Preface for Version 2.0
The latest version of this working paper is substantially different from the first. In the first version, we expanded our design logic and dimensional analysis up to the scale of a country because we received funding to explore that arena. You can still view that "version 1.5" paper here (and read its original preface below, most of which is still relevant).
For this latest "version 2.0", we are removing the national planning discussions and instead focusing on the neighborhood and city scales of development. Why? A few reasons:
- The neighborhood is an ideal "unit" of development. Whether one is working with a single lot or planning citywide infrastructure, the neighborhood unit should act as a benchmark or reference. "How is this lot situated within its neighborhood?" and "Should we expand the subway system?": both of these questions depend on the neighborhood scale.
- The neighborhood is also what we generally use as the frame in our minds when we think of where we live or where we visit. For example, I walk my dog around "the Lower East Side" not around "Manhattan". While I might tell someone I’m taking a trip to "Paris", I’m likely only experiencing the city one arrondissement at a time.
- The majority of the things we build are relatively small: things like skyscrapers, houses, bus stops, football fields, blocks, lots, and streets. These "building blocks" iterate and scale up in aggregate to form a city. The study of architecture, urban design, urbanism, and city planning largely falls in this domain.
Now onto the fun part! -> The Importance of Streets
Paul Knight, AICP
May 12, 2023
The Doug Allen Institute is a 501c3 dedicated to doing research like this and making it freely available. Our organization relies heavily on the financial support from its many donors. If you have found this or other materials of ours useful, please consider supporting us. Visit www.DougAllenInstitute.org.
Preface for Versions 1.0 through 1.5
Urban Form Standard, v1.5 (pdf)
Perkins+Will, an international architecture and planning firm, received the commission to develop the Fourth Master Plan for the country of Kuwait. Not county—country. Let’s think about that.
I recall watching the renovations of some existing water and sewer lines along a short stretch of Northside Drive here in Atlanta. It occurred in slow motion over a period of perhaps two years. Every day I would drive by, catching a glimpse of each individual frame of the real-life cartoon. There was the plan, then the concerned neighbors, then the replanning, site prep, construction with half a dozen workers watching one poor soul dig a hole, and then waiting another series of months to paint the road stripes, and finally, finally, the removal of the traffic cones and opening of the lanes. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, in China, India, the Middle East, dozens of cities to house millions of people had been built from scratch.
Worldwide, urbanization is happening at speeds and scales never seen until now, taking place in hastily-built megacities. The first time I saw this myself was on a trip to India a few years ago. Surrounding the highway were concentrations of new growth, forests of skyscrapers and tower cranes sprouting from the earth. I can only imagine the level of coordination for such things, picturing an army of professionals out there planning the various infrastructures, be it economic, transportation, political, legal, programmatic, environmental, sanitation, utilities, etc. But peel all of that back and consider the context of urban form, the underlying structure of all cities, the boundaries delineating spaces public and private, streets and blocks, mine and yours. What is happening in that domain?
Many architects and planners have created their own versions of idealized cities. Le Corbusier had his Plan Voisin; Frank Lloyd Wright, Broadacre; Daniel Burnham, Chicago; Hippodamus, Miletus; Haussmann, Paris; Niemeyer, Brasilia. But those are mere cities; let’s take it a couple magnitudes further to countries. How does one physically plan the urban form of an entire country? How does one account for all the components of the built environment within a single system, including what is known, what is unknown, and the unknown unknowns, and address the various scales of the human experience, from country-wide mega-regions harboring millions to single-person reading nooks? That’s the question we want to answer, or at the very least explore.
David Green, Perkins+Will’s Global Urban Design Leader, reached out to the Doug Allen Institute to do that exploration. I am excited to make the first set of these working papers available. The papers are a continuation of Doug Allen’s research; they make some improvements on the American Land Ordinance of 1785, apply those lessons and principles to international lands, make a strong suggestion in regards to number theory, and extend the study into the smaller scales of design including neighborhoods, blocks, lots, buildings, and even rooms, furniture, and objects. It is by no means presented here as a refined, finished product. As a working paper, these are thoughts and ideas that are still being developed, reconsidered, critiqued, pushed, and pulled. We welcome any comments you may have.
Paul Knight, AICP
September 6, 2018
The Doug Allen Institute is a 501c3 dedicated to doing research like this and making it freely available. While Perkins+Will was generous enough to provide the funds to conduct this research, our organization relies heavily on the financial support from its many donors and members. If you have found this or other materials of ours useful, please consider supporting us. Visit www.DougAllenInstitute.org.