Chapters 1 to 11 Combined - Century City

ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGEAND IMAGE: THE CREATION OFA “COMPOSITE FORM”In an integrated development suchas Century City, the objective is tocreate a sense of place and identity.Buildings should create a “compositeform or overall building landscape”where some buildings stand out dueto their meaning or importance,while others blend into thebackground. These “object buildings”become landmarks within a fairlyharmonious environment.A composite form is achieved by theuse of functional and formal linkingelements between buildings. That isthe objective of the design guidelinescontained in this report.Some of the principles used toachieve a composite form areanalysed overleaf with reference tothe photograph of Seaside Village.It is emphasized that the architectureof Seaside Village is not necessarilysuitable for Century City (which is ahigher density urban place), but theprinciples for achieving a compositeurban form are similar.The analysis overleaf makes the pointthat architects at Century City can usedifferent design elements, but need torespect the context of their buildingsto create a composite form.The photographs opposite illustrateexamples of a composite form. Thetop picture is of Lafayette square inWashington D.C, a higher densityurban environment that has emergedover many years. The lower pictureis of a lower density plannedenvironment (Seaside Village inUSA). While very different, bothpictures illustrate how the functionaland form relationships betweenbuildings are given more importancethan individual designs. The result isan integrated environment with anattractive composite form.Building Form ExamplePLANNING PARTNERS: CENTURY CITY URBAN DESIGN FRAMEWORK October 2005 11 REVISION 1