Arquitectura

Abstract. Traditional urban plans have defi nitive design systems, without the fl exibility required to deal with the complexity and change that characterise contemporary urban societies. To provide urban plans with increased fl exibility, it is proposed a design methodology capable of producing various design solutions instead of a specifi c defi nitive design. The methodology uses shape grammars as a process for generating urban design. In this approach, design becomes a system of solutions rather than a specifi c one.
Through the analyses of a group of urban plans, a design methodology was
sketched in which rules are used to enable more fl exibility. These plans where chosen for their perceived qualities in terms of language, planning effi ciency, and latent fl exibility. As a result, a four-phased methodology was identifi ed and thus, proposed for designing urban plans. This methodology was then combined with shape grammars and tested in a design studio setting. Students were asked to use the methodology and shape grammars as auxiliary instruments in the design of a fl exible plan for a new town. In the following year, to simulate real-world conditions and oblige students to consider urban ordering and scale, work was structured differently. First, students were asked to develop a rule-based urban plan as in the previous year. Second, they were asked to conceive a detail plan for a sector of an urban plan defi ned by another group of students following its rules.
The plans were then analysed with the goal of refi ning the methodology.
Results show that shape grammars produce urban plans with non-defi nitive formal solutions, while keeping a consistent spatial language. They also provide plans with explicit and implicit fl exibility, thereby giving future designers a wider degree of freedom. Finally, they provide students with a concrete methodology for approaching urban design and foster the development of additional designing skills.

Keywords. Shape grammars, fl exible urban design.

This paper presents a shape grammar for planned urban spaces intending an implementation for generative urban design. This implementation will form part of an urban design support tool defined to formulate, generate and evaluate urban designs. The goal is to formulate urban program descriptions according to context conditions using a description grammar and generate alternative design solutions using a shape grammar. The generation is guided by several evaluation processes performed by an evaluation module. In this paper we are focusing on the definition of the generic shape grammar using an existent urban plan as a case study. The aim is to encode the design moves of the urban designer into generic grammar rules amenable for specific instantiations through the customization of rule parameters.

Analytical work has demonstrated the potential of shape
grammars for capturing rules embedded in existing design styles, and generating designs within such styles that match given design contexts. However, the creation of grammars for new design styles, from exploratory rules to design synthesis, remains elusive. The combined use of patterns and discursive grammars is here proposed as a way of encoding the semantics behind recurrent urban design operations and enable the development of a tool to support the creation of new grammars. The idea is that by exploring the combination of generative patterns designers may arrive at new grammars.

This paper presents a shape grammar for planned urban spaces
intending an implementation for generative urban design. This implementation will form part of an urban design support tool defined to formulate, generate and evaluate urban designs. The goal is to formulate urban program descriptions according to context conditions using a description grammar and generate alternative design solutions using a shape grammar. The generation is guided by several evaluation processes performed by an evaluation module. In this paper we are focusing on the definition of the generic shape grammar using an existent urban plan as a case study. The aim is to encode the design moves of the urban designer into generic grammar rules amenable for specific instantiations through the customization of rule parameters.

Abstract. The street system is an important component of the city ontology
created for a generative urban design tool and should be able to integrate the
many visions or interpretations that designers or other urban design agents
may have about streets. This paper describes several characteristics of the
street system, with its components organized into object classes which are the
shape sets of algebras used by a generation module to generate street network
representations that can be assessed by a GIS platform.

Keywords. Ontology, urban design, shape grammars, planning

This paper presents an assessment of a selection software tools for urban design confronting their capabilities with the goals of the CityInduction research project. The goal of this paper is the assessment of existing platforms for computer aided urban design to select one as the basis for implementing the urban design model proposed in the CityInduction project. This model includes three sub-models that support the formulation of design programs from contextual information, the exploration of designs solutions through a grammarbased generative approach, and the validation of designs against the program through the use of evaluation tools. To each of these sub-models corresponds a module in the envisioned platform and so, existing platforms are assessed in terms of their ability to support the implementation of each module. The current goal is a proof-of-concept implementation, but the final goal is the development of a complete platform for supporting urban design.

