USP | Urban Strategy Playground

Urbanization has increased dramatically since the second half of the 20th century. This is due to several factors - mainly because of demographic change and higher energy prices, but also because of tax procedures. With it the demand for centrally located living space continues to rise strongly, especially in larger cities. Many cities are already exploiting their current building laws to the full and are now under pressure to amend building legislation to meet the increasing demand for affordable living space. To avoid uncontrolled growth, city-wide planning strategies - supported by a broad population - are essential. But what effect will specific changes to legislation have both on the target density and the appearance of the built environment? To answer this, it is necessary to develop case-by-case strategies that consider the existing building stock and its potential for infill development.

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The aim of the USP research group is to develop methods and tools for detecting potential for infill development in urban planning areas and for development and verification of planning strategies on inner-city planning areas. The research group explores decision support for inner-city development on various levels. Topics range from investigation of fundamental methods (e.g. for provision and computational representation of strategic planning knowledge) to the design, implementation and evaluation of specific software prototypes. Particular attention is being paid to the enhancement of established analog planning methods by digital information levels and to the integration of semantic 3D city models.

Video: http://vimeo.com/79028980