1

Site
Layout
In partial fulfillment for the
requirements of ARCHT 30

Silliman University
College of Engineering & Design
Department of Architecture

Prepared by:

ABENES, ZANDAS III

ABUGAN, ROZANNE
BANSE, ROBERT
ROCO, BENJO
SUPAT, EDITH JOY
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Table of Contents
I. Introduction………………………………………………………...3

II. Site Layout…………………………………………………………4

III. Landscape Ecology……………………………………………….6

IV. Residence and Residential Community Design……………….9

V. Designing for Security…………………………………………...16

VI. Commercial Site Design………………………………………...20

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I. Introduction
Sustainable site design must give prime consideration to the site’s impact to the
environment. As being part of a larger landscape and ecosystem, it should recognize
and retain as many of the functional elements of the site as is possible.

Thus, thorough analysis, deep understanding, and careful planning should be done in
order to achieve a sense of place in the site. The result should be able to foster
environmental growth as well as community development.
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I. Site Layout
Site Layout refers to how the proposed project lays upon the land—that is, how the
buildings and facilities will be organized.
It is determined:
● by the land itself
● by the values of the developer
● the local ordinances,
● the community standards, and
● the nature of the project

The designer is responsible in synthesizing these diverse parameters to be able to

visualize the actual layout of landscape features on the site. Thus the designer’s
analysis and sensitivity to the site inform the entire design process.

An awareness of a site might include knowing

● its history,
● its place in a larger landscape ecosystem,
● its real estate value, and
● its local political or economic
importance

Site design is a synthesis of all these concerns

in the context of the design objectives or
program.

Honoring particularly important historical

aspects of a site in some way should also be
considered if appropriate.

For example:
Redevelopment may be a
preferred environmental strategy in some
projects since it involves the reuse of
already disturbed land, and it is therefore
in a sense, recycling the site.
Redevelopment projects should attempt
to restore function wherever possible.
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In developing a new site, the environmental functions it performs should

be preserved, and its impact on the environment should be minimized.

Community standards are a critical component of the design process.

Some communities
such as in Santorini,
and Paris have
established their
respective architectural
identities. New
developments must try
to “fit in” to achieve a
coherent sense of
place.

Because of this, such communities may require new

developments or buildings to follow a set of
standards to belong in the community. (McDonalds,
Paris, Rue Saint Lazare in the 8th arrondissement.
The building dates back to 1892 and is a listed
historic monument.)
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II. Landscape Ecology

Landscape Ecology has provided important contributions in understanding how
developing the site can impact the environment. It is an interdisciplinary science whose
main concerns are:
● the fragmentation of the habitat
● biological diversity
● sustainable development
● and the design and management of the land resources.

Landscape ecology also studies the cause-and-effect relationships between

elements in the landscape and also promulgating the concept of total human
ecosystem.

“Total human ecosystem is the understanding that humans, along with all of our
activities and cultural complexities, are an
integral part of the landscape.”

And for those interested in site planning and

design, landscape ecology offers important key
informations. In a broad sense, the landscape
could be seen through four general elements of
vegetative mass and form:
● patches
● edges
● connecting corridors
● and mosaics.

Patches are large or small concentrations of

habitat type created by either human activity,
natural activity or some intervening disturbance.
An example are parks such as the Central Park
in central borough of Manhattan, New York City
(Image on the left). Patches can be either
beneficial or degrading conditions for the site
depending on its character, size and location.
One such as Central Park is great benefit in the
urban areas of Manhattan since it provides a
pleasing scenery and much needed natural fauna
in the built environment. Another example are
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islands which are degrading forms of patches, which are disconnected areas isolated
from the rest of the ecosystem.

