Urban Design International 

About: Urban Design International is an academic journal published by Palgrave Macmillan. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Urban planning & Urbanism. It has an ISSN identifier of 1357-5317. Over the lifetime, 588 publications have been published receiving 11221 citations.

Centrality as a process: Accounting for attraction inequalities in deformed grids

Abstract: The ‘centre’ of a settlement, whether city, town or village, usually means a concentration and mix of land uses and activities in a prominent location. At any point in time, it is usually fairly clear where the centre is and what its limits are. However, the need to revitalize the centres of towns and cities, has drawn attention to how little we know of the processes by which centres are generated and sustained. Historically, it is clear that centres not only grow and shrink, but also shift and diversify, and with growth to large town or city level, a whole hierarchy of centres and subcentres usually appears diffused throughout the settlement. The challenge is to understand centrality as a process, rather than to describe it as a state. In this paper it is proposed that well-defined spatial factors first play a critical role in the formation and location of centres, and then play an equally critical role in developing and sustaining their vitality. The process works through the impact of spatial configuration on movement, and the subsequent influence this has on land use choices, and the development of the area as an ‘attractor’ in the settlement layout as a whole. A proper understanding of these spatial factors and the processes they set in train is, it is argued, vital to any programme for the revitalization, sustaining or long-term development of centres.

Cities as movement economies

Abstract: This paper is taken from the forthcoming book, "Space is the Machine" (CUP 1996) which brings together some of the recent developments in applying configurational analysis to issues of architectural and urban theory. The paper reports a fundamental research finding: that movement in the urban grid is, all other things being equal, generated by the configuration of the grid itself. This finding allows completely new insights into the structure of urban grids, and the way these stuctures relate to urban function. The relation between grid and movement in fact underlies many other aspects of urban form: the distribution of land uses such as retail and residence, spatial patterning of crime, the evolution of different densities and even the part-whole structure of cities. The influence of the fundamental grid-movement relation is so pervasive that cities are conceptualized here as 'movement economies', in which the structuring of movement by the grid leads, through multiplier effects, to dense patterns of mixed use encounter that characterize the spatially successful city.

What is a Walkable Place? The Walkability Debate in Urban Design

Abstract: What exactly is meant by the term ‘walkability’? In professional, research and public debates the term is used to refer to several quite different kinds of phenomena. Some discussions focus on environmental features or means of making walkable environments, including areas being traversable, compact, physically enticing and safe. Others deal with outcomes potentially fostered by such environments, such as making places lively, enhancing sustainable transportation options and inducing exercise. Finally some use the term walkability as a proxy for better design whether composed of multiple, measurable dimensions or providing a holistic solution to urban problems. This review both problematizes the idea of walkability and proposes a conceptual framework distinguishing these definitions. This matters for urban design, because what is considered a walkable place varies substantially between definitions leading to substantially different designs. By mapping the range of definitions, this review highlights potential conflicts been forms of walkability.