Urban Design Glossary

Ground-floor facades with doors, windows, and engaging uses that create interaction between buildings and the street.

Converting existing buildings or infrastructure to new functions while preserving their physical character.

A zoning regulation requiring building facades to be placed at a specific distance from the street edge.

An intensive, collaborative design workshop bringing together stakeholders to develop urban design plans within a compressed timeframe.

Streets designed to accommodate all users safely, including pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, and motorists.

The number of people, housing units, or building area per unit of land, a fundamental metric in urban design.

Informal paths showing where people actually walk, often diverging from designed routes.

The proportion of building height to street width that creates spatial definition in the public realm.

An analytical mapping technique showing the relationship between built mass and open space in plan view.

The ratio of a building's total floor area to the size of its lot, used to regulate development density.

A zoning approach that regulates building form and character rather than land use.

Ebenezer Howard's concept of self-contained communities surrounded by greenbelts combining urban and rural benefits.

Design proportioned to the human body, creating spaces comfortable for pedestrian experience.

Construction on vacant or underused parcels within already developed areas, increasing density without sprawl.

Integration of residential, commercial, and institutional uses within a single building, block, or neighborhood.

A design movement promoting walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods with traditional town planning principles.

The collaborative process of shaping public spaces to strengthen community connections.

All publicly accessible spaces including streets, sidewalks, parks, and plazas.

The required distance between a building and the street or property line.

The continuous plane of building facades lining a street, creating spatial definition.

Low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment that test longer-term design interventions.

Higher-density, mixed-use development concentrated within walking distance of public transit.

The physical texture and pattern of a city formed by its buildings, streets, blocks, and open spaces.

The study of city form and how spatial structures evolve over time.

The design of signage, cues, and spatial organization to help people navigate urban environments.