Community Development Aspects of Housing (Module 2.1)

1. Neighborhood
2. District
3. Corridor
4. Streets
5. Blocks
6. Building

Elements of the Community

1. Streets
2. Open Space
3. Commercial Space
4. Public Space
5. Institutional Space
6. Residential Space

Elements of a Residential Development:

Land Use Elements

1. Streets

Elements of a Residential Development:

Circulation Elements

1. Water
2. Wastewater
3. Energy and Communications
4. Grading
5. Drainage
6. Stormwater management
7. Erosion and sedimentation control
8. Plant Materials
9. Walls and fences
10. Entrance gateways
11. Steetscapes (lighting)
12. Design details

Elements of a Residential Development:

Utility Elements

Neighborrhood

[Element of a Community]

A geographic area within which residents conveniently share common services/facilities

1. Natural features (topography)
2.. Streets or highways
3. Manmade features (power lines, railraods)
4. Planning Elements (parks, open space corridors, community facilities)

[Neighborhood]

Neighborhood physical boundaries

1. The neighborhood has a center and an edge
2. The optimal size of a neighborhood is 400 meters from center to edge
3. The neighborhood has a balanced mix of activities
4. The neighborhood creates blocks with a network of interconnecting streets and pedestrian routes
5. The neighborhood gives priority to public space and to the appropriate location of civic buildings

Principles of an Ideal Neighborhood

focus and limit

[The neighborhood has a center and an edge]

A combination of a _________ and a ____________ contributes to the social identity of the community

Shops and workplaces

[The neighborhood has a center and an edge]

_________ and ________________ are usually associated with the center, especially in a village

public space

[The neighborhood has a center and an edge]

The center is always ____________, which may be a square, a green, or an important street intersection

Edges

[The neighborhood has a center and an edge]

- This can be natural (such as forests) or manmade (such as infrastructure)
- May also be for low density residential use

T:

Edges - Recreational open spaces

[The neighborhood has a center and an edge]

T/F: In cities and towns, edges can be formed by the systematic accretion between the neighborhoods of recreational open spaces, such as parks, schoolyards, and golf courses

5-minute, Pedestrian-friendly, Transit-oriented

[The optimal size of a neighborhood is 400 meters from center to edge]

- 400 meters is equivalent to a _____________ at an easy pace.
- _____________ and ___________ neighborhood allows accessibility with less reliance on vehicles

Blocks, interconnecting streets, pedestrian routes

The neighborhood creates ____________ with a network of ____________________ and __________________.

public space, civic buildings

The neighborhood gives priority to _____________ and to the appropriate location of ______________.

District

[Element of a Community]

It is an urbanized area that is functionally specialized

Corridor

[Element of a Community]

It is the connector and separator of neighborhoods and districts

communal rooms and passages

[Element of a Community - Streets]

Streets are not the dividing lines within the city, but _________________ and _____________

1. Conventional Grid
2. Curvilinear Loop & Beginning of Cul-de-sacs
3. Conventional Cul-de-sac

Street Patterns

Arterial Road

a major road in the city that is below an expressway in terms of capacity and speed

1. Variety of streets based on their pedestrian and vehicular loads.
2. Assign streets to be accessible to both vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
3. Distances between intersections and a proper rhythm of building form on given blocks encourage walkability.

The hierarchy of streets:

1. The architectural character of streets is to be based in their configuration in plan and section
2. Building heights are to be proportional to right-of-way widths

The figure of streets:

traffic lanes

[Figure of Streets]

The number of _____________ will balance vehicle flow and pedestrian crossing consideration.

landscape design, building edges, and other vertical streetscape elements.

[Figure of Streets]

Shirts and scale within street sections are to be accomplished by the following:

minimized block radii

The governing principle of Street details are ______________ to slow cars at intersections, allowing easy crossing by pedestrians

F - by pedestrians

T/F: Street design shall favor their proper use by vehicles.

Landscape medians

[Streets]

It reduces apparent street widths

Two-way streets

[Streets]

It improves pedestrian crossing safety

curbs and sidewalks

[Streets]

It accommodates the impaired

Street parking

[Streets]

It protects the pedestrians from the actual perceived danger of moving traffic

Block

[Element of a Community]

- The field on which unfolds both the building fabric and public realm of the city
- It allows a mutually beneficial relationship between people and vehicles in urban space
- May be square, rectangular, or irregular in shape
- Between 250-600 feet, it allows single buildings to easily reach the edges

F:

Parking - away from the sidewalk

[Blocks]

T/F: Block forces parking to be located near the sidewalk, either underground, in the middle of the block or in the street

1. Portland typical blocks
2. Savannah Cellular units
3. New York typical blocks

[Blocks]

Block configurations

T:

City Blocks - lofted

T/F: City blocks are to be lofted so that all their sides can define public space

• height
• mandated setbacks
• projections (define the enclosure of the street)

[Blocks - Street Walls]

The predominant visual character of all built fabric depends on several attributes of building envelopes:

T:

Building's Mass - defined by street wall's height and width

[Blocks - Street Walls]

T/F: Their maximum width along with their height defines a building's mass.

Setback lines

[Blocks - Street Walls]

____________ and the percentage build-to at their edges establish the fundamental rhythm between open space and built form on each block.

arcades, porches, stoops, stairs, balconies, eaves and cornices, loggias, chimneys, doors and windows

[Blocks - Street Walls]

- Threshold elements at the setback line:
- These are how buildings interface with and determine the life of the street.

