2. Perspective Theory:
Theory which focus on solution for specific problem, it's function by establishing new norms of practice.
Example: Curitiba city
•As an architect and mayor, Jaime Lerner led the movement that
transformed Curitiba into an environmentally friendly ‘laboratory for
urban planning.
•“Curitiba is not a paradise,” Lerner insists. “But it is a model for
many cities in the world. City It is planned such a way that it is best
example for sustainable city .
•Sustainable urban planning is at the center of all city planning and
architecture discussions, and in some places has been for quite a few
years . Such is the case in Curitiba, Brazil, where one mayor in the 70’s
recognized the impact a city’s design and systems could have serious
ramifications on its local environment. Over the past 50 years Curitiba
has invested in a number of small sustainable urban planning
developments. Having a significant amount of control at the municipal
level without federal intervention allowed for regional planning
associations to successfully implement a number of urban changes.
3 major projects :
1. The Bus Rapid Transit, also referred to as the BRT.
2. Mitigating flooding through the use of urban green spaces.
3. Alternative solid waste management systems like the Green
Exchange Program (GEP).
Introduction to the BRT:
•Efficient public transit systems present a greener and cleaner solution for
mass movement in densely populated urban regions. Buses and trains
reduce the number of individually occupied vehicles on the road, therefore
reducing traffic and the city’s overall fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
•Curitiba's City planning experts were aware the role an efficient and
sustainable public transportation system would represent in curbing fuel
consumption, carbon emissions and overall air pollution of the local
environment.
History of the BRT
•In the case of Curitiba, Jamie Lerner, first as an architect and then by acting
role of mayor, was acutely aware the promise a high-functioning public transit
system presented . He dedicated himself to innovating and implementation a
state-of-the-art transportation system. This system came to be known as the
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System, that is now globally recognized as the most
socially and environmentally conscious, as well as cost-efficient public transit
system . This system introduced novel, but simple ideas.
•Bus-only lanes: These lanes dedicated to express buses reduced overall traffic
and congestion in the downtown core thereby decreasing wait times, travel
time and fuel consumption by the buses .
3. •Elevated terminal stations: By raising the
terminal station platforms, entry and exit on
buses became more efficient and more
accessible for wheelchairs and walkers. This
further contributed to decreased wait times
and overall travel time.
•These changes were designed to enable
buses to emulate rails and train systems,
that are typically extremely expensive to
make.
The Setup & Impact on the Environment
•The bus system runs with major express lines which connect the
neighbouring rings which facilitate. Then smaller, local buses make
additional stops for the local people of the neighbourhood. This allows
for quick transit times and higher efficiency. This all results in reduced
fuel use, reduced carbon emissions and improvements to air pollution
due to decreased traffic, congestion, stop & go motion of exponentially
more buses. The reduced traffic and congestion also leads to faster
transit times which encourages more individuals to use the public
transit system in place instead of purchasing and using personal
vehicles. This further reduces fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
•Decreased overall fuel
consumption for the city
•Decreased carbon & GHG
emissions
•Improved air quality & decreased
air pollution
•Less pollutants in the surrounding
ecosystem
Benefits of BRT on the Environment
Green Urban Planning
•Another notable project developed in Curitiba would be their strategic use
and placement of public green spaces to issues of flooding, biodiversity, water
quality, reducing carbon emissions and maintaining general happiness and
moral via recreational spaces . Green spaces and parks represent about a fifth
of the city’s urban space.
Green spaces in the metropolitan core and surrounding regions of Curitiba.
•Most interestingly would be their use of such green spaces to mitigate
flooding in the urban and surrounding suburban regions. Instead of investing in
dams like the rest of Brazil in the 80s, Curitiba invested in creating park systems
which protected at-risk regions for flooding. This included natural river basins,
valley floors and any streams in significant watersheds. Within these parks they
placed deep lakes in which the floodwater could be diverted.
•This addressed not only the issues of flooding, but of water quality and
biodiversity. If traditional dams and infrastructure measures were put in place,
they would inhibit the natural migration patterns of aquatic species, and
associated avian and terrestrial species.
4. Critical Theory:
Example: Copenhagen, Denmark.
Evaluates the built environment and its relationship with the society serves critical theories purpose of utopian thought.
