11/9/2024

Lecture 3: Urban Renewal

PLAN 215: Urban Planning Techniques

Prepared by:
Meher Afjun Faria
Lecturer, DURP,BUET.

Acknowledgement:
Niaz Mahmud Zafri
Assistant Professor, DURP, BUET.

2 Course Outcome

CO2: Distinguish among five or more land development

techniques

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3 Land Development Techniques

Sites-and-services Schemes
Incremental Development Schemes
Urban Renewal
Settlement Upgrading
Land-sharing
Land Readjustment
Housing Cooperatives

4 Concept of Urban Renewal

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5 Concept of Urban Renewal

 Urban areas become outworn and outdated as the time passes on.
 Decay and obsolescence affect the whole of the town fabric.
 However, these problems are found in their intensive form in the
older parts of the town and also in the town center.
 The increase observed in the population density necessitates an
increase in the employment opportunities.
 Moreover, it also accelerates the modernization process of city
centers.
 Furthermore, it also became a tool for the state in order to prevent
the inner cities from urban decline.

6 Concept of Urban Renewal

 Urban Renewal is a process by which a large area of a town or the whole

town center itself, as it becomes outworn and outdated slowly renews
itself and thereby gradually changes its character to fit in with the needs
of the contemporary society.
 It is a slow but continuous process.
 This is a carefully controlled change, as against the rapid and violent
change of redevelopment, and also distinguished from preservation and
improvement.
 It is in fact an amalgam of all the processes--- preservation, improvement
and redevelopment--- which act on a town, or a portion of it, and which
continually mold and change its character and appearance.

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7 Necessity of Urban Renewal

Congestion
▪ All the main roads lead to town center which create heavy traffic
congestion.
▪ Most of the area in a town have grown up around the junction of two
or more main traffic routes.
▪ Long distance traffic, local cross town traffic, town center traffic all
crowd into the central area because that is where the main road
leads.
▪ Increase in commercial vehicle as well as private car make the
situation intolerable.
▪ The area cannot survive unless it is rescued from these conditions and
adapted to the motor age.

8 Necessity of Urban Renewal

Constriction
▪ There are some area which are usually the oldest part of the town.
▪ Very often this means that it has not grown in proportion with the
outward growth of the town.
▪ Today it may serve a greatly increased population, particularly if the
town is being expanded to reduce congestion in the great cities.
▪ These areas need room to grow but they can seldom do so without far
reaching changes in the existing pattern.

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9 Necessity of Urban Renewal

Obsolescence
▪ Nowadays rebuilding of commercial buildings become essential, or at
least an economic proposition, long before the structure itself is worn
out.
▪ Old shops become unsuitable for modern retailing methods or too
small for the number of customers.
▪ Old office building cannot be adopted to modem business methods.
▪ Old town halls cannot hold the staff needed to deal with the wide
range of local government services.
▪ The components of the old town center become outgrown and out of
date.

10 Methods of Urban Renewal

Preservation/Conservation
▪ Historic buildings old but retain cultural value must be preserved.
▪ They strengthen the sense of continuity between past and present.
Improvement/Rehabilitation
▪ Improvement of the existing state to bring into a more good shape
Redevelopment/Rebuilding
▪ Property clearance, building new structures
▪ Extend in a scale from individual rebuilding of a single property to a
comprehensive redevelopment of the whole town center

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11 Methods of Urban Renewal

Preservation/Conservation
▪ They strengthen the sense of continuity between the past and the
present without which a town becomes anonymous and dull.
▪ Every town has a character of its own and the objectives will be to
retain and enhance its individuality.
▪ A town's character is an elusive quality and it requires sympathy and
resourcefulness to ensure that it is not lost in the process of renewal.
▪ While the need for radical changes may seem unavoidable, it is
always important to preserve the best qualifies of the traditional town
center, its finest building and the features which give it character and
life.
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12 Methods of Urban Renewal

Improvement/Rehabilitation
▪ Improvement is taken to mean the process by which existing buildings,
features or areas are brought back into a worthwhile state after they
had become outdated and unsatisfactory.
▪ This method is applied in those areas which are not yet dead and
which are therefore not ripe for redevelopment but which have
become shabby, out-of-date and ill maintained, and which show
every sign of getting more and more dismal and depressed

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13 Methods of Urban Renewal

Redevelopment/Rebuilding
▪ It is taken to mean the process which involves clearance of property and the
building of new structures according to a definite preconceived plan with a layout
different from that of the area before redevelopment was undertaken.
▪ It implies a comprehensive plan over a substantial area and is part of an overall
plan, otherwise the process is mere rebuilding.
▪ Redevelopment extend in scale from the individual rebuilding of a single property
to the comprehensive redevelopment of the whole town center, and the planning
problems it presents are equally varied.
▪ Comprehensive redevelopment is at once the most radical and the most difficult
form of renewal; it involves a major upheaval for owners, residents and tenants of
existing buildings.
▪ Yet the benefits which good comprehensive redevelopment can bring to the town
center are so great that the cost and complication are often justified

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14 Methodological Steps

Base Map
▪ Broad and quick assessment of problems and possibilities of the
area
▪ Reflects survey process, analysis and policy formulation
▪ Systematize and simplify work and discussion
▪ To aid and simplify the job of planning
▪ To help in the process of planning in the particular area

