summary

As explained through Figure 2.16, the new urbanism concept

adopts the transect as the principle for the division/zones of the city as a
whole. It further identifies the different special districts like the TND /TOD /
WC / BFD / GFD / ID in different parts of the city, and the FBC are
formulated accordingly. The literature on the components of the FBC clearly
states that for the preparation of the regulating plan, the different organizing
principles used, are transect based, building types, street or frontage based. In
this, the Transect based is more suitable to Indian scenario for formulating the
FBC, as traditional urban settlements in India are a built environment, which
responds to the topographical and geological character that is unique to it.
Each traditional city in India has a distinct and unique character, which is
generated through the articulation of the built environment in terms of the
various hierarchical levels of the city, its dominant institutions, its streets and
open spaces and the building elements used over a period of time by different
rulers. That is why this research adopts the transect as the organizing principle
 74

to prepare the regulating plan for the whole of study area, Chennai, one of the
important traditional and historical urban cities in India.

2.6 TRANSECT

This part of the literature review helps to understand the details of

the transect through its history, its advantages, principles and concepts of the
transect methods and the different parameters to zone the city into different
transects, for preparing the regulating plan.

2.6.1 History of the Transect

The transect is a natural law that can be observed anywhere and

everywhere. A natural law is defined as a principle derived from the
observation of nature by the right reason, and thus ethically binding in human
society. The transect emerged organically in human settlements, preceding
any explicit conceptual formulation. The transect as a natural law is
imminent, but its suppression by modernist transportation and zoning has
catalyzed the current need to re-present it as a viable alternative theory. The
first appearance of the transect as an intellectual construct was the ‘Valley
Section’ conceived by Patric Geddes (1915) early in the 20th century. He had
crudely diagrammed a generic transect as a geographic section taken from the
up land forest to the down land river. It articulated a series of determined
human societies ranging from the hunters in the highlands to the farmers in
the foothills, to tradesmen along the shores. Geddes illustrated the transect as
a cross section of human activities, as only through this device could he
illustrate the fundamental rural-to-urban range, in its natural-law basis.

Other users of this concept, such as M.R.G. Conzen’s transect

studies of historical town plans and places built during various periods since
the Industrial Revolution or Coleman’s analysis of the central city, older and
newer suburbs, and rural areas, utilized the technique to describe existing
situations. By contrast, Duany Plater- Zyberk and other New urbanists use the
 75

transect to describe the way things ought to be (Brower, 2002). This use of
urban design concepts and categories of urban or rural character to define and
manage the future, is characteristic of most form-based zoning codes.

2.6.2 Principles and Concepts of the Transect

Duany (2002), draws a cross section through an imaginary

landscape, identifying six types of environmental zones, where each is
defined by its morphological character, moving from T1 (Transect1- Natural)
through ascending scales of rural, suburban and urban areas leading to the
densest area T6 (Transect6- Urban Core) as shown in Figure 2.23 and Table
2.7. A seventh classification, an ‘Assigned’ or ‘Special District,’ similar to the
conventional planning’s ‘special use districts,’ exists for uses, such as big
hospital complexes, airports, landfills and the like, that do not fit easily into
urban or suburban zones, or which, because of noxious by-products such as
dust and noise, need to be kept at a distance from residential areas. This
hierarchical scale enables designers, planners and the public to see the various
kinds of rural and urban landscape as a continuum that relates to urban uses.

Figure 2.23 A schematic layout of different transect zones

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Table 2.7 Transect zone (T1 to T6) with the characteristics of each transect

Transect Zone No
Characteristics of the Transect Zones
and Name
T1 - The Natural Lands approximating a wilderness condition, permanently set aside
Zone for conservation in an essentially natural state.
T2 - The Rural Lands in open or cultivated state or sparsely settled.
Zone These include woodland, grassland and agricultural land.
T3 - The Sub- Low density areas, primarily comprising of single family and two
Urban Zone family residential units, with relatively deep setbacks, streetscapes
with swales, and with or without sidewalks. Blocks may be large and
the roads may be of irregular geometry to accommodate natural and
historic conditions.
T4 - The General Zone with mixed use, but primarily residential urban fabric with a
Urban Zone range of building types including row houses, small apartment
buildings, and bungalow courts. Setbacks are short with an urban
streetscape of wide sidewalks and trees in planters. Streets typically
define medium-sized blocks.
T5 - The Urban Zone with higher density mixed-use building types that
Centre Zone accommodate retail and office uses, row houses and apartments. A
network of small blocks has streets with wide sidewalks, steady
street tree planting and buildings set close to the frontages with
frequent doors and windows.
T6 - The Urban Zone with highest density and greatest variety of uses, including
Core Zone civic buildings of regional importance. A network of small blocks
has streets with wide sidewalks, with steady tree planting and
buildings set close to the frontage with frequent doors and windows.

