Module 4

Functional and Temporal approach

• Formal and informal urban environment and readability differences,

• sub module: approach by kevin lynch through good city form, critical study by charles correa &
indian example such as connaught place, church gate, ballard estate, gate way of india etc

Ar. Kusumanjali S & Ar. Vaishali Kapoor

Asst. Professor
ANRVSA, Bengaluru

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 STREETS AND SQUARE
STREET- Dynamic space (with sense of movement)
SQUARE- Static space (with sense of arrival)

1: 5 - Street
1: 3 - Square

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 Degree of Enclosure

1:1 Full Enclosure 1:3 Minimum Enclosure

1:2 Threshold of Enclosure 1:4 Loss of Enclosure

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 Degree of Enclosure- D/H ratio
Chadni chowk, Interior, Delhi

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

Degree of Enclosure
Gateway of India, Mumbai

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Source: [Link]

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 THE FUNCTIONALISM
In architecture, functionalism is the principle that buildings should be designed
based solely on their purpose and function.

• Functionalism envisions the city as a collection of uses to be

accommodated: residence,
work, leisure, and the traffic
systems that serve them;
• In early functionalist thought the city was characterized as a machine, in later
thought, as a complex organism and as a network or constellation of
community centers linked to and directed to central core;

• A functionalist city is equitable. It does not favour or neglect social groups

Everyone benefits from adequate sunlight, fresh air, and access to open space.

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Evidence of time

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 TEMPORAL (TIME) APPROACH/DIMENSION

• Temporal dimension of urban design discusses 'time' dimension, the fourth

dimension.
• TIME DIMENSION OF URBAN DESIGN

TIME
- External time: 24 hrs, day/night; seasons
- Biological Time: Biological Rhythm

Three key aspects of temporal dimension of urban

design are; (BOOK-What Time Is This Place? , KEVIN LYNCH)
1. Time cycles and management of activities in space.
2. Continuity and stability.
3. Changing urban design projects and policies

SOURCE: [Link]

. DESIGN
URBAN 18ARC75
 1. Time cycles and management of activities in space
(BOOK-What Time Is This Place? , KEVIN LYNCH)

(Heartbeat, sleeping,
walking, hunger, cycles,
Rhythmic Repetition sun and moon, seasons,
waves, tides and clocks )

Evidence of the
Passage of Time

Progressive and
(Growth and decay)
irreversible Change Transformation of city,
Historic ruins

• Time inside is different from outside.

• Example: Social Time and Internal Rhythm of the body
• Activities shift cyclically.
• The main point is to compose 24 hours sociable environments.

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Can you Tell the time……………..

8th cross street, Bangalore Church street, Bangalore

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Can you Tell the time……………..

Beach of GOA

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Can you Tell the time……….

Church street, Bangalore

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 SOURCE: [Link]

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Can you Tell the time……………..some signs, markers and objects tell us the time
they belong to
Read more at:
[Link]
eshow/[Link]?utm_source=conte
ntofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_ca
mpaign=cppst

Ramganj Bazaar in the Walled City of Jaipur

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 The Time Management of Public Space:

• Urban designers need to understand activity patterns, how to encourage activities

through different time periods and how to achieve synergies from activities happening in
the space and time.

Relationship between Function and Time

FOLLOW THIS------ [Link]

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 3. Changing urban design projects and policies

• Important point is urban designers need to understand how environments

adapt to change in this process.

• It is important to distinguish what is fundamental to the sense of place and

should remain, from what is less important and can change.

• Another essential point of time dimension is to aware of what stays the

same and what changes over time.

• While street and plot patterns changes slowly, buildings and landuse
changes rapidly because of the effect of robustness, resilience.

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 SOURCE: [Link]
6785/livelihood-streets-monsoon-2020-ud4716

DHANJIBHAI KAKADIYA

The project aims at designing streets that prioritises the right of urban poor to earn a livelihood by using public amenities, at
the same time enhancing city life.

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 THINGS
SPATIAL CITY
ACTIVITIES

Whether the form of the city really makes any difference?

How can we analyse such differences?

Kevin Lynch ( Good City Form) – comprehensive discussion of Urban Theory

• General Normative Theory- relates the value of a city to its spatial

characteristics
• The key to developing this theory is identifying a set of performance dimensions

Five Criterial Two Meta-Criteria

• Vitality • Efficiency
• Sense • Justice
• Fit
• Access
• Control

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 FORMAL URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Source: [Link]

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Five Dimension of Performance

The degree of good city performance is determined by its ability of providing

biological, psychological, social and cultural requirements to its
inhabitants.
Once these requirements have been specified, then an estimation could be made
offering to which degree the city is good.

