Generative design as a way of city planning

A Smart Built Environment initiative

In 2023 Parametric received grants from Vinnova's Smart Built Environment, a state-run innovation program supporting promising startups within the proptech industry. In conjunction with this, we reached out to municipalities all around the country, the institutions that ultimately grant planning permissions, looking for a constructive dialogue during the continued development of Hektar; Specifically, how to improve communication between developers and the municipalities themselves through the interface of our tool.

Following an overwhelmingly positive response from the municipalities, in Eslöv we found the perfect partner and testing ground. Keen on moving the architectural frontier forward and open to new ideas, the municipality were still at the early stages of planning – coincided with the intended use-case for Hektar.

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Sofia and Patrik from Eslövs Municipality

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Initial discussions to concretize challenges

As a kick-off, Hektar was presented for the urban planning office of Eslöv, collecting their initial thoughts on the capabilities of the platform. Brought up as a game changing feature for setting a masterplan was the ability to compare scenarios for district-scale projects directly in Hektar - helping handle complexity at a stage where lots of uncertainty still remains.

Further valuable feedback includes handling zones in a property plan that must be preserved for whatever reason. Be it protecting a specific building or more general limitations as to what part of the site may be developed. This has since been addressed in Hektar by an updated set of site tools, improving contextual awareness by guiding the algorithm to the non-buildable zones.

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Case study – Bruksstaden, a part of Östra Eslöv

The generative algorithms of Hektar were deployed on a centrally located area in Eslöv of approximately 20 000 m^2 (2 hektar in Swedish) currently being considered by the municipality for future development plans. The main challenges included:

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1. One pre-existing building towards either side of the site that had to be preserved.
2. An extensive green area including an apple orchard on the northwest side of the site that should ideally be preserved and integrated into the new plan in the best way possible, whilst still maximising the area for the new development.
3. Distributing the target amount of 600 apartments, inevitably resulting in quite a high density.
4. Making the area blend well in its context and keeping the sense of closeness and human scale found in the rest of the Eslöv.

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By using Hektar, many sets of scenarios could be generated, and the inputs continually being altered meant it was possible to iterate increasingly closer to the final proposal, considering both design and corresponding metrics.

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An example of a lamella iteration aligning with Eslövs requirements

An example of a point house iteration aligning with Eslövs requirements

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An example of a quarter iteration aligning with Eslövs requirements

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Continued collaboration

At the completion of the case study, the 3 scenarios that stood out to us as the most interesting were presented and delivered to the municipality of Eslöv in the fall of 2023, during which the project group complemented the variety in the generated proposals.

Despite containing the same number of units, they were remarkably different in architectural quality and atmosphere. In the process, we at Parametric greatly improved control and accuracy of the algorithms used in Hektar to shape public space. As an additional perk, Parametric were invited to present the learning outcomes at Arbeta Smart, a conference hosted in Stockholm by BIM Alliance Sweden – where we had the joy to meet even more likeminded people and potential future partners.

Despite the initial case study having come to a finish, the partnership with Eslöv is still very much ongoing. We are thrilled to see the fruits of our collaboration so far as the city continues to develop!

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