UNIT - 1

1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A

DISCIPLINE
• 3000 B.C – 18th Century - Development of cities from the ancient
times to the Renaissance

• Late 18th – Early 20th Century - Industrial Age and its impact on
Urban spaces

• Early 20th – Late 20th Century - Post War world and the
Modernist Movement

• Late 20th – Early 21st Century - Contemporary urban design

• Current context & the need for Urban Design

 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

ANCIENT TIMES TO THE RENAISSANCE (800 B.C – 1760 A.D)

Right from the ancient times up to the period of Renaissance, most towns and cities grew
organically. Few cities were consciously built based on certain principles. Based on the time
period and the predominant thought during that period, the cities took on a rectilinear or
radial pattern and often followed the grid plan. The planning was quite simplistic with focus on
demarcating the public and private spaces. Cities were developed or grew around a central
public space or market space or a place of worship. In India, cities that were planned were done
so based on the Shastric principles which had clear guidelines on city planning.

During the medieval times, some Western influence started to express itself along with
influences of the Mughal invaders of that time. In Western Europe, there was not much city
planning or building in the medieval times. Villages developed based on varied functions
(ex:church towns, farm towns etc) and were influenced by the prevalence of the feudal system.
Until this point, the aesthetic aspect of cities was not paid attention to. Villages and cities that
were planned or grew organically, were done so based on functional requirements of military,
trade, administrative ease or establishing power.

It’s during the Renaissance, with the discovery of the ancient Greek and Roman texts, bringing
the focus back to Humanism and the discovery of linear perspective, the aesthetic appeal of
cities started being given importance. This coupled with the objective of using the city as a
means of glorifying the ruler or State, led to cities being planned and built with monumental
splendor.

But the role of the city in providing for the needs of the citizens in terms of comfortable
homes, good sanitation and open spaces for good health or even the capacity of the city to
contribute to efficiency in production and distribution was not considered.

This focus on the aesthetic appeal of cities was absorbed by the New World. It can be seen in
the grandiose plan for Washington D.C by Pierre L’Enfant in 1791. His vision was to create a
"magnificent city, worthy of the nation, free of its colonial origins, and bold in its assertion of a
new identity."

This importance given to aesthetic appeal that started in the Renaissance can be seen to
resurface about 100 years later in the form of the City Beautiful Movement (1890s-1920s) and
the approach of Baron Haussmann (1852 onwards) as a means of tackling the ills of the
Industrial age.

While in much of the world, city plans were based on the concept of a centrally located public
space, the prescriptions for residential development varied from region to region. In America
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

the freestanding single-family house was becoming the norm; In Europe the attached house
was common; courtyard style houses and small houses with their compounds clearly marked
dominated the Mediterranean and the African and Asian regions.

THE INDUSTRIAL ERA AND ITS IMPACT (1760 – 1920)

1760 – 1840 – First Industrial Revolution

1870 – 1919 – Second Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century. With the discovery of the steam engine -
learning to use water and steam (by burning fossil fuels) to power machines – huge factories
and industries were setup to multiply production and increase trade. This opened up a new and
vast job market as a large number of workers were needed to work in these factories. Large
numbers of people started migrating from the countryside and other towns to these factory
towns for work. This is the reason why the population in cities grew exponentially over a short
period of time during the Industrial revolution. The workers needing to stay close to their place
of work, the factories, started settling in the areas around the factories. This, along with the
insufficient wages, caused the creation of slums with overcrowding and poor sanitary
conditions.

The industrial revolution had its impact on cities in the following ways:

1) Housing reforms
2) Forming of parks
3) Haussmann approach
4) City Beautiful movement
5) Garden cities
6) Streetcar suburbs
7) Planning around transportation technology
8) Impact in the Colonized world

Housing Reforms (1848, 1879)

The threat of disease provoked a reaction in which sanitation improvement was the first
demand. Significant betterment of public health resulted from engineering improvements
in water supply and sewerage. Later in the century the first housing reform measures were
enacted. The early regulatory laws (such as Great Britain’s Public Health Act of 1848 and the
New York State Tenement House Act of 1879) set minimal standards for housing construction.

