The Concepts of Form Based Code.

Document Type : Research Studies

Authors

1 Assistant Lecturer of Architectural Engineering Department., Faculty of Engineering., El-Mansoura University., Mansoura., Egypt.

2 Associate Professor., Architectural Engineering Department., Faculty of Engineering., El-Mansoura University., Mansoura., Egypt.

3 Professor of Architectural Engineering Department., Faculty of Engineering., El-Mansoura University., Mansoura., Egypt.

Abstract

In the last century the rules governing land uses appeared, the first of these rules were the Housing laws of America in 1901, after that these laws were developed and were known as" Zoning Codes" which controlled land uses. Despite the success of these codes in solving many problems it created other problems such as the urban deformation, loss of identity, loss of social relationships, segregation between land uses, difficulty of movement. These challenges must be overcame for creating sustainable urbanism, but the zoning codes could not solve them so there is a need to search for innovative rules. At this point the "Form Based Code" appeared as a legislative tool which organizes urbanism in order to create sustainable urbanism. The research sheds the light on the form based code. The research aims to define the extent to which the concepts of fom based code have been realized in the reality of downtown Mansoura as an example of the Egyptian cities. This can be a guide for future development plans, which helps in defininwhat concepts must be focused on. The research defines the sustainable urbanism, the form based code and explains the local area of the study. The conclusion of this research reveals that there is a poor existence for some concepts of the code, and there is a great absence of most of them which causes many of architectural and urban problems ending up with the creation of a non-sustainable environment. From here there is a need to support the concepts which have poor existence to be realized fully, and search for the reasons of why other concepts were not realized, and search for ways to achieve them. 

Main Subjects