URBAN DESIGN

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 CHAPTER 1: URBAN DESIGN

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WEIGHTAGE & TIPS (URBAN DESIGN)
Please refer to the weightage of this topic (Chapter 1: Urban Design of Section 5) from GATE 2011 to
GATE 2020 tabulated below;
GATE YEAR WEIGHTAGE (Marks)
2020 5
2019 4
2018 2
2017 1
2016 1
2015 3
2014 2
2013 2
2012 2
2011 6
Average 3 Marks

Students are advised to remember the following points, before you start studying this Chapter:

• Focus in this Chapter should be on various Urban Design Theories and terminologies
associated with them (for example; terms like node, path, etc were given by Kevin Lynch)

• Another important area from Urban Design is; various public spaces, examples and their
features. Questions have been asked in exam where pictures of various urban squares will be
given and you are supposed to identify them.

• Numerical Type Questions in Urban Design are mainly related to the concept of ‘Degree of
Enclosure’. So, remembering various thresholds of enclosure and their corresponding ratios is
also important. Theory questions have also been asked in GATE related to various thresholds
of enclosure.

• An important theory part is ‘Conservation’. Remembering various agencies, both international

and national; is also important in this part.

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1.1 INTRODUCTION TO URBAN DESIGN

1.1.1 What is Urban Design?

Urban Design is the process of designing and shaping cities, towns and villages. In contrast to
architecture which focuses on the design of individual buildings, urban design deals with the larger
scale of groups of buildings, streets and public spaces, whole neighborhoods and districts, and entire
cities, with the goal of making urban areas functional, attractive, and sustainable.

Urban design is an inter-disciplinary subject that utilizes elements of many built environment
professions, including landscape architecture, urban planning, architecture, civil and municipal
engineering. It is common for professionals in all these disciplines to practice in urban design. In
more recent times different sub-strands of urban design have emerged such as strategic urban design,
landscape urbanism, water-sensitive urban design, and sustainable urbanism.

Urban design demands a good understanding of a wide range of subjects from physical geography,
through to social science, and an appreciation for disciplines, such as real estate development, urban
economics, political economy and social theory. Urban design is about making connections between
people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric. Urban design draws
together the many strands of place-making, environmental stewardship, social equity and economic
viability into the creation of places with distinct beauty and identity.

Urban design theory deals primarily with the design and management of public space (i.e. the 'public
environment', 'public realm' or 'public domain'), and the way public places are experienced and used.
Public space includes the totality of spaces used freely on a day-to-day basis by the general public,
such as streets, plazas, 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 also
considered by urban design theory.

Responsibilities of Urban Planners vs. Urban Designers:

Urban planners are involved in the actual planning of a public space. It is their job to engage the
community and see that land is being developed in a way that will benefit the members the most.
Urban designers also thrive on designing spaces that will make the public happy, but they are more
similar to architects in that they develop plans for the actual buildings and parks that will be built.
While both utilize similar design and planning software, such as AutoCAD and GIS, urban designers
are much more interested in the look and feel of the space, while urban planners need to ensure it
meets certain regulations.

Urban Planner:

Urban planners often begin by speaking to the public and gathering market research data on what
exactly the community wants and needs. They then work with public officials and land developers to
create a plan to develop buildings and parks that can be enjoyed by everyone. Part of the planning is
deciding on if the idea is possible, which can be done by actually going into the field and reviewing
the proposed site. The goal of urban planners is to assess public spaces such as parks, homeless
shelters, and areas that might attract new businesses.

Job responsibilities of an urban planner include:

• Deciding which building sites should be zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial purposes so
land is developed properly and safely
• Being aware of building codes and ensuring the proposed project adheres to them
• Analyzing data based on maps and population densities
• Implementing plans to protect historic sites and buildings

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Urban Designer:

Urban designers meet with clients and utilize programs such as SketchUp, GIS, and AutoCAD to
create blueprints for public buildings and city parks. Though this is a career that requires artistic
vision and creativity, they typically meet with landscapers and civil engineers to make sure their
design is also workable. When working on a team with other designers, it may be the job of one
designer to redline (or change) the original blueprints proposed by someone else. Once the
construction is complete, the urban designer to ensure it meets the request of the client.

Job responsibilities of an urban designer include:

• Providing cost and timeline estimates for a client
• Researching design plans for existing spaces to gain inspiration
• Utilizing data on spatial dimensions to complete a scaled drawing of the building or landscape
• Going to worksites to check on the progress, ensuring everything matches the blueprints

1.1.2 Evolution of Urban Design Through Ages

The history of urban design can broadly be categorized into pre-industrial and post-industrial eras
with the Greek and Renaissance period forming the interphase.

In Pre-Industrial (Period prior to the 19th Century) Cities were structured in a comprehensible and
legible manner, reflecting the cultures that created them. Layout of cities was mainly based on ritual
and cosmological symbols ordered around ceremonial procession routes, or military, religious, and
civic landmarks. Communication was face-to-face. Public life took place in public places (ref.
classical ‘Forum’ in Roman Civilization). Public realm included: Public thoroughfares, Commercial
avenues and market places, Social promenades and Meeting places (ref. ‘Agora’ of Ancient Greece)
Cities as centres of civilization were always complex and dynamic, of larger cultural dimensions and
housing grand public ceremonies. Most towns did not follow predetermined plans but intuitively
responded to ecological choice, land ownership structures and evolution of road and urban
infrastructure.

Different eras of Urban Design and town planning are described below:

A. Pre-historical (6000 BC):

• The very first cities were founded in Mesopotamia after the Neolithic Revolution, around
7500 BCE. Mesopotamian cities included Eridu, Uruk, and Ur.

• Early cities also arose in the Indus Valley and ancient China. Distinct characteristics of urban
planning from remains of the cities of Harappa, Lothal, Dholavira, and Mohenjo-daro in the
Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) lead archaeologists to interpret them as the earliest known
examples of deliberately planned and managed cities. The concept of the centre, the cardinal
orientation, scale, the axis, and the wall were important features of IVC cities.

• One of the earliest settlements was Catal Huyuk (present day Turkey). Here the houses were
made of mud brick. Houses were built touching against each other. They did not have doors
and houses were entered through hatches in roofs. Presumably having entrances in the roofs
was safer than having them in the walls. (Catal Huyuk was unusual among early towns as it
was not surrounded by walls).

B. Classical (3500 BC):

• Development of concepts like; scale, proportion, lines of movement, focal points, and visual
linkage took place during this era.

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 • The ancient Greek civilization had established principles for planning and designing cities.
City form were mainly of two types: Old cities such as Athens had irregular street plans
reflecting their gradual organic development. New cities, especially colonial cities established
during the Hellenistic period, had a grid-iron street plan.

• Certain things were common among cities: The overall division of spaces in 3 parts:
acropolis, agora and the town. The fortification etc.

• Greek City Planning and Design Principles:

- Towns had fixed boundaries and some were protected by fortifications.
- Much of the town was devoted to public use.
- The Greek City was usually divided into three parts; the acropolis, the agora and the
town. (Acropolis – Portion of city on elevated ground; Agora – Central public space;
Town – Houses for public)
- Site planning and design was centred on the appreciation of buildings from the
outside.
- The location of buildings was therefore such that it could command a good view to it.
(Ex: Parthenon in Athens is a part of “Acropolis” located above a hill)

• The invention of formal city planning with “Grid-iron Planning” was attributed to
Hippodamus of Miletus. Hence, grid-iron planning is also termed as “Hippodamian
Planning”. Hippodamus helped to design the new harbour town of “Piraeus” (Shown in the
image below);

• Town planning, with straight streets intersecting to form quadrilateral city blocks, had just
been popularized in Greece by the architect Hippodamus. Aristotle objected that at least part
of every city should preserve the haphazard arrangement of earlier times to make it more
difficult for invaders to fight their way in.

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 • Hippodamus arranged the buildings and the streets of Miletus around 450 BC such that the
winds from the mountains and the sea close to Miletus could flow optimal through the city.

• Miletus, which is another fine example of the grid plan, comprises houses on blocks created
by streets and side streets crossing at right angles, with public buildings in the city centre.
This plan retained in the Hellenistic period, however in the Roman period it began to
deteriorate gradually and inevitably.

• The Greeks were the first to use solar architecture. They oriented their houses to make use of
the sun during winter, while obscuring its rays during summer and entire cities were built this
way as early as 400 BC.

• According to Hippodamus; an ideal city was composed of 10,000 citizens divided into three
parts – One of artisans, one of farmers, and a third of armed defenders of the state. He also
divided the land into three parts, one sacred, second public, the third private: the first was set
apart to maintain the customary worship of the Gods, the second was to support the warriors,
the third was the property of the farmers.

• According to Aristotle, ideal ‘polis’ would have had a territory of about 60 sq.km, with a
population of 500 to 1000 households. It was about 2% to 3% the size of Athens at that time.
(Pg. 312 of The Household as the Foundation of Aristotle's Polis by D. Nagle). Aristotle
proposed that very large population in a city would make effective administration difficult.

C. Islamic (~ 800 AD):

Character of Urban Design: clusters, cul-de-sacs, building heights, visual linkage, privacy, labyrinth
street form (including the cul-de-sac), and focal points (nodes).

Islamic Principles of Built Environment Islamic Urban Byelaws:

• THE MAIN MOSQUE: It occupied the heart of the town and was usually surrounded by the
Souq (market). Attached to it there was the Madrassa providing religious and scientific
teaching.

• SOUQS: Located outside the main mosque provided the economic activity in the town. Goods
sold were usually spatially distributed corresponding to their nature. The central area was also
the gathering of other public activities such as social services, administration, trade, arts and
crafts and baths (Hammam) and hotels (Funduq and Waqala).

• CITADEL: Also known as Casbah, representing the palace of the governor, the citadel was
surrounded by its own walls and constituted a district on its own with its own mosque, guards,
offices, and residence.

• RESIDENTIAL QUARTERS: clusters of households of particular quality of life based on

closeness (Qaraba) which is manifested in personal ties, common interests and shared moral
unity. They were usually dense and each quarter had its own mosque used only for daily
prayers, Quranic school (Madrassa), bakery, shops and other first necessity objects. They even
had their own gates which were usually closed at night after last prayers and opened early
morning at early prayers time such was the case of Algiers and Tunis.

• STREET NETWORK: Connecting between these quarters and to the central place was a
network of narrow winding streets consisting of public and private and semi-private streets and
cul-de-sacs.

• WALL: A well-defended wall surrounded the town with a number of gates.

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 • EXTERIOR: there were the cemeteries (Muslim and Jews cemeteries), a weekly market just
outside the main gate where most animal souqs were held in addition to private gardens and
fields.

D. Medieval (~ 900 AD):

Urban design characteristics: Hierarchy of buildings, visual link, perimeter wall design, open squares.

E. Renaissance Civilization (~ 1500 AD) :

• Cosmic forces were displaced by scientific theories and observations. Urban design ceased to
be a natural expression of community life became a much more conscious artistic self-
expression.

• Renaissance urban design was mainly on aesthetics as perceived by the user of public places.
Thus, it has been argued that mainstream urban design was born in the renaissance age.

• Following were the important Design features of the Renaissance:

- Regular geometric spaces (entire cities or parts of it)
- The primary street
- The public places/ squares/ piazzas with sculptures and fountains
- Sequence and perspective.

• Around 1486 – after a pestilence that killed half the population in Milan; Leonardo turned his
thoughts to urban planning problems. Following a typical Renaissance trend, he began to
work out an “ideal city” project, which – due to its excessive costs – would remain
unfulfilled; new city along the Ticino River, designed for the easy transport of goods and
clean urban spaces.

• Leonardo wanted a comfortable and spacious city, with well-ordered streets and architecture.
He recommended “high, strong walls”, with “towers and battlements of all necessary and
pleasant beauty”, and felt the place needed “the sublimity and magnificence of a holy temple”
and “the convenient composition of private homes”.

• His plans for a “modern” and “rational” city were consistent with Renaissance ideals.
Leonardo included several innovations in his urban design. Leonardo wanted the city to be
built on several levels, linked with vertical staircases. This design can be seen in today’s high-
rise buildings, but was absolutely unconventional at the time.

• While in the upper layers of the city, people could walk undisturbed between elegant palaces
and streets, the lower layer was the place for services, trade, transport and industry.

• But the true originality of Leonardo’s vision was its fusion of architecture and engineering.
Leonardo made designs for extensive hydraulic plants to create artificial canals throughout
the city. The canals, regulated by locks and basins, were supposed to make it easier for boats
to navigate inland and transport goods.

• Leonardo also thought that the width of the streets ought to match the average height of the
adjacent houses: a rule still followed in many contemporary cities across Italy, to allow access
to sun and reduce the risk of damage from earthquakes.

• In De architectura (Ten Books on Architecture); Vitruvius also mentions that in planning;

influence of the wind flow and its direction should be considered.

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 • At the time of the Renaissance Italy was governed by a number of powerful city-states. These
were some of the largest and richest cities in all of Europe. Some of the more important city-
states included Florence, Milan, Venice, Naples, and Rome.

• Urban design characteristics: Streets, squares (piazzas), and markets in an elegant geometry

F. Industrial/ Modern Age (1900 AD)

• Industrial Age was characterized by capitalism and rapid urbanisation that broke down pre-
industrial order. With introduction of machinery and factory system, the great mass of
workforce was separated from the land, nature, and social life.

• As a living environment, the 19th century city was conspicuous in its omissions: its gross
under-provision of public open space, educational facilities, community buildings, and all
those aspects that did not attract economic profit, but which were central to good citizen life.

• Thus, it has been argued that “urban design was murdered in the industrial age”. However, the
dark side of industrial cities was enough to trigger a whole system of reforms based on public
responsibility and enterprises.

• Minimal standards of all kinds (roads, housing, gardens, building heights, etc.) were slowly
evolved leading to improved living standards.

• Mainstream urban design originated in the late 19th century at the heart of city planning, as
civic or town design in a social context. These were attempts (of planners and engineers,
architects, and social reformers) to come to grips with the problems created by rapid
industrialisation and urbanisation of the late 19th century.

• When planning first became institutionalised in the west in the early 20th century, Urban
design was largely seen as part of a wider structure of comprehensive planning. Its existence
became more relevant in the 1960s to fill the gap between town planning and architecture.

• Since the 1950s, planning has significantly broadened its scope to include many socio-
economic facets of the city, Consequently, transforming (sometimes shrinking) the portfolio
of urban design in the urban planning activities, many of which are no longer exclusively
concerned with the physical environment.

• Some of the concepts tested included:

- Suburban decentralization (William Morris);
- Garden city (Ebenezer Howard),
- Neighbourhood (Henrietta Barnett & Raymond Unwin),
- Conservation & the park movement (Fredrick Law Olmsted),
- Artistic City Planning (Camillo sitte);
- Linear city (Soria Y Matta),
- Ideal industrial city (Tony Garnier)

G. Post-Modernism/Neo-modernism

• Neomodernists propounded an influential view of the late-twentieth century city as requiring

a response that recognises both its dynamic and indeterminate character in the face of global
market forces and the continuing need to impose minimum ordering principles.

• It makes use of a series of unconventional formal techniques to create urban interventions that
express the essential fragmentation or spatial and temporal complexity of our age.

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 • A common theme in Neomodernist work is the attempt to “deconstruct” modernist
architectural forms.

• Postmodernism departs from modernism in its emphasis on complex, ambiguous and

discordant urban forms as well as dynamic and anti-functional approaches to design.

• The neo-modernist themes of technology, flexibility, and indeterminacy derive from the urban
concepts of a previous generation of architectural visionaries. Thus, it can be said that “urban
design is being questioned/interrogated in the postmodern period”.

• Examples of Neomodernist work include:

- Parc de la Villette (Bernard Tschumi)
- Cardiff opera house (Zaha Hadid)
- Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Rem Koolhaas)
- Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (Frank Gherry)
- Tschumi’s Neomodernist work

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1.2 FUNDAMENTALS OF URBAN DESIGN

1.2.1 Objectives of Urban Design

The Seven objectives of good urban design are well established. They are to remind us of what to
consider to create successful places. There is considerable overlap between the objectives and they are
mutually reinforcing. These are:

• Legibility: A clear and simple development pattern within a city and neighbourhood enables
residents and visitors to understand how an area is organised and to make their way around. This
type of development pattern is generally delivered through a grid or modified grid network of
streets. The ‘grid’ allows for easy navigation and provides a block pattern that creates increased
connectivity, which also encourages alternative transportation modes to the car. In turn, the block
pattern sets the parameters for the type of built form that can be achieved. It is highly desirable that
the built form be both transit and pedestrian oriented.

• Character: A recognisable image can identify a city or neighbourhood to its residents or visitors.
This image can include, historic buildings, village precincts, buildings with a distinct architecture,
public art and public spaces to name a few. Also, a development pattern created by a regular grid of
streets and blocks reinforced by buildings that form a continuous, enclosing street-wall, creates a
strong foundation for establishing such a recognisable image.

• Diversity: Successful neighbourhoods within a city provide for diversity and choice through a mix
of compatible housing and building types and land uses. Through these measures residents of a
neighbourhood have the opportunity to age in place; going through all of their various lifecycles
without having to leave their original neighbourhood and breaking the social networks they have
formed.

• Continuity and Enclosure: A continuous built form street frontage is needed throughout an area of
the city or neighbourhood to allow users to easily understand where they are, directions to where
they need to go and the purpose of the street (i.e., is the street a village main street or is it a
residential arterial). In doing this, development will assist in creating the proper enclosure of space
and delineate the private and public realms.

• Ease of Movement: Older neighbourhoods within cities are usually configured for maximum
convenience as the area has high connectivity and it is a place for pedestrians. A compact urban
form, a legible urban structure (i.e. grid network of streets), short blocks, pedestrian priority and a
built form that is transit and pedestrian oriented ensures an area has maximum convenience for
movement. In newer neighbourhoods, the street systems are usually curvilinear in nature with larger
blocks, which reduces overall convenience and frustrates ease of movement for pedestrians

• Adaptability: Cities and neighbourhoods are constantly changing. The success of these places is
directly related to the ability of the form and pattern of development to adapt over time to changing
social, technological and economic conditions.

• Quality Public Realm: The public realm is one of the most important components of any city or
neighbourhood. As such, the built form and streetscape treatments should provide an attractive, safe
and comfortable pedestrian environment, while maintaining the overall visual cohesiveness of the
area. This can be achieved through a variety of design responses, which include, but are not limited
to, ground level facade treatments (i.e. transparent glass that shares the interior activities with the
street), architectural details, paving patterns, shade, seating, adequate sidewalk widths and other
features.

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Urban Design of any city is based on these underlying objectives. The ultimate form and character of
urban design for a city also takes influences from local characteristics and conditions.

1.2.2 Aspects of Development Form

The urban design objectives are by themselves abstract. They only have an impact on people's lives
when translated into physical development. The form of buildings, structures and spaces is the
physical expression of urban design.

There are 9 recognised features that form the main characteristics of physical development. We call
these the 'Aspects of development form'. They are discussed below:

• Layout - urban structure - The framework of routes and spaces that connect locally and more
widely, and the way developments, routes and open spaces relate to one other. The layout provides
the basic plan on which all other aspects of the form and uses of a development depend.

• Layout - urban grain - The pattern of the arrangement of street blocks, plots and their buildings in
a settlement. The degree to which an area's pattern of blocks and plot subdivisions is respectively
small and frequent (fine grain), or large and infrequent (coarse grain). The degree of mixture of fine
and course elements of urban form (even vs uneven)

• Landscape - The character and appearance of land, including its shape, form, ecology, natural
features, colours and elements, and the way these components combine. This includes all open
space, including its planting, boundaries and treatment.

• Density and mix - The amount of development on a given piece of land and the range of uses.
Density influences the intensity of development, and in combination with the mix of uses can affect
a place's vitality and viability. The density of a development can be expressed in a number of ways.
This could be in terms of plot ratio (particularly for commercial developments), number of
dwellings, or the number of habitable rooms (for residential developments).

