Theory & Principles of Planning Part IV

The
ART AND SCIENCE OF
SITE PLANNING
and
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
6th

Definition
SITE PLANNING
The art and science of arranging the uses of portions of land is site planning.
Site planners designate these uses in detail by selecting and analyzing sites,
forming land use plans, organizing vehicular and pedestrian circulation,
developing visual forms and material concepts, readjusting existing landforms
by design grading, providing proper drainage, and finally developing the
construction details necessary to carry out the project.

SITE DESIGN
Entails the whole range of concerns relating to the development, or
redevelopment, of a piece of ground for some planned purposes.
Common purpose is the construction of a building on the ground of a
site; thus, building/site relations and interactions to direct physical
connections and sharing of the site space are experienced or
perceived.

Aspect of Site Design

1. Site Development. Concerns items on and below the ground

surface of a site, the buildings and its various building
utilities and services.
2. Concerns for Site Development:
! Division of Site Development
! The Micro-Site: Internal Concerns
! The Macro-Site: Extended Environment
! Building/Site Relations.
3. Fundamental concerns:
Routes of access to building entry point
1. Placement and orientation of building on site
Building base and foundation development
Underground connection to services/utilities.

Basic Functional relations

General Character of the site

Neighborhood environment
1. Function of the site unto itself.

Site Conditions
1.
Existing Site Conditions
2.
Design Problem considerations
3.
Physical Site conditions
4.
Site Survey. Maps on boundaries, access road location and transportation networks,
utilities easement, and major site features.
5.
Helpful Maps. Geologic Map, Zoning Map, Aerial Surveys, General Map
6.
Site Development Plans
7.
Site Plans
8.
Grading Plans
9.
Construction Plans
10. Helpful Data Sources: Surface Drainage, Existing Streets, Existing Utilities, Adjacent
Properties
11. General Information on:
-Ownership Legality/Access availability and usage
-Zoning Ordinance
-Weather and General Climatic Records
-Regional Demographic Studies
-General Community or Regional Development Plans
-Legal Constraints
-Ownership
-Usage Restrictions
-Building Codes/Local and National Building laws & Ordinances

THE ASPECTS OF SITE PLANNING

1. Defining the site design problem. The problem considered is how to
get a building on the site and which site situations may present
constraints or difficulty.
2. Traffic. Management of considerable traffic for both the pedestrian
and
vehicles. People and cars must be moved on and off the site and around the
site for various purposes: entry, access roads,
pedestrian routes, and
vehicular system routes.
3. PARKING. A requirement for all building sites. It may be a surface
parking on a paved area or a structure parking within the building or in
a
separate building on site.
4. THE VISIBLE SITE. Site Planning generally deals with the visible
portion of the site as to what is seen walked on and participated or
used by the users of the site
and the buildings on it. It shall be
considered from these views:
a. All possible points: on the site, off the site, inside and outside the
building, from the neighboring buildings, etc.
b. At night, during daylight, with site lighting turned on or off.
c. At different times of the year, different seasons affect landscape
and environment of the site.
d. By persons on vehicles passing through or just walking by.

BUILDING/SITE RELATIONS
Siting the building establishes the specific geometric, spatial relationship
between a building and its site. Consisting of :

HORIZONTAL POSITIONING.
Establishes the plan location of the building on the site considering the
following factors:
1.
Setbacks
2.
Protection of easements
3.
Site space for driveways, walks, underground utilities
4.
Protection of views or privacy
5.
Construction allowances
6.
Topography
7.
The shape of the building (building ground level perimeter
profile) is usually strongly related to the site form, especially for
tight sites where the building covers a major portion of the site
surface. The building shape is both restricted by the site form
and strongly limits the potential for developing other site areas.

BUILDING/SITE RELATIONS
VERTICAL POSITIONING
1.
Relation to any existing buildings or other features
2.
Relation to existing site features: grades, ground water
levels, soil conditions.
3.
Relation to existing underground utilities.
4.
Vertical locations of both the edges and buildings will
also
establish some conditions for other site elementsmost notably
sidewalks, driveways, terraces, breezeways
or other elements
involving traffic of people or vehicles.
Site drainage, as it affects both the site and the building, will be strongly
defined. It is best to direct surface drainage away from the building edges,
especially when there are basement spaces. Controlled drainage on a tight
site or one with problem site edges may present a different situation, and
building edges may actually be used as a site drainage collection points that
feed into a sewer system.

