Elements of Urban Design

The studio was structured as an introduction to urban design representation and how it is used as a means of design thinking. The premise is that urban design is best understood and expressed through the study and representation of the built urban environment. Hence the studio will focus on the study and representation of the key urban elements in cities and will be structured in multiple modules running through the semester, each culminating with an exhibition of the outcome. These modules will significantly focus on effectively capturing and communicating the spatial qualities of the urban built environment.

Module 1 involves perceiving and representation of the key elements of urban design. The premise is that building types, urban blocks, streets and public open spaces form the key elements that come together to make any functional urban space. The exercises in this module will enable students with methods to study each element and how they contribute to the scale, form, character and their relationship with the larger urban context.

Module 2 final exercise which will involve the application of the abilities and skills developed in the first module through preparation of a framework plan for an urban intervention. This module focuses on preparing and representing site analysis, design strategies The culmination of this module will be to prepare a set of effective communication representation drawings for the design and the analysis.

Elements of Urban Design

Module 1 The Exercise begins with understanding the various typologies of the buildings and how each typologies of buildings responds to its context. Understanding how building typologies changes with respect to its context, Location and its users. One of the example on how building reacts to its context is, the buildings in public domain tends to be designed with its context were its try to blend in with its surroundings while the buildings in private domain tend to be more inclusive The first learning from this module is to abstract the given context and delayering it based on the level of details to make it legible for the users Building Types

Streets are important elements in an urban setting which acts as a key link in connecting various other buildings. Character of the streets depends upon its locality,culture and the activities which it supports, and sometime these characters influence the building type and its facade design. Open spaces or public space acts as a breathing space for a urban setting. The open space greatly influence on how its surrounding buildings reacts to it. The buildings facing the open space tend to have more porosity and permeability. The height and width of the building defines enclosure of the public space Streets Open Spaces Building of public domainBuilding of private domain

Understanding and delayering the urban block, helps to understand the inter-relationship between building blocks,streets and open space and how the combination of these elements defines an urban block. Its also helps to understand the activities and function an urban block performs. Urban Block

Paris Workshop Paris workshop exercise, were the objective was to make a urban intervention based on a first hand experience from the site visit. It was one of the interesting exercise since it was done with collaboration with student from France,which helped us to understand their interpretation of urban intervention, to develop good communication skills and engage in collaboration in order to arrive at a innovative problem solving technique.

The Urban Place Making Module 2 With understanding the elements of urban design and how it influence the urban space in a context. The urban place making exercise was about understanding the problems in an urban area and developing the long term strategies and localization of these strategies. Involving stakeholders of public space in designing the space. Making a successful urban space by creating activities involving public engagement. This module also helped in expressing all the elements of urban design in a single illustration and also expressing the details of an urban space.