Edges or Ecotones, as the

name implies, are found at the
boundaries between different
habitat types (Image on the left).
It is here where interaction
between habitats occur and
are transition zones of these
habitats. There are many kinds
of ecotones such as
forest/grassland,
grassland/desert, tundra/forest,
forest/marsh, land/freshwater,
land/salt water,
groundwater/surface water, and
forest/ riparian zones. Zones
that transition from upland to
open water are also known as littoral zones. As transition zones they are the most
productive areas of the habitat even more productive than the areas that they connect.
This is because edges or ecotones are where most animal activity happens such as to
feed, drink water or mate. In addition, ecotones are buffers where changes in water
elevation can be absorbed or areas of increase competition happens. As buffers, they
act as filters as well. Natural ecotones are complex curvilinear soft transitions of the
areas they border. While ecotones made by human activity are usually the opposite,
abrupt and straight they provide little buffer or transition with what it connects.

Connecting corridors are pathways from one patch to another. As development and
farmland slowly invade the natural habitat, more and more of these habitats are
becoming isolated or cut up into patches by linear developments such as highways and
rail lines which are preventing the movement of wildlife. And although not all linear
developments divide these habitats, it is the site planners duty to recognize these
patches and provide connections between them through careful studies of the behavior
and habits of the animals and plants that will use the corridor.
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The Banff National Park animal overpass in Canada (See Image Above) is an example
of an ingenious solution to fragmentation. These six animal overpass bridges have
become the connecting corridors for indigenous wildlife such as the Canadian Moose to
pass over the highway. Animals have used the six overpass bridges more than 200,000
times since monitoring began in 1996.

Mosaics refers to the overall

pattern of patches and
connectivity which is beyond the
scope of the land development
project. It is important that the
designer will have a general
understanding on how the site
fits into the larger landscape
mosaic surrounding it even
before the planning process
begin. With this broader
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understanding, the site planner is better equip to incorporate the principle of patches,
edges and connection into the plan.

III. Residence and Residential

Community Design
The primary objective in residence and residential community site planning is to provide
a site that is a desirable place to live for the intended users.

The most desirable communities are most often those that:

● allow a maximum of pedestrian access to the necessaries of life (schools, work,

shops, and the like)
● provide for easy transit in and out of the neighborhood.
Other characteristics of such communities are:

● Human-scale streets and buildings, lots of well-developed trees to soften and

temper the streetscape, and diversity in the social and architectural makeup of
the community
● Security and safety are often cited as important.
● Local streets have a coherent pattern of circulation.
● Houses or residential units are arranged to provide variation and visual interest.
Lot layouts and character are the most important elements of the typical residential
development project. Valuable lot amenities may include the presence of trees, lot
shapes and sizes, views, and accesses to water.

At early stages of the site analysis, it is important to begin to identify home sites.
Generally, this is done using topographic mapping of the site and walking the entire site
to identify valuable locations or site features.

Home sites are found by determining where it would be nice to live; it is

fundamentally a simple process. A good location is a combination of its surroundings,
access, and amenities, as well as more subjective attributes. The sites and layout are
designed to minimize impact and maximize site value.

The layout of a residential development is part of an overall community design

that also includes recreation facilities, schools, shops, offices, and religious institutions.
The larger community thus forms a context into which any new development must
fit, and fit well. Site planners and developers need to consider how a proposed project
will relate to existing or future features within the lifestyle choices of the future
inhabitants as well.
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The key to a successful residential design lies in how effectively the design creates a
sense of place and relates to the end user. These objectives are achieved in many
ways:

● Some sites have certain natural features that will automatically

connect the site to its users and that may be worked into the design.
● Other projects must rely on the combination of the housing type and
landscape architecture to create the feeling on the site that attracts
and holds residents.
Design professionals should expect the push for development to continue in
response to the growth and resettlement of our population. They should also
expect the concerns over the environment, sustainable development, and the
character of a community to continue and grow.

