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URBAN-EVOLOUTIONARY-MORPHOLOGY THE VESTIGE CITY
我々は都市の進化の形態について、 短いメッセージを入れます、我々は いくつかの日本の留学生で、 これに どのように役立つかどこイントロへ ようこそ、 これは。 Urban-Evoloutionary-Morphology: The Vestige City, is an exploratory research document focusing on the future of the city. It Discusses four possible urban grain futures using biological evolutionary development as a precedent; aiming to find new urban directions from existing evolution process.
Edited by Greg Keeffe and Des Fagan Leeds Metropolitan University Published by Infra Press, Leeds, UK. Broadcasting Place, LS2 9EN www.infrapress.org.uk Š Leeds School of Architecture No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or manner without permission from the authors except in the case of brief quotations embodied in the articles ISBN for Book
TABLE OF CONTENTS
002
Exaptation 004 Exaptation 006 Bio Re-Exaptive city 008 Exapting the Urban Fabric 010 Route Exaption 012 Exaptive Towers 014 Patchwork systems 016 Social Agro Forestry 018 Agro Forestry Species 020 Alley Cropping 022 Alley Cropping Species 024 Worldwide Exaptation 026 Continual Aptation cycles
028
A _ B _
Spandrel 030 Spandrel 032 Spandrel in Architecture / city 034 By-productive landscape 036 Flooded Future 038 Flood defences 040 Spandrel city 042 The Spandrel tree 044 Cliff walls 046 Irrigation (agriculture) 048 Artificial overspill lake 050 Mangrove 052 Sandy Dyke
Biospheric foundation Foreword
Groups 054
Atavism 056 Atavism 058 Atavism in the city 060 Atavistic city 062 Ancestral Salford 064 Atavistic Approach 066 Emergent ecological complexity 068 Resilient Salford 070 A Bio-Frothic Evolution 072 Salford Atavistic Bio-Froth 074 Home Bio-Bubbles 076 Communal Bio-Bubbles 078 Neighbourhood Bio-Bubbles 080 Community Bio-Bubbles 082 Public Bio-Bubbles
106 Acknowledgements 108 Bibliography
084
Phenotypic plasticity 086 088 090 092 094 096 098 100 102
Phenotypic plasticity Architectural Phenotypes The Morphing Model Salford Echoes Mapping the Genome Plotting Density Shaping Salford Maximising the Fringe Morphing New York / Paris
Biospheric foundation
The Biospheric Foundation is an urban ecological experiment in the heart of the Blackfriars neighbourhood of Salford UK. The Biospheric Foundation first project was to renovate Irwell House, a mill on the banks of the River Irwell, to turn it into an inspiring space for the community and visitors. We are new type of company, one that differs from most others, in that it is designed for the organisation to use profits and their assets, such as the Biospheric Foundation’s base at Irwell House, for the public good.
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There are now a range of projects developing with the community around food, energy and waste as well as the creation of a shared workspace for urban research.
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The Biospheric Foundation has founded the Epoch Six Urban Lab on the top floor of Irwell House, its a space to conceive, collaborate and create. Bringing together a range of creatively minded people embedding our urban research practice in the local community, the wider city and beyond. Our research
The Biospheric Foundation is an urban ecological experiment in the heart of the Blackfriars neighbourhood of Salford UK. The Biospheric Foundation first project was to renovate Irwell House, a mill on the banks of the River Irwell, to turn it into an inspiring space for the community and visitors. We are new type of company, one that differs from most others, in that it is designed for the organisation to use profits and their assets, such as the Biospheric Foundation’s base at Irwell House, for the public good. There are now a range of projects developing with the community around food, energy and waste as well as the creation of a shared workspace for urban research. The Biospheric Foundation has founded the Epoch Six Urban Lab on the top floor of Irwell House, its a space to conceive, collaborate and create. Bringing together a range of creatively minded people embedding our urban research practice in the local community, the wider city and beyond. Our research agenda is based around creating new ideas that contribute to social and environmental change in the Blackfriars Salford neighbourhood and other urban areas. We include architects, artists, biologists, geographers, film-makers, policy makers, food and health experts, urban designers, technologists and designers and always looking to host new and interesting people and groups. We strongly believe that research needs to be situated in our inner cities bringing together diverse people to understand and act upon the challenges that face our communities. We believe, “when everything is connected, for better or worse, everything matters”
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Foreword
Greg Keeffe Professor of Sustainable Architecture Crash Test Leeds School of Architecture
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Darko Radovic Professor of Architecture and Urban Design co+labo Keio University Sano Satoshi Secretary co+labo Keio University
The city is changing: no longer is it an aesthetic creation, nor purely an industrial powerhouse. It is becoming a living, breathing super-organism, with a myriad of multiple, competing functions enabling the city to dwell within its particular ecology. As a super-organism, the future city will be defined more by its metabolism, than purely its primary function or spatial form. These biospheric flows of energy and materials will drive the new city and create new synergies for living. Cities too are becoming ubiquitous: by 2050 some 80% of the World’s population will live in one. Sadly, new cities are being designed more and more as integrated pieces of transport infrastructure, linked to generic neighbourhoods. The city must now be seen as the technology by which we live: not a landscape full of technologies. The city is like an iphone, life without it is unimaginable, we need it in every aspect of life. The city as a whole