The transect approach is an analytical method and a planning

strategy. It can be formally described as a system that seeks to organize the
elements of urbanism— building, building lot, land use, street, and all of the
other physical elements of the human habitat—in ways that preserve the
integrity of different types of urban and rural environments (Emily Talen
2002). These environments can be viewed as variations along a continuum
that ranges from rural to urban. Along this continuum, human environments
vary in their level of urban intensity. Adhering to this system of organization,
urban environments are preserved in their urban state, while rural
environments are preserved in their rural state, and the mixing of elements—
a rural element in an urban environment and vice versa—is avoided.
 77

Most transect methods, like Geddes’ method, focus on discovery,

interpretation and analysis. Transect planning is somewhat different in that, it
uses the urban-to-rural transect as a basis for normative planning. The
discovery of urban-to rural transects is used, for example, to expose the
‘regional vernacular’ as an underlying foundation for a new regulatory code.
Thus, the purpose of transect planning is to proactively guide the urban
pattern in a way that shows a logical progression of urban elements, from the
rural to the urban (Emily Talen 2002).

This kind of approach constitutes a fundamental change in the

current planning practice. Not only does it require a much stronger integration
of plan and implementation, it also requires a new system of land
classification and regulation— one that arranges the elements of urbanism
according to the principles of a transect-based distribution. Planners facilitate
this system by learning how to allocate spatially, by finding the appropriate
location and juxtaposition of urban elements along a continuum of human
habitats, from the urban to the rural. This serves to integrate natural and man-
made systems in a way that is, in our modern world, conspicuously missing.

To achieve this, transect planners have given the maximum focus to

the coding of a transect-based system. Such a system must: (1) spatially locate
a discrete number of transect environments, ranging from the natural to the
urban; (2) apply standards within each environment, so that development
within them does not detract from the integrity of each place; and (3) be
flexible enough to allow one transect eco zone to evolve into another, thereby
incorporating a dynamic, rather than static, approach in guiding urban
development. (Emily Talen 2002)

Andres Duany, one of the Ahwahnee Principle’s authors and a

founder of the Congress for New Urbanism, has taken the idea of the
“transect” from natural science and applied it to land use planning. The
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transect, as used in ecological studies, draws a cross section through different

habitats to understand their interrelationships along a continuum in a better
way. Applied to an urban/rural continuum, the transect helps us to better
understand, where different uses and building types fit well or where they are
inappropriate. Seen from this perspective, we learn that a controversial use or
development project is not inherently bad, but may simply have been
proposed for the wrong location. Duany codes all the features and concepts
that guide communities, neighborhoods and development, into six different
districts along the transect (T1 to T6): from the natural preserve to the urban
core. He also includes a special district for uses, such as a university campus,
airport or stadium. Setbacks, for instance, shrink as development progresses
from the rural to the more highly urban. Likewise, there is a lesser area
devoted to greenery in the urban core than in the rural districts. Building
heights, however, increase. This unified development ordinance, or “Smart
Code,” links all commonly regulated dimensions and features, building bulk,
street lighting, sidewalks, parking and landscaping to the different districts.
This framework allows for a common understanding that relates development
characteristics to places within the urban fabric.

This common language allows developers, planners and residents –

even in different cities – to readily comprehend the context for different uses
and building types. The graphical nature of the transect fits very well with the
Form-Based Code. Duany Plater-Zyberk has been instrumental in bringing
this classification methodology into real-world applications in the form of
Form-Based Code projects across the US.

