Menu ETH
Chair of Architecture and Urban Design
Asst. Prof. Dr. Alex Lehnerer
Grand Urban Rules

Design Rules and Design With Rules!

Cities as cultural products are neither ‘built’ nor ‘planned,’ at best they are guided and steered in a certain direction. Therefore, rules and regulations are one of the few tools that are actually suitable to guide future development within such collective and complex urban settings.

We strongly believe that the field of (urban) design should not simply adhere to these standards as some neutrally existing context but should actively engage in discussing them in order to make them subject to design as well. read more

Office for urban regulation

Planted Open Areas

New York , R6 Residence Districts

All open surfaces between the street wall and the front lot line are to be landscaped with plants.

Rule category

Motivation
Aesthetic Regimes: public beauty, visual appearance
The Kind of Rule
Rule that stipulates a fixed limit.
Rule that is tied to a certain zone.
Domain
Rule with direct impact on architectural or urban form.
Rule that explicitly copes with stylistic and aesthetic concerns.
Scale
Plot/Block Rule: Rule that relates to the scale of a city block or plot.