Module 5: Urban Design and Urban Development
Module 5: Urban Design and Urban Development
Urban development has many affects on urban design, some positive, and some have the ability to be negative. There are three different types of Urban development that have changed how designers interact with sites and how they plan out their designs. The first development tactic that has shaped urban design is the Plug-in Method.
The Plug-in method consists of linear design elements that are introduced to the existing area that provide systems of infrastructure acting as connections to surrounding buildings. An example of Plug-in urban development is the design and construction of the National Mall in Washington D.C. The mall is a pedestrian only area that allows people to interact with the area and brings them into the surrounding museums and other facilities surrounding the large pedestrian mall. The mall's design has been altered many times since Pierre L'Enfant first presented the design to President George Washington. Since things don't always go as planned in the area, the National Mall has been an ongoing project for over two hundred years. This is a project that was placed over top of a natural marsh land which needed a lot of dredging and other construction work to get the site ready for the footpaths and building, not to mention the museums and monuments.
The footprint of the current national mall in green, the outline of the Tiber Creek, and the relation the site has to the water.In comparison to the National Mall now with the layouts of the museums and mausoleums that call this area home.
Another type of urban development is the All-of-a-Piece Development technique which is the complete development of a city or neighborhood with the same design principals. for instance, large projects are designed fully, but then portions of the site are developed by different companies, such as a Landscape Architect will design the entire site and an Architect will design the houses creating a cookie-cutter design style like this Chinese neighborhood which is one of many.
Many neighborhoods in China are choosing the cookie-cutter style that was made popular in American urban design.
The third type of urban development is piece-by-piece development which is when large areas are split up and designed by many different developers, but they still have cohesion such as a material or a type of plant. I feel that this is more popular in large designs because there different design disciplines that are a part of the design process, but since they are working together, they don't want their design to not flow with the rest of the site, so they use similar materials, design aspects, plants, ect. This technique is more popular with multi-disciplinary firms, but many companies follow this development technique.
An example of an area that utilizes piece-by-piece development is the Trinity River Park in Dallas Texas. The area is located in the flood plane of the Trinity River, which was heavily damaged in the flooding and hurricanes that Texas dealt with in the past few years. The firm of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates has been working on this design and also with structural engineers so that they can be sure that the infrastructure they are designing is sound and that the flood plane will still be able to function as it is supposed to. Portions of the design have already been constructed, for instance, there is already a golf club, Texas horse Park and the Trinity River Audobon Center which has a nature center for children and event spaces. Since these areas have already been constructed, they are now focusing on using similar design techniques so the entirety of the site will mesh together well when development is finished.
Current state of the Trinity River Park area.
/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/86/87/8687fe90-590c-4660-8c26-535338db5dc2/trinity_park.jpg)
Future plans of the Trinity River Park area.
Citations:
Image 1-https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/lifestyle/the-evolution-of-the-national-mall/
Image 2-https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/lifestyle/the-evolution-of-the-national-mall/
Image 3-
http://www.talkmarkets.com/content/us-markets/central-bank-market-rigging-horrified-about-the-biggest-global-bank-run-in-history?post=134370&page=4
Image 4-
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Dallas-Trinity-River-Park-will-be-massive-looks-10647231.php
Image 5-
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dallas-proposes-countrys-largest-urban-park-180961256/
Urban development has many affects on urban design, some positive, and some have the ability to be negative. There are three different types of Urban development that have changed how designers interact with sites and how they plan out their designs. The first development tactic that has shaped urban design is the Plug-in Method.
The Plug-in method consists of linear design elements that are introduced to the existing area that provide systems of infrastructure acting as connections to surrounding buildings. An example of Plug-in urban development is the design and construction of the National Mall in Washington D.C. The mall is a pedestrian only area that allows people to interact with the area and brings them into the surrounding museums and other facilities surrounding the large pedestrian mall. The mall's design has been altered many times since Pierre L'Enfant first presented the design to President George Washington. Since things don't always go as planned in the area, the National Mall has been an ongoing project for over two hundred years. This is a project that was placed over top of a natural marsh land which needed a lot of dredging and other construction work to get the site ready for the footpaths and building, not to mention the museums and monuments.
The footprint of the current national mall in green, the outline of the Tiber Creek, and the relation the site has to the water.In comparison to the National Mall now with the layouts of the museums and mausoleums that call this area home.