This paper shows the first results of a prototype implementation of a generative urban design tool. This implementation will form part of a design support tool for a GIS based platform defined to formulate, generate and evaluate urban designs. These three goals, formulation, generation and evaluation are integrated by connecting three modules developed individually for each goal. In this paper we focus on the implementation of the generation module showing a prototype developed on the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of AutoCAD Civil 3D. This implementation attempts to encode the design moves of the urban planner into design patterns supported on grammar formalisms which allow for design synthesis and design exploration in the field of urban design.

ABSTRACT: The use of typomorphology as a means of understanding urban areas has a long tradition amongst academics but the reach of these methods into urban design practice has been limited. In this paper we present a method to support the description and prescription of urban form that is contextsensitive, multi-dimensional, systematic, exploratory, and quantitative, thus facilitating the application of urban typomorphology to planning practice. At the core of the proposed method is the k-means statistical clustering technique to produce objective classifications from the large complex data sets typical of urban environments. Block and street types were studied as a test case and a context-sensitive sample of types that correspond to two different neighbourhoods were identified. This method is suitable to support the identification, understanding and description of emerging urban forms that do not fall into standard classifications. The method can support larger urban form studies through consistent application of the procedures to different sites. The quantitative nature of its output lends itself to integration with other systematic procedures related to the research, analysis, planning and design of urban areas.

Abstract. Traditional urban plans use definitive design systems, without the flexibility required to deal with the complexity and change that characterize contemporary urban societies. To conceive urban plans with increased flexibility, a shape grammar-based design methodology is proposed which is capable of producing various design solutions instead of a single rigid layout. In this approach the plan is a design system encoding a set of alternative solutions, rather than a single, specific solution. This methodology was developed on the basis of the analysis of existing plans and on a series of experiments undertaken within the controlled environment of design studios. Results show that shape grammars produce urban plans with nondefinitive formal solutions, while keeping a consistent design language. They also provide plans with explicit and implicit flexibility, thereby giving future designers a wider degree of freedom. As a result, they are particularly appropriate for dealing with complexity and change throughout the legal lifespan of the plan. Finally, they provide students with a concrete methodology for approaching urban design, fostering the development of additional design skills.

Abstract. Urban planning and design have a considerable impact on the economic performance of cities and on the quality of life of the population. Efficiency at this level is hampered by the lack of integrated instruments for formulating, generating, and evaluating urban plans. This chapter describes the theoretical foundations of a research project, called City Induction, aimed at the creation of a model for the development of such an instrument, departing from existing theories, which are integrated through a discursive grammar. The proposed model is composed of three sub-models: (1) a model for formulating urban programs from the analysis and interpretation of the context, based on Alexander’s pattern language; (2) a model for generating urban plans that match the program, based on Stiny’s shape and description grammars; and (3) a model for evaluating urban plans, that can be used for analyzing, comparing and ranking alternative solutions, departing from Hillier’s space syntax. A common urban space ontology guarantees the syntactic and semantic interoperability among the three sub-models. This ontology will be used to structure and codify information into a Geographic Information System (GIS), which will be the kernel for the computer implementation of the larger model. A CAD system is used to construct 3D models from contextual information stored in the GIS. In short, following Stiny and March’s design machines concept, the goal is to create an urban design machine that is able to produce flexible urban plans at the site planning level.

Keywords: urban design, ontology, pattern language, shape grammars, space syntax, GIS, CAD

Abstract: This paper presents a shape grammar for planned urban spaces
intending an implementation for generative urban design. This implementation
will form part of an urban design support tool defined to formulate, generate and evaluate urban designs. The goal is to formulate urban program descriptions according to context conditions using a description grammar and generate alternative design solutions using a shape grammar. The generation is guided by several evaluation processes performed by an evaluation module. In this paper we are focusing on the definition of the generic shape grammar using an existent urban plan as a case study. The aim is to encode the design moves of the urban designer into generic grammar rules amenable for specific instantiations through the customization of rule parameters.

Keywords: Shape grammars; patterns; generative urban design.