Urban

Space by
Rob Krier
Book Review

Groups Number:1
Dissertation | TITLE | 2017

About the Author: Rob Krier

Born in 1938 in Grevenmacher ( Luxemburg )

He is a sculptor, architect, urban designer and theorist
He was a professor of architecture at Vienna University of technology, Austria.
He was ranked as most influencial urban planner & architect of post modernis
He wrote urban space to search the traditional understanding of urban space which is lost in
modern cities.
He explained the terms of urban space and its structure.
He had examined whether the concept of urban space retains some validity in contemporary town
planning and on what basis.
He had a joint office in Berlin, German where he worked with his partner architect Christoph Kohl
He and his younger brother is well known for New Urbanism & New Classical Architecture

New Urbanism:

It is a movement of urban design in which environmental friendly habits are promoted by creating
walkable neighbourhoods which contain high range of job & housing types
Started in USA in 1980s influenced real estate dev, urban planning & municipal landuse
stratergies
Strongly influenced by urban design practices until rise of automobile prior to world war 2
Basic principles - (TND) Traditional Neighbourhood Design
-(TOD) Traditional Oriented Design
New urbanist support
Regional planning for open space
Context appropriate architecture and planning
Adequate provision of infrastructure ( sports/library/community centres)
Balanced developments of jobs and housing
They believe their stratergies can reduce traffic congestion as they will encourage people to ride
bikes , walks or take the train.
They have hopes that supply of affordable housing in suburban sprawl will increase by this
New urbanism also covers issues such as
Historic preservation
Safe streats
Green building
Redevelopment of brownfield

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Dissertation | TITLE | 2017

It is oftenly accompanied by
New classical
Post modern
Vernacular

New Classical Architecture:

Contemporary movement- continuous practice of classical and traditional architecture

Followed in 20th & 21st centuries
Even as mordenist and post classical theories of architecture have been more dominant
Its not an architectural style , various forms are :
Contemporary classical architecture
New historism

Urban Space: Chapter 1

Analysis
Typological elements
Morphological elements
Urban space is external space in town
External space in town:
Assigning space between buildings
Organised aesthetically
According to:
Social
Political
Cultural activities
He compared urban space with interior space
Comparing basic spaces of interior such as room and corridor with square and streets in urbn
respect
Only dimensions are different.
Patterns in circulation and function are different
Square is described as grouping of housing surrounding
Open spaces and streets are produced according to the settlement in the space available
Topology for urban space
Urban forms are derived from :
Square
Rectangle
Circle
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Dissertation | TITLE | 2017

Shapes are further effected by modulating factors such as

Angling
Segmentation
Addition
Merging
Overlapping
Distortion
Regular & irregular results can be formed
Quality of space at different stages of modulation is influenced by a large number of buildings
Closed space is produced by space completely surrounded by buildings
Open space is produced by partially surrounded space by buildings
Different scale play an important role in all forms
Morphological series of urban space( historic town ) consists of wide range of forms
Orthogonal regular fround plan Hanover Square , Rome
18th century 4 central intersections
Geometrically complex form Piazza Navona , Rome
Combination of different forms and many streets enter the square
Regular triangular square Place Dauphine , Paris
Rare in history
2 roads forking
There points are now neglected in new modern cities according to the author.

Urban Space: Chapter 2

Urban space is eroded in 20th century

Since last 50 years due to technological process
New military technology invented in 20th century
Defensive system of cities were neutralised by new weaponry
Demolished city walls allowed armies to walk through the cities
New discipline in every town
Due to need to protection
Through construction
Rebuilding
Expansion
Planner rapidly decided for town planning which resulted in unstructured developments
Planners were pressurised for expansion
Architecture was a low priority

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Dissertation | TITLE | 2017

Most important issue:

Functional
Constructional
Capital concerns
Influence of industrial buildings was a misfortune for the urban planning
Less architecture more misconceived development
Control of urban space and architectural concepts were taken away by the developing proposals
of new ideal cities by planners in 19th and 20th century
Modern town planning in dominating on the urban space concepts which is not usable to that extent
Spatial continuation of cohesive traditional urban space can be compared to barriers which
channel pedestrian movements
The gap in barriers should cope with the system orientation shortcommings
Modern city arrangments
Forlorn and isolated sections of barriers battered on all sides
No margin left for stream of activites and orientation

Urban Space: Chapter 3

Redeveloping city
Approaches
Reconstruct Stuttgart
Stuttgart was destroyed in world war 2
Heart of the city was divided to small islands
Heavy traffic
Schemes:
City for pedestrian
Redevelopment to weld isolated portions of the city
Give life to critical points , whose significance is lost in war and post war due to costly civil
engineering programme
Streets should be designed
Squares should be made for pedestrian
Harmony as much as possible
Respecting existing structure and legacy of the past

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