needs to be effective, and its constituent parts: transport, industry, commerce, social functions and leisure for example, must fit within it and and be seamless in use. To do this, the city must be seen as a body, a whole, rather than this collection of parts, and if the city is a body, then it must be subject to the evolutionary forces of the biotic. If the city is a body, an organism, can we really make one out of unliving ,off-the-shelf parts? This would be like a Frankenstein city, undead but not alive. This analogy is more clear in post-industrial cities, where failing industrial sites sit adjacent to new housing, or old housing lies uncomfortably next to new transport infrastructure. This vestige city, where the speed of cultural change outstrips the speed of replacement of architecture, defines the post-industrial, but also creates the evolutionary pathways and environment that shape its future morphology. In Kevin Kelly’s, book the Technium, where he proposes that the whole of technology is a new life force; he quotes Karl Schroder science fiction author of the novel Permanence: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Nature. Basically, either advanced alien civilizations don’t exist, or we can’t see them because they are indistinguishable from natural systems. I vote for the latter.’ The aim of the book is to develop ideas of the evolutionary and the city, through architectural and landscape insertions in the Greengate area of Salford, Manchester UK. These designs will engage with the idea of the city as biotic and as a host for biota as well as humans. These new ‘natural’ landscapes will be resilient, through new biodiversity that not only provides a productive landscape, but also links and extends the city’s function and liveability. The book aims to expand the proposition that the city is an evolutionary and emergent super-organism and that clear analogies can be made between evolutionary morphology and the design of the city. These proto-propositions are:
Exaptive city Exaptation is the evolution of function of some element of a living thing that was not originally produced for that function. Industrial Salford has lost its original purpose and is waiting for some new exaptation of its tectonic elements. In birds, feathers evolved for insulation, are used for flight…. Here the inner ring raod is exapted into a new river channel, that relieves flood risk, extends biodiversity, and develops a new agricultural landscape in the city. Spandrel city A spandrel is where a new function develops from the evolution of another element aimed at another adaptation. Bi-productive landscapes could solve several problems at once by creating synergies that extend and enhance the obvious. Using the idea of ecotones (small ecologies between two larger ones), the scheme re-engages the river with the city, through new water-land edges: the beach, the cliff, and the mangrove. These offer new environmental and social functions beyond the obvious. Atavistic city This city will revert to an earlier type that is still present in its DNA or formal make-up… Greengate Salford was the medieval hub of the area now known as Greater Manchester. Within this DNA is the blueprint for a biodiverse and productive engagement with the landscape that can be rediscovered and re-energised to produce a sustainable underpinning for the new Salford. In this project, the city engages with future climate change and carbon transition, through the development of a ‘froth’ that acts as a primary modifier, that allows a new subsistence agriculture to develop within. Phenotypic plasticity city Here the phenotype of the city morphs due to external forces. These forces create a phenotype that is dramatically different than the original genotype, usually it is behaviour that changes rather than genetics… You may use allometric engineering to choose your city adaptation. Here the city uses an earlier morphology and adapts it to the environmental forces that are present on the site, namely the sun, wind and water, creating a new blurred form that engages with both the natural and the constructed. The book suggests we have been wrong to force designs on the city: as a superorganism, the new city will be born, not made.
This book was produced with the support of the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation, for which the authors are truly grateful. The design workshop itself took place at the Biospheric Foundation, Salford UK between the 22/02/12 and 29/02.12.
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Foreword
Greg Keeffe Professor of Sustainable Architecture Crash Test Leeds School of Architecture
& &
Darko Radovic Professor of Architecture and Urban Design co+labo Keio University Sano Satoshi Secretary co+labo Keio University
The city is changing: no longer is it an aesthetic creation, nor purely an industrial powerhouse. It is becoming a living, breathing superorganism, with a myriad of multiple, competing functions enabling the city to dwell within its particular ecology. As a super-organism, the future city will be defined more by its metabolism, than purely its primary function or spatial form. These biospheric flows of energy and materials will drive the new city and create new synergies for living. Cities too are becoming ubiquitous: by 2050 some 80% of the World’s population will live in one. Sadly, new cities are being designed more and more as integrated pieces of transport infrastructure, linked to generic neighbourhoods. The city must now be seen as the technology by which we live: not a landscape full of technologies. The city is like an iphone, life without it is unimaginable, we need it in every aspect of life. The city as a whole needs to be effective, and its constituent parts: transport, industry, commerce, social functions and leisure for example, must fit within it and and be seamless in use. To do this, the city must be seen as a body, a whole, rather than this collection of parts, and if the city is a body, then it must be subject to the evolutionary forces of the biotic.