It is only now that housing is starting to gain attention from a governing body. But even at
this point, the Government did not provide any funding to upgrade existing dwellings. That
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

Formation of Parks (1843 onwards)

While considering the need to upgrade the urban environment, recognition for the need for
recreational areas came up and parks were seen as a solution. Later playgrounds too were
carved out in congested areas not only for children but for adults too. Parks were to provide
visual relief and places for healthful play and relaxation for the working classes who were
otherwise confined to overcrowded housing and unhealthful workplaces.

New York’s Central Park, envisioned in the 1850s and designed by architects Calvert
Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, became a widely imitated model. Design contributions of the
Central Park include:

 the separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic

 creation of a romantic landscape within the heart of the city
 demonstrating that the creation of parks could greatly enhance real-estate values in
their surroundings.

Up until this point, parks were not a feature of the urban environment. Gardens were
designed during the Renaissance and were a prominent feature of the Mughal towns too. But
these were meant for the royals. They were not accessed by the common people. Parks as
public open spaces for the common man’s recreation started during the 19th century.

Birkenhead park in Liverpool, England is the first urban park in the world for public use financed
with public funds and designed by Joseph Paxton in 1843. This was the inspiration for New York’s
Central park.

Haussmann Approach (1852-1870)

Haussmann is known for his renewal of Paris from 1852 – 1870 under the directive of
Napoleon-III. Paris during the mid-19th century was overcrowded, dark, dangerous and filthy.
Napoleon-III envisioned a new imperial city that was beautiful and reflected the glory of the
French Empire. Haussmann’s designs involved the demolition of antiquated tenement
structures and their replacement by new apartment houses intended for the wealthy. The
modern apartment buildings that he designed had uniform exteriors. In the process of creating
tree lined boulevards and transportation corridors to connect the train terminals, he cut
through the cramped and chaotic labyrinth of slum streets in the city centre and knocked down
12,000 buildings. The poor people were dislodged from their homes in the centrally located
areas.
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

This template for Urban redevelopment programs – bulldozing an area and starting off on a
clean slate without any consideration for the existing urban fabric –continued to be the
methodology followed throughout Europe and the United States until the end of the 20 th
century and continues to be the practice in much of the ‘developing world’.

The City Beautiful Movement (1890s – 1920s)

The visual grandeur of the European cities with its arterial boulevards, radiating roads and
symmetrical squares inspired the City Beautiful Movement in the United States. This movement
was based on principles set out by American architect Daniel Burnham. The archetype of the City
Beautiful—characterized by grand malls and majestically sited civic buildings in Greco-
Roman architecture—was replicated in civic centers and boulevards throughout the country,
contrasting with the surrounding disorder and ugliness. This did not gain much momentum due
to its weak potential to enhance businesses’ profitability.

The Garden City (1902)

While the City Beautiful Movement focused on the civic centers, the Garden City focused on the
residential suburbs. The utopian concept of the garden city was first described by British social
reformer Ebenezer Howard in his book Garden Cities of To-Morrow (1902). This book offered a
vision of towns free of slums and enjoying the benefits of both town (such as opportunity,
amusement and high wages) and country (such as beauty, fresh air and low rents). Howard
called for a “cooperative commonwealth” in which rises in property values would be shared by
the community, open land would be communally held, and manufacturing and retail
establishments would be clustered within a short distance of residences. The Garden City was
essentially a suburban form that incorporated low-rise homes on winding streets and cul-de-
sac with the separation of commerce from residences, and plentiful open space lush with
greenery. Two English towns were built as garden cities, Letchworth and Welwyn. In the
following years, this vision of the garden city was adopted but without its socialist ideals. This
shaped the appearance of residential areas in much of United States and Great Britain.

Streetcar suburbs (1890s – 1930s)

In the U.S, around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, urban areas were heavily
influenced by the master plan. These plans usually specified a form of neighbourhood center
based around a commuter rail or streetcar station surrounded by a connected network of
streets lined with a variety of different types of housing. Commercial use buildings framed
public spaces. Parks and other green spaces were integrated into these neighborhoods.
Attention was paid to the adequate provision of sunlight into dwellings, to avoid the dour and
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

grimy spaces typical of the industrial cities of the period. They were called “streetcar suburbs”
because of their use of streetcars as the main means of public transportation.

