Urban design is the most important and largest physical product created by people to organize their lives, and it is the structure that organizes and frames human life.
What is urban design? How to make an urban design project? The design of new city developments with an interesting, personal, cultural dimension, respectful to nature and history, with a beautiful and level architecture is also essential in terms of saving the cultural level of future generations. The poorest family has the right to live in a beautiful environment designed using the most advanced knowledge, solutions and talents. Man’s duty is to beautify the world with consciousness. During this effort, his existence is respectful to nature and people; it needs to develop an environment, an architecture in which it will realize its own existence.
Neighborhood design should be strategic, life-enhancing, adaptable, and applicable. What makes good designs interesting is that they are designed with simple but powerful solutions. The solution of a neighborhood should be 1,2,3-storey houses instead of large multi-storey apartment blocks with expensive construction systems, and horizontal housing settlements that do not exceed 5-6 floors in places where the population is very dense.
“It is obvious that a beautiful world can be created with knowledge and special talents.”
— Turgut Cansever
Upper Scale Urban Design Decisions
It is possible to collect the neighborhood-planning-design strategies for the whole city under seven main headings;
1-Quality of Components
There should be systems such as pedestrian ways, green areas, bicycle paths, parking lots, bicycle parking lots, electric vehicle stations, smart garbage collection within the neighborhood texture.
2-Building Island Size
Together with the buildings, a building block integrated with the city should be created with inner gardens, sitting areas and walking areas in the inner gardens. Interior gardens should be designed to receive as much sunlight as possible.
3-Building Island Reinforcement Area
The need for open and closed public space should be met with the parking lot inside the building block. The minimum size of the social area should be at least 30% of the island.
4-Height strategy
The height strategy should be created by taking into account the existing texture, the relationship with the immediate environment and the general silhouette rules. A new silhouette should be created taking into account the street perception. 1,2,3-storey houses, and in places where the population is very dense, horizontal housing settlements that do not exceed 5-6 floors should be solved.
5-Neighborhood ID
It should be ensured that the new urban fabric to be created will add value to the existing identity of the neighborhood, and the existing positive urban features should be preserved (vibrant street life, existing centers and facilities)
6-Usage Capacity
According to the size of the neighborhood, it should consist of open public space (park, playground, school, kindergarten, mosque, etc.) and closed public and commercial spaces.
7- Sustainability
At a time when the need for energy is constantly increasing, the natural environment is under threat, and the quality of life is constantly decreasing, especially in big cities, it is of great importance to know and implement these systems. Solar power, electric car charging stations, green building, etc. systems need to be implemented.
Functional Construction of Neighborhoods
Public places
Neighborhood inner roads
Widths and openings
Urban Design Strategies
- Continuity and Accessibility
Continuity between uses and ease of circulation should be ensured, and accessibility should be high everywhere in the neighborhood. It should be within walking distance and easily accessible. Persons with disabilities should be able to move freely. - Diversity
A variety of different public areas of use should be provided for all segments of the society, such as open spaces, assembly areas, parks, social and cultural spaces. - Unifying
It should increase social interaction and ensure the functional and spatial integration of the neighborhood with its immediate surroundings. - Public Spaces
In the neighborhood texture, religious facilities, education, health, etc. for social needs. public spaces should be created for functions. - Function
It should consist of public and commercial uses that are most suitable for the needs and expectations of the neighborhood. - Layout
In the new island composition, harmony and diversity should be ensured between building blocks and building typologies, and a full-empty balance should be established. - Character
While designing new building typologies, attention should be paid to the continuity of the typology, the street-building relationship, and human perception. - Applicability
Workable solutions should be produced to transform the building block layout. The materials used should be chosen in accordance with the texture of the city.
“In fact, most designs are interesting because they are designed with simple solutions.”
— Oscar Niemeyer
Urban Design Ideas
The main target in the projects produced; to create as much economic, ecological and social components as possible with a balanced ratio, to design the city with a human-centered architecture that respects the history and nature, is beautiful, level, fast and easily applicable.
Urban Design Grid System Campus
A regular grid system city plan can be foreseen in rapidly developing cities. Facades of 200-300 steps are created in the plan, which come together with 90-degree angles as much as possible, and at the same time, it is aimed to be a suitable walking distance for pedestrians. A main street can be determined and terminated with a square, and a school, kindergarten, cultural center, administration building and a park can be created that connects the square with the mosque and activity areas, and then a cordon.
Architectural Context in Urban Design
The facades of the buildings are decorated with bay windows, stone, brick, wooden shutters in front of windows, wooden facade cladding, cantilever balconies, etc., as in Turkish-Ottoman architecture. It is aimed to create diversity with components. It is shaped with occupancy and void ratios. Each island has its own underground parking. The number of parking lots should be determined according to the number of flats. All accessibility for disabled people in the neighborhood has been considered.
• In Linear Blocks; The concept of tectonic, in a way, to provide an aesthetic communication from human perception by interpreting the components of the circles that make up the mass in a different way on the façade and expressing their harmony.
• Row Houses; Detached duplex and triblex houses in the form of an order adjacent to each other enabled the urban fabric to be constructed by enriching the life of that house.
• Low-Rise Apartment; It is designed as 3 floors. The floor plans are designed to be transformable. If desired, 4 flats on the floor can be converted as 2+1 or 2 flats as 3+1.
• High-Rise Apartment; It is designed as 6 floors. The floor plans are designed to be transformable. Large balconies are arranged as green landscape.
Number of Floors of Buildings to be Made in Urban Design
Low-rise (2, 3 floors)
Mid-rise (3, 4 floors)
High-rise (4.5 floors)
Variation
By dividing the islands, it is aimed to create diversity by making each island different, similar but different concept. It includes linear blocks, row houses, low-rise (2,3 floors) and high-rise (5-6 floors) apartments.
Square
A connection has been made with a bridge that extends over a small lake to the axis of the mosque and cultural center between the green islets, which form the gathering area of the people living in the neighborhood, where they can sit and chat, chat, meet their psychological, biological and spiritual needs. Children were given the opportunity to grow up in front of their homes, in their gardens, in the square of the neighborhood, to know the world and to play. It has been provided to create a focal point for the young and a nice walking area for the elderly and disabled people.
Main Street
A commercial and sightseeing axis has been created in the neighborhood. A main street where people can provide their needs (market, pharmacy, etc.) is considered. Open car parks are designed for vehicles. The bay windows of the houses also serve as eaves. This street is planned to be closed to traffic on Saturdays and Sundays so that children and adults can travel comfortably and do their activities comfortably.
“The main duty of man in the world is to beautify the world.”
— Mimar Sinan
Cord
Large promenade areas, seating areas, open-air cinema, theater, concert and other activities are considered in the promenade. Activities such as skateboarding, skating and cycling are provided. Sports fields were built against the sea.
interior gardens
The inner gardens were built to receive as much sunlight as possible. Organically greened. A gathering area is foreseen for each inner garden.
Hybrid Neighborhood – City, Urban design
The aim of designing the cities of the future and updating the existing cities is the humanistic social hybrid city and should be technology compromise. Providing all the details about the neighborhood with technological solutions. These; to establish an ecosystem such as smart billboards, smart street surfaces, smart facades, smart garbage application. It envisages collecting, evaluating and calculating the data collected from the city and the city dwellers, creating the profile of the city dwellers, warning them about potentials, and communicating with them. In this context, it is aimed to shape urban spaces according to the profile of the citizens.