Urban sprawl Free Essays

The term â€Å"urban design† may have been coined in the mid-1950s but 20 years later it was still largely unused outside a small circle of people concerned with the four- dimensional development of precincts of cities. It has a wide, almost boundary-less definition with different connotations depending on professional discipline or the particular context within which the urban environment is being assessed. It is the process of making or shaping physical forms through cognitive perception (senses) (Arnheim, 1969)-it is not simply an intellectual process nor can it be. We will write a custom essay sample on Urban sprawl or any similar topic only for you Order Now Design is not linear and constitutes a sensual engagement with reality (not virtual reality). Elements of Urban design: Urban Design involves the design and coordination of all that makes up cities and towns: a. Buildings, b. Public spaces, c. Streets, d. Transport and e. Landscape. Urban Design weaves together these elements into a coherent, organized design structure. The urban design structure defines the urban form and the building form. Design is also making of things through indirect or unintentional actions. It is the physical and geometric manifestation of underlying forces generated by human ehavior and its interactions with the environment. The way you arrange your furniture in the living room to be â€Å"comfortable† is an act of design that has behind it significant underlying (cultural) forces and determinants (Hall, 1966). Consequently, as we approach design in our culture, we have basic approaches and conventions for interpreting human behavior and needs into design form. 0 People: need, want, aspiration, passion. Program: what and how much of something satisfies the stated need. 0 Context: bio-physical, cultural, Jurisdictional, historic/time, interrelationships. Organization, structure, and process. 0 Design elements, principles, and relationships or compositions (art): space, enclosure, movement, and circulation. 0 Structure, manufacturing, and economy. References and source: Urban Design. org. Books: Jon Lang – , Urban Design: A typology of procedures and produc ts, Ron Kasprisin – Urban Design, the composition of complexity. 4. Short notes: a. URBAN SPRAWL: The uncontrolled expansion of urban areas. Poorly planned development that spreads a citys population over a wider and wider the land between them and the city fills in as well. Examples: . A Northern Virginia housing development encroaches on farmland. Population growth and relocation is threatening rural environments across the world. Photograph by Sarah Leen Written by John G. Mitchell Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine. 2. In the United States, urban sprawl is becoming a matter of increasing concern. From 1970 to 1990, people who worked in U. S. cities moved farther and farther from urban centers. The population density of cities in the United States decreased by more than 20 percent as people in cities moved to suburbs and outlying areas. About 0,000 square miles of rural lands were gobbled up by housing developments. For example, the population of the city of Chicago decreased during this period from 3. 4 million people to 2. 8 million. But the Chicago metropolitan area grew from about 7. 0 million persons to 7. 3 million. Sprawl occurs in metropolitan areas that allow unrestricted growth or that have no plans to contain it. Other factors include the widespread use of automobiles and the building of expressways. Example: Mexico City. References and Source: Unbelievable aerial photographs of Mexico City show how the urban landscape preads over mountains while maintaining a remarkable 25,400 people per square mile. â€Å"In a megalopolis like Mexico City,† Mail, â€Å"the relationship between man and space is ever so apparent. ww. pearlandisd. com† National geographic. com – By John G. Mitchell in July 2001, Fraser Sherman – Demand media. b. URBANIZATION: Urbanization is the physical growth of urban areas which result in rural migration and even suburban concentration into cities, particularly the very large ones. The United Nations projected that half of the world’s population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008. By 2050 it is predicted that 64. 1% and 85. 9% of the developing and developed world respectively will be urbanized. Urbanization is closely linked to modernization, industrialization, and the sociological process of rationalization. Urbanization can describe a specific condition at a set time, i. e. the proportion of total population or area in cities or towns, or the term can describe the increase of this proportion over time. So the term urbanization can represent the level of urban development relative to overall population, or it can represent the rate at which the urban proportion is increasing. Example: Chicago 1854 1898 Graphs: Source: United Nations, World urbanization prospects: The 2003 revision, population division of department of economic and social affairs of the United Nations secretariat. c. URBANITY: Urbanity refers to the characteristics, personality traits, and