T F
A R
D
If the city is a body, an organism, can we really make one out of unliving ,off-the-shelf parts? This would be like a Frankenstein city, undead but not alive. This analogy is more clear in post-industrial cities, where failing industrial sites sit adjacent to new housing, or old housing lies uncomfortably next to new transport infrastructure. This vestige city, where the speed of cultural change outstrips the speed of replacement of architecture, defines the post-industrial, but also creates the evolu-
tionary pathways and environment that shape its future morphology. In Kevin Kelly’s, book the Technium, where he proposes that the whole of technology is a new life force; he quotes Karl Schroder science fiction author of the novel Permanence: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Nature. Basically, either advanced alien civilizations don’t exist, or we can’t see them because they are indistinguishable from natural systems. I vote for the latter.’ The aim of the book is to develop ideas of the evolutionary and the city, through architectural and landscape insertions in the Greengate area of Salford, Manchester UK. These designs will engage with the idea of the city as biotic and as a host for biota as well as humans. These new ‘natural’ landscapes will be resilient, through new biodiversity that not only provides a productive landscape, but also links and extends the city’s function and liveability. ically different than the original genotype, usually it is behaviour that changes rather than genetics… You may use allometric engineering to choose your city adaptation. Here the city uses an earlier morphology and adapts it to the environmental forces that are present on the site, namely the sun, wind and water, creating a new blurred form that engages with both the natural and the constructed. will be born, not made.
This book was produced with the support of the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation, for which the authors are truly grateful. The
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Graphic
Graphic
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Exaptation
Exaptation Evolutionary shifts in function Exaptation is a term first proposed in 1982 to help define the difference between functional evolutionary adaptations and the unintended effects that result from these. A trait can evolve because it served one particular function, but subsequently it may come to serve another - this is exaptation. An “exaptation” is just one example of a characteristic that evolved, but that isn’t considered an adaptation. Stephen Gould and Elizabeth Vrba1 (1982) proposed vocabulary to let biologists talk about features that are and are not adaptations and proposed the new term exaptation, together with adaptation to form the basis of what they termed aptation:
Exaptation in Bird Evolution: the Archaeopteryx & the Egretta Ardesiaca
Adaptation—a feature produced by natural selection for its current function. Exaptation—a feature that performs a function but that was not produced by natural selection for its current use. Perhaps the feature was produced by natural selection for a function other than the one it currently performs and was then co-opted for its current function. For example, feathers might have originally arisen in the context of selection for insulation, and only later were they co-opted for flight. In this case, the general form of feathers is an adaptation for insulation and an exaptation for flight. “We suggest that such characters [exaptations], evolved for other usages (or for no function at all), and later coopted for their current role, be called exaptations...They are fit for their current role, hence aptus, but they were not designed for it, and are therefore not ad aptus, or pushed towards fitness. They owe their fitness to features present for other reasons, and are therefore fit (aptus) by reason of (ex) their form, or ex aptus.” Gould & Vrbal (1982)
http://siguiendolaesteladegould.blogspot.com/2011/12/exaptaciones.html Archaeopteryx “Jurassic fossils of Archaeopteryx indicate that this earliest known bird was probably capable of only trhe simplest feats of flight. Yet it was quite thoroughly feathered.”
Archaeopteryx 2a http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/archaeopteryx/challenge.html Modern Bird 2b
“Archaeopteryx already had large contour-type feathers, arranged along its arms in a pattern very much as in the wings of modern birds.” Ostrom (1979) asks, “ Is it possible that the initial _pre-Archaeopteryx) enlargement of feathers on those narrow hands might have been to increase the hand surface area, thereby making it more effective in catching insects?... I do believe that the predatory design of the wing skeleton in Archaeopteryx is strong evidence of a prior predatory function of the proto-wing in a cursorial proto-Archaeopteryx.” “Later selection for changes in skeletal features and feathers, and for specific neuromotor patterns, resulted in the evolution of flight.”
Exaptation
Aptation from the pre-Archaeopteryx to the Black Heron [Egretta ardesiaca]
Evolutionary Aptation
Effect: Effect:
Effect:
Catching Insects
Flight
The enlargement of feathers on narrow hands increased the hand surafce area making it easier to catch insects
... but later become exaptations for flight.