A zone is to help the practitioner to understand how changes in

the context, and the level of activity the context generates, changes the design
of the thoroughfare. Figure 2.24 gives examples of how a metropolitan area’s
transition in development intensity, varies from the natural to the urban core
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in the transect based ecological analysis and conventional zoning based

ecological analysis.

Figure 2.24 Index of diversity- a comparison of transect based zone and

conventional zone ecological analysis

This research uses the Transect as the organizing principle for the
preparation of the regulating plan. Since a City Specific Planning Model is
being formulated in general for any city, the criteria of the morphological
analysis varies from place to place, the transect being specified as a Context
Specific Transect. Instead of using only the conventional land use zoning and
development regulations, the parameters identified for zoning the city
according to the context, such as the open space and built up area ratio,
building disposition, building configuration etc. can be formulated and
integrated in the City Specific Planning Model.

2.6.3 Methods And Parameters For the Transect Zone

The different parameters used to zone the city into the various
transect zones from the rural to the urban core land use intensity, density,
building disposition, building configuration, building function, standards,
mixed use and neighbourhood are shown in Figure 2.25.
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TRANSECT ZONE-PARAMETERS (Andrews Duany and Emily Talen, 2002)

LAND USE A measure of the extent to which a land parcel is developed in

INTENSITY conforming to the zoning ordinance and is measured by the built up area
per unit area of land

DENSITY The number of dwelling units within a standard measure

of land area, usually given as units per acre

BUILDING DISPOSITION The placement of a building in its lot

The form of a building, based on its

BUILDING CONFIGURATION massing, private frontage, and height

BUILDING FUNCTION The uses accommodated by

a building and its lot

STANDARDS Parking
Architecture
Landscape
Signages
MIXED USE
Multiple functions within the same building
through superimposition or adjacency, or in
multiple buildings within the same area by
adjacency
NEIGHBOURHOOD
An urbanized area of at least 40 acres that is
primarily Residential

Figure 2.25 The different parameters used to zone the transect

In the conventional planning model, the master plan, the regulating

plan is prepared with the land use zone map. This research develops the City
Specific Planning Model using the Form-Based Code to enhance the
imageability for parts of the city as well as the whole and adopts the transect
as the organizing principle to prepare the regulating plan. The most important
transect parameters; land use intensity and density are taken to prepare the
regulating plan for the study area, Chennai city.

2.6.3.1 Other Context Specific Sector Zone/ Special Districts within the
Transect

As discussed earlier, within the Context Specific Transects, Green

Field Development (GFD), Grey Field Development (GFD), Infill Development
 81

(ID), Cluster Development (CLD), Traditional Neighbourhood Development

(TND), Transit Oriented Development (TOD), and Street Frontage Design are
identified as shown and explained in detail in Figure 2.26.

OTHER CONTEXT SPECIFIC SECTOR ZONES/

SPECIAL DISTRICTS WITH IN THE TRANSECT

Development planned for an undeveloped area outside

GREEN FIELD DEVELOPMENT
the existing urban fabric

Development of an area previously used primarily as a

GREY FIELD D EVELOPMENT
parking lot. Shopping centers and shopping malls are
typical Grey field sites

INFILL DEVELOPMENT
A development within the existing urban fabric

CLD OR CLUSTER DEVELO PMENT Areas suitable for hamlets

A Community Type based upon a Standard

TND OR TRADITIONAL NEIGH BORHOOD Pedestrian oriented toward a Common
DEVELOPMENT Destination consisting of a mixed-use center
or corridor, and having a minimum
developable area of 80 acres.

TOD OR TR ANSIT -ORIENTED

TOD is Regional Center Development (RCD)
DEVELOPMENT
with transit available or proposed.

Figure 2.26 The other context specific sector zones/ special districts
within the transect

2.6.4 Advantages of the Transect Zoning

The different advantages of Transect Planning are outlined in

Figure 2.27.

ADVANTAGES OF TRANSECT ZONING Under conventional zoning, a developer with 100 acres
may have no choice but to build one kind of residential
units at a consistent density
Under the new code, the developer could opt to build a
village — with the developer deciding how much of the
project would be designated Rural (0 to 30 percent),
Edge (10 to 50 percent), General (30 to 50 percent), and
Center (30 to 50 percent)
All of these zones have options in terms of
thoroughfares, building types, frontages, civic spaces,
and other elements

Figure 2.27 Advantages of transect planning

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2.6.5 Conclusion

From the literature review on transects, Figure 2.28 concludes the

detailed analysis done on the transect. This enables the development of a City
Specific Planning Model (CSPM) using the Context Specific Transect (CST)
as the organizing principle, for preparing the regulating plan for the entire
city, with identified special districts/ zones within the transects.

