Planning with Architectural Intensity

***Please see my latest book, The Science of City Design: Architectural Algorithms for City Planning and Design Leadership, on Amazon.com in both e-book and paperback versions.***

Limiting areas of human occupation to achieve a sustainable future represents emerging symbiotic awareness, in my opinion; but success will depend on our grasp of intensity and space. They are keys to survival, but both are relatively ambiguous terms in our daily lives. The need to learn more is based on the argument that: (1) Limited population areas must be defined to protect our source of life. (2) Limited intensity within population areas must be adopted to protect our quality of life. It is no longer enough to protect our health, safety, and welfare unless “welfare” includes our source and quality of life.

I’ve referred to limited population areas as the Built Domain and to our source of life as the Natural Domain because I’ve come to agree with John Muir. We do not have the knowledge and wisdom required to integrate the two in a universe we barely understand. I only need to mention our success in polluting and disrupting environmental systems to prove my point. This means we must protect the Natural Domain as our source of life and construct the Built Domain with a symbiotic goal. Domination is out of the question unless extinction is our destiny. Coexistence is a mandate we must accept and the instinct to compete is a hurdle we must overcome.

Agriculture is a buffer between the Natural and Built Domains. It’s part of the Open Space Division of the Built Domain because of its man-made presence, pollution, and depletion of natural resources. I’ve generically referred to the remainder of the Built Domain as the Built Environment to distinguish it from agriculture that is being consumed by its growth. Obviously, consuming your source of food and life is not a recipe for survival.

The Built Domain can be divided into Shelter, Movement, Open Space, and Life Support Divisions. These divisions oppose the Natural Domain. It should not be a battle for dominance, however; and this is where our concept of competition contradicts the law of adaptation. It is a battle for coexistence and the intensity of our presence will be inversely related to its outcome.

The word “intensity” covers a lot of ground. I’ve limited its scope by focusing on shelter intensity in the Shelter Division of the Built Domain. Architecture is most closely associated with project intensity within this division because of its client relationships. This has led to building and zoning codes that attempt to protect the public interest from private decisions with minimum requirements. The initial objectives were to protect the public health, safety, and welfare by separating incompatible land uses; and protecting building occupants from unsafe and unsanitary conditions. The result has been a sprawling threat to survival. The result is not from misguided intent, however. It is because we have not been able to measure, evaluate, forecast, and regulate the values that interact to produce intensity options. These define the urban forest and the quality of life we enhance with context design and habitation standards. Unfortunately, forest paths are more pleasant. Urban paths take us through urban form that often forces us to become “street people”.

At its most fundamental level therefore, intensity requires design with space. This includes space for the Natural Domain and space within the Built Domain to feed us and moderate intensity. All remaining context design will apply to the open space format adopted. When the adoption produces a symbiotic presence, we will have achieved organic design ability.

Background

Architecture can do better, not to mention city planning and design. Intensity is intuitively understood but has not been evaluated with a consistent measurement system. This means that intuitive design is often forced to exceed its better judgment. This occurs most often when intuition is confronted by memorized knowledge and precedent. Precedent has been pre-occupied by an emphasis on the separation of incompatible land use activities, but separation alone produces sprawl when growth is not contained.

The steps from intuition to knowledge remind me of language before the discovery of writing. Intuition and experience were explained around the campfire by wise men with talent, and memory was the only library of knowledge. Writing recorded and stored opinion, precedent, and knowledge that was eventually challenged by science. Talent lost credibility but retained insight to become fine art.

Intuitive intelligence cannot compete with memorized knowledge until it develops persuasive ability with logic. The vocabulary of shelter intensity can be used to measure, evaluate, and express planning arguments with logic that can consistently lead architecture with a language that does not depend on talent to preserve knowledge over generations.

The transition to intensity is simply another step in our attempt to comprehend the environment we have been given and to adapt accordingly. I like to imagine that this began with the Cro-Magnon paintings at Lascaux and Altamira, Font-de-Gaume, and Grotte de Chauvet. In my imagination these were teaching illustrations with mystical properties that moved with the light from fire. The mystery continues along with our attempts to adapt to our environment with intuition and logic that is eventually recorded as knowledge.

The Nature of Intensity

We are familiar with the residential term “density”, but it is a wildly inaccurate measurement of “intensity”, which is the relationship of building mass and pavement to open space on a given land area. (See “Replacing Density” and “Replacing the Floor Area Ratio”) Density ignores all three components of intensity (mass, pavement, and open space). It simply expresses the number of dwelling units present, planned, or permitted per acre. The definition of “acre” can even be ambiguous. When undefined, it is often considered gross land area even when a portion is unbuildable. Multiplying permitted density by gross land area in these cases produces a much higher density within the actual buildable land area occupied.

