The following guidelines loosely follow the principals of New Urbanism for planning and laying out cities and towns. New Urbanism promotes walkable neighbourhoods and mixed-use space. The term is something of a paradox, as at its core it espouses returning to the way cities and towns were laid out prior to WWI.
It is important to note that the following guidelines will make a city more walkable and efficient. However, to make a city truly more desirable, traditional architecture should be employed. Traditional architecture and traditional city layouts complement each other, providing a whole greater than the sum of their parts. One of the two is better than none, but it’s best to have both.
9a. Continuous, connected street frontage
As humans, we crave a sense of place. In nature, we experience a sense of place through paths, clearings, and vistas. Likewise in the urban environment, we experience a sense of place through streets, squares or parks, and vistas.
Vistas are vistas, and squares and parks naturally emulate clearings. However, in contemporary urban planning, streets and roads often fail to provide a sense of place. The best way for a street to provide a sense of place, is to emulate a path. This can be achieved with continuous, connected building façades lining the street.
Small, infrequent gaps between buildings, such as entrances for footpaths or mews, are acceptable. Arches over these gaps are not required, but can be employed to maintain continuous street frontage.
Another, more space efficient, solution to maintain continuous street frontage is to build upper storeys right over the footpath or mews entrance.
The community, health, and environmental disadvantages of both standalone housing (suburban sprawl) and residential high-rises (Le Corbusier’s garden city model) are well documented and will not be further explored here. However, one prominent disadvantage is their inability to create a sense of place.
9b. In predominantly residential areas: use row housing
Row housing was the past and is the future. In its essence, good urban planning is as simple as using row housing.
Row housing offers a time proven solution with an ability to meet a wide range of population densities. For example, the highest population density in the UK is found in Kensington and Chelsea, neighbourhoods consisting almost entirely of row housing. These neighbourhoods do not feel crowded. With their leafy streets, green spaces, and traditional architecture, they are the most desirable in the UK.
Standalone housing should never be used except in special circumstances such as mansions, palaces, or an odd lot placement. The prime advantages of row housing over standalone housing are:
- Higher population density
- More economical
- More ecological
- Continuous, connected street frontage.
Higher density supports public transportation and closer amenities such as: schools, shops, restaurants, libraries, etc. Closer amenities encourage walking and cycling which positively contribute to personal health, the environment, and a sense of community.
Row houses are more economical because they use less land and require fewer kilometers of infrastructure such as: communication, power, sewage, water, and gas lines, and roads. They also have fewer exterior walls which lowers construction costs.
Row houses are more ecological because they use less material and reduce car dependency. Fewer external walls also leads to less energy consumed for heating and cooling.
Continuous, connected street frontage creates a sense of place and makes row housing neighbourhoods desirable.
9c. In shopping and business streets: use walk-up apartments
5-7 storeys are normally appropriate. If most people do not own cars it is possible to go higher. Car cultures take time to dissipate. Therefore, if a strong car culture exists, anything higher than 5-7 storeys will likely result in congestion.
Shops are normally located on the ground floor, businesses may be located on ground and upper floors, and residences are normally on the upper floors.
Most buildings in shopping and business streets should also have continuous, connected façades. Exceptions are grand public buildings such as town halls, libraries, schools, universities, churches, etc. Though not a requirement, these may stand alone.
In quieter, predominantly residential neighbourhoods it is advisable to use row housing over walk-up apartments. They are preferred by most people, especially families with children. This is because an entrance on a public street feels more accessible and safer than an entrance in a private hallway. Because entrances in private hallways can feel vulnerable, and private hallways feel more intimate than public streets, neighbours are less likely to chat with each other and often intentionally avoid contact. This can lead to feelings of isolation. Highly visible space in front of row houses provides neutral ground for neighbours to chat and build a sense of community.
Community is also built through residents’ perceived sphere of influence. This is important as residents feel responsible for the cleanliness, safety, and overall order within their perceived sphere of influence. This means within this sphere they look out for their neighbours and discuss possible community concerns with them. A resident’s perceived sphere of influence is naturally highest in their private home. It then decreases outside their home the further they are from their front door. At the point where their front door is no longer visible, most residents’ perceived sphere of influence is negligible. Because an apartment dweller’s front door is not visible from the street, they have almost no perceived sphere of influence on their street. This severely reduces the sense of community.
9d. Mixed-use
All neighbourhoods should be mixed-use. Naturally there will be more commercial space in shopping and business streets. However, predominantly residential areas should also contain amenities such as: schools, shops, grocery stores, restaurants, etc.
