The Language of Shelter Capacity

"The Conversation", Arnold Lahovsky c.1935

There are now two worlds on a single planet – the Built Domain and the Natural Domain. The challenge is to prevent the Built Domain from consuming its source of life with annexation and sprawl that provides shelter for population growth. This means that we need a language that can accurately predict gross building area options per acre. I say this because gross building area is shelter capacity per acre that may be occupied by any activity; and the proportional presence of activity within a limited municipal land area determines its economic stability, social benefit, and potential for symbiotic correlation with the Natural Domain.

There are only six habitable building design categories on the planet when classification is not based on building appearance and internal occupant activity. This limited number makes gross building area and shelter capacity prediction feasible for every acre of land based on the building design category chosen. The shelter capacity of each category is determined by design specification value decisions. These topics are listed in a category’s design specification template. These values are correlated with an architectural algorithm and used by a category master equation to produce gross building area and shelter capacity options per acre. Changing one or more values in the category template produces a new set of predictions. This becomes significant when we realize that the ability to accurately predict gross building area alternatives and shelter capacity options per acre for any activity will determine our ability to correlate a growing presence with a planet that is no longer a world without end.

I have completed my work and will be publishing my fourth and final book on this subject. The first two included a CD that contained spreadsheet forecasting models, but the category classification system and internal mathematics are now outdated. My fourth book will not contain a CD because the previous versions were extensively copied. I now hope to place these improved models in the cloud for access on a subscription basis. These models can predict hundreds of options in the time it would take to sketch one. The mathematical correlation involved can eliminate regulatory contradiction papered over with arbitrary variance approvals. This has the potential to improve evaluation, focus decisions, and eliminate the promiscuous, arbitrary consumption of our Natural Domain when accurate correlation is missing.

Excessive shelter intensity is an internal urban threat that compromises our health, safety, and quality of life. The external threat is sprawl. It continues to consume our source of life. Both can be addressed with the language of shelter capacity, but there is a more fundamental policy issue. It is symbiotic survival. Excessive shelter will threaten our quality of life with excessive intensity and the natural balance that we instinctively know is required. Shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion, and dominance can now be measured with the language of shelter capacity. This is the language needed to accurately assess the shelter options available to Homo sapiens and the decisions needed to protect a human presence that depends on symbiotic solutions for sustainability.