Classic Urbanism

From time to time there appears a concept of exceptional longevity. In architecture, the pre-eminent instance is the Vitruvian triad of Comoditas, Utilitas, e Venustas. This Roman epigram was propelled into immortality by Lord Burlington's felicitous translation as Commodity, Firmness and Delight.

It has thus passed down the centuries and remains authoritative, even if not always applied in practice; Commodity: That a building must accommodate its program; Firmness: That it must stand up to the natural elements, among them gravity; Delight: that it must be satisfying to the eye, is with the aberrant exception of the tiny, current avant garde, the ideal of architecture.

Urbanism unfortunately has not been fortified by a conceptual statement of equal power; one with the attributes that support the Vitruvian: the combination of technique and mystique. Technique, in the sense that the proposition of commodity, firmness and delight is undoubtedly useful, and essential. It is "true" in the sense that its refutation is more complex than its proposition, it supports Law of Parsimony that states that the best scientific explanation is the simplest one that fits the data. The mystique is no less tangible. In a translation that retains the Latinate, tripartite, equipoise but sheds the latinate gravitas for English agility.

As I have said, urbanism has not enjoyed its equal. In the pursuit of the refurbishment of this neglected field, I would like to begin a discussion in pursuit of comparably effective paradigm and, hope suggests, an equally felicitous rendering.

Let me propose the urban triad of Function, Disposition and Configuration as categories that would both describe and "test" the urban performance of a building.

Function describes the use to which the building lends itself, towards the ideal of mixed-use. In urbanism the range of function a first cut may include: exclusively residential, primarily residential, primarily commercial or exclusively commercial. The middle two being the best in urban performance although the extremes have justification in the urban to rural transect. An elaboration should probably differentiate the function at the all-important sidewalk level from the function above.

Disposition describes the location of the building on its lot or site. This may range from a building placed across the frontage of its lot, creating a most urban condition to the rural condition of the building freestanding in the center of its site. Perhaps the easiest way to categorize the disposition of the building is by describing it by its yards: The rearyard building has the building along the frontage, the courtyard building internalizes the space and is just as urban, the sideyard building is the zero-lot line or "Charleston single house" and the edgeyard building is a freestanding object closest to the rural edge of the transect.

The third component of the urban triad is Configuration. This describes the massing, height of a building and, for those who believe that harmony is a tool of urbanism, the architectural syntax and constructional tectonic. It can be argued that the surface of a building is a tool of urbanism no less than its form. Silence of expression is required to achieve the "wall" that defines public space, and that reserves the exalted configuration to differentiate the public building. Harmony in the architectural language is the secret of mixed-use. People seem not to mind variation of function as long as the container looks similar. It is certainly a concern of urbanism.

How to test this proposition, or to put it in American, pragmatic terms: How is it useful? Analysis on the basis of Function, Disposition and Configuration should be the first step in critically assessing a building. It is the most justified of analyses: its urban performance. To like or dislike the look of a building is of little interest, as it is ultimately only a matter of taste. But as a building affects a city by its function, its disposition or its configuration, then it is a matter of public interest and worthy of debate. All else is opinion.

The second useful promise of this triad is its affect on code writing. The renaissance of code writing that is one of the contributions of the New Urbanism should become a field of endeavor in itself, comparable to traffic engineering, or environmentalism. Perhaps Function, Disposition and Configuration could become the common language of this important discipline. The urban triad could be the means of recovering coding by designers from the grip of the lawyers and statisticians, within which it strangles, asphyxiating the vitality of the traditional city.