The transect approach is an analytical method and a planning strategy. It can be

formally described as a system that seeks to organize the elements of urbanism—
building, lot, land use, street, and all of the other physical elements of the human
TRANSECT habitat—in ways that preserve the integrity of different types of urban and rural
environments.

A system of ordering human

habitats in a range from the
most natural to the most
urban.
The Smart Code is based upon
six Transect Zones which
TRANSECT ZONE (T-ZONE)

Transect Zones are

administratively similar to the
land-use zones in
conventional codes, except
that in addition to the usual
building use
Density
Height, SPECIAL DISTRICT (SD)
Setback requirements
Other elements of the Special District designations shall be
intended habitat are assigned to areas by their
integrated including those Intrinsic function,
Disposition, or
Configuration,
Cannot conform to one of the six
normative Transect
Zones or

Figure 2.28 The overall view of the transect

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2.7 PLANNING THEORIES AND DIFFERENT CITY MODELS

Planning’s formative history is usually constructed around three

separate movements that occurred at the end of the 19th century and framed
as reactions to urban unpleasantness and harsh living conditions: (i) the
garden city movement originating in the UK, (ii) the city beautiful movement
founded in the USA and the (iii) major push for public health reform that was
common to both the countries.

The planning theory in history is thus classified into three main

periods: (1) the formative years (late 1800s to 1910) dominated by
personalities such as the garden city pioneer Ebenezer Howard and city
beautiful designer Daniel Burnham; (2) the modernist period (1910–1970)
encompassing the birth, development and consolidation of the profession of
planning, during which regional and national initiatives were formulated and
schools of planning were created in British and American universities; and (3)
the postmodern era (1970 to the present) characterized by recurring crises,
where planning as a civic enterprise has been attacked from within the
profession. From Lynch’s (1981) planning theories and concepts, “the city as
a sacred ceremonial centre moved into the city as a machine for living and
city as an organism”, a summary of the models of settlement form gives an
outline of different general patterns, central place patterns, textures,
circulation, open space patterns and temporal organization for different city
models (Grahame Shane David 2005).
 84

2.8 IMAGEABILITY OF THE CITY WITH THE DIFFERENT

CITY MODELS

Frey Hildebrand (1999) analyses the overall forms and patterns of a

city and the imageability of the different city forms like the core city, star city
satellite city, and the linear city, as shown in Figure 2.29 based on the
condition that the overall relationship between the built-up and open land is
around 60% to 40%. The population density close to the 60 pph is chosen as
the threshold value. Each model is to accommodate a population of 2, 50,000
and 5, 00,000 respectively; this will give an insight into the changing land
requirements and dimensions of each city model as a result of doubling the
population. For the dispersed city models - The star and satellite city- the
population accommodated in the central city is to be about 23% of the total
city population, with 77% in the ‘fingers’ or satellites. The evaluation of the
performance of city models, based on agreed sustainability characteristics, is
done for all the six city models under 15 headings.

Linear city Regional City Core city

Star city Galaxy of Settlements Satellite city

Figure 2.29 The different city forms (Hildebrand Frey 1999)

 85

1. Degree of containment of 9. Potential for social mix

development through variety of housing
2. Population density relative to the 10. Potential of local autonomy
land needed 11. Potential self sufficiency
3. Viability of public transport 12. Degree of adaptability
4. Dispersal of vehicular traffic 13. Imageability of the city as a
5. Viability of mixed uses whole
6. Access to services and facilities 14. Imageability of parts of the
7. Access to green open spaces city
8. Environmental conditions 15. Sense of place and centrality

Table 2.8 Comparison of the imageability criteria of the six city models

City Models
Characteristics Galaxy of Polycentric/
Core City Star City Satellite City Linear city
settlements Regional city

