There are many important factors and themes within the built environment that must be addressed in successful urban design. Planning at this scale goes beyond act of designing into the realm of public policy, civil engineering, environmental studies, social science, real estate finance, and others. 

Literacy in many different fields is required in order to bring all the elements of a city together into a cohesive whole. Listed below are some of the themes and disciplines that are important to navigating the built environment. Each page provides general overviews of the topics and how they relate to urban design, as well as how they come together in the City of Philadelphia’s planning process.

Each city has different mechanisms in place, so we hope these pages help explain what role each topic plays in Philadelphia, and demystifies the public process by showing how a citizen can work within it to address issues concerning the built environment.

We see this as a community resource and invite your participation and input. Please help us as we build out this resource by sharing information: email praxis@design.upenn.edu with suggestions for content or to request links to your site.