9.1. Perimeter Building

Aus Pattern Language Wiki

Within a Perimeter Block, create buildings at the edges. Build some of them using Small Plots, with fine-grained features at the streetscapes. Generate a Place Network creating layers and articulations of space along the frontages.


09 1 01 Perimeter Building.jpg


Problem-statement: Along the edges of perimeter blocks, the buildings have to meet particular requirements. At the street, they need to form attractive, active edges. On the back sides, the buildings can be much more irregular, but still need to provide light and open space. In both cases they must include zones to form transitional layers from public to private.


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Discussion: On the front side, the buildings need not abut the pavement or sidewalk directly, but can step back into small front yard areas (see Place Network, 6.1). They can also shift back and forth slightly, creating different articulated zones of outdoor space. They can also step back with terraces at upper levels, or include balconies and other outdoor spaces, creating more interest and variety.


On the rear side, perimeter buildings can take on a much more discontinuous form, as they do in the image at the front of this pattern. They may include accessory buildings, garages, alleys, parking areas, utility areas, private gardens and outdoor spaces, semi-private spaces, allotment gardens, and many more kinds of spaces — but they must do so as part of a coherent and legible pattern of public to private pathways.


Perimeter buildings must also maintain good light and solar access, modulated in hot weather with appropriate vegetation (e.g. in areas with colder winters, deciduous trees can shade in summer and provide more sun in winter).¹


Perimeter buildings can also be used to provide blocks-of-blocks — that is, smaller perimeter buildings within the larger block that in turn enclose smaller spaces such as courtyards, gardens and so on. Such a structure can be seen at the upper left of the photo at the beginning of this pattern.²


09 1 02 Perimeter Building.jpg
The rowhouses of Orenco Station in Oregon form perimeter buildings, with 12 foot (3.7 m) outdoor terraces as well as small 4 foot (1.2 m) yards forming a double layer of semi-private front space along the streetscape.


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Therefore:

Create perimeter buildings that abut the streets surrounding each block, with almost continuous building frontage to the maximum extent possible. Create variety in the building form with step-backs and setbacks, and layers of semi-private space. On the back sides, lay out the buildings with ells, courtyards, outbuildings, and other discontinuous forms.


09 1 03 Perimeter Building.jpg


Provide Human-Scale Detail, and use Complex Materials along the frontages of the buildings. …




¹ Urban Task Force (1999). Towards an Urban Renaissance. London: Routledge.


² This urban pattern, and related ones, may seem “old-fashioned,” but they actually represent the tip of the iceberg of very recent innovative scientific research. Looking at urban form as a system evolving over time to adapt to human use and changing forces, we can see that the morphology reaches a highly organized and complex state. After centuries of adaptation, building clusters acquire “emergent” properties that were not designed at the beginning. We connect to those geometrical qualities viscerally, and often pay a great deal of money to visit them in places where they can still be found. The trick now is how to accelerate the evolution of urban form, from centuries in physical space, to days in virtual space, so that we can build immediately with a comparable embodied complexity. This is what such patterns represent: “urbanism as computation” giving specific geometrical results. Morphological urban patterns take us away from monotonous and simplistic repetition, but also from random building footprints that come out of a narrow technological response, or a single artist’s expression = both of which are likely to be poorly adapted to human need.



Mehaffy, M. et al. (2020). PERIMETER BUILDING (pattern). In A New Pattern Language for Growing Regions. The Dalles: Sustasis Press. Available at https://pattern-language.wiki/.../Perimeter_Building



SECTION I:

PATTERNS OF SCALE


1. REGIONAL PATTERNS

Define the large-scale spatial organization…

1.1. POLYCENTRIC REGION

1.2. BLUE-GREEN NETWORK

1.3. MOBILITY CORRIDOR

1.4. 400M THROUGH STREET NETWORK

2. URBAN PATTERNS

Establish essential urban characteristics…

2.1. WALKABLE MULTI-MOBILITY

2.2. LEVEL CITY

2.3. PUBLIC SPACE SYSTEM

2.4. BIOPHILIC URBANISM

3. STREET PATTERNS

Identify and allocate street types…

3.1. URBAN GREENWAY

3.2. MULTI-WAY BOULEVARD

3.3. AVENUE

3.4. SHARED SPACE LANE

4. NEIGHBORHOOD PATTERNS

Define neighborhood-scale elements…

4.1. STREET AS CENTER

4.2. PEDESTRIAN SANCTUARY

4.3. NEIGHBORHOOD SQUARE

4.4. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK

5. SPECIAL USE PATTERNS

Integrate unique urban elements with care…

5.1. SCHOOL CAMPUS

5.2. MARKET CENTER

5.3. INDUSTRIAL AREA

5.4. HOSPITAL

6. PUBLIC SPACE PATTERNS

Establish the character of the crucial public realm…

6.1. PLACE NETWORK

6.2. WALKABLE STREETSCAPE

6.3. MOVABLE SEATING

6.4. CAPILLARY PATHWAY

7. BLOCK AND PLOT PATTERNS

Lay out the detailed structure of property lines…

7.1. SMALL BLOCKS

7.2. PERIMETER BLOCK

7.3. SMALL PLOTS

7.4. MID-BLOCK ALLEY

8. STREETSCAPE PATTERNS

Configure the street as a welcoming place…

8.1. STREET AS ROOM

8.2. TERMINATED VISTA

8.3. STREET TREES

8.4. STREET FURNISHINGS

9. BUILDING PATTERNS

Lay out appropriate urban buildings…

9.1. PERIMETER BUILDING

9.2. ARCADE BUILDING

9.3. COURTYARD BUILDING

9.4. ROW BUILDING

10. BUILDING EDGE PATTERNS

Create interior and exterior connectivity…

10.1. INDOOR-OUTDOOR AMBIGUITY

10.2. CIRCULATION NETWORK

10.3. LAYERED ZONES

10.4. PASSAGEWAY VIEW



SECTION II:

PATTERNS OF MULTIPLE SCALE


11. GEOMETRIC PATTERNS

Build in coherent geometries at all scales…

11.1. LOCAL SYMMETRY

11.2. SMALL GROUPS OF ELEMENTS

11.3. FRACTAL PATTERN

11.4. FRAMING

12. AFFORDANCE PATTERNS

Build in user capacity to shape the environment…

12.1. HANDLES

12.2. CO-PRODUCTION

12.3. FRIENDLY SURFACES

12.4. MALLEABILITY

13. RETROFIT PATTERNS

Revitalize and improve existing urban assets …

13.1. SLUM UPGRADE

13.2. SPRAWL RETROFIT

13.3. URBAN REGENERATION

13.4. URBAN CONSOLIDATION

14. INFORMAL GROWTH PATTERNS

Accommodate “bottom-up” urban growth…

14.1. LAND TENURE

14.2. UTILITIES FIRST

14.3. DATA WITH THE PEOPLE

14.4. INCREMENTAL SELF-BUILD

15. CONSTRUCTION PATTERNS

Use the building process to enrich the result…

15.1. DESIGN-BUILD ADAPTATION

15.2. HUMAN-SCALE DETAIL

15.3. CONSTRUCTION ORNAMENT

15.4. COMPLEX MATERIALS



SECTION III:

PATTERNS OF PROCESS


16. IMPLEMENTATION TOOL PATTERNS

Use tools to achieve successful results…

16.1. FORM-BASED CODE

16.2. ENTITLEMENT STREAMLINING

16.3. NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING CENTER

16.4. COMMUNITY MOCKUP

17. PROJECT ECONOMICS PATTERNS

Create flows of money that support urban quality…

17.1. TAX-INCREMENT FINANCING

17.2. LAND VALUE CAPTURE

17.3. EXTERNALITY VALUATION

17.4. ECONOMIES OF PLACE AND DIFFERENTIATION

18. PLACE GOVERNANCE PATTERNS

Processes for making and managing places…

18.1. SUBSIDIARITY

18.2. POLYCENTRIC GOVERNANCE

18.3. PUBLIC-PRIVATE PLACE MANAGEMENT

18.4. INFORMAL STEWARDSHIP

19. AFFORDABILITY PATTERNS

Build in affordability for all incomes…

19.1. INTEGRATED AFFORDABILITY

19.2. COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

19.3. MULTI-FAMILY INFILL

19.4. SPECULATION TAX

20. NEW TECHNOLOGY PATTERNS

Integrate new systems without damaging old ones…

20.1. SMART AV SYSTEM

20.2. RESPONSIVE TRANSPORTATION NETWORK COMPANY

20.3. AUGMENTED REALITY DESIGN

20.4. CITIZEN DATA