Imageability of With limited size it Good if star Very good Overall The considerable The potentially
the city (the is Highly is small image is length of the city limitless size
physical entity) imageable non- model prevents the prevents the
as a Whole existent imageability of the imageability of the
city. city

Imageability of Needs careful Central area Requires careful Nodes with Unless the transport Nodes and
parts of the city design attention is imageable. designs and in and provision nodes transport channels
(neighborhoods, Finger areas specific sets of settlements are carefully can have
districts, towns need careful activities to have limited designed, imageability if
etc.) design make them imageability imageability may they have
attention. imageable. not be good. distinguished
design features and
sets of activities

Out of the fifteen characteristics compared, the imageability of the

city as a whole and of parts of the city for all the six city models are shown in
Table 2.8. This indicates that the overall imageability is good only if the size
and form is limited to the core, star and satellite city. From all the other city
models it is understood that the imageability of the parts of the city can be
achieved only through careful planning and design. For the study area,
Chennai city, which is similar to Copenhagen's finger plan (star city), has a
single dominant centre of high density and mixed uses, and the transportation
routes radiate out from the centre. The imageability for Chennai can be
 86

achieved only through the careful planning of the central area and the finger
areas such as the transportation corridor.

2.9 RESEARCH DESIGN

2.9.1 Introduction

The process of modern city planning seeks to steer market forces in

city building towards the citizen’s welfare and public good. Zoning and
building by-laws are still among the primary tools of such planning. In
addition, master plans seek to lay out a physical pattern of land use and
transportation routes for the city, or the metropolitan area as a whole. Thus,
master plans serve as a guide for public agencies to tailor their sectoral
programming to the plan, while facilitating private investments in the same
manner (Chennai Master Plan 2008, Vol1, Introduction). The draft master
plan for the CMA consented to by the Government was notified in the
Gazette on 5.08.75 and from that date developments have been regulated
with reference to the master plan and development control rules.

Though the Madras Town Planning Act was enacted in 1920

itself and a few Detailed Town Planning schemes were sanctioned for
small areas within Chennai City, no comprehensive plan for the city or for
the metropolitan region was prepared. (Chennai Master Plan 2008, Vol1,
Introduction) The Madras Town Planning Act was superseded in 1971 by
the Tamilnadu Town and Country Planning Act. According to section 17,
sub-section (2) of the Act, the Development Plan may propose or provide
for all or any of the matters as per the list, and one important aspect in that was
the control of architectural features, elevation and frontage of buildings and
structures- which has not been addressed effectively in the framework of
the Development Regulations even in this second master plan, 2008.

Vision 2026 is to make Chennai a prime metropolis, which will be

more livable, economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable and with
 87

better assets for the future generations (Chennai Master Plan 2008, Vol1,
Introduction). How this is going to be achieved is not reflected in the planning
policies.

The topography of Chennai is a flat coastal plain with the climate

being hot and humid, the predominant wind direction being from South East
to North West, but all these have never been reflected as the policy criteria for
the built environment. The comparison of the current Master Plan Model of
Chennai city with the imageability parameters has been streamlined in
arriving at the area of research.

2.9.2 Methodology and Procedure of the Research

The method of research is applied research (Nagarajan 2008). The

approach for this research is derived from the principles of the transect zone,
the system coded by the firm of Duany Plater- Zyberk, and this code is
copyrighted as the smart code, in a modified format. The strategy used to
arrive at a modified form of the Form-Based Code to enhance the
imageability of the study area is that of Correlation Research, the study
sought to clarify patterns of relationship between imageability and the Form-
Based Code through the multi case study method. The steps in Paul
Crawford’s Model are used to prepare the Form-Based Code for the study
area, Chennai city.

A method of framing variable standards within a generalized theory

through an analysis of the man-environment relations is proposed, considering
the specifics of a situation, the context, and the images involved
(Rapoport Amos 1977) - the Modified Filter Model. The six stages of the
research are given below.
 88

2.9.2.1 Stage I

The Correlation approach for an understanding of the theoretical

framework of imageability, the parameters to measure imageability, and the
existing Master Plan and Development Regulations leading to the need for
this research is shown are Figure 2.30.