The suburban development of Forest Hills Gardens in Queens, New York, designed as a “model town” in
1909 by architect Grosvenor Atterbury and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. came to be
dubbed as “the first Garden City in America”.

The urban sprawl of the industrial age along with needing to make provision for the commuter rail,
inspired the beautification process of cities exemplified by the Haussmann approach and the City
Beautiful Movement. The poor living conditions in the industrial cities inspired thoughts on the design
of residential areas - the concept of the garden city and the formation of the streetcar suburbs.

Planning around Transportation Technology

In the industrial age with the development of mechanized vehicles, development patterns
began to change. Subway systems were constructed in New York, London, and Paris at the
beginning of the 20th century. In the U.S, there was an increase in individual car ownership
and the consequent decline of public transit. The development of public transport in Europe
and the private automobile in the U.S, allowed the elements of city life to be more widely
spaced apart, but still quickly accessible by some mode of transportation. Workers were able to
live far from their jobs, and goods could move quickly from point of production to market.
However, automobiles and buses rapidly congested the streets in the older parts of cities. To
accommodate increased traffic, municipalities invested heavily in widening and extending
roads. Thus transportation technology became the single most influential factor in shaping the
physical form of the contemporary city.

No longer was it important to construct tightly organized, mixed-use and walkable

communities. We start to see a decline in the importance given to pedestrian friendly
spaces.

Impact on the Colonized World

The colonial powers transported European concepts of city planning to the cities of the
colonized countries. The result was often a new city planned according to Western principles of
beauty and separation of uses, adjacent to unplanned settlements both new and old. A
development exemplifying this approach is the development of New Delhi (1911-1931) based
on the schemed devised by British planners Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, right next to the
tangled streets of Old Delhi. Though the old city was not as salubrious, it offered its inhabitants
a sense of community, historical continuity, and a functionality more suited to their way of
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

life. The same pattern of development repeated itself throughout the British-ruled and French-
ruled territories in the world.

In countries like India, this pattern of development that happened during the Imperial rule -
development of new cities based on western principles of city planning next to the old cities
- still poses issues and is an additional challenge faced in the development of our urban
areas.

MODERNIST MOVEMENT (1920S-1980S)

 The utopian idea

 The charter and the principles
 Industrial Age thinking translated into the Built environment
 Development in the Post War World
 Effects of the Modernist Urban Design

Utopian idea

The Modernist Urban design movement was actually a response to the cramped, polluted and
disease ridden industrial city where the workers lived miserable lives in dismal and unsanitary
slums. The vision was to create bright, new, healthy environments full of sun, fresh air, open
space, and greenery, where bold new buildings were sited apart in lush, sun filled landscapes.
This movement took shape and progressed under the intellectual leadership of designers such
as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Hilbersheimer, and the
artists and architects at the Bauhaus.

The Charter and the Principles

The International Congress of Modern Architecture - CIAM (Congrès International

d’Architecture Moderne) was founded in 1928 to propagate the ideas of modern architecture
and in 1942 these principles were published in the Charter of Athens.

The Charter narrowly defined the modern city under four categories each with its distinct and
separate location and urban form.

The “Four Functions” of the city was defined by the Charter were:
 Dwelling
 Work
 Recreation
 Transportation
 A fifth heading briefly discussed historic buildings
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

The Charter however did not have any details regarding the social, economic, or architectural
character of existing residential or mixed use neighborhoods.

The result was compartmentalized and socially disjointed urban spaces. The traditional
physical fabric, and therefore the social fabric as well, of urban areas started to progressively
dismantle.

