Infill
Encyclopedia
Infill in its broadest meaning is material that fills in an otherwise unoccupied space. The term is commonly used in association with construction
techniques such as wattle and daub
, and civil engineering activities such as land reclamation
.
, the spaces are filled with non-structural material that is known as infill. The earliest type of infill was wattle and daub. Other materials used for the purpose have been lath and plaster
, and brickwork (when it is known as nogging). The infill may be covered by other materials, including plaster, weatherboarding
or tile
s.
and development industries, infill is the use of land within a built-up area for further construction, especially as part of a community redevelopment
or growth management
program or as part of smart growth
. It focuses on the reuse and repositioning of obsolete or underutilized buildings and sites. This type of development is essential to renewing blighted
neighborhoods and knitting them back together with more prosperous communities.
Redevelopment is development that occurs on previously developed land. Infill buildings are constructed on vacant or underutilized property or between existing buildings.
. Costs for developers include acquiring land, removing existing structures, and testing for and cleaning up any environmental contamination.
Scholars have argued that infill development is more financially feasible for development when it occurs on a large plot of land (several acres). Large scale development benefits from what economists call economies of scale
, and reduces the surrounding negative influences of neighborhood blight, crime, or poor schools. However, large scale infill development is often difficult in a blighted neighborhood for several reasons. These include the difficulties in acquiring land and in gaining community support.
Amassing land is one challenge that infill development poses that greenfield development does not. Neighborhoods that are targets for infill often have parcels of blighted land scattered among places of residence. Developers must be persistent in order to amass land parcel by parcel, and often find resistance from landowners in the target area. One way to approach this problem is for city management to use eminent domain
to claim land. This is often unpopular among city management, as well as among neighborhood residents. Developers must deal with regulatory barriers, visit numerous government offices for permitting, interact with city management that is frequently unwilling to use eminent domain to remove current residents, and generally engage in public-private partnerships with local government.
Developers also meet with high social goal barriers in which the local officials and residents are not interested in the same type of development. Although citizen involvement has been found to facilitate the development of brownfield land
, residents in blighted neighborhoods often want to convert vacant lots to parks or recreational facilities, whereas external actors seek to build apartment complexes, commercial shopping centers, or industrial sites .
and smart growth
trends of urging densification to reduce the need for automobiles, encourage walking
, and ultimately save energy
. One exception to this is the practice of urban agriculture
, in which land in the urban or suburban area is retained to grow food for local consumption.
The Village of Ponderosa in West Des Moines, Iowa
is a good example of suburban infill. It was formerly a 9-hole golf course surrounded by suburban West Des Moines businesses and tract homes, but starting in 2006 it was redeveloped into a higher-density mixed-use community with a pedestrian friendly retail center.
or neighborhood. These can be provided as additional units built on the same lot, by dividing existing homes into multiple units, or by creating new residential lots by further subdivision or lot line adjustments. Units may also be built on vacant lots.
Infill residential development does not require the subdivision of greenfield land
, natural areas, or prime agricultural land. Existing infrastructure may in some cases need little expansion for utility
and other services.
As with other new construction, structures built as infill may clash architecturally with older, existing buildings.
of rhythmite layers located in the Northwestern United States
, had intervening periods of aridity. Erosional cracks were later infilled with layers of soil material, especially from aeolian processes. The infilled sections formed vertical inclusions in the horizontally deposited layers of the Touchet Formation, and thus explaining events that intervened in time among the forty-one layers that were deposited.
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
techniques such as wattle and daub
Wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw...
, and civil engineering activities such as land reclamation
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
.
Construction
When a building is constructed in timber framingTimber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
, the spaces are filled with non-structural material that is known as infill. The earliest type of infill was wattle and daub. Other materials used for the purpose have been lath and plaster
Lath and plaster
Lath and plaster is a building process used mainly for interior walls in Canada and the United States until the late 1950s. After the 1950s, drywall began to replace the lath and plaster process in the United States. In the United Kingdom, lath and plaster was used for some interior partition...
, and brickwork (when it is known as nogging). The infill may be covered by other materials, including plaster, weatherboarding
Weatherboarding
Weatherboarding is the cladding or ‘siding’ of a house consisting of long thin timber boards that overlap one another, either vertically or horizontally on the outside of the wall. They are usually of rectangular section with parallel sides...
or tile
Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
s.
Urban infill
In the urban planningUrban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
and development industries, infill is the use of land within a built-up area for further construction, especially as part of a community redevelopment
Redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses.-Description:Variations on redevelopment include:* Urban infill on vacant parcels that have no existing activity but were previously developed, especially on Brownfield land, such as the redevelopment of an industrial site...
or growth management
Growth management
Growth management is a set of techniques used by government to ensure that as the population grows that there are services available to meet their demands. These are not necessarily only government services...
program or as part of smart growth
Smart growth
Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a...
. It focuses on the reuse and repositioning of obsolete or underutilized buildings and sites. This type of development is essential to renewing blighted
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
neighborhoods and knitting them back together with more prosperous communities.
