The Equations of Urban Design: A new language for an ancient topic

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.