Sustainable Urbanism — Urban Planning and Design

Patrick Clarke on the mechanics of a walkable centre: shops and services along a main street, community facilities — schools, health centres, open space — placed so people reach them on foot.

Part of the New City reading list — the books Kyle worked through while building the The New City thesis. Indexed on that page.

Notes

• by: Patrick Clarke
• The key points in creating places is to remember that while a street may have a life of 1,000 years or more, and a building perhaps 200 years, utility and building services may have a life of just 25 years. It is crucial that these can be upgraded during the buildings’ lives as technology develops.
• The Walkable Community
  • Shops and services tend to be focused along a main street running through the heart of the neighborhood, at the convergence of movement routes and around key facilities such as a railway station .The degree to which shops and services spread outwards into surrounding streets is a function of the scale and role of a center, the density of population (and spending power) within its catchment and the degree of competition from neighboring centers.
  • Community facilities such as schools, health centers and open spaces are distributed around the neighborhood, reflecting more localized catchments and their regretter requirements for space.
  • The neighborhood provides a wide range of different housing opportunities not just int terms of dwelling sir but also in terms of affordability and tenure. This provides the basis for a mixed community representative of society at large rather than having a narrow social focus.
  • Housing densities are highest around the edges o the town or district center, along the principal transport routes leading to neighboring centers and overlooking parks, waterfront areas and other amenities. Densities reduce towards the edge of the walking catchment.
  • Movement routes are shared by cars, buses, trams, cyclists and pedestrians and go through the center rather than around it as all as through residential neighborhoods.
  • The opportunities for new mixed-use development are likely to be the greatest within and on the fringes of the town/district center and along the main movement routes to other centers .These areas often have mixed-use character and can offer the greatest potential to support a range of uses, including shops, offices, leisure and housing
  • Streets should fulfill a variety of roles— a place to live, shop, park, drive, walk, cycle and catch the bus, and even, in quieter side streets, for children to play.
• It’s clear from this wide range of issues that sustainable planning and design do not belong to one discipline. Success requires a holistic and integrated design approach that draws on skills in planning, urban design, architecture, landscape ensign, building and services engineering, community consultation and development and much more besides.