Modern Urban Planning

THEME: Modern Urban Planning

Read, write and learn the following words and word combinations:

urban planning планування міста

urban renewal відновлення міста

to undergo піддаватися (чому-небудь)

human settlements поселення людей

city core середина міста

within the confines of в межах

attainable досяжний

goal мета

to counteract протидіяти

to waste time втрачати час

to establish створювати

to succeed досягати мети

to invent methods винайти методи

tools інструменти

to apply застосовувати

inner space внутрішній простір

assembly rooms зали для зборів

freight elevator вантажопідйомник

moving ramps  рухомі пандуси

multifunctional center багатофункціональний центр

Read and translate the text.

Urban (city, town) planning integrates land use planning and transport planning to improve the environments of communities. It can include urban renewal by adapting urban planning methods to existing cities.

Urban planning has undergone different changes during centuries. Different schools and approaches to this problem existed. Today one of them is the concept of the multifunctional center. It does not come out of a vacuum and represents, in fact, the natural and organic organization pattern which has existed since the founding of human settlements. On the other hand many of the old city cores grew not just as multifunctional centers but as omnifunctional centers. This was due to the fact that within the confines of the old cities, formerly protected by fortifications, all urban requirements had to be satisfied. This omnifunctionality is no longer necessary or attainable.

The new type multifunctional center cannot be developed with the goal of creating omnifunctional centers. The goal should be rather to combine as many urban functions of the center-conforming type as possible in a concentrated and land-conserving manner. The task of creating a multifunctional center is difficult and complex because it is necessary to place a maximum amount of enclosed space serving human activities on a minimum of land.

Multifunctionality is already established when just two different urban functions are combined (for example shopping facilities with employment facilities in offices). But the meaningfulness of multifunctionality grows when one succeeds in combining a large number of urban functions within one physical framework. The problem which faces the center team is that of inventing methods which make possible the most intensive use of land, avoiding, however, the disadvantages and dangers commonly associated with the term high density.

To create cohesive and concentrated multifunctional centers, then we will have to succeed in changing the relationship between productive surface and land surface considerably.

Technology has supplied planners with certain tools which have changed the design of structures from an engineering and architectural point of view. Outstanding in this respect is the progress made in creating conditions of controlled light and air on the one hand and in the field of vertical transportation on the other hand.

Conditions of controlled air and light can be applied to a large number of utilizations of inner space, such as meeting rooms, conference rooms, cinemas (which of course have to be dark in order to operate), lecture halls, storage rooms (whether for goods or automobiles), restaurants, etc. It is thus possible to establish a listing of urban functions for which conditions of controlled light and air are definitely preferable. Controlled light and air assist designers in utilizing land in a highly intensified manner.

The second tool is the development of vertical transportation. Technology has replaced the individual transportation medium, the climbing of stairs, through highly efficient and speedy public transportation, by means of electronic elevators, escalations, freight elevators, inclined moving ramps, vertical conveyer belt systems, etc. These inventions have made possible the construction of multistoried department stores, multilevel shopping centers and, of course, high-rise apartment buildings, office buildings, hospitals, etc. There is no doubt that we are on the threshold of new technological development concerning horizontal public transportation. In connection with the concept of the multifunctional center, both the already applied technology concerning vertical transportation and the already available but not yet applied technology concerning horizontal transportation will have to play a role.

Read the following statements and decide if they are true or false.

1. Urban planning deals with new cities.

2. The concept of a multifunctional center is rather old.

3. Many old city cores grew just as multifunctional centers.

4. A new type multifunctional center combines as many urban functions as possible.

5. Multifunctionality is already established when just three different urban functions are combined.

6. The task of creating multifunctional centers is not difficult.

7. It is possible to plan multifunctional centers without new technologies.

8. Conditions of controlled air and light are applied to a large number of utilizations of outer space.

9. Horizontal movement is the second tool which has made possible the construction of multistorey buildings.

Give Ukrainian equivalents for the following words and word combinations.

land use planning, transport planning, social environment, urban planning method, human settlement, concentrated land conservative manner, shopping facilities, employment facilities, productive surface, land surface, point of view, inner space, highly intensified manner, belt system, vertical conveyer, multistoried department store, there is no doubt, to play a role.