Text A. Modern Urban Planning

1. 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.

2. Urban planning has undergone different changes during centuries. There have existed different schools and approaches to this problem. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

4. Are these statements true or false? If they are false, say why. Use the following phrases:

I can’t agree to this statement because…

Just the contrary…

I think…

To my mind…

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 outspace.

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

5. Study the text and answer the following questions:

1. What does urban planning include?

2. When did the concept of multifunctionality appear?

3. What were old city cores like?

4. What is the goal of the new-type multifunctional center?

5. Why is the task of creating a multifunctional center difficult and complex?

6. When is multifunctionality established?

7. What problems face the center team?

8. What technologies made the creating of multifunctional centers possible?

9. How can controlled air and light be applied?

10. What are the main means of vertical transportation?

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