The Changing Postwar Perspective

1. The Changing Postwar Perspective Ebenezer Howard and Garden City concept: they reflected the aspirations of a new generation of urban designers who expressed the romantic fusion of machine-age modernism with the picturesque aesthetic of traditional, high-density, pre-industrial towns. The growing reaction to the impact of large scale interventions in urban fabric in the sixties made a radical shift in planning theory and practice including: -shift from design based planning to social science-based planning -the move to larger scale of problem conceptualization -move to a more participatory and partnership-based planning -more emphasis on the qualitative aspects of urban environment -preservation & conservation planning emerged

2. The Changing Postwar Perspective Architectural dimension of urban design also stress on the urban context. It differs from a purely planning approach by visualizing that context in integrated three-dimensional, spatial terms, rather than in terms of a set of separate, often unrelated general policy requirements for land use, density, transportation,..etc. The Context is something that has no clear or common spatial definition and reliance on the urban design brief for particular development sites is an inadequate substitute for a coordinated area based approach.

3. The idea of urban design guidelines or codes or UD framework strengthened the UD discipline The notion of urban design as a discipline that sets aside the boundaries of various existing professions creating professional territory

4. The opposite view of UD as big architecture where there is a view that architects have moved into planning since the end of the 80s building boom. Reflecting a move in the view of the city as vision or image. This post modernism vision of the city as a place of images, images that are designed to protect the city competing with other cities. Design competition has become as a method of dealing with solving large-scale urban problems Many architects see UD as large architecture There is a lack of recognition that UD is a different discipline that needs additional skills and knowledge of the urban context.

5. Also, it could be argued that UD is filling a vacuum in planning professioncreated by those who neglect design skills. UD value could be as a means of overcoming the professional divide.

6. Agenda in Urban Design Many of the planning issues at local level that needs to be considered in urban design terms at regional level include: -transportation and congestions -increasing housing densities in existing urban areas -revitalization of city centers -quality of life in cities -mixed-use developments & security, vitality and sustainability in cities -redevelopment of large industrial sites -regeneration of inner-city areas The pressure for new out-of-city housing developments