My work has focused on predicting the shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion, and context implications of correlated site planning and floor quantity design decisions at the cellular (parcel) level of urban anatomy -- because the shelter capacity of land within limited geographic areas will define our ability to shelter growing population activity within contained areas designed to coexist with their remaining source of life, the Natural Domain. As a result, the building classification system and template format of standardized design specification topics derived can also be used to measure the template topics of existing shelter projects to determine their implications for comparison.
POPULATON GROWTH
Population growth seeking shelter for increasing activity is
the engine that drives all urban and rural construction. This engine will
continue to consume agriculture and our source of life, the Natural Domain,
until we realize the issue is much larger than land use compatibility. Ensuring
compatibility simply produces an expanding Built Domain of metastasizing shelter
cells attempting to consume their source of life.
SHELTER CAPACITY
Tegimenics, or shelter capacity evaluation, is based on
building design classification categories and evaluation of template design
specifications that define options, predict their implications, and compare
them to existing conditions measured with the same template yardstick. It is
one way to build the knowledge and credibility needed to argue for adequate
shelter within sustainable, symbiotic limits.
The goal, in my opinion, is to provide shelter for the many
activities of growing populations within geographic limits defined to protect
their quality and source of life. We cannot pursue this at the present time
without the templates, algorithms, and master equations needed to measure the
shelter capacity of land and evaluate the lifestyle implications of development
and redevelopment decisions with improved comparative knowledge.
Shelter capacity is gross building area present in square
feet per buildable acre occupied. The amount that can be provided per buildable
acre is a function of the land remaining for building cover and parking after
all other present or planned pavement and open space areas are subtracted. I’ve
called this the “core area” remaining. The mathematical relationship between
parking requirements and floor quantity options in the core area determines the
building cover, or footprint area remaining for shelter in square feet. When
floor quantity options are multiplied by the footprint available, the result is
the gross building area options present or planned. Gross building area is the
raw material of shelter formation. It can accommodate any permitted activity
and is served by a city’s movement, open space, and life support systems.
Fortunately, gross building area, shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion, and
context can be measured and/or predicted
with the equations and templates of urban design.
The templates that use these equations to forecast and/or
measure the implications of shelter capacity are listed in Table 1.
Explanations for each chapter are presented in my book, “The Equations of Urban
Design”. It can be found at the following url:
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001IR3ODO?ref_=pe_584750_33951330
COMPARISON AND EVALUATION
The results predicted or measured using the templates of
shelter capacity evaluation are comparable because they are based on the same
standardized template of requested quantity measurements. This establishes
comparison and evaluation as a quantitative foundation for the pursuit of
increased knowledge.
The optional design specification values that produce
shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion, and context are not all desirable. The
challenge will be to identify those capable of sheltering the activities of
increasing populations within limited geographic areas designed to protect both
their quality and source of life.
IMPLICATIONS
Gross building area is shelter that may be occupied by any
permitted activity. The distribution of shelter capacity and activity
throughout a city establishes the physical intensity, intrusion, and context of
its social, psychological, environmental, and economic quality of life. This
distribution can no longer be left to chance if we are to have any chance of
reconciling a city’s economic foundation with the planet’s capacity to sustain
life.
BUILD YOUR OWN
The template examples in each chapter of “The Equations of
Uban Design” display all equations needed to reproduce the template format. Producing
your own will give you the ability to evaluate design quantity decisions and
correlate the shelter capacity of land with its economic potential, as well as
its context and quality of life implications based on the comparative knowledge
acquired.
The last pages of each chapter in “The Equations of Urban
Design” contain the derivation of the master equations used by each template to
predict gross building area or buildable land area options from the correlated
design specification values entered. The capacity, intensity, intrusion, and
context implications of these measurements or predictions are calculated in
each column of each template’s Implications Module for consistent comparison
and evaluation. The implication equations involved are noted at the head of
each implication column.
CONCLUSION
I believe it is a self-evident fact that every herd on the
planet is subject to the planet’s unwritten law of limits, and that it grows
until it exceeds these limits. We are no different, but we are the only herd
given the ability to anticipate these limits and act accordingly. It means,
however, that we must accept the challenge before we antagonize a planet that
does not compromise with ignorance.
Walter M. Hosack, July 2026
NOTE: Table 1 is an improvement of the Table of Contents in "The Equations of Urban Design".
