In this report, we first outline the basic idea of VENUE. This involves developing digital tools from
a foundation of geographic information systems (GIS) software which we then apply to urban
design, a subject area and profession which has little tradition in using such tools. Our project was
to develop two types of tool, namely functional analysis based on embedding models of movement
in local environments into GIS based on ideas from the field of space syntax; and secondly
fashioning these ideas in a wider digital context in which the entire range of GIS technologies were
brought to bear at the local scale. By local scale, we mean the representation of urban environments
from about 1: 500 to around 1: 2500.
In the event, our project has ranged much wider than our original proposal. Here we begin by
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outlining five areas of activity: namely the question of digital representation of local urban
environments and their spatial representation, the development of relational functionality based on
space syntax as the basis of urban design tools, incorporating the ability to make sketch plans within
GIS which is a major function of urban design, the ability to extrude urban designs from the 2-
dimensional map to 3-dimensional morphology which we achieved using VRML, and finally the
development of a general digital context - a collaborative virtual design studio (CVDS) - in which a
team of urban designers could use these tools in a participatory context.
These issues are dealt with first in cursory fashion and then in more detail. We then outline the
project that we developed with graduate students of urban design at Oxford Brookes University, and
also indicate how these tools have been used by graduate students of GIS at UCL. We then turn to
ways in which we have disseminated the results of the project, primarily through web pages and
regular printed publications but also through direct education and through the placing of our
software in the public domain, such as on the ESRI web site (www.esri.com). We conclude with
ideas for future research and list in the Appendices details of the project’s publications, the team
involved, its Steering Group, and the wider network of contacts we have established.
Author(s):
Michael Batty
Martin Dodge
Bin Jiang
Andrew Hudson-Smith
01/04/2000
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