•The Five Finger Plan, developed in 1947
through Urban Planning Laboratory in
collaboration with urban planners Steen
Eiler Rasmussen and Christian Erhardt
“Peter” Bredsdorff, is an urban
development plan that focuses on both
metropolitan train lines and the green
spaces in between. As you can see from
the graphic, the idea is that the train
lines spread like fingers on a hand from
the “palm” of central Copenhagen. At
the time of it’s inception, the Five Finger
Plan did not go into Amager, which did
not have the infrastructure to support its
inclusion. Now, Amager is a much more
developed area of Copenhagen and is
considered to be the “extra finger.”
1. THE FIVE FINGER PLAN AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
•The 170 km s-tog lines of the Five Finger Plan, along with an extensive
bus system, four lines of waterbuses and a small but efficient metro
(2002-2007), make up Copenhagen’s city public transportation system.
•People like to ride their bicycles in Copenhagen. It’s subtle, but if you
look hard I think you’ll see them on the streets. So widespread are
cycles and cycle lanes throughout the city that the term
“Copenhagenize” has come to meet adding bicycle infrastructure to a
city. In fact, when New York City decided to make their city more cycle-
friendly, they hired Copenhagen urban designer Jan Gehl.
CARS VS. BICYCLES
•Nearly 40% of people in Copenhagen
cycle daily, with that number expected
to continue rising. But it wasn’t always
this way in Copenhagen; if you see
photos of the 20th century, up until the
late 1960’s, there were cars
everywhere. Copenhagen isn’t just an
example of how cycling infrastructure
can work, it’s an example of how fast it
can be adopted by a city and its people.
•While cars, public transport and
bicycles are all excellent choices for
getting from point A to point B,
sometimes you need to walk. Maybe
you want to stretch your legs, take your
dog out or push the pram. Maybe you
don’t have a “point B” and just want to
enjoy the city itself.
•Infrastructure-wise, you don’t need to worry about parking, traffic, and
all the problems that must be addressed therein. Aesthetically, it’s simply
more beautiful.
GREEN SPACES AND PLAYGROUNDS
•latest developments in Urban Design suggest that all residences in a city
should be no more than 300 meters from a green space. This has lead to
an interest in creating small green spaces, rather than larger parks and
open areas. While these are often less popular with politicians, the
intimate nature of these spaces often means that they are used more
frequently by more people than big green spaces. Copenhagen’s urban
design has taken on the idea of creating urban gathering spaces all over
the city, including the now-world famous Superkilen by Bjarke Ingels
Group.
5. •Massive construction sites around the city, Copenhagen is expanding their public transportation system. Specifically, they’re expanding
the metro by 17 stops with a circular line (that’s a big jump for a metro that currently only has 22 stops). This is exciting news for those of
us living/working outside the centre of the city.
6. Normative Theory:
Example: City Of Babylon
Based on the particular view point of the world.
An Overview of Babylon:
Babylon was excavated by a German team in the early 20th century before the onset of World War I,
and then by the Iraqis in the 1970s, although its ruins had been known and explored much earlier.
The city of Babylon is located on the Euphrates river in the north of southern Mesopotamia
(present-day Iraq) and lies about 60 miles south of Baghdad . The ancient city itself was roughly
square, and covered about 900 hectares of space, though only a small amount of this has been
excavated . Politically, it first rose to prominence in the second millennium BCE as the capital city of
king Hammurabi’s state, a ruler best-known for his law-code . During the second millennium BCE,
Babylon became the cultural, religious and political capital of southern Mesopotamia. Despite the
varying importance of the city in the political arena, Babylon remained a centre of cultic significance
into the Hellenistic period (c. 300 BCE). Unfortunately, due to the high water-table present at the
site very little is preserved prior to the Neo-Babylonian period (626-539 BCE). The works of the Neo-
Babylonian kings will therefore be the focus of this module. For a lecture on the ancient city of
Babylon.
The importance of Babylon in the Mesopotamian world-view is illustrated clearly in the so-called
‘Babylonian Map of the World,’ an inscribed cuneiform tablet dating to the 6th c. BCE in which
Babylon is shown to be at the cosmic and geographic center of the world. The religious nature of
the city is also shown clearly in a cuneiform text called ‘Tintir = Babylon.’ The tablets that preserve
this composition date to between 700 and 61 BCE but it is likely that the text itself was composed
centuries before these copies were written . The text opens by equating Babylon with various
religious epithets and then continues to list the names and gods associated with various shrines in
the Esagil temple, the temple of Marduk.
