课程计划-City of Numerical Parameters.docxVIP

Infra-Architecture, Graduate Design Studio II, Fall 2016 City of Numerical CodesA Criticism ofRegulation and Urban Form指标城市: 规划法与城市形态批判Instructor: Yungho Chang, Zheng TanVisiting Instructor: Michael BellTeaching Assistant: Yunlong YuThe term “urbanism” stipulates the condition, character and vision of livable built environment in towns and cities, or “urbanity.” Planners and designers intend to define a good “urbanity” in terms of a series of measurable, quantitative properties (such as population density and development intensity). To protect the light, air and greenness (the common good) which could be brought to the city, standardization and regulation of the quantitative properties of a city became a common practice at the turn of the 20th century and it gave rise to the modern land-use zoning. In 1915, when the 42-story Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan, the need for controlling the height and form of all buildings became clear. The New York 1916 Zoning Resolution (see attachment-1) was one of the earliest examples of such practices in a modern metropolis. By introducing the idea of “zoning envelop”, the 1916 Zoning Resolution as well as its successive zoning codes (such as the 1961 Zoning Resolution) have regulated the skyline of New York City for a century and it provides an important test ground for examining the interaction between codes and urban form. Architectural draftsman and theorist Hugh Ferriss documented the 1916 Zoning Resolution through a series of massing studies, exploring the possible maximum forms in a “zoning envelop.” These renderings were included in Ferriss’ The Metropolis of Tomorrow in 1929. By the end of the 1920s, the setback skyscraper became a new building style (Art Deco) in world cities from Chicago to Shanghai. Likewise, for the past decades, cities in post-reform China have been shaped by rigid, sometimes harsh, zoning regulation through simple numerical codes – building coverage, density, FAR, green area ratio,