9e. Walkability
Large cities should be broken up into smaller, self-sufficient neighbourhoods with a diameter roughly between 0.5 km (~5 minute walk) and 1 km (~10 minute walk). These neighbourhoods can be separated by main shopping and business streets, pedestrian zoned streets, parks, or natural barriers such as rivers. Each neighbourhood should have at least one primary school, a central gathering place such as a square, and amenities required on a daily to weekly basis such as grocery shops, libraries, playgrounds, restaurants, public transportation stops, etc. This ensures that frequent use items are within at most a 10 minute walk.
Secondary schools and weekly to monthly use items such as sports fields/courts, clinics, specialty shops, etc. should be at most one neighbourhood away, and thus within a 20 minute walk.
Depending on the size of the city there may only be one college or university and one instance of monthly to yearly use items such as theaters, concert halls, sports stadiums, central train hubs, airports, hospitals, etc. Depending on the amenity, these can be placed at strategic locations where multiple neighbourhoods converge, or on the outskirts of the city.
9f. Horizons
When looking down a street, the horizon should be a point of interest. There are two ways to make horizons interesting and draw pedestrians on.
1. Use curved streets. Curved streets were an unintentional byproduct of medieval town building. They pique our curiosity as to what lies beyond the bend and encourage us to continue walking to find out. Shopping districts are often located in old sections of town with winding streets. This is done with the intention of drawing shoppers on, in the hope they continue their buying.
Below is a shopping street in Utrecht. What is beyond the bend? Click here to find out!
2. Use a terminated vista. In urban planning terms, a building or edifice centered at the end of a street is said to “terminate the vista”. Terminated vistas also draw pedestrians on. However, instead of using the unknown as winding streets do, they use the known to create a target destination.
An historical aside:
Terminated vistas were popularized by the Romans and readopted during the Renaissance. Later, as Prefect of the Seine from 1853-1870, Baron Haussmann repeatedly employed this effect in the reconstruction of Paris. He used both existing and new monuments to terminate his many new boulevards.
Perhaps Baron Haussmann’s boldest terminated vista was Boulevard Henri IV. The July Column, a monument commemorating the Revolution of 1830, terminates one end. The Panthéon, a large domed building, terminates the other.
It was bold because Boulevard Henri IV does not actually run to the Panthéon, it only appears to. The purpose of Boulevard Henri IV was to bridge the Seine and connect Boulevard Saint-Germain on the left bank, to the right bank; not run all the way to the Panthéon. The Panthéon’s dome sits well above the buildings around it and it is built on a hill. This makes its dome clearly visible from a distance. Baron Haussmann cleverly exploited this fact and aligned Boulevard Henri IV with the Panthéon’s dome, making it visible down the center of his new Boulevard. Crossing the Seine, Boulevard Henri IV meets with Boulevard Saint-Germain and stops, its purpose fulfilled.
In order to align Boulevard Henri IV with the Panthéon’s dome the Seine had to be crossed at an angle. This was also bold because Napoléon III, the Emperor of France, opposed the idea. He thought the new bridge, Pont de Sully, set at an angle would look strange and advocated keeping it parallel with the existing bridges. Both men were accustomed to getting their way, but in the end Napoléon III conceded to his Prefect and Pont de Sully was built at an angle.
Baron Haussmann employed a similar trick with the dome of Eglise Saint-Augustin. Not only does the dome terminate Boulevard Malesherbes directly, but he cleverly positioned it to be visible down the center of Avenue de Friedland, one of the boulevards radiating out from the Arc de Triomphe.
9g. Employ a crisp transition between urban and rural
The transect model states that towns and cities become progressively less dense as they move out from their core. For example, tall apartment blocks give way to row housing, which give way to duplexes and tightly spaced standalone housing, which give way to loosely spaced standalone housing, which give way to acreages, which give way to farms and nature reserves. This may be applicable in some situations, but certainly is not applicable in all.
There is little historical precedent for the transect model. Instead, the transition from urban to rural was historically quite abrupt. Until advances in heavy artillery in the mid 1400’s, most cities were walled. Cities and towns were densely built inside walls and outside was farmland or wilderness. As vacant space inside the city walls decreased, land prices rose and those less fortunate risked building outside. When enough homes were built outside the city walls, the walls were expanded to encompass them, and the process started over.
Even when the usefulness of walls faded, cities and towns were still compactly built with a crisp transition between urban and rural. This was practical as it maintained short transportation routes and conserved valuable farmland.
The photo of Bath below shows compact row housing on the right, and what was farmland (now a park and a golf course) on the left.
The advantages of a crisp transition are twofold.