1. Understanding the uses of Enquiring about the current planning

Imageability and its needs model of the city which regulates the
2. List of the Parameters to Imageability.
measure Imageability

Comparing and analyzing the Grouping of parameters

parameters of Imageability with the a. Quantitative/ Spatial / First Order
planning model. b. Qualitative/ Visual / Second Order

Establishing the need for research

Figure 2.30 The sequence of stages to establish the need for research

2.9.2.2 Stage II

Figure 2.31 gives an outline of the assessment of the result of the

correlation approach of stage-I.

Inadequacy in the conventional

planning model in addressing the
Imageability parameters

Enquiring about the new Historical case studies of

planning models which Indian cities: Development
address the Imageability regulations and Imageability,
parameters in a better way and East Asian cities

Understanding the Form- Based Code, its

components, processes, different forms,
approaches, methods, implementation
techniques, etc.

Figure 2.31 The sequence of stages taken for the assessment

 89

2.9.2.3 Stage III

An overall analysis which leads to the application of the theory to

develop a City Specific Planning Model is shown in Figure 2.32.

Overall analysis of the Form-

Based Codes, which leads to a
Macro theory of the Transect

Existing model of Master

Plan and Development
Regulations in Chennai Developing a City Specific Planning
Model to evaluate and enhance
Imageability using different Context
Specific Transects to prepare the
Imageability case studies of regulating plan and formulating the FBC
other countries and developing with respect to building regulations and
the standards for the building and street frontage guidelines.
Imageability parameters for
the study area.

Figure 2.32 The sequence of stages taken to develop the city specific
planning model

2.9.2.4 Stage IV

Figure 2.33 explains how the City Specific Planning Model developed
in stage III is applied to Chennai city to zone the city into Context Specific
Transects

Evaluation of the Image

Analysis of the elements of the city from
study area-Chennai evolution to the present

Current divisions of Chennai Parameters to zone the city with

with land use, and other the Transect as the planning
administrative units like wards, strategy using the smallest
zones, taluks etc. administrative unit-ward/division.

Formulating standards for the

identified Imageability
parameters for the study area.

Figure 2.33 The sequence of stages taken to apply the city specific
planning model
 90

2.9.2.5 Stage V

The validation of the City Specific Planning Model developed in stage

III with the selected cases of streets within the selected transects and the
identified Special District of Chennai city is outlined in Figure 2.34.

Selecting the Context Specific

Transects for formulating the Form-
Based Code to enhance the
Imageability in general, and in
particular, the historical streets and
Special Districts ( SD).

Field survey of the selected Historical development of the

streets/ areas through a systematic city and the importance of the
observation recording method street /area in enhancing the
with a coding system for the Imageability
selected parameters of
Imageability

Evaluation of the existing Imageability

and comparing it with the Imageability
parameter standards formulated, the
Form-Based Code is formulated for each
case.

Figure 2.34 The sequence of stages taken to validate the model

2.9.2.6 Stage VI

Developing the FBC for the selected transect in general and the
street/area, Special Districts in specific to enhance the imageability is shown
in Figure 2.35.
 91

Desired Imageability for the

selected transect as a whole and
specific Imageability for the
identified streets/area

ANNA SALAI KAMARAJAR SALAI

MYLAPORE AREA
(TND- SD)

FBC with respect to Specific code at built level, at building with street level and
other public standards in context for each area.

Figure 2.35 The sequence of stages taken to formulate the FBC for the
selected area/street

2.10 DATA BASE

2.10.1 Study Area, Chennai City

Chennai, situated on the shores of the Bay of Bengal is the Capital

of Tamilnadu state, and is the fourth largest metropolis in India as shown in
Figure 2.36. Its older name ‘Madras’ was officially changed to 'Chennai' in
1996. Chennai Metropolis with a latitude between 12°50'49" and 13°1 7'24",
and a longitude Between 79°59'53" and 80°20'12" is located on the
Coramandal coast in South India and the land is a flat coastal plain.

CHENNAI

INDIA

TAMILNADU

Figure 2.36 Chennai location map

 92

Three rivers, viz., the Kosasthalaiyar, Cooum and Adyar pass

through the Chennai Metropolitan Area and these rivers are placid and
meander their way to the sea. Buckingham Canal, a man-made canal, is
another large waterway which runs North-South through this metropolis.
Sholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam Lakes are the three large
lakes in the area.

