Urban Design Modelling in Developing Countries

The book is about urban design practices in city transformation processes in developing countries and the inappropriateness of foreign design models. Colonial development policy inertia, subsequent spontaneous urbanisation, unsustained infrastructure investment, most settlements historically unplanned, contemporary economic globalisation trends and new city construction created the need for tackling spatial design. Study aimed to develop an appropriate urban design modelling in the developing countries, learning lessons from existing models with caution about political interference and enactments by politicians.The discussions and appraisal were basis for proposing the Integrated Builtscape model structured into 8 spatial components: routescape, buildscape, plantscape, viewscape, formscape, varietyscape, personalisationscape and legibilityscape. It was then evaluated in Cape Coast and Elmina, Ghana, under various transformation projects and was effective in assessing urban design content and transformation processes. Equally, fulfilled the achievement of urban sustainability due to its comprehensive nature. Challenges included funding, participation and political economy problems.