For example:

To create a sense of place and relating the site to the residents, Frank Lloyd
Wright’s Usonia, New York was made as a shared ownership community. In
other words, rather than owning a subdivided parcel of land, residents held a
percentage of the total project based on their investment providing strong
incentives for neighbors to help each other. Also, the community often joined in
during the construction phase enhancing the feeling of community.
Wright designed the site plan as a series of circles, each with an area of
approximately an acre, with a home in the middle. The effect of this was to leave
plenty of land undeveloped (even if all the circles had been tangent to each
other, pockets would have emerged), and to give all stakeholders equal amounts
of land.
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Lot layout alternatives

● The grid layout (top image on the right) is an efficient

way to subdivide property, but it can be monotonous,
especially for residential areas. The key advantage of the
grid layout is the relative ease it provides for finding one’s
way and the maximization of lots it allows per linear foot of
street. However, the straight streets of the familiar grid
layout often invite higher vehicle speeds than are
desirable, especially where wide cart ways are used.

● In contrast, curvilinear streets (bottom image on the

right) are far more interesting visually and may help to
manage vehicle speeds. However, this design is
somewhat less efficient with regard to lot count and may
sometimes be confusing especially for older
residents.
There are alternatives to the traditional grid
layout, as higher house-lot densities have become
more common. A variety of different lot configurations
have evolved to accommodate the smaller lot sizes
and traditional or familiar housing types. For the most
part, small-lot single-family home strategies are of
one of five types:

● deep narrow lots

● wide shallow lots
● alley lots
● Z lots
● clustered lots
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Deep narrow lots.

The deep, narrow lot configuration allows for a familiar lot and house pattern with the
garage and front of the house facing the street. Garages are often designed close to the
front of the lot, often in front of the house façade to maximize the amount of yard space
behind the house. However, this tends to create an unattractive street view of all garage
doors and provide for only minimal backyard privacy. This may be offset if special
attention is paid to the location of windows in adjacent units and if visual landscape
barriers are used.

Wide shallow lots.

Wide shallow lots are an alternative to the deep narrow lots which allows for a standard-
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width house and garage and conveys the feeling of a traditional neighborhood. It creates
a feeling of a larger lot and space between units by presenting its longest dimensions
along the street frontage. However, wide shallow lots are not as desirable as deep
narrow lots because the wider lots are more expensive and there is less useful yard
space. Cost in developing the lot may also be higher since there are fewer units per
linear foot of road and utilities. The backyard of the wide shallow lot offers little privacy,
especially if two-story homes are constructed. However, the use of fencing and
appropriate landscaping can increase privacy.

Alley lots.

In an alley lot the garages were located in the back of the properties, and access to
these was over a common alley way. As a result, the streetscape is all house fronts
without the view of driveways or garage doors. And even though paved alley increases
development costs, many of the traditional neighborhoods using the alley layout have
narrower streets and lots that offset the additional cost of the alley. However, due to
increase maintenance some municipalities resist the alley arrangement, but in other
cities the alleys are not public rights-of-way but are by neighborhoods through a
common access easement and maintenance covenant. Projects with alleys provide ideal
utility corridors.
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Z lots.

The term Z lot is used to refer to a layout in which the house is placed on or very near to
one property line and is called a zero-lot line. Such lots are said to resemble a Z—hence
its name. In some configurations the lot on lines may jog around the building to create a
more interesting space. The Z lot is often slanted relative to the street to increase the
appearance of lot width. Houses are designed to increase light and maximize privacy
with the use of strategically located windows and entranceways. Some Z-lot
developments provide special maintenance easements or even contractual
arrangements like condominium agreements to provide access to buildings for
maintenance. Easements along lot lines may be difficult for Z-lot configurations.

