On Urban Architecture

The importance of contextual values in architectural design has been discussed widely both in practice and academia; however many buildings in our surroundings continue to be designed as objects with no regard for their contexts. In this book, an urban architectural design approach is offered as a solution for integrating architectural projects into their urban contexts so as to create better built environments. It is asserted in this work that a new definition of urban architecture that takes into account urban design, urbanism and landscape urbanism may provide a new means of integrating buildings into their contexts through the adoption of strategies developed in these fields. These strategies are investigated through an analysis of three contemporary case studies: the Olympic Sculpture Park for the Seattle Art Museum, the Kunsthal, and Borneo and Sporenburg. This book may act as a valuable reference for anyone dealing with urban contextual issues in architectural design processes, or those interested in architectural design in an expanded field.