Procedural DesignThe Future of Planning and Design

It's about Intent.A city looks and feels the way it does because of human

intention. Early civilizations built their settlements next to

waterways, designing them to take advantage of these

resources and ensure their survival. During the beginning

of the industrial revolution, cities were designed with ever-

evolving rules, for example, ensuring that city streets were

wide enough to accommodate the full turn of a horse and

carriage. In this way, the values of the people were encoded

into the very DNA of the city.

The New RulesA complex built environment can be reduced to three

basic elements: links along which travel can occur, nodes

representing the intersections where two or more paths

cross and public spaces form, and buildings where most

human activities take place. The functionalities of place are

all defined by rules and procedures, which make up the core

design vocabulary of a place. Procedural design techniques

automatically generate urban designs through predefined

rules, which you can change as much as needed, providing

room for limitless new design possibilities.

Whole City DesignProcedural design of a new urban ecosystem starts with a street

network. Street blocks are then subdivided into lots, resulting

in a new urban form. By selecting all or some of the lots, you

can then generate buildings with appropriate setbacks and

architectural characteristics. Procedural design technology lets

buildings vary from one another to achieve an urban aesthetic.

At this point, the city model can be redesigned quickly and

iteratively by changing simple parameters.

Design by the RulesProcedural design allows designers to write rules directly into

the code of a rule set, essentially encoding anyone's values

directly into how the city will look and feel. Any zoning code

can be used to instantly model a city. Procedural design allows

you to create complete city designs, not just a building at a

time but entire neighborhoods with complete infrastructure

and landscaping.

A New Way to DesignProcedural design creates a new relationship between people

and their urban ecosystems. It's a technique that helps us to

develop a better understanding of how we shape our cities and,

in turn, how they shape us.

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Urban Design Is Changing.Procedural design opens the world to a new set of

opportunities for urban planning. Today, a building must

be designed as an integral part of the urban ecosystem to

be considered sustainable. While design is not inherently

dependent on metrics, during the realization process, even

a cursory look at today's architecture reveals the need for a

standard method of accountability. Procedural design provides

advanced analytical tools in response to the growing need for

measurable, performance-based design.

It's Fast.By using defined performance indicators, procedural

design enables the rapid launch of community design

and implementation strategies enabling design at several

scales simultaneously. Scenarios supporting the geodesign

framework can then be easily evaluated and reevaluated by

comparing key performance indicators.

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