viewpoints associated with cities and urban areas. People who can be described as having urbanity are also referred to as citified. Example: They seek papers and panels that investigate elements of urbanism and urbanity during’ the long nineteenth century, such as: urbanites (the flaneur, the prostitute, the detective, the criminal, etc. urbanites and the rise of consumer culture; immigrants and urban communities: urban domesticity in literature and culture; architecture, urban design, and city planning; urban spaces and the gothic imagination; motilities and forms of urban transport; the politics of urban space; the city and the natural environment; urban cartographies; urban crime and violence; urban spa ces and urban peripheries (Suburbs; ghettos, wastelands, industrial zones, dumps and other hybrid spaces); urbanism and public health; animals and urban environments; concert halls, opera houses, and other urban entertainment venues; estaurants, cafes, and urban eating and drinking; leisure and urbanism; city/country divides; and the anti-urban tradition in art and literature. Typology (in urban planning and architecture) is the taxonomic classification of (usually physical) characteristics commonly found in buildings and urban places, according to their association with different categories, such as intensity of development (from natural or rural to highly urban), degrees of formality, and school of thought (for example, modernist or traditional). Individual characteristics form patterns. The word type has been derived from the Greek word ‘Typos’ which means ‘impression’. A type in urban design is a characteristic set of form properties of a building, a space or combinations of both (groupings of buildings or spaces, combinations of buildings and spaces). A type is not a concrete example that can be copied. It is a means of establishing a relation between a large numbers of comparable objects. Keeping that in mind it can be seen as a kind of ‘generalized model’. In contrast to a category that has a sharp delineation, the delineation of a type is vague and it is multiple interpretable. This makes it pre-eminently suitable to be used in a design process because it occupies a position in between abstract ideas measures than to the modern measure. The type incorporates quality and quantity, but it is not necessary to revert to pre-rational scientific ideas to use it. Buildings have been classified in many different ways, depending on the nature of the study, and the purpose of the classification. In building type studies, for example, buildings are classified according to their functions. The purpose of building type studies is to compare the methods by which different architects have responded to imilar client needs (building task), under different economic, social, technical and site constraints. Hospitals are studied together, and so are schools, houses, office buildings, stadiums and so on. The differences in the design approach among the designers can be very instructive. References and Sources: Books: Urban Design: A typology of procedures and products, How to cite Urban sprawl, Papers Urban Sprawl Free Essays Draft Frumkin (2001) , in his articleâ€Å"urban sprawl and public health†, analyses the physical and mental effects of urban sprawl. In the section â€Å"physical effects of urban sprawl† of the article â€Å"urban sprawl and public health†, Frumkin(2001) argues the relationship between urban sprawl and physical health. The writer points out that urban sprawl leads to high levels of driving cars and motor vehicles are a main cause of air pollution. We will write a custom essay sample on Urban Sprawl or any similar topic only for you Order Now Furthermore, air pollution results in numerous health problems. Frumkin indicates that higher ozone levels link to more respiratory symptoms, worse lung function and more patients. Especially, air pollution may lead to people suffering from other respiratory diseases die. The author also notes that the usage of cars brings global climate change. In addition, human health is affected by global climate change in many ways, involving the influences of heat, enhancement of air pollutants and more epidemic. Frumkin suggests that sprawl is linked with reduction od physical exercise since cars replace bikes and foot. Reduction of physical exercise contributes to obesity. A number of health problems are driven by both decreased physical exercise and obesity. In the â€Å"social effects of urban sprawl† section of the paper â€Å"urban sprawl and public health†, Frumkin(2001) examines the mental effects of urban sprawl. Although Frumkin concedes that one aspect of sprawl, moving to the suburbs to contact nature may benefit health, other aspects of sprawl may have bad effects on human health. The writer claims that automobile commuting causes stress and stress-related health problems. Furthermore, road rage which is on the rise may be an indicator of such problems. Frumkin predicts that people who need longer time drive cars on overcrowded roads may have commuting pressure and that may threaten human mental health. How to cite Urban Sprawl, Essay examples