Shading The wing per se is an exaptation in its current effect of shading, just as the feathers covering it also arose in different adaptive contexts but have provided much evolutionary flexibility for other uses during the evolution of birds
Large Contour Feathers
Hand Extension
Wings
Neuromotor Modifications
Function:
Large Contour Feathers
Thermoregulation
Function:
Behaviour Change
The basic design of feathers is an adaptation for thermoregulation
Insect Catching
The neuromotor modifocations governing mantling behaviour and therefore the mantling posture are adaptations for fishing
Feathers
Function:
The development of large contour feathers and their arrangement on the arm arise as adaptations for insect catching...
Adaptation
Exaptation & Adaptation
Function
The two types of Aptation
Process
Natural selection shapes the character for a current use Adaptation A character, previously shaped by natural selection for a particular function (an adaptation), is coopted for a new use - Cooptation
The Egretta Ardesiaca’s (Black Heron’s) exaptive shading technique for hunting small fish
Adaptation
Character
Aptation
Usage
Exaptation A character whose origin cannot be ascribed to the direct action of natural selection (a nonaptation) is coopted for a current use - Cooptation
Effect
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Re-exaptive City the island Garden An exaptive city aims to Re-evaluate the existing frameworks and manipulate them into an adapted form that is not part of the original intention. The exaptive city therefore performs a different function to that of the preceding city. It is a new city, but with all old parts, exapted into new forms, new spaces and new places.
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Exapting the Urban Fabric From Urban hinterland to super Biodiversity
Exapting Infrastructure
[Re]Route
Exapting Flows
[Re]Route
[Re]Vitalisation
Exapting Built Form
[Re]Grow
Salford
Manchester
>
N
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Route Exaptation Infrastructure and Flows
Enjoy
Riv
By exapting existing infrastructural elements of the city, space is released for new activities. The rerouting of major traffic allows new sections of river to be introduced and contained urban parklands created. In these parklands food for the city can be grown and people are free to partake in many activities related to the food’s production. New businesses situated centrally to the parkland can also participate in a new localised food economy, offering discounted prices in exchange for foraged items found by visitors.
ute
Exchange
]Ro
Pick
Re
Forage
er:[
Wander
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ou
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er
Inn
Viaduct Arches:[Re]Use
E nj o y!
a gro Rin
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ew]Routes le:[N op Pe
:P ic k
Wan
er
[Re]Route
: Forage
[Re]Route
Creates the space needed to:[Re]Grow
Ex
[Re]Grow
change
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Exaptive Towers The birth of a sky forest
Solar Faรงade (south facing + exposed to sunlight) with extensive PV panels to be converted to energy.
Growing Faรงade (Daylit on an east-west axis with moderate exposure to sunlight) Mass production of food
Mushroom Habitat (Shaded north faรงade with little to no exposure to sunlight) Mass production of food.
[Re]Route
[Re]Route
[Re]Grow
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Patchwork Systems The combination of the more industrial Alley Cropping and the Social Agro Forestry systems allows density and diversity far greater than any one system can offer, and in turn creates a more resilient environment. High food yields, from the alley cropping in particular, is matched with a low maintenance schedule providing the main benefit of the system. However the scheme also provides a protective system for the soils and creates a healthier microclimate within the Manchester-Salford border zone. Furthermore, the redirection of the river along Trinity Way (combined with the new sections of water flow across the scheme) increases the optimum biodiversity area by maximising the fringe around the site as well as providing water for the farming and improving the aesthetic appeal of the scheme for tourist appeal.
SOCIAL AGRO FORESTRY EXAPTIVE FLOWS
VIADUCT ARCHES
ALLEY CROPPING
EXAPTIVE TOWERS
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Social Agro Forestry Social Agro Forestry is a combination of Agroforestry and social interaction. Agroforestry is a collective name for land use systems and practices in which woody perennials are deliberately integrated with crops on the same land management unit. This in turn provides a complex, multilayered system that enhances the biodiversity of the local area. In this instance the Agro Forest system is based upon Robert Harts edible garden forest. The garden forest provides the community with a ‘foragescape’ which allows surrounding residents and visitors of the area to come and forage for small fruits and vegetables grown across the site (wild strawberries for example). This encourages social interaction within the agro forest and creates opportunities for the local community and offers education to all ages.
PATCHWORK SYSTEM
All the species included within the agro forestry zones are selected on the basis of edibility, and everything from the canopy layer to the forest groundcover is good for picking and eating. The Agro Forest also increases opportunities for wildlife feeding, watching and photography by creating a habitat that attracts many species of animals (especially birds)
SOCIAL INTERACTION
CONSERVE SOIL
As the system is based on that of a natural forest the Social Agro Forest is self sustaining so doesn’t need that much maintenance.
