Can Small Urban Changes Really Make a Big Difference?
December 8, 2024
What is Urban Development, Redevelopment and Conservation
Strong urban design strategies provide significant city level benefits, better quality of life, safer and more secure environment and a greater ability to function as an urban entity.
It also provides each city with a unique sense of identity and establishes the framework for it to be more responsive to differing climatic, economic or social variables. Regardless of the size of a city or project, urban design is inclusive in achieving outcomes that holistically make for better built environments and in turn way of living.
Below we have listed some of the concepts and strategies used for development, redevelopment and conservation proposals within the cities. These are strategies that transcend the specific differences between each city and are an overarching guide to what makes for enhanced quality of urban life. A guide to understand these projects in a more simplified format, contemplated and viable logic that is useful to both those designing and using them in urban context.
What is Urban Obsolescence?
Rate of physical deterioration in cities which render housing, commercial buildings, industries, other structures, districts and parts of city obsolete or a stage when they have outlived their average life or have passed beyond their intended use.
Despite regular maintenance and renovation, buildings and the built environment experience a process of aging and deformation in time. However, there are multiple factors behind structures’ current condition. Therefore, it is vital to elaborate on the reasons behind a structure’s current state, whether it suffers from obsolescence or not. Obsolescence is a multidimensional and dynamic process rather than an end-state.
What is Urban Blight/ Decay?
It is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and dilapidation. It is the critical stage of such decay.
The meaning of the word decay includes both a decline in health and strength and a gradual decrease in size and quantity. Urban decay has a similar connotation to the concept of blight. It is used for describing the worsening conditions of inner-city neighborhoods, or sometimes simply for slums.
Types of Urban Blight/ Decay
1) Structural Blight
Buildings or structures that are unfit or unsafe to occupy and may cause ill health, transmission of disease, infant mortality, and crime due to defective design, shifting of uses, dilapidation etc.
2) Economic Blight
It refers to properties that suffer economic dislocation, deterioration or disuse because of many reasons such as prevalence of depreciated values, impaired investments, and others.
What is Brownfield Development?
Brownfield Development is a term in urban planning which includes land that has previously been contaminated or used by industrial waste that has now become vacant and unused. It is a term that is opposite to its counterpart of Greenfield Development. However, Brownfield Development can be regenerated and used again if the land is cleared of its contamination before any new development occurs in the area.
Due to increasing urbanization, city perimeters are expanding to encompass formerly commercial and industrial areas. Demand for industrial spaces in these locations may be declining even while demand for residential or logistics facilities in the same locations is increasing. This dynamic gives rise to an economic opportunity to repurpose land for more productive use, once sites are cleaned-up and redeveloped. In many cases, a site that is of little use to its former owners may be highly valuable to a new owner envisioning a different use.
Brownfield project sites are generally redeveloped for housing and commercial buildings, open spaces for recreation and even for community areas.
What is Greenfield Development?
Greenfield development is any kind of real estate development in previously undeveloped areas. The new development can be of any variety of land use—residential, commercial, industrial, or infrastructural. It’s the previous state of the land that determines whether a new development is a greenfield development.
Greenfield development can also be understood in context of other versions of development, namely brownfield and greyfield development as well as redevelopment. All of these terms describe development in areas already developed for residential, commercial, or industrial uses. Existing structures, infrastructure, and pollution from pre-existing uses will complicate the development of brownfield and greyfield sites.
What is Urban Conservation?
The urban conservation strategies objectives include encouraging continued occupation and maintenance of buildings of architectural or historic significance and providing for new development compatible with them.
Urban conservation is concerned with those parts of the built environment that are of architectural or historic significance. This includes buildings (individually or in groups), localities (streets, blocks, environments or precincts), special gardens or landscapes, and other structures. Conservation does not mean preservation of buildings, localities or other features for all time. Only a few buildings are so highly significant that they should be retained in a wholly original form. Many more buildings of character can be retained if they are adapted to allow continued economic occupation. This may mean a changed form of their original use or an entirely new use and this is emphasised in the Board’s strategy. Lack of maintenance is a major reason for the loss of many worthwhile older buildings. Their continued occupation ensures that they are maintained in a reasonable condition, The Metropolitan Planning Scheme already allows some flexibility in the use of buildings of architectural or historic importance,
Levels of repair within Urban Conservation
1) Preservation
Preservation is maintaining a place in its existing state and preventing further deterioration. Preservation is defined as the act or process of applying measures necessary to sustain the existing form, integrity, and materials of an historic property. Work, including preliminary measures to protect and stabilize the property, generally focuses upon the ongoing maintenance and repair of historic materials and features rather than extensive replacement and new construction. New exterior additions are not within the scope of this treatment; however, the limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a preservation project.
2) Restoration
Returning a place to a known earlier state by removing accretions or by reassembling existing elements without the introduction of new material. Restoration is defined as the act or process of accurately depicting the form, features, and character of a property as it appeared at a particular period of time by means of the removal of features from other periods in its history and reconstruction of missing features from the restoration period. The limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a restoration project.
3) Reconstruction
Returning a place to a known earlier state and is distinguished from through restoration by the introduction of new material and elements. Reconstruction is defined as the act or process of depicting, by means of new construction, the form, features, and detailing of a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object for the purpose of replicating its appearance at a specific period of time and in its historic location.
What is Urban Redevelopment?
Urban redevelopment means demolition and reconstruction or substantial renovation of existing buildings or infrastructure within urban infill areas or existing urban service areas.
Redevelopment Area means the community redevelopment area described, defined or otherwise identified or referred to in the Redevelopment Plan.
Urban redevelopment plan means a plan, as it exists from time to time, for an urban redevelopment project, which plan shall be sufficiently complete to indicate such land acquisition, demolition and removal of structures, redevelopment, improvements, and rehabilitation as may be proposed to be carried out in the urban renewal area, zoning and planning changes, if any, land uses, maximum density and building requirements.
Urban Redevelopment and associated terms
1) Urban Regeneration
It is defined as creating new urban structure in poor quality neighborhoods with comprehensive urban interventions for physical and social improvements.
Developments for economic, social and environmental improvements.
2) Urban Revitalization
It means to revive the older parts of the cities by providing new functions to old buildings with small interventions.
The approaches of revitalization have similarities with the urban conservation methods, as the main concern is to protect the existing urban structure while providing development.
3) Urban Reconstruction
To demolish the existing urban structure and creating a new one.
It might involve the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities for reconstruction and redevelopment.
4) Urban Clearance
Demolishing the existing urban structure and creating completely new urban characteristics
It majorly constitutes the improvements in slum neighborhoods
5) Urban Renewal
It is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use.
It involves recreating the urban fabric based on morphological and functional improvements after demolishing the existing buildings.
6) Adaptive Reuse
It is the process of reusing an old site or building for a purpose other than which it was built or designed for, such as an industrial mill into housing.
It also helps in land conservation and the reduction of urban sprawl. It can be regarded as a compromise between historic preservation and demolition.
7) Urban Retrofitting
To furnish an urban area with new or modified urban entities that were not available or considered necessary at the time of its establishment.
To add new adaptive elements that are required to achieve sustainable growth of something previously built or constructed.
Urban Design Lab
About the Author
This is the admin account of Urban Design Lab. This account publishes articles written by team members, contributions from guest writers, and other occasional submissions. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments.
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