Generative & Parametric Urbanism

Applying computational, rule-driven methods to the design of cities and neighbourhoods — designing cities by rule (from drawing cities to growing them; generative versus parametric; the landscape; the promise separated from the hype), why compute urban form (the complexity of cities, data-driven urbanism, exploring the possible), parametric urbanism (what parametric means, urban parameters and rules, the parametric model, when it helps), generative urban design (what generative means, procedural city generation, generative design and AI, evaluating options), the rules of urban form (street networks and grids, blocks/plots/density, massing and envelope, mixing uses), optimizing the city (multi-objective optimization, sunlight/wind/comfort, walkability and access, trade-offs and Pareto), data and analysis (urban data sources, space syntax and networks, simulation, from analysis to form), in the real process (masterplanning with computation, stakeholders and participation, from model to plan, the role of the planner), making it real (tools and workflow, computational skills, integration and scale, adoption), reality/limits/honesty (parametric-washing, the optimization trap, cities are not machines, equity and power), and practice and the future. Rigorous and honest — computation is genuinely powerful for handling urban complexity and exploring options, but a city is a living human, social and political system, not an optimization problem, so optimizing the measurable can erase the unmeasurable, the choice of what to optimize and for whom is a question of power, and the binding choices stay human, democratic and just — for architects, urban designers, planners and students. Treats computation as a tool to explore, analyse and test, deferring actual planning and land-use decisions, statutory approvals and the social, equity and political judgements about a city's future to the planning authority, the democratic and participatory process, the affected communities and the governing planning law and development-control regulations (in India, the master-plan process, the applicable DCR and NBC India). India-aware, defending the informal and organic city the model cannot see and wary of top-down technocratic masterplanning.

11 modules · 44 lessons · ~15 hrs · 44 of 44 lessons live