Procedural design is a new technique for urban planning that uses predefined rules to automatically generate city designs. The rules encode human values and intentions to shape how a city is laid out and what it looks like. Procedural design starts by generating a street network and subdividing blocks into lots, then builds buildings according to parameters like setbacks. It allows for quick iteration and modeling of entire neighborhoods and infrastructure. This new approach opens up opportunities for advanced analytics and performance-based design of sustainable urban ecosystems.

1. Procedural Design
The Future of
Planning
and Design

2. It's about Intent.
A city looks and feels the way it does because of human
intention. Early civilizations built their settlements next to
waterways, designing them to take advantage of these
resources and ensure their survival. During the beginning
of the industrial revolution, cities were designed with everevolving rules, for example, ensuring that city streets were
wide enough to accommodate the full turn of a horse and
carriage. In this way, the values of the people were encoded
into the very DNA of the city.
The New Rules
A complex built environment can be reduced to three
basic elements: links along which travel can occur, nodes
representing the intersections where two or more paths
cross and public spaces form, and buildings where most
human activities take place. The functionalities of place are
all defined by rules and procedures, which make up the core
design vocabulary of a place. Procedural design techniques
automatically generate urban designs through predefined
rules, which you can change as much as needed, providing
room for limitless new design possibilities.
Whole City Design
Procedural design of a new urban ecosystem starts with a street
network. Street blocks are then subdivided into lots, resulting
in a new urban form. By selecting all or some of the lots, you
can then generate buildings with appropriate setbacks and
architectural characteristics. Procedural design technology lets
buildings vary from one another to achieve an urban aesthetic.
At this point, the city model can be redesigned quickly and
iteratively by changing simple parameters.
Design by the Rules
Procedural design allows designers to write rules directly into
the code of a rule set, essentially encoding anyone's values
directly into how the city will look and feel. Any zoning code
can be used to instantly model a city. Procedural design allows
you to create complete city designs, not just a building at a
time but entire neighborhoods with complete infrastructure
and landscaping.

3. Urban Design Is Changing.
Procedural design opens the world to a new set of
opportunities for urban planning. Today, a building must
be designed as an integral part of the urban ecosystem to
be considered sustainable. While design is not inherently
dependent on metrics, during the realization process, even
a cursory look at today's architecture reveals the need for a
standard method of accountability. Procedural design provides
advanced analytical tools in response to the growing need for
measurable, performance-based design.
It's Fast.
By using defined performance indicators, procedural
design enables the rapid launch of community design
and implementation strategies enabling design at several
scales simultaneously. Scenarios supporting the geodesign
framework can then be easily evaluated and reevaluated by
comparing key performance indicators.
A New Way to Design
Procedural design creates a new relationship between people
and their urban ecosystems. It's a technique that helps us to
develop a better understanding of how we shape our cities and,
in turn, how they shape us.
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4. Esri inspires and enables people to positively impact their
future through a deeper, geographic understanding of the
changing world around them.
Governments, industry leaders, academics, and nongovernmental
organizations trust us to connect them with the analytic knowledge
they need to make the critical decisions that shape the planet. For
more than 40 years, Esri has cultivated collaborative relationships
with partners who share our commitment to solving earth’s most
pressing challenges with geographic expertise and rational resolve.
Today, we believe that geography is at the heart of a more resilient
and sustainable future. Creating responsible products and solutions
drives our passion for improving quality of life everywhere.
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