One could argue that yard requirements are open space requirements, but most are not dedicated to this purpose. Side yards are separators that are often paved. Rear yards are often converted to building mass and pavement, and front yards are often minimal or paved for parking in non-residential areas. This tendency to consider pavement open space can produce excessive development that often leads to physical decline. Deterioration in turn has an unsettling tendency to increase social, psychological, environmental, and economic stress when style and location do not spark renewed interest at some point in the decline.

I could see from experience that density led to unrealistic assumptions, arguments, and inconsistent results but also believed its premise was sound. Architecture, city planning and city design do have a mathematical foundation. Density was simply not a calculation with the potential to produce consistent success. The equation didn’t control the values that produce the format for context design. This meant we couldn’t hope: (1) to shelter growing populations within sustainable limits; (2) to protect their source of life from sprawl; and (3) to build shelter within these limits to protect their quality of life from excessive intensity. We simply couldn’t define the elements of intensity and the values that interacted to produce context format. This led me to define the topics involved and describe their relationships with equations.

My concept was to list context topics in a template that would receive values and use embedded equations to predict intensity for the design category represented. These options would be expressed as the gross building area GBA per acre that could be produced by these values; and modifying one or more values would produce a new prediction. I called the process “development capacity evaluation” and the results were called levels of intensity that were predicted in relation to a column of building height options. In other words, a design specification template was an architectural planning template.

Along the way I realized that part of the problem was an imprecise definition of “acre”, since it could mean gross land area, net land area, buildable land area, or core land area. (See “Context, Capacity & Intensity”) This had compromised density calculations from the very beginning, and often led to results referred to as “over-development”. Over-development is still a term without definition that is recognized when seen, but is actually an excessive level of intensity that can be mathematically defined.

I started referring to density as intensity to reflect the three-dimensional nature of the results and the role of open space as an off-setting influence, but realized it required an explanation because “intensity” has a negative connotation. In fact, it is a yardstick that measures the relationship of building mass and pavement to open space. These relationships range from ranch-houses on thousands of acres to high-rises in Manhattan. I realized that specification values entered in a template combine to create these relationships, and that choices regarding these values are the foundation for all intensity and context format decisions.

I began to call template variables design specification topics. In fact, I began to realize that different topic sets related to different building types and a separate template was required for each. This observation appeared to doom the effort until I realized that all building types and appearances fall into one of three land use families; that these families are served by one of three parking systems; that each parking system has at most four generic sub-types; that design specification templates could be attached to each potential land use, parking system and parking type decision; that template topics could be tailored to a small list of generic building types related to these parking options; that values could be entered in a template and used by embedded equations to predict the gross building area options implied; that this represented a forecast model; that existing projects could be classified, measured, and evaluated with the decisions that led to a forecast model; that measurement and evaluation could be used to build knowledge about existing values; that adopted values defined intensity with a forecast of gross building area GBA potential per buildable acre; that forecasts could consistently lead shelter toward planning objectives when connected to the city design of urban form; that urban form could be mathematically modeled and adjusted to achieve specific objectives based on template forecasts of gross building area potential; that gross building area options for the same land area represented levels of intensity; and that the ability to measure, evaluate, and predict intensity could lead to the protection of our physical, social, psychological, environmental, and economic welfare within sustainable geographic limits.

I was aware, along with most, that adding building floors increases gross building area potential on a given land area. Therefore, when a range of floors is included with a design specification template, the model can forecast a number of gross building area options on the same page for comparison; the results from separate forecast models can be compared;  and each prediction will represent a level of potential intensity and format for context design.

Table 1 outlines the classification concept behind development capacity evaluation. Figures 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 are attached at the end of this essay to define it in detail. These figures are decision trees that read from left to right. The path chosen leads to a specific forecast model, and each model contains a design specification template. The objective is to forecast gross building area options (or buildable land area options) based on the forecast model chosen and the values entered in its design specification template.

Table 1: Architectural Classification Topics 

Choose one topic from each of first four columns to find a forecast model. Design specification variables are listed in the template associated with the model. Assign values to the variables in the model’s template to produce development capacity predictions, or measure these values to define existing conditions. The development capacity options forecast (gross building area options) represent intensity alternatives.

