Urban Design Tool Featured in Ecological Urban Architecture

John Hong’s article, ‘Simulating Interdependent Complexity: Beyond Prescriptive Zoning,’ was published in Ecological Urban Architecture. The article outlines applications for Hong’s parametric urban design tool developed at the Harvard GSD under a Harvard Real Estate Academic Initiative Grant. By using computation to leverage performance based zoning standards instead of prescriptive rules, the tool demonstrates that there does not need to be an inverse relationship between density and quality of space. Daylighting, building cores, proximity to parks, programming, and other factors are simultaneously evaluated for an optimized solution. Stay tuned for a full animated demo of the tool in the upcoming months. A special thanks to the book’s author Thomas Schroepfer, and publisher Birkhäuser.