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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

Virgin Site Rule

New York

The street grid cuts relationships between neighboring blocks. This independence persists until new regulations concerning neighbors generate new interdependencies.

Rule category

Motivation
Contextual Regimes: issues depending on the immediate context and its preservation, economic and social regimes, traditions, etc.
The Kind of Rule
Rule that works as reference, ratio, or dependency.
Rule that is NOT related to any preconceived zone or area.
Domain
Rule that has a strong influence on urban density and its distribution.
Rule that influences programmatic and functional issues.
Rule with direct impact on architectural or urban form.
Rule that regulates building heights.
Rule that explicitly copes with stylistic and aesthetic concerns.
Scale
Neighborhood Rule: Rule that works at neighborhood scale.