Land Use Family	Parking System and Type	Building Type	Information Given	Specification Variables
Non-residential (C)	No Parking (N)	Non-residential (C)	Gross Land Area (L)	Refer to template associated with the forecast model identified
Residential (R)	1)        None	Apartment (R)	Gross Bldg. Area Objective (B)
Mixed (M)	Surface (G)	Suburb House (F)	Density Objective (D)
	1)        Around Bldg.	Urban House (T)
	2)        Around / Under Bldg.
	3)        No Shared / Common Pkg.
	4)        Lot and/or Garage
	Structure (S)
	1)        Adjacent
	2)        Underground
	3)        Under Bldg.

Table 2 is attached to illustrate a design specification template with values entered and a planning forecast panel with related predictions. The technical label for Table 2 would be CG1CL, but the second “C” has been dropped to label the forecast model CG1L for the sake of brevity.

The Table 2 planning panel illustrates the range of gross building area GBA options produced by a set of template values, and a number of related predictions. Since a change in any template value produces a new forecast, it’s easy to calculate intensity after data entry or revision; but I have struggled to find a simple method of prescription. I’ve experimented with many options and will have more to say about this later under “Design Specification Deployment”.

In summary: (1) Open space offsets building mass and pavement to create a level of intensity on a given land area.  (2) Open space is a raw material molded by design to create context. (3) The values entered in a design specification template define the level of intensity present or planned. (4) Intensity options can be electronically predicted with efficiency and accuracy by modifying one or more template values. (5) Intensity options from different templates can be compared. (6) Design specification values can be measured and recorded at existing locations to define intensity for research into its physical, social, psychological, environmental, and economic implications. (7) Related disciplines can evaluate intensity based on a common measurement system. (8) A common measurement system introduces a vocabulary and language of intensity to record knowledge for future use, and to multiply it over generations; (9) This measurement system represents a common language for intensity evaluation; and (10) Intensity knowledge from evaluation makes it possible to study shelter options for growing populations within sustainable geographic areas.

The four arrows in Table 2 identify the primary variables that influence development capacity and intensity for the G1 and G2 surface parking design categories. Generically, these variables relate to building mass, pavement, and open space, but open space requirements are generally missing from current zoning ordinances and can be compromised by variance requests.

On an engineering note, excessive building mass and pavement exacerbate stormwater runoff. This runoff can exceed sewer design capacity because capacity is based on impervious cover assumptions. When these assumptions are exceeded, water becomes a common enemy. The argument for reserved open space to protect sewer capacity has persuasive power because it is based on engineering research and measurement. The approach began with awareness and was challenged, however; and I’ve used this example to illustrate the hill that intuition must climb to achieve persuasive power. Protecting our physical, social, psychological, environmental, and economic health is no less important than protecting sewer capacity; and intensity measurement gives us a vocabulary to begin the journey.

Design Specification Relationships

Table 3 is appended to this essay to explain design specification relationships in a simplified format. To make the percentage predictions universally applicable, it is based on one buildable acre. Parking requirements (a) and (s) are included in the design specification template. The planning forecast panel arranges open space requirements S in the top row and building floor options FLR in the left-hand column. The gross building area per acre GBA/AC and building “footprint” per acre BCA/AC predictions are based on the design specification topics and values entered.

Table 3 shows that GBA options within a 5 floor limit range from 50% to 3.8% of core area. (See “Context, Capacity & Intensity” for an explanation of “core area”) This range is a function of the project open space S columns presented. If 40% open space and 5 floors were chosen as design limits, the maximum gross building area would be 33.3% of core area, but 33.3% is still a function of two variables in the design specification template: (s) and (a). If a parking lot, including internal landscaping, were required to provide no less than 400 sq. ft. per space (a), intensity per acre would be a function of the number of parking spaces required (s). This would make intensity a function of one variable. In other words, gross building area per buildable acre is a function of the parking requirement for a specific activity when all other values are specified. In fact, the only variable missing from most zoning ordinance specifications is project open space S. What has really been missing is a common forecasting system to explain what these values imply when combined, and when open space is introduced as a specification. 

Table 3 provides a glimpse of the results produced by inter-active zoning requirements. The forecast equations that produce this table have not existed in the past, however; so developers have requested variances from individual requirements that conflict or seem excessive, and planners have not been able to forecast combined implications to focus the discussion. The medium for discussion has been a site plan, but this cumbersome graphic cannot predict the range of options shown in Table 3 within a reasonable time frame and design budget. The result has been suspicion and argument over detail rather than negotiation based on a common language.

