Town Planning: The Urban Cluster

Town Planning (A)

• A lecture on Town Planning (A) is presented with a focus on the second lecture.

The Urban Cluster

• Refers to any stable area, whether urban, rural, or Bedouin, and is not affected by its size, customs, or traditions.
• Focuses on the places where people settle for extended periods and engage in daily life activities like:
  • Work
  • Rest
  • Recreation
  • Socializing

Levels of Urbanization

• The graphic illustrates the Urban Community
  • City
  • Its areas
  • The sections
  • Subdistricts
• The graphic illustrates the Current Urban Community
  • The City
  • The center
  • The mother village
  • The hamlet
  • Bedouin gathering
• The graphic illustrates the New City
  • The City
  • The district
  • The residential area

A Historical Perspective

• A contemporary city is a complex, multi-layered, living entity
• A huge project designed to meet the physical as well as spiritual needs of people.
• People choose land to practice all life activities of work and trade
• A mosaic made up of places to live, stores, plants, workplaces, colleges, museums, theaters, hospitals, gardens, and public buildings.
• Buildings connect to each other and with the roads, waterways, and street networks.

More Historical Perspective

• Urban deterioration after the Industrial Revolution pushed the need to enact policies to provide minimum standards in urban areas.
• Initial actions involved dividing locations into zones which set building regulations for each zone.
• Growing connections led to broader planning efforts, encompassing various levels from villages and cities to entire nations.
• Planning Scope:
  • National
  • Regional
  • Local
  • Detailed

About the City

• A city is like a living item: it grows, gets old, and can fall apart like a living creature.
• A city is made up of different things happening on its ground. Factors like the economy, society, and politics impact what happens there. Everything interacts and changes how the city is structured.
• Many experts have worked hard to explain how cities are structured, coming up with different ideas to show how they work.
• Key theories:
  • Concentric zone concept which focuses on the center
  • Sector Model (or Theory of Sectors)

Concentric Zone Theory

• City grows from the middle to the edges, forming layers:
  • Central Business District (CBD or heart)
  • Transition Zone
  • Working-Class Residential
  • Middle-Class Residential
  • Commuter Zone

Sector Model

• Idea: Land usages grow from city middle along transportation lines.

• Areas shape up as pieces called sectors. Related sectors tend to drift to city outskirts together.

• High-income housing starts by edge, outside city.

• Low-income housing groups near downtown.

• Housing values grow along transit lines connecting downtown, business hubs, and outer areas.

City Components

• Residential Areas encompass neighborhoods and housing units across diverse levels of cost and luxury.
• They represent 50–55% of city land use, but it can spike to 60%.
• Service Area has different levels of services on the neighborhood, district and municipal levels.
• It covers about 12–15% of area.

Examples of City Components

• Transportation:
  • Roads
  • Railways
  • Airports
  • Navigation Channels
• This can make up 25% of the land.
• Business areas have different levels based on placement within the city.
• Industrial zones:
  • Light industry
  • Workshops
  • Medium industry
  • Heavy industry
• Green and Open Spaces such as:
  • Playgrounds
  • Plazas
  • Parks

Residential Buildings

• A building solely for living.
• It is one or more stories with one or more apartments with a separate entrance.
• It may have business or office space on the ground and first floors.
• It is attached or separate from other houses.

Housing Complex

• Residential buildings combine to form residences that accommodate between 900 and also 1200 individuals.
• They share a single location and common exits and entrances.

Land and Urban Blocks

• Land:
  • It is a part of a block or tract of land designated as a system.
  • Utilized to conduct municipal infrastructure development efforts.
• Block:
  • The block is a building block for organizing neighborhoods
  • Often surrounded by roads, pathways, gardens, and waterways on the layout for the city
  • The fundamental part of the urban model.
  • Residential blocks are further split into parcels under distinctive ownership.

Division of Land

• Small groups of buildings are clustered in a garden or shared dwelling space is achieved by free circulation
• It is achieved through the division of huge blocks in sectors by streets is called division of property.

The Residential Neighborhood

• A residential neighborhood is a residential cluster with essential community aspects that enable residents to enjoy an appropriate quality of lifestyle.
• A well-designed framework for regenerating present urban areas so they are safe by creating healthy residential settings that contain all required amenities.
• Contributes to the security, advancement, and family welfare of citizens.

Neighborhood Self-Sufficiency

• Neighborhoods should operate cohesively to sustain daily requirements plus depend on municipal infrastructure to sustain higher level communities like bigger housing developments or cities
• This is because these communities can provide more professional solutions.

The Neighborhood Unit

• The idea came from planner Clarence Perry in 1929 to promote unity.
• Developed in reaction to expansion's disunity.
• It sought unity by the organization of centers in neighborhoods focusing education around elementary areas.
• It enabled students walking within the group.
• Promotes community connection, discourages clogging, and lessens pollution.
• As stated by Clarence Perrier, a group of houses include facilities, and schools intended to promote residents interaction.

Factors that Influence Neighborhood Design

• Location of school is geographic center, 400m ring.
• Consists of gardens, public buildings, stores, worship locations, community center.
• Population Range is from 2,000 to 6,000.
• Roads have outer highways and internal streets for safety.
• A hierarchical plan using main community routes permits vehicles alongside a local region.