Chennai lies on the thermal equator and most of the year it is hot
and humid. The highest temperature attained in May-June is usually about
400C (1040F) for a few days. The coldest time of the year is early January, and
during that month the temperatures are about 200C (680F). The Predominant
wind direction is from South East to North West.

The Chennai Metropolitan Area comprises the area covered by the

Chennai City Corporation (Chennai District) of 176 sq.km comprising 155
wards (villages/ Local Bodies) in 10 corporation zones. Chennai has a very
heterogeneous mix of architectural styles ranging from ancient temples to the
British colonial era buildings and to the latest modern buildings. Most of the
buildings constructed during the colonial era are in the Indo Saracenic style.

Chennai is a major transportation hub for road, rail, air and sea
transport, connecting major cities inland and abroad; it is also one of the
major educational centres in India, with a number of colleges and research
institutions. Chennai is thus emerging as an important metropolis in the South
Asian region.

The three case studies selected for formulating the Form-Based

Code for Chennai city streets are Anna Salai (from Anna Flyover to Tarapore
Towers), Kamarajar Salai (from Napier Bridge to Light House) and the four
streets surrounding the Kapaleeswarar temple (North, South, East, West Mada
 93

streets) of Mylapore under the Context Specific Transect; CST 6, CST 5 (Eco
Zone), and CST 6 (Traditional Neighbourhood Development) respectively.

2.10.2 Source of the Data

1. Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority -DDPs

2. Chennai Second Master Plan-2008

3. Eicher City Map- Chennai 2005

4. Chennai Guide Map-Survey of India, 2002

5. Chennai Corporation- Ward Details with the Lot and Built up

area in each lot- Chennai Property Tax Division, March 2010

6. Census India 2001

For the reconnaissance survey along the major streets of Chennai

city, field surveys and observations were recorded through photographs and
data sheets in the designed format by traveling in a two-wheeler, car and bus.
The detailed primary data for the identified three areas and streets of Chennai
city has been collected by foot, over a period of two years, from
August 2008 – April 2010.

2.10.3 Collection of the Data

Data is collected in the form of primary survey via photographs and

observations marked in the prescribed format, prepared by the method of the
coding system.

2.10.3.1 Secondary Data

Secondary data is collected from the literature review. Data

collected in the form of prints of maps from the Chennai Metropolitan
 94

Development Authority (CMDA) is converted into a softcopy by scanning

and drafting, and editing with the Auto Cad 2008. The information regarding
the property tax in the form of Microsoft office files from the Chennai
Corporation are converted into Microsoft Excel files for the entire 155 wards
(22783 Pages) and analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS). With the identified parameters to measure the Transect Zone; the land
use intensity and density is calculated. Both the data are put together and
mapped to prepare the regulating plan of Chennai city with the different
Context Specific Transects (CST). Within each CST Special Districts (SD)
are identified further, through the field survey.

2.10.3.2 Primary Data

Primary data was collected for the identified Imageability

parameters through the field survey with the observation and coding system.

2.10.4 At City Level

The Overall data was based on the built up area and open space
ratio to prepare the map of Chennai City according to the Context Specific
Transect Zone.

2.10.5 At Street Level

The data regarding the width and profile of the street, buildings abutting the
street, street furniture, trees, parking are collected to prepare the street map.

2.10.6 At Building Level

The height of the buildings, total massing, building use, the style of
the building, orientation, exterior colour, material finish, fenestrations,
 95

presence of trees in the building premises, parking, and signages are collected
to analyse and evaluate the imageability.

2.10.7 Street and Building Level

Data regarding the sense of enclosure (Height of the building to

Abutting Street width ratio), pavements, and details of the front set back are
collected.

2.10.8 Characteristics of the Data

Data has been collected in the form of observation tables, maps in

the Acrobat pdf format, and ward details in the form of Microsoft Access.

2.10.9 Analysis of the Data

The analysis of the data collected from the field survey is done by
the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

2.11 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH

2.11.1 Scope

Even though it is understood from the literature study that

imageability and the governing planning regulatory of the city for the same
are interrelated, not much research has gone into developing a model of
linking these two. Available studies and research on imageability are
compiled to identify the list of parameters to measure the imageability. These
parameters are integrated into the existing system of the planning model,
master plan and development regulation system, through the proper approach
and method to enhance the imageability. This research would develop a
planning model for formulating the Form-Based Code (FBC) for cities in
general and for Chennai city in specific. This planning model is validated for
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Chennai in the case of selected streets/area in the Context Specific Transect

(CST).

