Peter Calthorpe (Town Planner)
Introduction
Urban design, or urban design, is aimed at interpreting the form and public space with physical-aesthetic-functional criteria, seeking to satisfy the needs of urban communities or societies, within a consideration of the collective benefit in an existing or future urban area, until reaching the conclusion of an urban structure to follow. Therefore, urban design carries out physical planning at levels of analysis such as the region, the urban center, the urban area and even the urban furniture itself.
It has traditionally been referred to as a discipline within urban planning (landscape architecture), or more contemporarily linked to emerging disciplines such as landscape urbanism. Regardless of the prominent growth in the activities of these disciplines, it is best conceptualized as a design practice that operates at the intersection of all three, and therefore requires a good understanding of other implications, such as urban economics, political economy, and social theory.
Urban design theory deals primarily with the design and management of public space (such as the public realm, the public realm, or the public domain), and the way in which public places are experienced and used.
Public space includes all spaces freely used on a daily basis by the general public, such as streets, squares, parks and public infrastructure. Some aspects of privately owned spaces, such as building facades or domestic gardens, also contribute to public space and are therefore considered by urban design theory. Some of the writers who advocate and treat this discipline are Gordon Cullen"), Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, William H. Whyte"), Kevin Lynch, Aldo Rossi, Robert Venturi, Colin Rowe, Peter Calthorpe") and Jan Gehl.
Urban design is a field closely related to urban planning, but it differs from it in the focus on physical improvements of the public environment, since in practice urban planning focuses on the administration of private urbanization through planning schemes and other state urbanization controls.
Theory
Urban design addresses the broadest scale of groups of buildings, infrastructure, public streets and space, entire neighborhoods and districts, and entire cities, with the goal of making urban environments that are equitable, beautiful, performative, and sustainable.[1][2][3].
Urban design is an interdisciplinary field that uses the procedures and elements of architecture and other related professions, including landscape design, urban planning, civil engineering and municipal engineering.[4][5] It borrows substantive and procedural knowledge from public administration, sociology, law, urban geography, urban economics and other related disciplines of the social and behavioral sciences, as well as the natural sciences.[6] In more recent times, different subfields of design have emerged. urban design, such as strategic urban design, landscape urbanism, water-sensitive urban design") and sustainable urbanism. Urban design requires an understanding of a wide range of subjects, from physical geography to the social sciences, and an appreciation for disciplines such as real estate development"), urban economics, political economy and social theory.