[Link]:
There are three principal features conducive for good health:
a. Sustenance - adequate supply of food, energy, water, air and disposal of waste for
sustaining life.
b. Safety - settlement, hazards, poison and diseases are absent or controlled and the
fear of encountering them is low. – Vandalism and crime are controlled – Pollution,
contamination, disease are controlled. Treatment and defence to natural hazards are
done. (earthquake, fire, flood, etc.)
c. Consonance - The spatial environment should be in consonance with the
biological structure. – Human factors should be included. – The present and the
future stability of the ecological community should be taken care of.

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URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75
 Five Dimension of Performance
2. Sense: ANALYZING THE SENSITIVITY OF THE CITY

It is the degree of fit between the physical city (form) and the way people recognize
and organize it in their minds.
In other words, it is the degree of homogeneity between environment and observer.

It reflects the influence of observer and environment on each other.

“ nothing is experienced by itself, but in relation to its surroundings, the sequences of
events leading up to it”

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 ANALYZING THE SENSITIVITY OF THE CITY
It’s a relationship between physical environment and cognition, since its
components are the observer and his environment, this sense can be broken into
six elements :

FORMAL COMPONENTS INFORMAL COMPONENTS

• Identity • Transparency
• Structure • Congruence
• Meaning • Legibility

According to Lynch definition, legibility can enhance the identity,

structure and the meaning of environmental surroundings.

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Five Dimension of Performance

2. Sense:
The characteristics of sense:
IDENTITY: The ability of a person to recognize or recall the place. Place identity is linked
with personal identity. Events have a sense of identity.
STRUCTURE: Composition of different elements in a space.
CONGRUENCE: Diagramming the parts, links of a place and then comparing with
function, economy, society, natural process of the place.
TRANSPARENCY: The degree to which one can directly perceive the operation of
various technical functions activities, social and natural processes that occur within the
settlement.
LEGIBILITY: The degree to which the inhabitants of the settlement are able to
communicate accurately via its features. A place can be analyzed for content, accuracy,
and intensity by a familiar observer and interviews and photographs. Semiotics is one way
of representing settlement patterns.
SIGNIFICANCE: Importance of the place

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 CANNAUGHT PLACE, DELHI

LEGIBILITY:
Not that
legible,
monotonus

Structure: Formal

Structure: Informal

TRANSPARENCY: TRANSPARENCY:
Full in informal Columns and
glass on the
store front

SIGNIFICANCE

Identity: Public plaza

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 Five Dimension of Performance

3. Fit:
Fit refers to how the spatial and temporal patterns of a settlement match the customary
behaviour of the inhabitants. A Place is modified to fit ways of behaviour and behaviours are
changed to suit a place.
The features of Fit are:
ADAPTABILITY: Measure of present and future use with minimum cost.
MANIPULABILITY: The extent to which the setting can be presently changed to in use and
form in an easy incremental fashion to respond to future needs.
REVERSIBILITY: The understanding of the future dead ends and retracing the steps to the
earlier or original state.
EXCESS CAPACITY: Providing good capacity so that future use can be accommodated easily.
IMPROVING ACCESSIBILITY: Excess capacity and flexibility allow improvement in access for
future use.
SEGREGATION OF PARTS: Reduction of interference between parts, change in one will not
affect the other.
MODULAR AND STANDARDISATION: Modular structures that are apt for diverse functions.
REDUCTION OF RECYCLING COST: Adaptability reduces the recycling cost as it intends to
be used for a long period of time in spite of incremental changes. Reused and hence optimizes
the cost and time.

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 ADAPTABILITY:
MANIPULABILITY:

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Five Dimension of Performance

[Link]:
It is the ability to access goods,
services, and places with minimum
time and effort.
Access offers the degree of choice
and diversity presented to us

Classification of access:
1. Access to people( relatives)
2. Access to human activities (work,
recreation, religious places, etc.)
3. Access to material resources (
food, water, etc.)
Informal
4. Access to environment, shelter,
open spaces
Formal
5. Access to information (
Interaction with all age groups, urban
space with legibility)

Desired path
SOURCE: [Link]

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

Copenhagen’s Five Finger Plan
• Established in 1947
• The development plan resembles a hand with five
fingers stretching out away from the city center.

• The plan for the city’s growth designated five

corridors of urban development, which were
along railway lines to provide convenient
transportation to Copenhagen’s business district in
the central part of the city.