• Scale - height - Scale is the size of a building in relation to its surroundings, or the size of parts of a
building or its details, particularly in relation to the size of a person. Height determines the impact
of development on views, vistas and skylines). Height can be expressed in terms of the number of
floors; height of parapet or ridge; overall height; any of these in combination; a ratio of building
height to street or space width; height relative to particular landmarks or background buildings; or
strategic views.

• Scale - massing - The combined effect of the arrangement, volume and shape of a building or group
of buildings in relation to other buildings and spaces).Massing is the three-dimensional expression
of the amount of development on a given piece of land.

• Appearance -details - The craftsmanship, building techniques, decoration, styles and lighting of a
building or structure. This includes all building elements such as openings and bays; entrances and
colonnades; balconies and roofscape; and the rhythm of the facade.

• Appearance - materials - The texture, colour, pattern and durability of materials, and how they are
used. The richness of a building lies in its use of materials which contribute to the attractiveness of
its appearance and the character of an area.

• Appearance - facade & interface - The relationship of buildings to the site, street and
neighbouring buildings (alignment, setback, boundary treatment) and the architectural expression of
their facades.

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The above principles encourage developers to ask a series of questions that go deeper than
generalisations. They should be used together to help developers gain a better understanding of a
'place' and how any new development can best respond to this. The end result of such a process
should be better designed places.

1.2.3 Application of Scale in Urban Design

Scale and Human vision: Our eyes have two fields of view – general and detailed. General cone of
vision 30 degrees up; 45 degrees down; 65 degrees to either side.

The above determines urban scale in several ways: we cannot see an object that is further from us
than 3500 times its size, 8 feet is normal conversation distance; a person between 3 and 10 ft is in
close relationship to us; use of normal voices; we can pick facial details up to about 75ft. Beyond this,
there is need to complement with gestures, up to about 450ft, also maximum for distinguishing man
from woman. Maximum viewing distance for human figures is around 4000ft.

Scale and circulation: Scale is determined by the means we employ for movement around the city as
well as the way we move between cities across the country. Scale is determined by the different
modes of movement based on their speeds and sizes, but also characteristics in movement; express
versus stop-over/interactive.

Scale and neighbourhood size: The citizen numbers and levels of services will determine the scale
of neighbourhood, the scale of a network of neighbourhoods would determine the scale of the entire
town.

Scale in neighbouring buildings and spaces: Buildings and spaces have to be in scale with people,
as well as in scale with each other. This will also apply to other variables like materials, colour, bulk,
and siting. Intentional variations in scale could be used to achieve emphasis and hierarchy in design of
buildings and spaces.

Scale and parameters: This is where we use attributes of familiar and known objects and details
such as cars, trees, humans, light poles etc. to judge the sizes of other things near them.

Scale versus Age, time, convenience and habit: Our sense of urban scale varies with our ages and
habits. The world of a child begins with the home, as one grows the world enlarges and separate parts
are linked together. The scale of their world enlarges.

Our sense of urban scale is also determined by what we are accustomed to. People adapt to
environments with time. Say getting used to the skyscrapers around us. Urban scale may also vary
with the temporal cycles of the city. Take the example of the rush hour with its fast traffic has a
different view of scale to the sluggish period of the day, when people have all the time to observe and
pick details about the city.

1.2.4 Urban Space and Degree of Enclosure

Urban space may be enclosed or open; isolated or linked; may be purposely designed to display
linkage or to emphasise buildings and objects they contain. Space may be linear/corridors; squares; or
reserves based on their sizes they define the hierarchy of spatial types from small intimate sizes to
urban squares and the natural space within which the city is set.
Urban mass refers to the arrangement of ground surface, buildings and objects to influence the quality
of Urban Space.
Various levels of enclosure in urban spaces are defined by the arrangement of buildings and resulting
spaces between them;

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 - Location of buildings impart a directionality to the spaces. Long narrow spaces establish
this sense of direction most strongly.
- Enclosure is formed when buildings bound an open area at the centre.
- Asymmetric implied space is a result of buildings which are neither along narrow path
nor enclosing a central space.
The image below represents various enclosure levels formed by buildings;

Throughout history, “enclosure” as a design element, is included in the theories of many of the great
Renaissance and Baroque designers as a key element towards creating comfortable space. Vitruvius
(1926) and Leon Battista Alberti’s (1955) ideas on proportion, both suggest that a proper height to
width ratio of a street is one-third of the height of the surrounding buildings that constitutes a 3:1
ratio. Palladio (1965) suggests that an even tighter ratio of 1.75:1 is optimal for defining good space.
Camillo Sitte (1965) concludes that the surrounding building height should be used as the minimum
dimension of an adjacent plaza and an absolute maximum of double the building height still provides
the right effect. Sitte’s theories represent 1:1 and 2:1 ratios respectively.

Similar to the historic foundations established above, several contemporary researchers have also
dealt with the idea of enclosure as it relates to the successful design of space. Hegemann and Peets
(1922) conclude a 1:1 enclosure ratio is optimal, especially for viewing details on adjacent buildings.
Paul Spreiregen (1965) suggests that spaces containing a 4:1 ratio begin to lose its containing quality
and thus a 3:1 ratio should be considered a maximum to achieve enclosure. Both Richard Hedman
(1984) and Barrie Greenbie (1981) suggest 2:1 and 3:1 ratios create comfortable spaces and ratios 4:1
and greater lose their defining properties.

Degree of enclosure is an important aspect to understand the character of a space. It defines the extent
to which, users of a space, are comfortable and can appreciate the details.
It is quantified in terms of the ratio between the height of a vertical plane (h) and its distance from the
viewing point (d). Levels in degree of enclosure based on this (h/d) ratio are tabulated below. The
corresponding viewing angles ‘θ’ are also given;

Degree of Enclosure (h:d) ratio θ

Full enclosure 1:1 45.000
Threshold of enclosure 1:2 26.570
(or Optimal enclosure)

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Minimum enclosure 1:3 18.430
Loss of enclosure 1:4 14.040

In the diagram below, tan θ = h/d. So, the viewing angle ‘θ’ is calculated as tan-1(h/d).

NOTE: The viewing angle also impacts the level of details an observer can perceive. Angle of 45
degrees is for detail vision. Angle of 30 degree is for vision of whole objects/buildings. Angle of 18
degrees is for vision of the object plus context.

Example 1.2.1

Question: A person standing in a plaza in front of a building experiences the limit of optimal
enclosure. If the distance of person from building is 100 meters; what will be the height of building
façade?

Answer: Let the height of building façade = h and given, distance of observer, d = 100 meters
For the limit of optimal enclosure; h/d = 1/2
h/100 = 1/2
=> h = 100/2 = 50 meters

1.2.5 Public Squares

Some important terms related to Public Squares in Urban Design are discussed below;

• Plaza: One of the most important elements of city design is the square or plaza. A plaza is an
open area commonly found in the heart of a town used for community gatherings, civic
purposes, commercial activities and usually attached to an important building. Other names
for town square are civic centre, city square, urban square, market square, public square,
plaza, piazza, and “Maydan” or “Saha”. The words plaza and piazza have the same Greek
origin, with plaza being the Spanish adaption and piazza the Italian one.

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 • Terminating vista: In urban design, a terminating vista is a building or monument that stands
at the end or in the middle of a road, so that when one is looking up the street the view ends
with the site.

• Woonerf: A woonerf is an urban design tool which originated in the Netherlands. Woonerfs
are designed to. Make the driver feel uncomfortable, thus forcing them to reduce their speed
in order to make street safer for pedestrian.

• Street Furniture vs Street Hardware:

- Street furniture is a collective term for objects installed along streets and roads for various
purposes. It includes benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, bus stops, tram
stops, taxi stands, public lavatories, memorials, public sculptures, planter boxes and waste
receptacles.

- Street hardware is pieces of working equipment usually electricity or water passes

through them, like phone boxes, street-lamps, traffic lights, traffic signs,
fountains, watering troughs, fire hydrants.

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Some important public squares are discussed in the table below;

Piazza del Campo, Tuscany, Italy

- It is the principal public space of Siena in

Tuscany, Italy.
- This medieval square with brick paving is known
for its human scale.
- It is renowned worldwide for its beauty and
architectural integrity.
The Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China

- It is a city square in the centre of Beijing, China,

named after the Tiananmen ('Gate of Heavenly
Peace') located to its north, separating it from
the Forbidden City.
- The square lies between two ancient, massive
gates: the Tiananmen to the north and the
Zhengyangmen (better known as Qianmen) to the
south.
Piazza del Popolo, Rome, Italy

- It is a large urban square in Rome; the name in

modern Italian literally means "People's Square".
- An Egyptian Obelisk stands at the center of this
Piazza.
- The layout of the piazza was designed in
neoclassical style between 1811 - 1822 by
architect Giuseppe Valadier.

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 Trafalgar Square, London

- It is located in Central London and has the famous

52-meter-tall ‘Nelson’s Column’ at its center.
- Nelson's Column is in the centre of the square,
flanked by fountains designed by Sir Edwin
Lutyens between 1937 and 1939.
- It fronts “National Gallery” in London
St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City

- It has a layout of intersecting oval and trapezium.

- It is bound by Doric colonnades; which are four
columns deep.
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost
including the massive Doric colonnades
- It has an Egyptian Obelisk at the centre

1.2.6 Tools and Techniques in Urban Design

Open space technique: It is an analysis based on where to build vs where to be left open. An open
space structure would be framework for relating land development to transportation and also allow for
other decisions related to community life such as school and other social infrastructure.

Transportation system technique: In this technique, pattern of movement is the primary land shaper.
It is an analysis based on density of development vs intensity of circulation.

Plug in technique: Plug-in urban design refers to the design and implementation of an infrastructure
project in order to obtain some catalytic reaction. There are two types of plug-in urban design
projects. The first type involves the provision of the infrastructure of, usually, a precinct of a city or
suburb, and the selling of sites into which individual developers can plug buildings. The second type
involves plugging the infrastructure into an existing urban fabric to enhance its amenity value.

Figure Ground: A figure ground diagram is a two-dimensional map of an urban space that shows the
relationship between built and unbuilt space using contrast. It is used in analysis of urban design and
planning.

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Uses of figure ground analysis include;
- Revel the extent and continuity of open space
- Examine the basic framework at play; Example: In an urban context, the street grid system
- Understand the edge conditions between positive and negative; Example: If it is a straight
line, or a meandering curve; and if there are nooks
- Understand how a proposed building or space might interact with the existing fabric of the
neighbourhood, particularly in terms of the mass, proportions and edge conditions.

Reverse Figure Ground:

Frederick Gibberd was a proponent of the reverse figure-ground diagram, where the buildings are in
white and the space in black. This is useful to focus the perception of the designer upon the space as
an object.

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Urban Morphology: Urban morphology is the study of the form of human settlements and the
process of their formation and transformation. Typically, analysis of street patterns, building size and
shapes, architecture, population density and patterns of residential, commercial, industrial and other
uses.

Urban Tissue: Urban tissue refers to the environmental level normally associated with urban design.
Tissue comprises coherent neighbourhood morphology (open spaces, building) and functions (human
activity).

Super Figure: ‘Super-figure’ is a structure in an urban environment that becomes a dominant figure.
The visual dominance of such structures is so effective that other figural buildings appear as
background (i.e., the super-figure appears to come forward, towards the observer). Super-figure is
created by its colour characteristics (like black structure in white background or unbroken white
structure). [Source: Proceedings of AIC Bangkok, 2003]. Below picture of skyline of Seattle, US,
shows the black towers as ‘super-figure’.

Façade Articulation: Changes in the depth of the surface of a building face or façade such as
attached columns, recessed windows or window bays, horizontal banding or decorative cornices is
termed as “Façade Articulation”. Articulation gives texture to the building surface. Even though,
façade articulation of a building relates to the architecture of a specific building; it also impacts the
surrounding urban design, by incorporating interest and altering scale to the object. The image below
shows comparison between a well-articulated building mass and a simple façade;

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Frontal Area Density: Frontal area density is defined as the ratio of the frontal area (of all building
facades as viewing from a given direction) and the total surface area of s study area (in plan). It is
different from plan area density (which is; building footprint area/area of study). The comparison
between plan area density and frontal area density is shown in the image below;

Frontal area density is a study of urban density in third dimension. It helps in analysing the
comparative size of an urban frontal area in comparison to the area of urban locality in plan. Higher
frontal area density implies existence of more frontal surfaces; which usually means more density/
coverage in the third dimension – This usually implies high concentration of high-rise structures. It is
important to note that the frontal area density of a study area/locality depends on the viewing direction
also.

The image below shows comparison of high frontal area density (A) and low frontal area density (B);

Sky view factor (SVF): The SVF is the fraction of visible sky from a given point in urban locality. It
is generally used to analyse impact of solar radiation on an urban locality by determining the cross-
sectional property of an urban canyon (place where the street is flanked by buildings on both sides
creating a canyon-like environment).

SVF is the ratio of visible sky area from a point to the complete hemispherical sky area, if there were
no obstructions. The image below shows an urban area with SVF of 0.499 at an observing point. This
means; from that point, 49.9% of complete sky area is visible. The remaining sky surface is being
obstructed by building surfaces;

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The radiation within an open terrain (with a SVF close to one) reaches the surface without being
blocked, while within a more complex terrain (with a SVF lower than one) reflections plays a role.

Biotope Area Factor (BAF): The biotope area factor (BAF) designates the ratio of areas of a site that
have a positive effect on the ecosystem or an effect on the development of the biotope of a site in
relation to the entire area of the site with regard to developed sites.

𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦

𝐵𝐴𝐹 =
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦

Some cities (for example; Berlin) have regulations where development of new buildings fall under a
regulation requiring a proportion of the area to be left as green space; with prescribed BAF
requirements. All potential green areas, such as courtyards, roofs and walls are included in the BAF. It
responds to the need to encourage more active green space in densely built-up urban areas.

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1.2.7 National Commission on Urbanization

The Planning Commission, an apex body in the field of planning, whose main orientation has been
towards sectoral planning without any input whatsoever of spatial planning, recommended for a
committee which could look into the aspects of spatial planning in India. Thereby, the Government of
India in the early 1980s appointed a National Commission on Urbanisation in India under the
Chairmanship of Charles Correa, the distinguished Mumbai-based architect.

The Commission was required to:

(i) Examine the state of urbanisation with reference to the present demographic, economic,
infrastructural, environmental, physical, shelter, energy, communication, land, poverty,
aesthetic and cultural aspects.

(ii) Identify priority action areas, make projections of future needs and estimate the available
resources.

(iii) Prepare basic guidelines for the specific action plan in priority areas.

(iv) Evolve policy frames and suggest basic approaches for the encouragement of manageable
urbanisation and also the methods of creating networks of interactions as an ongoing process
among government, academic and research institutions and citizen groups.

(v) Suggest an institutional framework for monitoring the effective implementation of the
commission’s recommendations.

(vi) Consider any other matter having a bearing on urbanisation.

The Commission submitted its reports in August 1988 and made certain recommendations for
alleviating the problems of a very rapid urbanisation in India. It covered a wide range of issues related
with the urban growth, planning and development, urban congestion, urban decay, proliferation of
shanty towns, slums and squatter settlements, problems which arise out of massive migration of
distressed people from rural areas to large urban centres.

Recommendations of National Commission on Urbanisation:

Dimensions of Urbanisation: The commission recommended for promoting 329 new growth centres
and emphasised upon strengthening of the existing larger metropolises. It recommended the following
measures:

a. Creating employment

b. Opening up hinterlands

c. Generating wealth with equity

d. Be engines of growth

e. Be the catalysts of social transformation and modernisation of economy and society

It classified the cities based on economic momentum into national priority cities, state priority cities
and spatial priority urbanisation regions and the small towns, which serve the rural hinterland. It also
recommended providing opportunities for the growth of small and intermediate level towns so that the
migration rush is reduced in the metropolitan centres.

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1.3 URBAN DESIGN THEORISTS, THEIR WORKS & THEORIES

1.3.1 City Beautiful Movement

• The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban
planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification
and monumental grandeur in cities.

• It was a part of the progressive social reform movement in North America under the leadership of
the upper-middle class concerned with poor living conditions in all major cities.

• Daniel Hudson Burnham was indisputably the “Father of the City Beautiful.” As director of
works of the World's Columbian Exposition (1893), he effectively launched the movement that 15
years later would reach its apogee in his epochal “Plan of Chicago”.

• The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and
Washington, D.C., promoted beauty not only for its own sake, but also to create moral and civic
virtue among urban populations.

• The particular architectural style of the movement borrowed mainly from the contemporary
Beaux-Arts and neoclassical architecture, which emphasized the necessity of order, dignity, and
harmony

• An early use of the City Beautiful ideal with the intent of creating social order through
beautification was the McMillan Plan, (1902) for redesigning of the monumental core of
Washington, D.C. It was intended to make Washington monumental and green like the European
capitals of the era. (McMillan Plan for Washington D.C., is shown in the picture below)

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• The success of the City Beautiful philosophy in Washington, D.C., is credited with influencing
subsequent plans for beautification of many other cities, including Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland,
Columbus, Des Moines, Denver, Detroit, ,Madison, Montreal, New York City, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Texas, San Francisco and the Washington State Capitol Campus.

• Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago is considered one of principal documents of the City
Beautiful movement. The plan featured a dynamic new civic centre, axial streets, and a lush strip
of parkland for recreation alongside the city's lakefront. Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago, 1909
is shown in the image below;

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1.3.2 Camillo Sitte

• Camillo Sitte (1843–1903) was a Viennese artist and critic whose published work ‘‘Der
Stadtebau’’ criticized what he perceived to be the distributing urban development of his days.
Sitte examined the town squares or plazas of ancient Greek and Rome, the middle ages and the
renaissance (especially Baroque) to determine the characteristics that gave those places a
‘‘Human Scale’’.

• Sitte is best remembered for his 1889 book, City Planning According to Artistic Principles, in
which he examined and documented the traditional, incremental approach to urbanism in Europe,
with a close focus on public spaces in Italy and the Germanic countries.

• Sitte emphasized on aesthetic importance as well as social concern. Furthermore, Sitte suggested
that his principles in promoting artistic importance need only to be applied to the major plazas and
thoroughfares of a town, city or suburb. While Sitte’s comments come before the era of the
skyscrapers, the elevator and the motor car, they are quite applicable to the urban landscape that
characterizes the end of the 20th century.

• The principles he arrived at can be summarized as follows:

- There is an important relationship between buildings, monuments and their plazas.

- The center of plazas should be kept free.

- There are rules that govern the size and shape of plazas. A hierarchy of sizes should exist
within the squares of each town. The size and therefore the shape of the plaza should be in
proportion to the size and height of the buildings dominating it.

- Plazas work best when irregular in shape, and irregularity assists to keep the center free.

- A cluster of plazas can emphasize a city’s focal point.

- Straight roads with good proportion between length and width can work well and are often
necessary. The curves and meanders of ancient streets are preferable where terrain or other
local circum- stances suggest such treatment. Enclosed streets with varied alignments are
more interesting than long streets crossed with endless intersections.

• Sitte was one of the first urban writers to consciously emphasize the value of irregularity in the
urban form. He challenged, among other things, a growing tendency toward rigid symmetry in
contemporary urban design, including the isolated placement of churches and monuments in
large, open plots.

• For Sitte, the inherent, creative quality of urban space is its most important factor, with whole
effect being more than the sum of its parts. Sitte contended that many urban planners had

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 neglected to consider the spatial dimensions of urban planning, focusing too much on paper plans;
and argued that this approach hindered the efficacy of planning in an aesthetically conscious
manner.

• Although most of his examples come from the urbanism of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, he
also cites Classical urban forms like the agora of Athens and the Roman forum as examples of
well-designed urban space.

1.3.3 Patrick Geddes

• Sir Patrick Geddes (1854 –1932) was a British sociologist, geographer, and pioneering town
planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology.

• He introduced the concept of "region" to architecture and planning and coined the term
“conurbation” (an extended urban area, typically consisting of several towns merging with the
suburbs of a central city).

• He saw the city as a series of common interlocking patterns, “an inseparably interwoven
structure”.