Industrial Age thinking translated into the Built environment

It’s interesting to observe how the thinking of the industrial age has translated into the
shaping of our cities. Industrial age began and progressed with the development of machines
running on steam power and later electric power. Machines are nothing but varied parts put
together to make a whole and perform a specific function. They do not have additional
complex layers of thoughts and feelings to them. If they (the parts) are put together right and
have a power supply, they (the machine) function(s). The abstraction of the city into 4
different functions and placing them apart connected by road networks and expecting them
to create vibrant cities is the epitome of this kind of thinking.

Moreover, during the industrial age with the evolution of machines, the concept of
‘efficiency’ became the central theme of all activities – efficiency in production; efficiency in
distribution; and the same thinking extended to efficiency in building cities. Efficiency became
synonymous with simplicity. And simplicity expressed itself as specializations and single use
zoning in the urban context.

Development in the Post War World (1945-1980s)

During the postwar period European governments mounted massive housing and rebuilding
programs within their devastated cities. At the same time, the modernist planning principles
were being made popular by the CIAM. The concepts of efficiency and simplicity reflected in the
Modernist principles of the Athens Charter complemented well the need (of the governments)
to produce large-scale, relatively inexpensive projects within the shortest time span possible.
Thus the modernist principles became the widely adopted methodology for development
during the post war period right up to the late 20th century. Additionally, government
involvement in housing development gave the public sector a more direct means of controlling
the pattern of urban growth through its investments.

In the Colonized worlds

1950s onwards many of the countries that were previously colonized, like India, gained
independence. Planning structures became highly centralized within the newly formed
governments which typically laid down the framework for city planning. These planning
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

systems were very much based on the modernist principles which had been brought into these
countries by their colonial rulers.

Effects of the Modernist Urban Design

1) Mixed use neighbourhoods became single use zones

2) Open spaces became the breeding ground for crime

High-rise structures separated by green spaces were characteristic of the developments
built during this period. The open space between buildings was to allow universal
access to sunlight and greenery. But in practice, these spaces lacked definition in terms
of ownership. They were neither public nor truly private. This led to dysfunctional
consequences and issues of urban control and management.

3) The focus of streets shifted from being pedestrian friendly to accommodate

automobiles.

4) The promotion of the International Style of Architecture by the CIAM resulted in

monotonous and characterless urban spaces.
The public was earlier used to a more rich and conventional architectural language of
historical detail and imagery, even in the most modest of structures. Hence the
uniformity and abstraction of the modernist buildings puzzled and dismayed the user.
Over time, redeveloped urban areas bred a form of distaste and antagonism among
residents who lived and worked there.

The failing of the modernist approach lies in its perception of the city as merely 4 abstract
functions that when put together would form a town. It failed to see the interconnectedness
and the complex ways in which these primary aspects function together.

CONTEMPORARY URBAN DESIGN (1960S – TO DATE)

The period from 1960s – 1980s is a period of transition from modernist ideals to a more
humanistic and socialistic approach to urban design. Varied groups and individuals contributed
to this thought process to identify the desirable qualities of successful urban places.

Some of these contributions have been briefly discussed below.

Team X (1958)

In the U.S, a group of younger architects and urbanists who played a role in organizing the tenth
congress for CIAM in 1958, came to be known as Team X. These architects sought to enrich
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

modernism with a sense of humanism and social reality that the simplistic Four Function
model lacked. The search for new concepts focused around the recovery of more human
scaled spaces and an architectural vocabulary that reconnected with public taste and urban
history.

Role of Jane Jacobs (1961)

Jane Jacobs in her landmark book The Death and Life of American Cities (1961) brought about
a renewed appreciation for the traditional urban form. She described the vitality and life on
the streets in her New York neighborhood which contrasted with the crime of the urban
wastelands created by urban renewal programs. She concentrated on the sociofunctional
aspects of streets, sidewalks and parks and expresses in detail their role as containers of
human activity and places of social interaction. Jacobs also criticized the large-scale clearance
operations for destroying the complex social fabric of cities and imposing an inhuman
orderliness.

