Unit IArchitectural Design IX

The Urban Design Studio

The space between buildings — and how to read a city.

≈ 50 min + studio task

Urban design is the craft of the space between buildings — the public realm that gives a 2D masterplan three-dimensional life. It sits at the interface of architecture (the building) and town planning (2D land use and policy). Learn that “scale between”, the studio process from survey to jury, and the tools for reading a real city — figure-ground, urban morphology, and Lynch's five elements used as an analysis overlay, not just a theory.

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to — mapped to the course outcomes for Architectural Design IX:

CO1 · Understand

Define urban design as the 3D public realm between architecture and planning.

CO1 · Understand

Sequence the urban design studio process from survey to jury.

CO1 · Apply

Read a city by figure-ground and urban morphology.

CO1 · Analyse

Overlay Lynch's five elements as a diagnostic analysis tool.

What urban design is

The space between buildings

Urban design is the 3D design of the public realm — it shapes the streets, blocks and squares many buildings will share, and runs a disciplined studio process from survey to jury.^[1]

DiagramUrban design sits between architecture, the building, and town planning, 2D land use and policy — it is the 3D design of the public realm

Architecture, urban design, planning

ARCHITECTURE designs the individual building. TOWN PLANNING is largely 2D — land-use allocation, policy and statutory development control at the city and regional scale. URBAN DESIGN is the THREE-DIMENSIONAL design of the public realm and the space BETWEEN buildings — streets, blocks, squares, precincts — mediating between the two. Carmona's definition: 'the process of making better places for people than would otherwise be produced.' MISCONCEPTION→correct: 'urban design = town planning' — planning is 2D land-use/policy; urban design is the 3D physical design of the public realm.^[1]

DiagramThe urban design studio process — survey, analysis, concept, masterplan, form-based code, demonstration, jury

Figure-ground, morphology, Lynch

Reading the city

Before you change a city, read it — its solids and voids by figure-ground, its DNA by morphology, and its image through Lynch's five elements used as a diagnostic overlay.^{[2, 3, 4]}

DiagramReading the city — figure-ground reveals the public-space network, and Lynch's five elements diagnose paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks

The Nolli plan

FIGURE-GROUND analysis blackens the built fabric and whitens the open space to reveal the STRUCTURE of the public realm — its solids and voids. Its ancestor is Giambattista Nolli's map of Rome (1748), which drew enclosed PUBLIC interiors (the Pantheon, St Peter's) as white 'public' space too — mapping the public-space NETWORK, not just buildings. A figure-ground of your site instantly shows whether the public realm is a connected network or a residue.^[2]

Three scales

At a glance

Aspect	Architecture / planning	Urban design
Scale	Architecture: a building	Urban design: the public realm
Dimension	Planning: 2D land use/policy	Urban design: 3D physical form
Designs	Architecture: the object	Urban design: the space between
Output	Planning: statutory plan	Urban design: framework + form code
Timeframe	Building: one project	Framework: many buildings, over time

Vocabulary

Key terms

Urban design

The 3D design of the public realm and the space between buildings.

Figure-ground

A solid-void map (after Nolli, 1748) revealing the public-space structure.

Urban morphology

The study of urban form — streets, plots and buildings (Conzen).

Lynch's five elements

Paths, edges, districts, nodes, landmarks — the image of the city.

Legibility / imageability

How easily a place is understood and pictured.

Urban design framework

The spatial structure that coordinates many buildings over time.

Apply it

Studio task

Choose a familiar precinct of your city. Draw a quick figure-ground of three or four blocks (fabric black, space white) and decide whether its public realm is a connected network or a residue. Then overlay Lynch's five elements — mark the paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks — and name one weak node or missing landmark you would design to strengthen.

Check your understanding

Self-assessment

1. Urban design is best described as —

2. A figure-ground drawing reveals —

3. In the studio, Lynch's five elements are used as —

In a nutshell

Recap

Urban design is the 3D design of the public realm between buildings — the interface of architecture and planning.

It designs the space between buildings and the rules, not the individual towers.

The studio runs survey → analysis → concept → masterplan → form code → demonstration → jury → phasing.

Read the city by figure-ground (Nolli) and urban morphology (Conzen's streets, plots, buildings).

Use Lynch's five elements as a diagnostic overlay — find the weak nodes and missing landmarks, then design them.

The evidence

References & further reading

[1]Carmona, Heath, Oc & Tiesdell, Public Places — Urban Spaces: The Dimensions of Urban Design (Routledge) — definition, the field.
[2]Roger Trancik, Finding Lost Space (Van Nostrand) — figure-ground, the Nolli plan, solid-void theory.
[3]M.R.G. Conzen, Alnwick, Northumberland: A Study in Town-Plan Analysis (1960) — urban morphology.
[4]Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City (MIT Press, 1960) — paths, edges, districts, nodes, landmarks.