Projects

Following an evaluation of its activities to date, the Foundation is committed to bringing a sharper focus to its support and promotion activities in public urban spaces. These activities can be assigned to the individual core themes of the Foundation – light, green or developed space - or simultaneously to more than one of these themes.

Designing Cities

Urban design is based on planning and design principles that need to meet functional demands on the one hand, but on the other hand bring the design elements together into a distinctive whole.

Although designs are almost always dominated by the spirit of the times, the basic compositional principles are, for the most part, timeless. Designing Cities examines the most important design and presentation principles of urban design, using selected historical examples and contemporary international competition entries designed by practices including Foster + Partners, KCAP Architects & Planners, MVRDV, and OMA. At the core of the publication is the question of how the projects were designed and what methods and tools were available to the designer.

 

Qualitative Traits - General Organizing Principles - The Relationship of the Parts to the Whole – "Grid" Design Principle - Urban Building Blocks - The Layout of Development Sites, Building Lots, and Urban Building Blocks - Road Systems - Urban Space - Representation in Urban Design - Parametric Design - Examples of Best Practice