Theory & Principles of Planning Part IV The

ART AND SCIENCE OF SITE PLANNING

and LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

6th

SITE PLANNING The art and science of arranging the uses of portions of land is site planning. Site planners designate these uses in detail by selecting and analyzing sites, forming land use plans, organizing vehicular and pedestrian circulation, developing visual forms and material concepts, readjusting existing landforms by design grading, providing proper drainage, and finally developing the construction details necessary to carry out the project.

Definition

SITE DESIGN Entails the whole range of concerns relating to the development, or redevelopment, of a piece of ground for some planned purposes. Common purpose is the construction of a building on the ground of a site; thus, building/site relations and interactions to direct physical connections and sharing of the site space are experienced or perceived.

1. Site Development. Concerns items on and below the ground surface of a site, the buildings and its various building utilities and services.

2. Concerns for Site Development: ! Division of Site Development ! The Micro-Site: Internal Concerns ! The Macro-Site: Extended Environment ! Building/Site Relations.

3. Fundamental concerns: Routes of access to building entry point 1. Placement and orientation of building on site Building base and foundation development Underground connection to services/utilities. Basic Functional relations

General Character of the site Neighborhood environment 1. Function of the site unto itself.

Aspect of S

ite Design

Site Conditions 1. Existing Site Conditions 2. Design Problem considerations 3. Physical Site conditions 4. Site Survey. Maps on boundaries, access road location and transportation networks, utilities easement, and major site features.5. Helpful Maps. Geologic Map, Zoning Map, Aerial Surveys, General Map 6. Site Development Plans 7. Site Plans 8. Grading Plans 9. Construction Plans 10. Helpful Data Sources: Surface Drainage, Existing Streets, Existing Utilities, Adjacent Properties 11. General Information on: -Ownership Legality/Access availability and usage -Zoning Ordinance -Weather and General Climatic Records -Regional Demographic Studies -General Community or Regional Development Plans -Legal Constraints -Ownership -Usage Restrictions -Building Codes/Local and National Building laws & Ordinances

THE ASPECTS OF SITE PLANNING 1. Defining the site design problem. The problem considered is how to get a building on the site and which site situations may present constraints or difficulty. 2. Traffic. Management of considerable traffic for both the pedestrian and vehicles. People and cars must be moved on and off the site and around the site for various purposes: entry, access roads, pedestrian routes, and vehicular system routes.3. PARKING. A requirement for all building sites. It may be a surface parking on a paved area or a structure parking within the building or in a separate building on site. 4. THE VISIBLE SITE. Site Planning generally deals with the visible portion of the site as to what is seen walked on and participated or used by the users of the site and the buildings on it. It shall be considered from these views: a. All possible points: on the site, off the site, inside and outside the building, from the neighboring buildings, etc. b. At night, during daylight, with site lighting turned on or off. c. At different times of the year, different seasons affect landscape and environment of the site. d. By persons on vehicles passing through or just walking by.

BUILDING/SITE RELATIONSSiting the building establishes the specific geometric, spatial relationship between a building and its site. Consisting of : HORIZONTAL POSITIONING. Establishes the plan location of the building on the site considering the following factors: 1. Setbacks 2. Protection of easements 3. Site space for driveways, walks, underground utilities 4. Protection of views or privacy 5. Construction allowances 6. Topography 7. The shape of the building (building ground level perimeter profile) is usually strongly related to the site form, especially for tight sites where the building covers a major portion of the site surface. The building shape is both restricted by the site form and strongly limits the potential for developing other site areas.

BUILDING/SITE RELATIONSVERTICAL POSITIONING 1. Relation to any existing buildings or other features2. Relation to existing site features: grades, ground water levels, soil conditions.3. Relation to existing underground utilities.4. Vertical locations of both the edges and buildings will also establish some conditions for other site elements- most notably sidewalks, driveways, terraces, breezeways or other elements involving traffic of people or vehicles.

Site drainage, as it affects both the site and the building, will be strongly defined. It is best to direct surface drainage away from the building edges, especially when there are basement spaces. Controlled drainage on a tight site or one with problem site edges may present a different situation, and building edges may actually be used as a site drainage collection points that feed into a sewer system.

