Principles of Urban Planning

Module-2

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1. Introduction
Urban Planning is an art and science of ordering the use of land and
siting of buildings and communication routes so as to secure the
maximum practicable degree of economy, convenience, and beauty.
An attempt to formulate the principles that should guide us in
creating a civilized physical background for human life whose main
purpose is thus … foreseeing and guiding change.
 An art of shaping and guiding the physical growth of the town
creating buildings and environments to meet the various needs such
as social, cultural, economic and recreational etc. and to provide
healthy conditions for both rich and poor to live, to work, and to play
or relax, thus bringing about the social and economic wellbeing for
the majority of mankind
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• It is also a process of helping a community, identify its problems and
its central values, formulating goals and alternative approaches to
achieving community objectives, and avoiding undesired
consequences of change.
• This process of planning results in frameworks for managing with
change. Some are concepts that serve as guides to action, such as
the goal of becoming a major distribution center or of encouraging
investment in the core of the city. Some are regulatory, reflecting the
desires of the community to encourage good development and
discourage bad development.

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 2. Elements of urban planning
• An urban planning must contain necessary elements that are sufficient
to guide the orderly development of a planning area. Hence the
following elements are earmarked as mandatory for each Plan of an
urban area.

• The aim of the urban planning elements are not only function properly
but also in a pleasing way. They should promote the sense of beauty and
love of nature to secure satisfaction.
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 2.1 COMMUNICATIONS
• ROADWAYS
• WATERWAYS
• RAILWAYS
• AIRWAYS

• COMMUNICATION systems connect the parts of cities and help shape

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2.2 BUILT UP AREA
• RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
• COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS
• PUBLIC / SEMIPUBLIC BUILDINGS
• INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS
• BUILT UP AREAS (Buildings) are the most pronounced elements in urban. They
shape and articulate space by forming the street walls of the city. Well-
designed buildings and groups of buildings work together to create a sense of
place

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 2.3 OPEN AREAS
• RECREATIONAL :- PARKS, PLAYFIELDS , PUBLIC SPACES
• OPEN LANDS: - GRAVEYARDS, BARREN LANDS
• Open Areas; the living room and the green part of a city that weaves throughout. It is
where people come together to enjoy the city and each other. Open areas make
high quality life in the city possible. The landscape helps define the character and
beauty of a city and creates soft, contrasting spaces and elements.

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 2.4 PUBLIC UTILITY SERVICES

• -WATER SUPPLY
• - TELEPHONE
• -DRINAGE,
• ELECTRICITY

• This sector includes numerous social municipal services that are

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 2.5 PUBLIC AMENITIES
• EDUCATION
• HEALTH
• POST OFFICE
• FIRE BRIGADE
• REFUSE DEPOSITS
• POLICE STATION
• Public amenities are services provided to the
public such as ,education, health playgrounds,
public toilets ,community centers ,post office,
fire brigade and so on.

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Principles of urban planning
• Urban planning Principles serve for the preparation of plans. Principles
should take contextual situations; but there are some basic ones that
originate from higher policy frameworks such as the Constitution, general
development plans, federal urban development policy, etc.
• The following the main principles of urban planning;
• Green Belts
• Housing
• Transportation
• Public Buildings
• Zoning
• Recreations
• Roads System
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3.1 GREEN BELTS:
• Green belt is non-development zone on the periphery of the town. It prevents the
random sprawl of the town restricting its size.
• Green belt is an invisible line designating a border around a certain area,
preventing development of the area and allowing wildlife to return and be
established.
• Greenways and green wedges have a linear character and may run across the town
and not around the town.

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• 3.2 HOUSING
• a lot of care should be taken while providing housing accommodation to
different categories of people.
• It should be made sure that there is no developments of slums and in future if
occur it must be discouraged and removed by the authorities.
• When a land use plan is made, zones for independent housing, midrise
buildings, high rise buildings are allocated.

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 3.4 RECREATION:
• As per size of town enough space must be
given for the recreation centers for general
public.
• Following are the factor which determines its
demands:
• Population growth,
• changing work pattern,
• Income,
• Education,
• Car ownership
• these are the things which are necessary at
the time of plotting the recreation in any
area.
• Keeping these aspects in mind a planner can
easily provide such recreation which is up-
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to date and also for the necessities of future
 3.5 ZONNING:

• The town should be divided into suitable zones such as commercial zone,
industrial zone, residential zone, etc. and suitable rules and regulations
should be formed for the development of each zone.

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 3.6 PUBLIC BUILDINGS:
• It includes everything a community needs to support its residents, capital buildings,
libraries, museums, parks, parking structures, conference centers, courthouses,
fire station and police station, other administrative spaces and offices.
• Planner is concerned with thousands of such projects worth in billions. These projects
or buildings are design by planner keeping in mind the assessments from public,
construction services, professional excellence thus he achieve his goal by these skills
and meet the requirements of public. Planner keep in mind that the buildings should be
sophisticated following success and community’s identity.

