BOCEP: Site Planning Analysis (CM | 14.0)

Course 11/3 – 12/18

Contextual site analysis is a pre-design research activity which focuses on the existing, imminent and potential conditions on and around a project site. It is, in a sense, an inventory of all the pressures, forces and situations and their interactions at the property where our project will be built. The major role of contextual site analysis in design is that of informing us about our site prior to beginning our design concepts so that our early thinking about our building can incorporate meaningful responses to external conditions. Typical site issues addressed in a contextual analysis are site location, size, shape, contours, drainage patterns, zoning and set-backs, utilities, significant on site features (buildings, trees,etc.), surrounding traffic, neighborhood patterns, views to and from the site and climate. As planners and designers, we need to know something about these issues in order to design a successful building that not only meets its internal responsibilities (functions) but that also relates well to its external environment. Since our building will exist for several years, our contextual analysis should attempt to deal with potential future conditions as well as the ones we can observe on the site today. Some of the typical issues in this regard are changing zoning patterns around our site, shifts in the designation of major and minor streets, changing cultural patterns in the surrounding neighborhood and the construction of significant projects nearby that impact on our site.

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