How This New Neighbourhood Gained 23% More Buildable Land (case study)

In transit-oriented developments (TODs) around the world, one challenge keeps showing up: the density is there, but the neighbourhoods still feel oversized, overpaved, and underwhelming.
And that is because, the default design approach, tall buildings paired with wide, car-oriented streets, misses the opportunity that density can offer.

We’ve developed a new approach called Scaling Down, and in one of our recent master plans, it resulted in a 23% increase in yield compared to a conventional block and road layout. That’s more land for housing, community uses, and public space—without increasing building heights.

Comparison of two TOD block layouts showing how a compact street network creates more buildable land than a conventional layout.
A comparison of buildable land in a conventional TOD layout versus a compact street network

The Challenge: Streets That Take Up Too Much Land

Standard road and block networks are designed around cars. Wide rights-of-way, deep setbacks, and repetitive block lengths consume significant land area. The result? Neighbourhoods that are difficult to walk, expensive to build, and slow to activate.

These oversized roads come at the cost of quality public space and meaningful community life.

The Strategy: Scale Down to Make Room

In our latest neighbourhood plan—recognized with the OAA SHIFT Award for Public Health and featured by the World Urban Pavilion—we implemented a different model:

  • Compact blocks and narrower streets that reduce the land dedicated to asphalt

  • A mix of low-rise and towers to deliver density with a human scale

  • Car-free and car-light streets where appropriate, improving comfort and safety

  • A network of small, accessible green spaces instead of a single large park

This allowed us to reclaim land and repurpose it for more meaningful uses—yielding 9% more buildable area.

This approach gives us the flexibility to design better. It allows narrower rights-of-way while still meeting servicing and emergency access requirements. They support walkability, reduce infrastructure costs, and help shape a more liveable public realm.

This approach doesn’t just change the math—it improves the experience of the neighbourhood.

The Scaling Down framework offers a practical way forward for building high-density communities that are compact, complete, and people-first.

If you’re working on a large site or master-planned community and are looking for a new way to approach land use and design—we’d be glad to share more.

Get more buildable land