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 3.7 Road systems
• Road network hierarchy is very important.
• The efficiency of any town is measured by the layout of its roads. A nicely designed road system
puts a great impression in the minds of people, especially the visitors to the town.
• The provision of a faulty road system in the initial stages of town formation proves to be too
difficult and costly to repair or to re-arrange in future.

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• To sum up in principle an urban planning should be;
a. Comprehensive – all significant options and impacts are considered.
b. Efficient – the process should not waste time or money.
c. Inclusive – people affected by the plan have opportunities to be involved.
d. Informative – results are understood by stakeholders (people affected by a
decision).
e. Integrated – individual, short-term decisions should support strategic, long-term
goals.
f. Logical – each step leads to the next.
g. Transparent – everybody involved understands how the process operates

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 Concepts of urban planning
• Definition of urban planning concept;
• The urban planning concept of a city is a system of continuously
valid Principles, phenomena and elements of spatial, functional
and operational arrangement in urban and landscape settings.
• It is usually based on the potential of the territory, the role of a
city in the system of population and the visions of its prospective
size and character.
• The urban planning concept is a system of adopted principles and
rules guaranteeing a balanced development of the settlement
structure, settlements and landscape in the context of
population development. To determine urban planning concepts is
one of the tasks of urban planning. 18
• Some of the well-known examples of urban planning concepts are;
@, Garden cities
@, City beautiful movement,
@,Parks movements,
@, Geddisian Triad
@, Neighborhood planning,
@, Redburn theory,
@, Broad Acre city,
@, Satellite Town
@, Ribbon Development,
@, Ekistics (Human settlement)
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4.1 The Concept of the Garden City
• The Garden City Concept developed at the threshold of the twentieth century
as a modernist solution to difficult social problems: overpopulation,
devastating hygienic conditions and in general dehumanizing living for most
inhabitants in big industrial cities.
• London-born philanthropist and visionary Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928)
published a theoretical concept of the garden city as two editions of the book To-
Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898) and Garden Cities of To-
Morrow (1902).
• He proposed urban planning of self-contained settlements that would have
the advantages of both urban and rural lifestyles while reducing and
eliminating their disadvantages.
• Howard hoped that a town built according to the Garden City Concept would be
“the Third Magnet” that would attract most of the unhappy inhabitants of
congested industrial British cities, and thus resolve one of the major national
problems of the time.
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Letchworth, Dwelling Quarters, as in 2007.

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Typical Sketch of Garden city

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4.2 The Concept of City beautiful movement
• emerged at a time in U.S. history when the country experienced rapid
urbanization.
• Most city dwellers perceived that cities were ugly, congested, dirty, and
unsafe. As cities grew, an increasingly rapid condition enhanced by an influx
of immigrants at the end of the 19th century- public space was being seized
leading to increased congestion.
• With the construction of the fair’s temporary city, the so-called White City
where visitors were treated to a harmony of Neoclassical and Baroque
architecture from the collaborative designs of architects from the École
des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The landscape for the Exposition included lagoons
and big green expanses and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

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Launched at World’s Columbian Exposition

Generally stated, the City Beautiful advocates sought to improve the city
through beautification, which would have a number of effects

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 4.3 The Concept of Parks Movement
• grew out of landscape archit. & garden design shifted from private to public settings,
naturalistic parks were created in the U.S. by Frederick Law Olmstead,whose career
started with Central Park, New York, 1857
• goals:
• separate transportation modes
• collect water
• support active and passive uses
• promote moral pass-times
• Olmsted’s parks were not natural but they were “naturalistic” or “organic” in
form this form was seen as uplifting urban dwellers and addressing the social and
psychological impacts of crowding environmental determinism

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 Olmsted’s Park Design Principles
1. SCENERY: design spaces in which movement creates constant opening up of
new views and “anonymity of detail further away”
2. SUITABILITY: respect the natural scenery and topography
3. STYLE:
• “Pastoral” = open greensward with small bodies of water and scattered trees
and groves create a soothing, restorative atmosphere
• “Picturesque = profuse planting, especially with shrubs, creepers and ground cover,
on steep and broken terrain create a sense of the richness and bounteousness of
nature, produce a sense of mystery with light and shade

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The concept of Radburn Superblock
• Bandar Botanic in Klang-use this Planning Concept
• Characteristics;
• a) Encourage pedestrian accessibility - Low traffic volume in the
neighborhood
• b) Open space linked the residential areas
• c) Houses built around 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 center -Population Size: 25,000 Into 3 neighborhoods of around
8,000 each
• - Pedestrian –traffic segregation By means of: - foot paths -under passes -
bridges -residential superblocks around a backbone of parkland.
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