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UDCRU
URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT
TO THINK OF URBAN DESIGN AS A SEPARATE SKILL IS A DIVERSION, A CONVENIENT SEPARATION OF THOSE DIFFICULT ARTS THAT ARE REALLY NOTHING LESS THAN TOWN PLANNING. THE TOWN PLANNING PROFESSION WHETHER IT ACCEPTS AND FACES UP TO THE FACT OR NOT HAS HAD AND WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE RESPONSIBILITY, THROUGH THE DRAWING UP OF PLANS, THE CONSIDERATION OF PROPOSALS AND THE RECOMMENDATION OF PERMISSIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT, FOR URBAN DESIGN. IT IS AN ART TOWN PLANNING MUST ITSELF REVIVE, MUST TAKE AGAIN TO ITS HEART, AND LEARN, AGAIN TO DESIGN. FOR PLANNERS, URBAN DESIGN IS NOT AN OPTION, IT IS TOWN PLANNING.
BOB JARVIS THE LOST ART OF TOWN PLANNING Urban Design Quarterly, Issue 43, July 1992 (pg. 29) SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Towns / cities (product of design) have become too big to be legible & easily understood, perceived and managed
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Towns / cities are becoming more influenced / being shaped (design process) by design concepts that are alien to the local context and through development & design by people foreign to the local lifestyles.
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Local Communities have been sidelined in the development of towns / cities (design process); the local communities should actually be initialising development (designers, developers, politicians are just tools / means to achieve community goals)
www.usc.edu Gledok Chinatown, Jakarta www.usc.edu Jakarta skyline
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Economic rationalisation / efficiency leads to predominantly mega-scale developments (product of design) that are unsustainable ecologically, socially, & even economically in the long run
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Misconception of Urban Design as merely the placing of bollards; selecting materials for pedestrian ways; initiating urban landscape; urban beautifications and image enhancements (design process).
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Lack of integration in city development (design process) across all administrative boundaries, disciplinary boundaries, & spatial boundaries Breaking into components: predominantly town planning & architecture, which compete with engineering & pathetically balanced up by modern urban design
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Misconception of the
Bigger the Better; what we need is actually Better NOT Bigger (product of design)
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Failure (or disinterest?) among built environment professionals to study, understand & appreciate the natural process & good principles of City Building that created many timelessly beautiful, liveable & more sustainable traditional cities; failure to learn from the past (design process)
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Urban Design is not emphasised at all in current town planning practice (design process); where is Urban Design in the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172)? roBusTNe ss ? ty?
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SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
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Town planners / urban designers passively following trends (design process) without seriously questioning their causes & effects; design should be a pro-active tool of change
www.sunway.com.my www.lasvegastourism.com
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Current planning system promotes (design process) mono-functional zoning & segregation of land uses imbalanced development; cities become solely landscape of consumption, hinterland / regions become predominantly landscape of production (product of design) urban sprawl uncontrolled relatively low density (generally) increased car dependency social segregation / disintegration
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Planning & Design for machinery-needs rather than for human-needs (design process) loss of identity of place, genius loci, human scale, freedom to move about placelessness (product of design)
York, UK Paris, France morning rush hour
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
Failure of town planners / urban designers to understand / visualise the implications of 2-dimensional plans & policy statements onto the real 3-dimensional physical environment; failure to translate planning ideals into physical realities (design process)
SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183
TO THINK OF URBAN DESIGN AS A SEPARATE SKILL IS A DIVERSION, A CONVENIENT SEPARATION OF THOSE DIFFICULT ARTS THAT ARE REALLY NOTHING LESS THAN TOWN PLANNING. THE TOWN PLANNING PROFESSION WHETHER IT ACCEPTS AND FACES UP TO THE FACT OR NOT HAS HAD AND WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE RESPONSIBILITY, THROUGH THE DRAWING UP OF PLANS, THE CONSIDERATION OF PROPOSALS AND THE RECOMMENDATION OF PERMISSIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT, FOR URBAN DESIGN. IT IS AN ART TOWN PLANNING MUST ITSELF REVIVE, MUST TAKE AGAIN TO ITS HEART, AND LEARN, AGAIN TO DESIGN. FOR PLANNERS, URBAN DESIGN IS NOT AN OPTION, IT IS TOWN PLANNING.
BOB JARVIS THE LOST ART OF TOWN PLANNING Urban Design Quarterly, Issue 43, July 1992 (pg. 29) SYED ZAINOL ABIDIN IDID : URBAN DESIGN & CONSERVATION RESEARCH UNIT URBAN DESIGN lecture notes YEAR2 SBP 3183