Evaluating Urban Development Plans: A New Method in the Toolbox

摘要

The configurational approach to the analysis of urban settlements, first introduced by Bill Hillier in the mid '80s and since then developed and applied by large groups of researchers all over the world, has been appreciated as a reliable tool for enhancing urban interpretation and understanding as well as supporting town planning. The configurational techniques allow to simulate and predict the effects of urban plans and projects on a wide range of variables, thus orienting the decision making process in evaluating and choosing among different options. Any urban project, in that it modifies the consistency of the urban grid, involves a transformation of its configurational state and therefore the inner geography it can reproduce, as well as all the variables it is able to predict. The issue with the present paper is to pinpoint the configurational parameters that result suitable for characterizing any urban planned transformation; what is expected to concretely facilitate its evaluation and to allow a deeper comprehension of its likely consequences.