Urban Design between Theory and Practice

COPYRIGHT NOTE This paper may be cited or quoted in line with the usual academic conventions. It must not be used for commercial purposes or gain in any way, or published without the author's explicit permission. ABSTRACT This paper summarizes and concludes a part of my PhD-project, Vision, Plan and Reality, which is currently in the phase of completion. The paper is organized into four parts. The introduction offers a brief description the project thesis and buildup. The PhD-project investigates normative as well as procedural aspects of urban design in theory and practice, coupled with a similar investigation of planning and urban theory. In the second part of the paper, the project is summarized with respect to the normative aspects of urban design and its related fields. The third part summarizes the normative aspects of the two urban development histories, which make up the empirical part of the project. The two cases have been picked from the context of Danish urban planning in the 1990s. The final part of the paper concludes on the aspect of normativity in urban design on the basis of the findings in the PhD-project and attempts to outline some implications for the future of urban design, in practice as well as in theory and education.