Imagine that planners and developers are discussing Table 3 around a table and that it is projected on a screen from a notebook computer. Imagine also that topics (s) and (a) are zoning requirements along with FLR = 5 and S = 40%. Table 3 predicts that the maximum development capacity GBA/AC will be 33.33% of the buildable land area when all design specification requirements are considered together. Let’s imagine that the developer is not happy with this capacity and claims that he only needs 3 spaces per thousand sq. ft. of GBA from his experience, instead of the 4 specified. The planner could change this statistic to predict the GBA implications on screen. If the developer were satisfied, he or she would need a variance, but would have a better chance of success if the planner supported the request. The planner would have to consider future owners who may need more parking, since the building may be the owner’s dream, but it represents a city commitment of land to an activity and source of revenue that must contribute to common benefit without decline. The point, however, is that both would be speaking the same language and understanding the same implications when discussing the proposal.

In other words, Table 3 becomes a common language for discussion based on design specifications and capacity prediction, which is intensity evaluation by another name. This negotiation involves a number of inter-related zoning requirements that can be discussed separately but forecast together to reveal their combined implications. Costly site plans can be prepared after negotiation to illustrate decisions or remaining points of contention.

Design Specification Deployment

A single zoning requirement cannot hope to regulate shelter intensity; nor can a set of independent requirements scattered throughout a zoning ordinance because they often conflict without correlation. A design specification template lists requirement topics and correlates values entered with embedded equations. These equations forecast implications in terms of gross building area GBA potential per buildable acre. Design specification templates, therefore, are needed to convey the implications of isolated values and can be connected to land use categories and city design plans to regulate intensity.

It appears, therefore, that a single requirement like density or the floor area ratio is an inadequate policy statement that cannot substitute for a design specification template. A template understands the implications of all values and can be connected to a land use allocation plan to predict the implications of a combined city design strategy. In other words, design specification templates are architectural planning templates that can be used to correlate land use allocation with urban form to achieve economic objectives; and these objectives can be coordinated to include social, psychological, and environmental implications when research provides the answers.

Conclusion

Prediction is at the heart of negotiation and options have implications. Decisions are based on evaluation. When options and implications cannot be predicted, regulation becomes an argument over isolated detail. This is surrounded by suspicion over motive and subject to the law of unintended consequences. In my opinion, we must learn to correlate shelter design specifications before we can begin to contribute to the question: Can we protect our source and quality of life?

Intensity is a common problem and opportunity that will not be addressed by adversaries arguing over isolated details that produce random results. An intensity vocabulary without knowledge takes us back to intuition. This is where we are with shelter intensity. I have proposed a rudimentary classification and design specification vocabulary to forecast the gross building area GBA implications of design specification values. Each square foot of intensity predicted has a number or related implications such as, but not limited to: cost, revenue, return on investment, population, traffic generation, and energy consumption; but prediction of GBA without research into its implications is speech that will remain opinion and a threat to our source and quality of life. It’s like the first blood pressure readings. The inventor only had an intuitive understanding of what they meant until research converted intuitive intelligence to memorized knowledge.

Table 3 was projected on a wall like the paintings at Lascaux in my imaginary scenario. The table represents an abstract concept or a measured object in the Built Domain, which is a separate environment; and we have yet to fully understand the Natural Domain. It is a self-evident fact, however, that we create the Built Domain and it is a power of creation we must learn to restrain; because it has not been given as a gift, but as a responsibility.

Searching for Answers

Is the work of architectural research, education and internship increasing the demand for architectural advice? 

From my anecdotal experience, architectural education seems to be training generals instead of lieutenants and the result has been a graduation of privates with widely divergent knowledge and focus. There is even a segment of opinion that believes the privates are unprepared and should be returned to boot camp. It’s difficult to increase demand for architecture when there are so many educational interpretations of the goal.

I have an admittedly old-fashioned belief that a student must develop logic based on knowledge and technical ability to justify ideas; and must add experience before he or she can offer imagination with the credibility of a general. Portions of this equation appear to be confused with vocational education in the architectural community and left to an internship program, but the program is an unstable platform on a turbulent economic sea.

Creative logic is based on information. Information prompts leaders to ask the right questions, organize the search, and motivate the effort to find answers. Formal architectural education seems to be focusing on creativity with the logic of fine art, which is why I wrote the first paragraph. Leadership decisions involve the art of choice, but the best choices are based on the logic of information, knowledge and evaluation.

An internship program depends on economic stability, the dissemination of closely held knowledge, and the training of future competitors. This means that knowledge can be shared with reluctance, improved with difficulty, and rarely accumulated across practices in a competitive environment. The results have led to an uncertain future for many. This is occurring at a time when “design matters” because the ultimate goal is to survive in an uncertain world by protecting our source and quality of life.

Ignoring the goal will permit a parasite to dominate with sprawl based on a Ponzi concept of growth that always leads to extinction. You may recoil from the analogy, but give it some thought. We have been given the power to dominate and the responsibility to coexist. It is a struggle among instincts with intelligence linked to emotion by a thread of wisdom.

