urban planning theories

Urban Planning Theories

Presented by: Ar. Akanksha Modi Poornima University, Jaipur, Rajasthan

The design and regulation of the uses of space that focus on the physical form, economic functions, and social impacts of the urban environment and on the location of different activities within. This involves goal setting, data collection and analysis, forecasting, design, strategic thinking, and public consultation. Three actors have main role in urban planning • The decision-makers • The technicians

Urban planning

• Spatial is relating to space • Urbanization is the movement of population from

rural to urban areas • A theory is an organized system of accepted

knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena.

• Urbanization is a relatively new global issue. • In 1950 only 30% of the world’s population was

urbanized and 50% in 2009 lived in urban centres • The big question is how do towns come about to be?

Introduction to Urban Planning

• The first recorded description of urban planning is described in the Epic of Gilgamesh,

• Designed cities were characteristic of the Minoan, Mesopotamian, Harrapan, and Egyptian civilizations of the ancient period.

• Aristotle says- “Hippodamus invented the vision of cities”. Therefore he was called the father of Urban planning in the 5th century BC.

• Ideal cities centrally planned in the 15th century. • In 1876 the term urbanisation posed by Ildefons

Cerdà due to the re construction processes

History of Urban Planning

The city of Priene

• Proposed by Hippodamus of Miletus who is considered the father of rational city planning

• The center of the city contains the agora (Market place), theaters, and temples.

• Private rooms surround the city’s public arenas. • The plan can be laid out uniformly over any kind of

terrain since it’s based on angles and measurements.

Grid model/Hippodamian plan

Grid model/Hippodamian plan

Priene city

• Planning and architecture went through a paradigm shift at the turn of the 20th century.

• The industrialised cities of the 19th century had grown at a tremendous rate, with the pace and style of building largely dictated by private business concerns.

• The evils of urban life for the working poor were becoming increasingly evident as a matter for public concern.

Modern Urban Planning

• Planning theorist- Paul Knox argues that the profession of planning emerges out of a series of crisis and people’s responses to them

• health crisis (epidemics) • social crisis (riots, strikes) • other crisis (fire, flood, etc.)

Urban planning is a response to these crisis or problems

Modern Urban Planning

Modern Urban Planning• Physician Benjamin Ward Richardson wrote Hygeia,

City of Health (1876) envisioning: • air pollution control • water purification • sewage handling • public health inspectors • replacement of the gutter with the park as the site of

children’s play • Such concerns motivated the Parks Movement. • Naturalistic parks were created in the U.S. by Frederick

Law Olmstead, Central Park being the Ist, New York, 1857.

Modern Urban Planning Theories• 1883 Linear City- Don Asturo Soria Y Mata • 1902 Garden Cities - Sir Ebenezer Howard • 1909 Region City- Sir Patrick Geddes • 1922 Radiant city- Le Corbusier • 1925 Concentric Zone theory- Sociologist Ernest Burgess • 1929 The Neighbourhood Unit theory- Clarence Perry • 1929 Radburn City- Clarence Stein & Henry Wright • 1933 Central place Theory- Walter Christaller • 1934 Broad Acre city- Frank Lloyd Wright • 1932 Sector Theory- Economist Homer Hoyt • 1945 Multiple Nuclei - C.D Harris &Edward L Ullman

The Linear City• A town for 30,000 people based upon the principal

transport route which is 100 meter wide of infinite length depending upon urban growth.

• All services channeled along the street • Other community facilities group at regular intervals • Residential area is limited to 200 meter either side

beyond which would lie the Countryside. • The linear city gears away from the usual centric

urban forms. The lines help control the expansion of a city.

DON ARTURO SORIA Y MATA 1844-1920

The linear city gears away from the usual centric urban forms. The lines help control the expansion of a city.

prezi.com

The Linear City

• Addressed population and pollution that came about by the industrial revolution by creating garden cities.

• Created by Ebenezer Howard in 1898 to solve urban and rural problems

• “Garden City”, most potent planning model in Western urban planning

• Source of many key planning ideas during 20th century. • Welwyn and Letchworth are the cities designed for 40,000

and 35000 people respectively. • Influenced the later strategy of building new towns in the

UK, US, Canada, Argentina, Israel and Germany.

Garden city– Sir Ebenezer Howard

Garden City

A great deal of criticism has been levelled at Howard’s plans as being unrealistic in their adherence to geometric proportion, but he presented his design of concentric circles of varying land use as a universal rather than as a particular mode.

First Garden City was Letchworth in Hertfordshire .

Sir Ebenezer Howard’s Three Magnets

• The possibility that the best of urban and rural could be incorporated on “Garden City”.

• Inspired by the idea of ideal/Utopian cities.

