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| 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.
