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Course Discription |
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This course introduces students to the field and practice of urban design project throughout one full semester project (Housing Project for Hashemite University Employees). Urban design is the process of designing and shaping cities, towns and villages. Whereas architecture focuses on individual buildings, urban design address the larger scale of groups of buildings, of streets and public spaces, whole neighborhoods and districts, and entire cities, to make urban areas functional, attractive, and sustainable (to create the “public realm”). Urban design blends architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning together to make the urban areas functional, attractive, comfortable, animated, stimulating, and safe and to create the community identity.
Urban design involves place making - the creation of a setting that imparts a sense of place to an area. This process is achieved by establishing identifiable neighborhoods, unique architecture, aesthetically pleasing public places, identifiable landmarks and focal points, and a human element established by compatible scales of development and ongoing public stewardship. Other key elements of place making include lively commercial centers, mixed-use development with ground-floor retail uses, human-scale and context-sensitive design; safe and attractive public areas; image-making; and decorative elements in the public realm.
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