The next level of adaptation will require symbiotic awareness. If you agree, it is an opportunity for architecture to contribute. Shelter is an essential part of the solution and sprawl is a threat to survival; but we must structure architectural education to address the challenge. This includes a grasp of intensity implications. It also means that our priorities must adjust to include protection of the planet. Architecture can contribute by studying how to design symbiotic shelter and space within sustainable geographic limits. I have always qualified this goal, however, with a warning against excessive intensity that can threaten the health, safety, and welfare of populations.

At the present time this is a goal without a definition of sprawl and excessive intensity. Sprawl will be defined as development that exceeds the geographic limits of a built domain. Each built domain will be established to protect our source of life from encroachment. Shelter intensity will be defined as a range of gross building area and open space options for the same project land area. The ends of the intensity spectrum will represent extremes, but the spectrum itself has eluded precise mathematical definition. This definition has been needed to make consistent progress toward a goal that can prevent sprawl without sacrificing our “welfare”, or quality of life. The imprecise definitions presently in use have led to random zoning results and legal precedent based on crude statistics that produce inconsistent results.

Shelter activity, intensity and sprawl consume resources, pollute the environment, and threaten survival; but this is a claim that is only based on growing intuitive awareness at this point in time. We are again attempting to stand up in the grasslands to identify threat and risk. When architecture can help us stand, the demand for advice will multiply; the connection to public benefit will be apparent; and the appearance of solutions will begin to symbolize a new period of symbiotic awareness.

Institutions

Medicine and law occupy positions of authority because their institutions serve the public interest while their practices serve the private sector. Architecture has no comparable relationship to the public interest. It is isolated from city planning and both suffer from the separation.

The public suffers from land use plans that poorly correlate land use allocation, shelter intensity, and building condition to protect their quality and source of life. This promotes sprawl when the community is not surrounded by others; and decline within fixed boundaries. In other words, the combination of activity allocation, intensity, and building condition affects our physical, social, psychological, environmental, and economic quality of life, but improvement will require new professional relationships and computer applications.

The land development process is based on a concept of growth that is out of control, in my opinion; because freedom to own and convert the natural environment ignores the responsibility to build symbiotic shelter and space within sustainable geographic limits to protect our source of life.

The relationship of shelter to space and condition produces intensity. The relationship of intensity to activity determines its contribution to our quality of life. Finally, the measurement, forecasting, and evaluation of intensity is broad enough to link all related city design disciplines such as, but not limited to: architecture, city planning, geography, engineering, landscape architecture, real estate investment, environmental science, sociology, psychology, and urban economics. In other words, a consistent measurement system can be used to link the conclusions of related disciplines.

My search for answers has led me to define intensity and forecast the options available with models and equations based on design specification values, but I have not measured and evaluated its existing presence. I’ll leave this to future generations if there is a policy decision to continue as populations grow.

Education

Policy must build a foundation of commitment, research, knowledge, and education. This has led me to consider the foundation of architecture. To begin, I’ve separated education into five categories: Liberal, Technical, Management, Leadership, and Lifetime. Liberal begins with day care and kindergarten. I’ll let you debate the duration for each. I’ll also let you debate the curriculum. My point is that none should be ignored when considering the education of an architect. To exclude some because they are “vocational” ignores the scope of the profession. The term “vocation” also reveals that we have been searching for a common definition of architecture since Vitruvius. It’s like calling surgery vocational, which it was considered at one point in our struggle to adapt and survive.

I get the impression that architectural education has emphasized creativity associated with leadership while shifting technical and management education to an unstable internship program; and that internship may not be available after graduation from pre-architecture. If true, this leads intuitive intelligence into a sea of memorized knowledge with few employment opportunities and little ability to defend its opinions. This is an inevitable recipe for disillusion, disappointment, and decline.

I have suggested a three stage education for architecture in the past. I don’t consider it an answer. It is just one concept on the road to a solution. It borrows its structure from medicine and leads to a doctoral degree before internship in practice or research. It focuses on the evaluation and correlation of options and attributes rather than engineering calculations for an impossibly large collection of building systems. It also considers student employment opportunities at each stage of completion a high priority. Like medicine, however, it depends on reliable teaching institutions for internship; and extensive research to build the correlation references required.

I mentioned that architecture has to be worth the effort and that demand will be limited as long as architecture fails to address the public dimension of its private decisions. Practice in its present context has been a battlefield operation whose success has been limited by its focus on a single objective. Breaking free will require an institutional emphasis on strategic planning for public benefit that I’ve called city design.

