Shelter is one of four divisions in both the Urban and Rural
Phyla of our Built Domain. It is served by its Movement, Open Space, and Life
Support Divisions, and is essential to our survival; but continues to consume
our source of life as it sprawls across the face of the planet in an unrestrained
belief that land is a commodity. It is a situation that cries out for a more
scientific approach to the provision of land for shelter capacity as populations
grow and migration patterns continue. (Shelter capacity is gross building area
in sq. ft. per related buildable acre.)
Six design categories are all that is needed to begin objective
classification of buildings in the Shelter Division. They currently consume
land without accurate mathematical correlation to the actual shelter capacity
of land, the activities contemplated. The intensity implied, and the public revenue
potential per acre consumed.
The land consumed for shelter is at best an approximation
related to the parcel or parcels available. Continued land consumption for an
expanding Built Domain is leading to increasing recognition that more sustainable
solutions must be found to make better use of an essential resource subject to
competing demands. Efficiency of land use has been an agricultural
preoccupation that is becoming an urban mandate. We have often been concerned
with the compatibility of adjacent activity but relatively helpless in the face
of expanding sprawl.
The consumption of land for shelter has often produced
random sprawl and excessive intensity because the tools needed to measure,
correlate, predict, and lead the design and construction of shelter capacity within
limited land areas are either missing or uncorrelated. We have attempted to
lead the planning and physical design decisions that produce our cities with a
legal format steeped in our social history of independent commandments. The
result has often been leadership contradiction and confusion because physical
design requirements are not independent social regulations. The values assigned
to their topics must be correlated with mathematical algorithms before a set of
value decisions can efficiently use limited geographic areas to shelter the activities
of growing populations when the goal is to protect both their source and
quality of life.
A set of correlated design specification values entered in
the forecast model template of a building design category defines the shelter
capacity, intensity, intrusion, and dominance implications planned or measured.
These value topics have been partially recognized but have remained incomplete
and mathematically uncorrelated. Shelter science can begin when they are
consistently listed, measured, correlated, and evaluated for each building
design category and activity group. This can build the knowledge needed to
understand, improve, and lead the results produced.
Fortunately, the shelter topics involved can be expressed
with equations. The relationship of these equations can be defined with
algorithms. This is the mathematical foundation for the building form,
function, and appearance that grows from these decisions. The mathematical relationships
between shelter and land have always been there, but we have been slow to
recognize their underlying presence in the forest of more tactical design
decisions that reside within specialties we call architecture, landscape
architecture, urban design, city design, and city planning. There is, however,
a foundation of mathematical decisions that can be correlated to define the shelter
capacity, intensity, intrusion, and dominance of shelter desired long before it
grows from the land; and it can be used to lead shelter growth within limited
geographic areas. This collection of building mass, parking, pavement, movement,
open space, and life support has often been referred to as an urban pattern or
composition; but these terms give the impression of organization when the
results have more often been scattered sprawl and/or unmeasurable intensity,
intrusion, and dominance. Science can begin when measurement becomes feasible.
SHELTER DIVISION CLASSIFICATION
The Shelter Division of a city contains six building design
categories classified by the parking that serves them. They are: (1) Buildings
with surface parking lots around, but not under, the building on the same
property (G1); (2) Buildings with surface parking around and under the building
on the same property (G2); (3) Buildings with an adjacent parking garage on the
same property (S1); (4) Buildings with underground parking on the same property
with or without supplemental surface parking (S2); (5) Buildings with structure
parking under the building on the same property with or without supplemental
surface parking (S3); and (6) Buildings with no parking required (NP).
The definition of the six building design categories just
mentioned is expanded with the design specification topics listed in their
forecast models. These topics receive values that are either measured or
entered for evaluation of the option represented.
Table 1 presents an example of the G1.L1 forecast model. It
pertains to the G1 Building Design Category when the buildable land area in
acres is given in cell F3. Think of the listed specification topics and values entered
or measured as the characteristics of a species. When topic values are
processed by the algorithm in the design specification template of the table,
the master equation in cell B39 uses the results to calculate gross building
area options in cells B44-B53 that are related to the floor quantity options
entered in cells A44-A53. For instance, a five floor building on line 48 of
Table 1 is predicted to produce 24,226 sq. ft. of gross building area given all
specification values entered in its Design Specification Module. A change to
one or more of these values will produce a new set of implication predictions.