SOCIAL AGRO FORESTRY
ATTRACT WILDLIFE
PATCHWORK KEY
SOCIAL AGRO FORESTS RIVER ROAD AND RAIL EXAPTIVE TOWERS
CONTROL PESTS
Alley Cropping
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1 CANOPY LAYER
Social Agro Forestry
Consisting of the original mature fruit trees. Also used as a form of wind protection
The Agro Forest is based on the natural forest and how it can be divided into distinct levels.: Canopy, Low-tree, Shrub, Herbaceous, Ground cover, Rhizosphere and Vertical layer. Each layer has a distinct purpose for the structure and survival of the forest garden and its habitats
Limes/ Lindens
Buffalo Berry
WIthin each level, numerous species are picked on the basis that they have primary and secondary uses. The primary use is the edibility and the secondary uses vary (i.e good bee plant) but all are beneficial to the biodiversity and/or to the community.
4
HERBACEOUS
Consisting of perennial vegetables and herbs.
3 SHRUB LAYER
Eucalyptus
Consisting of fruit bushes such as currants and berries.
Pear Blackcurrent Alders Lavender
Goumi
N7 Barberries
N7
Mg
2 LOW TREE
Key for Secondary Uses
Consisting of smaller nut and fruit trees on dwarďŹ ng root stocks.
Chickweed
Bee Plant Mineral Accumulator
Honesty
Mg
Medicinal Nitrogen Fixer
N7
Butterfly Plant
6 VERTICAL
Mushroom Growth
Consisting of vines and climbers.
Bamboo
Peach
Dye Hedge
5 GROUND COVER Consisting of edible plants that spread horizontally.
Lemon Balm
Mg
Rhubarb
Common Liquorice
Strawberries
Mg
Mg N7
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Alley Cropping Alley cropping is a type of Agroforestry. It entails growing food crops between hedgerows of planted shrubs and trees. The alley crops are grown near to the central viaduct arches, close to the centre of distribution. They contain forest garden salad species that are frequently used within the city. The alley crops are maintained industrially, providing food for the many distributing shops clustered beneath the arches. PATCHWORK SYSTEM
The Alley Crops need a lot more maintenance than the the Social Agro Forest which means local people will have to be employed to work on the land and keep up with the continuous food production. This will be an added benefit to the system as it is creating new jobs in the area.
CREATE JOBS
Any unused produce is returned to the alley crops via the vermaculture strips enclosed within each set of alley crops (each is approximately 30m long by 2m wide) creating a closed loop cycle via the natural composting of the materials grown on site. By combining annual and perennial crops that yield multiple products and and profits at different times, available space, time and resources are used more effectively. Plantings to enhance wildlife and pollinator habitats can also be designed using appropriate species these are seen as secondary uses with the primary use being food production.
CONSERVE SOIL
ALLEY CROPPING
CROP HEALTH
PATCHWORK KEY
ALLEY CROPS RIVER ROAD AND RAIL EXAPTIVE TOWERS
ECONOMY
Alley Cropping
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Alley Cropping
5
Alley cropping uses a similar layer system to the Social Agro Forestry system but with fewer layers. The crops have been carefully selected so that other agronomic benefits are also achieved. Some plants are used to suppress weeds or provide nutrients. Delicate or light sensitive plants may be given shade or protection.
HYDROPONIC FRUIT AND VEG
Some of the viaduct arches will be used as space for hydroponically growing exotic fruit and veg in mass production.
Tomatos
Grapes
Pineapple
There are unlimited planting combinations for alley cropping systems. Annual crops provide a continual annual income whilst other long term crops mature. As well as providing food for sale each species have secondary uses that are beneficial to the biodiversity of the area.
1 CANOPY LAYER Consisting of the original mature fruit trees also act as a wind protection
Autumn Olive
Lemon Balm
Green Alder
N7
Mg N7
4 GROUND COVER Consisting of edible plants that spread horizontally.
St Johns Wort
Cucumber
WaterMelon
Valerian
Mg
3
HERBACEOUS
Consisting of perennial vegetables and herbs.
6 FUNGI Oregano
Key for Secondary Uses
The arches beneath the viaduct are also used for their unique dark properties perfect for mushroom farming
Apple Mint
Bee Plant Mineral Accumulator
Mg
Medicinal Nitrogen Fixer
N7
Butterfly Plant
Shiitake
Mushroom Growth
Fennel
Mg
Dye
Mg
Stinging Nettle
Turkish Rocket
Hedge
Golden Oyster
2 SHRUB LAYER
Mg
Garlic Chives
N7 Marsh Mallow
Consisting of fruit bushes such as currants and berries.
Blackcurrent
Lavender
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Worldwide Exaptation The possibilities of exaptation
[Re]Vitalisation
Paris
By re-routing of the River Seine down the Bd Garibardi, the current infrastructure is exapted to create an urban parkland island. Focused around the iconic Eiffel Tower Champ de Mars, the area creates connections between the North and South of the city, by being the centre for the exchange for produce.
