Image 1. The book cover of ‘Designing Cities: Basics, Principles, Projects’ |
What is the
basic knowledge for urban design? Which techniques
are necessary for designing decent urban spaces? ‘Designing
Cities: Basics, Principles, Projects’, written by German architect Leonhard
Schenk, is navigating the answer of these questions.
The book is
structured along three parts,1) General principles of urban design
2) Practical techniques for designing cities with relative examples
3) Three sensible
examples that are recently constructed and well evaluated - Hamburg (Germany), Tubingen (Germany) and Belval
(Luxemburg)
When people want
to make an overview from the basic theory to the completed projects, it seems a
well organised book to look through all parts.
The author
argues that the most urban design projects have been realised by competitions,
and two factors should be incorporated to win the competitions. On the one
hand, projects need to satisfy the demands of the client and the jury. On the
other hand, the functionality, the design and the representation capacity of projects
have to be promoted by themselves. This argument clearly indicates the
direction of the book. Over 350 pages, the author illustrates in detail the systematic
methods for creating urban spatial organisations and visually attractive
designs.
What an interesting
point of this book is the explaining principles of urban design step by step,
particularly in the Chapter 1 and 2. For example, ‘the law of similarity’ describes
that ‘elements that resemble one another in the form are more readily experienced
as belonging together than elements are. In addition, similar elements result
in more uniform groups than dissimilar ones’. (P.21, See image 3) The principles demonstrate
not the characters of each element but the natures of the group as a corporate
body of the elements. These rules are underestimated because too simple and too
obvious. But, we could easily deep in troubles during the design process if we do
not keep them in mind. And then, from the Chapter3, the author starts to
explain the practical ways of urban design such as designing urban blocks, various
grid structures, organising building lots, road systems, designing public space
and representation skills.
Image 2. The sample page of Chpter 2. Page 18 and 19 |
Image 3. The sample page of Chpter 2. Page 20 and 21 |
A variety of example
images are helpful to understand the intention of the author. The project
images of international offices like OMA, BIG and KCAP, and other competition
images were considerably selected, and are provided in the right positions
depends on the topics. When the possibilities of diagrams are expressed to show
complex relationships, for instance, the KCAP’s first prize winning diagrams
for FredericiaC competition are suggested as a suitable case.(See image 8) This brings good
chances not only for analysing some parts of each project but also for watching
highly correlated site plans with the parts.
Image 4. Good project images are helpful to understand the intention of the author. Page 40 and 41 |
Image 5. Sample pages. Page 74 and 75 |
Image 6. Sample pages. Page 110 and 111 |
Image 7. Sample pages. Page 276 and 277 |
Image 8. Sample pages. Page 280 and 281 |
The final
chapter is a weak side of the book. Much writing about the ways of urban design
is focusing on the designing physical urban spaces through the pages. However, planning
issues, such as the process of urban regeneration and the consortium structure,
are primarily discussed rather than design issues in the last chapter which
analyse successful cases of Hamburg, Tubingen and Belval. If the book places
more emphasis on the design issues like the spatial characteristics of each
city, it would be more adequate with the original intent of the book. Also,
most project images are from the European context while some Asian projects are
included. In other regions where have different geographical and societal
backgrounds, more careful approaches would be demanded to apply the ways of the
book.
Overall, ‘Designing
Cities: Basics, Principles, Projects’ provides a good level of overview for urban
design. Definitely, it is a nice reference for people who are interested in
urban design and its methods. This book was honoured the best architectural books
among 242 participants from DAM Architectural Book Award that was held by Deutsches
Architektur museum and the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Here is the
basic information of the book, and you can find more information from the links.
Designing
Cities: Basics, Principles, ProjectsHardcover: 356
pages Publisher: Birkhauser Verlag AG (25 July 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3034613253
ISBN-13: 978-3034613255
Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 17.5 x 3 cm
Birkhauser homepagehttp://www.degruyter.com/view/product/202784
Amazon UK http://bit.ly/KRenmV
Thanks for this informative review.
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