The pedestrian-friendly streets in Palm Harbor’s historic district

Are transformed into a huge block party during celebrations.

 

Principle five: efficiency

The principle of efficiency promotes a balance between the consumption of resources such as energy, time and fiscal resources, with planned achievements in comfort, safety, security, access, tenure, productivity and hygiene. It encourages optimum sharing of public land, roads, facilities, services and infrastructural networks, reducing per household costs, while increasing affordability, productivity, access and civic viability.

 

A major concern of this principle is transport. While recognizing the convenience of personal vehicles, it attempts to place costs (such as energy consumption, large paved areas, parking, accidents, negative balance of trade, pollution and related morbidity) on the users of private vehicles. Good planning practice promotes clean, comfortable, safe and speedy, public transport, which operates at dependable intervals along major origin and destination paths. Such a system is cheaper, safer, less polluting and consumes less energy.

 

The same principle applies to public infrastructure. Compact, high-density communities result in more efficient urban systems, delivering services at less cost per unit to each citizen. There is an appropriate balance to be found somewhere on the line between wasteful low-density individual systems and over-capitalized mega systems. Costly, individual septic tanks and water bores servicing individual households in low-density fragmented layouts, cause pollution of subterranean aquifer systems. The bores dramatically lower ground water levels. Alternatively, large-scale, citywide sewerage systems and regional water supply systems are capital intensive and prone to management and maintenance dysfunction. Operating costs, user fees and cost recovery expenses are high. There is a balance wherein medium-scale systems, covering compact communities, utilize modern technology, without the pitfalls of large-scale infrastructure systems. This principle of urbanism promotes the middle path with regard to public infrastructure, facilities, services and amenities.

Unit 15 Principles of Intelligent Urbanism (Part II)

1 Introduction 2 interface

1.1 Read the text title and hypothesize what the text is about. Write down your hypothesis.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

1.11 What do you know concerning this issue? List your ideas in the table left column “I know”.

I know that…	I have learnt that…

 

1.12 If you know answers to these questions write them down in the space given after each question.

 

	What should public spaces be integrated into?
	How can human-scale design be achieved?
	How does Intelligent Urbanism see an urban plan?
	What services and facilities does the regional infrastructure include?
	Where should capital intensive transport systems move?
	What do Architectural Guidelines specify according to PIU proponents?
	Ho How does Intelligent Urbanism view plans, urban designs and housing configurations?

 

1.13 Circle in the list the words and expressions you know. Write down their translation in the table and calculate the percentage of your lexical competence.

 

	urban sprawl			a spillover
	to cluster			a dormitory community
	a stroll way			to advocate
	waste disposal			an urban node
	an equal access			to channel
	to envision			to demarcate
	hinterland			a greenfield setting
	a holistic process			salient expression

Principle six: human scale

According to PIU proponents, the trend towards urban sprawl can be overcome by developing pedestrian circulation networks along streets and open spaces that link local destinations. Shops, amenities, vegetable markets and basic social services should be clustered around public transport stops and at a walkable distance from work places, public institutions, and residential areas. Public spaces should be integrated into residential, work, entertainment and commercial areas.

 

Danish architect Jan Gehl, one of the world's preeminent urban planners, says that innovative architecture, such as a revolving tower in Dubai or the Guggenheim Museum, might be interesting, intriguing but it is not people friendly. His concepts of human-scale design and the importance he places on public spaces have led city planners the world over to rethink the way they design. Jan Gehl urges architects and urban planners to consider not only the buildings, but the space between buildings.

An abiding axiom of urban planning, urban design and city planning has been the promotion of people friendly places, pedestrian walkways and public domains where people can meet freely. These can be parks, gardens, glass-covered gallerias, courtyards, street side cafes, river- and hill-side stroll ways, and a variety of semi-covered spaces. Human scale can be achieved by using arcades and pavilions as buffers to large masses; by intermixing open spaces and built masses sensitively; by using anthropometric proportions and natural materials.