• Conservative surgery: In 1886 Geddes purchased a row of slum tenements in James Court,
Edinburgh, making it into a single dwelling. In and around this area Geddes commenced upon a
practical project of "conservative surgery". This concept involved; weeding out the worst of the
houses; widening the narrow closes into courtyards and thus improving sunlight and airflow. The
good houses were kept and restored. Geddes believed that this approach was both more
economical and more humane.

• Civic survey: Geddes advocated the civic survey as indispensable to urban planning: his motto
was "diagnosis before treatment". Such a survey should include, at a minimum, the geology, the
geography, the climate, the economic life, and the social institutions of the city and region. His
early work surveying the city of Edinburgh became a model for later surveys.

• His principles for town planning in Bombay demonstrate his views on the relationship between
social processes and spatial form ("Bombay Town Planning Act of 1915")
- Preservation of human life and energy, rather than superficial beautification.
- Conformity to an orderly development plan carried out in stages.
- Purchasing land suitable for building.
- Promoting trade and commerce.
- Preserving historic buildings and buildings of religious significance.
- Developing a city worthy of civic pride, not an imitation of European cities.
- Promoting the happiness, health and comfort of all residents, rather than focusing on roads
and parks available only to the rich.
- Control over future growth with adequate provision for future requirements.

• Observational technique: Based on a scientific method, Geddes encouraged close observation as

the way to discover and work with the relationships among “place, work and folk”. In 1892, to
allow the general public an opportunity to observe these relationships, Geddes opened a
“sociological laboratory” called the Outlook Tower that documented and visualized the regional
landscape.

• The valley section is a complex model, which combines physical condition; geology and
geomorphology and their biological associations. It was a schematic representation of a regional
watershed that suggested a hierarchy of forms of human settlements which adapted to particular
environmental conditions. The concept is associated with different livelihoods and occupations –

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 to explain the concept “It takes a whole region to make a city”. The image below details out the
concept of “valley section” given by Patrick Geddes.

1.3.4 Frederick Law Olmstead

• Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, and public administrator. He is
popularly considered to be the “father of American landscape architecture”. Olmsted was famous
for co-designing many well-known urban parks:

• “The Emerald Necklace” which consists of a 1,100-acre (4.5 km2; 450 ha) chain of parks linked
by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It gets its name from the
way the planned chain appears to hang from the "neck" of the Boston peninsula.

• Some of his other important works are Central Park in New York City, Prospect
Park in Brooklyn, New York and Cadwalader Park in Trenton.

1.3.5 F. L Wright

• Broadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank Lloyd Wright
throughout most of his lifetime. He presented the idea in his book “The Disappearing City” in
1932.

• A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve by twelve-foot (3.7 × 3.7 m) scale model
representing a hypothetical four-square mile (10 km²) community. Broadacre City was the
antithesis of a city and the apotheosis of the newly born suburbia, shaped through Wright's
particular vision.

• It was both a planning statement and a socio-political scheme, inspired by Henry George, by
which each U.S. family would be given a one-acre (0.40 hectares) plot of land from the federal
land reserves, and a Wright-conceived community would be built anew from this.

• In a sense it was the exact opposite of transit-oriented development. There is a train station and a
few office and apartment buildings in Broadacre City, but the apartment dwellers are expected to
be a small minority.

• All the important transport is done by automobile and the pedestrian can exist safely only within
the confines of the one-acre (0.40 hectares) plots where most of the population dwells.

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• The Mile-High Illinois, was a proposed skyscraper that is over 1 mile (1,600 m) high, conceived
and described by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in his 1957 book, “A Testament”.

• The sketch below demonstrates the idea of “Broadacre city” proposed by Architect F. L Wright.

1.3.6 Le Corbusier

The Athens Charter was a 1933 document about urban planning published by the Swiss architect Le
Corbusier. The work was based upon Le Corbusier’s ‘Ville Radieuse’ (Radiant City) book of 1935
and urban studies undertaken by the ‘Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne’ (CIAM) in the
early 1930s.

"The Functional City" broadened CIAM's scope from architecture into urban planning. Based on an
analysis of thirty-three cities, CIAM proposed that the social problems faced by cities could be
resolved by strict functional segregation, and the distribution of the population into tall apartment
blocks at widely spaced intervals. These proceedings went unpublished from 1933 until 1943, when
Le Corbusier, acting alone, published them in heavily edited form as the Athens Charter.

Some important city planning and urban design works by Le Corbusier are;

Ville Contemporaine (Contemporary City):

• The Ville contemporaine (Contemporary City) was an unrealized utopian planned community
intended to house three million inhabitants. The centrepiece of this plan was a group of sixty-story
cruciform skyscrapers built on steel frames and encased in curtain walls of glass. The skyscrapers
housed both offices and the flats of the wealthiest inhabitants. These skyscrapers were set within
large, rectangular park-like green spaces.

• At the center of the planned city was a transportation hub which housed depots for buses and
trains as well as highway intersections and at the top, an airport.

• Le Corbusier segregated the pedestrian circulation paths from the roadways, and glorified the use
of the automobile as a means of transportation. As one moved out from the central skyscrapers,

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 smaller multi-story zigzag blocks set in green space and set far back from the street housed the
proletarian workers.

• “The Contemporary City”, was based on four principles: Relieve congestion of central areas;
increase population of central districts; improve traffic flow; and increase planted areas. This also
included having garden cities around the central business district, in order to have some
greenspace.

Ville Radieuse (The Radiant City):

• The plan of ‘Radiant City’ had much in common with the Contemporary City - clearance of the
historic cityscape and rebuilding utilizing modern methods of production.

• In the Radiant City, however, the pre-fabricated apartment houses, “les unites”, were at the centre
of "urban" life. Les unites were available to everyone based upon the size and needs of each
particular family. Sunlight and recirculating air were provided as part of the design. The scale of
the apartment houses was fifty meters high, which would accommodate, according to Corbusier,
2,700 inhabitants with fourteen square meters of space per person.

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• The building would be placed upon “pilotis”, five meters off the ground, so that more land could
be given over to nature. Setback from other unites would be achieved by les redents, patterns that
Corbusier created to lessen the effect of uniformity.

• Inside les unites were the vertical streets, i.e. the elevators, and the pedestrian interior streets that
connected one building to another.

• Automobile traffic was to circulate on pilotis supported roadways five meters above the earth.
The entire ground was given as a "gift" to pedestrians, with pathways running in orthogonal and
diagonal projections.

• Corbusier spends a great deal of the Radiant City manifesto elaborating on services available to
the residents. Each apartment block was equipped with a catering section, laundry chores in

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 basement. Directly on top of the apartment houses were the roof top gardens and beaches, where
residents sun themselves in A natural" surroundings - fifty meters in the air.

• Corbusier bitterly reproaches advocates of the horizontal garden city (suburbs) for the time
wasted commuting to the city. Because of its compact and separated nature, transportation in the
Radiant City was to move quickly and efficiently. Corbusier called it the “vertical garden city”.

Planned city of Chandigarh:

• Le Corbusier was employed for the Master Plan and the Capital buildings and worked from 1951
until his death in 1965 on the construction of the city. Pierre Jeanneret, his cousin and partner was
hired as the site architect. In 1965 M.N. Sharma took over from Pierre Jeanneret as the first Indian
Chief Architect of the Project.

• The city plan was conceived as post war ‘Garden City ’wherein vertical and high-rise buildings
were ruled out, keeping in view the socio economic-conditions and living habits of the people.

• All the main roads were straightened out, the dimensions and organization of the superblocks
were reformatted, a complete hierarchy of circulation was established, the nomenclature was
changed, and the Capital “head” was firmly located in place.

• The metaphor of a human being was being employed in the plan – the ‘head ’contained the capital
complex, the ‘heart ’the commercial centre, and the ‘arms’, which were perpendicular to the main
axis, had the academic and leisure facilities.

• The plan incorporated Le Corbusier’s principles of light, space and greenery. Le Corbusier
divided the city into different Sectors. Each Sector or the neighboured unit, is quite similar to the
traditional Indian 'mohalla', and measures 800 metres by 1200 metres, covering 250 acres of area.
The sector featured a green strip running north to south, bisected by a commercial road running
east to west.

• The streets were organized in a diminishing hierarchy and labelled V1 through V8:
- V1: arterial roads that connect one city to another,
- V2: urban, city roads,
- V3: vehicular road surrounding a sector,
- V 4: shopping street of a sector,
- V5: distribution road meandering through a sector,
- V6 residential road,
- V7: pedestrian path,
- V8: cycle track.

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• Each Sector is surrounded by V2 or V3 roads, with no buildings opening on to them and meant to
be self-sufficient, with shopping and community facilities within reasonable walking distance.

• The educational, cultural and medical facilities are spread all over city, however, major
institutions are located in Sectors 10, 11, 12, 14 and 26.

• The two Colleges, the École d'Art et d'Architecture from 1950-1965 are important buildings by Le
Corbusier. Their studios and classrooms are grouped around interior courtyards. The buildings are
severely oriented north and south, so that light enters from the north. The halls are separated by
low partitions. Le Corbusier determined that these school complexes and the Museum had to be
built of the reddish-brown brick that is common in India.

• The industrial area comprises 2.35 sq. kms, set-aside in the Master Plan for non-polluting, light
industry on the extreme south-eastern side of the city near the railway line, as far away from the
Educational Sectors and Capitol Complex as possible.

1.3.7 Kevin Lynch

• Kevin Lynch concerned himself with how we locate ourselves within the city, how we find our
way around (wayfinding).

• He suggested that to know where we are within the city, we have to build up a workable image of
each part. He says ‘‘Every citizen has had long associations with some part of the Plan/Public
Image, and his image is soaked in memories and meanings’’.

• The image of the environment is a composite between people and their activities from one side,
and static elements from the other side. Nearly, everything is in a continuous operation of
changeability. So, studying the “legibility” and “imageability” are essential issues in the urban
environment.

• Kevin Lynch defined the “Legibility” of cityscape as the ease with which its parts can be
recognized and organized into a coherent pattern. Or; legibility is essentially the ease with which
people understand the layout of a place.

• He defined “Imageability” as the quality of a physical object which gives an observer a strong
vivid image. He concluded that a highly imageable city would be well formed, would contain
very distinct parts, and would be instantly recognizable to the common inhabitant. He put the
elements of legibility as follows:

a) Paths: Paths are the channels along which the observer customarily, occasionally, or
potentially moves such as streets, walkways, transit lines, canals and railroads. According to
Lynch the Weak paths; Branching and number of small changes along the path cause
orientation problems.

b) Edges: Edges are the linear elements not used or considered as paths by the observer. They
are boundaries between two phases, linear breaks in continuity such as shores, railroad cuts,
edges of development and walls.

c) Districts: Districts are the areas with perceived internal homogeneity. They are medium-to-
large sections of the city, conceived of as having a two-dimensional extent, which the
observer mentally enters ‘inside of,’ and which are recognizable as having some common
identifying character such as center, midtown, its in-town residential areas, organized
industrial areas, train yards, suburbs and college campuses.

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 d) Landmarks: Landmarks are another type of point-reference, but in this case the observer does
not enter within them, they are external. They are usually a rather simply defined physical
object which makes one orient oneself.

e) Nodes: Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter. The
nodes may be simply concentrations, which gain their importance from being the
condensation of some use or physical character, as a street-corner hangout or an enclosed
square. And these elements when placed in good form, they increase the human ability to see
and remember patterns, and it is these patterns that make it easier to learn.

• Important Books by Kevin Lynch include;

- ‘The Image of the City’ (1960);
- ‘What Time is this Place?’ (1972);
- ‘Managing the Sense of a Region’ (1976);
- ‘A Theory of Good City Form’ (1981)

1.3.8 Louis I Kahn

Louis Kahn's urban design plan for Central Philadelphia in the 1950s is shown in the image above.
While Edmund Bacon was a trained planner who represented the economic needs of the public realm,
Kahn was an architect who advocated for the powerful form and the system of movement at large.
Kahn's plan for Philadelphia is based on “the idea of the city of flow and the monumental civic
centre”.

Important characteristics of Louis I Kahn’s design for Philadelphia are discussed below;

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 • The Traffic Study is a carefully ordered conceptual plan in which Kahn proposed a new
traffic pattern. In an effort to untangle traffic congestion and to mitigate the haphazard
proliferation of parking lots that plagued post-war American cities, Kahn reordered the streets
according to a functional hierarchy.

• The drawing’s abstract notational system corresponds to different tempos of traffic, such as
the stop-and-go movement of trucks and buses (dotted lines), the fast flow of vehicles around
the periphery (arrows), and the stasis of cars in parking garages (spirals).

• To explain his movement study, Kahn invoked a historical analogy: for him, the girdle of
expressways and parking towers circling the city center metaphorically recalled the walls and
towers that protected the medieval cities of Europe.

• Kahn’s specific comparison was to the largely medieval town of Carcassonne, in the South of
France: just as Carcassonne was a city built for defence, Kahn envisioned the modern city
center having to defend itself against the automobile.

• Louis I Kahn was concerned that two-sided linear arrangement of buildings might turn out to
be completely brutal for people's perception of the new Philadelphia.

• In addition, the form of the city might not be perceivable and recognisable in a perceptive
way because of the overwhelming images of the civic centres on the Market Street as well as
the parking garage on Vine Street.

1.3.9 Thomas Gordon Cullen

• Thomas Gordon Cullen (1914 –1994) was an architect and urban designer who was a key
motivator in the “Townscape movement”. Cullen presented a new theory and methodology for
urban visual analysis and design based on the psychology of perception, such as on the human
need for visual stimulation and the notions of time and space. He is best known for the book
“Townscape”, first published in 1961

• 'Townscape' is the art of giving visual coherence and organization to the jumble of buildings,
streets and space that make up the urban environment. It has been a major influence on architects,
planners and others concerned with what cities should look like.

• Cullen believes that cities should be designed from the point of view of moving people since
residents “apprehend urban environments through kinesthetic experience”. He also raised the idea
of “Serial Vision”, which means people can experience a revelation of views while walking along
the streets at a uniform pace. Below are the sketches by Cullen used to describe ‘Serial Vision’.

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• Major examples which exhibit the concept of serial vision are; Central Park - New York, Kuala
Lumpur - Malaysia, Disneyland - Paris and UK, Taj Mahal Agra, Rashtrapati Bhawan Complex,
New Delhi.

• An important book written on works of Thomas Gordon Cullen is ‘Cut and Paste Urban
Landscape: The Work of Gordon Cullen’ authored by Mira Engler. Mira describes knowingly and
mostly unknowingly, many see the world though Cullen’s eyes - as mobile, pedestrian, at eye
level and spectacular. And many designers design the city through bricolage and montage- a “cut
and paste” manoeuvre of a constant Cullenesque interplay in virtual and actual space.

• Some of Cullen’s most important books include;

- Townscape (1961);
- The Concise Townscape (1971);
- Gordon Cullen: Visions of Urban Design;
- Tenterden Explored: An Architectural and Townscape Analysis (1967)

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1.3.10 Jane Jacobs

• Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist who

influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics.

• Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that "urban
renewal"/"slum clearance" did not respect the needs of city-dwellers. She was a community
activist when her ideas emerged on the horrors of urban renewal, superblocks and skyscrapers in
1961.

• Jacobs attacked the modern theories; she suggested that streets and sidewalks are the main public
areas of a city. Thus, she urges that a well-used street is often safer than a park.

• J. Jacobs described the four necessary physical conditions for dynamic urban life:

a) Multifunction neighbourhood or district, and indeed as many of its internal parts as possible,
must serve more than one primary function, preferably more than two. She notes that
everyday social life promotes trust among neighbours as well as makes room for the safety of
urban inhabitants.

b) Most blocks must be short; that is, streets and opportunities to turn corners must be frequent.

c) The district must mingle buildings that vary in age and conditions, including a good
proportion of old ones so that they vary in the economic yield they must produce.

d) There must be a sufficient dense concentration of people, for whatever purposes they may be
there. This includes dense concentration in the case of people who are there because of
residence. Jacobs in short supports diversity and community involvement.

• Important books by Jane Jacobs include;

- The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961)
- The Economy of Cities (1969)

1.3.11 William Whyte

• W. Whyte (1917-1999) identified the elements that create vibrant public spaces within the city
and filmed a variety of urban plazas in New York City in 1970s. After his book about corporate
culture The Organization Man (1956) sold over two million copies, Whyte turned his attention to
the study of human behaviour in urban settings.

• He published several books on the topic, including The Social Life of Small Urban
Spaces (1980). These observations developed into the "Street Life Project", an ongoing study of
pedestrian behaviour and city dynamics, and eventually to Whyte's book called City:
Rediscovering the Center (1988).

• His other books include: Is Anybody Listening? (1952), Securing Open Spaces for Urban
America (1959), Cluster Development (1964), The Last Landscape (1968 – about the way
metropolitan areas look and the way they might look), The Social Life of Small Urban
Spaces (1980 – plus a companion documentary film of the same name), and City: Rediscovering
the Center (1988).

• He supposed the visual quality of open space is as important as its use; so long narrow pieces of
open space can be far better than single large open areas as more people have both physical and
visual access to the narrow spaces.

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• Whyte and his assistants undertook a ‘‘street life project’’. One aspect of this was included in a
study of how people use urban public space, and a set of urban design guidelines for use in public
areas was produced.

• Whyte’s design principles for public spaces are:

a) The location of public space is important; it should be located in the heart of the downtown
area.

b) The shape of space must not be crucial, and it should be well defined because people like to
position themselves in such places.

c) Whyte supports Sitte’s principles that say that irregular shaped public plazas work best.

d) Whyte also agrees with Sitte’s concept on the importance of the relationship between location
of the space and the street.

e) People gather in various ways to plazas and during specific times such as the lunch hour,
many people cluster in small groups, chatting and conversing with one another in sidewalks.
Eventually; based on the results of his work, Whyte consulted with officials in New York
City to improve the placement and design of its parks and plazas.

1.3.12 Oscar Newman

• Oscar Newman, architect and city planner known for his “defensible space theory” which
encompasses ideas about crime prevention and neighborhood safety. Newman argues that
architectural and environmental design plays a crucial part in increasing or reducing criminality.

• The theory developed in the early 1970s, and he wrote his first book on the topic, Defensible
Space in 1972.

• The book contains a study from New York that pointed out that higher crime rate existed in high-
rise housing projects than in low-rise complexes.

• This, he concluded, was because residents felt no control or personal responsibility for an area
occupied by so many people.

• Throughout his study, Newman focused on explaining his ideas on social control, crime
prevention, and public health in relation to community design.

1.3.13 Alan Jacobs and Donald Appleyard

• Alan Jacobs and D. Appleyard in their work ‘Towards an Urban Design Manifesto’ (1980)
attacked the practice of city building and rebuilding. Their particular criticisms focused on the
vast area developed by both public and private developers that result in high rise buildings, super-
blocks, separate paths for people and cars and housing divorced from streets.

• Such developments are large and best seen from a distance or from a moving car but if the super-
block is seen from nearby, pedestrians never feel of diversity or spontaneity in urban patterns, and
thus; the place becomes meaningless.

• Jacobs and D. Appleyard suggested a number of structural qualities for good urban environment.
There are five physical characteristics that must all be present for positive urban life:

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 a) A good urban environment should contain liveable streets and neighbourhoods, and ensures
healthy conditions including sunlight, clean air, trees, vegetation, gardens, open spaces,
pleasantly scaled and designed buildings, cleanliness, physical safety and without offensive
noise.

b) A. Jacobs and D. Appleyard suggested a minimum density of development and intensity of

land use. They suggested 15 dwellings per acre, and up to 48 dwellings per acre. Such a
density enhances the human exchange, public life, action, diversity and community that make
up city life. Therefore; A. Jacobs and Appleyard agree with C Alexander on the importance of
this issue.

c) The good urban environment must integrate some activities. Living, working and shopping in
reasonable proximity (accessible by walking) to each other. So, A. Jacobs and Appleyard
support J. Jacobs’s principles.

d) Good public space boosts pedestrians’ needs as no public life can take place between people
where they are in cars. On this point A. Jacobs and Appleyard also agree with J. Jacobs on the
role of sidewalks as a generator for liveable places.

e) A good urban environment is more compatible with many separate, distinct building with
complex arrangements and relationships rather than few large buildings or superblocks.
Smaller buildings mean more entrances located on the public space, thus a livelier public
environment. So, they support the concept of diversity of J. Jacobs and her advocation for the
short block.

