We’re pleased and proud to announce The Urban Block: A Guide for Urban Designers, Architects and Town Planners, by Corstorphine & Wright Director of Urban Design, Jonathan Tarbatt and Kent School of Architecture Lecturer, Chloe Street Tarbatt, has been shortlisted for a National Urban Design Award 2021.
Following Jonathan’s earlier book ‘The Plot’, which was shortlisted for the same award in 2012, ‘The Urban Block’ charts the fall and rise of the block as the staple of urban form, and how its interrelationship with plots and streets makes up the urban tissue we experience in our day-to-day lives.
The book is split into four main chapters: Understanding the block; Defining the block; Designing the block and Illustrating the block (with case examples from around the world).
A key take-away from the book is that, while urban design promotes some types of block over others, there are opportunities for innovative designers to create new or hybrid block types. But in order to stretch the ‘rules’ (or even break them), it is vital to understand what those rules are…!
