NYC Digital Zoning Automation and Analysis









TYPE: Professional
YEAR: 2018-2019

The practice of city-wide zoning defines potentials of both building forms and public space, through a set of static prototypes (ie. zoning districts, lot types) and rules (ie, setbacks, incentives). “Code2Code” is a digital toolkit under development for New York City Department of City Planning, including automating 3D scenario of existing/proposed zoning code, enhancing the workflow of rezoning studies, and performancebased planning research. 

It translates zoning regulations into computational languages and automatically generates building massing based on GIS data. The tool has saved 90% time and cost per zoning study, resulting in cost savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in the agency. The new tools will significantly speed-up the traditional GIS-Modeling-Calculating- Remodeling process, thus the leap from quantitative to qualitative change enable more relational and integrated studies of the city.