Another type of urban development is the All-of-a-Piece Development technique which is the complete development of a city or neighborhood with the same design principals. for instance, large projects are designed fully, but then portions of the site are developed by different companies, such as a Landscape Architect will design the entire site and an Architect will design the houses creating a cookie-cutter design style like this Chinese neighborhood which is one of many.
Many neighborhoods in China are choosing the cookie-cutter style that was made popular in American urban design.
The third type of urban development is piece-by-piece development which is when large areas are split up and designed by many different developers, but they still have cohesion such as a material or a type of plant. I feel that this is more popular in large designs because there different design disciplines that are a part of the design process, but since they are working together, they don't want their design to not flow with the rest of the site, so they use similar materials, design aspects, plants, ect. This technique is more popular with multi-disciplinary firms, but many companies follow this development technique.
An example of an area that utilizes piece-by-piece development is the Trinity River Park in Dallas Texas. The area is located in the flood plane of the Trinity River, which was heavily damaged in the flooding and hurricanes that Texas dealt with in the past few years. The firm of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates has been working on this design and also with structural engineers so that they can be sure that the infrastructure they are designing is sound and that the flood plane will still be able to function as it is supposed to. Portions of the design have already been constructed, for instance, there is already a golf club, Texas horse Park and the Trinity River Audobon Center which has a nature center for children and event spaces. Since these areas have already been constructed, they are now focusing on using similar design techniques so the entirety of the site will mesh together well when development is finished.
Current state of the Trinity River Park area.
Future plans of the Trinity River Park area.
Citations:
Image 1-https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/lifestyle/the-evolution-of-the-national-mall/
Image 2-https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/lifestyle/the-evolution-of-the-national-mall/
Image 3-
http://www.talkmarkets.com/content/us-markets/central-bank-market-rigging-horrified-about-the-biggest-global-bank-run-in-history?post=134370&page=4
Image 4-
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Dallas-Trinity-River-Park-will-be-massive-looks-10647231.php
Image 5-
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dallas-proposes-countrys-largest-urban-park-180961256/
In the jurisdiction I work we see many of the developers working there develop with the piece by piece method and the all-of-a-piece development. Many of the developers like to hold on to the entire subdivision that they created and have strict design standards for the homes that are built, which result in nice product, but resembles much of the cookie cutter type homes that you describe. There are also the developers who sell of much of the parcels off to other developers through a subdivision but still dictate the overall design and product through design boards and regulatory methods like CC&Rs. Through the City codes and regulations there is also the creation of cohesive design. For example many downtown areas are held to certain design guidelines in order to maintain a desired theme or look.
ReplyDeleteI find the piece by piece type of development to be one of the most interesting ones. I like the idea of having many different designers tackle an area and keep cohesion. That way we don't get just the same thing over and over again, but we get something maybe a little more interesting because it is different people's take on the same theme. However, I find that it is hard to find the opportunity to have this kind of design because it forces to move into the suburbs to have the space for such projects.
ReplyDeleteI favor the idea of having a conglomeration of designers from different disciplines tackle an area. If we look at this concept from a governing point of view, a democratic design would consider the most opinions. Not to mention urban design is meant for the public, the finished design would directly represent those who (voted for it). Also, this approach would contain the broadest array of opinions, but this could potentially lead to wrong choices being implemented. Say for example, still within this democratic metaphor, that the mechanical designer prioritized functionality within a design feature that compromised user comfortability. The mechanical designer may be unaware of the discomfort, so this implication suggests there must be a superior decision maker. So to conclude this thought, even if we incorporate as many designers into the development of a design; there is still one governing entity that overlooks everything. This would potentially lead to the monotonous production of design (if under the same designing body), unless the superior decision-maker changes with every project.
ReplyDeleteDeveloping code helps keep the design coherent, but unreasonable development code can leds to a very bad result. The example about Chinese neighborhood demonstrates this point very well. Some Chinese real estate developers do not care about the sense of design and sustainability, they often build all the houses using only a few deisgn blue print. This leads to excessive coherence.
ReplyDeleteI think its interesting how you spoke about All-of-a-Piece development which often brings forth what many architects see as the bane of their existence: Cookie-cutter housing. Many times when talking about cookie-cutter housing people put it up to affordability, need, want, and idea's such as gentrification & suburbia. I've never personally attributed it to All-of-a-Piece development but it does fit quite perfectly and in that case also incorporates the ideas of gentrification & suburbia.
ReplyDelete