Designing lots and lots of lots

By Ken Goulding posted on Mon, 2010-08-23 12:30 , 372 reads, 0 comments

Figuring out lotting for residential districts can be a tedious process that usually involves a great deal of drawing and counting by hand. As a single-pass, linear exercise its tolerable, but when the client pushes back on the numbers and you have to tweak the plan through  a number of iterations, it can be a very time-consuming exercise.

 

A new utility in SmartPlan has been designed to enhance the way we do lotting. By simplifying the task of manipulating lotting configurations and by dynamically linking to Excel spreadsheets, we can be far more agile and responsive to change. Changes to either the design or the target projections can be worked out quickly.

 

Methodology:

We realized that lotting can be reduced to a simple linear problem. Once you've figured out the frontage lines on a plan, fitting lots to the lines is kind of like threading different sized beads onto a piece of string. Only so many configurations will fit on a particular length of string. 

 

Using CAD, we establish the "frontage" lines along which the "beads" may be placed. We then define different housing typologies and their associated frontages and unit counts. The SmartPlan utility allows us to add, remove and change the typology of any of the beads along the line. Any length remaining on the line is reported and can be shared amongst all beads or taken up using spacer elements.

 

Though somewhat rudimentary, the plan representation is sufficient to give designers an indication of density and a trained eye can understand the impact on street quality.

 

 

Conclusion:

Managing lotting without SmartPlan tends to be a low-level and time-consuming manual task. As such, we (as consultants) usually find ourselves priced out of the market. This is unfortunate because there are important considerations involved in lotting design that can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of our plans and can be instrumental towards realizing our vision.