BUILDING/SITE RELATIONS
ACCESS.
The access path typically begins with the concern for access on to the site, which is
usually constrained by adjacent properties or streets for 2 forms of traffic
pedestrian and vehicular. Access also considers the provision of accessibility for
persons with limited abilities

"

SERVICES. Consist of:

1.
Water supply
2.
Sewers
3.
Electrical power
4.
Gas
5.
Telephone lines
6.
Cable TV
7.
General deliver-mail and courier services
8.
Trash collection
9.
Firefighting
10. Building/Site Spatial Continuity
11. External viewed building as an object on the site
12. Seen from the inside the building
13. Entry and exit passage

Special Concerns For Sites

1.
Lighting. Electrically Powered Outdoor Lighting May Serve
Various Purposes. Sometimes Several Different Purposes Can Be Fulfilled
With the Use of a Single Fixture. It Is Important to Understand the Different
Kinds of Illumination Needs in Order to Accurately Judge the Value and
Appropriateness of the Many
Different Lighting Systems.
2.
Height of Fixtures. Light Intensity Decreases Rapidly As Distance
From the Source Increases; Thus, the Higher the Fixture, the
Less
Illumination Will Deliver at Ground Level. However, the
Higher the
Source, the Wider the Areas It Will Affect.
3.
Spacing of Fixtures. Widely Spaced Fixtures Will Result in Local
Bright Spots With a Falloff of Illumination Between Them; Closely Spaced
Fixtures Can Produce a Relatively Uniform Illumination.
A.
Form of Fixtures and Type of Lighting Elements
B.
Illumination of the Building Exterior
C.
Illumination of Traffic Paths
D.
Security Lighting
E. Accent Illumination and Decorative Lighting

Special Concerns For Sites

4.
Acoustics. Controlling sound on site is somewhat limited, compared to
situations inside the building. Although not much can be done to modify or control
this situation, site development offers some possible solutions for sound control as:
a.
Consider the location of sound generating facilities on site (mechanical rooms)
b.
Utilize ground forms (hills, etc)
c.
High site walls
d.
Tall dense plantings
5. Communication and signage. Communication functions are an aspect of site
development. All entrances and exits should have signage for proper
communications. It is a good design exercise to walk through a proposed site to see
how much communication is achieved without recourse to signs. If this form of
communication is optimal, the signs will work all the better, and will not fight with the
visual signals on the site.
6. Security. A lot is enclosed through various means of enclosure to present a sense
and actually secure the activities and the users. Nowadays, with the growing threat of
terrorism and insurgency globally, security had been a major system in site
development. Electronic gadgets, equipments are being developed to fill the gap in
the market demand in this area. More and more users require a security system not
just for their homes but in all the places, they are using.

LAND ANALYSIS

Topography

Topography describes the surface features of land. A topographic map

shows the slope and contour of the land as well as other natural and artificial
features. It is developed from a topographic survey by a land surveyor and includes:

Property boundaries

Existing buildings

Utility poles

Roads

Manufactured features

Trees natural features: rock outcroppings & heavy vegetation

Contour lines on a map are a graphic way to show the elevations of the land in a plan
view and are used to determine the suitability of the land for various uses.
Contour intervals is the vertical distance between contour lines

LAND ANALYSIS
"
SLOPE ANALYSIS CATEGORIES:

Slope 0%-4%" Usable for all types of intense activities and are easy
to build on.
Slope 4%-10%" Suitable for informal movement and outdoor activity
and can also be but without much difficulty.
Slopes over 10%-25% " Difficult to climb or use for outdoor activity
and more difficult and expensive to build on.
Slopes over 25%"
Depending on the conditions of the soil, are
subject to erosion and become more expensive to build on.

"
Respecting the natural contours and slope of the land is
important from an ecological, aesthetic and ecological standpoint.
Ideally, the amount of earth cut away in grading operations should
equal the amount required to fill in other portions of the site.

NATURAL FEATURES
1.
View analysis may be required to determine the most
desirable ways to orient buildings, outdoor areas, and
approaches
to the buildings. Undesirable views can be
minimized or
blocked with landscaping or other
manufactured features.
2.
Significant natural features such as rock outcroppings, cliffs,
caves, and bogs should be identified to determine whether
they must be avoided or can be used as positive design features in
the site design.
3.
Subsurface conditions of groundwater and rock must be
known also. Sites with high water tables (about 1.80-2.40 meters
below grade) can cause problems with excavations,
foundations,
utility placement, and landscaping. The water
table is the level
underground in which the soil is saturated
with water.
Generally, the water follows the slope of the
grade above, but it
may vary slightly. Boring logs will reveal whether groundwater is
present and how deep it is.
4.
Sites with a preponderance of rocks near the surface can be
very expensive and difficult to develop. Blasting is usually
required, which can increase the site development costs significantly
(or may not be allowed by the city code restrictions)