Public Benefit

City design is a recognition: that architecture is shelter; that shelter is an essential component of survival; that survival will depend on symbiotic shelter and space within sustainable geographic limits; that growing populations will increase the need to understand shelter intensity options; that excessive shelter intensity within geographic limits can prolong survival without protecting our quality of life; that sprawl beyond geographic limits is a threat to our source of life; that limiting sprawl and intensity is essential to the protection of public health, safety, and welfare; that “welfare” includes our physical, social, psychological, and economic quality of life; that land use allocation, architecture, and city design are inseparable elements of shelter and survival within sustainable geographic limits; and that intensity measurement, forecasting and evaluation can support the city design effort with persuasive quantitative arguments capable of repeating success without aesthetic plagiarism.

We have been wandering since the Renaissance spinning off technical specialties and pursuing fine art, but art does not need to explain its decisions while architecture is expected to defend its proposals with logic. Their priorities diverge at this point of responsibility. The confusion over priorities may have begun with the patronage of fine art and architecture, but it does not apply to the scope of current architectural responsibility, in my opinion. Patronage implies that special interest has priority while I’ve argued that a greater public interest is affected by architectural decisions. Architecture will be chained to the priorities of patronage, however, until it recognizes that a growing population will be increasingly concerned with shelter and survival on an unstable planet.

It’s hard to imagine that the public benefit of architecture will be ignored when its institutions contribute knowledge to the goal of symbiotic shelter systems within sustainable geographic limits -- without excessive intensity.

Architecture correlates information and knowledge with logic and visualizes results with intuition and experience. We call it creativity and talent, but it’s much more. Intensity has had to be visualized. There has been no measurement and forecasting system that would permit us to explore the implications of shelter within sustainable geographic limits. This has changed and my hope is that it will bring recognition that land use allocation, architectural intensity, city planning, and city design are inseparable elements of symbiotic shelter, space, and survival within sustainable geographic limits.

Conclusion

The work of architectural institutions can increase the demand for architectural advice, and release practitioners from the captivity of special interest; when their goal embraces the public interest and stimulates an examination of professional objectives and priorities. I have to admit my ignorance on this issue, however. I’m not sure there is a stated goal and list of priorities.

I have suggested a goal that implies leadership with the vocabulary of intensity and the pursuit of city design. It is not intended to replace architectural practice, but to expand its value with a language that can consistently lead private projects toward the public objectives of city planning and design. Architecture is uniquely qualified to create this language in collaboration with others, and correlation has been the hallmark of architecture for quite some time. We can put it to better use when we expand its focus to include the broad array of disciplines concerned with the public need for a symbiotic future.

Shelter, Space & Intensity

I believe that shelter is an essential element of survival; that shelter intensity is the relationship of building mass and pavement to open space within a defined area; that building population intensity per square foot of gross building area is a separate issue; that shelter activity and intensity affect the public health, safety, and welfare; that shelter intensity combines with land use allocation, building activity and building population to affect our physical, social, psychological and economic quality of life; that we will not understand the implications of intensity options until we measure and evaluate existing conditions; that we cannot require open space to moderate intensity until we can accurately forecast the implications; that streets, sidewalks and parking lots allow light, air, and ventilation to enter urban form but magnify its intensity; that escape from excessive intensity has produced sprawl; that sprawl threatens the health, safety, and welfare of entire populations by consuming their source of life; that sprawl must be contained within sustainable geographic limits; that containment of sprawl within the limits of a built domain will increase intensity until population growth moderates; that intensity is imposed by three divisions of the built environment: Shelter, Movement, and Life Support while opposed by the fourth: Open Space.

There are four categories of open space. The first is a Natural Domain that must be protected from the Built Domain to preserve our source of life. The second is agriculture within the Built Domain. The third is public open space within a built environment. The fourth is project open space that offsets shelter intensity within a project area of the built environment. (A built environment must not expand beyond the limits of a Built Domain.) The allocation of space and intensity within a built environment will require the city design of urban form to balance the conflicting demands involved. This design will attempt to contribute answers to a fundamental question. Can we design symbiotic shelter solutions for growing populations within a limited Built Domain and how can it be done?

The relationship of architecture to city design is similar to the relationship between medicine and public health. One is a profession; the other an institution. Unfortunately, we have learned through centuries of plague and conflict that an individual is threatened when he or she cannot be protected by the scope of his or her institutions. We are now learning that both individuals and populations can be threatened when the health of a planet cannot be protected by the scope of our institutions.

WHAT IS THE POINT?