The city was sacked in 689 BCE by the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib (688-681 BCE), following the
deportation of his son to the Elamite king by the Babylonian citizens, most likely resulting in his
death at the hands of the enemies of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Sennacherib not only destroyed the
city, including the temples, he also deported the cult statues of Babylon to Assyria. The destruction
of the city was later viewed as a sacrilegious act due to the cultic significance of the city, and
Sennacherib’s successor, Esarhaddon (680-669 BCE), began to rebuild the city.
The Stele of Hammurabi. Image courtesy "Mbzt“ via Wikimedia
Commons Stele currently housed in the Louvre.
7. The Neo-Babylonian Empire
The new ruler of Babylonia was a Chaldaean named Nabopolassar (626-605 BCE). The
Chaldeans were a tribal group who had settled in Babylonia and were integrated into
Babylonian society to the extent that they gained political control at several points. It
took Nabopolassar ten years to solidify his control over Babylonia as a whole, but by
616 BCE he was campaigning in Assyria and raiding the cities of Nimrud and Assur. In
612 BCE a coalition of Medes and Babylonians, joined by others including the Scythians,
sacked the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh, and the last Assyrian king was defeated by
this coalition at Harran in 609 BCE .
Nabopolassar and his son, Nebuchadnezzar II, restored the city to its former glory after
its destruction by Sennacherib. In the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar II’s reign, Babylon
was a large city of roughly 400 hectares . By the end of his reign, the city had grown to
800 hectares and many new or renovated monumental buildings had been constructed.
Nebuchadnezzar II is responsible for the major building projects at Babylon during this
period, including finishing the Southern Palace started by his father, and building the
Ishtar Gate and Processional Way . A digital model of Babylon, based on the
archaeological evidence, is being produced by Olof Pedersén of Uppsala University and
can be viewed here.
The City and the King
The Neo-Babylonian kings chose to emphasize their power and prestige through cultic
means – specifically building projects that were intended to please the gods – rather
than through publicizing their military campaigns. Despite obvious military successes by
the Neo-Babylonian rulers, their service to the gods as builders was seen as more
important in the Babylonian royal ideology. This is evident in the numerous foundation
cylinders which record building activity, but not military activity. The royal ideology of
the Neo-Babylonian rulers was displayed not only in their architectural endeavors but
also in their artistic output, which followed in the Mesopotamian tradition of
representing cultic and divine motifs, emphasizing an iconic rather than narrative
pictorial mode. The city itself can be understood as both an expression of the king’s
power and the royal Babylonian ideology. An inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II from the
Ishtar Gate illustrates this royal ideology:
•“King of Babylon, the pious priest appointed by the will of Marduk, the highest priestly prince, beloved of Nabu, of prudent deliberation, who has learnt
to embrace wisdom, who fathomed their godly being and pays reverence to their majesty, the untiring Governor, who always has at heart the care of the
cult of ( Esagil and Ezida and is constantly concerned with the well-being of Babylon and Borsippa, the wise, the humble, the caretaker of Esagil and Ezida,
the first born son of Nabopolassar, the King of Babylon, am I.” .
8. Proscriptive Theory:
Example: Urban ecosystem
It states like what need to be avoided.
urban ecosystem, any ecological system located within a city or other densely settled area or, in a broader sense, the greater ecological system
that makes up an entire metropolitan area. The largest urban ecosystems are currently concentrated in Europe, India, Japan, eastern China, South
America, and the United States, primarily on coasts with harbours, along rivers, and at intersections of transportation routes. Large urban areas
have been features of the industrialized countries of Europe and North America since the 19th century. Today, however, the greatest urban
growth occurs in Africa, South and East Asia, and Latin America, and the majority of megacities (that is, those with more than 10 million
inhabitants) will be found there by 2030.
•Offers scientific investigation of the ecology of urban environments
•Examines interactions between urban ecosystems and associated suburban and rural
environments
Multidisciplinary - touches on many fields
Urban Ecosystems is an international journal devoted to scientific investigations of urban
environments and the relationships between socioeconomic and ecological structures and
processes in urban environments. The scope of the journal is broad, including interactions
between urban ecosystems and associated suburban and rural environments. Contributions
may span a range of specific subject areas as they may apply to urban environments:
biodiversity, biogeochemistry, conservation biology, wildlife and fisheries management,
ecosystem ecology, ecosystem services, environmental chemistry, hydrology, landscape
architecture, meteorology and climate, policy, population biology, social and human ecology,
soil science, and urban planning.