BUILDING/SITE RELATIONSACCESS.The access path typically begins with the concern for access on to the site, which is usually constrained by adjacent properties or streets for 2 forms of traffic pedestrian and vehicular. Access also considers the provision of accessibility for persons with limited abilities "SERVICES. Consist of: 1. Water supply 2. Sewers 3. Electrical power 4. Gas 5. Telephone lines 6. Cable TV7. General deliver-mail and courier services8. Trash collection9. Firefighting 10. Building/Site Spatial Continuity 11. External viewed building as an object on the site 12. Seen from the inside the building 13. Entry and exit passage

Special Concerns For Sites 1. Lighting. Electrically Powered Outdoor Lighting May Serve Various Purposes. Sometimes Several Different Purposes Can Be Fulfilled With the Use of a Single Fixture. It Is Important to Understand the Different Kinds of Illumination Needs in Order to Accurately Judge the Value and Appropriateness of the Many Different Lighting Systems.2. Height of Fixtures. Light Intensity Decreases Rapidly As Distance From the Source Increases; Thus, the Higher the Fixture, the Less Illumination Will Deliver at Ground Level. However, the Higher the Source, the Wider the Areas It Will Affect.3. Spacing of Fixtures. Widely Spaced Fixtures Will Result in Local Bright Spots With a Falloff of Illumination Between Them; Closely Spaced Fixtures Can Produce a Relatively Uniform Illumination. A. Form of Fixtures and Type of Lighting Elements B. Illumination of the Building Exterior C. Illumination of Traffic Paths D. Security Lighting E. Accent Illumination and Decorative Lighting

Special Concerns For Sites4. Acoustics. Controlling sound on site is somewhat limited, compared to situations inside the building. Although not much can be done to modify or control this situation, site development offers some possible solutions for sound control as: a. Consider the location of sound generating facilities on site (mechanical rooms) b. Utilize ground forms (hills, etc) c. High site walls d. Tall dense plantings 5. Communication and signage. Communication functions are an aspect of site development. All entrances and exits should have signage for proper communications. It is a good design exercise to walk through a proposed site to see how much communication is achieved without recourse to signs. If this form of communication is optimal, the signs will work all the better, and will not fight with the visual signals on the site. 6. Security. A lot is enclosed through various means of enclosure to present a sense and actually secure the activities and the users. Nowadays, with the growing threat of terrorism and insurgency globally, security had been a major system in site development. Electronic gadgets, equipments are being developed to fill the gap in the market demand in this area. More and more users require a security system not just for their homes but in all the places, they are using.

LAND ANALYSIS Topography Topography describes the surface features of land. A topographic map shows the slope and contour of the land as well as other natural and artificial features. It is developed from a topographic survey by a land surveyor and includes: Property boundaries Existing buildings Utility poles Roads Manufactured features Trees natural features: rock outcroppings & heavy vegetation Contour lines on a map are a graphic way to show the elevations of the land in a plan view and are used to determine the suitability of the land for various uses. Contour intervals is the vertical distance between contour lines

" SLOPE ANALYSIS CATEGORIES:Slope 0%-4%" Usable for all types of intense activities and are easy to build on.Slope 4%-10%"Suitable for informal movement and outdoor activity and can also be but without much difficulty.Slopes over 10%-25% " Difficult to climb or use for outdoor activity and more difficult and expensive to build on.Slopes over 25%" Depending on the conditions of the soil, are subject to erosion and become more expensive to build on." Respecting the natural contours and slope of the land is important from an ecological, aesthetic and ecological standpoint. Ideally, the amount of earth cut away in grading operations should equal the amount required to fill in other portions of the site.

LAND ANALYSIS

NATURAL FEATURES 1. View analysis may be required to determine the most desirable ways to orient buildings, outdoor areas, and approaches to the buildings. Undesirable views can be minimized or blocked with landscaping or other manufactured features.2. Significant natural features such as rock outcroppings, cliffs, caves, and bogs should be identified to determine whether they must be avoided or can be used as positive design features in the site design. 3. Subsurface conditions of groundwater and rock must be known also. Sites with high water tables (about 1.80-2.40 meters below grade) can cause problems with excavations, foundations, utility placement, and landscaping. The water table is the level underground in which the soil is saturated with water. Generally, the water follows the slope of the grade above, but it may vary slightly. Boring logs will reveal whether groundwater is present and how deep it is. 4. Sites with a preponderance of rocks near the surface can be very expensive and difficult to develop. Blasting is usually required, which can increase the site development costs significantly (or may not be allowed by the city code restrictions)