[Re]Vitalisation
By exapting the current infrastructure of Canary Wharf and its surrounding area, a Bio-diverse urban parkland is created, this intern could create produce for a large proportion of central London. The combination of Docks and High building stock is perfect for exaption into the growth of a complex ecosystem.
London
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Continual Aptation cycles
Urban Scale Exaption
The process of Exaptation and Adaptation
[Re]Route
[Re]Grow
Social interaction
Create Jobs
Conserve Soil
Conserve Soil
Attract Wildlife
Crop Health
Bio-Towers
Social Agro
Localised food Adaptations
[Re]Route
Alley Cropping
Control Pests
Wander Forage
ÂŁ
Pick
Plant
Pick Distribute Cultivate Exchange
Enjoy
Human scale Exaptions
Economy
[Re]Vitalisation
Exaptation and Adaptation is a continual cycle. As one Aptation proves to be the catalysis for the next, this creates a never ending Progression of Evolution.
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Spandrel
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Spandrel Evolutionary by-product Spandrel is a phenotypic characteristic that is a by-product of the evolution of some other character, rather than a direct product of adaptive selection. Spandrels are not originated by the direct action of natural selection but later co-opted for a current use. > Evolutionary biology needs such an explicit term for features arising as by-products, rather than adaptations, whatever their subsequent exaptive utility. Not every part of an animal’s anatomy can be broken up and explained as having an evolutionary purpose. > Thus, spandrels are spandrels, an automatic by-product of other architectural decisions and therefore nonadaptive in their origin. Spandrels are not adaptations, despite their availability for later fruitful use. > Spandrels may keep out the rain, protect privacy, exclude birds, cut down noise, even help to buttress the building, but their basic physical features as size, shape, and number originate as secondary consequences, not primary intents.
The Proteus anguinus’s ears evolved from a sound sensor into a breathing apparatus after the isolation of the Proteus imposed by living into caves.
from
Hearing
to
Breathing
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Spandrel in Architecture > In architecture the prototypical spandrel is the triangular space “leftover�, between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure. By estensio, a spandrel is any geometric configuration of space inevitably left over as a consequence of other architectural decisions. > The term may also be extended from its particular architectural use for twodimensional by-products to the generality of leftover spaces, a definition that properly includes the San Marco penditives
Spandrel in the city > The spandrel in an urban setting would be a by-productive intervention to a space that adds a different function to the original aim for which that space was deigned for. > The primary use of the flyover shape is to bypass an existing road without coming into contact with it, in other words a bridge crossing a road. > A spandrel of a urban bridge might be a skate park which would add a leisure feature to that “leftover� space
> London Road////Manchester
> Mancunian Way built over London Road
> Spandrel underneath the Mancunian Way////skatepark
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Foreword By-productive Number landscapes tagline to suit
A spandrel is where a new function develops from the evolution of another element aimed at another adaptation. By-productive landscapes could solve several problems at once by creating synergies that extend and enhance the obvious. Within this in mind, the five projects situated on the fringes between land and water enlarge the landscape through architecture, manipulating and blurring the perceptions of what is natural and what is artificial.
The new expanse of water is used as a reservoir and fishing lake.
The large volume of water is a by-product of the dam.
Dam installed to control water flow down river.
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A Flooded Future? It estimated that future climate change could lead to potentially significant increases in future risk by the end of this century. The need for new defences is imminent and strategies to prevent the risk of flooding of certain areas of some of the major cities are to be taken soon.
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Flood Defences The main purpose of this project is to defend our cities from future rises in sea level with five different strategies that may be applied to particular cities such as those shown in this page, taking into account the differences in altitude and geographic location.
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Spandrel City Unnatural selection
Stage One: Cliff face Brutal cliffs of stacked sandstone and concrete rubble installed as barriers between the natural and man made landscapes. Stage Two: Agriculture dyke The river is widened through the construction of a series of allotment dykes that utilises existing space for the farming of river irrigated food products. Stage Three: Premature flooded lake The phase also determines areas for the construction of additional water reservoirs which aim at securing long term drinking water resources. Stage Four: Mangrove habitat Flooded land below the dam using existing ecological and climatic processes. The islands are fully appropriate with human, animal and ecological habitation. Stage Five: Sandy dyke The final stage in the series proposes the use of beaches as flood defence systems.
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The Spandrel Tree
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Cliff Walls
The mass of rock projects from the surface of water, extending the height of the river banks, buying time for rising sea levels.
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Irrigation [agriculture]
These methods include planting vegetation to retain extra water on a terraced hillsides which slowly flows downhill
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Artificial [overspill] lake
The construction of floodways (man-made channels to divert floodwater) which lead to retention ponds to hold extra water during times of heavy rainfall and unpredictable flooding.
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ManGrove
By allowing the river to prematurely flood its banks, the process of living with climate change in increased forcing construction on the mangrove infested rivers.