1.3.14 Christopher Alexander

• C. Alexander who was born in 1936 is one of the best-known commentators concerned with the
fundamental nature of architecture and urban design. Alexander’s theory of urban design
apparently evolved from Sitte’s principles.

• His theory continues with the notion of timeless principles and the need for individual elements to
contribute positively to the whole.

• In Alexander’s view, the pattern languages have broken down in our time and humans have lost
touch with the deep patterns which are capable of generating life in places where they live and
work.

• In software, Alexander is regarded as the father of the pattern language movement. A pattern
language is an organized and coherent set of patterns, each of which describes a problem and the
core of a solution that can be used in many ways within a specific field of expertise.

• Alexander suggested some principles such as:

a) the number of populations within each neighbourhood should be within the range of 7,000
since it is the ideal size for an identifiable community group.

b) The suggested community would include pockets of common land which are shared by
clusters of 8–12 buildings, called ‘‘houses clusters’’.

c) This community should encompass owned shops, corner grocery stores, row houses, small
public squares (20 m in diameter) and scattered parking area pockets.

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 d) Due to the apparent psychological effects on people who live and work in tall buildings,
Alexander imposes a general height limit of four floors for most of buildings with limited
exceptions allowed for non-residential buildings.

• Some of the important books written by Christopher Alexander include;

- The Oregon Experiment (1975)
- A Pattern Language (1977)
- The Timeless Way of Building (1979)

1.3.15 Oscar Niemeyer

• Brasília was planned and developed by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Joaquim Cardozo in
1956 in a scheme to move the capital from Rio de Janeiro to a more central location. The
landscape architect was Roberto Burle Marx. The city's design divides it into numbered blocks as
well as sectors for specified activities, such as the Hotel Sector, the Banking Sector, and the
Embassy Sector.

• The plan includes two principal components, the Monumental Axis (east to west) and the
Residential Axis (north to south).

• The Monumental Axis was assigned political and administrative activities, and is considered the
body of the city with the style and simplicity of its buildings, oversized scales, and broad vistas
and heights, producing the idea of Monumentality. This axis includes the various ministries,
national congress, presidential palace, supreme court building and the television and radio tower.

• The Residential Axis was intended to contain areas with intimate character and is considered the
most important achievement of the plan; it was designed for housing and associated functions
such as local commerce, schooling, recreations and churches, constituted of 96 superblocks
limited to six stories buildings and 12 additional superblocks limited to three stories buildings.

• The urban design of the communal apartment blocks was based on Le Corbusier's Ville
Radieuse of 1935, and the superblocks on the North American Radburn layout from 1929.

1.3.16 B. V Doshi

• In 1984 Doshi was invited to work out a plan to deal with the drastic overflow of people in Jaipur.
Doshi attempted a synthesis of two traditions: One was the reformist urbanism of Le Corbusier
with its emphasis on nature, circulation and hygiene- the essential joys of light space and
greenery. The other – was the ancient urbanism of India with its tight-knit streets, urban courts
and mixed uses.

• Doshi decided to orientate the plan geometry so as to accommodate the prevailing winds and cut
down on western exposure to afternoon sun.

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• To the north was a parched slope which desperately needed replanting, so he placed a water tank
of monumental proportions in this position. Water, a life source was then guided down to slope
into channels feeding fingers of greenery through the entire city.

• Doshi, decided that it would be relevant to celebrate this principle in a new mandala form that
alluded to the recycling of spiritual energies. A main artery was run through the nine square
sectors which were in turn subdivided into subsectors maximizing privacy and containment.

• His plan crossbred aspects of Le Corbusier of Old Jaipur with aspects and hoped to cancel out the
disadvantages of both and to provide a model for later small-scale urban developments in India.

• Fundamental order between individual, community, nature and cosmos was also present behind
his architecture and urbanism.

• The major observations in the city planning are:

a) Each intersection of streets has been used to create a larger open space and thus is used in
creation of a hierarchy of open spaces.

b) Each sector has a square perimeter and roads around it for making it accessible from the
outside while the arrangement within a sector assumes a more protective approach.

c) The major axis is running North-east to south-west, crossed by a secondary axis along the
main transversal road.

d) Orientation is determined by the path of the sun so as to minimize solar contact with built
surfaces.

e) Doshi has interpreted the lessons of traditional desert towns with their tight clusters,
courtyards, havelis and lanes of transition from public to private space.

f) There is an understanding of the social and cultural heritage and thus there is a response to the
needs of the user group.

1.3.17 Edward T. Hall

• Edward T. Hall (1914-2009) was an American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher. He is

remembered for developing the concept of proxemics and exploring cultural and social cohesion,
and describing how people behave and react in different types of culturally defined personal
space.

• Proxemics is the study of human use of space and the effects that population density has on
behaviour, communication, and social interaction.

• Edward T. Hall who coined the term in 1963, defined proxemics as "the interrelated observations
and theories of humans use of space as a specialised elaboration of culture".

• In his foundational work on proxemics, The Hidden Dimension, Hall emphasised the impact of
proxemic behaviour (the use of space) on interpersonal communication.

• According to Hall, the study of proxemics is valuable in evaluating not only the way people
interact with others in daily life, but also "the organisation of space in [their] houses and
buildings, and ultimately the layout of [their] towns”.

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• The distance surrounding a person forms a space. The space within intimate distance and personal
distance is called “personal space”. The space within social distance and out of personal distance
is called “social space”. And the space within public distance is called “public space”.

• The nature and dimensions of these spaces are discussed below;

- Intimate distance for embracing, touching or whispering

◦ Close phase – less than one inch (one to two cm)
◦ Far phase – 6 to 18 inches (15 to 46 cm)

- Personal distance for interactions among good friends or family

◦ Close phase – 1.5 to 2.5 feet (46 to 76 cm)
◦ Far phase – 2.5 to 4 feet (76 to 122 cm)

- Social distance for interactions among acquaintances

◦ Close phase – 4 to 7 feet (1.2 to 2.1 m)
◦ Far phase – 7 to 12 feet (2.1 to 3.7 m)

- Public distance used for public speaking

◦ Close phase – 12 to 25 feet (3.7 to 7.6 m)
◦ Far phase – 25 feet (7.6 m) or more.

• The theory of Proxemics is closely related to the term “Territoriality”. It is a term associated
with nonverbal communication that refers to how people use space (territory) to communicate
ownership or occupancy of areas and possessions. Personal space can be regarded as a bubble
with a person at the centre, forming an area which the person does not wish to be invaded.

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1.4 URBAN CONSERVATION

1.4.1 Levels of Intervention

Below are various levels of intervention in Urban Conservation; in the order of increasing radicality;

• Preservation implies the maintenance of the building in the same physical condition as when it
was received by curatorial agency. Nothing is added to or subtracted from the aesthetic corpus of
the building. Any intervention necessary to preserve its physical integrity (example protection
against fire theft or intrusion heating cooling lighting) are to be cosmetically unobtrusive.

• Restoration describes the process of returning the building, the physical condition in which it
would have been at some previous stage of its morphological development. The precise stage is
determined either by historical association or aesthetic integrity. Intervention at this level is more
radical than simple preservation.

• Conservation describes physical intervention in the actual fabric of the building to ensure its
continued structural integrity. Such measures can range from relative minor therapies (fumigation
against termite, stone cleaning) to very radical ones (consolidation of desiccated wood, insertion
of new foundations).

• Reconstitution is a more radical version of the above, in which the building can be saved only
through piece by piece reassembly, either in situ or a new site. Reconstruction in situ is ordinarily
the consequence of disasters such as war or earthquake, where most of the original constituent
parts remain or scattered. Occasionally, it may be necessary to dismantle the building and
reassemble it on the same site. Reconstitution on a new site is much more familiar, usually
consequence of transplanted structure being too big a bulky to have been moved intact.

• Adaptive use is often the only economical way in which old buildings can be saved by adapting
them to the requirements of new tenants. This can sometimes involve fairly radical interventions,
especially in internal organization of space in which any or all of the above levels of interventions
maybe called for.

• Reconstruction describes the re-creation of vanished building on their original site. The
reconstructed building act as the tangible, three-dimensional surrogate of the original structure, its
physical form being established by archaeological, archival and literary evidence. This is one of
the most radical levels of intervention. It is also one of the most hazardous culturally: all attempts
to reconstruct the past, no matter what academic and scientific research are available to the
preservationists, necessarily involve subjective hypothesis. In historiography, such hypotheses can
be constantly revised; in architecture the hypotheses are not easily modified.

• Replication in the art field implies the creation of a mirror image of an artefact. In the case of
architecture, it implies the construction of an exact copy of still standing building on the site
removed from the prototype. In other words, the replica coexists with the original. Physically, the
replica can be more accurate than the reconstruction, since the prototype is available for the
control of the proportions.

1.4.2 Indian & International Agencies – Guidelines for Conservation

• ASI (1861)

The Archaeological Survey of India is an Indian government agency attached to the Ministry of
Culture that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of

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cultural monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham who also
became its first Director-General.

• INTACH (1860)

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a non-profit charitable
organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

In 2007, the United Nations awarded INTACH a special consultative status with United Nations
Economic and Social Council. INTACH was founded in 1984 in New Delhi with the vision to create a
membership organisation to stimulate and spearhead heritage awareness and conservation in India.
Since 1984, INTACH has pioneered the conservation and protection of India's natural and cultural
heritage and is today the largest membership organisation in the country dedicated to conservation.

• AMP (1904)

The Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904 was passed on 18, March 1904. It is expedient to
provide for the preservation of ancient monuments, for the exercise of control over traffic in
antiquities and over excavation in certain places, and for the protection and acquisition in certain
cases of ancient monuments and of objects of archaeological, historical or artistic interest. Act
preserves and restores ancient Indian monuments by Archaeological Survey of India.

• AHMASR (1951)

The Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Declaration of
National Importance) Act, 1951 was enacted. Consequently, all the ancient and historical monuments
and archaeological sites and remains protected earlier under ‘The Ancient Monuments Preservation
Act, 1904’ were re-declared as monuments and archaeological sites of national importance under this
Act. Another four hundred and fifty monuments and sites of Part ‘B ’States were also added.

• AMSAR (1958) - Amendment 2010

The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (or AMASR Act) is an act of
parliament of the government of India that provides for the preservation of ancient and historical
monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national importance, for the regulation of
archaeological excavations and for the protection of sculptures, carvings and other like objects. It was
passed in 1958.

The Archaeological Survey of India functions under the provisions of this act. If the Central
Government apprehends that a protected monument is in danger of being destroyed, injured, misused,
or allowed to fall into decay, it may acquire the protected monument.

Prohibited area means an area near or adjoining a protected monument which the Central
Government has, by notification in the Official Gazette, declared to be a prohibited area for purposes
of mining operation or construction or both. It is declared up to 100 meters from the protected limits.

Regulated area means an area near or adjoining a protected monument which the central
Government has, by notification in the official gazette, declared to be a regulated area, for purpose of
mining operation or construction or both. It is declared further beyond the protected limits up to 200
meters to be regulated area for purposes of both mining operation and construction.

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• NMA (2010)

NMA i.e. National Monuments Authority has been established under the provisions of ‘The Ancient
Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010'.

Functions and powers of NMA include;

- Make recommendations to the Central Government for grading and classifying protected
monuments and protected areas declared as of national importance under sections 3 and 4,
before the commencement of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains
(Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010.

- Make recommendations to the Central Government for grading and classifying protected
monuments and protected areas which may be declared after the commencement of the
Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act,
2010, as of national importance under section 4;

- Oversee the working of the competent authorities;

- To suggest measures for implementation of the provisions of this Act;

- To consider the impact of large-scale development projects, including public projects and
projects essential to the public which may be proposed in the regulated areas and make
recommendations in respect thereof to the competent authority;

- To make recommend actions to the competent authority for grant of permission.

• World Heritage Site

A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area, selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of
significance, which is legally protected by international treaties. The sites are judged to be important
for the collective and preservative interests of humanity. There are 38 World Heritage Sites located in
India.

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• ICCROM (1956)

The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural
Property (ICCROM) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the preservation of cultural
heritage worldwide through training, information, research, cooperation and advocacy programmes. It
aims to enhance the field of conservation-restoration and raise awareness to the importance and
fragility of cultural heritage.

The creation of the Centre took place as a result of a proposal at the UNESCO General Conference
held in New Delhi, in 1956. Three years later, the Centre was established in Rome, Italy, where its
headquarters remain to this day.

• The Venice Charter (1964)

The Venice Charter: International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments
and Sites (1964) was adopted by the 2nd International Congress of Architects and Technicians of
Historic Monuments, Venice, 1964, and adopted by ICOMOS in 1965.

The Second International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historical Monuments, in

Venice, May 25-31, 1964, adopted 13 resolutions, the first one being the International Restoration
Charter, better known as the Venice Charter, and the second one, put forward by UNESCO, provided
for the creation of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

The Venice Charter codifies internationally accepted standards of conservation practice relating to
architecture and sites. It sets forth principles of conservation based on the concept of authenticity and
the importance of maintaining the historical and physical context of a site or building. The Venice
Charter continues to be the most influential international conservation document. The Venice Charter
states that monuments are to be conserved not only as works of art but also as historical evidence. It
also sets down the principles of preservation, which relate to restoration of buildings with work from
different periods.

• Athens Charter (1931)

The Athens Charter for the Restoration of Historic Monuments is a seven-point manifesto adopted at
the First International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments in Athens in
1931.

The Athens Charter for the Restoration of Historic Monuments was produced by the participants of
the First International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments organized by
the International Museums Office and held in Athens in 1931.

The seven points of the manifesto are:

1. to establish organizations for restoration advice

2. to ensure projects are reviewed with knowledgeable criticism
3. to establish national legislation to preserve historic sites
4. to rebury excavations which were not to be restored.
5. to allow the use of modern techniques and materials in restoration work.
6. to place historical sites under custodial protection.
7. to protect the area surrounding historic sites.

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• ICOMOS (1965)

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS; French: Conseil international des
monuments et des sites) is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of
cultural heritage places around the world. Now headquartered in Paris, ICOMOS was founded in 1965
in Warsaw as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964, and offers advice to UNESCO on World
Heritage Sites.

• Burra Charter (1979)

In 1979, the Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance was
adopted at a meeting of Australia ICOMOS at the historic mining town of Burra, South Australia. It
was given the short title of The Burra Charter. The Charter accepted the philosophy and concepts of
the ICOMOS Venice Charter, but wrote them in a form which would be practical and useful in
Australia.

• Florence Charter (1982)

The ICOMOS-IFLA International Committee for Historic Gardens, meeting in Florence on 21 May
1981, decided to draw up a charter on the preservation of historic gardens which would bear the name
of that town. The present Florence Charter was drafted by the Committee and registered by ICOMOS
on 15 December 1982 as an addendum to the Venice Charter covering the specific field concerned.

• Grandana Convention (1985)

The Convention for the protection of the architectural heritage of Europe is a legally binding
instrument which set the framework for an accurate conservation approach within Europe. For a total
of forty-three member states of the Council of Europe, the Conventions total ratification/accession has
reached forty-two countries since it was opened for signature in 1985. It entered into force on 1
December 1987.

After 30 years of collaboration among member states of the Council of Europe, this convention
constitutes an important framework for the safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of monuments and
sites. The Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage in Europe, along with the
Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, Faro and European Convention
on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritages, comprise the thrust of cultural heritage protection
and development in Europe.

Some other prominent charters are:

• Washington Charter, 1987- Charter for the Conservation of Historic Towns and Urban Areas

• Nara Document, 1994- Authenticity

• ICOMOS NEW ZEALAND: Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Heritage
Value

• Yokohama Statement '96 on Urban Cultural Individuality

• Delhi Urban Arts Commission (1973)

The Delhi Urban Art Commission was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1973 to "advise the
Government of India in the matter of preserving, developing and maintaining the aesthetic quality of
urban and environmental design within Delhi and to provide advice and guidance to any local body in
respect of any project of building operations or engineering operations or any development proposal

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which affects or is like to affect the skyline or the aesthetic quality of the surroundings or any public
amenity provided therein"

1.4.3 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India

Sl. No. Name of the Monument Year Image

1. Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra 1983

2. Ellora Caves, Maharashtra 1983

3. Agra Fort, Uttar Pradesh 1983

4. Taj Mahal, Uttar Pradesh 1983

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5. Konark Sun Temple, Odisha 1984

6. Churches & Convents of Goa 1986

7. Group of Monuments at 1984

Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

8. Khajuraho Temples, Madhya 1986

Pradesh

9. Group of Monuments at 1986

Hampi, karnataka

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10. Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh 1986

11. Virupaksha Temple (Group 1987

of Monuments at Pattadakal),
Karnataka

12. Elephanta Caves, 1987

Maharashtra

13. Brihadeeshwara Temple, 1987

Thanjavur (Great Living
Chola Temples), Tamil Nadu

14. Buddhist Monuments at 1989

Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh

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15. Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi 1993

16. Qutub Minar, Delhi 1993

17. Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh 2002

Gaya, Bihar

18. Bhimbetka Caves (Rock 2003

Shelters), Madhya Pradesh

19 Chhatrapati Shivaji 2004

Terminus, Mumbai,
Maharashtra

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20. Red Fort, Delhi 2007

21. Jantar Mantar, Jaipur, 2010

Rajasthan

22. Hill Forts of Rajasthan 2013

23 Rani ki vav, Gujarat 2014

24. Nalanda University Ruins, 2014

Bihar

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25. Works of Le Corbusier, 2016
Chandigarh

26. Old Ahmedabad City, 2017

Gujarat

27. The Victorian and Art Deco 2018

Ensemble of Mumbai,
Maharashtra

28. Jaipur “The Pink City” of 2019

India, Rajasthan

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 WHAT NEXT

1. Go to the Career Avenues Online Tests Platform.

2. Go to Practice Tests. Search for tests under Urban Design.

3. Answer Tests: Practice Tests: Urban Design: Test 1, 2 and 3.

4. Go to GATE Questions. Search for tests under Urban Design.

5. Answer Tests: GATE Questions: Urban Design Questions.

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CHAPTER 2: LANDSCAPE DESIGN

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WEIGHTAGE & TIPS (LANDSCAPE DESIGN)
Please refer to the weightage of this topic (Chapter 2: Landscape Design of Section 5) from GATE
2012 to GATE 2020 tabulated below;
GATE YEAR WEIGHTAGE (Marks)
2020 7
2019 5
2018 3
2017 5
2016 1
2015 4
2014 7
2013 5
2012 2
Average 4 Marks

Students are advised to remember the following points, before you start studying this Chapter:

• For theory-based questions; important trees and their botanical names, Bloom colour, and
their typology (like climber, shrub, etc.,) are the most important topics.

• For numerical based questions; run-off calculation is the most important topic, which is
frequently asked as a two marks NAT question.

• Numerical type questions related to contour slope and interval calculations were frequently
asked before GATE 2010. In last 10 years there are no numerical type questions based on
contour calculations.

• It is still important to understand contours and landforms based on contour characteristics, for
theory-based questions. All the important landforms are discussed in detail in the notes.

• It is important to have special emphasis on various terminologies discussed in notes. Theory

based questions related to technical terms are not only asked in GATE, but are frequently
asked in other competitive exams too.

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2.1 BASIC TERMINOLOGY

2.1.1 Parts of Plants – Functions

Root, is that part of a vascular plant normally underground. Its primary functions are anchorage of
the plant, absorption of water and dissolved minerals and conduction of these to the stem, and storage
of reserve foods.
Stem, is the plant axis that bears buds and shoots with leaves and, at its basal end, roots. The stem
conducts water, minerals, and food to other parts of the plant; it may also store food, and green stems
produce food.
Leaf, is a flattened structure of a higher plant, typically green and blade-like, that is attached to a
stem directly or via a stalk. Leaves are the main organs of photosynthesis and transpiration.
Flower, is the seed-bearing part of a plant, consisting of reproductive organs (stamens and carpels)
that are typically surrounded by a brightly coloured corolla (petals) and a green calyx (sepals).
Flowering character in tree structure is termed as ‘Inflorescence’ of a tree.
Fruit is a seed-bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant, whereas
vegetables are all other plant parts, such as roots, leaves and stems.
Node is the part of the plant stem where the flowers, branches, and leaves first start to grow. Nodes
can hold several leaves and buds that have the capacity of growing and spreading into branches.
Internode is portion of a stem between the level of insertion of two successive leaves or leaf pairs
(or branches of an inflorescence). A segment of a stem between two nodes is called internode.