New Urbanism (1993)

The concept of New Urbanism was formalized through the publication of the Charter for New
Urbanism in 1993. New Urbanists were 'committed to re-establishing the relationship between
the art of building and the making of community, through citizen based participatory planning
and design' (CNU, 1999). While explicitly recognizing that physical solutions alone cannot solve
social and economic problems, the Charter argued that 'neither can economic vitality,
community stability, and environmental health be sustained without a coherent and supportive
physical framework'. It advocated the restructuring of public policy and development practices
to support the following principles:

• Neighbourhoods should be diverse in use and population.

• Communities should be designed for the pedestrian and for transit, as well as for the car.

• Cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public
spaces and community institutions.

• Urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local
history, climate, ecology and building practice.

The Charter also asserted principles to guide development at the scales of region (metropolis,
city and town), neighbourhood (district and corridor) and block (street and building).
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

Francis Tibbalds (1992)

In the U.K as a response to an architectural design framework offered by The Prince of Wales,
an urban design framework with ten principles was developed by Francis TIbbalds.

The ten principles were:

1) consider places before buildings

2) have the humility to learn from the past and respect your context
3) encourage the mixing of uses in towns and cities
4) design on a human scale
5) encourage the freedom to walk about
6) cater for all sections of the community and consult with them
7) build legible (recognisable or understandable) environments
8) build to last and adapt
9) avoid change on too great a scale at the same time
10) with all the means available, promote intricacy, joy and visual delight in the built
environment.

Some of the common themes that emerged from the various frameworks put forth during
the late 20th century:

 Mixed use neighbourhoods

 Human scaled development
 Recognizing the street as a significant contributing factor to the enrichment of social
life
 Pedestrian friendly spaces
 Building legible environments
 Ease of access

Thus towards the end of the 20th century we see a shift from the purely physical and
functional approach of the modernist model to a more socialist approach to urban design.
This has paved way for the ‘place-making’ approach in urban design.
 1.1 EMERGENCE OF URBAN DESIGN AS A DISCIPLINE

CURRENT CONTEXT AND THE NEED FOR URBAN DESIGN

Current focus of city building/planning

In the earlier times cities were built to reflect the power of the State. During the Industrial
revolution cities developed around industries and factories. Post the first industrial revolution
attention started being paid to the development of housing to address the squalor living
conditions of the industrial cities. As a response to the ill effects of the Industrial age on cities,
the modernist movement came into being. Post the Second World War massive city building
and redevelopment took place to resurrect the devastated cities. Towards the end of the 20th
century the focus of city building has turned to growth in economy. Cities are now viewed as
vehicles for economic growth and development.

Current world issues

The way our cities have been developed since the industrial revolution has led to a disturbance
in the ecological balance leading to climate change and the increased occurrence of natural
disasters.

Reduction in green cover; development without consideration for the natural topography; the
mismanagement of our water bodies; heavy dependence on the private vehicle impacting air
quality (relevance of TOD); heavy use of plastic and other non-biodegradable materials
polluting our lands and water systems forever – are some of the ways our development
methods have affected our planet.

Hence protecting our environment and ‘saving our planet’ are the most pressing concerns of
our current times. World over discussions on the ways to manage and control our impact on
the environment are at the forefront and the environmental impact of developments has
become a crucial factor to be considered in the development process. This has brought an
additional layer to be factored in the city development process.

Current planning process

To a large extent our current urban planning models are still based on some of the modernist
principles. Apart from this aspect, in the current scenario, a number of varied people are
involved in the shaping of our urban environments – urban and town planners, architects,
landscape architects, transportation and road engineers, surveyors, developers, investors,
occupiers, civil servants, politicians, crime and fire prevention officers, environmental health
officials, and many others. In the government front, each professional represents a department
and each department has its own policy. These varied policies have different and unique
impacts on the forming of urban spaces.
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These multifarious professionals and their decisions affect the way the urban environment is
being shaped. More often than not, these varied professional and departments are working
and creating in isolation rather than in congruence. The resultant product created – the urban
space and its quality – is merely a sum of all these individual decisions. The resultant quality of
the urban environment is created by chance rather than by conscious deliberate thought. In
other words, the urban space created is in spite of all these varied factors instead of because
of all these factors.

This evidently expresses the need for urban design as a discipline and profession.