Streets and Patterns:
Decoding and Recoding Urban Structure
A talk by Stephen Marshall of the Bartlett School of Planning, University
College London, author of the recently published book Streets and Patterns.
Wednesday 13 April 2005, 6.30pm
at the Urban Design Group
The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, London EC1 (two minutes walk from
Farringdon tube)
Full details at http://www.udg.org.uk/ > Forthcoming Events
The talk will provide an overview of and insight into the recently
published book Streets and Patterns.
Streets and Patterns takes up the challenge of rethinking how urban layout
may be improved towards the creation of better urban places, without
compromising the basic functionality of circulation and access. The
presentation looks behind and beyond today's policy rhetoric and design
conventions, and revisits a range of first principles - from urban design
and planning via morphology and geography to transport planning and
engineering - to inform today's streets-oriented urban design agenda.
The presentation first sets out the key challenge of today's design debate,
and then explores the different kinds of streets and patterns that might be
used as the basis for urban design. The nature of the route structure of
urban layout is analysed, and different kinds of hierarchical structure are
explored - from those of the avant-garde architect (Le Corbusier) to the
'road hierarchy' of Traffic in Towns (Colin Buchanan).
By 'decoding' these different kinds of urban structure, it is possible to
explore and articulate alternative hierarchical and layout structures that
may better serve the design of urban networks and spaces. A reformulation
(or 'recoding') of urban structure is then proposed, by way of a new kind
of street-based 'code' or 'constitution' which can form the basis for a
broader system of urban design and planning.
Streets and Patterns
Contents of the Book
1. Introduction
2. The Challenge
3. Street Type and Hierarchy
4. Pattern Type
5. Route Structure
6. Connectivity and Complexity
7. The Constitution of Structure
8. Modes, Streets and Places
9. From Streets to Patterns
10. Conclusions
Appendices
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Streets and Patterns is published by
Spon Press (London and New York).
January 2005: 250x250: 366pp
Paperback: 0-415-31750-9: £40.00
eBook: 0-203-58939-4: £40.00
www.sponpress.com
Dr Stephen Marshall
Bartlett School of Planning
University College London
Wates House
22 Gordon Street
London WC1H 0QB
Tel: 0 (44) 20 7679 4884
Fax: 0 (44) 20 7679 7502
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