Articles
Urban Development
April 15, 2024
Sofia Malmsten
CEO & Architect
In city planning and building design, every site is one of a kind. They all come with their own unique features, like shape, surroundings, topography, environmental conditions, and social aspects. These factors need special consideration when deciding what to build.
Often, the construction industry is compared to the automotive industry, where they strive to increase efficiency and repetition. However, the opposite holds true: “every project is unique.” And it’s true. No two sites are alike, but the questions we seek to answer and the problems we aim to solve are often very similar.
Yet, amidst this diversity, there’s one factor that affects all sites equally: geometrical constraints. And in this article I’ll share how we work with this problem as a foundation for the development of generative design in apps like Hektar.
Various Sites: Different Shapes, Different Needs
When architects and planners start a new project, they have to think carefully about how to use the space within the rules. They look at things like what the land can be used for, how tall buildings can be, and how far they have to be from the edge. But one thing matters more than anything else: the shape of the land itself.
The shape of a piece of land decides what can be built there and where. It might be a long, thin piece of land between other buildings or a weird-shaped plot with hills or rivers. So, it’s really important to know how to deal with these shapes to make the most of the space.
That’s where Hektar comes in. It’s a smart way to look at land and understand how its shape affects what can be done with it. Hektar breaks down the land into smaller parts and looks at each one closely. This helps designers see where the best spots are for building and where there might be problems.
Initially, Hektar gathers information aboutw the land, either from hand-drawn sketches or digital files. Next, it employs segmentation techniques to partition the land, creating a map that highlights available space for construction and potential challenges. As described by Mielle, M., Magnusson, M., Lilienthal, A J. (2018) in “A method to segment maps from different modalities using free space layout MAORIS : map of ripples segmentation” we are using a similar appriach but for Urban planning.
This initial segmentation produces a ‘free space map,’ indicating areas of the plot with consistent distances from the edges or boundaries of the buildable region.
Site segmentation: Utilizing Free Space Mapping to Accommodate Varied Site Shapes
Once Hektar has the land all sorted out, it uses computers to suggest what kinds of buildings would work best in each spot. It looks at lots of examples of buildings from all over and figures out which ones would fit the land and the rules the best. Hektar analyzes common typologies for single-family housing, multi-family housing, hotels, and student apartments across various scales. These typologies are then combined with the different sizes of the site to inform our design decisions.
Layout typologies for Single Family Housing development
By using Hektar, designers can save time and make better decisions about what to build where. And because Hektar learns from what designers do, it keeps getting better at giving advice.
In the world of city planning, dealing with zoning rules is a big challenge. But tools like Hektar make it easier by breaking down the problems and suggesting solutions. By using Hektar, designers can make cities that work well for people and follow the rules at the same time. And as cities keep growing and changing, tools like Hektar will keep playing a big part in making them better places to live.
