Tactical Architecture and Strategic Urban Design

Christopher Alexander called architecture a “pattern language” long ago since it relies on graphic images to communicate intent in my opinion. The language involved presents diagrams that may be worth a thousand words but cannot build knowledge regarding the context presented. In fact, it cannot define the term. It can only depict an example that leaves knowledge of success a matter of opinion, and this success cannot be duplicated without fear of plagiarism.

CONTEXT

Architectural context became a concern of social movements centuries ago when excessive population density was forced to occupy undersized rooms without light, air, ventilation, sanitation, and safety. These excessive internal conditions were reflected by the external physical intensity of the tenements inhabited. The difference between internal space per occupant and external space per building became confused by the term “density” however, since external “intensity” could not be defined by the pattern language available and still in use today.

Zoning regulation has made partial attempts at intensity definition by specifying partial, uncorrelated pattern language details such as, but not limited to, yard setbacks, building height limitations, and parking regulations. They often conflict and require time-consuming variance approvals forced to become inconsistent given the circumstances encountered. The results have often been sprawling consumption of land and/or excessive intensity because a pattern language cannot comprehensively define leadership intent, build knowledge, or anticipate conditions related to the thousands of project decisions involved around the planet.

Fortunately, the components of external project context can be comprehensively identified, measured, and mathematically correlated to predict their implications. These implications can also be predicted when contemplated specification values are entered in the design specification module of a building design category forecast model. I’ve discussed this measurement and prediction potential to build knowledge and lead future shelter capacity planning in many previous essays.

The shelter capacity, intensity, and context implications predicted in a shelter capacity forecast model can be adjusted by changing the design specification values entered in the specification module before pencil hits paper. The knowledge that can be accumulated by this measurement and prediction format has improved leadership potential for both public and private sectors.

Leadership is needed to protect our quality and source of life from excessive consumption of land for shelter capacity. It should be a self-evident argument. Land is needed to shelter the activities of growing populations and is needed as a source of life. Shelter will consume this source without leadership that is able to define the shelter capacity of land and limit its consumption.

Density in terms of dwelling units per acre has never been an adequate measure of intensity. It has simply not addressed the many design specification values that must be correlated to produce a desired result. This has prevented us from reconciling population growth and shelter capacity on limited land areas that are consciously prescribed and monitored to produce a sustainable, compatible presence and desirable quality of life.

The equations of shelter capacity evaluation have been my response to this perceived gap, and I have discussed them in numerous essays over the years. They are the descendants of a social reform movement that first recognized the relationship between shelter intensity, social density, and its effect on public health, safety, and welfare (quality of life). The response has influenced our lives and behavior in many ways, but we have struggled to lead the shelter required for this activity without sprawl and excessive intensity. This is not an issue associated with a single building. It is about the assembly of shelter projects that form the places we inhabit with collections of building mass, parking, pavement, and unpaved open space. The topic is typically referred to as urban design, but the scope of concern is not limited to an urban design area. It extends to the collection of urban design areas that must eventually be correlated to form sustainable city design, and it requires an equally comprehensive leadership language.

Shelter design leadership is needed because the refuge planned or constructed on a single lot removes land as a source of life. It’s a trade-off between land for shelter and land for survival that adds meaning and urgency to words like “balance”, “sustainable”, and “symbiotic”.

URBAN DESIGN

A single shelter cell metastasizes in response to population growth stimuli and depends on a life-sustaining anatomy of movement, open space, and life support. This anatomy responds to population growth and expands to form a Built Domain that consumes land. This growth is not recognized as a disease mistreated with “annexation” because we are only now recognizing the implications of unlimited growth and consumption. We have simply not understood the building classification and design specification decisions needed to consistently lead shelter growth toward a goal based on understanding and respect for the planet’s ability to sustain life. In other words, we have not been able to accurately predict the shelter capacity of land. We have fought wars over control, surveyed parcels, and traded ownership; but have never attempted to reconcile our admiration for growth and consumption on a planet with limited land area facing competing demands. We think we own and control, but the Natural Domain will never compromise with ignorance.

There are measurable implications related to the shelter growth we pursue within the natural limits we ignore. I’ve called these implications shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion, and context. I’ve mentioned in previous essays that they are produced by a choice among six classified building design categories, and design specification decisions entered in a forecast template related to the building category chosen. Each template predicts gross building area potential based on the specification values entered and the floor quantity option chosen. The gross building area predicted becomes the basis for calculating its shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion, and context implications with additional embedded equations. The physical, social, psychological, environmental, and economic effects of these context implications remain unmeasured and unknown, but I believe that most of us have always felt that the places we create range from claustrophobic to serene, and that they influence the quality of life we experience. It may be possible to convert what we feel to what we know with future measurement and research. It may even be called knowledge.

ARCHITECTURE

Urban design exceeds the client boundaries of a typical architectural commission. It cannot be resolved with land use planning or current zoning regulations any more than a building can be completely defined with a single floor plan and a partial specification. This makes urban design a new frontier of significant public interest and potential contribution since a three-dimensional problem cannot be answered with two dimensional solutions. If you have read my previous essays, you know that shelter capacity evaluation, data science, computer graphic information, mathematics, and design are involved. Alexander’s pattern language will remain to illustrate solutions, but they will be built on the knowledge gained from urban design evaluation. Architecture will become the tactical branch of urban design strategy and city design leadership. There is no option for those who agree that growth is subject to the planet’s Law of Limits.

POSTSCRIPT

When land area is given, the quantity of gross building area that can be constructed becomes the question.

When a gross building area objective is given, the quantity of buildable land required becomes the question.

Answers to these questions are a function of the building design category chosen, the information given, and the values entered for each remaining topic in the design category’s specification template. The answers vary with every floor quantity option and specification revision entered.

Shelter capacity, intensity, intrusion, and context implications are calculated from the gross building area options measured or predicted from the specification values entered. The measurements are like blood pressure readings with no prior diagnostic history.

In architecture these answers have client investment implications. In urban design they have public revenue implications. In both cases desirable context within sustainable limits is not assured. It is a function of design decisions that now require more informed leadership direction.

In other words, the shelter capacity of land is a variable based on design decisions that have physical, social, psychological, environmental, and economic implications. These decisions can be abused to maximize shelter capacity, intensity, and intrusion at the expense of context. It’s time to learn much more about the strategic design decisions involved before we can hope to shelter the activities of growing populations within geographic limits designed to protect both their quality and source of life. Recognizing and correlating the shelter capacity of land may help us to use it wisely since capacity and context can be occupied by any permitted activity.

We are being tested by our use of limited land, sea, and air for growth. Shelter is simply one of the many topics that we must struggle to correlate with growth and limited resources. The appearance of architecture and urban design will only symbolize an answer. It will not provide the measurement, evaluation, prediction, knowledge, and leadership decisions required.

Walter M. Hosack: November, 2024