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Methodology of Urban Design

Rainer Mayerhofer 1

Methodology of Urban Design

Rainer Mayerhofer, ViennaTU Wien - Örtliche Raumplanung, Department für Raumentwicklung,

Infrastruktur- und Umweltplanungemail mayerhofer@arge-projekte.at  

Phone/fax numbers (format: +43-1-5033647)

Keywords: Characteristic of areas; Quality of urban design, visual criteria; image; genius loci; priorities:maintain existing high quality vs. creating new qualities

Introduction

In a 3-year research program "Characteristics of Urban Design – shown on the example of Vienna" (1) featuringa wide-spread typology including rural structures, the authors not only tried to transform the typology of Kevin

Lynch for European cities but also attempted to develop the latter by defining those criteria allowing a more orless objective evaluation of aesthetics in urban design.As you will see, there is a combination of physical criteria and social criteria, as well as quantitative criteria and

qualitative criteria.This method has since been used for the analysis of towns and parts of towns (2-5), as well as for a universitystudy program for planners (6) and in Austrian planning practice. There had been only minor changes in theoriginal concept by this testing over a period of nearly 20 years.

Methodology

1 Demarcation of areas with typical structure

This definition is traditionally based on functional, political and statistical units.A definition of areas from the point of view of urban design has to take account of the fact that the inhabitant hasto identify with his/her surroundings in order to be able to take an active part in the design of this environment.

1.1 Types of area 

For the demarcation of areas with typical structure, some basic general criteria with a strong influence on urbandesign were selected:

Direct criteria:•  pattern of the city (from the map)•  periods of building development•  topography•  prevailing land use•  classes of building heights

Indirect criteria:•  image•  history (genius loci)•  names

1.2 Borderlines of these areas

For the demarcation of these areas the following borderlines can be derived:•  borders of areas with identical characteristics•  barriers like railway lines, high-traffic roads, rivers, etc.

•  borders of built-up area against green areas, agriculture, etc.•  transition zones towards other land uses

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Methodology of Urban Design

Rainer Mayerhofer 2

2 Characteristics of areas

with typical structure in accordance with the following structural indicators, which can be derived from currentmaps, historical maps and aerial views or by survey and analysis of the locality:

•  accessibility•  configuration of plots and proportion of buildings• 

land use of plot and building•  green elements in public and private space

These characteristics are a summary of all these structural indicators within the respective borderlines.

3 Characteristics of streets

For each type of area with typical structure significant streets (as the essential public space) were selected from amore or less complete photo-documentation, to characterise their special type:

•  those with a cumulation of indicators and•  those with representative features of this type.

The essential elements shaping the appearance of the street to varying degrees of intensity were highlighted inthe selected photos. The following design factors were derived from this graphical analysis, leading to thedescription of the characteristics of streets.

4 Design factors

The shape of (urban) space is the overall term for all criteria and factors affecting forms of spatial importance.The multifariousness of these criteria reflects the variety of characteristics in urban design.Space is defined by its borders and qualified by the natural and built elements within the visual field of theinhabitant within the public zones.

4.1 The borders of space sum up the totality of solid forms and surfaces which surround the visual field in alldimensions. Public streets/squares are characterised by the following built and natural elements:

•  Front-line (basic line of space-bordering surfaces – straight, curved, etc., which defines the widths of streets and squares);

Fig. 1, 2: Front-line

•  Building typology (open, semi-detached or closed arrangement of buildings or groups of buildingsalong front-line);

Fig. 3: Building typology Fig. 4: Building height

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Methodology of Urban Design

Rainer Mayerhofer 4

•  Dominating roof 

Fig. 11: Roofs

•  Profile of street

Fig. 12, 13: Profile of street

4.3 Markers of space and space differentiation in terms of fine structural elements - the following qualitieswere defined (3 built and 2 natural elements):

Structure of building•  corners (rectangular, slanted, curved, with risalite, projection,•  tower, etc.)•  fronts (risalites, projections, loggias, balconies, gables, etc.)•  roofs (different forms of roofs, attics, garret-windows,•  chimneys, etc.)

