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Importance of Urban Design for Cities

Urban design is the process of arranging and designing buildings, public spaces, transportation systems, and amenities to shape cities and make urban areas functional and attractive. It involves blending architecture, landscape design, and urban planning. While related, urban design differs from urban planning in its focus on physical improvements to the public environment, whereas planning focuses more on managing private development. Recent decades have seen design used more strategically in business innovation and societal development processes. Many countries now invest in design to promote their image, raise awareness of quality design, and increase industry interest in how design boosts business performance.

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Tanisha Agrawal
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81 views2 pages

Importance of Urban Design for Cities

Urban design is the process of arranging and designing buildings, public spaces, transportation systems, and amenities to shape cities and make urban areas functional and attractive. It involves blending architecture, landscape design, and urban planning. While related, urban design differs from urban planning in its focus on physical improvements to the public environment, whereas planning focuses more on managing private development. Recent decades have seen design used more strategically in business innovation and societal development processes. Many countries now invest in design to promote their image, raise awareness of quality design, and increase industry interest in how design boosts business performance.

Uploaded by

Tanisha Agrawal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Urban Design, how important is it for cities?

Urban design is the art of creating and shaping cities and towns. It involves
the arrangement and design of buildings, public spaces, transport systems,
services, and amenities. It is the process of giving form, shape, and
character to groups of buildings, to whole neighbourhoods, and the city. It
is a framework that orders the elements into a network of streets, squares,
and blocks. Urban design blends architecture, landscape architecture, and
city planning together to make urban areas functional and attractive. 

Urban design and urban planning


While the two fields are closely related, 'urban design' differs from 'urban
planning' in its focus on the physical improvement of the public
environment, whereas the latter tends, in practice, to focus on the
management of private development through established planning methods
and programmes, and other statutory development controls.
Recent years have seen a development in the use of design, as well as in
design philosophy and design research. Design has come to mean more
than shaping and aesthetics; it has increasingly become a strategic
element in business innovation processes as well as in a number of
societal development processes. A designer's ability to combine, for
instance, designing with user understanding and overall solutions is
increasingly becoming a competitive parameter when companies develop
new products and services.
An increasing number of countries have invested in design to promote their
image internationally, to raise awareness among local consumers of the
value of design and product quality, and to increase interest from local
industry in the benefits of design for business performance. Furthermore,
many of these countries have also invested in developing their design
educational systems and their capabilities within the area of design
research.

How the city has changed


‘Seen in a long-term historical perspective, city space has always served
three vital functions – meeting place, marketplace and connection place. As
a meeting place, the city provided opportunities for social exchange of
information of all kinds. As a marketplace, the city facilitated commercial
exchange of goods and services. And finally, public spaces enabled access
to and connections between all the functions of the city…Within a span of
only a few decades, a city devoted primarily to working city and basic
necessities has been transformed into a city of leisure and enjoyment.’
(Gehl et. al., 2006)
In New City Life by famous Danish architect Jan Gehl et. al. (2006) the
story is told about a survey among people in Copenhagen’s city centre. The
main question was, “What is the primary reason for your being in
Copenhagen’s city centre?”. The response was measured at two moments
in time. The first was in the 1970s when the answer was “shopping”. Later
in 2005 the response was often “being in the city”. Therefore the conclusion
was that city space is a goal in itself, a worthwhile asset in its own right.
According to Gehl et. al. (2006) more people use the central city and have
spent more time there over the past 40 years, including evenings and
weekends when the shops are often closed. ‘All in all, this is a dramatic and
remarkable development that offers lessons for other cities that want to
improve their public spaces as a way to enliven and enrich the experience
of urban life.’

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