PARAMETRIC URBANISM
PROTOTYPE X
BY JAH!
Javier Leal Tecnologico de Monterrey
Alejandro Madero August - Dicember 2009
Tutor: Alex Rodriguez
Hector Farrera Architectural Workshop V
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
7
ANALYSIS
8
CONCEPT
14
DESIGN ENGINE
16
EXPERIMENT
18
SITE LECTURES
24
FINAL EXPERIMENT
32
VORONOI
36
SPATIAL QUALITIES
48
MASTER PLAN
54
INTRODUCTION An intervention in the center of Monterrey, MÊxico with a Parametric approach leads us to design an inner city with the support of sciences such as biology, chemistry, mathematics and computational sciences that generate an alternative design tool of urbanism, reaching a solution on architectural spatial qualities, taking into cosideration human and cultural properties. The purpose of this inner city is to serve as a model that can be repeated using the same design engine in different cities worldwide. Step by step, the design tool works effectively to accomplish a social regeneration based on the existing user´s aptitudes and necessities.
7
ANALYSIS
8
LOCATION The site is a large polygon (1.5km x 2.0km) located in the center of Monterrey city.
9
PROBLEMS
This part of the city is physically and socially divided by the Santa Catarina River. One half holds the most insecure section of the city known as “La Independencia� where killings take place every day, and the other holds one of the largest concrete and cement company in the world, CEMEX. This shows the radical difference between these two sections of the city, both being closer that 2km from the city central plaza and governmental buildings. 10
FACTS
The site analysis showed the difference on the way people lives in the different sectors of the city. In the “Independencia� side a neighborhood lifestyle, where people know their neighbors and their security depended on the good relation they have with each other. The culture of walking is fundamental for this society to work.
11
URBAN DISPLACEMENTS
Daily trips people take to travel from different sectors of the city to the center of it.
12
Daily trips people take to travel from sector to sector of the city.
13
CONCEPT
14
SOCIAL REGENERATION
The concept of prototype x is to socially regenerate the city by creating an equilibrium and interdependence between the users. This prototype aims for the city to be completely independent from the outside world and extremely dependent from the inside, where people’s aptitudes are enhanced to produce labor effectiveness and at the same time to fulfill the necessities of others.
DETONATOR
To make this social regeneration work, punctual detonators are needed, where values are added to existing ones creating a reaction to produce compact nodes with mixed programs that have an attached correlation. 15
DESING ENGINE
To create a parametric system, a design engine was elaborated to know the location, quantity, area, program and height each node is going to have.
16
17
EXPERIMENT To know the location and spatial relationships between these nodes, an investigation of natural sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology was applied analyzing different behaviors resulting on an ideal urban system. After an extensive research, the chemical reaction of effervescence was adopted because of its great advantage to iterate using the tablet form, as well because it covered the urban intentions of the project, such as chain connection, active and static spaces etc.
EFFERVESCENSE REACTION
H2 CO3 > H2O + CO2 Where a pressurized dilute solution of carbonic acid in water releases gaseous carbon dioxide at decompression
18
The escape of gas from an aqueous solution.
19
20
21
QUALITIES networks active areas
fluids
static areas
force
22
A frame is shown to measure the active area that five different sized tablets produce to know the quantity of tablets needed to fill the site.
23
SITE ANALYSIS PROGRAM > DENSITY AREAS > ACTIVITY
24
READING PROGRAM > DENSITY AREAS > ACTIVITY Green area Commerce & Service Equipament Multifamily Home Singlefamily Home Mixed Use High Impact Low Impact Slope Home Low Mixed Use
PROPERTY COST LEVEL > SOCIAL ECONOMIC LEVEL > APTITUDE Residencial Middle Middle Economic Irregular Emplacement Low Income House
ACTIVITY LEVEL BY ZONE
25
ACTIVITY LEVEL BY ZONE
26
SIZE & QUANTITY Five different reactors with its own active area. Each one of them assigned to every activity level.
D E
B C
A PROGRAM
1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-MORE
DIAMETER
400
450
500
550
600
125,664
159,043
196,350
237,583
282,743
AREA
ZONE AREA _______________ ACTIVITY AREA
E
E
=
NUMBERS OF
TABLETS D
D
A
A
C
C
E E E
A
27
ITERATION
Knowing the behavior and qualities, the experiment is manipulated by iterating the position of every reactor in the site until a desirable urban approach is acquired.
D
E
E
D
E
E
A
C
A
E
C
A
D
E
E
E
D
E
C
A
A
C
E
D
E
E D A
28
A
E
C
C
E
A
E A
E E
D D
E
C A
E
C
A A
E Final scheme of the reactor´s location. - connections between both sides of the river. - static areas to turn into green spaces. - networks between different activity areas.
29
IDEAL PROGRAM To follow the concept of social regeneration, different programs need to be distributed along the nodes. Taking the aptitudes plan into consideration, program is distributed to enhance effectiveness between the users as well as different needs each one might have, making each node dependant from each other.
HEIGHT Height is established depending on the program each node is going to have. (Offices = maximum height, fields=minimum height). Each node receives an X value depending on the height needed.
30
offices
fields
=
X
31
FINAL EXPERIMENT 1
2
3
EXPLICAR PROPIEDADES DE EXPERIMENTO FINAL Y FOTOS DE PROCESO 33
34
35
68
69
70
133
134
135
193
194
195
32
An optimum frame is selected from pictures taken with a one second interval during the chemical reaction. 4
5
6
36
37
38
71
72
73
136
137
138
196
197
198
33
OPTIMUM FRAME
34
35
VORONOI
CONCEPT & BUBBLE RELATION
A voronoi diagram is a decomposition of a metric space determined by distances to a set of points in space, creating equidistant lines and nodes between them.
