lecture 2a - current urban issues

SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183

URBAN DESIGN &CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT

UDCRUCURRENT URBAN DESIGN ISSUES

by Chau Loon Wai

TO THINK OF URBAN DESIGN AS A SEPARATE SKILL IS A DIVERSION, A CONVENIENT SEPARATION OF THOSE DIFFICULT ARTS THAT ARE REALLY NOTHING LESS THAN TOWN PLANNING.

THE TOWN PLANNING PROFESSION – WHETHER IT ACCEPTS AND FACES UP TO THE FACT OR NOT – HAS HAD AND WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE RESPONSIBILITY, THROUGH THE DRAWING UP OF PLANS, THE CONSIDERATION OF PROPOSALS AND THE RECOMMENDATION OF

PERMISSIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT, FOR URBAN DESIGN.

IT IS AN ART TOWN PLANNING MUST ITSELF REVIVE, MUST TAKE AGAIN TO ITS HEART, AND LEARN, AGAIN TO DESIGN. FOR PLANNERS, URBAN DESIGN IS NOT AN OPTION, IT IS TOWN

PLANNING.BOB JARVIS

“THE LOST ART OF TOWN PLANNING”Urban Design Quarterly, Issue 43, July 1992 (pg. 29)



UDCRU

Towns / cities (product of design) have become too big to be legible & easily understood, perceived and managed

CURRENT URBAN DESIGN ISSUESby Chau Loon Wai



UDCRU

Towns / cities are becoming more influenced / being shaped (design process) by design concepts that are alien

to the local context and through development & design by people foreign to the local lifestyles.




UDCRU

Local Communities have been sidelined in the development of towns / cities (design process); the local communities should actually be initialising development(designers, developers, politicians are just tools / means

to achieve community goals)


www.usc.edu – Gledok Chinatown, Jakarta www.usc.edu – Jakarta skyline



UDCRU

Economic rationalisation / efficiency leads to predominantly mega-scale developments (product of design) that are unsustainable ecologically, socially, &

even economically in the long run




UDCRU

Misconception of Urban Design as merely the placing of bollards; selecting materials for pedestrian ways;

initiating urban landscape; urban beautifications and image enhancements (design process).




UDCRU

Lack of integration in city development (design process) across all administrative boundaries, disciplinary

boundaries, & spatial boundaries

Breaking into components:

predominantly town planning & architecture, which compete with engineering & pathetically balanced up by

“modern urban design”





by Chau Loon Wai

Misconception of “BIG is Beautiful” &

“the Bigger the Better”; what we need is actually

“Better NOT Bigger” (product of design)



UDCRU

Failure (or disinterest?) among built environment professionals to study, understand & appreciate the

“natural” process & good principles of City Building that created many timelessly beautiful, liveable & more

sustainable traditional cities; failure to learn from the past (design process)




UDCRU

Urban Design is not emphasised at all in current town planning practice (design process); where is “Urban

Design” in the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172)?

CITY IMAGE?

View Shed?

CITY Comfort?URBAN QUALITY?

Hum

an Scale?

walkability?

LIVEABILITY?

Aesthetic?

People Plac

es?

genius loci?

inclusiveness?iDEntiTy?

Vitality?

Human Needs?

roBusTNess?


Buildin

g Mass

ing?

legibility?

Landmarks?Public-

Private Interface?



UDCRU

Town planners / urban designers passively following trends (design process) without seriously questioning

their causes & effects; design should be a pro-active tool of change


www.sunway.com.my www.lasvegastourism.com



UDCRU

Current planning system promotes (design process)mono-functional zoning & segregation of land uses

imbalanced development; cities become solely landscape of consumption, hinterland / regions become

predominantly landscape of production (product of design)

urban sprawl uncontrolledrelatively low density (generally)

increased car dependencysocial segregation / disintegration




UDCRU

Planning & Design for machinery-needs rather than for human-needs (design process) loss of identity of place,

genius loci, human scale, freedom to move about placelessness (product of design)


York, UK Paris, France – morning rush hour



UDCRU

Privatisation of public places(product of design)


Meadowhall Shopping Mall, Sheffield, UK

Mea

dow

hall

Sho

ppin

g M

all,

She

ffie

ld, U

K



UDCRU

Failure of town planners / urban designers to understand / visualise the implications of 2-dimensional plans &

policy statements onto the real 3-dimensional physical environment; failure to translate planning ideals into

physical realities (design process)





by Chau Loon Wai

TO THINK OF URBAN DESIGN AS A SEPARATE SKILL IS A DIVERSION, A CONVENIENT SEPARATION OF THOSE DIFFICULT ARTS THAT ARE REALLY NOTHING LESS THAN TOWN PLANNING.

THE TOWN PLANNING PROFESSION – WHETHER IT ACCEPTS AND FACES UP TO THE FACT OR NOT – HAS HAD AND WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE RESPONSIBILITY, THROUGH THE DRAWING UP OF PLANS, THE CONSIDERATION OF PROPOSALS AND THE RECOMMENDATION OF

PERMISSIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT, FOR URBAN DESIGN.

IT IS AN ART TOWN PLANNING MUST ITSELF REVIVE, MUST TAKE AGAIN TO ITS HEART, AND LEARN, AGAIN TO DESIGN. FOR PLANNERS, URBAN DESIGN IS NOT AN OPTION, IT IS TOWN

PLANNING.BOB JARVIS

“THE LOST ART OF TOWN PLANNING”Urban Design Quarterly, Issue 43, July 1992 (pg. 29)

lecture 2a - current urban issues

Documents

conservation

meadowhall

chau loon

towns cities

town planning

art town planning

urban design

town planning