Pluralist production of urban form: towards a parametric development control for unity in diversity

ABSTRACT

The contemporary city is (re)produced in fragments through numerous typological variations. However, the current practice of spatial planning has yet to suggest effective control mechanisms to steer the piecemeal (trans)formation of cities. This paper argues for parametric modelling as a method of guiding fragmentary developments towards the pluralist production of coherent urban fabrics. Following the parametric definition of the basic morphological codes, the paper discusses the computational capacity of parametric modelling to simulate multiple variations in local fabrics and their consecutive integration within a larger context. The proposed model is tested in the context of Istanbul, Turkey.

KEYWORDS:

• Computational design
• parametric urbanism
• development control
• urban morphology
• urban coherence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Internet sources

Centre for Applied Transect Studies (CATS) 1984. The Transect and Community Units

https://transect.org/rural_img.html (accessed 15 May 2018).

Stellmach, T. (2007) ‘Associative Design @ Berlage’, http://www.dysturb.net/associative-design-berlage/ (acceded 15 May 2018).

Notes

1. The terms, development control and design control are mostly used interchangeably in the planning literature. Development control basically means the system of issuing permits for area developments (Booth 2003, 1). It covers the acts of design control as the regulation on the qualitative aspects of the development in order to ensure the quality of the public realm in urban space (Hall 1996, 2). Within the paper, the concept of development control implies the control and coordination of individual design applications through new urban developments.

2. For the current research, Grasshopper®, a graphical algorithm editor integrated with Rhino’s 3-D modelling tools was used. See: https://www.grasshopper3d.com/, accessed December 2019.

3. The floor area ratio (FAR) of the two urban areas generated by the model was 3.00. This is actually even more than the existing FAR of the existing developments in the area (2.55) as indicated in the table of parametric morphology (see Table 2 in the online supplemental data). By doubling the ground coverage (0.32) for the new fabric, which used to be at the level of 0.17, for the existing developments (ibid), the emergent urban form provides a higher degree of compactness which enables the creation of more defined (enclosed) public spaces than before.