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Sandy dyke
By relaxing the angle where the land meets water, and extending the river banks surface, a beach like terrain is created.
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Atavism
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Atavism An evolutionary throwback Atavism is the tendency to revert to an ancestral type. In biology, an atavism is an evolutionary throwback, such as traits reappearing which had disappeared generations before. Traits that once existed as a phenotypically feature are preserved in the DNA throughout evolution, allowing Atavism to occur through genetic mutations. Atavistic traits are found in both anatomy and behaviour. The human tail, perhaps the most familiar example of anatomic atavism, occurs through genetic mutation where genes, existent from primate stages, knock out overriding ones. Embryos at early stages of development often show ancestral features which usually disappear later in development but may not if Atavism occurs.
Further Examples Snakes, now of an evolved, streamlined form, adapted for burrowing, once possessed legs. Occasionally, snakes can be found with atavistic, hind legs. Similarly, whales are occasionally found with hind limbs and there have been examples of whales found with well developed feet, complete with digits. This atavistic feature refers back to the ancestral DNA of terrestrial mammals, from which whales have descended from.
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Atavism in the city Atavism in social sciences usually refers to a cultural tendency. This may be people in a modern era referring to previous ways of thinking or acting. Atavistic features can therefore be found within the urban areas. Greater Manchester Tram transport provides a strong example of the atavism within the city. In 1901, the electronic tram was introduced to Manchester and acted as the dominant method of transport until 1930. The bus, followed by the motor car, succeeded the tram up until the call for an improved public transport system to minimise use of the motor car. In 1992, the tram, an ancestral feature, reappeared along the streets of Manchester. The infrastructural demands of a tram transport system were embedded within the make up of Manchester’s streets, allowing such atavism to occur.
Further Examples The looming Peak Oil Crisis and need for minimising inputs and outputs, to and from our towns and cities has encouraged local food production and local trade. Atavistic behaviour can be witnessed in the revival of the market within our urban environments.
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Atavistic City city the island Garden An exaptive aims to to revert Re-evaluate the existing atavisticcity city aims to previous ways offrameworks and manipulate them into an adapted form make-up. that is notThe part of the functioning, embedded within its historical original intention. The exaptive city therefore performs a different atavistic city, therefore adopts previous methods of thinking new scenarios. city, but with function to and thatadapts of the preceding city. It and is a future and acting them to present It parts , exapted into new new and new allaold new city relying upon oldforms, ways tospaces create new urban is places. lifestyles.
Salford Atavistic Bio-Froth The Salford Atavistic Bio-Froth grows from an organic process based upon the emergence of complexity within natural biospheric systems. An atavistic approach develops Salford’s ancestral characteristics to suggest a future urban form that promotes biodiversity within a primary climatic modified environment protecting against forecasted climate changes. The urban Bio-Froth is an indefinitely continuous, sustainable process born from the biospheric revolution and atavistic solution to Salford’s 21st century socio-economic issues. Using the once established mills, integral to Salford’s history, new industry, based upon modern technologies, offers employment, re-inserting a local economy whilst securing the long term, future, urban resilience of Salford. Industries develop, manufacture, and distribute structural components and materials throughout the city, providing the infrastructure for the evolutionary growth of an increasingly complex, closed biospheric system to ensure a future, habitable environment.
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Ancestral Salford
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Atavistic Approach The Birth of the Bio-Bubble
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Emergent Ecological Complexity
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Resilient Salford
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A Bio-Frothic Evolution
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Salford Atavistic Bio-Froth
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Home Bio-Bubbles
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Communal Bio-Bubbles
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Neighbourhood Bio-Bubbles
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Community Bio-Bubbles
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Public Bio-Bubbles
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Phenotypic plasticity
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Phenotypic plasticity Interrelationship of environments to phenotypes Phenotypic plasticity, the capacity of a single genotype to exhibit variable phenotypes in different environments, is common in insects and is often highly adaptive. All plasticity is physiological, but can manifest as changes in biochemistry, physiology, morphology, behaviour, or life history. Phenotypic plasticity can be passive, anticipatory, instantaneous, delayed, continuous, discrete, permanent, reversible, beneficial, harmful, adaptive or non-adaptive, and generational. Virtually any abiotic or biotic factor can serve to induce plasticity, and resulting changes vary from harmful susceptibilities to highly integrated and adaptive alternative phenotypes. The timing, specificity, and speed of plastic responses are critical to their adaptive value. Plasticity is thought to be evolutionarily favoured under specific conditions. The ecological consequences of plasticity range from simple environmental susceptibilities to mediating interspecific interactions, and extend to structuring of ecological communities, often through indirect effects. Phenotypic plasticity, through its ecological effects, can facilitate evolutionary change. [Whitman and Agrawal]
Reaction norms for various traits in Drosophila in response to growth temperature (David et al. 2004; by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.).
