Virtual landscape. A manual for dynamic zoning
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Virtual landscape. A manual for dynamic zoning Subdivision
Axonometry
Stage one
All green All green
Subdivision
Topology
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HOW ARE LANDSCAPES EVOLVING? How do continuous valley spaces emerge, with their gradient of topography zones?
Stage two
Underground decision: Park/Parking Park Parking
Stage three
Ground-use decision: Green culture/Commercial
We studied models of natural erosion processes in order to steer the future differentiation of the competition area with a double goal: to achieve a branching sequence of connected green spaces and to shape the built volumes with respect to a certain indeterminacy of their future form and program. The result is a virtual spatial envelope – a dynamic, contextually adjusting 3D void controlling and cutting into the partially unpredictable building activities occurring on the site over time. We introduce the Empty Green Dynamic Megastructure.
Green culture Commercial + 50% housing
Shops
Hotel Industrial Offices
High-rise Housing + office
Homes + home offices
Stage four
Bands High-rise bands Public typology Low-rise bands Private typology
Stage five
Above-ground decision: Public green/private green Public green Private green+ 100% housing
Shops
Hotel Industrial Offices
High-rise Housing + office
Homes + home offices
The wide expanses of mono-functional patches are awe-inspiring: how many design hours per hectare until diversity crystallizes? The triangular Siemensacker is large, green, flat, and empty. On the other pole of the studied area, another triangle is saturated with somewhat remarkable industrial warehouses. Together with the square industrial area of Siemens and the amoebic rail tracks, they limit and squeeze the oblong site of Siemensstrasse 88. We propose a strategy to recurrently subdivide the site, allowing to gradually layer program, control density and define access at each step.
Virtual landscape. A manual for dynamic zoning
Subdivision Axonometry
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Top view
Stage one
All green
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
All green
Stage two
Underground decision: Park/Parking Park Parking
Stage three
Ground-use decision: Green culture/Commercial Green culture Commercial + 50% housing
Stage four
Above-ground decision: Housing/Offices Public green/Private green
By constantly breaking the area into multiple parallel branching steps, the strategy brings down complexity, while increasing diversity due to separate treatment for each subdivision at each step. Jefferson’s subdivision of the entire American continent into square miles, further subdivided into acres and then urban areas with constantly tightening meshes is a classic example. We decided to follow another path: from the original homogeneous area with maximal potential, we propose to gradually erode zones with various programs - from high density commercial areas, to low rise fringes. At each step, the extent of the erosion and its program is defined and subtracted from the landscape, leaving a narrower but more specific and still continuous path of branching green areas. The process holds for all subdivided branches in parallel, starting with the definition of underground potential, moving to ground level and then further defining the above-ground heights (based on programmatic layers that increase the floor area ratio – FAR). Housing is present in all zones, but its percentage decreases as the density and diversity of uses increases.
Virtual landscape. A manual for dynamic zoning
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VIRTUAL LANDSCAPE STAGES office
elementary school dormitory
industry
shoping
higher density housing hotel
gymnasium
lower density housing
high density housing + offices
high school
office + housing
education parking
SCHOOLS AT SIEMENSSTRASSE 87-89
1: Green. In the beginning, the green site has a full height potential, with housing latent anywhere. Its general 26m height level is subsequently striated by high-rise bands where exceptional heights may occur. FAR = 0. 2: Underground – Park / Parking? The second step involves a decision concerning underground space: where is the landscape going to flow, eroding and lowering the building potential? What kind of higher-density activities will remain beyond its new area? On one side of the new boundary: roots. On the other: partially buried parking, increasing the FAR by 1. 3: Ground – Cultivation + culture / commerce + office? The third decision layer defines the ground plane. It first differentiates the continuous Park through a branching structure that erodes the permitted height to 16m, allowing a mix of culture, cultivation and housing (FAR + 1). The rest is open to a mix of commercial and residential development (FAR + 2) 4: Above Ground – Public alleys vs. private gardens / commercial vs. residential? In each of the previously defined areas, new subdivisions specify the above ground limits and programs. Public alleys erode further the construction potential on a part of the green space, creating gardens of forking paths. The remaining green zone allows elevated farming plots on roofs of lower-rise housing, accessible to inhabitants only. In the higher-density area, specific types of offices or residences are defined on a landscape of public programs. 5: Grid of micro-clusters – Each patch of the fine subdivision is then programmed and developed either separately, or as a part of micro-clusters that permits a tighter control of privacy, with alternating bands of public and controlled access.
Virtual landscape. A manual for dynamic zoning
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ACCESS Thanks to the virtual erosion process, the branching green pathways remain continuous, but car access is allowed into pockets between branches, as well as through parkings below the landscape. Besides dead-end streets with parking, loops permit transit through the area. The Leopoldine-Padaurek-Strasse connects to Alter Wiener Weg and through the Franz-Sebek-Strasse to the Siemensstrasse. From Siemensstrasse, a street entering below the S88 head area provides access to underground parking and emerges farther to the south-west as a drop-off and delivery access for the hotel and other programs on the border of the rail track.
SIEMENSSTRASSE HEAD VIEW FROM THE S-BAHN STATION
Virtual landscape. A manual for dynamic zoning
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LAYERED HOUSING TYPES According to the virtual landscape profile, the housing typology varies from indented low-rise volumes and rows to compact, though porous blocks. The programs are layered in phases over time. In the lower zones, the ground is duplicated on the roofs of the first few stories, creating two different volumes divided by a transparent semipublic green roofscape. The wider apartments below have direct access to linear semi-private courts with gardens, playgrounds and sport fields. The narrower volumes on top are offset from the roofscape by a transparent volume of daily family and communal activities giving access to the planted roof. The denser zones have a higher programmatic mixity, with various typologies layered on top of each other, but with respect to their optimal proportions: residences on top of office volumes resting on a layer of semi-buried parking and stores. The housing is on a diagrid pattern mostly oriented to allow East-West sun exposure with minimized shadows and facade panels further modulating the light conditions. Various branches of the project may be implemented separately, down to the semi-autonomous grid unit of 56 x 56m.
Virtual landscape. A manual for dynamic zoning
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URBAN RELATIONS The S-Bahn receives a direct entrance from the core of S88, while the bus connection runs on the spine of the whole development to make mass transport easy. Park&ride spaces are provided as well. The expected higher densities of visitors passing through the head of the development towards Siemens City and to the new development justifies underground parking access to commercial functions and higher-density housing blocks. The mix of housing, with a high ratio of home offices and with the proximity of larger office swatches promises to reduce daily commutes to work and may prove attractive to a high percentage of the 5000 Siemens city employees. Work becomes a destination within walking distance. The project’s critical mass brings also other functions like education and shopping into immediate proximity.
200 m SITUATION