Human-Scale Urban Form：Measurements, Performances, and Urban Planning & Design Interventions

Long Ying; Ye Yu

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1000-0232.2016.05.041

Abstract：AbSTRAcT The human-centered perspective has been frequently mentioned in many national policies on urbanization in China, like National Guidelines for Developing a New Type of Urbanization and Central Urban Work Conference. Accompanying with the raising call for human-centered considerations in urban planning and design, a series of new data environment and new analytical methods bring new potentials for achieving this goal. For instance, the new data environment consisting of big data and open data could provide foundation for in-depth study of urban form and its related performances. New techniques and methods, e.g. Lidar imaging, virtual reality, eye-tracking, deep learning, big data mining and visualization, provide emerging insightful analytical approaches. Therefore, the paper proposes the conceptual framework of human-scale urban form that can be defined as visible, touchable, and perceptible urban forms in people’s daily lives. It is a meaningful supplement for classical urban morphology focusing on street blocks and parcels. Folowing this route, the paper firstly reviews existing studies related to the concept of human-scale urban form. Three essential issues of human-scale urban form, i.e., measurements, performances, and urban planning and design interventions, are then discussed to guide future researches. After that, several initial studies made by the authors of this paper are ilustrated as empirical examples. This paper is an initial attempt to create the concept framework of human-scale urban form and explore its potentials in urban planning and design practices. It could promote the transition towards more scientific planning and design paradigm, and finaly contribute to better urban lives.