Leadership must have a goal and there is one above all others: to survive in an uncertain world. Professions and institutions have evolved to contribute, but architectural contributions have focused on individual projects. Unfortunately, inadequate land use plans, zoning law and legal precedent have led to both excessive project intensity and sprawl. Sprawl consumes our source of life one project at a time and excessive intensity imposes stress throughout an adjacent area. The point is that a population is at risk when its planet cannot be protected from the sprawl of its shelter without excessive intensity.

WHAT IS THE GOAL?

The goal is to build symbiotic shelter systems within sustainable geographic limits. The objective is to protect our source of life from sprawl and our quality of life from excessive intensity. I’ve called the goal S⁴GL for the sake of brevity. Progress will begin with the measurement and evaluation of existing context, capacity, intensity, and appearance using the vocabulary of intensity and the tools of development capacity evaluation. At this point architecture will expand its knowledge and forecasting ability to address the issue of survival once again.

We haven’t been master builders since the Renaissance.  We gather intelligence, correlate information, and create leadership plans. Field commanders achieve the goal by completing each tactical objective. Our decisions are not our own, however. They are directed by investors, construction managers and government officials because our emphasis has been on fine art. This has compromised our leadership potential because design is not fine art. It seeks to define a problem and solution that begins with a question. The appearance of the solution may be considered fine art.

We cannot moderate sprawl and intensity when design is governed by the decisions of others with conflicting motivation. We need a goal that explains our purpose because “design matters”, but its goal must explain why.

I have suggested a goal for architecture that emphasizes public benefit. This does not exclude any of its previous objectives. It simply places them within an institutional context of concern for the public impact of its practice recommendations and decisions.

Opinion fills a knowledge vacuum. Government and law moderate debate over opinion and bail the boat while other institutions repair the damage with knowledge and persuasion. This is where medicine and public health have been. It is where architecture must go, and why it must learn to speak in a language of intensity equal to the universal goal of adaptation – to survive in an uncertain world.  

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For more information regarding the language of intensity and the tools of development capacity evaluation, please see my book entitled, Land Development Calculations, e2, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009 and its attached forecasting software entitled, Development Capacity Evaluation, v2.

Relevance

My comments are a response to the note in italics below and appear after the quotation.

“Mike-

Glad you’re engaged in the conversation and we at the AIA are listening.

This research is indeed intended to identify the connection between what the public cares about and the purpose architects strive to deliver on. We are giving the same survey to 3,000 members of the public as well as 7,000 to 10,000 architects...looking to see where the intersections are...because we have to not only discover what the public cares about, but more importantly what they care about that architects believe they deliver. If the public cares most about some purpose that architects do not actually embrace as their purpose, then that is a losing proposition -- it's a disconnect.

We have to find the intersection between whatever purpose the public values most, relative to whatever purpose/benefit that architects feel most strongly they provide. That is the sweet spot of relevance.”

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Kyle McAdams AIA
Sterling VA

Relevance is associated with a topic. My impression from this response is that the questionnaire is attempting to correlate current architectural services with broader market appeal, and any improvement in appeal will be considered relevant. It will certainly be relevant to employment and profit. The term “public” may be confused with the term “market segment” in this note, however. Market segments are relevant to business interests and expansion is considered one form of growth.

Professional improvement in the tools, skills and knowledge offered for public benefit is relevant to the public interest. This interest is defined as “health, safety and welfare” in the trinity of 20^th century legal protection. Public welfare includes the protection of its physical, social, psychological, environmental and economic quality of life. Protection cannot always wait for an intersection of public and private interest, however.

If science sought direction from the general population there would be little protection of the public interest. For instance, the public did not ask for the dissection of cadavers. The practice carried the death penalty at one point in time. This hardly indicates an intersection of interest, but it has produced an acknowledged landslide of public benefit.

A profession must find its own way to a body of knowledge and legislative influence that will improve public benefit and demand for its services. Improved marketing of an existing product is a business strategy that may increase short term sales but not expand long term relevance.

The word “relevance” is a good choice since it may force everyone to ask, “What is relevant to whom?” It’s a political question with leadership implications. Let’s face the fact that architecture is a collection of small businesses searching for clients/customers with fleeting concern for competitors. It is not a round table of professional equals with a public mission at the present time. Further, the public does not understand that this format of architectural service leaves the public interest to private investment discretion. The last time this was recognized the public health and safety were threatened. “Welfare” was thrown in to cover all remaining threats. Building and zoning codes were introduced, but they have not prevented sprawl, pollution and population that threaten our source and quality of life.

