Urban Design: A TYPOLOGY OF PROCEDURES AND PRODUCTS by JON LANG

The book describes the different aspects of urban design ranging from its definition, nature, the
process and its products in a very lucid manner.
Method of depiction: Relating and explaining various case studies from different parts of world, put
into some major headings. A typology is developed which forms a system of classification of urban
design projects that adds clarity to discussions on urban design.
From the preface, its clear that even though the term urban design was coined in 1950s it didnt get
much attention and was rather unused. But today its everything that which deals with human
settlements. The basic reason for urban design getting recognized in later on was the opportunities
that it offered and the hard work of a group of architects which had made it a potential discipline.
Aims and motivations behind: (1) to provide a typology of procedures and products that makes
some sense of what various people (and fields) are talking about when they refer to urban design; (2)
to present professionals and students with a number of case studies that illustrate the range of
interpretations of urban design and (3) to provide an incipient set of such studies that can be used as
evidence in arguments about how to proceed in specific circumstances.
Urban designing, like any creative activity, is an argumentative process. As the United States
Supreme Court decreed during the 1990s, arguments need to be based on evidence, not just
opinions or claims of professional expertise. Case studies constitute one source of evidence.
And so the introduction begins with an argument of what urban design means? Cities evolve at the
hands of myriad designers consciously or subconsciously seeking to fulfill their own interests. It is the
overall three-dimensional combination of forms and spaces as seen in time and over time that gives a
city its character. Above all it represents acts of will in creating positive changes to the world, physical
and social. The author makes a deliberate attempt to create a preliminary typology of urban design
activities that provides some structure to the domain of the field and also to demonstrate the variety of
types of urban design efforts that have taken place during the past 50 years. This typology is
developed from: (1) theories in the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and planning
and (2) an analysis of a series of what have been deemed to be urban design projects. The typology
is then used to classify a number of case studies that illustrate specific points in specific cultural and
political contexts. He concludes with the definition:
Urban design is the art of relating STRUCTURES to one another and to their NATURAL SETTING to
serve CONTEMPORARY LIVING.(Stein, 1955) Implicit in this statement is a concern in meeting
public interest needs in the design of the public realm of human settlements.
Urban design projects are categorized using a three-dimensional matrix of types in terms of: (1) the
design and implementation procedure, (2) the product type and (3) the major paradigm that structures
the process and gives form to the product. Case studies take a variety of narrative forms. The form
chosen here is descriptive and analytical. The basic idea behind this is to demonstrate the nature of
urban design and urban designing to professionals, layman, politicians, building designers and
students in a very simple manner to their degree of understanding.
Based on these perceptions the book has been divided into four parts:
Part 1 NATURE OF URBAN DESIGN AND URBAN DESIGNING
Part 2 THE TRADITIONAL DESIGN PROFESSIONS, THEIR PRODUCTS AND URBAN DESIGN
Part 3 THE CORE OF URBAN DESIGN WORK: PROCEDURES AND PRODUCTS
Part 4 THE FUTURE OF URBAN DESIGN
Part 1 gives a broad definition to urban design but also with coming to some understanding of the
nature of the public realm of the physical fabric of cities and the public realm of decision-making. The
nature of urban design varies considerably based on the process by which its various product types
are implemented. So a discussion on these processes leads to four generic types of urban design
work that vary in the procedure that is followed and/or the degree of control that a designer, as an
individual or as a team, has over the creation of a product. They are:

Surekha K.C

Semester 1 Book review

Urban design

1 Total urban design, where the urban designer is part of the development team that carries a scheme
through from inception to completion.
2 All-of-a-piece urban design, where the urban design team devises a master plan and sets the
parameters within which a number of developers work on components of the overall project.
3 Piece-by-piece urban designs, in which general policies and procedures are applied to a precinct of
a city in order to steer development in specific directions.
4 Plug-in urban design, where the design goal is to create the infrastructure so that subsequent
developments can plug in to it or, alternatively, a new element of infrastructure is plugged into the
existing urban fabric to enhance a locations amenity level as a catalyst for development.
Also the other factors like the financing, market value, controls and incentives are also described
further which has a major role in shaping the built environment. Each project described in this book
can be categorized by procedural type, project type and the major paradigm employed, and thus the
foci of concern it represents. The major paradigms include the different school of thought and
principles and the product types can be broadly classified into new towns, precincts and infrastructure.
The three chapters that comprise second part of the book cover the work of the traditional design
professions and the products that are associated with them. The products described in the case
studies used to illustrate the work of what these three professions (city planning, landscape
architecture and architecture) regard as urban design are only really urban design if they deal: (1) with
the three-dimensional world and (2) their impact on their context, and not simply the consequences of
the context for the design. The conclusion ultimately is that the product-oriented view of urban design
is an important but limited one, if the desire is to really understand the nature of the field and its
complexities. Some of the case studies referred to are Runcorn new town master plan; Oak Park
center mall, USA; the heritage walk of Ahmedabad, India; the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao , Spain;
Arcosanti, Arizona, USA.
Part 3 concentrate on the core of urban design work which is defined here primarily in terms of
common processes of design and administration. A brief recapitulation of the four procedural types
mentioned in first part is in place here to set the framework for this section of the book. Total urban
designs are conceived and carried out as one project and cut from a single piece of cloth. Major case
studies are master plan of Brasilia; The Chandigarh, The capitol complex; Clark Quay, Singapore. The
degree of control over what is to be designed, however, varies considerably from highly controlled
designs to those in which considerable freedom of action is given to the developers and designers of
the various components of a scheme in All-of-a piece urban design. The focus here is on projectspecific guidelines, or what have been called design directives for completing the components of an
all-of-a-piece urban design. Seaside, Florida; Citizen Centre, China; Battery Park city, New York are
the case studies dealt with. The piece-by-piece urban design is used to encourage the construction of
specific building types and/or other facilities within a particular precinct. This part discuss three case
studies which differs in character and they are The Theater and other districts, New York; Central
Bellevue, Washington, USA; The Center City District, Philadelphia. Plug-in urban design focuses on
the strategic building of infrastructure components of a city. The Archigram Groups Walking City
plugged into Manhattan,
New York and The Kumbh Mela township, Allahabad in 1996 are elucidated in this aspect. Other
studies are The MRT system, Singapore: an outstanding rapid transit system; The Jubilee Line
extension, London, England, UK: an underground rail link as a catalyst for urban revitalization; Aranya
Township, Indore, India: a sites-and-services scheme. The goal of all these infrastructure projects is to
have a catalytic effect on their surroundings social and physical.
The fourth part addresses a series of questions: What can we learn from the case studies? What
are the issues being addressed today in urban design and what are they are likely to be in the future?
And where do we go from here? and Is urban design a field of professional endeavor or is it a
discipline and profession in its own right? He concludes My own hope is that urban design will continue as a collaborative professional activity collaboration
between public and private sectors of the economy, collaboration between politicians, design
professions and citizens, and between research and practice.
The book throws light on all the varied aspects of urban design and put to question the issues
concerning; makes all sects of people to think upon the same also.

Surekha K.C

Semester 1 Book review

Urban design