Urban design studentship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Urban design studentship - Essay Example Studying design in the context of urban locations is essential to practical training because of the importance of being able to see real people within the designed spaces. The importance of the understanding the urban spaces as a means of understanding the people that live there is emphasized by the development of urban archaeology, a study â€Å"concerned with the reconstruction of the natural and human environment within which and as part of which human actions take place† (Chapter 8, 2008). This is because the whole purpose of urban design is to create a pleasing â€Å"visual effect of building masses, connections with people and places, creation of spaces for movements, urban amenities and public realm, and †¦ improving the overall townscape† (Government, 2006). In working out the management of a specific place, there are invariably a number of people involved in the process and, when becoming enveloped within the design process, it is often too easy to forget to consider the actual use of the spaces being designed, the history involved and the personal connections that have been made with the space. â€Å"There is a core group whose understanding of the relationship between urban structure, spaces and buildings, and ability to develop three-dimensional concepts is central† (Olszewski & Pudlowski, 2001). This understanding can only be acquired by experience. Practical experience of designed spaces enables the urban designer to begin understanding the various ways in which people have used a particular location in ways that are difficult to simulate using tools such as augmented reality. â€Å"Sensations triggered by ‘grasping’ and ‘moving’ aid the designers’ cognitive process and their awareness of ‘being inside’† (Seichter & Schnabel, 2005), but the actual physical space remains difficult to understand in the virtual environment. However, the difficulty remains how to experience the nature of the people, culture and locations