A significant part of the modern population of the Earth lives in cities. However, few people think about the territory on which his house stands. But the land for housing may not be in every place. The material presented below is intended for the most complete understanding of this issue.
Residential area: definition
Traditionally, before you start studying a particular issue, you need to thoroughly familiarize yourself with the terminology used in it. So, residential territories are plots of land that can be used to place a public, residential and recreational zone, as well as some individual elements of transport and engineering infrastructure. In addition, this may include other objects, the economic activity and placement of which do not require protective and sanitary zones due to their impact. However, it is also necessary to take into account that residential territories are a term that refers only to territories located within urban-type settlements and directly to cities. Thus, such a definition does not apply, for example, to villages.
Accommodation
The residential territory of the city on average occupies about 60% of the total area. Based on the definition, various industrial, entertainment and utility facilities can be placed on it. The organization of such territories has a clearly defined direction: the creation of effective and most convenient conditions for fulfilling the household and social needs of the population. This, in turn, helps to minimize time costs and increase the availability of various service points, cultural and entertainment facilities, as well as places of recreation.
Structure
The structure of a residential territory implies the presence of such objects as residential areas (neighborhoods, neighborhoods); roads and streets; green spaces intended for general use (parks, squares, gardens); sections of public, administrative and cultural institutions. Thus, a full-fledged and balanced unit of a person’s social life becomes a housing estate, which comprises a variety of institutions of both periodic and everyday cultural and everyday services of residents. The residential territory is intended for the mutual communication of the city districts with each other, as well as with industrial quarters, city centers, locations and stops of external transport, green areas and so on. In addition to all of the above, an important element is the system of pedestrian paths. Indeed, it is thanks to them that the townspeople can quickly get to the places of mass visit that interest them, located within the considered region. Therefore, for safety reasons, it is necessary to arrange such alleys so that they have a minimum number of intersections with the main streets.
Service Levels
Currently, any cultural and consumer services institutions are characterized by varying degrees of frequency of visits. In accordance with this, the following classification was developed, according to which three stages are distinguished. Let's consider each of them in more detail.
First stage
It includes devices and institutions that are visited daily by a large number of residents. Such residential areas are kindergartens, schools, grocery stores, as well as points of sale of essential goods, cafes, pharmacies, and consumer services. It is important to note that the availability of the previously mentioned places is within 350-500 meters.
Second stage
This category traditionally includes institutions that are visited at regular intervals. These include libraries, cinemas, clubs, sports centers, healthcare organizations, contact points and more. The radius of accessibility in this case is taken equal to 1000-1200 meters. This allows you to reach your destination at an average walking speed in 15-20 minutes, without using means of transport.
Third stage
The last group includes items of so-called episodic use. This means that city residents visit these places less often than the institutions described earlier. These residential areas are museums, theaters, business and administrative buildings, concert halls, specialized medical centers, urban sports facilities.
Main characteristics
When planning and subsequent development of microdistricts, a lot of criteria are used. One of them is the following most important technical and economic indicators:
1. Density of housing stock (net and gross). It is characterized by the total number of square meters of habitable area that fall on one hectare of territory.
2. The building density of the housing estate (gross and net). It is the ratio in percentage of the area occupied by buildings to the directly inhabited buildings. This does not take into account the territories involved in the organization of sports grounds, kindergartens and schools, as well as cultural and economic facilities.
3. The population density (net and gross). It is determined by the number of inhabitants per 1 ha of the territory of the considered microdistrict. It should also be noted that the general characteristic expresses the population density in relation to the entire so-called residential area of the microdistrict. This is the ratio of the number of people living there to one hectare of developed land. In relation to small cities, the entire territory is called a residential area, which, in turn, is divided into microdistricts. Large megacities can consist of a whole system of public and administrative centers and sub-centers. Their main task is to effectively maintain the buildings, which are located most remotely in relation to the city center.
Classification of development
When planning neighborhoods, many factors must be considered. For example, the estimated population, the development of zoning schemes, the placement of service buildings, the design of the location of houses and driving directions.
Let us consider the last criterion in more detail. Depending on the location of residential buildings relative to each other, four main areas of development can be distinguished: perimeter, lowercase, group and mixed. The first type is characterized by the location of the long sides of the houses along the streets, which limit the area. A distinctive feature of this direction is the simplicity of the architectural filling. However, there are several drawbacks: poor communication between courtyards and streets, poor orientation to the cardinal directions, low ventilation. In turn, line building stands out mainly by the parallel placement of buildings in relation to each other. This allows you to put each of them in the same conditions. However, the architectural construction of the streets suffers. The group type of development is used if the microdistrict has a significant size (about 10 ha). The location of houses in such situations is made by separate groups, each of which forms its own courtyard. Such placement has many advantages: excellent ventilation, expressiveness and diversity, architectural simplicity.