Cities and infectious diseases: Assessing the exposure of pedestrians to virus transmission along city streets

As cities resume life in public space, they face the difficult task of retaining outdoor activity while decreasing exposure to airborne viruses, such as the novel coronavirus. Even though the transmission risk is higher in indoor spaces, recent evidence suggests that physical contact outdoors also contributes to an increased virus exposure....

The Language of Mozambican Slums

A shape grammar was developed for analyzing the evolution of Maputo´s slums with the strategic objective of capturing the evolution of house types and understanding the social agreements behind the spatial relations of their house elementary spaces in order to reuse such rules for the purpose of rehabilitation. This paper shows preliminary...

Creating specific grammars with generic grammars: Towards flexible urban design

The aim of the City Induction project is to develop an urban design tool consisting of 3 parts: an urban programme formulation module, a generation module and an evaluation module. The generation module relies on a very generic Urban Grammar composed of several generic grammars called Urban Induction Patterns (UIPs) corresponding to typical...

Public space patterns: Towards a CIM standard for urban public space

This paper describes public space patterns (PSP) used as basic elements of the City Information Modelling (CIM) model proposed within a larger research project that aims to develop an urban design support tool.

The backbone of a City Information Model (CIM): Implementing a spatial data model for urban design

We have been witnessing an increased interest in a more holistic approach to urban design practice and education. In this paper we present a spatial data model for urban design that proposes the combination of urban environment feature classes with design process feature classes. This data model is implemented in a spatial database that becomes...

Public space patterns: Modelling the language of urban space

This paper describes the “Public Space Patterns” ontology including its related rule-based model, used as a basic structure of a “City Information Modelling” (CIM). This model was developed within a larger research project aimed at developing a tool for urban planning and design. The main purpose is to provide computer-readable descriptions of...

Implementing a Generative Urban Design Model: Grammar-based design patterns for urban design

This paper shows the first results of a prototype implementation of a generative urban design tool. This implementation will form part of a design support tool for a GIS based platform defined to formulate, generate and evaluate urban designs. These three goals, formulation, generation and evaluation are integrated by connecting three modules...

Structuring a generative model for urban design: Linking GIS to shape grammars

Urban Design processes need to adopt flexible and adaptive procedures to respond to the evolving demands of the contemporary city. To support such dynamic processes, a specific design methodology and a supporting tool are needed. This design methodology considers the development of a design system rather than a single design solution. It is...