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Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to
synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water.
Transpiration is the process where plants absorb water through the roots and then give off
watervapor through pores in their leaves.
Guttation is the exudation of drops of xylem sap on the tips or edges of leaves of some vascular
plants, such as grasses, and a number of fungi.
Tropism is a biological phenomenon, indicating growth or turning movement of a biological
organism, usually a plant, in response to an environmental stimulus. In tropisms, this response is
dependent on the direction of the stimulus. Common tropic responses in plants include phototropism,
gravitropism, thigmotropism, hydrotropism, thermotropism, and chemotropism.
Nastic movements are plant movements that occur in response to environmental stimuli but unlike
tropic movements, the direction of the response is not dependent on the direction of the stimulus.
Examples include the diurnal movement of leaves and the response of insectivorous plants, such as
the Venus fly trap, to prey.
Photoperiodism is the physiological reaction of organisms to the length of night or a dark period.
An example of photoperiodism is when a plant doesn't bloom during the increased darkness of winter
time.
Photo-morphogenesis is light-mediated development, where plant growth patterns respond to the
light spectrum. This is a completely separate process from photosynthesis where light is used as a
source of energy.
2.1.2 Leaf – Structure

Important components in the structure of a leaf are listed below;

A stipule is considered a "bud scale" if it is hard or scaly and protects leaf buds as they form. These
generally fall off as soon as the leaf unfolds.
The petiole is a stalk that attaches a leaf to the plant stem. In petiolate leaves, the leaf stalk (petiole)
may be long, as in the leaves of celery and rhubarb, short or completely absent, in which case the
blade attaches directly to the stem and is said to be sessile.

The leaf base is the lowest part of a leaf lamina that is near the petiole. Leaves bases vary greatly
from plant to plant and are useful in classification and identification. Bilateral symmetry is typical.
However, when the leaf shows asymmetry at the base this is known as an oblique leaf base.

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Midrib is central, thick, linear structure that runs along the length of a plant thallus or lamina. It
occurs in true leaves as a vein running from the leaf base to the apex.
Veins provide support for the leaf and transport both water and minerals (via xylem) and food energy
(via phloem) through the leaf and on to the rest of the plant.
A leaf margin is the structure of the leaf edge.
2.1.3 Leaf – Classification (Based on Morphology)

Morphology of leaves refer to study of their shape. Classification of leaf based on morphology is
given below;
A simple leaf is a single leaf that is never divided into smaller leaflet units. It is always attached to a
twig by its stem or the petiole. Examples of the simple leaf are Black gum trees, Black cherry trees,
Guava, Mangoes, various types of Oaks, Ficus religiosa (Peepal).
A palmate leaf is a compound leaf that is divided into leaflets whose stems emanate from a single
central point. Rose, Neem, Baobab, Desert cotton are the some of the examples of compound leaves.
Pinnately compound leaves, a row of leaflets forms on either side of an extension of the petiole
called the rachis. Neem, ash, walnut, pecan and black locust and Cassia fistula (Amaltas) are all
pinnate-leafed trees.
Trees having a leaf where at least some of the leaves are doubly compound (Bi-pinnate) and the
leaflets have mostly smooth margins are known as bi-pinnate. The leaflets on these petioles appear
on the rachis then are further subdivided along secondary rachises. Ex: Delonix regia (Gulmohar)

2.1.4 Plant Types (Based on Growth Pattern)

Tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most
species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with
secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. In wider
definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns, Shirish, bananas, and bamboos are also trees.

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Herbs - any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavouring, food, medicine, or perfume. Ex -
wheat, paddy, cabbage, mustard, radish.
Shrubs - A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous
plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. They are distinguished from trees by
their multiple stems and shorter height, less than 6 m-10 m (20 ft–33 ft) tall. Ex- china rose, Croton,
pomegranate, Heena
Climber - Climbing plants are plants which climb up trees and other tall objects. Many of them are
vines whose stems twine round trees and branches. There are quite a number of other methods of
climbing. Ex - bougainvillea, sweet gourd, Bitter group, bottle ground, grape vine.
Creeper - is a plant that grows, typically along the ground or up a building, by slowly spreading out.
Ex - Watermelon, strawberry, pumpkin, money plant.
2.1.5 Parts of a Tree

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2.1.6 Tree Trunk Section

Annual growth ring - Each year, the tree forms new cells, arranged in concentric circles called
annual rings or annual growth rings. These annual rings show the amount of wood produced during
one growing season.
Pith, or medulla, is a tissue in the stems of vascular plants. Pith is composed of soft, spongy
parenchyma cells, which store and transport nutrients throughout the plant.

Heartwood is the central growth rings of trees. Its cells usually contain tannins or other substances
that make it dark in colour and sometimes aromatic. Heartwood is mechanically strong, resistant to
decay, and less easily penetrated by wood-preservative chemicals than other types of wood.
Sapwood: The outer rings are sapwood, and are lighter coloured. This is the part of the tree through
which sap flows to sustain tree growth. Sapwood contains sap and water which, in order for the
lumber to be used for building, must be carefully dried prior to use.
Medullary rays are cellular structures found in some species of wood. They appear as radial planar
structures, perpendicular to the growth rings, which are visible to the naked eye. In a transverse
section they appear as radiating lines from the centre of the log.
A cambium (plural cambia or cambiums), in plants, is a tissue layer that provides partially
undifferentiated cells for plant growth. It is found in the area between xylem and phloem. It forms
parallel rows of cells, which result in secondary tissues.
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees,
woody vines, and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside the vascular cambium and is a
nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark.
The inner bark, which in older stems is living tissue, includes the innermost area of the periderm.
The outer bark in older stems includes the dead tissue on the surface of the stems, along with parts
of the innermost periderm and all the tissues on the outer side of the periderm.

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2.1.7 Tree Types – Based on Shape

Tree shape is mainly dependent on the branching pattern and foliage characteristics of it. Branch
pattern of a tree is called “Habit”. Foliage of a tree refers to the plant leaves collectively as a group.
Columnar trees are tall and very thin with upright branches. Their vertical shapes add height and
also provide great screening without taking up much room in the landscape. They frame the views
and structure in the landscape setting.
Ex: Casurina esquisitifolia (beet wood), Grevilea robusta (Silver Oak), Polyathia logifolia (Ashok),
Populus species (Poplar)
Pyramidal trees are wider at the bottom, with a main centre trunk and horizontal branches. The
branches may start at ground level or higher up the trunk. These trees are very dramatic and need
space to reach full width.
Ex: Pinus roxburghii, Araucaria cooki, Thuja compacta, Quercus palustris, Stercula foedtida,
Polyalthia longifolia.
Vase shaped trees have a central trunk with branches into an upright, arching shape that‟s widest at
the top. Vase-shaped trees are graceful and perfect for lining walkways, because they offer both
shade and headroom. They can also be used above large shrub or small trees.
Ex: Melia azadirach, Plumeria acutifolia. P.alba. P.obtusa, Saraca Indica. Almus Americana.
Round shaped trees are upright, with a central strong trunk that branches into a dense round or oval-
shaped crown. They make strong shade and may have such dense foliage that the branches are
concealed.
Ex: Plumeria alba,Chorisia speciosa Mimusops elengi, Morus rubra, Quercus.
Oval trees, as its name implies, is oval and full. Oval trees can be taller or shorter, depending on the
species are suitable for frame or screen.
Ex: Populus alba, Albizzia julibrissin, Crataeqs cerusoalli Cornus sp., Betula pendula Cassia fistula
Weeping trees have flexible, long branches that hang down and maven touch the ground. The shape
of these trees is often irregular and dramatic, making them as excellent specimen or accent trees.
Weeping trees should not be planted near walkways or street where the hanging branches would get
in the way or need to be pruned. It can be used as a focal point.
Ex: Salix Babylonica, S. alba. Putranjiva roxburghii, callistemon lanceolatus Tecomelia.
Fan shaped or umbrella-shaped trees have fairly high branches or leaves. They can be used as
focal point. Ex: Cycus revoluta, Borassus fladellifer, Oredoxa regia.
Irregular tree shape is characterized by the non-uniform shape of branches forming an irregular
shape of the canopy. They typically provide natural shade and form a fantastic figure during winter.
These types of trees can add an unusual dimension to landscape.

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 NOTE: Selection of tree forms in landscape design is based on analysis of various
functional requirements like; Visual screening, Shading of functions, Backdrop,
Water-side edge planting, Boundary edging of a functional area, or scale induction of
surrounding objects. Few important functions based on tree forms are tabulated below.

Tree Form Function

Circular form Backdrop for other elements like sculpture, fountain, smaller
bushes/ shrubs (generally in the form of topiary)
Columnar form Used along boundary of functional spaces to create enclosure
by providing visual screening

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2.2 BASICS OF LANDSCAPING

2.2.1 Plant Caring Techniques and Definitions

Pruning is a horticultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as
branches, buds, or roots. Reasons to prune plants include deadwood removal, shaping (by controlling
or redirecting growth), improving or sustaining health, reducing risk from falling branches, preparing
nursery specimens for transplanting, and both harvesting and increasing the yield or quality of flowers
and fruits.
Felling is the process of cutting down individual trees, an element of the task of logging.
Hoeing is loosening ground to remove weed
Mulching is a practice of covering the topsoil surface with organic materials like straw, grass, stones
inorganic materials like plastics, etc. Mulching is a process of reducing the evaporation, to keep down
weeds.
Transplanting is the technique of moving a tree from one location to another.
Anchor Staking: When a tree is unable to support itself with its existing root system, anchor staking
is required. Anchor staking is used to support the roots or root ball until the roots can grow into the
surrounding soil and support them.
Avenue: A wide road or pathway lined with trees on either side.
Buffer: The use of landscape to curtail view, sound or dust with plants or earth berms, wall, or any
such element.
Egress: A way out, or exit.
Elevation: A contour line or notation of relative altitude, useful in plotting existing or proposed
feature.
Exotic: A plant that is not native to the area in which it is planted.
Fencing: A barrier of plant or construction material used to set off the boundary of an area and to
restrict visual or physical passage in or out of it.
Foliage: The collective leaves of a plant or plants.
Geo-textile: Any permeable textile (natural or synthetic) used with foundation, soil, rock, earth or any
other geotechnical engineering-related material as an integral part of a human made project, structure
or system.
Vermiculite is a naturally occurring mineral that is mined and processed into a puffy, lightweight
granule mixed with soil to improve aeration and drainage.
Grade: The slope or lay of the land as indicated by a related series of elevations.
Natural Grade: Grade consisting of contours of unmodified natural land form.
Finished Grade: Grade accomplished after landscape features are installed and completed as shown
on plan as proposed contours.
Gradient: The degree of slope of a pipe invert or road or land surface. The gradient is a measure of
the slope height as related to its base. The slope is expressed in terms of percentage or ratio.

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Grading: The cutting and/or filling of earth to establish smooth finish contours for a landscape
construction project is „Grading‟. Grading facilitates good drainage and sculpts land to suit the intent
of landscape design.
Grasses: Plants that characteristically have joint stems, sheaths and narrow blades (leaves).
Ground-cover: The planting material that forms a carpet of low height; these low-growing plants are
usually installed as the final part of landscape construction.
Hard Landscape: Civil work component of landscape architecture such as pavement, walkways,
roads, retaining walls, sculpture, street amenities, fountains and other built environment.
Hardy Plant: Plants that can withstand harsh temperature variations, pollution, dust, extreme soil
conditions, and minimal water requirements and the likes. These plants have ability to remain
dormant in such conditions and survive.
Hedge: Number of shrubs or trees (often similar species) planted closely together in a line. A hedge
may be pruned to shape or allowed to grow to assume its natural shape.
Ingress: A way in, or entrance.
Invert: The low inside point of a pipe, culvert, or channel.
Kerb: A concrete or stone edging along a pathway or road often constructed with a channel to guide
the flow of storm water and thereby serving dual purpose.
Mound: A small hill or bank of earth, developed as a characteristic feature in landscape.
Native: A plant indigenous to a particular locale.
Planting: It is the operation of transferring young plant from nursery to permanent place in landscape.
Screen: A vegetative or constructed hedge or fence used to block wind, undesirable views, noise,
glare etc., as part of landscape design; also known as screen planting or buffer plantation.
Soft Landscaping: The natural elements in landscape design, such as plant materials and soil.
Spot Elevation: In surveying and contour layout, an existing or proposed elevation noted as a dot on
the plan.
Swale: A linear wide and shallow depression used to temporarily store, route or filter runoff.
Transplanting: Moving a plant from its place of origin to another location. Transplanting is the
process of bodily lifting of mature and large plants from their position to a new position.
Tree Grate: A metal grille, installed at the base of a tree otherwise surrounded by pavement, that
allows the free passage of air, water, and nutrients to the tree root, but does not interfere with the foot
traffic.
Tree/Plant Guard: The protection constructed around a tree to deter vandalism and help to prevent
damage. It could be made of metal, bamboo or concrete or the like.
Drip-line: The drip-line is the area directly located under the outer circumference of the tree
branches. When the tree canopy gets wet, any excess is shed to the ground along this drip-line, much
like an umbrella. This is also known as a tree’s Critical Root Zone (CRZ), sometimes also called the
Root Protection Zone (RPZ).

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Potometer: sometimes also known as a transpirometer, is a device used for measuring the rate of
water uptake of a leafy shoot which is almost equal to the water lost through transpiration. The causes
of water uptake are photosynthesis and transpiration.
Plant meter: gadget to measure humidity in soil. This helps prevent overwatering. Usually it has a
scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being most dry and 10 being most wet.
Turf block paver is a paving pattern in landscape where grass grows within the voids of block
pattern. It is used to improve water absorption of landscape surface and avoid top soil erosion.
2.2.2 Xeriscaping

Xeriscaping is the process of landscaping or gardening that reduces or eliminates the need for
supplemental water from irrigation.
Five principles of Xeriscaping are:
1. Selection of plants based on regional climate and microclimate
2. Grouping of plants with similar water needs together
3. Improving the soil by adding compost and other organic matter into the soil.
4. Using efficient irrigation method
5. Use of mulches
2.2.3 Landscape Irrigation Techniques

There are four major types of landscape irrigation. To determine which system is most suitable for
your needs, you will need to consider the size of the area, the type of grass or plants you're irrigating,
and whether you can live with the drawbacks of each system.
Micro-irrigation (Drip irrigation) - Gives water directly to plants' root systems, using only as much
water as needed.
Flood System - Floods the ground rather than spraying plants. Comes as jet system, bed sprayer, or
bubbler
Rotary Sprinkler - Spray head that rotates in a circle.
Spray Irrigation System - Traditional sprinkler head is most common form. Pop-up heads come up
only when in use, which helps to prevent accidents.
2.2.4 Important Plants

The table below summarizes the details of important plants along with respective botanical names.
NOTE: Trees and their botanical names are frequently asked in GATE and other competitive exams in
Architecture. It is also advisable to remember the tree forms and bloom characteristics; which are
asked sometimes. All these details for important plants are tabulated below.
BOTANICAL COMMON CATEGORY FLOWER IMAGE
NAME NAME

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Delonix regia Gulmohar Tree – Vase Red
shaped

Cassia fistula Golden Tree – Vase Yellow

shower, shaped
Indian
laburnum

Ficus Banyan tree Tree - Round

benghalensis

Azadirachta Neem Tree - Round White

indica

Polyalthia False Ashoka Tree –

longifolia Columnar

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Dalbergia Indian Tree - Round Pink-
sissoo rosewood white

Ixora Jungle Plant – Scarlet

coccinea geranium or Flowering Red
Flame of the shrub
wood

Bougainvillea Bougainvillea Plant - Magenta

glabra Climber (most
common),
Purple,
Orange,
Pink,
Yellow &
White

Largerstromia Queen Crape Umbrella or T- Pink,

speciosa Myrtle, Jarul, shaped Purple
Pride of India

Ficus Sacred fig, Umbrella or T-

reliogiosa Pepal shaped

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Tamarindus Tamarind Tree – Vase Yellow
indica tree shape flowers
with red
veins

Callistemon Crimson/ Tree - Round Red

lanceolatus lemon
bottlebrush or
Cheel

Acacia Earleaf, Tree Bright

auriculiformis Earpods yellow
wattle

Toona ciliata Red Cedar, Tree – Round

Indian Cedar

Butea Flame of the Deciduous tree Bright

monosperma Forest, – irregular orange –
Bastard teak vase shaped Red

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Tectona Teak Tree – Round Small
grandis white

Mimusopos Spanish Tree – Tiny

elengi cherry, Umbrella cream
Medlar, shaped colored -
Maulsari Fragrant

Jasminum Jasmine Shrub - White

augustifolium Climber colour -
Fragrant

Saraca Indica Ashoka tree Tree Yellowish

orange

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Codiaeum Crotons Plant
variegatum

Albizia Lebbek tree, Tree – White

lebbeck Flea tree, Irregular flowers –
Woman’s Fragrant
tongue

Duranta Golden Shrub - Light

erecta Dewdrop, flowering purple
Skyflower

Robinia False acacia, Tree White

pseudoacacia Black locust flowers –
Fragrant

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Ilex Holly Tree White
aquifolium and
Yellowish

Populus nigra Black poplar, Tree Reddish

cottonwood

Quercus Oak Tree

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Acer Sugar maple Tree
saccharine or rock maple

Bigonia Purple Shrub – Purplish

magnifica Bignonia, Flowering violet
Glow vine,
Purple vine

Wedelia Marigold Perennial herb Yellow

trilobata

Kleinhama Guest tree, Tree - Round Pink and

hospita Timanga tree off-white

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Hamelia Firebrush, Shrub - Red
patens Scarlet bush Flowering

Cardia Siricote, Short tree Orange

sebestina Orange red
Geiger tree

Gmelina Parrot’s beak Shrub - Yellow

philippensis Flowering exotic
flowers

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2.3 GARDEN TYPES

2.3.1 Egyptian Gardens

The gardens of ancient Egypt probably began as simple fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, irrigated
with water from the Nile. Gradually as the country became richer, they evolved into pleasure gardens,
with flowers, ponds and valleys of fruit and shade trees. Temples, palaces, and private residences had
their own gardens, and models of gardens were sometimes placed in tombs so their owners could
enjoy them in their afterlife.

The earliest gardens were composed of planting beds divided into squares by earthen walls, so the
water could soak into the soil rather than be lost. Gardens belonged to temples or the residences.
Secular gardens were located near the river or canals and were used mainly for growing vegetables.
Beginning during the New Kingdom, gardens were attached to more luxurious residences and were
sometimes enclosed by walls.

Ponds and pools were a common feature of the residential gardens of the wealthy and powerful of
ancient Egypt, and are shown in a number of tomb paintings. Sometimes, as in the garden of
Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahri, the pond was in the shape of a T, with one part of the T
connected to a river or canal. The water was usually hoisted into the pond from the river by hand, or
using a shadoof. Fish for food and ornament were raised in the ponds. They also were the home of
migrating water birds.

Shade was an important feature of the garden, provided by trees and by grapevines supported between
columns. Gardening in ancient Egypt was very hard work; gardens required constant irrigation, with
water carried or lifted by hand, weeding, and tending, including the artificial propagation of date
palms, which required great skill. Great effort was also needed to keep birds from eating the crops.

