Shelter Science

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