36
The bubble’s perimeter is determined by the radial force the air creates inside of it. When two bubbles with the same pressure interact with each other without joining, their limit is right in between them, just as the voronoi tessellation creates equidistant lines between the desired points.
37
2D VORONOI TESSELLATION
38
Points are set at the center of each bubble of the optimum frame, also at the center of each reactor and the centroid of the static spaces. 39
2D VORONOI TESSELLATION
40
447 m2
226,381m2 41
3D VORONOI
points in space
boundary
voronoi cells
42
Cells form based on the mathematical spatial relation between points on space and a boundary.
43
HEIGHT & BOUNDARY
X= 0
X= 3200
X= 6814
44
Boundary has the same value for every node (.7)
value: 0.0
value: 1.0
value: 1.6
45
3D MODEL
46
47
SPACE QUALITIES CELL PROTOTYPE
48
NODE PROTOTYPE
The cells created with the 3D voronoi system lead to a new conception of retail space going from squared meters to cubic meters, having the capability of joining depending on the program that it might occupy. This flexibility allows users to hang, attach, or arise from the existing structure making it more efficient on the way the cell gets occupied.
49
STRUCTURE DETAIL
grasshopper script
50
51
CLIMATE ADAPTATION
52
N
53
MASTERPLAN DISTRICTS LEISURE
MARKET COUNTRY
54
N
CORPORATIVE
COMMERCIAL The masterplan of PROTOTYPE X has the main objective of creating a social regeneration, so the relation between nodes need to be ensambled by the proper urban elements. This model seeks for the users to have an interdependant relation, the program is distributed in a parametric way, responding to social aptitudes and to user needs. The voronoi tessellation was adopted because of the specific mathematical spatial relation it creates between points, linking the nodes in a precise way. 55
INFRASTRUCTURE Actual streets with conexions
Vertical Axis
Secondary Streets Underground parking
Urban Tram Tram stop
Green Axis Fields
56
The main existing streets are prolonged through the inner city flowing along the voronoi path making them the primary roads.
Along with the primary roads, a another street is added that runs trough the site in a perpendicular way (as a vertical axis) , working as a principal distributor along the inner-city.
Secondary streets link the main ones to the nodes, most of them being underground in order to reach the parking system below.
A tram runs longitudinally along the site with stops located at strategic points between nodes, ending at the existing metro stop in “Washignton� steet.
Static spaces read in the experiment turn into a green axis that flows inbetween the nodes articulating them to boost cycling and walking.
Streets are buried at diverse sections to keep the green axis free from traffic noise and air poluttion. Colorlines represent ways running along level zero. The rest of the voronoi network is proposed as pedestrian to promote coexistance between the users. 57
PROGRAM BY NODE
HABITATIONAL COMMERCE OFFICE SERVICE EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC AREAS RECREATIVE AREAS INDUSTRY
COMMERCIAL DISTRICT
CORPORATIVE DISTRICT 58
LEISURE DISTRICT
MARKET DISTRICT
COUNTRY DISTRICT
59
TRANSVERSAL SECTION
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
60
N
61
64
65
66
67
“When the interval between design iterations is reduced to a very small period of time the process becomes on-line design. This process is possible when computers are employed to speed the analysis and presentation aspects of architecture. On-line design depends on how fast the designer can: 1) simulate a design action and recieve a sufficiently comprehensive evaluation, 2) revise and generate another solution, and 3) sort and record learned behavior. It is possible for a single designer to change both the criteria and the design actions through the computer console, or the same procedures can be followed in an equally effective manner by a team of designer, client, and consultants to more highly corroborated design solutions.”(Boyce)
“Arguing that economic, social, and cultural life were all dependent on a high density of settlements, he (Le Corbusier) believed that the true solution to the “problem” of the existing city was neither the selfcontained small center of the misnamed urbanists nor the disurbanist linear city. Instead, he repeated his advocacy of a reconfigured high-density core surrounded by housing set amidst greenery, ideas he had already put forward in his plans for the Ville Contemporaine.” (Mumford)
68
CONCLUSION With this intervention, a successful alternative solution was possible trough experimentation with certain parametric tools. While excelling at this creative process, fundamental values, such as environmental and ecological factors, social interaction, and logical infrastructure, where prioritized, proving that parametric urbanism is a feasible alternative. This innovative development as a whole is not alienated from architectural basis, as stated on the ideas of James R. Boyce and Le Corbusier. The design process has always been influenced by parameters that affect the final reslut, when they change, technology helps to reconfigure the system in a precise and effective way, letting the designer simulate rather than representate.
69
70
BIBLIOGRAPHY Works Cited: - Boyce, James R. Rethinking Technology a Reader in Architectural Theory. Ed. William W. Graham and Jonathan A. Hale. What is the Systems Approach?. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print. - Mumford, Eric. The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. Comp. Kenneth Frampton. N.p.: The MIT Press, 2002. Print. - Stefanescu, Dimitrie. “2D Voronoi, 3D Voronoi q-hull, Q-hull convex merge.” 3D Voronoi in grasshopper . WordPress.com, May 2009. Web. Oct. 2009. <http://dimitrie.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/3d-voronoi-ingrasshopper/>. - “Voronoi Diagram.” Wikipedia Foundation. MediaWiki, n.d. Web. Sept. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram>.
71