There is an emerging consensus that urban street layouts should be planned with greater attention to 'placemaking' and urban design quality, while maintaining the conventional transport functions of accessibility and connectivity. However, it is not always clear how this might be achieved: we still tend to have different sets of guidance for main road networks and for local streetgrids. What is needed is a framework that addresses both of these, plus main streets - that don't easily fit either set of guidance - in an integrative manner.

Streets and Patterns takes up this challenge to create a coherent rationale to underpin today's streets-oriented urban design agenda. Informed by recent research, the book looks behind existing design conventions and beyond immediate policy rhetoric, and analyses a range of first principles - from Le Corbusier and Colin Buchanan to New Urbanism.

The book provides a new framework for the design and planning of urban layouts, integrating transport issues such as road hierarchy, arterial streets and multi-modal networks with urban design and planning issues such as street type, grid type, mixed-use blocks and urban design coding.

Reviews

"classic, incisive, thought-provoking" - Journal of the American Planning Association
"a fascinating contribution, beautifully published" - Municipal Engineer
" opens up the horizon to a new era of street-oriented urban and transportation planning" - Transport Reviews

'Using a number of measures ... he is able to classify networks in a useful and insightful way.

'Marshall's contribution is the opening of a systematic exploration of network structures and the development of a number of new approaches to deal with the problems implied. I am sure that his book will become a key reference in the literature on urban and transport network form.' - both DISP 2005

'Well illustrated.' - Sebastian Loew, Urban Design, Summer 2005

'It's big. It's heavy. It isn't cheap. It is, however, a thoughtful and significant contribution to the growing body of formal knowledge on our urban realm.'

'His subtext - a gentle exploration of economic priorities and a philosophical approach to cities via traffic structures - ensures it should find its way out of the urbanist family and onto the laps of economists and opinion formers.'

'An entirely worthwhile study.' - all Trenton Oldfield, Civic Focus, Winter 2005/06

'This is an extremely informative and helpful book.' - Urban Morphology

'This is one of the most exciting books the reviewers have read this year ... [it] would be of the most interest to students and researchers ... as well as to practitioners who are looking for a useful guideline for better urban design.' - Transport Reviews

'Marshall's contribution is the opening of a systematic exploration of network structures and the development of a number of new approaches to deal with the problems implied. I am sure that his book will become a key reference in the literature on urban and transport network form.' - DISP 2005

'A thoughtful and significant contribution to the growing body of formal knowledge on our urban realm ... An entirely worthwhile study.' - Trenton Oldfield, Civic Focus, Winter 2005/06

'This is one of the most exciting books the reviewers have read this year ... [it] would be of the most interest to students and researchers ... as well as to practitioners who are looking for a useful guideline for better urban design.' - Transport Reviews

Book Information
ISBN 9780415317504
Author Stephen Marshall
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 596g