• Was intended to bring together the economic and cultural advantages of city and country life while at the same time discouraging metropolitan sprawl and industrial centralisation.


• As with most instances of social engineering, it didn’t quite achieve what it set out to do.

• an ideal, self-contained community of pre determined area & population surrounded by a greenbelt.

• Land ownership would be vested in the community (socialist element)


http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/06003.jpg

Garden city Welwyn– Sir Ebenezer Howard

http://www.letchworth.com/sites/default/files/images/letchworth_aerial_photos_142.jpg

• Introduced the notion of a region

• Called the Father of Modern Town Planning. • Biologist,sociologist,and geographer. • Wrote the book Cities in Evolution. • Dissected the planning environment by analysing

occupational activities. • Used observation and the rational planning method

of Survey Analysis

The Region City- Sir Patrick Geddes

• Introduced the term conurbation, which means “an aggregation of continuous network of urban communities.


•Patrick Geddes explained an organism’s relationship to its environment as follows: •This can be understood as a place acting through

climatic and geographic processes upon people and thus shaping them. •At the same time people act, through economic

processes such as farming and construction, on a place and thus shape it. •Thus both place and folk are linked and through

work are in constant transition. • Emphasised the relationships of people & cities, thus

the city- region term.

Radiant City,

●Le Corbusier: Founding father of the modernist movement.

●Had a very high density: ● 1,200 people per acre in skyscrapers ● overcrowded sectors of Paris & London ranged from

169-213 pers./acre at the time. ● 120 people per acre in luxury houses ● 6 to 10 times denser than current luxury housing in

the U.S ●Multi-level traffic system to manage the intensity of

traffic

http://alanamuir.wikispaces.com/file/view/Corbusier_cartesian_skyscrapers.jpg/333908066/Corbusier_cartesian_skyscrapers.jpg

LE VILLE RADIEUSE(THE RADIANT CITY)

GRIDS

CUBIST AESTHETICS

ORDERLY, RATIONAL CITY BLOCKS

BOX-TYPE HOUSES

60-STOREY BUILDINGS

Radiant City,

Also known as The Bull's Eye Model • The concentric zone model, also known as the Burgess

model or the CCD model, is one of the earliest theoretical models to explain urban social structures.

• It was created by sociologist Ernest Burgess in 1925. • The model portrays how cities social groups are

spatially arranged in a series of rings. • The size of the rings may vary, but the order always

remains the same.

Concentric Zone Theory

1. Central Business District (CBD) - This area of the city is a non-residential area and it’s where businesses are. This area s called downtown ,a lot of sky scrapers houses government institutions, businesses, stadiums, and restaurants

2. Zone of Transition- the zone of transition contains industry and has poorer-quality housing available.Created by subdividing larger houses into apartments


3. Zone of the working class- This area contains modest older houses occupied by stable, working class families. A large percentage of the people in this area rent.

4. Zone of better residence- This zone contains newer and more spacious houses. Mostly families in the middle-class live in this zone.

5.Commuter’s Zone/Suburbs- This area is located beyond the build-up area of the city. Mostly upper class residents live in this area.


IV – working class areaV – residential areaVI – suburban area

I - Loop (downtown; CBD)II – industriesIII – transition area

LOOPLittl

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Sicily

Apartment Houses

Bungalow Section

Single Fam

ily Dwelli

ngs

Residential District

Ghetto

Two Plan Area

Second Im

migrant

Settlem

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Model Chicago

Blac

k Belt


Neighbourhood unit theoryCLARENCE PERRY 1872-1944

•  Conceptualized the neighborhood unit

•  Similar to the superblock

•  Bounded by major streets

•  Has a church, school, and shops

•  200 sqm to 2 sqkm

Wikipedia

• Clarence Perry conceptualised the neighbourhood unit

• Similar to the super block bounded by major streets

• Has a church,school, and shops

• 200 sqm to 2 sqkm.

●The objectives were: ●To make the people socialize with one and

another. ●To enable the inhabitants to share the public

amenities and recreational facilities. ●To support a safe and healthy environment

within the neighborhood. ●To provide safety and efficiency to road users

and pedestrians. ●To maintain, enhance, and improve area for

Neighbourhood unit theory

• Size of neighborhood unit related to the catchment area of a primary school.

