I have self-published The Equations of Urban Design after completing two prior books with McGraw-Hill. The content of “Equations” is the culmination of an effort I’ve pursued over a lifetime, but have only been able to resolve with the derivation of equations that are included in the book. I’ve always believed that improved credibility was needed to lead us toward shelter for growing populations within geographic limits that protect our quality and source of life. The equations of urban design are my answer to this search for a language that can increase the credibility of planning design recommendations. They empower the measurement, evaluation, prediction and definition of results that can consistently improve the quality of the places we create and preserve more of the land they depend on for survival.
I included a CD with my first two books. It included forecast
models to predict the shelter capacity of land.
Growing populations are building increasing amounts of shelter to protect their
activities on land that is not inexhaustible, and has always had a more
fundamental purpose. A better method of measurement, evaluation, prediction,
and direction has been needed to reconcile the shelter demands of a population
with the capacity of land that is its source of life. Historic approximations
were not based on algorithms serving master equations, however. They were based
on the centuries-old method of incremental architectural calculation that has
been one step short of integrated derivation and algebraic expression. The
geometric emphasis has prevented the formation of a scientific language capable
of measuring, evaluating, and predicting the spectrum of shelter intensity and
its impact on our physical, social, psychological, environmental, and economic
quality of life.
Before I go any further, I should explain that shelter capacity is
the sq. ft. of gross building area planned or present per acre of buildable
project area. It is produced by specification values assigned to the topics in
a building category template but this has not been documented or correlated in
the past. You will discover that there are only six building classification
categories on the planet, and that this makes shelter capacity and intensity
measurement, prediction, evaluation, and direction feasible.
The mathematical correlation of specification values for each
building category and location is the missing link needed to correlate
capacity, intensity, activity, and context on limited land areas; and we must
improve our knowledge of intensity before we can begin to preserve land and
understand the implications of choices within the intensity spectrum. The
Equations of Urban Design has been written to support the research needed
to improve this knowledge - and introduce the leadership language needed to
guide the formation of shelter on a planet with limited capacity and diminishing
patience.
Shelter form, function, and appearance decisions are built upon building
category choices and specification decisions that determine the building mass, pavement,
intensity and intrusion that will be offset by unpaved open space and placed on
land; but the intensity of these choices cannot be evaluated with our current
incomplete methods of classification, measurement, evaluation, prediction, and
correlation. This has contributed to excessive intensity, expanding
deterioration, sprawling reaction, unlimited consumption, and inadequate
planning credibility.
A new language is needed, and this is the objective of the
building classification system, design specification menus, mathematical
algorithms, master equations and forecasting panels of shelter capacity and
intensity prediction. This language can define the massing options and
intensity implications of shelter formation decisions within the urban form of
city design.
The design specification topics associated with a building design
category and its forecast model are the key to shelter capacity measurement,
evaluation and intensity prediction, but the complete list of topic values for
each category has been incomplete and mathematically uncorrelated in zoning
ordinances. This has contributed to the random, arbitrary, conflicting, and
uncertain leadership symbolized by the excessive intensity and profligate
sprawl we find at both ends of the shelter spectrum in our cities. This has
often been referred to as a city’s pattern and its harmony as discordant.
The topics listed in a forecast model can be measured at existing
building locations to build the topic knowledge needed to repeat success and
avoid failure. This is the knowledge needed for planning leadership, and it
will not compromise traditional design efforts associated with the form,
function, appearance, and internal subdivision of the buildings that follow.
A research emphasis based on the consistent measurement and
evaluation of existing building specification topics will inevitably lead to
correlated topic parameters for each building category, activity, and location.
This is critical knowledge, since building categories aggregate to form the
shelter anatomy of cities and the quality of life within their neighborhoods.
These are served by a city’s arteries of movement and life support but remain
unrelieved by arteries of open space in most cases.
The allocation of activity within a city’s total shelter capacity is
a major determinant of financial stability. Unfortunately, the successful
balance of land use allocation for capacity, intensity, activity and economic
stability will require more than the random results produced by conflicting
opinion and competing market forces. The data required to build credibility and
convince others of the critical decisions needed to balance land use allocation,
economic stability and quality of life within geographic limits has yet to
begin in earnest.
It may be helpful to realize at this point that a building is
currently defined by the activity present or proposed such as a drugstore, bank
or gas station; but the activity may change over time. This naming convention
by activity has distracted us from a more fundamental building classification
system that supports the equations of urban design. This has limited our
ability to correlate shelter capacity and activity with economic stability,
quality of life and environmental preservation.
The values assigned to the specification topics of a building classification
category determine the shelter capacity and intensity that will be produced on
the project’s buildable land area. The type and scope of occupant activity
determines its economic productivity. Its appearance may change with the
activity sheltered, but its gross building area is a more permanent feature of
the percentage values assigned to its design specification topics. These are
the decisions that determine capacity, intensity, context, and economic
potential; and these quantities can be measured at existing locations to build
knowledge. They are also the values that can be correlated and prescribed as a
foundation for the form, plan, appearance, context and economic stability of
the project that follows.
The forecast models mentioned are available and could be provided
on a web site for international use, but they await someone with the business
interest, initiative, capital and skill required to make a prototype into a
product.
