Design Good Streets

Street is the simplest element of urban form. It is a physical entity, which integrates not only the buildings that define it, but also the community that it sustains. The process of understanding cities is very expansive. Where and how does the process begin, and what does it lead to? Answers to such questions must materialize from the roots, or the basic elements that define a city. The study attempts to develop a methodology to understand the intricacies of one such element of the urban form - the street, the simplest yet most important element. Any attempt to understand the meaning of streets as well as their role in the process of human communication and interaction requires a conception of the nature of the relationship between man and his environment, But, what we are interested in here is to understand what actually makes a good composition of the street. Each of the four fundamental characteristics of a street’s complete physical environment that are essential in any good street, discussed below, and concluded with “quality statements” about the physical characteristics of street environment.