I don’t know where this is all going, but I don’t believe we are close to finding the “sweet spot of relevance” for a growing population that has been poorly served by special interest, but has seen life improve for some. I do believe, however, that this “sweet spot” involves symbiotic functions within sustainable geographic limits -- and that shelter is one of the ingredients. If I were to put this in a single sentence it would read:

"Survival depends on symbiotic systems and shelter within sustainable geographic limits." In other words, SVL = S⁴GL.

This does not only apply to architecture. If all systems were symbiotic we would be less concerned with climate change, but geographic limits for growing populations would still be a challenge.

Criticism, Questions & Ideas

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This string excerpt should be read from bottom to top. My comments are at the top. The entire string appears on the AIAKnowledgeNet in the Committee on Design section under the general title, “Seriously?” See also, "A Serious Reply"

The great periods of architecture symbolize cultural answers to questions that became thresholds of awareness. Architecture is now facing a threshold of its own and symbols are not the answer. The AIAKnowledgeNet implies that the answer is knowledge, and I agree; but it must be built on a foundation of questions and research that makes information productive and convincing. This accumulates to form a body of knowledge. Observation alone produces frustration until you think to ask why the apple fell on your head.

Mike wrote a sentence that touched my soul. “I reckon it’s safe to say that at some point both of us loved it.” Economic stress is an insidious enemy. It can also be the stimulus for re-evaluation. The term “repositioning” implies an answer. It’s why I would like to read Mike’s replies to Robert Ivy. I don’t have the impression that we grasp the full extent of the questions facing architecture, much less the answers a leader must find.

There is just too much static at the moment to tune in the station. It can only be reduced by organizing thought and facing some unpleasant questions. This will involve research and opinion that may threaten the status quo. This is the most difficult phase of “progress”. Sam Adams got his tea party but John Adams had to focus the energy. Galileo wound up under house arrest and heretics are still figuratively burned at the stake because opinion prevails until the majority changes its mind.

Many have learned that data can lead nowhere when the wrong question is asked. “Listening” provides data but may not lead to questions. The time to forge frustration and opinion into constructive questions is long overdue. The time for answers may be premature; but answers can begin with people willing to listen -- and that time may be now.

Criticism is not a question until it is rewritten. It is opinion that is difficult to decipher when listening. I’m sure Edison was unhappy with the gaslight, but he turned criticism into a question and produced the light bulb.

Mike Mense, FAIA Comments

“Continuing in my apparently non-responsive, defensive and self-congratulatory mode, I need first to say that yes, again, I am listening. I also need to say that all of the criticisms denied by Ms Basham in fact did appear in pile on emails subsequent to Mr. Catherall's original post.

But the most important thing for me to say is this. Although I don't know what all is included in Ms Basham's vision of the future, can't be sure I understand what her words mean to her, I will go out on a limb and say that I am in complete support of her comments. I have conveyed similar concerns to Mr. Ivy's repositioning exercise twice now. Emily, I would be happy to share those comments with you if you are interested.

What is the point of my response? It is that, yes, I think you are onto something and rather than complaining, I wish you would get involved and try to save this profession (from itself). I reckon its safe to say that at some point both of us loved it.

If you are already making these efforts, tell us all about it here. I bet you will be surprised how many of us agree with you.”


Emily Basham, AIA Comments

“So many of the responses to the original post are non-responsive, defensive, and self-congratulatory, they inspired me to participate. The post did not accuse the AIA of being elitist. It did not deny that experiencing a building is better than looking at photos. It did not state that US architects should not be interested in European architecture. "Was this Ralph Lauren's idea?" says to me: the AIA is out of touch with the rank and file architect, concerned with appearances instead of substance. Such a decision, at this moment in our ravaged profession, shows poor judgment at best and intentional blind stupor at worst.

Many of us believe, in this decision and others, the AIA is not "the voice of the architectural profession and the resource for its members in service to society." The AIA behaves more as purely a PR organization whose mission is to put a big happy face on a deeply troubled profession. Regularly we get articles such as "Billings up for the third month in a row" which translated by a financially astute person means "continued drop in billings not as steep lately." "Recent architectural grad designing Web pages"- as if we should be pleased she may be able to pay off her student loans- never mind how the next generation of practitioners will gain experience. I searched in vain in the AIA for research with statistics on unemployed architects- how many have lost their jobs? What percentage are women/ minorities? How many single practitioners/ small firm owners have closed their doors?

If the AIA (with all respect for our sister architect in Scotland, "A" stands for American) is not willing to take on the deeply structural problems in our profession, honestly, fearlessly, and openly grappling with how our profession will survive and thrive in this uncertain time and difficult future, they will find themselves utterly irrelevant. I just hope that the profession does not follow in those footsteps.”