A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within the area of a building or comparable structure. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, and form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric. City blocks may be subdivided into any number of smaller land lots usually in private ownership, though in some cases, it may be other forms of tenure. City blocks are usually built-up to varying degrees and thus form the physical containers or "streetwalls" of public space. Most cities are composed of a greater or lesser variety of sizes and shapes of urban block. For example, many pre-industrial cores of cities in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East tend to have irregularly shaped street patterns and urban blocks, while cities based on grids have much more regular arrangements.
In most cities of the new world that were planned, rather than developing gradually over a long period of time, streets are typically laid out on a grid plan, so that city blocks are square or rectangular. Using the perimeter block development principle, city blocks are developed so that buildings are located along the perimeter of the block, with entrances facing the street, and semi-private courtyards in the rear of the buildings.[1] This arrangement is intended to provide good social interaction among people.[1]
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Since the spacing of streets in grid plans varies so widely among cities, or even within cities, it is difficult to generalize about the size of a city block. Oblong blocks range considerably in width and length. The standard block in Manhattan is about 264 by 900 feet (80 m 274 m). In Chicago, a typical city block is 330 by 660 feet (100 m 200 m),[2] meaning that 16 east-west blocks or 8 north-south blocks measure one mile, which has been adopted by other US cities. In much of the United States and Canada, the addresses follow a block and lot number system, in which each block of a street is allotted 100 building numbers. The blocks in central Melbourne, Australia, are also 330 by 660 feet (100 m 200 m), formed by splitting the square blocks in an original grid with a narrow street down the middle.
Many old world cities have grown by accretion over time rather than being planned from the outset. For this reason, a regular pattern of even, square or rectangular city blocks is not so common among European cities, for example. An exception is represented by those cities that were founded as Roman military settlements, and that often preserve the original grid layout around two main orthogonal axes. One notable example is Turin, Italy. Following the example of Philadelphia, New York City adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for a more extensive grid plan. By the middle of the 20th century, the adoption of the uniform, rectilinear block subsided almost completely, and different layouts prevailed, with random sized and either curvilinear or non-orthogonal blocks and corresponding street patterns.
A superblock, or super-block, is an area of urban land that is bounded by arterial roads and the size of multiple typically sized city blocks. Within the superblock, the local road network, if any, is designed to serve only local needs.
Within the broad concept of a superblock, various typologies emerge based primarily on the internal road networks within the superblock, their historical context, and whether they are auto-centric or pedestrian-centric. The context in which superblocks are being studied or conceived gives rise to varying definitions.
An internal road network characterised by culs-de-sac is typical of auto-centric suburban development primarily in Western countries throughout the 20th century. The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture's definition is rooted within this typically suburban conception:
Though the aim of such superblocks is generally to minimise traffic within the superblock by directing it to arterial roads, the effect in many cases has been to entrench automobile dependence by limiting pedestrian and cyclist permeability.Superblocks can also contain an orthogonal internal road network, including those based on a grid plan or quasi-grid plan. That typology is prevalent in Japan and China, for example. Chen defines the supergrid and superblock urban morphology in that context as follows:
In Soviet Union and post-Soviet states, a technical term out of construction industry is "residential massve" (Russian: , Zhyloi massiv). According to the definition, a residential massve consists of several of residential quarters (city blocks) that are associated by one architectural design (concept).[6] In a number of cities in post-Soviet countries, several city neighborhoods have names like massiv or masyv and appeared in the second half of the 20th century with the rapid expansion of cities. In Central Eastern Europe, which was once in the Warsaw Pact, several cities have residential areas filled with inexpensive housing of multi-story buildings known as panelk (panel buildings). Panel buildings of similar architectural type may be erected as one residential city quarter or bigger residential area as massve.
