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Office of Urban Regulation

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

Floor Area Ratio

New York

The maximum ratio between the total usable surface area of the building’s full stories and the surface of the building lot is dependent upon the utilization zone where the lot is located. The zones are more precisely specified through plans. Maximum space usage may also be conditioned by other regulations (for ex. PB).

Rule category

Motivation
Managing Bulk: basic stipulations regarding the object's form and bulk
The Kind of Rule
Rule that works as reference, ratio, or dependency.
Rule that is tied to a certain zone.
Rule that stipulates an upper limit.
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.
Scale
Plot/Block Rule: Rule that relates to the scale of a city block or plot.