Chapters authored
Toward Practical Criteria for Analyzing and Designing Urban Blocks
The streets, blocks, lots, and buildings are the main elements of cities’ texture. Surrounded by streets and surrounding the buildings, urban blocks invariably interact with these components dialectically, in that it can connect the network of streets and buildings, hence its significance in urban design. However, affected by unsound formal and spatial changes of urban forms in modern and postmodern eras, space coherence reduction led to a loss of blocks’ identity. Therefore, we can barely find a comprehensive functional tool structured on a solid understanding to design this very component of the urban morphology. In this regard, this study seeks to define a practical tool for analyzing and designing this crucial element developing an operational, yet expandable, checklist for urban blocks including various factors, from concepts to indices. All these factors are classified under three main concepts: spatial balance, spatial continuity and integration, and durability. In fact, as a primitive step, this research can enable urban designers to understand urban blocks more effectively and use the framework to assess the current situation and design the future.
Part of the book: Sustainability in Urban Planning and Design