ABSTRACT

Urban codes have a profound influence on urban form, affecting the design and placement of buildings, streets and public spaces. Historically, their use has helped create some of our best-loved urban environments, while recent advances in coding have been a growing focus of attention, particularly in Britain and North America. However, the full potential for the role of codes has yet to be realized.

In Urban Coding and Planning, Stephen Marshall and his contributors investigate the nature and scope of coding; its purposes; the kinds of environments it creates; and, perhaps most importantly, its relationship to urban planning.

By bringing together historical and ongoing traditions of coding from around the world – with chapters describing examples from the United Kingdom, France, India, China, Japan, Australia, South Africa, the United States and Latin America – this book provides lessons for today’s theory and practice of place-making.

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

chapter 4|24 pages

The Ideal and the Real

Urban Codes in the Spanish-American Lettered City

chapter 5|18 pages

Paradigms for Design

The Vastu Vidya Codes of India

chapter 6|19 pages

Prescribing the Ideal City

Building Codes and Planning Principles in Beijing

chapter 8|21 pages

Adelaide's Urban Design

Pendular Swings in Concepts and Codes

chapter 9|22 pages

Coding in the French Planning System

From Building Line to Morphological Zoning

chapter 10|21 pages

Coding as ‘Bottom-Up' Planning

Developing a New African Urbanism

chapter 12|17 pages

Conclusions