1. T
2. F - accommodating pedestrians
3. T
4. F - should be occupied by pedestrian-related uses
5. F - regular buildings
6. T

[Blocks - Parking]

Answer the FF with T/F:

1. The omnipresence of cars within the public realm threatens the vitality of cities.
2. Accommodating vehicles is the first order of priority for parking.
3. Cars are best accommodated in the middle of blocks or underground.
4. Parking garages are acceptable as long as their ground floors on the sidewalk are free of pedestrian-related uses
5. Parking garages are to be irregular buildings, and as such, need significant public faces and the built-in spatial redundancy necessary for future use other than parking.
6. Parking lots should double up as significant public gardens.

ALL TRUE

[Blocks - Landscape]

Answer the FF with T/F:

1. Regularly planted trees along blocks shall establish the overall space and scale of the street as well as that of the sidewalk.
2. These artifacts from man's historical contact with nature remain a physically critical element of urbanism.
3. The choice of particular species of trees and the patterns of their placement affect light and shadow, color, views
4. Public open-space types (civic parks, neighborhood parks, etc.) shall be designed to be inhabited, not solely viewed.
5. Semi-public ones (quads, courtyards, patios) are to give life and internal character to urban blocks

parkway, sidewalk, and setback

At its perimeter, each block is to be divided into a ________________

Within each block, lobbies, major ground-floor interior spaces, and public gardens of all kinds and sizes are to be understood as in extension of the public space of the city

Building

[Elements of a Community]

- The smallest increment of growth in the city. Their proper configuration and placement relative to each other determines the character of each settlement.

- Building types are organized by reference to dwelling, employment, or institutional first uses based on common architectural elements

T:

Functionalism - disconnection of the city

[Building]

T/F: Functionalism and universal flexibility, have resulted in exclusive zoning and the fragmentation and disconnection of parts of the city from each other

Floor Area Ratio (FAR) zoning regulations

[Building Density]

- These favor the design of buildings as singular objects. They are to be replaced with building envelope guidelines that link entitlements with predictable physical and architectural definitions of the public realm.

- Density regulations shall be stated independently of building use and parking.

T:

• Parking requirements - neighborhood and district basis

T/F: Parking requirements shall be established on a neighborhood and district basis as opposed to building by building. Parking is to be phrased by its intended architectural and urban consequences, not just numerically.

1. Fabric
2. Monumental

[Building Form]

2 kinds of buildings:

Fabric buildings

[Building Form]

This type of building conforms to all street and block-related rules and is consistent in its form with all other buildings of its kind.

Monumental buildings

[Building Form]

This type of building is to be free of all formal constraints. They can be unique and idiosyncratic, the points of concentrated social meaning in the city

1. Emphasizes the public character of the streets.
2. Reflects the semi-public nature of open spaces interior to the block
3. Responds to the service nature of alleys and backyards

[Building Form]

Frontality allows three scales of architectural expression:

Coding

Specific Street, block, and building design rules for public or private developments shall be typically designed and presented in the form of a code.

- These codes are to be simply written and illustrated. They shall be brief and intensely physical in their prescriptions
- Their content amounts to a covenant among the owners, designers, and users of particular projects
- Eventually, their interests and actions will incrementally but inevitably generate the public realm

Streets

[Land Use Element]

- A community plan often contains a street plan that indicates future alignments and widths of right-of-way - Conducts traffic between communities and activity centers and connect to major state and interstate highways

• Topography
• Soil and geologic conditions
• Drainage
• Future land uses

[Streets]

Decision regarding internal street layout should result from evaluations of a variety of factors:

Open Space

[Land Use Element]

-those portions of the development that is not included in the salable lots, houses and commercial properties
-May contain the stormwater management systems, lakes, creeks, ponds, landscape buffers, private roads and rights-of-way, natural topographical features, entry (monument) areas, pedestrian pathways, parks, greenbelts, directional signage, walls or fences and environmentally sensitive properties

1. Private - land improved for use in a recreational capacity
2. Public - land that has been purchased or dedicated for public use
3. Common - deeded to a community property owners' (or homeowners') association that the developer creates and operates for the benefit of owners of property within the development

[Open Space]

3 types of open space

• entrance to the community
• parks
• pedestrian pathways
• recreational facilities (pools, sports fields, bathhouses)
• landscaped buffers
• the streetscape
• walls and signage

[Open Space]

Common open space may contain a multitude of improved and unimproved properties, including the:

Commercial Space

[Land Use Element]

A neighborhood shopping center; retail shops for convenience goods and the supply of basic services

Public Space

[Land Use Element]

It include schools, libraries, and facilities for public services like police protection, fire protection and emergency rescue

Institutional Space

[Land Use Element]

schools, daycare, church

1. Local streets
2. Collector streets
3. Arterial Roads
4. Freeways

[Circulation Elements - Streets]

4 classification of streets according to their service function

Traveled width: 3.00m
Total Subgrade width: 6.30m
Shoulder width: 0.9m
Ditch: 0.9m
Fill widening: 0.6m

[Circulation Elements - Streets]

Traveled width: ________
Total Subgrade width: _______
Shoulder width: _______
Ditch: __________
Fill widening: _________

Check PPT for illustration

1. Gridiron
2. Modified Grid
3. Curvilinear
4. Court
5. Cul-de-sac
6. Offset
7. T-type turnaround

[Circulation Elements - Streets]

7 Layout Type of Street

1. Municipal systems
2. Community systems
3. Individual systems

Wastewater systems