Abstract :
[en] Compacts typo-morphologies by use of local search methods
Q. Meurisse, I. De Smet
In prospect of sustainable urban densification, a tool aiming to assess and to assist the design of compact housing blocks with a target population density was created and tested in the scope of the CoMod Project (see details in biography). The concept of spatial compactness is here applied, at the architectural scale, on the built environment, the non-built environment and both combined. This approach allows
us, during the project stage, to encourage typo-morphologies which save land and material resources while achieving high energy efficiency. These typo-morphologies exploit the spatial quality of compact spaces. A possible exaggeration of the concept is bounded by numerous objective criteria notably relative to green areas, projected shadows as well as minimal distances and surfaces to consider. This study led to a catalogue of more than 1600 typo-morphologies validating all the criteria for square, rectangular and triangular urban blocks, with an outline of 1 to 8 levels.
However, targeting urban compactness faces a difficult conciliation between various quantitative and qualitative parameters. Numerous mathematical tools have already been applied on the problem of urban planning (using optimization methods, multicriteria decision help, cellular automata, fractal sets, etc.). The study of compact typo-morphologies with the help of graph theory, game theory or local search can help solving the problems that arise when dealing with conflicting criteria. We are currently developing a prototype of software that generates urban blocks using local search algorithms. The generated blocks optimize compactness criteria with respect to a set of comfort, privacy and legal constraints.