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15 Methodological Steps

Step 01: The First Appraisal

▪ make an initial broad assessment on existing setting for
identifying quality, assets and defects
Step 02: The First Draft
▪ make some tentative solution based on first steps, identify
and focus to areas need more attention, further
investigation, suggestion for further work

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16 Methodological Steps

Step 03: Survey

▪ Broad survey (regional settings and regional survey)
• investigate the regional factors affecting the future of the town center:
• Population size, forecasts according to regional trend
• Assessment of future function and size of the town
• Traffic condition
• Traffic pattern, car ownership
• Availability and use of public transport
• Long term forecast of traffic growth
• Limitations imposed by inadequacies of present road system
▪ Detail survey

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17 Methodological Steps
▪ Detail survey (Town area survey)
• Land use
• Property value
a) Comparative cost: comparative cost of acquiring property in different parts
b) Current use value: current value significantly lower than potential
• Property character
a) Features and buildings worth keeping
b) needing improvement
c) ready for redevelopment
• Pedestrian movement: flow, volume, meeting place, congestion, require facilities, safety
• Vehicular traffic
a) Volume and flow direction at different time of day and year, trip purpose, type of
vehicle, through traffic, local traffic
b) Servicing: access, loading. Servicing, storage
c) Public transport: number of passengers, route, station
d) Parking: number, location, duration

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18 Methodological Steps

Step 04: Analysis

▪ Prospects of change
▪ Need for change to reduce problem and improve facilities
▪ Opportunities for planned change:
• availability, ownership and existing condition of property
• redevelopment value
• number of proposal
▪ Likely rate of implementation
▪ Broad program of priority

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19 Methodological Steps

 Step 05: Proposals

▪ Map content
• A broad land use framework, Coordinated policy of renewal, Guide for renewal
activities
• A firm road and traffic pattern, Facilitate segregation of vehicles and pedestrians
▪ Land use pattern
• Suitability for conservation, improvement, redevelopment
▪ Building densities
• Achievement of a desirable height and massing of building
• Balance between street and car parking capacities
• Encourage redevelopment where required and allow scope for building design
without attracting more traffic than capacity

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20 Methodological Steps

Step 05: Proposals

▪ Traffic system
• Safe pedestrian movement
• Building access
• Traffic circulation
• Location of public car parking
• Link roads
• Additional traffic measures
▪ Programming
• Intended phasing of the main proposals
• Series of phases: each complete and feasible

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21 Methodological Steps

Step 06: Design

▪ Detailed layout and three dimensional design
▪ Need of the designer must be recognized
▪ All the planning process and need of the area recognized
▪ Opportunities to be given for skills to be employed

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22 Case Study: Motijheel Commercial Area, Dhaka

 The CBD is now encountering many problems,

including -
▪ severe traffic congestion during morning and
evening peak hour
▪ unplanned construction of high rise buildings
▪ inadequate parking spaces and hence reduction in
effective road width by on-street car parking
▪ concentrated development surrounding the CBD
allowing no room for horizontal expansion
▪ underutilization of vacant lands and so on
 Given the rapid rate of growth, the situation will
only deteriorate further in future unless some
preventive measures are not taken immediately.
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23 Case Study: Motijheel Commercial Area, Dhaka

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24 Case Study: Motijheel Commercial Area, Dhaka

Probable Proposals –
▪Firstly, the bus stops should be relocated from the intersections to the
links of the main roads. They can be relocated on the three major
roads of the Motijheel C/A, within a distance of 300-400 meters, in
accordance with the standards maintained by various countries.
▪Also since buses of various routes and companies operate in the
area, the stoppages should be located in a cluster where each cluster
will consist of tickets of all possible routes.

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25 Case Study: Motijheel Commercial Area, Dhaka

Probable Proposals –
▪ Even though almost 84 percent of the trips are made by pedestrians and non-
motorized traffics, they often remain neglected during the planning process. As a
result, non-motorized vehicles like- rickshaws, which are comparatively
affordable and environment friendly, get banned from most of the major roads.
This situation can be avoided by providing separate lanes for non-motorized
vehicles, pedestrians, public buses and private cars.
▪ The street hawkers who greatly disrupt the free movement of pedestrians should
not be evicted from their current location only to improve the congestion
situation of the CBD. Rather, they can be relocated to a separate place as they
play an important role in the informal economy of Dhaka City. Provisions should
be made along with the pedestrian precincts to accommodate these informal
commercial activities.

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26 Case Study: Motijheel Commercial Area, Dhaka

Probable Proposals –
▪ On-street parking problem in Motijheel C/A can be solved in two steps. The first
step involves the enforcement of full restriction on on-street parking. The second
step is to provide adequate number of parking spaces that will serve the
demand. Low-storied buildings should be replaced by high-storied buildings that
will provide an increasing amount of parking spaces.
▪ There are some underutilized lands in Motijheel where low storied buildings (less
than 6 storied) are located in a clustered manner. These buildings should be
demolished and reconstructed with a minimum height of 10 stories.
▪ Adaptation of this strategy will ensure optimum utilization of land as well as
facilitate vertical expansion of Motijheel by providing more space for future
commercial and economic development.

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Thank You, and

The End

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