Advantages And Disadvantages Of Urban Design

Madanipour, (1996) talked about ambiguities of understanding urban design and the complexities of perceiving urban spaces. One of the most important features of urban space is to make sense of a city life when walking along any of its streets, to think about the complexity of what is seen , and to wonder about what lies behind buildings facades or beyond the bend of the street. The urban space is full of overlapping and intertwined stories that this collection of people, objects and events offers. There is a continuous change in the urban scene because of constant transformation of landscape, or cityscape around, a mutation that has come to associate with livelihood without movement and change. Understanding the urban space and processes

only one difficulty with this approach is that the outcome can be personal and descriptive, rather than analytical and exploratory. the approach tends to assume that many aspects of human understanding and behavior are relatively timeless. Therefore, the approach needs to be supported by an analytical one. A third approach is proposed to see urban design as socio-spatial process, in this approach the nature of urban design can be explored and can be rooted in political, economic and cultural processes. The approach involves some agencies interacting with socio-spatial structure and urban design can only be understood in its socio-spatial context. from this perspective, the technical, creative and social elements of urban design all come together to provide insight into this complex process and its products (Madanipour,

The term is used differently by different groups in different circumstances. Yet the growing attention to the subject and the rising number of academics and professionals who are interested in urban design have brought to the surface a pressing need for a clearer definition of what they do. Analyzing factors causing such ambiguity can formulate a clear definition addresses urban design uncertainties (Madanipour, 1996). The adequacy of the existing urban design definitions is still uncertain, as is evident in recent researches and studies of urban design. In fact, uncertainty and ambiguity offers a wider scope for innovation and development; a clearly defined subject denies sufficient flexibility as what is needed is to separate complexity from ambiguity. There are areas of ambiguity that can be broadly grouped under process and product of urban design. The first three arenas address the ambiguities about the design outcome of urban design for urban space. The last four arenas concentrate on urban design as a process creating ambiguities. The seven arenas are identified below and they should be taken into account to arrive at a definition for urban design:

1- The urban fabric scale of which is addressed by urban design

2- The visual and spatial emphases of urban design;

3- The social emphases of urban design;

4- The relationship between processes and products