Another attempt to design the overall layout of a city grid, which is a one squared mile. In this scheme, we have 30 feet roads every quarter of a mile and alternating 15 and 20 feet roads within the entire layout. There are three different neighborhood blocks: the simple rectangle block; the almost square block and the long, thin rectangle.
The second image is a zoom in of the top image. The shaded green areas are examples in which neighborhood blocks could be connected with pedestrian or vehicular paths, which will link open spaces. The number and size in which blocks are connected can greatly vary.
Some points I would like to discuss with you regarding your site plan parti...
ReplyDeletePOSITIVE ASPECTS
Connectivity is resolved - both pedestrian and vehicular roads are planned
Layout could be easily and rapidly implemented on-site
Your site plan tries to generate different situations, not just the same grid pattern.
ASPECTS TO IMPROVE OR CONSIDER
Different blocks seem to be placed arbitrarily, just to achieve variety. What is the logic behind them? Is this serving a purpose or is it just giving a false sense of complexity to the urban planning? (e.g. try naming each street... itʼs unnecessarily complicated this way)
It would be better to divide them into zones, to achieve a variety in urban tissue or different uses, different allowed heights of buildings... in this way, you wouldnʼt have these mini passages that arenʼt continuous, which seems odd.
How would this grid adapt to existing topographies, landmarks, etc? i.e. If thereʼs a hill in the middle, how would the grid respond? Consider variations in your abstract grid for dealing with different situations.
Consider important agricultural zones, maybe even fisheries, within the grid, especially if this urban plan is implemented in rural areas. Larger- scale open spaces should be considered as well.
Consider that the treatment of residential lots bordering a main vehicular road should be completely different from residential lots next to pedestrian streets, or open spaces. Maybe make these a more mixed-use, commercial buffer zone between vehicular roads and residential lots.
Cheers!
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the neighborhood blocks being placed arbitrarily for this grid and we did just try it out to see what kinds of patterns we would get. However, this attempt did try to take account for the different types of roads. The outer perimeter roads are the primary retail/commercial/ front. Then in order to research all the neighborhood blocks, we thought we could have alternating secondary tertiary roads run horizontally and vertically. It is difficult to read without such labels, we apologize for the inconvenience. We are currently updating our grid layout but another attempt would be the blog titled "1/4 MILE: Showing streets and paths connecting public and private courtyard." As a warning, it is graphically difficult to comprehend.
As for zoning the city, it is posted on one of our latest blogs (blog title "city facilities laid out"). The center for the city (a one squared mile) grid would contain city facilities, which would include city, schools, places of worship and etc. Then a few of the facilities located on the center would be combined with other city facilities on the outer edges and corners to create for possible, future expansion. We have decided these city facilities two be more than one level high and be more permanent structures. Whereas, the housing groups have all designed their units as one level structures.
Trying to adapt this grid system to an actual site was the criticism we got this Wednesday the 3rd, so it will one of our many next steps for the project.
One of our earliest thoughts were agricultural zones but we have lost the thought throughout the process. Because the emphasis on housing and population density, we provided community gardens instead of large agricultural zones.
I, myself personally, to not recall us discussing buffer zones between the residential and commercial areas but I will bring that up with the other two members of the urban planning group.
I hope this helps in understanding our thought process.
Thanks for the feedback,
Kristina