Urban ecosystem Britannica
•The expansion of large urban areas results in the conversion of forests, wetlands, deserts, and other adjacent biomes into areas devoted to
residential, industrial, commercial, and transportation uses. Such conversion may result in the production of barren land. In addition, the conversion
process fragments remaining wild or rural ecosystems into ever-smaller patches, and relatively high amounts of suboptimal habitat are found at the
boundaries between the remaining native ecosystems and those that have been modified for human use. Such “edge habitats” inhibit specialist plant
and animal species—that is, species that can tolerate a narrow range of environmental conditions. In addition, nonurban ecosystems downwind and
downstream of urban ecosystems are subjected to high loads of water pollution, air pollution, and introduced exotic species.
9. Positive Theory:
Example: Sector Theory
Empirical experimental process
•Following Burgess, Homer Hoyt, an economist, propounded an alternative,
proposition of urban structure and its growth pattern in 1939. Through sectors
model, Hoyt tried to overcome the weaknesses of the earlier theory. Hoyt
argued that cities do not develop in the form of simple rings, instead, they have
“sectors”. It was mainly based on residential rent pattern and impacts of
transportation development. This theory is the result of an empirical study of
34 American cities, in which he observed that high rent areas are located in
one or more sectors of the city. He prepared a map showing how rent changed
by sectors irrespective of concentric circle. Generating from the maps of
housing features and land uses pattern of cities, he analyzed the impact of
transportation the recreational areas and other changes.
•Homer Hoyt suggested that few activities grow in the form of sectors which
radiates out along the main travel links. Activities in a sector are considered to
be the same throughout the sector because of the purpose/function it serves.
Land use within each sector would remain the same because like attracts like.
The high-class sector would stay high-class because it would be the most
sought after area to live, so only the rich could afford to live there. The
industrial sector would remain industrial as the area would have a typical
advantage of a railway line or river. These sectors can be housing, industrial
activities, etc. These sectors grow along railway lines, highways or rivers.
Components of Hoyt Model
a) CBD – Central Business District
It is placed at the center. Sectors and the partial rings of land use/activities take place. This area is often known as downtown and has high rise buildings.
Inner city area or downtown area is a complex and dynamic organism. It represents many layers of historic growth of many generations impact of
cultural and traditions of men who inhabited the city as tourists. The combinations of these layers and the way they are held together in the city gives
imageability, out of its socio-cultural heritage. As the cities expands and modern technology and scientific innovations transformed the style of living and
also the structure of the city, open spaces were being eaten up by built forms resulting in congested and unhealthy environment.
b) Industry
Industries are represented in the form of a sector radiating out from the center. These forms sector because of the presence of a transport linkage along
which the activities grew. Presence of railway line, river or road would attract similar activity, and thus a continuous corridor or “sector” will develop.
10. c) Low-Class Residential
Low-income groups reside in this area. Narrow roads, high population density, small houses with poor ventilation exist in this area. Roads are narrow and
often connect to the industries where most of the people in this sector work. Closeness to industries reduces the travel cost and thus attracts industrial
workers. Environmental and living conditions are often inadequate because of the proximity to factories.
d) Middle-Class Residential
This area has middle income groups who can afford more substantial travel cost and want better living conditions. The activities of people residing in this
area consist of different activities and not just the industrial work. It has more linkages with CBD along with some linkages to industries. This area has the
most significant residential area.
e) High Class residential
This is the outermost and farthest area from the downtown (CBD). Wealthy and affluent people live in this area. This area is clean, has less traffic, quiet
and has large houses. Corridor or spine extending from CBD to the edge has the best housing.
The significance of Hoyt Model
Ecological factors and economic rent concept to explain the land use pattern
Stress on the role of transport routes in affecting the spatial arrangement of the city
Both the distance and direction of growth from the city center are considered
Brings location of industrial and environmental amenity values as determinants in a residential place
Example: Sectors of high-class residential areas tend to grow towards higher grounds, sites with a better view, more open space, the homes of influential
leaders within the community and existing outlying, smaller settlements.
Limitations of Sector Model
Only Railway lines are considered for the growth of sectors and do not make allowances for private cars.
It is a monocentric representation of cities; multiple business centers are not accounted for in this model.
Physical features – physical features may restrict or direct growth along specific wedges
No reference to out of town development
