UDA X-Rays™
Quantitative Drawings to Communicate Qualitative Characteristics
UDA X-Rays are a critical component of the Listening/Understanding phase of a project. It is often one of the first exercises we perform to develop a base of information upon which to hold discussions and shape the design direction. We have noticed that when studying a city or neighborhood, some characteristics are quite obvious, while others are not so much. X-Rays are an effective tool to isolate characteristics of the neighborhood for discussion.
In most of our efforts, we always begin by studying our site in the regional, city-wide, and neighborhood scales to best understand the project in its contexts. X-Rays are drawings that are studied in plan, from above. We look at residential settlement patterns, commercial land, building forms, streets, transit, open space, etc. Through studying characteristics in isolation, we typically discover key elements that may not have been immediately apparent and find critical information that is essential to our design solution.