There are 4 main categories of Egyptian gardens:

• Palace Gardens
• Pleasure Gardens
• Temple Gardens
• Funeral Gardens

PALACE GARDENS

Palace gardens first appeared in Egypt just before the Middle Empire. These gardens were very large
in scale, and were laid out in geometric patterns. The ponds of palace gardens were enormous and
numerous. An image for Palace Garden of ancient Egypt is given in the image below;

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PLEASURE GARDENS

Beginning during the time of the New Kingdom, pleasure gardens became a common feature of
luxury residences. Gardens of that time had a standard design.
• They had a pond, usually rectangular, in the center, filled with colorful fish, with lotus blossoms in
the water and flowers around the edges.
• Around the pond were successive rows of trees, including sycamores, palms, and grenadiers,
alternating with flower beds.
• The edges of the water basins were sloping, with a stairway down one side so gardeners could
collect water for irrigation.
• The pond was often surrounded by walls or columns supporting grapevines. The walls and columns
were decorated with colorful paintings of people, animals, and plants such as the poppy and rose.

TEMPLE GARDENS

Temples often had extensive gardens. The hymns painted on the walls of tombs show that religious
ceremonies centered on the cycles of nature and the changing seasons. Temple gardens often had rows
of fig trees and sycamores (the tree sacred to the goddess Hathor), tamaris, willows, or palm trees.
Rows of trees sometimes stretched for several kilometers, connecting several temples. The temples
themselves had esplanades planted with trees. When rows of trees were planted far from the river,
wells had to be dug ten meters deep to reach water for irrigation.

Temple gardens often were the homes of animals sacred to the gods, such as the ibis and the baboon.
Flowers were part of all the religious ceremonies during the time of the god Amon. These gardens
also produced medicinal herbs and spices such as cumin, marjoram, anise, and coriander.

FUNERAL GARDENS

Funeral gardens were miniature versions of house gardens that were placed in tombs. They usually
had a small square house or pavilion with wooden columns, surrounded by a wall, Within the wall
was a basin surrounded by a row of trees. The house resembled the kiosks in gardens, where the
owner would play checkers or relax. The dead were traditionally surrounded by the objects they
would have enjoyed in life, and it was expected that they would continue to enjoy their gardens in
their afterlife.

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2.3.2 Chinese Gardens

The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. They
create an idealized miniature landscape, which is meant to express the harmony that should exist
between man and nature.

A typical Chinese garden is enclosed by walls and includes one or more ponds, rock works, trees and
flowers, and an assortment of halls and pavilions within the garden, connected by winding paths and
zig-zag galleries. By moving from structure to structure, visitors can view a series of carefully
composed scenes, unrolling like a scroll of landscape paintings.
Important features of Chinese Gardens are described below;

• A Chinese garden was not meant to be seen all at once; the plan of a classical Chinese garden
presented the visitor with a series of perfectly composed and framed glimpses of scenery; a
view of a pond, or of a rock, or a grove of bamboo, a blossoming tree, or a view of a distant
mountain peak or a pagoda. Moon Gate (given in the image below) is a circular opening in a
garden wall that acts as a pedestrian passageway, and a traditional architectural element in
Chinese gardens. Moon Gates have many different spiritual meanings for every piece of tile
on the gate and on the shape of it. The sloping roofs of the gate represent the half-moon of the
Chinese Summers and the tips of the tiles of the roof have talismans on the ends of them.

• Borrowed scenery is the principle of “incorporating background landscape into the

composition of a garden”. The image below shows the feature of borrowed scenery in
Chinese Gardens.

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 • Bridges are another common feature of the Chinese garden. Like the galleries, they are rarely
straight, but zigzag (called the Nine-turn bridges) or arch over the ponds, suggesting the
bridges of rural China, and providing view points of the garden. Bridges are often built from
rough timber or stone-slab raised pathways. Some gardens have brightly painted or lacquered
bridges, which give a lighthearted feeling to the garden.

• The classical garden was surrounded by a wall, usually painted white, which served as a pure
backdrop for the flowers and trees.

• A pond of water was usually located in the center. A pond or lake is the central element of a
Chinese garden. The main buildings are usually placed beside it, and pavilions surround the
lake to see it from different points of view. The garden usually has a pond for lotus flowers,
with a special pavilion for viewing them. There are usually goldfish in the pond, with
pavilions over the water for viewing them.

• The artificial mountain (jiashan) or rock garden is an integral element of Chinese classical
gardens. The mountain peak was a symbol of virtue, stability and endurance.

• Flowers and trees, along with water, rocks and architecture, are the fourth essential element of
the Chinese garden. They represent nature in its most vivid form, and contrast with the
straight lines of the architecture and the permanence, sharp edges and immobility of the rocks.
They change continually with the seasons, and provide both sounds (the sound of rain on
banana leaves or the wind in the bamboo) and aromas to please the visitor.

• Some gardens have a picturesque stone pavilion in the form of a boat, located in the pond.
These generally had three parts; a kiosk with winged gables at the front, a more intimate hall
in the center, and a two-story structure with a panoramic view of the pond at the rear.

• Gardens also often feature two-story towers, usually at the edge of the garden, with a lower
story made of stone and a whitewashed upper story, two-thirds the height of the ground floor,
which provided a view from above of certain parts of the garden or the distant scenery.

• Gardens contain small enclosed court courtyards, offering quiet and solitude for meditation,
painting, drinking tea, or playing on the cithare.

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 • Galleries (lang) are narrow covered corridors which connect the buildings, protect the visitors
from the rain and sun, and also help divide the garden into different sections. These galleries
are rarely straight; they zigzag or are serpentine, following the wall of the garden, the edge of
the pond, or climbing the hill of the rock garden. They have small windows, sometimes round
or in odd geometric shapes, to give glimpses of the garden or scenery to those passing
through.

2.3.3 Japanese Gardens

Japanese gardens are traditional gardens erode designers are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and
philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and
worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden designers to suggest an ancient and
faraway natural landscape, and to express the fragility of existence as well as time's unstoppable
advance.

Japanese witnessed the gardens that were being built in China and brought many of the Chinese
gardening techniques and styles back to Japan. So, Japanese garden are inspired by Chinese gardens.
Japanese gardens have their roots in the Japanese religion of Shinto, with its story of the creation of
eight perfect islands, and of the shinchi, the lakes of the gods. Japanese gardens were also strongly
influenced by the Chinese philosophy of Daoism and Amida Buddhism, imported from China.

Traditional Japanese gardens can be categorized into three types: tsukiyama (hill gardens), karesansui
(dry gardens) and chaniwa gardens (tea gardens). "The two main principles incorporated in a
Japanese garden are scaled reduction and symbolization".

Important elements of Japanese Gardens are discussed below;

• Japanese gardens always have water, either a pond or stream, or, in the dry rock garden, represented
by white sand. In Buddhist symbolism, water and stone are the yin and yang, two opposites that
complement and complete each other. A traditional garden will usually have an irregular-shaped
pond or, in larger gardens, two or more ponds connected by a channel or stream, and a cascade, a
miniature version of Japan's famous mountain waterfalls.

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• Rock, sand and gravel are an essential feature of the Japanese garden. A vertical rock may represent
Mount Horai, the legendary home of the Eight Immortals, or Mount Sumeru of Buddhist teaching,
or a carp jumping from the water. A flat rock might represent the earth. Sand or gravel can represent
a beach, or a flowing river (as in the image below).

• Bridges could be made of stone (ishibashi), or of wood, or made of logs with earth on top, covered
with moss (dobashi); they could be either arched (soribashi) or flat (hirabashi). Sometimes if they
were part of a temple garden, they were painted red, following the Chinese tradition, but for the
most part they were unpainted.
• Stone Lantern - In its complete and original form, a dai-doro, like the pagoda, represents the five
elements of Buddhist cosmology. The piece touching the ground represents chi, the earth; the next
section represents sui, or water; ka or fire, is represented by the section encasing the lantern's light
or flame, while fū (air) and kū (void or spirit) are represented by the last two sections, top-most and
pointing towards the sky. The segments express the idea that after death our physical bodies will go
back to their original, elemental form.

• Stone water basins were originally placed in gardens for visitors to wash their hands and mouth
before the tea ceremony. The water is provided to the basin by a bamboo pipe, or kakei, and they
usually have a wooden ladle for drinking the water. In tea gardens, the basin was placed low to the
ground, so the drinker had to bend over to get his water.

• Asymmetry - Japanese gardens are not laid on straight axes, or with a single feature dominating the
view. Buildings and garden features are usually placed to be seen from a diagonal, and are carefully
composed into scenes that contrast right angles, such as buildings with natural features, and vertical
features, such as rocks, bamboo or trees, with horizontal features, such as water.

Difference between Japanese gardens and Chinese gardens is discussed below;

Architecture. Chinese gardens have buildings in the center of the garden, occupying a large part of
the garden space. The buildings are placed next to or over the central body of water. The garden
buildings are very elaborate, with much architectural decoration. In later Japanese gardens, the
buildings are well apart from the body of water, and the buildings are simple, with very little
ornament. The architecture in a Japanese garden is largely or partly concealed.

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Viewpoint. Chinese gardens are designed to be seen from the inside, from the buildings, galleries and
pavilions in the center of the garden. Japanese gardens are designed to be seen from the outside, as in
the Japanese rock garden or zen garden; or from a path winding through the garden.

Use of rocks. In a Chinese garden, particularly in the Ming dynasty, rocks were selected for their
extraordinary shapes or resemblance to animals or mountains, and used for dramatic effect. They were
often the stars and center pieces of the garden. In later Japanese gardens, rocks were smaller and
placed in more natural arrangements. integrated into the garden.

Marine landscapes. Chinese gardens were inspired by Chinese inland landscapes, particularly
Chinese lakes and mountains, while Japanese gardens often use miniaturized scenery from the
Japanese coast. Japanese gardens frequently include white sand or pebble beaches and rocks which
seem to have been worn by the waves and tide, which rarely appear in Chinese gardens.

2.3.4 English Gardens

English Landscape garden emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe,
replacing the more formal, symmetrical “jardin à la française” of the 17th century as the principal
gardening style of Europe. The English garden presented an idealized view of nature. This new style
was a revolt against symmetry and an attempt to create natural and picturesque view.
Important features of English Gardens are listed below;

• The English garden usually included a lake or pond which acts as mirror that reflect surrounding.
These lakes were artificial but were designed in a way that they looked like natural lakes.

• English Gardens would contain sweeps of gently rolling lawns set against groves of trees. Rolling
lawns- topography creates surprise around mound and niche. While small cluster of trees are spread
throughout the landscape.

• Sculptures are large, detailed and intricately designed; which are strategically placed to provide
views from a distance.

• Recreations of classical temples, grottoes, tea-houses, belvederes, pavilions, sham ruins, Gothic
ruins, bridges, and other picturesque architecture, designed to recreate an idyllic pastoral landscape.

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• The English landscape garden was centred on the English country house.

• Always present is a pond or small lake with a pier or bridge. Overlooking the pond is a round or
hexagonal pavilion, often in the shape of a monopteros, a Roman temple.

2.3.5 French Gardens

The French formal garden, also called the “jardin à la française” is a style of garden based on
symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitom is generally considered to be the
Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century. The jardin à la française was inspired by the
Italian Renaissance Garden at the beginning of the 16th century. The principal reason for the
existence of a garden is the esthetic pleasure which it gives to the spectator.

The form of the French garden was largely fixed by the middle of the 17th century. It had the
following elements, which became typical of the formal French garden:

• A geometric plan using the recent discoveries of that time; perspective and optics

• A terrace overlooking the garden, allowing the visitor to see all at once the entire garden.

• All vegetation is constrained and directed to demonstrate the mastery of man over nature. Trees
are planted in straight lines and carefully trimmed, and their tops are trimmed at a set height

• The residence serves as the central point of the garden and its central ornament. No trees are
planted close to the house; rather, the house is set apart by low parterres and trimmed bushes.

• A central axis, or perspective, perpendicular to the facade of the house, on the side opposite the
front entrance. The axis extends either all the way to the horizon (versailles) or to piece of
statuary or architecture (vaux-le-vicomte). The axis faces either south (vaux-le-vicomte,
meudon) or east–west (tuileries, clagny, trianon, sceaux). The principal axis is composed of a
lawn, or a basin of water, bordered by trees. The principal axis is crossed by one or more
perpendicular perspectives and alleys

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 • The most elaborate parterres, or planting beds, in the shape of squares, ovals, circles or scrolls,
are placed in a regular and geometric order close to the house, to complement the architecture
and to be seen from above from the reception rooms of the house.

• The parterres near the residence are filled with broderies, designs created with low boxwood to
resemble the patterns of a carpet, and given a polychrome effect by plantings of flowers, or by
colored brick, gravel or sand.

• Farther from the house, the broderies are replaced with simpler parterres, filled with grass, and
often containing fountains or basins of water. Beyond these, small carefully created groves of
trees serve as an intermediary between the formal garden and the masses of trees of the park.
"the perfect place for a stroll, these spaces present alleys, stars, circles, theaters of greenery,
galleries, spaces for balls and for festivities".

• Bodies of water (canals, basins) serve as mirrors, doubling the size of the house or the trees.

• The garden is animated with jeux d'eau and pieces of sculpture, usually on mythological
themes, which either underline or punctuate the perspectives, and mark the intersections of the
axes, and by moving water in the form of cascades and fountains.

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2.3.6 Italian Gardens

The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at
villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the
pleasure of the view of the garden and the landscape beyond, for contemplation, and for the
enjoyment of the sights, sounds and smells of the garden itself.

• Italian gardens are distinguished by order, neatness, geometry and symmetry.

• One of the major elements of this style is water. Availability of water in one form or another is
necessary.

• Ideal classic gardens were grown on sloping hill sides and had several different levels and
terraces.

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 • Sculpture were often used in fountains. Most commonly used statues were of gods and hero.

• Fruit bearing trees were often used to make garden rich and colorful.

• To create shade in hot summers pergola were used. These pergolas had climbing plants and
vines draping over trellis. In these pergolas garden furniture was provided to rest and enjoy
garden.

2.3.7 Spanish/ Moorish Gardens

A traditional Spanish garden is a style of garden or designed landscape developed in historic Spain,
incorporating principles and elements of garden design from precedents in ancient Persian gardens,
Roman gardens and Islamic gardens. Spanish gardens are primarily rectangular. These gardens
although being symmetrical are designed in a non-axial layout.

Paradise garden is interpreted with a central cross axis, in the four cardinal directions, with long ponds
or water channels (a rill or stylized qanat) where water reflects and flows, set in a walled courtyard.
The remaining quadrants often had fruit trees and fragrant plants. Thus, characteristic sensory
experiences are refreshing coolness, humidity, sounds, greenery, and fragrance.

Columns, arches and trellis work are used to emphasis the design. This type of garden is compatible
with the Spanish climate of sun and heat.

Provisions for shade are given with the use of arcades, pergolas, trellising, and garden pavilions.

Ceramic elements and bright colored tiles are often used: in water features; for structural,
decorative, and seating elements; and as paving; with solid fields, embellishments and accents; and in
pottery.

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Trees are an important part of Moorish landscape the provide both shade from hot sun and edible
fruits.

Most prominent example of Moorish Landscape: Palace of Alhambra is a palace and fortress
complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. The features of garden at Alhambra Palace and
Fortress Complex

• In the center of the court is the Fountain of the Lions, an alabaster basin supported by the
figures of twelve lions in white marble, not designed with sculptural accuracy but as symbols
of strength, power, and sovereignty. Each hour one lion would produce water from its mouth.
At the edge of the great fountain there is a poem written by Ibn Zamrak. This praises the
beauty of the fountain and the power of the lions, but it also describes their ingenious hydraulic
systems and how they actually worked, which baffled all those who saw them.

• There is a fountain in the middle of Hall of the Abencerrajes, and the roof – a dome
honeycombed with tiny cells, all different, and said to number 5000 – is an example of the
"stalactite vaulting" of the Moors.

• Patio de los Arrayane (Court of the Myrtles) has pool. The birka (pool) helped to cool the
palace and acted as a symbol of power. Because water was usually in short supply, the
technology required to keep these pools full was expensive and difficult. This court is 42 m
(140 ft) long by 22 m (74 ft) broad, and in the center, there is a large pond set in the marble
pavement, full of goldfish, and with myrtles growing along its sides. There are galleries on the
north and south sides; the southern gallery is 7 m (23 ft) high and supported by a marble
colonnade. Underneath it, to the right, was the principal entrance, and over it is three windows
with arches and miniature pillars. From this court, the walls of the Torre de Comares are
seen rising over the roof to the north and reflected in the pond.

• Daraxa's Garden (Jardines de Daraxa) was also called Garden of the Orange Trees (Jardín de
los Naranjos) and Garden of the Marbles (Jardín de los Mármoles). In the garden there are
cypresses, acacias, orange trees and box bushes surrounding the big central marble fountain.
The fountain's border is decorated with a poem, like the fountain of the Patio of the
Lions (Patio de los Leones), and it was made in 1626 with the big basin that was in the Patio of
the Gilded Room (Patio del Cuarto Dorado).

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2.3.8 Persian Gardens

Persian gardens may have originated as early as 4000 BC.

Elements of Persian gardens are discussed below;

• Sunlight and its effects were an important factor of structural design in Persian gardens. Textures
and shapes were specifically chosen to harness the light.

• Dry heat makes shade important in gardens, which would be nearly unusable without it. Trees
and trellises largely feature Biotic shade; pavilions and walls are also structurally prominent in
blocking the sun. Persian gardens were surrounded by walls on all sides to prevent sand from
entering garden.

• The heat also makes water important, both in the design and maintenance of the garden. Irrigation
may be required, and may be provided via a form of tunnel called a qanat, that transports water
from a local aquifer. Well-like structures then connect to the qanat, enabling the drawing of water.
Alternatively, an animal-driven Persian well would draw water to the surface. Water fountains were
also used as important feature to elevate aesthetic.

• Trees were often planted in a ditch called a juy, which prevented water evaporation and allowed the
water quick access to the tree roots. There is a strong emphasis on flowers in bed and pots.

• Garden was designed in symmetrical manner where the layout, structure, tree, shrubs and flowers
were all in symmetry. With square and rectangle being the most prominent shape. Most significant
elements usually water channels are situated along the spine of the garden.

• The Persian style often attempts to integrate indoors with outdoors through the connection of a
surrounding garden with an inner courtyard. Designers often place architectural elements such
as vaulted arches between the outer and interior areas to open up the divide between them.

Types of Persian gardens are discussed below;

Hayat

Publicly, it is a classical Persian layout with heavy emphasis on aesthetics over function. Man-made
structures in the garden are particularly important, with arches and pools (which may be used to
bathe). The ground is often covered in gravel flagged with stone. Plantings are typically very simple -
such as a line of trees, which also provide shade.

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Privately, these gardens are often pool-centered and, again, structural. The pool serves as a focus and
source of humidity for the surrounding atmosphere. There are few plants, often due to the limited
water available in urban areas.

Meidān

This is a public, formal garden that puts more emphasis on the biotic element than the hayāt and that
minimizes structure. Plants range from trees, to shrubs, to bedding plants, to grasses. Again, there are
elements such as a pool and gravel pathways which divide the lawn. When structures are used, they
are often built, as in the case of pavilions, to provide shade.

Char Bāgh

These gardens are private and formal. The basic structure consists of four quadrants divided by
waterways or pathways. Based on the description of paradise as a garden of eternity with four rivers -
water, milk, wine and honey. Traditionally, the rich used such gardens in work-related functions (such
as entertaining ambassadors). These gardens usually square or rectangle in shape balance structure
with greenery, with the plants often around the periphery of a pool and path-based structure.

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2.3.9 Mughal Gardens

Mughal gardens are a type of gardens built by the Mughals. This style was influenced by the Persian
gardens particularly the Char-bagh structure, which is intended to create a representation of an earthly
utopia in which humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature.

• Mughal landscape has unified garden with the structure and strong focal point created with
structure. Vegetation in the central zone is low height while large height vegetation at the boundary
for filtering sand.

• Significant use of rectilinear layout is made within the walled enclosures. These gardens are
symmetric and strong central axis with mirror transverse axis. Some of the typical features include
pools, fountains and canals inside the gardens. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.

• Mughal gardens design derives primarily from the medieval Islamic garden. These gardens are
usually walled off and protected from the outside world; within, its design was rigidly formal, and
its inner space was filled with those elements that man finds most pleasing in nature. Its essential
features included the layout of ‘Char Bagh’ and water channels.

