Using parametric methods to understand place in urban design courses

Abstract

Today, many urban design studios begin with the data collected and analyzed by others and their abstraction is experientially distant from the place itself. New digital parametric methods of urban design education today support the inclusion of everyday experience of phenomena through (1) the systematic comparison of urban characteristics; (2) the inclusion of experience as phenomena over time; and (3) open formulation of urban characteristics by each student. This paper describes the methodology of three courses taught in Eugene in Oregon, Barcelona in Spain and Portland in Oregon. Each course integrated urban design principles and table-based geospatial information (GI) computing techniques that included phenomena of place. Unlike GI planning software such as ESRI ArcGIS and City Engine, the parametric software Rhino Grasshopper, with open plugins for CSV tables and OpenStreetMaps (Coast 2004) and custom scripting, allowed students to formulate their own open tools to understand people and place. This codification of time-based phenomena is especially relevant for the current generation of urban design students, but faces new challenges as tools of both analysis and design.