Evaluation of form-based codes and the image of Chennai, Tamilnadu

Abstract

The imageability of a city is the ability of the city dweller to form a coherent mental image or map of it. Lynch (1960) found that the people of the city have organized their city images using a set of common features: paths, landmarks, districts, edges and nodes. In an imageable space the people can contribute to building a coherent mental picture of the information of the environment. Ideally, the user becomes more and more effective in fulfilling information needs, every time he moves through the environment. The Form-Based Code (FBC) is a technique for regulating development to achieve a specific urban form, and it creates a predictable public realm by the regulation of the physical form primarily, and land use secondarily, according to the timeless principles of traditional urbanism. The components of the Form-Based Code address the building height, mass of the building, specific form of the building, scale of the building, building elevation details, relationship between the buildings, relationship between the building and the street, relationship between the building and the open spaces, orientation of buildings , building entrances from the street, design focused public participation process, the look and feel of the building, location of the building, frontage design, predictable public realm and other design elements like material, fenestrations, colour, roof form, shading, etc. In a city like Chennai, where we have a diverse architectural culture, and styles with different imageability at different parts of the city, we can adopt the Form-Based Code to enhance its imageability by adopting the hybrid coding method, which is integrated with the existing development regulations pertaining to that Context Specific Transect (CST) -a systemic approach with a systematic process.