The G1 building is further classified by the shelter
capacity, intensity, intrusion, and dominance calculated in the Implications Module
of Table 1. The five floor option, for instance, has a shelter capacity of
13,939 sq. ft. per buildable acre; an intensity rating of 0.836, a vertical
intrusion rating of 1.0, and an overall physical dominance rating of 1.836. If
the projected total revenue potential from its occupant activity were $10.00
per gross sq. ft., total revenue of $13,939 could be divided by the 1.738
buildable acres calculated in cell F10 to predict a total revenue potential, or
yield, of $8,020.14 per buildable acre. Comparing this to a city’s total annual
expense per buildable acre would reveal its place in a city’s total revenue
investment portfolio.
In other words, the land is more than a commodity to a city
and its use is more than a socially compatible consideration. The combination of
permitted shelter capacity, intensity, activity, and economic potential are an
investment in its future. Decisions regarding the allocation of shelter
capacity, activity, and intensity in its urban design plan determine the
quality of life it can provide.
HOW MUCH LAND IS NEEDED
A shelter capacity question does not always involve the
potential of a given land area. The buildable land area needed for a given
gross building area objective is also a question that can arise.
The answer begins with the selection of a building design
category forecast model. In this case I’ve again chosen the G1 Building Design
Category but am using Table 2 to address the question. It contains forecast
model G1.B1 and uses the same shaded cell designation for design specification
values. The optional values entered are used to further define the question
with a complete description of the classification characteristics proposed.
Table 2 is based on the gross building area objective
entered in cell A34. The values entered in the remaining gray cells represent
one set of correlated design specification options, and a change to one or more
of these values will produce a new forecast of necessary buildable land area alternatives
in cells B44-B53. These alternatives are related to the floor quantity options
entered in cells A44-A53 and are converted to buildable acre options in cells
E44-E53.
The implications of the values entered in Table 2 are
calculated in its Implications Module. This makes it possible to measure and
compare the mathematical physical design decisions that determine the shelter
pattern, spaces, and composition of cities with their social and economic implications
long before building appearance becomes an issue.
THE MASTER EQUATIONS
The master equation in cell B39 of Table 1 is one of a
number derived to predict gross building area implications from a set of design
specification values entered in the gray cells of a building design category
forecast model. I’ve only shown one in Table 1 and one in cell B39 of Table 2. The
entire Table of Contents is presented as the last exhibit in this essay. It is
not included to display the master equations, however. They require greater
explanation related to their forecast models. It is included to show
classification of the Shelter Division by building design category and activity
group.
A building design category is occupied by an activity group.
The combination may require that additional design specification topics and
values be added to its forecast model when it is amended to address a specific
activity group. The Residential Activity Group in the Table of Contents
illustrates the forecast models that address an activity group when it occupies
the fundamental building design category options listed above.
In other words, gross building area is subdivided to serve
an activity group. The shelter capacity, or gross building area per buildable
acre, of the land area remains the same; but the internal capacity of the gross
building area to serve a specific activity group will be affected by the
group’s floor plan requirements. Gross building area is determined by the
design specification values entered in a building design category’s design
specification template. The shelter capacity of land and the intensity options
considered are a function of these values. These are the strategic shelter design
decisions that combine with movement, open space, and life support decisions to
determine the spaces, places, and building mass that surrounds us in an urban pattern
that cannot be permitted to consume our source of life.
The internal capacity of gross building area is a function
of the activity’s program of floor plan requirements. This is the beginning of
tactical architectural design decisions that are correlated to produce the
form, function, and building appearance we recognize.
The master equations related to each building design category
pertain to every potential activity group that may occupy the category. They make
it possible to measure and forecast the implications of correlated mathematical
design decisions in a fraction of the time it takes to prepare one schematic
drawing; and the time-consuming drawing has always been limited to an intuitive,
visual understanding of the implications depicted.
There are many activity groups that remain unrepresented in
the attached Table of Contents, but group specifications only relate the
capacity of gross building area to serve the demands of a specific activity.
Keep in mind that gross building area may be occupied by any activity. The
shelter capacity of land is a function of the gross building area present or
planned. The scope of present or planned shelter capacity, activity,
condition, and location of gross building area on land determines the value of the
buildable acres to a city’s revenue investment portfolio; and the land’s
ability to contribute to a city’s quality of life. The ultimate objective is to
provide an economically balanced city design model of shelter capacity and
intensity to finance the activities of growing populations within
geographically limited areas defined to protect both their quality and source
of life.
W. Martin Hosack: April, 2024
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