2.11.2 Limitations

1. The second step in Paul Crawford’s Model to prepare the

Form-Based Code, i.e., public visioning and charrette, is not
incorporated in the formulation of the Form-Based Code for
Chennai.

2. Only two major streets and one Special District pertaining to

three different Context Specific Transects are taken in detail
for the formulation of the Form-Based Code.

3. The Form-Based Code is formulated only as street based, with

selected parameters.

4. The study area is limited to the Chennai city boundary.

2.12 CHAPTER WISE SUMMARY

Chapter 1 contains five main topics which are, 1) an overview of

the thesis 2) need for the research 3) premise of the research 4) the research
questions and 5) objectives of the research.

Chapter 2 provides the literature review on imageability and

explains the definitions and different models of image, need and uses,
different elements of the image, different classifications of the image,
parameters to measure imageability, quantitative and qualitative elements, list
of cues for strong imageability and a good city and its image. The literature
review on an appraisal of the urban planning tools and models, the elements
of settlements and their design, ancient planning principles and elements,
current urban planning tools and models with zoning as a planning tool,
principles of framing development regulations and formulation of standards
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and the master plan, zoning and outlines of the development regulations on the
city form and image are also covered in Chapter 2.

The case studies on the current urban planning models for some of
the East Asian cities and Indian cities with their master plan, development
regulations and imageability elements are analyzed. New approaches and
planning techniques with a stress on the Form-Based Code (FBC) are
presented. A comparison of the imageability parameters with the FBC, an
analysis of the Form-Based Code, history of the FBC and its processes,
components of the FBC, steps to prepare the FBC, different forms of
organizing the FBC, different approaches and methods for the FBC, different
implementation methods for the FBC, the advantages of the FBC and the
important points to be incorporated in the FBC are discussed in detail. The
history of the Transect, the principles and concepts of the transect along with
the methods and parameters for the transect zone are analyzed along with the
analysis of planning theories, and the different city models and their
imageability.

The next part in Chapter 2 gives the outline of the research design
with the methodology and procedure for research along with a detailed
explanation of the six different stages of research. An introduction to the
study area, Chennai, along with the source of data, method of data collection
at different levels, characteristics of the data and how it is analyzed, are
explained. The chapter wise summary is outlined at the end of this chapter.

In Chapter 3 the formulation of a planning model is developed. The

comparison of the different case studies of the Form-Based Codes and their
implementation methods is done to arrive at a suitable method for the study
area, Chennai city. A City Specific Planning Model (CSPM) as a tool to
evaluate and enhance imageability has been developed at the end of the
chapter.
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Chapter 4 contains the study area of this research, Chennai city,

which is outlined in three aspects. The first one analyses the image elements
of Chennai city from the evolution of the city to the present scenario. The
second part outlines the different major plans for Chennai at different periods
and their policies on the image of the city. The third part analyses the
reconnaissance survey conducted along the major street networks of Chennai
city to select the streets in different Context Specific Transects, to develop
various models and formulate the Form-Based Code in the form of a street
frontage hybrid.

Chapter 5 gives an outline of the method for the formulation of

standards for imageability parameters by analyzing the different case studies.
The imageability parameters considered, and the standards for these in
general to the specific for the study area, Chennai city, are formulated.

The application of the City Specific Planning Model to the study

area of Chennai city is explained in chapter 6. The preparation of the
regulating plan for the whole of Chennai city consisting of 155 wards with
respect to the density and land use intensity, to zone the city into various
Context Specific Transects and Special Districts, is identified within the
respective Context Specific Transects. Three different areas/streets in the
Context Specific Transects of Chennai are identified and the existing images
are evaluated and analyzed.

Chapter 7 outlines the summary of the findings to formulate the

Form-Based Code to enhance the Imageability of the selected Special District
areas/ streets within the Context Specific Transect with the conclusions.
Reflection on methodology along with the limitations and the implications of
the research are given at the end of the Chapter.