Monitoring Urban Design through Generative Design Support Tools: a Generative Grammar for Praia

Design new urban spaces is a complex process that extends for a long period, goes through several stages, and addresses several issues, including defining the urban programme and devising the plan layout in all its details, such as the street network, the neighbourhood identity, the city block typologies, and so on. Developing solutions for problems on each stage and evaluating the qualities of such solutions are two fundamental activities that participants in the urban design processes need to deal with. The complexity is such that it becomes difficult to control the outcome, including how it will be received by futures inhabitants. Part of the complexity stems from the fact that the design process itself interferes with the city development process, thereby changing the context on which it was based (Portugali, 2000). Changes in the context require reformulation of the problem and, consequently, of the solution, thereby making the design of urban spaces like trying to hit a moving target.