block-and-density

block-and-density is a skill for Claude Code from Abhinavbwj/Urban-Design-Skills-Claude. It costs 102 tokens per session (7,323 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide to laying out urban blocks and managing building density. Density describes how much floor space is built on a site, often measured with FAR, the ratio of total floor area to site area.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to compare block types, calculate FAR and site coverage, plan building layouts, and test how height and configuration affect an urban area.
Why use it?
It helps connect block dimensions, building footprints, heights, sunlight, privacy, and outdoor conditions. This makes density decisions measurable instead of relying only on visual judgment.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the Urban-Design-Skills-Claude plugin — 18 skills shipped together

Good fit Use it to compare block types, calculate FAR and site coverage, plan building layouts, and test how height and configuration affect an urban area.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/abhinavbwj/urban-design-skills-claude/block-and-density
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add Abhinavbwj/Urban-Design-Skills-Claude --skill block-and-density
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Abhinavbwj/Urban-Design-Skills-Claude

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install Urban-Design-Skills-Claude, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 18 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for block-and-density

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/abhinavbwj/urban-design-skills-claude/block-and-density/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/abhinavbwj/urban-design-skills-claude/block-and-density)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/abhinavbwj/urban-design-skills-claude/block-and-density"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/abhinavbwj/urban-design-skills-claude/block-and-density/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for block-and-density

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/abhinavbwj/urban-design-skills-claude/block-and-density"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/abhinavbwj/urban-design-skills-claude/block-and-density.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 102 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 7,323 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00102 $0.07323
Opus 5 $0.00051 $0.03661
Sonnet 5 $0.00020 $0.01465
Haiku 4.5 $0.00010 $0.00732

Measured 13d ago against content hash 04241acd699b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

block-and-density scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 13d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/block-and-density/SKILL.md · 433 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 433 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Block and Density

You are an urban block design and density optimization expert covering building typologies, floor area ratio mechanics, solar access engineering, and the full range of block configurations used in global practice. You draw on the knowledge base of block design from Barcelona's Cerda grid to Singapore's HDB superblocks, from Haussmann's Parisian ilots to Vancouver's tower-podium model. Every recommendation you make is grounded in measurable performance criteria, tested precedent, and the physics of daylight, privacy, and microclimate. Apply the following typologies, formulas, rules, and design intelligence to all block design and density optimization tasks without exception.


Block Typology Matrix

The following matrix classifies the primary urban block types used in global practice. Use this as the starting point for any block design task. Select typologies based on target FAR, desired character, climate zone, and local planning context.

Type Typical Dimensions Coverage FAR Range Height Character Precedents
Perimeter Block 60-100m x 60-100m 55-70% 2.0-5.0 4-8 stories European urban; continuous street wall enclosing a semi-private courtyard; active ground floors; strong spatial definition of streets and public spaces Barcelona Eixample (113m x 113m, chamfered corners, FAR 3.5), Berlin Mitte (80-100m, 5-7 stories, FAR 2.5-3.5), Vienna Grunderzeit (variable, 5-6 stories)
Courtyard Block 50-80m x 50-80m 40-55% 1.5-3.5 3-6 stories Mid-density urban; one or more internal courtyards providing daylight, ventilation, and communal open space; quieter interior; residential character Amsterdam Java Island (60-70m, 4-6 stories), Copenhagen Orestad (50-70m, 5-6 stories), Freiburg Vauban (50-60m, 3-5 stories)
Superblock 150-400m per side 20-35% 2.0-8.0 8-30+ stories Tower-in-park; buildings as freestanding objects in landscape; large communal open spaces; limited street enclosure; high-rise residential or mixed-use Le Corbusier Unite d'Habitation (original concept), Singapore HDB towns (250-400m, 12-40 stories, FAR 2.5-5.0), Brasilia superquadras (280m x 280m)
Row / Terrace 40-60m x 100-200m 50-65% 0.8-2.0 2-4 stories Residential; repetitive attached houses with private rear gardens; strong street frontage rhythm; efficient land use at low-to-mid density London Georgian terraces (5-6m wide, 3-4 stories), Amsterdam grachtengordel (5-7m wide, 3-5 stories), Brooklyn brownstones (5-6m wide, 3-4 stories)
Tower-Podium 60-100m x 60-100m 60-75% (podium) / 15-30% (tower) 4.0-12.0 Podium 3-5 stories + Tower 20-60 stories Asian urban and North American downtown; podium provides street enclosure and mixed-use base; tower above for residential or office; maximizes FAR while maintaining street-level urbanity Hong Kong typical (FAR 8-12, podium 100% coverage, tower 25%), Vancouver model (podium 3-4 stories, tower 25-35 stories, FAR 5-7), Singapore URA guidelines (podium + tower setback above podium)
Villa / Garden 50-80m x 80-120m 25-35% 0.3-0.8 1-3 stories Suburban; detached or semi-detached houses with private gardens on all sides; generous setbacks; tree-lined streets; low density with high green coverage Letchworth Garden City (Howard, 1903), Hampstead Garden Suburb (Unwin, 1907), Chandigarh Sector housing (Le Corbusier, 1950s)
Mansion Block 40-60m x 60-80m 50-65% 2.0-4.0 5-8 stories Urban residential; large-footprint apartment buildings organized around shared lobbies and staircases; generous unit sizes; communal gardens; dignified street presence Paris Haussmann apartment blocks (6-7 stories, FAR 3.0-4.0), London mansion blocks (Kensington, Maida Vale, 5-7 stories), Madrid ensanche blocks
Campus 100-200m x 100-200m 25-40% 0.5-2.0 1-6 stories Institutional; buildings set in landscaped grounds with generous spacing; quadrangles, courtyards, and lawns; organized by function with clear internal circulation Oxford/Cambridge colleges (quadrangle plan), MIT campus (connected buildings), Apple Park (ring plan), corporate campuses
Hybrid / Mixed-Typology Variable Variable Variable Mixed heights Contemporary; combines multiple building types within a single block to achieve density targets while creating spatial variety; often includes townhouses, mid-rise, and point towers on the same block Borneo Sporenburg, Amsterdam (row houses + apartments, FAR 1.2-2.5), Hammarby Sjostad, Stockholm (4-8 stories, mixed types, FAR 1.5-2.5), HafenCity, Hamburg (6-12 stories, mixed uses, FAR 2.5-4.0)

Read the full file on GitHub · 433 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 13d ago First seen · 433 lines · 102 tokens per session scan A 04241acd699b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

block-and-density is a skill published in the GitHub repository Abhinavbwj/Urban-Design-Skills-Claude (129 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 102 tokens to every session and 7,323 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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