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Visual Dimension | Vasturaag

Urban Design Dimensions: 4.Visual Dimension

By Arnav Saikia - September 28, 2015

WHAT IS VISUAL DIMENSION OF URBAN DESIGN?

Architecture and Urban Design are described as inescapable public art forms. While
observers can choose whether or not to experience art, literature, and music, Urban Design
does not afford such a choice. In their daily activities, people must pass through and
experience public parts of the city environment.

AESTHETIC PREFERENCE:
Aesthetic appreciation of the urban environment is primarily visual and kinaesthetic.
Experiencing urban environment involves all our senses. Jack Nasar (1998) identified five
attributes of general public’s preferable environments:

Naturalness
Upkeep/Civilities
Openness and defined space
Historical significance/content
Order

PATTERNS AND AESTHETIC ORDER:

As we always experience the whole rather than any single part in isolation, we appreciate
environments as ensembles, ordered, visually coherent and harmonious.

Smith (1980, p. 74) argues that our intuitive capacity for aesthetic appreciation has four
distinct components that transcend time and culture-

1. Appreciation of rhythm
2. Sense of rhyme and pattern
3. Recognition of balance
4. Sensitivity to harmonic relationships

ENVIRONMENTAL PREFERENCE FRAMEWORK:

MAKING SENSE INVOLVEMENT

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COMPLEXITY
COHERENCE
PRESENT OR IMMEDIATE Environments with enough in
Environments easy to
the present scene to keep
organize or structure
one occupied

LEGIBILITY MYSTERY
Environments suggesting Environments suggesting
they would be explored that, if they were explored
FUTURE OR PROMISED
extensively without further, new information
getting lost. could be acquired.

Kaplan and Kaplan (1982, pp. 82-7) suggest ‘coherence’, ‘legibility’, ‘complexity’ and
‘mystery’ as informational qualities of environments that contribute to people’s
preferences for particular physical environments.

ii) Proximity: enables elements that

i) Similarity: enables recognition of
are spatially closer together to be
similar or identical elements amid
read as a group and to be
others through repetition of forms
distinguished from those that are
or of common characteristics (e.g.
further apart.
window shapes)

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iii) Common ground/common enclosure: whereby an enclosure or a ground defines a

field or group. Those elements within the field or ground are distinguished from what
lies outside.

iv) Orientation: whereby elements are grouped through a common orientation, either
through parallelism or convergence towards a void or solid.

vi) Continuity: enables recognition

v) Closure: enables recognition of
of patterns that may or may not
incomplete or partial elements as
have been intended.
wholes.

Source: Adapted and extended from Von Meiss, 1990, pp. 36-8

THE KINAESTHETIC EXPERIENCE:

The experience of an urban environment is a dynamic activity involving movement and
time- ‘the kinaesthetic experience. The environment is experienced as a dynamic,
emerging, unfolding temporal sequence. To describe the visual aspect of townscape Gordon
Cullin (1961) conceived the concept of ‘serial vision’ and argued that the urban experience
is a series of jerks or revelations with delight and interest being stimulated by contrasts by
the ‘drama of juxtaposition’.

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the concept of ‘serial vision’ by Gordon Cullin (1961)

URBAN SPACE:

Positive and Negative Space:

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Positive Space:

Relatively closed, outdoor space which has a definite and

distinctive shape.
Conceivable and can be measured.
has definite boundaries
discontinuous (in principle), closed, static, but serial in
composition.
its shape is as important as that of the buildings surrounding
it.

Negative Space:

Shapeless E.g. amorphous residue left over around buildings

inconceivable- discontinuous and lacking perceivable edges or
form.

Creating Positive Space:

For all ‘hard’ urban spaces, three major space-defining elements

exist the surrounding structures, the floor and the imaginary sphere of the sky overhead.

Streets and Squares:

Although positive urban spaces come in a variety of different sizes and shapes, there are
two main types- Streets (roads, paths, avenues, lanes, boulevards, alleys, malls, etc.) and
Squares (plazas, circuses, piazzas, places, courts, etc.).

Streets are dynamic spaces with a sense of movement; the width-to-length ratio is greater
than 1:3.

Squares are static spaces with less sense of movement; the width-to-length ratio is less
than 1:3.

Streets and squares can be characterized as- ‘formal’ and ‘informal’:

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view of a typical Indian street

Iqbal Maidan- a famous square in Bhopal

 Formal–

have a strong sense of enclosure

orderly floorscape and arrangement of furniture
surrounding building that enhances formality
often symmetrical in layout

Informal–

relaxed character
wide variety of surrounding architecture
often asymmetrical in layout

The Squares:

A square usually refers to an area formed by buildings. To better understanding of the

aesthetic qualities of squares, Camillo Sitte and Paul Zucker’s Ideas are of particular value.

