Architectural Design IX

What urban design is — the interface between architecture and town planning, the 3D design of the public realm between buildings; the scales of urban design and the studio process (survey → analysis → concept → masterplan → form-based code → demonstration → jury); and reading the city through figure-ground (the Nolli plan), urban morphology (Conzen) and Lynch's five elements as an analysis tool.

The urban survey across physical, socio-economic, environmental, transportation, land-use and byelaw layers; context models and SWOT; Patrick Geddes's 'survey before plan' and 'conservative surgery'; and deriving the design problem and brief from analysis — the brief is found, not assumed.

The menu of interventions — transit-oriented development, heritage precinct conservation and adaptive reuse, urban waterfront, brownfield and greenfield, urban renewal, and market square/public space — each with its focus and an Indian example; and place-making (Gehl, Whyte, the Project for Public Spaces) and the street as public space.

Three-dimensional urban form — massing, density and FSI, the street wall, active frontages and the enclosure ratio (height-to-width of the street); form-based codes vs conventional use-based (Euclidean) zoning; the rural-to-urban transect (T1–T6) and the SmartCode; design guidelines; and integrating sustainability (SDG 11) and smart technology.

The urban design framework and masterplan as a flexible, phased structure rather than a frozen blueprint; stakeholders and public participation (the charrette); demonstration drawings — illustrative masterplan, urban sections, 3D and serial vision; delivery through Development Authorities; and evaluating the proposal against the Responsive Environments qualities and Carmona's dimensions at jury.