• Planned suburbs were to be built along these

corridors and linked together like beads on a
string.

• The plan allowed for controlled urban growth

while leaving space open for recreation and
agriculture.

• These green spaces were to occupy the land

between the fingers.

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Five Dimension of Performance

5. Control:

It is the degree to which the environment is under the control of the people who actually
use it or reside in it. Control refers to the territorial occupation of a space and time for
discharging day-to-day activities.

Aspects under control are:

CONGRUENCE: Extent to which the inhabitants control the space in proportion with the
degree of their permanent stake over it. Congruence allows security, satisfaction, and
freedom.
RESPONSIBILITY: The people controlling the place should have the power, information, and
motive to do it well.
CERTAINTY: People understand the control system, predict the scope, and feel secure with it.

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 CONGRUENCE:

RESPONSIBILITY

CERTAINTY

Compare the control in these

Urban situations-
FORMAL/INFORMAL

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 Meta criteria

Efficiency & Justice:

• It is the balancing criterion- relates the level of achievement in some performance to a loss of
some other

• Efficiencies of settlements can be compared only by seeing which achieves the

best level in some/one dimension, given a fixed amount of other values
expended or achieved.

V/S

Row houses Apartments

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

 V/S

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75
 Case Study

Church Street, Bengaluru

INTRODUCTION
Church Street is one of the busiest streets in the Central Business District (CBD) of Bengaluru. 570 m stretch of Church Street
from Brigade Road till Museum Road was closed for traffic. Church Street is a Tender S.U.R.E (Specifications for Urban Road
Execution) road and was designed as a pedestrian-friendly street with wider footpath and aesthetics. The street connects with
Brigade Road in one end and runs parallelly with Mahatma Gandhi Road (M. G. Road). The nearest metro station is M. G. Road
station with one of the exits/entry opening directly onto Church Street, and there are four public transit bus stops closer to the
street.

[Link]
INTRODUCTION

• Church Street has mixed land use, including commercial, residential, recreational, and institutional land use.

• Residents of Church Street were given passes for their vehicles to enter Church Street on weekends during
pedestrianization.

• Restaurants were permitted by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to arrange outdoor seating. Further,
BBMP’s Purakarmikas were roped in to ensure the cleanliness of the street.

• Also, few dustbins were added/changed in the first week of pedestrinization. The street has uniform road width
throughout the stretch. The street also has a wide pedestrian footpath on either side of the street.

[Link]
READABILITY OF CHURCH STREET
1. VITALITY

Consonance

Sustenance

Safety
 READABILITY OF CHURCH STREET
2. SENSE

LEGIBILITY:
Legible

Structure: Formal Identity: COMMERCIAL STREET

SIGNIFICANCE ??????
2. SENSE

TRANSPARENCY:
MORE
2. SENSE

CONGRUENCE:
COMMERCIAL ZONE WITH
PEDESTRIAN ACTIVITIES

[Link]
READABILITY OF CHURCH STREET
3. FIT
SEGREGATION OF PARTS

IMPROVING ACCESSIBILITY
MODULAR AND STANDARDISATION
READABILITY OF CHURCH STREET
4. ACCESSIBILITY

1. Access to people( relatives)

2. Access to human activities

(work, recreation, religious places,
etc.)

3. Access to material
resources ( food, water, etc.)

4. Access to environment,
shelter, open spaces

5. Access to information (
Interaction with all age groups,
urban space with legibility)
READABILITY OF CHURCH STREET
4. CONTROL

RESPONSIBILITY

CONGRUENCE:
CERTAINTY
Characteristics of Formal & Informal space

FORMAL ENVIORNMENT INFORMAL ENVIRONMENT

Strong sense of enclosure More relaxed character

Orderly floorspace Diversity in surrounding
architecture
Symmetrical layout
An asymmetrical layout
More controlled by govt
Less controlled by govt. more by
residents

Refer this- [Link]

ASSIGNMENT
• Make group dividing the below topics.
• Select one topic each group from below and make a PPT.

1. Church Gate, Mumbai

2. Gateway of India, Mumbai
3. Ballard estate, Mumbai
4. Connaught place, Delhi
5. Bhadra plaza, Ahmedabad
6. Chandni Chowk, New Delhi
7. Cubbon Park, Bangalore
8. Commercial street, Bangalore
 CITY SIZE & NEIGHBOURHOOD

GROWTH & CONSERVATION

URBAN TEXTURE & NETWORK

READ MORE…..

URBAN DESIGN 18ARC75