Clustered lots.
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Cluster designs have become more common in recent years because they work with the
planning goals of communities. In general, the principle behind the cluster design is to
allow the same number of units on a tract as would be there normally but to group the
units into clusters of greater density. A density bonus is sometimes allowed to
encourage the preservation of open space. Cluster development can reduce the visual
impact of new development on a community as well as reduce the amount of negative
environmental effects. It allows developers to utilize the land and preserves valuable
natural areas, agricultural land, riparian zones, and so on. Cluster developments are
usually welcome because they minimize the impact of the development and are
sensitive to rural character, the nature of the site, and the community. Effective and
successful cluster developments may also serve to establish a quality threshold for other
future projects.
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IV. Designing for Security

As years pass, there is an increase in awareness of the role of design in public spaces in
crime prevention and general security. Although there are many other social and
economic influences with more impact, it is important to take note that design has
demonstrated that it is possible to decrease crimes through improving security and the
overall community.

Crime prevention through environmental design

Crime prevention through environmental design or CPTED is only part of a much larger
strategy where its most successfully conducted together with community efforts.
According to Rob White of the University of Melbourne, CPTED has two schools of
thought:
● To study how places can be designed and built to be safer simply to create
better-quality places.
● To recognize certain situations can be prevented through avoiding specific
trouble or hot spots, which is described as “situational prevention”.

We should all know that design alone is not the answer. To discourage crime, we must
create environments that make it hard for criminals and encourage other desirable
activities.

Typical hot spots for crimes

● Alleys with poor lighting utilities
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● Accessible abandoned spaces that are inviting for rapes and assaults

In the United States abandoned malls such as the image above has become
breeding grounds for all kinds of crimes, such ashi rape and drug trade. These
malls are usually found near residential areas and are easily accessible.

There is no definite formula for the design of defensible space. Therefore, each
planning effort requires planners to thoroughly understand the physical and social
environment of a neighborhood.

According to Adam Graycar, there are 3 elements for a crime to occur:

● the offender
● the target
● and the absence of a capable guardian

A “capable guardian” refers to all social, political, and design strategies used to
prevent crime.

Territory, access, and surveillance

There are three aspects of Defensible-Space Design:

● Territory
● Access
● Surveillance

Territory refers to private and public spaces. It is established by having recognizable

distinctions between spaces. These distinctions can be made using:
● textural changes
● elevation changes
● barriers
● visual barriers
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● psychological barriers

This small backyard uses a combination of textural (masonry pavers & pebble path),
elevation (staircase and elevated stone deck), psychological (square deck in contrast
with the circle grass creates a psychological barrier) and visual barriers (tall shrubs and
fence provide visual barrier to the outside) to create an intimate space for the user.

Access refers to the control of providing and restricting access. However it is important
to understand that even though blocking off streets can maybe be useful it is usually not
the prefered method. Instead, other street designs can be employed such as
● intersection narrowing
● S curves
● dual-use streets
● one-way streets
● turn restrictions
● bollards

In addition, physical access can also be restricted through a method known as target
hardening, which involves the installation of fences, gates and other restrictions. Using
low fences, walls, signs and certain colors is usually enough to tell users the distinction
between the spaces. These symbolic barriers provide subtle identity to an area and
creates a more acceptable sense of space. However, spaces that does not indicate any
use or control within a neighborhood can create unwanted behavior.
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Surveillance refers to people being seen as both the observers and the observed or in
other words seeing and being seen. This is done in order to increase the degree of
visible surveillance in a neighborhood. An example is by opening more windows and
doors onto the street so that people inside and out can both see each other. This can be
done in places where it is a point of congregation such as a playground and porches
which encourages residents to see and be seen. Good surveillance reduces
opportunities to be unobserved and increases the risk of being caught, effective design
limits the opportunities for access and escape and protects the building and people.

Lighting helps improve security and provides important visibility to create special effects
and feelings in the nighttime landscape. Distribution of light refers to how much light is
cast over a certain area.

Methods of installation:

● Uplighting (first image to the left)

- Is used to feature objects that can be viewed from a limited point of view;
source of light is located low and is pointed toward the object.

● Backlighting (middle)
- Sometimes used to feature a tree or shrub or other element with an unusual or
visually pleasing figure.