Redevelopment is development that occurs on previously developed land. Infill buildings are constructed on vacant or underutilized property or between existing buildings.
Challenges to urban infill
Although infill is an appealing tool for community redevelopment and growth management, it is often far more costly for developers to develop land within the city than it is to develop on the periphery, in suburban greenfield landGreenfield land
Greenfield land is a term used to describe undeveloped land in a city or rural area either used for agriculture, landscape design, or left to naturally evolve...
. Costs for developers include acquiring land, removing existing structures, and testing for and cleaning up any environmental contamination.
Scholars have argued that infill development is more financially feasible for development when it occurs on a large plot of land (several acres). Large scale development benefits from what economists call economies of scale
Economies of scale
Economies of scale, in microeconomics, refers to the cost advantages that an enterprise obtains due to expansion. There are factors that cause a producer’s average cost per unit to fall as the scale of output is increased. "Economies of scale" is a long run concept and refers to reductions in unit...
, and reduces the surrounding negative influences of neighborhood blight, crime, or poor schools. However, large scale infill development is often difficult in a blighted neighborhood for several reasons. These include the difficulties in acquiring land and in gaining community support.
Amassing land is one challenge that infill development poses that greenfield development does not. Neighborhoods that are targets for infill often have parcels of blighted land scattered among places of residence. Developers must be persistent in order to amass land parcel by parcel, and often find resistance from landowners in the target area. One way to approach this problem is for city management to use eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
to claim land. This is often unpopular among city management, as well as among neighborhood residents. Developers must deal with regulatory barriers, visit numerous government offices for permitting, interact with city management that is frequently unwilling to use eminent domain to remove current residents, and generally engage in public-private partnerships with local government.
Developers also meet with high social goal barriers in which the local officials and residents are not interested in the same type of development. Although citizen involvement has been found to facilitate the development of brownfield land
Brownfield land
Brownfield sites are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. Expansion or redevelopment of such a facility may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations. Cf. Waste...
, residents in blighted neighborhoods often want to convert vacant lots to parks or recreational facilities, whereas external actors seek to build apartment complexes, commercial shopping centers, or industrial sites .
Suburban infill
Suburban infill describes the development of land in existing suburban areas that was left vacant during the development of the suburb. It is one of the tenets of the New UrbanismNew urbanism
New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually continued to reform many aspects of real estate development, urban planning, and municipal land-use...
and smart growth
Smart growth
Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a...
trends of urging densification to reduce the need for automobiles, encourage walking
Walking
Walking is one of the main gaits of locomotion among legged animals, and is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an 'inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults over the stiff limb or limbs with each step...
, and ultimately save energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
. One exception to this is the practice of urban agriculture
Urban agriculture
Urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in, or around, a village, town or city. Urban agriculture in addition can also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agro-forestry and horticulture...
, in which land in the urban or suburban area is retained to grow food for local consumption.
The Village of Ponderosa in West Des Moines, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
is a good example of suburban infill. It was formerly a 9-hole golf course surrounded by suburban West Des Moines businesses and tract homes, but starting in 2006 it was redeveloped into a higher-density mixed-use community with a pedestrian friendly retail center.
Infill housing
Infill housing is the insertion of additional housing units into an already approved subdivisionSubdivision (land)
Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known in the United States as a subdivision...
or neighborhood. These can be provided as additional units built on the same lot, by dividing existing homes into multiple units, or by creating new residential lots by further subdivision or lot line adjustments. Units may also be built on vacant lots.
Infill residential development does not require the subdivision of greenfield land
Greenfield land
Greenfield land is a term used to describe undeveloped land in a city or rural area either used for agriculture, landscape design, or left to naturally evolve...
, natural areas, or prime agricultural land. Existing infrastructure may in some cases need little expansion for utility
Utility
In economics, utility is a measure of customer satisfaction, referring to the total satisfaction received by a consumer from consuming a good or service....
and other services.
As with other new construction, structures built as infill may clash architecturally with older, existing buildings.
Infill, a water and aeolian process
Examples of infills occur in geology. The Touchet FormationTouchet Formation
The Touchet Formation or Touchet beds consist of large quantities of gravel and fine sediment which overlay almost a thousand meters of volcanic basalt of the Columbia River Basalt Group in south-central Washington and north-central Oregon...
of rhythmite layers located in the Northwestern United States
Northwestern United States
The Northwestern United States comprise the northwestern states up to the western Great Plains regions of the United States, and consistently include the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, to which part of southeast Alaska is also sometimes included...
, had intervening periods of aridity. Erosional cracks were later infilled with layers of soil material, especially from aeolian processes. The infilled sections formed vertical inclusions in the horizontally deposited layers of the Touchet Formation, and thus explaining events that intervened in time among the forty-one layers that were deposited.
External links
- Denver Infill.com - a comprehensive overview and photographic survey of all the urban infill and redevelopment projects in the greater Downtown Denver area