The role of physical planning procedures and architectural aspects in maintaining urban form sustainability

Abstract

How would important and vital characteristics of urban forms, like their sustainability and efficiency be affected and altered by physical planning and architectural design processes, ensuring the urban forms’ positive functionality? This question highlights an important issue that may give a way to maintain positive gains from various technical procedures like physical planning and architectural design, by taking into consideration some determinants that may be carried out through different action paths and scales, like environmental, landscape, urban design, and architectural design procedures.

As the structure and character of an urban fabric gain their properties from the early process of physical planning, they also may be significantly affected by the architectural design aspects and guidelines of building units, as well as the urban design proposal of the interspatial characteristics of these units resembled in the master plan of the conglomeration under study.

The research discusses various procedures that would facilitate controlling the urban space, with a considerable potential in the physical and psychological characters of interspatial gaps and distances between built-up masses. This would positively direct the urban form to a liveable and sustainable character, devoid of various negative conflicts from which the contemporary urban fabric in many cities suffers.

Keywords::

• urban form
• urban sustainability
• urban development
• solar envelope

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge staff members of the Faculty of Architecture, Slovak Technical University, Bratislava, Slovakia, for their assistance and inspiring cooperation.