Superblocks were popular during the early and mid-20th century auto-centric suburban development. They arose from modernist ideas in architecture and urban planning. Planning was then based upon the distance and speed scales for the automobile and discounted the pedestrian and cyclist modes, as obsolete transportation vehicles.[7] A superblock is much larger than a traditional city block, with a greater setback for buildings, and is typically bounded by widely spaced, high-speed, arterial or circulating routes, rather than by local streets. Superblocks are often found in suburbs or planned cities or are the result of urban renewal of the mid-20th century in which a street hierarchy has replaced the traditional grid. In a residential area of a suburb, the interior of the superblock is typically served by dead-end or looped streets. The discontinuous streets served the automobile, as longer distances and the extra fuel required to go between destinations were not concerns, but at the pedestrian scale, the discontinuity of the roads added to the distance that must be traveled. The discontinuity inside the superblock forced automobile dependency, discouraged errand walking, and forced more traffic onto the fewer continuous streets. That increased demand for through streets, which led ultimately to the streets having more travel lanes added for cars and made it more difficult for any pedestrian to cross such streets. In that way, superblocks cut up the city into isolated units, expanded automobile dominance, and made it impossible for pedestrians and cyclists to get anywhere outside of the superblock. Superblocks can also be found in central city areas, where they are more often associated with institutional, educational, recreational and corporate rather than residential uses.
The urban planner Clarence Perry argued for use of superblocks and related ideas in his "neighborhood unit" plan, which aimed to organize space in a way that was more "pedestrian-friendly" and provided open plazas and other space for residents to socialize. Planners, today, now know that the street discontinuity and the multi-lane roads associated with superblocks have caused the decline of pedestrian and bicycle use everywhere with the "sprawl" pattern. The traditional urban block diffused automobile traffic onto several narrower roads at slower speeds. That more finely connected network of narrower roads better allowed the pedestrian and cyclist realms to flourish. The superblock, at the scale suitable only for automobiles, and not pedestrians, was the means for ultimate automobile dominance by the end of the 20th century.[8] The same intention to facilitate pedestrian movement and socializing is captured by an influential 1989 conceptual design of a Pedestrian Pocket[9] (see diagram). It is, similarly, a superblock composed of nine normal city blocks clustered around a light rail station and a central open space. Its circulation pattern consists primarily of a dense pedestrian network which is complementary to but independent from the car network. Access by car is provided by means of three loops. This superblock differs from Perry's concept in that it makes it impossible for cars to traverse it rather than very difficult; it is car-impermeable.
In the 1930s, superblocks were often used in urban renewal public housing projects in American cities.[10] In using superblocks, housing projects aimed to eliminate back alleys, which were often associated with slum conditions.[10]
During its construction in 1960, Brazil's administrative capital, Brasilia, employed a similar concept on the Asa Norte and Asa Sul of the Plano Piloto that is still in use. Each block is part of a group of four blocks called "Superquadras", sharing common recreation spaces such as parks, soccer fields and pools. Pairs of Superquadras have a commercial street between them that provide goods and amenities for both. [11]
Superblocks are also used when functional units such as rail yards or shipyards, inherited from the 19th and early 20th centuries, are too big to fit in an average city block. A contemporary function which reflects ancient practices that also requires larger than typical blocks is the sports stadium or arena. Just as the Colosseum in ancient Rome, sports complexes require superblocks. The Providence Park stadium in Portland, for example, takes up four normal city blocks as does the equally large Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina. Other contemporary institutions, establishments or functions that use superblocks are: city halls like Government Center, Boston and Toronto City Hall; regional general hospitals or specialized medical centres; convention and exhibition centers, such as Exhibition Place in Toronto and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center; and downtown enclosed Shopping Malls such as Eaton Centre in Toronto, echoing the large gallerias of the 19th century. Cultural complexes, such as the Lincoln Center in New York City, often occupy a superblock achieved through the consolidation of regular city blocks. A recent[when?] superblock user is the merchandise distribution centre, which can range in area from one to ten city blocks. 152ee80cbc
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