Rules of an Urban Block
Masters thesis proposal, Rationalist Traces
Mark Butler
26-11-2010
1. Field of Research
For the Masters thesis I propose to consider urban blocks and the process by which they are designed within the contemporary city.
2. Project Summary
The project will begin with a period of research into cities and urban blocks. The research will primarily focus on urban block precedents both successful and unsuccessful, whilst also making reference to the formation of cities, their characteristics and the influences by which city patterns evolved. Through the research I aim to discover the key aspects that should be addressed when designing an urban block.
In the book the Modern City Revisited (2000) the issue of future development within cities is discussed:
“One thing is clear: that any way forward for contemporary urbanism will come from dedicated and idealistic architects, not from market forces. The challenge of providing cities for the new millennium will certainly come not from an uncritical revival of modernism but from a critical assessment of the successes and failures of what, and how Modern cities were built.”
From the research and the uncovered aspects I hope to derive a set of rules, by which the design of an urban block could be formulated. The rules will be established by finding common themes and solutions in the examples the research explores. Once a set of rules has been established, these rules could then be used by myself or by other architects as a guide for designing an urban block. By exposing the rules to different site situations and different architects variety will inevitably occur.
For the second part of the thesis I propose to implement the set of rules established during the research process to design an urban block. The block will be designed by applying the rules within the parameters set out by the brief of the A101 Urban Block competition (see page 3).
3. Key Words
Urban Block
Block City
Garden Cities
Collective City
Borneo Sporenburg
Spitalfields – Richard MacCormac
Ijburg
Georges-Hugene Haussmann
Public and Private
Trend of individualised design
Unite d’Habitation – Le Corbusier
4. Research Question(s)/Problem(s)
What are the rules for designing an urban block?
- For what density should an urban block be designed?
- What external space(s) public or private should be provided for individual dwellings and as a communal space for a collective number of dwellings?
- What is the value of semi-public space in the context of the urban block?
- What amenities should be available for residents within a block?
- Where should communal amenities be located?
- How should an urban block connect with the city?
- Should a variety of accommodation types be offered across a city block?
- What percentage of the city block should be dedicated to office and commercial space?
- Should an individual architect design a project the scale of a city block?
- Should the scale of new city development relate to the surrounding context?
- Can and should a block be mass-produced?
The research period of the thesis will undoubtedly stimulate further questions.
5. Aims & Objectives
Through the thesis research I hope to broaden my understanding and knowledge of the contemporary city and the combining elements by which cities exist and are sustained. My aim is that this new knowledge will provide me with a solid foundation from which I will be better positioned to design an appropriate and responsible solution to a re-occurring urban issue.
6. Research Context
The Collective City
The International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam in 2009 had the theme of ‘The Open City’. This theme gave the opportunity for Bart Goldhoorn and Alexander Sverdlov to introduce their ‘Collective City’ proposal and the Block City concept.
The concept is based on observations of the problems of urban design in contemporary cities and of the vast requirements for new and better housing around the world. The trend of extreme individualisation in European residential design is also noted and the proposal questions whether this is a sustainable means of design and if it offers better solutions than collective housing projects could.
The proposals’ main question considers how the benefits of mass-production can be integrated with the advantages offered by customization to produce high quality and affordable solutions.
Goldhoorn (2009) argues:
“The Block city concept aims at combining the advantages of standard design with the qualities embedded in site-specific design. This is done by defining a standard for the plot size of the urban block. When this standard is applied both in the design of urban areas and in the design of housing blocks, it is possible to use identical projects for housing blocks, it is possible to use identical projects for housing blocks in different places while keeping their urban qualities. Since projects with the same size are interchangeable, any project that already has been developed for one site can be used in new standard-sized plots. This will lead to competition and result in better and cheaper housing design. Last but not least, the Block City concept offers the possibility to develop urban design projects and the architecture of the housing blocks simultaneously, thus speeding up the planning process.”
A101 Masshtab Urban Block Competition
A101 is a project for a new city of 150.000 people and 13 million m2 of housing near Moscow and the largest development of the Masshtab Company. The Masshtab Company is a land development company whose assets include over 30,000 hectares of land all within 20km of Moscow. The planning for the city as a whole was designed by an international group of urban designers headed by the Dutch office Maxwan.
At this moment the project has entered a new stage – the detailed design of part of the development. In the near future, 1,2 million m2 of housing will be constructed on an area of 154 ha on the basis of a master plan that is designed in competition by four renowned teams: MVRDV – The Netherlands; KCAP/Next Architects – the Netherlands; Hilmer Sattler Albrecht – Germany; EDDAE – Spain.
This master plan and the rest of the A101 project are based on the Block City concept that was developed by the competition’s curator Bart Goldhoorn. This means that 80% of the urban blocks in the project should have a standard size.
Simultaneously with the closed competition for the master plan the Masshtab Company has invited architects from all over the world to send in projects for an open competition for urban blocks that can be used in the A101 project. Since it is planned to build over 500 blocks, the result of the competition will not just be the choice of one winning project, but the creation of a catalogue of possible solutions that can be applied on different locations and in different stages of realization of the A101 project.
7. Research Methods: Site(s) + Programme(s)
The research element of the thesis will be accompanied by model sets exploring aspects such as density and public space.
To create a consistent body of research and allow comparison, precedent studies will have to consider the same aspects. Aspects that will initially be considered are:
- Population
- Population density
- Activities
- Urban Fabric
- Building height
- Quality of living
- Public space
- Private external space
- Transport
- City connections
- Live work ratio
- Parking
- Variety of accommodation
- Orientation
As above, it is expected that the research will uncover further aspects to be considered.
8. Outcomes
The outcomes of the project will be communicated through a design project and accompanying texts.
9. Outline Project Plan
No comments:
Post a Comment