DRAINAGE Every site has some type of natural drainage pattern that must be taken into account during design. In some cases the drainage may be relatively minor, consisting only of the runoff from the site itself and a small amount from adjacent sites. This type of drainage can be easily diverted around roads, parking lots, and buildings with curbs, culverts, and minor changes in the contours of the land. In other cases major drainage paths such as gullies, dry gulches, or rivers may traverse the site. These will have a significant influence on potential site development because they must, in most cases, be maintained. Buildings need to be built away from them or must bridge them so that water flow is not restricted and potential damages are avoided. If modifications to the contours are required, the changes must be done in such a way that the contours of the adjacent properties are not disturbed.The development of the site may be so extensive that excessive runoff is created due to roof areas, roads, and parking lots. All of these increase the runoff coefficient, the fraction of total precipitation that is not absorbed into the ground. If the runoff is greater than the capacity of the natural or artificial drainage of the site, holding pools must be constructed to temporarily collect the site runoff and release it at a controlled rate.

SOIL

Soil is the pulverized upper layer of the earth, formed by the erosion of rocks and plant remains modified by living plants and organisms. Generally, the visible layer is topsoil, a mixture or mineral and organic material. The thickness of topsoil may range from just a few inches to a foot or more. Below this is a layer mostly mineral material, which is above a layer of the fractured and weathered parent material of the soil above. Below all these layers is solid bedrock. Soil is classified according to grain size and as either organic or inorganic

GRAIN SIZE CLASSIFICATION and CHARACTERISTICS

Gravel particles over 2 millimeters in diameter Sands particles from 0.05 to 2 millimeters in diameter, the

finest grains visible to the eye. Gravels and sands are excellent for construction loads and

drainage and for sewage drain fields, but they are unsuitable for landscaping.

Silt particles from 0.002 to 0.05 millimeters in diameters, the grains are invisible but can be felt as smooth

Silt is stable when dry or damp but unstable when wet. It swells and heaves when frozen and compresses under load. Generally building foundations and road bases must extend below it or must be elastic enough to avoid damage. Some non-plastic silts are usable for lighter loads.

Clay particles under 0.002 millimeters in diameter, smooth and floury when dry, plastic and sticky when wet.

Clay expands when wet AND IS SUBJECT TO SLIPPAGE. It is

poor for foundations and unless it can be kept dry, It is also poor for landscaping and unsuitable for sewage drain fields or other types of drainage. "

Peat and other organic materials are excellent for landscaping but unsuitable for building foundations or road bases. Usually, these soils must be removed from the site and replaced with sands and gravels for foundations and roads.

GRAIN SIZE CLASSIFICATION and CHARACTERISTICS

TRANSPORTATION and UTILITY INFLUENCES1. Roads provide a primary means of access to a site. Their availability and capacity may be prime determinants in whether and how a parcel of land can be developed. Basic Categories of Roads:

a Local Streets have the lowest capacity and provide direct access to building sites. They may be in the form of continuous grid or curvilinear systems or may be cul-de-sacs or loops. b Collector Streets connect local streets and arterial streets. They have a higher capacity than local streets but are not usually intended for through traffic. Intersections of collector and local roads may be controlled by stop signs, whereas intersections with arterial streets will be controlled with stop lights. c Arterial Streets are intended as major, continuous circulation routes that carry large amounts of traffic on two or three lanes. They usually connect expressways. Parking on the street is typically not allowed and direct access from arterial streets to building sites should be avoided. d Expressways are limited access roads designed to move large volumes of traffic between, through and around population centers. Intersections are made by various type of ramp systems, and pedestrian access is not allowed. Expressways have a major influence on the land due to the space they require and their noise and visual impact.

2. Public Transit The availability and location of public transit lines can influence site design. A site analysis should include a determination of the types of public access available (whether bus, subway, rail line or taxi stop) and the location relative to the site. Building entrances and major site features should be located conveniently to the public transit. In large cities, site development may have to include provisions for public access to subway and rail lines. 3. Service Access Service to a site includes provisions for truck loading, moving vans, and daily delivery services. Ideally service access should be separated from automobile and pedestrian access to a site and a building. Space for large-truck turning4. Utility Availability 5. Local Government Services

TRANSPORTATION and UTILITY INFLUENCES