DRAINAGE

Every site has some type of natural drainage pattern that must be taken into
account during design. In some cases the drainage may be relatively minor,
consisting only of the runoff from the site itself and a small amount from adjacent
sites. This type of drainage can be easily diverted around roads, parking lots, and
buildings with curbs, culverts, and minor changes in the contours of the land. In
other cases major drainage paths such as gullies, dry gulches, or rivers may
traverse the site. These will have a significant influence on potential site
development because they must, in most cases, be maintained. Buildings need
to be built away from them or must bridge them so that water flow is not
restricted and potential damages are avoided. If modifications to the contours are
required, the changes must be done in such a way that the contours of the
adjacent properties are not disturbed.
The development of the site may be so extensive that excessive runoff is created
due to roof areas, roads, and parking lots. All of these increase the runoff
coefficient, the fraction of total precipitation that is not absorbed into the ground.
If the runoff is greater than the capacity of the natural or artificial drainage of the
site, holding pools must be constructed to temporarily collect the site runoff and
release it at a controlled rate.

SOIL
Soil is the pulverized upper layer of the earth,
formed by the erosion of rocks and plant remains
modified by living plants and organisms. Generally,
the visible layer is topsoil, a mixture or mineral and
organic material. The thickness of topsoil may
range from just a few inches to a foot or more.
Below this is a layer mostly mineral material, which
is above a layer of the fractured and weathered
parent material of the soil above. Below all these
layers is solid bedrock. Soil is classified according
to grain size and as either organic or inorganic

GRAIN SIZE CLASSIFICATION and

CHARACTERISTICS
Gravel particles over 2 millimeters in diameter
Sands particles from 0.05 to 2 millimeters in diameter, the
finest grains visible to the eye.
Gravels and sands are excellent for construction loads and
drainage and for sewage drain fields, but they are unsuitable
for landscaping.
Silt particles from 0.002 to 0.05 millimeters in diameters, the
grains are invisible but can be felt as smooth
Silt is stable when dry or damp but unstable when wet. It
swells and heaves when frozen and compresses under load.
Generally building foundations and road bases must extend
below it or must be elastic enough to avoid damage. Some
non-plastic silts are usable for lighter loads.

GRAIN SIZE CLASSIFICATION and

CHARACTERISTICS
Clay particles under 0.002 millimeters in diameter, smooth
and floury when dry, plastic and sticky when wet.
Clay expands when wet AND IS SUBJECT TO SLIPPAGE. It is
poor for foundations and unless it can be kept dry, It is also
poor for landscaping and unsuitable for sewage drain fields or
other types of drainage.

"
Peat and other organic materials are excellent for landscaping
but unsuitable for building foundations or road bases.
Usually, these soils must be removed from the site and
replaced with sands and gravels for foundations and roads.

TRANSPORTATION and UTILITY INFLUENCES

1. Roads provide a primary means of access to a site. Their availability and
capacity may be prime determinants in whether and how a parcel of land can be
developed. Basic Categories of Roads:
a Local Streets have the lowest capacity and provide direct access to
building sites. They may be in the form of continuous grid or curvilinear
systems or may be cul-de-sacs or loops.
b Collector Streets connect local streets and arterial streets. They have a
higher capacity than local streets but are not usually intended for through
traffic. Intersections of collector and local roads may be controlled by stop
signs, whereas intersections with arterial streets will be controlled with stop
lights.
c Arterial Streets are intended as major, continuous circulation routes that
carry large amounts of traffic on two or three lanes. They usually connect
expressways. Parking on the street is typically not allowed and direct access
from arterial streets to building sites should be avoided.
d Expressways are limited access roads designed to move large volumes of
traffic between, through and around population centers. Intersections are
made by various type of ramp systems, and pedestrian access is not allowed.
Expressways have a major influence on the land due to the space they
require and their noise and visual impact.

TRANSPORTATION and UTILITY

INFLUENCES

2. Public Transit
The availability and location of public transit lines can influence site
design. A site analysis should include a determination of the types of public
access available (whether bus, subway, rail line or taxi stop) and the location
relative to the site. Building entrances and major site features should be
located conveniently to the public transit. In large cities, site development may
have to include provisions for public access to subway and rail lines.
3.
Service Access
Service to a site includes provisions for truck loading, moving vans, and
daily delivery services. Ideally service access should be separated from
automobile and pedestrian access to a site and a building. Space for large-truck
turning
4.
Utility Availability
5.
Local Government Services