• Running water (perhaps the most important element) and a pool to reflect the beauties of sky and
garden. Fountain and running water are key features of Mughal garden design. Another important
feature is Stone ‘Chadar’ - it is a stone or marble chute: usually textured, creating bounces or
ripples in the waterfall: if not textured it contains zigzag patterns made from different colour stone.
For purpose of resting Chabutra is designed in garden. Chabutra is a raised platform in a garden,
meant for sitting, with water flowing around or beneath it.

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• Trees of various sorts, some to provide shade merely, and others to produce fruits; flowers, colorful
and sweet-smelling; grass, usually growing wild under the trees; birds to fill the garden with song;
the whole is cooled by a pleasant breeze. Also, geometric symbols and geometric ornamentation are
incorporated with hedges and flooring plants.

• Baradari is a building or pavilion with 12 doors designed to allow free flow of air. The structure
has 3 doorways on every side of square shaped structure. These buildings were particularly used for
dance performances.

There ae mainly four types of Mughal Gardens;

1. Tomb Garden
2. Terrace Garden
3. Plain Garden
4. Palace Garden

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2.3.10 Glossary of Terms – Garden Types

Arboretum: An arboretum in a general sense is a botanical

collection composed exclusively of trees. More commonly a
modern arboretum is a botanical garden containing living
collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for
scientific study. An arboretum specializing in growing
conifers is known as a pinetum. Other specialist arboreta
include saliceta (willows), populeta (poplar), and querceta
(oaks).
Aquascaping: Aquascaping is the craft of arranging aquatic
plants, as well as rocks and stones, in an aesthetically pleasing
manner within an aquarium—simply put; gardening under
water. Types of Aquascaping include; Dutch Style (employs a
lush arrangement with multiple types of plants having diverse
leaf colours, sizes, and textures). A contrasting approach is the
"nature aquarium" or Japanese style (asymmetrical
arrangement of masses of relatively few species of plants)
Bog Garden: A bog garden employs permanently moist (but
not waterlogged) soil to create a habitat for plants and
creatures which thrive in such conditions. It may exploit
existing poor drainage in the garden, or it may be artificially
created using pond liners or other materials to trap water in
the area. Any such structure must allow a small amount
of seepage to prevent the water stagnating.
Bosquet: In the French formal garden, a bosquet is a formal
plantation of trees, at least five of identical species planted as
a quincunx (A geometric pattern consisting of five points
arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or
rectangle and a fifth at its centre), or set in strict regularity as
to rank and file, so that the trunks line up as one passes along
either face.
Char Bagh: Charbagh (meaning "four gardens") is a Persian
and Mughal quadrilateral garden layout based on the four
gardens of Paradise mentioned in the Qur'an. The quadrilateral
garden is divided by walkways or flowing water channels into
four smaller parts.

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2.4 CONTOURS

2.4.1 Terminology

Contour Lines: Imaginary lines joining all the points of equal elevation or altitude above mean sea
level. They are also called “level lines”.
Contour Elevation: Height of the contour from mean sea level.
Contour Interval: A contour interval is the vertical distance or difference in elevation between
contour lines.
Index Contours: Index contours are bold or thicker lines that appear at every fifth contour line.
Mean Sea Level: Mean sea level (MSL) (often shortened to sea level) is an average level of the
surface of one or more of Earth's bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be
measured.
Topographic Map: In modern mapping, a topographic map is a type of map characterized by large-
scale detail and quantitative representation of relief, usually using contour lines, but historically using
a variety of methods.
Following are the characteristics of contour lines in surveying for reading contour maps:

• No two lines meet on intersect each other in any case.

• All lines close themselves within the map boundaries or outside it.
• If the contour lines are very close to each other, this indicates steep slope.
• If the contour lines are at very large distance to each other, this indicates a gentle slope.
• If the closed lines have higher elevation in the center then it represents the hill or mountain.
• If the closed line has increasing elevation as we move away, then it represents a pond or a
depression in the ground profile.
• In a single contour line, at any point the elevation is same.
2.4.2 Types of Landform

We know that all the topographical features show varying degrees of slopes. For example, a flat plain
exhibits gentle slopes whereas cliffs and gorges are associated with the steep slopes. Similarly, valleys
and mountain ranges are also characterized by the varying degree of slopes, i.e. steep to gentle.
Hence, the spacing of contours is significant since it indicates the slope.
Gentle Slope: When the degree or angle of slope of a feature is low and the contours are at larger
spacing, they indicate gentle slope. (See Fig: 2.4.1)
Steep Slope: When the degree or angle of slope of a feature is high and the contours are closely
spaced, they indicate steep slope. (See Fig: 2.4.1)
Concave Slope: A terrain feature that is rounded inward like the inside of a bowl, i.e. goes from
steeper to less steep. (See Fig: 2.4.2)
Convex Slope: A terrain feature that is curved or rounded like the exterior of a sphere or circle i.e.
goes from less steep to steeper. (See Fig: 2.4.3)
Conical Hill: It rises almost uniformly from the surrounding land. A conical hill with uniform slope
and narrow top is represented by concentric contours spaced almost at regular interval. (See Fig:
2.4.4)

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Plateau: A widely stretched flat–topped high land, with relatively steeper slopes, rising above the
adjoining plain or sea is called a plateau. The contour lines representing a plateau are normally close
spaced at the margins with the innermost contour showing wide gap between its two sides. (See Fig:
2.4.5)

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Valley: A geomorphic feature lying between two hills or ridges and formed as a result of the lateral
erosion by a river or a glacier is called a valley. (See Fig: 2.4.6)
Cliffs: It is a very steep or almost perpendicular face of landform. On a map, a cliff may be identified
by the way the contours run very close to one another, ultimately merging into one. (See Fig: 2.4.7)
Spur: A tongue of land, projecting from higher ground into the lower is called a spur. It is also
represented by V- shaped contours but in the reverse manner. The arms of the V point to the higher
ground and the apex of ‘V’ to the lower ones. (See Fig: 2.4.8)

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Waterfall: A sudden and more or less perpendicular descent of water from a considerable height in
the bed of a river is called a waterfall. Sometimes, a waterfall succeeds or precedes with a cascading
stream forming rapids upstream or downstream of a waterfall. The contours representing a waterfall
merge into one another while crossing a river stream and the rapids are shown by relatively distant
contour lines on a map.
Mountain Pass: A pass is a gap, or break, in high, rugged terrain such as a mountain ridge. A pass
forms when a glacier or stream erodes, or wears away, the land between areas of higher terrain.
Gorge: In high altitudes, gorges form in the areas where the vertical erosion by river is more
prominent than the lateral erosion. They are deep and narrow river valleys with very steep sides. A
gorge is represented by very closely-spaced contour lines on a map with the innermost contour
showing small gap between its two sides. (See Fig: 2.4.9)
Ridge: A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or
hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. (See Fig: 2.4.10)
Closed depression and basin: Depression is a landform sunken or depressed below the surrounding
area. (See Fig: 2.4.11)

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Hills and Knobes: A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a
distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to the particular section
of flat terrain without a massive summit.
Sink Holes: A sinkhole, also known as a cenote, sink, sink-hole, swallet, swallow hole, or doline (the
different terms for sinkholes are often used interchangeably), is a depression or hole in the ground
caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer.
Gully: A gully is a landform created by running water, eroding sharply into soil, typically on a
hillside.
Draw: Draw or re-entrant is a train feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in
between them.
Saddle: The saddle between two hills is the region surrounding the highest point of the lowest point
on the line tracing the drainage divide connecting the peaks. (See Fig: 2.4.12)

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Example 2.5.1:
Question: Identify the land marked 1-10 featured in contour map

Answer: Below are the names for landforms marked 1 to 10:

1. Conical hill 6. Draw
2. Valley 7. Spur
3. Ridge 8. Cliff
4. Saddle 9. Cut
5. Depression 10. Fill

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2.4.3 Slope Calculations from Contour Lines

Slope is the measure of steepness or the degree of inclination of a feature relative to the horizontal
plane. The slope is obtained by dividing the rise over run. Slope is typically expressed as a
percentage, an angle or a ratio.
Rise: The rise is the difference in elevation between two points.
Rise = change in elevation = top (Point A elevation) minus bottom (Point B elevation)
Run: Run = Actual distance from point A to B
Slope: Slope = Rise / Run
Contour Interval: Contour Interval = Rise / No. of contour lines – 1

Example 2.5.2:

Question: A site has a uniform slope of 6%. The site map has seven contour lines with elevation of
the highest contour +53 meters. If the distance between the midpoints of the highest and lowest
contours is 700 meters, then the contour interval in meters is ______. (GATE 2007)

Solution:
Uniform slope = 6%
Contour line = 7
Distance between the midpoints of the highest and lowest contour = 700 m
Highest contour = +53m
Slope = Rise / Run x 100
Rise = Slope x Run/100
Rise = 6 x 700 /100
Rise = 42
Contour Interval = Rise / (Contour Lines - 1)
Contour Interval = 42 / 6
Contour Interval = 7

Example 2.5.3:

Question: The scale of a contour map is 1:10,000 and the contour interval is 5m. Distance between
two given points on the map is 2cm and the elevation difference between two given points is 10 m.
(GATE 2013)

a) The actual distance between the two given points in meter would be ………

b) The slope between two given points in percentage is ………

Solution: Scale of map = 1:10,000

Contour Interval = 5m
Distance between two given points = 2cm = 0.02m
Elevation difference (Rise) = 10m

a) Actual distance between two given points = 0.02 x 10000 = 200m

b) Slope = Rise / Run x 100

Slope = 10 / 200 x 100
Slope = 5%

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2.5 CALCULATION OF SURFACE RUNOFF

Using the runoff coefficient, scientists and hydrologists can calculate how much water passes over a
given area per second. There are two ways you can find the runoff coefficient. One is by using the
Rational Method, and the other is by using a runoff coefficient table. The Rational Method is used for
areas less than 50 acres. If the area you are assessing is more than 50 acres, you will have to use a
coefficient table.
It is important for flood control channel construction and for possible flood zone hazard delineation.
A high runoff coefficient (C) value may indicate flash flooding areas during storms as water moves
fast overland on its ways to a river channel or a valley floor.

Runoff:

Runoff is precipitation that did not get (infiltrated) absorbed into the soil, or did not evaporate, and
therefore, made its way from ground surface into places that collect water.

The factors affecting the quantity of run-off are:

1. Area of catchment
2. Slope and shape of catchment area
3. Porosity of the soil
4. Initial state of catchment area with respect to wetness
5. Intensity and duration of rainfall
6. Atmospheric temperature and humidity

Drainage Basin/ Catchment Area:

A drainage basin is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet,
such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. The drainage basin includes all the surface water
from rain runoff, snowmelt, and nearby streams that run downslope towards the shared outlet, as well
as the groundwater underneath the earth's surface. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins
at lower elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins, which in turn drain into
another common outlet. Other terms for drainage basin are catchment area, catchment basin, drainage
area, river basin, water basin.

Intensity of Rainfall:

The intensity of rainfall is a measure of the amount of rain that falls over time. The intensity of rain is
usually measured in the height of the water layer covering the ground in a period of time. It means
that if the rain stays where it falls, it would form a layer of a certain height.

Rainfall intensity is defined as the ratio of the total amount of rain (rainfall depth) falling during a
given period to the duration of the period It is expressed in depth units per unit time, usually as mm
per hour (mm/h). A rain gauge (also known as udometer, pluviometer, or an ombrometer) is the
instrument used to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation (rainfall in mm) over a
predefined period of time; which is rainfall intensity.

Runoff Coefficient:

The total precipitation falling on any area is dispersed as percolation, evaporation, storage in ponds or
reservoir and surface runoff. The runoff coefficient can be defined as a fraction, which is multiplied

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with the quantity of total rainfall to determine the quantity of rain water, which will reach the
collection area.

The runoff coefficient depends upon the:

• Porosity of soil cover
• Wetness
• Ground cover
• Slope of surface

Average runoff coefficient is weighted average of runoff coefficient of multiple surfaces with
different runoff coefficient. Average runoff coefficient, C is calculated as;

(𝐶1 ∗ 𝐴1 ) + (𝐶2 ∗ 𝐴2 ) + (𝐶3 ∗ 𝐴3 ) + ⋯ + (𝐶𝑛 ∗ 𝐴𝑛 )

𝐶=
(𝐴1 + 𝐴2 + 𝐴3 + ⋯ + 𝐴𝑛 )

Example 2.5.1:

Question: A housing society of 10 hectare comprises 40% parking made of asphalt, 40% paved area
and 20% parks. Runoff coefficients of asphalt, paved area and parks are 0.9, 0.7 and 0.1 respectively.
The composite runoff coefficient for the drainage basin is ……….

Solution: Total Area = 10 hectare

Parking Area = 40% = 10 x (40/100) = 4 hectare
Paved Area = 40% = 10 x (40/100) = 4 hectare
Parks Area = 20% = 10 x (20/100) = 2 hectare

(𝐶1 ∗ 𝐴1 ) + (𝐶2 ∗ 𝐴2 ) + (𝐶3 ∗ 𝐴3 ) + ⋯ + (𝐶𝑛 ∗ 𝐴𝑛 )

𝐶=
(𝐴1 + 𝐴2 + 𝐴3 + ⋯ + 𝐴𝑛 )

(4 ∗ 0.9) + (4 ∗ 0.7) + (2 ∗ 0.1)

=> 𝐶 =
10

C = 0.416

Estimation of Quantity of Storm Water:

Quantity of Strom Water (using Rational method) is given by; (Intensity of rainfall) x (Coefficient of
runoff) x (Area of catchment)

𝑄 =𝐶∗𝑖∗𝐴

Q = runoff flow rate at the design point (volume/time)

i = precipitation intensity (length/time)
A = area contributing to runoff at the design point

Quantity of Storm water is used to estimate water harvesting potential as well.

Example 2.5.2:

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Question: A plot 100m2 filled with grass experiences rainfall of 1000mm/year. The run-off
coefficient of grass is 0.3. The estimated quantity of runoff in cubic meter/year for the entire plot area
is…….

Solution:
Area = 100 m2
Intensity of rain = 1000 mm/year = 1 m/year
Runoff Coefficient = 0.3
Q = CiA
Q = 0.3 x 1m/year x 100m2
Q = 30 m3/year

Example 2.5.3:

Question: A landscape garden with irregular profile and minor undulation, measuring 35000m 2, has a
total surface area covered with 20% brick paving, 15% cement concrete paving and rest with grass.
The peak intensity of rainfall in that region is 70mm/hr. The coefficient of runoff for brick paving,
cement concrete paving and grass is 0.8, 0.9 and 0.5 respectively. The estimated quantity of runoff in
cubic meter/hr for entire garden area is ….. (GATE 2015)

Solution:
Brick paving = 20%
Cement Concrete paving = 15%
Grass cover = 65%
Run-off Coefficient of brick = 0.8
Run-off Coefficient of concrete = 0.9
Run-off Coefficient of grass cover = 0.5
Average Runoff Coefficient = (0.8 x 0.2) + (0.9 x 0.15) + (0.5 x 0.65) = 0.16 + 0.135 + 0.325 = 0.62
Catchment Basin, A = 35000m2
Rainfall Intensity, I = 70mm/hr = 0.07m/hr
Average Run-off Coefficient, C = 0.62
Q = C*i*A
Q = 35000 x 0.07 x 0.62
Q = 1519m3/hr

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2.6 IMPORTANT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS & THEIR WORKS

ANDRE LE NOTRE

André Le Nôtre was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of
France. Most notably, he was the landscape architect who designed the park of the Palace of
Versailles, and his work represents the height of the French formal garden style.

Prior to working on Versailles, Le Nôtre worked on the park at Vaux-le-Vicomte. His other works
include the design of gardens and parks at Chantilly, Fontainebleau, Saint-Cloud and Saint-Germain.
His contribution to planning was also significant: at the Tuileries he extended the westward vista,
which later became the avenue of the Champs-Élysées and comprise the Axe historique.

Important gardens designed by André Le Nôtre

1. Gardens of the Palace of 2. Gardens of the Palace of 3. Gardens of the Palace of

Versailles Vaux-le-Vicomte Saint-Germain-en-Laye

FREDERIC LAW OLMSTED

Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect,
journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is popularly considered to be the “father of
American landscape architecture”.

Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his senior partner Calvert
Vaux. One of Olmstead's early works included designing the Walnut Hill Park in New Britain,
Connecticut. His later efforts included Central Park in New York City, Prospect Park in Brooklyn,
New York and Cadwalader Park in Trenton.

Other projects that Olmsted was involved in include the country's first and oldest coordinated system
of public parks and parkways in Buffalo, New York; the country's oldest state park, the Niagara
Reservation in Niagara Falls, New York; one of the first planned communities in the United States,
Riverside, Illinois; Mount Royal Park in Montreal, Quebec; the Institute of Living in Hartford,
Connecticut; the Emerald Necklace in Boston, Massachusetts; Highland Park in Rochester, New
York; Belle Isle Park, in the Detroit River for Detroit, Michigan; the Grand Necklace of Parks in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cherokee Park and entire parks and parkway system in Louisville, Kentucky;
the 735-acre (297 ha) Forest Park in Springfield, Massachusetts, featuring America's first public
"wading pool”.

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Important gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted

1. Central Park, Manhattan, New 2. Jackson Park, Chicago 3. Eastern Parkway,

York (Water oriented design) Brooklyn, New York

LANCELOT ‘CAPIBILITY’ BROWN

Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great
English 18th-century artists to be accorded his due" and "England's greatest gardener".

It is estimated that Brown was responsible for over 170 gardens surrounding the finest country houses
and estates in Britain. His work still endures at Belvoir Castle, Croome Court (where he also designed
the house), Blenheim Palace, Warwick Castle, Harewood House, Highclere Castle, Appuldurcombe
House, Milton Abbey (and nearby Milton Abbas village), and in traces at Kew Gardens and many
other locations.

Important gardens designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown

1. Landscape design – 2. Kew Gardens, England 3. Sheffield Park Garden,

Badminton House, England England

WILLIAM KENT

William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an eminent English architect, landscape architect, painter
and furniture designer of the early 18th century.

Kent introduced the Palladian style of architecture into England with the villa at Chiswick House, and
also originated the 'natural' style of gardening known as the English landscape garden at Chiswick,
Stowe House in Buckinghamshire, and Rousham House in Oxfordshire.

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Important gardens designed by William Kent

1. Cascade in gardens of 2. Claremont Garden, England 3. Shotover House, England;

Chiswick House (Obelisk, Octagonal & Gothic
temples)

SYDNEY PERCY-LANCASTER

Percy-Lancaster stayed on and made India his home. In 1947, he was the last Englishman to hold the
post of Superintendent of Horticultural Operations, Government of India. Amongst his prominent
design is Raj Ghat (Memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi).

Images below show the landscape design of Raj Ghat;

JOSEPH PAXTON

Sir Joseph Paxton was an English gardener, architect and Member of Parliament, best known for
designing the Crystal Palace.

Important works by Joseph Paxton

1. The Crystal Palace, London 2. Emperor Fountain at

(Great Exhibition of 1851); Chatsworth House, England
Pre-fabricated glass and cast- (William Kent was appointed
iron structure Head Gardner – Chatsworth
House)

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RAVINDER BHAN

Ravindra Bhan was a pioneer in the field of landscape architecture in India. Some of Ravindra Bhan's
prominent projects include Shakti Sthala- a Memorial of Indira Gandhi, New Delhi; Landscaping of
Hotel Mughal Sheraton, Agra; Landscaping of Golden Temple Corridors, Amritsar; Landscaping of
ISKCON Temple, New Delhi; Landscaping of Tara Apartments, New Delhi; Site Development of
Ayodhya Ghats, Faizabad; Model Colony Lake (Lakaki), Pune; Children's Park, India Gate, New
Delhi; Landscaping of Chambal Chemicals and Fertilizers, Kota; Landscaping of Guest House,
Parwanoo; Prashant Bhushan's House, Palampur; Pahalgam Hotel, Pahalgam; Andrews Ganj
Housing, New Delhi, etc.