Camillo Sitte:

He advocated a ‘picturesque’ approach to urban space design in a pictorial sense-

‘structured like a picture and processing the formal values of an organized canvas:

Enclosure
Freestanding sculptural mass
Shape
Monuments

Paul Zucker:

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He outlined five basic types of ‘artistically relevant’ squares which represented ‘organized
and contained spaces’:

The closed space- space self-contained

The dominated square
The nuclear square
Grouped square- space units combined
The amorphous square- space limited

Squares rarely represent one pure type and frequently bear the characteristics of two or
more.

The Street:

Streets are linear three-dimensional spaces enclosed on opposite sides by buildings. They
may or may not contain roads. Streets for can be analyzed in terms of polar qualities, the
combination of which give scope for great diversity- visually dynamic or static; enclosed or
open; long or short; wide or narrow; straight or curved; formality/informality of
architectural treatment.

Townscape:

Townscape results from the weaving together of buildings

and all other elements of the urban fabric and street (trees,
nature, water, traffic, advertisements, etc.) so that ‘visual
drama’ is released.

Buildings seen together gave a ‘visual pleasure’ which no

buildings can give separately.

URBAN ARCHITECTURE:
Visual aesthetic character of urban environment derives not only from its spatial qualities
but also from

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the colour, texture and detailing of its defining space

activities occurring within and around which contribute to its character and sense of
place
its architecture and its landscaping

Buchanan (1988b, pp. 25-7) argued that building facades should:

create a sense of pace.

mediate between inside and out and between private and public space, providing
gradations between the two.
have windows that suggest the potential presence of people and that reveal and ‘frame’
internal life.
have character and coherence that acknowledge conventions and enter into a dialogue
with adjacent buildings.
have compositions that create rhythm and repose and hold the eye.
have a sense of mass and materials expressive of the form of construction.
have substantial tactile and decorative natural materials, which weather gracefully.
have decorations that distract delights and intrigues.

The criteria of structuring and informing and appreciation of urban architecture:

1. Expression
2. Order and unity
3. Integrity
4. Plan and section
5. Detail
6. Integration

HARD AND SOFT LANDSCAPE:

While well-designed landscaping adds quality, visual interest, and colour, poorly designed
landscaping detracts from otherwise well-designed developments. Landscape design
strategies should be developed before or in parallel with the building design process and
play an integral part in an overarching urban design framework.

Floorscape:

Two main types of floorscapes can be identified in urban areas- ‘hard’ pavement and ‘soft’
landscaped area. A floorscape’s character is substantially determined by

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the materials used (e.g. brick, stone slab, cobbles, concrete, etc.),
the way they are used,
how they interact with other materials and landscape features.

A change of flooring material can indicate a change of ownership (e.g. public to private),
indicate a potential hazard or provide a warning. The floorscape pattern often performs the
most important aesthetic function of breaking down the scale of large, hard surfaces into
more manageable human proportions.

Street Furniture:

Street furniture includes hard landscape elements other

than floorscape- electric pole, lighting standards, benches,
planters, traffic signs, bollards, boundary walls, railings,
fountains, bus shelters, statues, monuments etc.

In addition to contributing to identity and character, the

quality and organization of street furniture are prime indicators of the quality of an urban
space.

In Glasgow City Centre Public Realm, Strategy, and Guidelines, Gillespie (1995, p. 65)
offers a set of six general principles:

Design to incorporate the minimum street furniture.

Wherever possible, integrate elements into a single unit.
Remove all superfluous street furniture.
Consider street furniture as a family of items, suiting the quality of the environment and
helping to give it a coherent identity.
Position street furniture to help create and delineate space.
Locate street furniture so as not to impede pedestrians, vehicles or desire lines.

Soft Landscaping:

Soft landscaping can be a decisive element in:

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creating character and identity,

enhancing the temporal legibility of urban environment by trees and other vegetation
that suppress changing season.
playing an important role in aesthetic pleasure.
adding a sense of human scale.
providing a sense of enclosure.

For all landscape schemes, hard or soft, English Heritage suggests an eight-part strategy:

Appearance: have regard for historic context and local distinctiveness.

Consider the suitability of materials and their combination for the tasks they perform.
Design for robustness in terms of long-term maintenance.
Cleansing: consider ease of refuse collection, sweeping, washing, and specialist cleaning
of graffiti and gum.
Avoid clutter, by keeping signage to a minimum and using existing posts or wall
mountings.
Have a concern for pedestrians: through a welcoming atmosphere and clear directional
signage.
Have a concern for people with disabilities: for safety, convenience, and removal of
obstacles.
Traffic and related matters: consider public transport, cyclists, and pedestrians crossing
the carriageways.

CONCLUSION:
Buildings, streets and spaces, hard and soft landscaping and street furniture should be
considered together, to create drama and visual interest and to reinforce or enhance the
sense of place.

This is a Summary of the Dimensions of Urban Design from the Book “PUBLIC
PLACES- URBAN SPACES“ by Matthew Carmona, Tim Heath, Taner Oc and Steven
Tiesdell, Architectural Press

Arnav Saikia

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