Moonlighting (third image from the left)

- Accomplished by using combinations of lighting carefully located high up in trees and low-
wattage ground-level lighting to illuminate branches and leaves.
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V. Commercial Site Design

Site Location

The layout of commercial sites is driven by the nature of the enterprise in addition to
the local ordinances and community practices and expectations. A key issue for the
developer and tenants is always location in the community, and site selection is
extremely important.

The ideal commercial site seems to have a hard-to-find but unchanging character. Every
community has sites that are successful despite having poor location and other sites that
never succeed regardless of the tenant or business that locates there. A site analysis
that studies only the development potential or the visibility and traffic past a site often
cannot identify the underlying cause of success or failure by itself.

Some of the factors that contribute to the success of a commercial site are
related to demographics:
● Is the site located near enough people with enough disposable income?
● Is the business mix able to draw people either as a destination or on an
impulse?
● Does the mix of tenants work well so that together they draw more
business than any one tenant would draw alone?

Accessibility

Access to the project site is critical. Accessibility refers to the ability of the customer or
client to be able to get into the shop or business. The most important part of accessibility
is visibility. Customers and clients generally need to see the development. Effective
signage, combined with distinctive landscaping and lighting can provide way finding
guides to customers without sacrificing visual or environmental quality.

However the most significant negative impacts are associated with automobile traffic
and parking, but the intrusion of bright lights and noise can also be problematic.

Retail operations have a strong preference to be able to show the public the
available parking and its proximity to the door. They often resist attempts to
reduce the visual impact of parking (by putting it behind the building or screening
it) in the belief that if customers do not see convenient parking, they will go
somewhere else.

The designer must also accommodate delivery and distribution traffic on the site. In most
projects these activities are located behind the building.
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Parking Layouts

In a strip layout the parking lot is necessarily stretched out before the entire strip so that
all stores have an appearance of adequate parking immediately in front of them.

In a U-shape layout, a concentration of parking spaces would be in front of every store,

so a parked car would be closer to more stores arranged in a U shape than in a strip
shape. (The stores at the ends of the strip or the ends of the U will always have fewer
nearby parking spaces than a store in the middle of the strip.) The U shape is therefore a
more efficient arrangement of space, and it requires less coverage on the site.
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Building Location

The location of a building on the site is a critical element of site planning in terms of the
building function. The site planner should locate the building in such a way that its
impact on the site is minimized, while its functions and design are maximized.

Selecting a location should be a combination of:

● managing the solar influences of the site and
● balancing the earthwork so as to achieve a balance between the building’s utility
and its esthetics

Locating proposed structures offers the designer the first opportunity to focus the design
of the site in a sustainable direction. The building location fixes the limits and extent of
the site disturbance. Recognizing that the disturbance of the site impacts the entire
landscape well beyond the limits of the property line, the building location decision
allows the designer to look for ways to maintain or re-establish links to other parts of the
landscape ecosystem. Care should be taken to protect stream corridors, wetlands, and
other important landscape features. Clustering buildings reduces the size of the
disturbed area and allows the designer to minimize road length and paving.

The manner in which a building is situated on a site can have important implications in
the energy costs of heating and cooling.

For northern areas buildings should be located on the portions of the site
that receive the most light during the hours of greatest sunshine, particularly in
the winter months. The building should be located in the northern-most part of
this area, but adequate distance from neighboring properties should be
maintained to allow for possible shading from nearby future development. Open
space should be located on the southern side of the building.Various studies
have reported that open space with a southern exposure is preferred over open
space with a northern exposure.
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While orientation on the site is important, building shape may be more important,
although site designers may not have influence over the shape of the building. Square
buildings are inefficient shapes for heating and cooling, though they tend to be more
efficient than long narrow buildings on a north-south axis. The best combination of
shape and orientation is an elongated
building on an east-west axis.

In northern latitudes in the

winter buildings orientated on an
east-west axis receive almost
three times as much solar
radiation on the south side of the
building than on the east or west.
This situation is reversed in the
summer where the roof, east, and
west sides of the building receive
more solar radiation than the southern side
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