Important works by Ravinder Bhan

1. Shakti Sthal, Delhi (Indira 2. Landscape design of Tara 3. Model Colony Lake, Pune
Gandhi Memorial) Apartments, Delhi

MOHAMMAD SHAHEER

Mohammad Shaheer was a Delhi based prominent Indian landscape architect. Amongst his projects,
his work at Sanskriti Kendra, Delhi, is well known; also interesting are the projects for the restoration
of the gardens of Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi (2001) and the restoration of the Baghe-Babur in Kabul
(2006). One of Dr. Shaheer's final projects was the garden at Sunder Nursery in Delhi.

Important works by Mohammad Shaheer

1. Landscape design of Sankriti 2. Restoration of gardens at 3. Restoration of Baghe-Babur,

Kendra, Delhi Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi Kabul, Afghanistan

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 WHAT NEXT

1. Go to the Career Avenues Online Tests Platform.

2. Go to Practice Tests. Search for tests under Urban Design .

3. Answer Tests: Practice Tests: Landscape Design: Test 1, 2, 3 and 4.

4. Go to GATE Questions. Search for tests under Urban Design.

5. Answer Tests: GATE Questions: Landscape Design Questions.

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 CHAPTER 3: DEVELOPMENT
CONTROLS

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WEIGHTAGE & TIPS (DEVELOPMENT CONTROLS)
Please refer to the weightage of this topic (Chapter 3: Development Controls of Section 5) from
GATE 2012 to GATE 2020 tabulated below;
GATE YEAR WEIGHTAGE (Marks)
2020 1
2019 2
2018 5
2017 2
2016 3
2015 2
2014 1
2013 3
2012 0
Average 2 Marks

Students are advised to remember the following points, before you start studying this Chapter:

• The most important concept of this Chapter is understanding the concept of “FLOOR AREA
RATIO” or FAR. Almost every year there is two marks numerical question in GATE Exam
based on the concept of FAR.

• The important standards regarding building byelaws are to be remembered. Focus should be
on standards given in National Building Code 2016 (NBC 2016)

• Important standards based on NBC are given in this Chapter for your study. For further study,
you can refer to NBC 2016; Volume 1; Part 3 – Development Control Rules and General
Building Requirements.

• For One-mark theory questions in this Chapter, focus should be on definitions of various
terms which have been provided in the beginning of this Chapter.

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1.1 BASIC TERMINOLOGY

Definitions of some basic terms associated with development controls; as per standard documents like
NBC 2016 and various IS Codes, are discussed below;
1.1.1 Components of a Building

Understanding various components of a building is important to get clarity regarding various

development regulations. Further, these definitions help in better understanding of various ‘area’
discussed in the next topic. Definitions of various components of building are listed below;
a. Balcony: A horizontal projection, with a handrail or balustrade or a parapet, to serve as passage or
sitting out place.
b. Basement or Cellar: The lower storey of a building, below or partly below ground level.
c. Height of Building: The vertical distance measured in the case of flat roofs, from the average level
of the ground around and contiguous to the building or as decided by the Authority to the terrace
of last livable floor of the building adjacent to the external walls; and in the case of pitched roofs,
up to the point where the external surface of the outer wall intersects the finished surface of the
sloping roof; and in the case of gables facing the road, the mid-point between the eaves level and
the ridge. Architectural features serving no other function except that of decoration shall be
excluded for the purpose of measuring heights.
d. Building Envelope: The horizontal spatial limits up to which a building may be permitted to be
constructed on a plot.
e. Building line: The line up to which the plinth of a building adjoining a street or an extension of a
street may lawfully extend.
f. Chajja: A sloping or horizontal structural overhang usually provided over openings on external
walls to provide protection from sun and rain.
g. Courtyard: A space permanently open to the sky, enclosed fully or partially by building and may
be at ground level or any other level within or adjacent to a building.
h. Floor: The lower surface in a storey on which one normally walks in a building. The general term
floor unless specifically mentioned otherwise shall not refer to a “mezzanine floor”.
i. Habitable room: A room occupied or designed for occupancy by one or more persons for study,
living, sleeping, eating, kitchen if it is used as a living room, but not including bathrooms, water-
closet compartments, laundries, serving and store pantries, corridors, cellars, attics, and spaces
that are not used frequently or during extended periods.
j. Loft: A structure providing intermediate storage space in between two floors with a maximum
height of 1.5 m, without having a permanent access.
k. Mezzanine floor: An intermediate floor between two floors of any storey forming an integral part
of floor below. Mezzanine floor is an intermediate floor in between two main floors having
minimum height of 2.2 m from the floor (some local bodies permit height of 1.8 meter) and
having a proper and permanent access to it.
l. Parapet: A low wall or railing built along the edge of a roof or floor.
m. Plinth: The portion of a structure between the surface of the surrounding ground and surface of
the floor, immediately above the ground.

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n. Porch: A covered structure supported on pillars or otherwise for the purpose of pedestrian or
vehicular approach to a building.
o. Service road/lane: A road/lane provided adjacent to a plot(s) for access or service purposes as the
case may be.
p. Setback line: A line usually parallel to the plot boundaries and laid down in each case by the
Authority, beyond which nothing may be constructed towards the plot boundaries.
q. Site (Plot): A parcel (piece) of land enclosed by definite boundaries.
r. Staircover (mumty): A structure with a roof over a staircase and its landing built to enclose only
the stairs for the purpose of providing protection from weather and not used for human habitation.
s. Storey: The portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the
floor next above it, or if there be no floor above it, then the space between any floor and the
ceiling next above it.
t. Verandah: A covered area with at least one side open to the outside with the exception of 1 m
high parapet on the upper floors to be provided on the open side.
1.1.2 Various Areas Measured for a Building

IS 3861:2002 is the standard IS Code for “Method of Measurement of Plinth, Carpet and Rentable
Areas of Buildings”.
a. Plinth Area: Plinth area shall mean the built-up covered measured at the floor level of the
basement or of any storey. Below are the inclusions and exclusions for plinth area;

• Areas included in Plinth Area:

- Area of the wall at the floor level excluding plinth offsets;
- Shafts for sanitary, water supply installations, garbage chute, telecommunication, electrical,
firefighting, air-conditioning and lifts; Stair case;
- For open verandah with parapets, 100% of areas for portion protected by projections above
and 50% area for portion unprotected from above;
- 100 percent area of the balcony protected by projection above and 50 percent area of the
unprotected balcony;
- In case of alcove made by cantilevering a slab beyond external wall: 25 percent of the
area for the alcove of height up to 1 m, 50 percent of the area for the alcove of height
more than 1m and up to 2 m, and 100 percent of the area for the alcove of height more
than 2 m.

• Areas excluded (not included) in Plinth Area:

- Area of loft;
- Area of architectural band, cornice, etc.;
- Area of vertical sun breaker or box louver projecting out and other architectural features, for
example slab projection for flower pot, etc.;
- Open platform;
- Terrace;
- Open spiral/service stair cases;
- Area of mumty, machine room, towers, turrets, domes projecting above terrace level.
b. Carpet Area: Carpet area shall mean the floor area of the usable rooms at any floor level. Carpet
area is measured by deducting wall area (inclusive of finished) from the corresponding plinth area
(IMPORTANT: Also refer to exclusions in Carpet Area mentioned under third point below).

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 • Following areas are included in ‘wall area’:
- Door and other openings in the wall;
- Pillars, intermediate pillars, supports or any other such obstruction within the plinth area
irrespective of their location;
- Pilaster along wall exceeding 300 cm2 in area;
- Flues which are within the wall;
- Built-in cupboard, almirah and shelf appearing within a height of 2.2 m from floor; and
- Fire place projecting beyond the face of the wall in living or bed room.

• Following areas are excluded from ‘wall area’:

- Pilaster along wall not exceeding 300 cm2 in area, and
- Chullah platform projecting beyond the face of the wall.

• Area of following portions are excluded for computing ‘Carpet Area’:

- Verandah;
- Corridor and passage;
- Entrance hall and porch;
- Staircase and Staircover (mumty);
- Shaft and machine room for lift;
- Bathroom and lavatory;
- Kitchen and Pantry;
- Store;
- Canteen;
- Air-conditioning duct and plant room; and
- Shaft for sanitary/water supply installations and garbage chute, electrical and
firefighting, air-conditioning, telecommunication, lift.
c. Rentable Area: Rentable area shall mean the carpet area at any floor level including areas as
detailed below;

• For residential buildings; rentable area is the carpet area but it further includes the following;
- The carpet area of kitchen, pantry, store, lavatory, bath room; and
- Fifty percent of carpet area of unglazed and 100 percent of glazed verandah.

• For non-residential buildings; rentable area is the carpet area but it further;
- Includes carpet area of the canteen including store, kitchen and pantry attached to it;
- Excludes carpet areas of bathroom and lavatory.
d. Built-up area: Built-up area is same as plinth area and includes all cantilevered balconies.
e. Super Built-up area: It is generally used to describe total area including built-up area and area of
common amenities like lift lobby and stairwell.

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1.2 BUILDING STANDARDS AND REGULATIONS

Building codes and byelaws are framed by local bodies in India. So, the building codes may slightly
vary from city to city. But, for the exam GATE, the standards asked and to be studied are based on
National Building Code 2016.
1.2.1 Building Byelaws and Building Permit

The rules and regulation framed by town planning authorities covering the requirements of building,
ensuring safety of the public through open spaces, setbacks, minimum size of rooms, minimum clear
height of spaces and area limitation; are known as building bye-laws.
Objectives of building byelaws include;
- Ensure orderly growth by avoiding haphazard growth
- Ensure occupational safety against fire, noise, structural failure, etc.
- Ensure proper utilization of space and achieve efficiency in planning
- Ensure health, safety and comfort of occupants
- Ensure proper access, natural light, and air circulation or ventilation
Building byelaws restrict/control various aspects of buildings, which include;
- Minimum building setbacks (setback line is a line usually parallel to the plot boundaries and
laid down in each case by the Authority, beyond which nothing may be constructed towards
the plot boundaries)
- Minimum plot area for a given building type
- Built-up area of a building (depending on site location, access and plot size)
- Maximum height of a building
- Provision of services like water supply, electricity, drainage, etc.
- Requirement of parking space (off-street)
- Design standards for structural elements
An application for building permit is to be made to the concerned local authority for construction
activity like; new construction, demolition, change in use, etc. Building permit is obtained after proper
documentation and submission of required documents to the concerned governing local body.
Documents required to be submitted for building permit may slightly vary from city to city. Below is
a list of documents required for building permit in a typical city;
- Key plan (generally in 1:10,000 scale showing boundary, site location and landmarks)
- Site plan (showing existing physical features; scale depending on the site area)
- Building plan (showing staircase, ramps, rooms including bathrooms and lavatories;
generally, 1:100 or 1:50 scale)
- Details shown on section and elevation
- Fire-safety clearance, Airport Authority clearance, etc. (only in special cases)
- Service plan (showing water supply, sewage disposal, drainage and sanitation, etc)
- General specifications (listing types and grades of construction materials)
- Ownership document/Sale deed/Lease deed/Title deed
- Rainwater Harvesting Certificate (in some local bodies like Delhi)
- Structural safety certificate
- Certificate for removal of debris/mulba
- Clearance from Delhi Urban Art Commission, Heritage clearance, etc (in special cases in
Delhi)
Only after proper documentation, a building permit is granted. As mentioned earlier, the requirements
may vary from city to city, but the list mentioned above is the generally required documentation.

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1.2.2 General Building Requirements (NBC)

Below are some important general building requirements as per NBC 2016. For further study, refer to
NBC 2016, Volume 1, Part 3.
a) Means of Access: Every building/plot shall abut on a public/private means of access like
streets/roads duly formed. The residential plots shall abut on a public means of access like
street/road. Plots which do not abut on a street/road shall abut/front on a means of access. The
width of means of access depends on the length of the access path. (For a means of access of
length up to 75 meters, the minimum width of access is 6 m)
b) Setbacks or Exterior Open Spaces (As per NBC 2016): The provisions of rear and side setbacks
are not applicable to parking lock-up garages up to 3 meters in height. These provisions are only
for construction of the building.

The exterior open spaces for residential buildings up to height of 10 meters shall be as follows;
- Front open space: Every building fronting a street shall have a front space, forming an
integral part of the site as in the table below;

(NOTE: For streets less than 7.5 m in width, the distance of the building (building line) shall
be at least 5 m from the centre line of the street)
- Rear open space: Every residential building shall have a rear open space, forming an integral
part of the site, of an average width of 3.0 m and at no place measuring less than 1.8 m,
except that in the case of a back-to-back sites, the width of the rear open space shall be 3.0 m
throughout.
(NOTE: For plots of depths less than 9 m, for buildings up to 7 m in height, the rear open
space may be reduced to 1.5 m.)

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 - Side open space: For detached buildings there shall be a minimum side open space of 3.0 m
on both the sides. For semi-detached buildings, there shall be a minimum side open space
of 3.0 m on one side. For row-type buildings, no side open is required.
c) Habitable Room: The area of habitable room shall not be less than 9.5 m2, where there is only
one room with a minimum width of 2.4 m. Where there are two rooms, one of these shall not be
less than 9.5 m2 and the other not less than 7.5 m2, with a minimum width of 2.1 m.

NOTE: For standards of habitable room in low income housing of urban areas, refer to Annexure
C in Part 3, NBC Vol 1.

The height of all rooms for human habitation shall not be less than 2.75 m measured from the
surface of the floor to the lowest point of the ceiling (bottom of slab). In the case of pitched roof,
the average height of rooms shall not be less than 2.75 m. For air-conditioned rooms minimum
height from floor to false ceiling is 2.4 meter.

d) Staircase: As per NBC 2016, minimum width shall be provided for staircases for respective
occupancies as follows:

Occupancy Staircase width

1) Residential (A-2) 1.00 m
2) Residential (A-1, A-3 and A-4) 1.25 m
3) Residential hotel (A-5 and A-6) 1.50 m
4) Assembly 2.00 m
5) Educational 1.50 m
6) Institutional 2.00 m
7) All other occupancies 1.50 m

NOTE: (i) or row housing with 2 storeys, the minimum width shall be 0.75 m.
(ii) The width of stairs may be accepted to be 1.50 m in case of assembly occupancy having less
than 150 persons.

e) Fire tender movement: Minimum 6.0 m driveway width and 9.0 m width at turning (turning
radius) shall be available for fire tender movement all around the podium.
f) Mezzanine Floor: Mezzanine floor is an intermediate floor between two floors of any storey
forming an integral part of floor below. The standards with respect to mezzanine floor are;
- Height: It shall have a minimum height of 2.2 m.
- Size: The minimum size of the mezzanine floor, if it is to be used as a living room, shall not
be less than 9.5 m2. The aggregate area of such mezzanine floor in a building shall in no case
exceed one-third the plinth area of the building.

g) Bathrooms and Water-Closets: The recommended standards for bathrooms and water closets
are as flows;
- Height: The height of a bathroom or water-closet measured from the surface of the floor to
the lowest point in the ceiling (bottom of slab) shall not be less than 2.1 m.
- Size: The area of a bathroom shall not be less than 1.8 m2 with a minimum width of 1.2 m.
The floor area of water-closet shall be 1.1 m2 with a minimum width of 0.9 m. If bath and
water-closet are combined, its floor area shall not be less than 2.8 m2 with a minimum width
of 1.2 m.

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1.3 CALCULATION OF PERMISSIBLE BUILT-UP

In development control with respect to limiting the maximum permissible built-up area of a site or
plot; there are two approaches which are generally prescribed in concerned local body byelaws. They
are;
- Prescribing maximum permissible Floor Area Ratio (FAR) or Floor Space Index (FSI)
- Prescribing maximum permissible ground coverage (as a percentage of site area) along with
maximum permissible height of the building
In both approaches, the limitation of maximum built-up area is achieved. Also, in both approaches,
the thresholds for maximum limit of concerned parameters are based mainly on the site area.
a) Limiting maximum permissible built-up area based on FAR:
FAR is defined as the quotient obtained by dividing the total covered area on all floors (total built-up
area) by area of the plot;
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑝 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔
𝐹𝐴𝑅 =
𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
Permissible FAR is identified in development control regulations (DCR) by taking into consideration;
- Population Density
- Occupancy Class
- Types of construction
- Width of street fronting the building and the traffic load
- Locality where the building is proposed and the density
- Parking facilities
- Local firefighting facilities
- Water supply and drainage facilities
- Land use zone
(Source: URDPFI Guidelines, 2014, Volume 1)
NOTE: In some state byelaws, the FAR (or FSI) is expressed in the form of percentage. However, it
being a ratio, it should ideally be expressed only in the form of a ratio, as mentioned in NBC 2016.
The FAR (or FSI) prescriptions are different for different local byelaws. The table below are the FAR
recommendations for various occupancies as per NBC 2016.

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Example 3.3.1:
Question: A site of area 250 sq. m has a maximum permissible FAR of 1.5. What will be the
maximum permissible built-up area (in sq. m) for the given site?
Answer: Given, site area = 250 sq. m and maximum permissible FAR = 1.5
𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑝 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎
𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝐴𝑅 =
𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑝 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎
=> 1.5 =
250
So, maximum permissible built-up area for the given site = 250 x 1.5 = 375 sq. m
b) Limiting maximum permissible built-up area based on Ground Coverage & Height:
In this approach, the local body limits two criteria: maximum permissible ground coverage, which is
expressed as a percentage of site area; and, maximum permissible building height (depending on
access road width and site area).
Example 3.3.2:
Question: A site of area 1000 sq. m has a maximum permissible ground coverage of 40% and a
maximum permissible building height of 12 meters. Considering a floor-to-floor height of 3 meters,
what will be the maximum permissible built-up area for given site?
Answer: Given site area of 1000 sq. m with maximum permissible ground coverage of 40%
 Maximum ground coverage (or maximum built-up area for each floor level) = 40% of 1000
 Maximum built-up area for each floor level = 400 sq. m
Also, given maximum permissible building height is 12 meters with 3 meters floor to floor height.
 No. of floor levels = 12/3 = 4 floors
 Maximum permissible built-up area for given site = 400*4 = 1600 sq. m (since 400 sq. m is
maximum permissible built-up area for each floor level)

NOTE: It is important to remember that, if maximum limitations are prescribed for all three
parameters; FAR, Ground coverage and Building height; then, the maximum permissible built-up
area is calculated as “minimum of the values obtained from both the approaches”. This is
because, both the approaches are to be satisfied in such case; and taking maximum of both the
values will satisfy only one approach.

Example 3.3.3:
Question: A site of area 1000 sq. m has a maximum permissible FAR of 1.5. Also, the site has a
maximum permissible ground coverage of 40% and a maximum permissible building height of 12
meters. Considering a floor-to-floor height of 3 meters, what will be the maximum permissible built-
up area for given site? (This question is similar to Example 3.3.2 with only an additional parameter of
maximum permissible FAR)
Answer:
(a) Considering the approach of limiting maximum permissible built-up area based on FAR;
For site area of 1000 sq. m with maximum permissible FAR of 1.5;

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 𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑝 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎
𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝐴𝑅 =
𝑃𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎
𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑝 𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎
=> 1.5 =
1000
So, maximum permissible built-up area for the given site = 1000 x 1.5 = 1500 sq. m
(b) Considering the approach of limiting the maximum permissible built-up area based on Ground
Coverage & Height;
Maximum permissible built-up area = 1600 sq. m (as already calculated in Example 3.3.2)
Conclusion: To satisfy the limitation set by both approaches, the maximum permissible built-up area
will be the minimum of both values obtained from (a) and (b); i.e., minimum of 1500 sq. m and 1600
sq. m.
So, maximum permissible built-up area for the given site = 1500 sq. m

WHAT NEXT

1. Go to the Career Avenues Online Tests Platform.

2. Go to Practice Tests. Search for tests under Urban Design.

3. Answer Tests: Practice Tests: Development Controls: Tests 1 and 2 .

4. Go to GATE Questions. Search for tests under Urban Design.

5. Answer Tests: GATE Questions: Development Control Questions.

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