• No through traffic- residential area bounded on all sides by arterial roads

• Ample parks and play areas • A neighborhood center containing school, local

center and other services • A hierarchy of roads/ streets (to promote road

safety, pedestrian safety, conserve residential environment)

Neighbourhood Design Principles

Neighbourhood Design Principles

Radburn Superblock

• A town for the motor age. • Encourage pedestrian accessibility.• Low traffic volume in the neighborhood • Open space linked the residential areas. • Houses built around cul-de-sac which are connected

to open space • Houses are segregated from main roads • Pedestrian paths and walkways linked the houses to

primary school and local centre

Radburn Superblock, New Jersey

Radburn Superblock

Characteristics-

a) Encourage pedestrian accessibility

b) Low traffic volume in the neighborhood

b) Open space linked the residential areas

c) Houses built around cul-de-sac which are connected to open space

d) Houses are segregated for main roads

e) Pedestrian paths and walkways linked the houses to primary school and local centre

• Mechanical means to be planned for

• Facilitate Human life & civilization.

• Comprehensive planning

• Industries to be close to transportation nodes.

• Services to be well planned. • Private public partnership for

convenience of public – group of building be planned.

Radburn Superblock, New Jersey

http://www.fradkinmcalpin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1130x640-fradkin-mcalpin-nyc-architects-projects-3-radburn-nj-1130x640.jpg

GARDEN CITY

SEPARATES VEHICLES FROM PEDESTRIANS

CUL-DE-SACS

SUPERBLOCK

• Examples. Polders of the Netherlands, the Fens of East Anglia in the UK

• Developed by the German geographer Walter Christaller in 1933

• It explains the reasons behind the distribution patterns, size, and number of cities and towns.

• Tested in Southern Germany and came to the conclusion that people gather together in cities to share goods and ideas.

Central Place Theory

Assumptions • humans will always purchase goods from the

closest place • unbounded all flat, homogeneous, limitless surface • evenly distributed population • all settlements are equidistant and exist in a

triangular lattice pattern • evenly distributed resources

Central place theory

Central place theory

Hierarchy of Town Planning

The theory was first developed by the German geographer Walter Christaller in 1933

Central place theory is a spatial theory in urban geography that attempts to explain the reasons behind the distribution patterns, size, and number of cities and towns around the world.

Broadacre City Theory

• low-density • car-oriented • freeways +feeder

roads • multi nucleated

Broadacre City Theory

• Champion and proponent of urban decentralisation

• Involved communities • Designed the 1000-hectare Broadacre City • Included social services in the forms of

schools,trains, and museums, as well as employment in the forms of markets, offices, nearby farms, and industrial areas.

Chicago and Newcastle upon Tyne/Newcastle • Developed in 1939 by land economist Homer Hoyt • It is a model of the internal structure of cities. • Social groups are arranged around a series of

sectors, or wedges radiating out from the central business district (CBD) and centred on major transportation lines

• low-income households to be near railroad lines, and commercial establishments to be along business thoroughfares

Sector Theory

Stresses the importance of transportation corridors. Sees growth of various urban activities as expanding along roads, rivers, or train routes.

Sector Theory

Theories: ‘sectors’ (Hoyt) & ‘multiple Nuclei’ (Harris and Ullman)

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1 CBD2 Wholesale and light manufacturing3 Low-class residential4 Middle-class residential5 High-class residential

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6 Heavy manufacturing7 Sub business district8 Residential suburb9 Industrial suburb

Sector Multiple nuclei

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Shortcomings • Applies well to some towns only • Low cost housing is near industry and

transportation proving Hoyt’s model • Theory based on 20th century and does not take

into account cars which make commerce easier • With cars, people can live anywhere and further

from the city

Sector Theory

• The Multiple Nuclei Model is an ecological model created by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in the 1945

• City grows from several independent points rather than from one central business district.

• As these expand, they merge to form a single urban area.

• Ports, universities, airports and parks also act as nodes • Based on the idea that people have greater movement

due to increased car ownership.

Multiple Nuclei Theory

Multiple nuclei model

The multiple nuclei model is an economical model created by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in the 1945 article "The Nature of Cities"

Multiple Nuclei Cities: Harris-Ullman

• The model has four geographic principles • Certain activities require highly specialised facilities. • Accessible transportation for a factor • Large areas of open land for a housing transition • Certain activities cluster because they profit from

mutual association • Certain activities repel each other and will not be

found in the same area. • Certain activities could not make a profit if they paid

the high rent of the most desirable locations

Multiple Nuclei Theory

Stresses the importance of multiple nodes of activity, not a single CBD. Ports, airports, universities attract certain uses while repelling others.

Multiple Nuclei Cities: Harris-Ullman

Assumptions • Land is Flat • Even Distribution of

Resources • Even Distribution of

people in Residential areas

• Even Transportation Costs

Multiple Nuclei TheoryCriticisms • Each zone displays a

significant degree of internal heterogeneity

• and not homogeneity • No consideration of influence

of physical relief and government policy.

• Not applicable to oriental cities with different cultural, economic and political backgrounds

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