- Urban dwellers can easily enjoy the countryside. It is a pleasant thought to walk five minutes out your door one direction to the town square and five minutes the other direction to farm land or a nature reserve.
- It maintains urban density. Expansion is simple: another street or neighbourhood of row housing is developed outside existing row housing. With the transect model, compact expansion becomes more difficult. It is onerous and expensive to rezone and infill between existing houses or to demolish and build anew. Instead, expansion normally occurs on the outside in the form of more widely spaced standalone houses. This naturally exacerbates urban sprawl.
9h. Parking
Parking lots are incredibly damaging to the urban fabric. Nothing sucks the life out of a space like a parking lot. They make beautiful areas feel seedy and beautiful buildings feel neglected. Visible parking lots should be avoided. Instead, car parks can be built under squares or in the center of urban blocks and surrounded by buildings.
Regardless of how many stalls there are, side by side parking should also be avoided as it projects the same feeling as a parking lot.
Garages facing the street should also be avoided. Instead, tuck garages behind row houses in mews, use underground parking, or employ parallel parking on the street.
9i. Revitalizing the city center
The key to revitalizing a city center is to have more pedestrians and fewer cars. People on the street make a city feel vibrant and alive, cars make a city noisy and dangerous. People on the street connect with the city, people in cars simply pass through the city.
When trying to breathe new life into an urban center the first thing to look at are parking lots that should be, or could be, public squares. Nothing will rejuvenate the surrounding area more than removing the parking spaces and replacing them with a focal point like a fountain or statue. If there is a grand building already on the square, this will be even more effective.
For those that think people need a place to park in order to visit the center this may seem counter-intuitive. However, a lack of parking doesn’t keep people away so much as a lack of accessibility or a lack of soul. To solve the accessibility issue the city can install underground car parks (if they have the budget), set up park and rides with affordable or free public transportation to the city center, and create bike lanes.
Compare the before and after pictures of the Central University Library in Bucharest below. The planners did a great job of restoring the prestige of a beautiful building by replacing a parking lot with an equestrian statue that had previously stood there. Well done! The area now feels more inviting, attracting pedestrians in a way it simply did not before.
A direct and effective way to have more pedestrians and fewer cars is to create pedestrian zones. Pedestrian zones encourage foot traffic by creating a safe, relaxed place for people to enjoy the city. If vehicles are required to deliver goods, pedestrian zones can be implemented during peak hours and can be opened to delivery vehicles during off-hours.
The best long term solution to revitalizing a city center is for people to live there. Public squares and pedestrian zones will help make the area desirable. It is important not only to have residential buildings, but also for the area to be zoned mixed-use so offices can easily be turned into apartments and, if need be, vice versa.
9j. Greenery
The positive effects of greenery are not to be underestimated. Greenery softens ugly buildings, humanizes depressed areas, and enhances beautiful buildings even further. If people are the antithesis of cars in the urban landscape, greenery is the antithesis of parking lots. There are three basic levels of greenery. All three are appropriate and beneficial.
1. Window boxes and potted plants are a simple, quick way to add greenery to an existing townscape. They send a clear message that inhabitants care; about their home, their street, and their community. It should be noted that greenery may not be appropriate for all building types. For example, greenery should be used sparingly, or not at all, for buildings intended to be somewhat imposing such as banks and courthouses.
2. Street trees and bushes juxtapose with buildings and soften their hard edges. Trees provide shade in the summer, relief from the rain, and invite birdsong. Numerous studies have shown the positive effects that trees have on our health and well-being. Humans like trees. Not every street needs trees. Indeed, some streets, like Regent Street shown above in 9a, have intentionally been left treeless to allow the architecture to shine. However, if there is space, street trees are normally a wonderful idea. Some trees have aggressive roots which can damage building foundations. Therefore before planting, it is important to research which trees are safe. Also, when planting saplings, space them from buildings and each other based on how large they will grow; not their current size.
3. Parks or green spaces are normally allotted a limited percentage of land when planning new developments. Rather than one large green space, it is more effective to have smaller green spaces dispersed throughout, ensuring every residence has convenient access to greenery. In this way, average green space use per m2 will be higher, and more people will enjoy and benefit from the positive effects of greenery.
9k. Items to avoid
The following items should be avoided:
- Cul-de-sacs (instead, T intersections or curving roads can be used to naturally slow traffic down)
- Front facing garages
- Visible parking lots
- Commercial only zoning
- Residential only zoning
- Buildings set back far from the street (unless a boundary such as a fence or hedge is close)
- Gaps in street frontage
- Modern buildings
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