We
can no longer depend on city planning master plans; zoning maps based on
compatibility assumptions; and the belief that there is an unlimited Natural
Domain available for annexation and consumption by the Built Domain. Weak
assumptions and conflicting, uncorrelated regulations will remain a function of
inertia until shelter sprawl, annexation, and excessive intensity are recognized
as physical threats to our survival. It is not enough to recognize a threat,
however. It must be met with an urban design strategy of equal magnitude involving
the new tools and leadership correlation required to protect growing population
activity with symbiotic shelter solutions in geographic areas scientifically
limited to protect their quality and source of life, the Natural Domain.
Expanding the scope of attention to ensure that shelter
remains an essential element and not a threat to survival will require a new
strategy to achieve greater political credibility. This will depend on an
expanded vision of the information-sharing, data science, relational databases,
and geographic information analysis required for shelter capacity prediction,
measurement, evaluation, and collaborative correlation in the search for
knowledge that can help us learn to live within geographic limits.
(Shelter capacity is gross building area in sq. ft. (GBA) divided
by the project buildable land area in acres. Gross building area potential on a
given buildable land area, for the building design category (G1), is:
GBA = ((af) / (a+(fs))) * CORE
The G1 design category includes all buildings served by adjacent surface
parking on the same lot, parcel, or land area. The square feet of gross
building area planned or permitted per parking space is represented in the
equation by (a). The square feet of parking area planned or permitted per
parking space is represented by (s). Floor quantity (f) in the equation is the
third dimension of city planning and zoning. I have discussed the derivation of
CORE area from a standard set of design specification topics and value choices
in numerous essays and will not repeat myself here. For the purposes of this
discussion, CORE area is the project area remaining for primary building cover and parking cover after all other site
improvement and open space areas are subtracted from the total project area.)
Urban design tools, and the information they provide, are
needed to build convincing knowledge and arguments regarding land consumption, shelter
capacity, spatial context; and the social, psychological, environmental, and
economic implications of shelter aggregation choices. These choices involve
building design categories, design specification values, floor quantity choices,
and category master equations. They produce shelter options that are served by
a city’s movement, open space, and life support systems. These are the four
divisions that combine to form the currently parasitic urban and rural phyla of
the Built Domain.
Architectural education teaches the formation of shelter space,
form, function, and appearance needed to organize spaces that serve client
activity and accommodate the essential engineering systems required on a given
land area. This is the mental process of information-gathering, logical
evaluation, and creative correlation that produces strategic options requiring
leadership choices. It is the first milestone in architectural education, but
the appropriate consumption of land is rarely considered. It is simply included
as part of the problem to be solved, and the quantity is not tailored to either
demand or capacity. Waste and/or excessive intensity is inevitable as the
architectural strategy focuses on the internal success and external appearance of
shelter while site planning deals with the land remaining.
We live with land surveys that do not accurately calculate
the spectrum of shelter capacity alternatives available. They define an area,
or quantity, that is considered a commodity for sale and use. The concept of
shelter capacity evaluation considers a defined land area to be a unit in a
city’s investment portfolio whose shelter capacity, intensity and activity options
have revenue and investment potential that can be calculated. This unit
potential combines to establish a city’s financial stability and affordable quality
of life, but the ability to measure, forecast, evaluate, and adjust unit
potential throughout a city’s land portfolio awaits the introduction of
information-sharing systems and shelter capacity evaluation algorithms that are
currently academic proposals.
The lack of mathematical urban/city design evaluation has led
to city budgets based on history and future projections unable to accurately
evaluate the total average annual revenue per acre that can be produced to
balance the total average annual expense per acre needed to maintain and
improve its desired quality of life.
Urban design expands the architectural universe of strategic
evaluation. It is concerned with the formation, impact, impression and spatial context
of places formed by the aggregation of shelter mass, shelter capacity,
intensity, activity, movement, open space, and life support because these
compositions affect a population’s physical, social, psychological,
environmental, and economic quality of life. The goal is to limit the consumption
of land for these places within a scientifically prescribed Built Domain
defined to protect our quality and source of life. The political implications of
the challenge are obvious, and the credibility required to lead will be no less
than that needed to establish city planning, zoning, and building regulations
in the 20th century.
The relationship between land consumption and shelter
capacity, intensity, and activity options has public revenue potential per acre
that can be calculated. It may be the strongest argument for increasing research
and knowledge regarding shelter capacity relationships that produce desirable
places for people; since they can also produce revenue, financial stability, and
an affordable quality of life within limited areas when consciously and
mathematically organized.
Shelter capacity is a function of a given buildable land
area, building design category decision, master equation, and choices regarding
design specification values and floor quantity options. These decisions produce
levels of measurable capacity, intensity and context that are occupied by
activity. Shelter capacity, intensity, activity, and context decisions have
mathematical relationships that can be used to balance the revenue potential of
parcels across larger municipal land areas. These are the predictions that can
establish the credibility of urban design recommendations. Their social,
psychological, and environmental implications will require longer term research
correlated with the conclusions from many related professions.
Walter M. Hosack, April 2025
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