SOME ASPECTS OF URBAN DESIGN IN KADUNA METROPOLIS
SOME ASPECTS OF URBAN DESIGN IN KADUNA METROPOLIS
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Date
1990-09
Authors
LUKA, BULUS ACHI
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Abstract
The capacity for natural and built elements to act as symbols
and to transform onefs mental picture of a place has been implicitly
understood and utilized for centuries in the building of cities.
In contrast to the intuitive and pragmatic application of urban
design aspects in urban development by rulers, recent analysis
suggest that the process can be rationalized and codified to act
as conceptual framework for plan preparation and implementation.
Such studies can be applied to a particular socio-cultural setting
in order to explore the implications of the findings in planning
and urban design policy for that setting.
This study attempts such an application, in which some aspects
of urban design as they relate to the Aims and Objectives of Urban
Planning and Development, are examined. The contextual analysis
1B based on Kaduna Metropolis, Capital of Kaduna State, Nigeria.
Essentially, the investigations cover the theoretical undertones
of urban design relevant to urban planning in Nigeria in general
and Kaduna in particular, in order to identify the options for articulating
same in plan preparation and development control. A wholistic
yiew is maintained as the basic approach for the analysis, with
landuse and legibility as the control factors. This is in view
of the scale of planning under question and the relative stability
of the factor chosen. Furthermore, all policy decisions and actions
ultimately are transformed in spatial terms.
This is by no means the only important property of relevance
to urban design, it is of special importance when considering
environments at the urban scale in terms of scale, size, time series,
complexity of space use and land as the fundamental platform for man's
activities.
The elements of the urban spatial composition were studied by
observation and field measurements articulated in sketches and
photographs. These were subsumed under four broad categories
forming the structural components of Kaduna urban design aspects.
These are landmarks, nodal points, areas of special interest and
regional elements. The factors responsible for these categorization
have been explained to be according to certain urban design principles
and concepts described with the aid of illustrations.
The study culminated into outlining general recommendations and
conceptual models for curative and preventive measures. This was
applied to Kaduna central area as curative measures.
The study revealed that urban design is a component of urban
planning. It offers a set of guiding principles which, when articulated
in plan preparation and control of development, provides the
foundation for a functional and aesthetically sensitive physical
environment.
At Independence, Nigeria inherited urban design aspects which
now feature alien techniques and standards that lack the expression
of the people's social and economic system. This has been accepted
and applied without question. The development control measures are
too general and do not provide the developer with satisfactory
guidance of what is acceptable on planning grounds. Thus they fail
to ensure that permitted devdopment blends into the built environment.
More fundamentally is the case that the imput on urban design
considerations during plan preparation stage is very minimal.
Evidence suggest that curative and preventive measures exist
for application of urban design aspects. Instead of handing over
city designs or policy positions as an ostensibly finished products,
physical planners should seek to write the rules for the significant
choices that shape the city. This is to be done within
an institutional framework that can be modified as times and
needs change.
Description
DEPARTMENT OF URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY
Z A R I A .
OCTOBER, 1390
Keywords
SOME,, ASPECTS,, URBAN,, KADUNA METROPOLIS