Article:

This paper explains the development of a generative urban design tool based onshape grammars. The novelty of this tool lies in considering the topographicconstraints of the site and generating various alternatives of urban designscenarios accordingly. For the purposes of this research, San Diego has beenchosen as an example of a steep city with varied topography that, in consequence,has created distinct urban typologies within the city. With the use of shapegrammars, the rules and patterns forming the urban structure of each typologyhave been decodified. The extracted urban shape grammar is then used as thebasis for a generative design tool producing various urban design scenariosconsidering the limitations and potential of the site's topology. This paperdescribes the extracted urban shape grammars and how that informs thedevelopment of the presented generative urban design tool.