The anatomy of cities, blocks and their cellular urbanism
Learning about urban planning and anatomy of cities It is a long and continuous process, and of course, very complex, where having access to quality resources for understanding cities can make the difference between a livable city or literally "unhealthy - uncomfortable" for its inhabitants.
We can recognize that cities are growing by leaps and bounds where in most cases, the development of tall buildings and multiple types of blocks are increasingly common. This is creating a series of health problems for residents and to a greater extent for those households that have fewer resources.
How does the built environment affect health?… It is one of the big questions in overcrowded cities where large urban planning firms not only need engineers, architects or even mathematicians for urban planning with Big Data. Now they seem other figures such as health professionals who intervene in the urban process and the city anatomy and that they provide us with a more than interesting health map for urban settlements.
Diagram showing the correlation between the well-being and health of a neighborhood belonging to the Boyer Conferences.
We know that socioeconomic status is directly related to well-being and health, and that both factors are related to the neighborhoods people live in along with transportation systems and their jobs. For example…
- Those who live farthest from the infrastructures and different services of cities, which are typically related to the poorest communities, face the greatest challenges in terms of health.
- Other relevant incidents that fall on those residents who inhabit the outer suburbs is that they make longer trips, either to go to work, to go home or to access certain services. This is no mystery! But moving around with the car on a daily basis has detrimental effects on long-term health; They cause greater exhaustion, stress, less exercise is practiced, less family life is practiced and with friends, or we have less time for a healthier diet where fast food replaces a more balanced food.
- The lack of quality services and infrastructures, the scarcity of green space or the long commutes of work challenge health. Additionally, poor building design and construction, or the excessive noise it causes, can significantly contribute to stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and sometimes even conflict and violence with neighbors. What can appear as a mild threat, such as sleep deprivation, is linked to obesity, they serve as risk factors for many chronic diseases.
All this forms negative factors that affect our physical and mental health, and therefore, being able to better understand cities, their infrastructures and blocks or what is called cellular urbanism is necessary to improve the future of cities. In this sense, we want to address two resources that we find very interesting:
Urban blocks
Although from article 10 urban landscapes and the article on how to understand cities we began to reel off the growth characteristics of cities, we have found an «urban card game» very interesting where, by means of 50 cards, we analyze in a simple way the process of designing a city from the blocks.
Each 13 x 8 cm card shows in a different way the organization of the different blocks and blocks of a city. Where by means of an aerial view and an isometric diagram together with training on the density of the shape, the proportion of the area, the height, or the coverage among other parameters, the different typologies are analyzed. (It is in two languages, one side in English and the other in Spanish)
The different cards were created with the aim of using them as a tool for thinking, for debate, in order to offer alternatives and inspire urban planners and architects… The cards can be accessed and purchased from HERE.
Cellular urbanism
We can all recognize that different urban designs will determine a type of city, but the symbiosis between city blocks and roads has rarely been analyzed in order to illustrate its anatomy and identity as a city. A book written by urban planner Robin Renner with the title of Anatomy and identity of the city, has classified the anatomy of the urban landscape as if it were a kind of giant microscope.
By looking through the book, urban planners and architects can begin to learn and identify possible existing problems in specific areas where traffic networks and usage patterns overlap to understand what kind of urban "cells" our cities have or try to avoid future mistakes negative infrastructure.
For example, thanks to this research, it has been possible to know that residential blocks must be within radii between 360 and 720 meters, or that industrial areas that are normally close to traffic routes (railways, highways, rivers and lakes) can grow too isolated and with excessive sizes becoming real problems.
It is a book that helps cities maintain a healthy balance between functionality and livability.
We remember two articles of interest on urbanism on how to design roads playing games and the one on urban design manuals with more than 30 documents to learn.
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