ANALYTICAL STUDY OF URBAN FORMALIST MODELS SHIFTING IN THE PERIOD 1830 - 2021

Abstract

Urban design discipline synthesizes from evolutionary paradigms as a product of integrated thoughts of design models. Every urban design model consists of concerns and thoughts that are changing continuously. The formalist model is one of the urban design models that has its principles for shaping the built environment. However, the interrelationship and shifts issues among thoughts of all formalist models are not yet gathered and updated in a continuum manner. Therefore, this study aims to present the evolution of urban design concepts and models, with an emphasis on the formalist model. Furthermore, analyzing urban formalist models to discover relations among them through time. In order to do so, this paper is divided into two parts. The first part explains urban design models by applying historical and theoretical approaches, with a focus on the formalist model to provide an alternative framework for understanding the paper's goal. The other part follows an analytical approach for revealing links and relations between urban formalist models. The research results that some of the formalist models have a great influence on the other. For instance, the Beaux-Art movement, the parks movement, Camillo Sitte and Kevin Lynch's thoughts are prominent models that affected other formalist models and concepts. This gets a recommendation for building up more studies on the precedents urban formalist models, which have design principles that enrich contemporary urban designers' thoughts. An additional recommendation is the adoption of traditional urban design thoughts that support a quality of contemporary and public urban life requirements.