Structure of facade•  weak or strong order, symmetry, rhythm•  basement, moulding, windows, etc.•  ornaments, plastic elements, colour, construction, etc.

Fig. 15: Structure of building and fassade Fig. 16: Structure of surface of street

Structure of surface of street (road and side-walk)•  function of road•  surface material•  street furniture/movables

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Methodology of Urban Design

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•  street-lights

Relief (topography of street/square) and vegetation in detail (avenue, row or group of trees, solitary tree, hedges,different functions of green space (public, private, etc.)

4.4 Continuity of space as an element of orientation:

•  - continuity of the above-defined structural elements,•  - visual relations (effective from far distance, within the area or from near distance only)

Fig. 17: Continuity Fig. 18: visual relation

Application

On the basis of the above-described analysis, the character for each single "type of area“ (for Vienna 26 typeswere defined) was described verbally, by pictures and marked off in a plan.

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Methodology of Urban Design

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Fig. 19: Vienna: Types of area (part of citymap and legend)

For practical use further framework conditions were worked out for each single "type of area" from a twofold

perspective – i) high-quality areas where the priority is to maintain a high quality of urban design and ii)heterogenic low-quality areas where the priority is to achieve a new higher quality of design.For that purpose two qualities have to be combined: quality of urban design and consistency in terms of compactness of space, building age and building heights.The place in the matrix is defined as follows:

•  High quality/consistent: More than 75% of buildings fulfil these requirements•  Prevailing high quality/prevailingly consistent: 50-75% of buildings fulfil these requirements•  Poor quality/inconsistent: less than 50% of buildings fulfil these requirements.

Fig. 20: Matrix of quality and consistency

This method of analysis for built-up area planning has been tested as a decision-making instrument in severaldifferent case studies. Although – as already mentioned – there are 26 types of characteristic urban design in thecase of Vienna these types have to be redefined in each new case. Therefore the framework conditions worked

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Methodology of Urban Design

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out for Vienna cannot be generally applied; they can serve as guidelines, but also have to be redefined in eachindividual case.As a general rule we can postulate that in areas where the priority is to maintain the given high quality of urbandesign, most of the indicators have to be complied with or at least applied in an adapted way in the case of a newbuilding or even in renovation projects.In areas where the priority is to achieve a new high quality of design it is a question of building philosophy;

either the principles of the local "genius loci" and spatial characteristics are respected, or they are superseded bya completely new, modern image of high quality.

References:

F. Moser, R. Mayerhofer, D. Frei, (Vienna 1985), Charakteristik der Stadtgestalt (Forschungsbericht) / Methodology of Urban DesignMayerhofer, Moser (Vienna 1987), Stadtbildanalyse Gürtel/Europaplatz Wien, in: GutachterverfahrenEuropaplatz, Die Wettbewerbgsausschreibung, (page 16-19)Brandenburg, Linzer, Mayerhofer, Moser, Schacht, Voigt, Walchhofer (Vienna 1993/94), ÖkologischeFunktionstypen (Forschungsbericht)

Hierzegger, Voigt, Linzer, Mayerhofer, Walchhofer, et.al., (Graz 1999), Räumliches Leitbild GrazR. Mayerhofer, A. Voigt, H. P. Walchhofer, et.al. (Wien 2003/04), Entwicklungskonzepte St. Pölten:Ratzersdorf ,St. GeorgenUrban analysis in the following students' projects:Mattersburg (1986), Hornstein (1987), Kindberg (1988), Hainburg (1989), Bruck/L. (1990), Gars/K. (1991),Mödling (1992), Wilhelmsburg (1993), Vienna 22. district, peripheral areas (1993/94), Bad Vöslau (1995),Langenzersdorf (1996), Guntramsdorf (1997), Ternitz (1998), Gänserndorf (1999), Traiskirchen (2000),Brunn/G. (2001/02), Neusiedl/S. (2003)