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Architectural Phenotypes Re-Shaping Our Cities Our urban environments form intricate and organic systems that rival nature in their depth and complexity. The flux of interactions between inhabitants and shifting weather systems define our cities. Buildings, like plants and all stationary organisms, are fixed in their location and are therefore subject to local environmental and social conditions. Often the design process neglects these site-specific conditions, instead focusing on established principals of layout, density and form that have developed over centuries of construction. These layers of embedded history, both visible and invisible form the genetic code for a city, and like in nature, it is this genotype that gives an area a unique identity. Taking inspiration from natures remarkable ability to adapt, and applying the principles of plasticity to our built fabric, it is possible to produce more responsive and resilient cities. By using the existing genotype (street layout, density, building heights) then morphing the form to produce optimised buildings that are a direct response to their local environment, a new phenotype is created. As no two environments are exactly the same a single genotype could give rise to a spectrum of new phenotypes, creating a visually rich and diverse urban environment while maintaining references to the historic genotype.
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The Morphing Model
Six Steps To Plasticity
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Salford Echoes Turning Urbanscape Ghosts into Genotypes Salford is a city where the urban fabric has changed many times and much of the history has been removed or destroyed. The cities density has gone through flux, growing then falling in a direct relationship with the success of it’s neighbouring city Manchester. This ingrained fabric is still visible in parts of Salford, with the historic routes such as ‘Silk Street’ and ‘Blackfriars Road’, makes up the genotype of the city. Burgage plots form a vestigial yet recognizable grid within the city, later forming terrace rows, then finally being removed to make way for modern developments that do not follow the historic street pattern. This early layout forms a major part in Salford’s development, and therefore should be considered part of its genetic code.
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Mapping the Genome The X-Axis The existing genotype forms the base, with the thin linear strips of land relating to the former terrace rows, and historic burgage’s. The genotypic form of Salford as a city is principally attributed to the historic Burgage’s plot. This was a medieval system of land ownership formed of long strips of land owned by families and businesses. As was common with Burgage’s plot design, early Salford was formed with plots that ran perpendicular between the river Irwell and major roads. This plot layout was then replaced during the mass movement of population from the countryside to the city during the 18th and 20th centuries throughout the industrial revolution. This period gave rise to a typically British industrial vernacular, the terraced house, and many of the terrace rows were built in line with the former plots. Modern Salford, like many cities, has suffered the gradual loss of urban density, with an increase in suburban living and the construction of city centre tower blocks in the middle of the 20th Century. Most modern developments have removed any reference to the former grid of the city, instead opting to create spread out low-density developments following new road layouts.
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Plotting Density The Y-Axis Due to the multilayered effect of history in Salford there is no consistent regularity in building height, both throughout history and in the modern street scene. The building heights are predominantly relatively low rise, however there are spikes of high density scattered around Salford in the form of residential tower blocks. In addition to the changes in building height, the buildings interaction and engagement with the river has also altered over time. In the 1900s the buildings were all stepped away from the river Irwell, as there was a strong risk of flooding. However in modern times, following the construction of levees, the banks of the river are becoming more dense.
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Shaping Salford The New Phenotype After establishing Salford’s genotype, in terms of layout, height, and density, the morphic model can be applied to the built fabric. The existing genotype forms the base, with the thin linear strips of land relating to the former terrace rows, and historic burgage’s plots that ran perpendicular to the river Irwell. The structure is then raised next to the river, both to reference the 20th Century tower blocks, and to prevent problems with flooding. The form is sloped to the west, allowing strong oncoming wind to be deflected up and over the building, while also channelling heavy rainfall off the roof. The façades are angled and orientated to maximize solar gain and improve the light quality. The river is widened in an unsystematic manner, offering greater flood defence, while also enormously increasing the surface area available for biodiversity habitats (fringe). While the form references what previously occupied the site, the narrow fingers perched over the river, portray a radically different phenotype.
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Maximising the Fringe Using Plasticity to create a Biodiverse Landscape Historically less dense cities retained some level of biodiversity through parkland and gardens with native species and being small in area. Food production was local, with input levels low due to fertile soils and a stable system. As cities have enlarged to major conurbations, the distance to green islands inside the city from the surrounding countryside has increased, as well as the invasion of non-native low-maintenance species due to human influences. The replacement of traditional growing techniques with large-scale agriculture has created an unbalanced system with high input and low yields, which needs constant maintenance. We intend to use the blurring of the fringe to create a stable, highly resilient permaculture system, in order to feed the city into the next century and to provide a biodiverse habitat. Recreation of this fringe, allows ground space and surfaces to become habitats for native plants and animals, essential to the creation and maintenance of a stable biodiversity. Creation of an aquaculture using the nearby river provides a valuable habitat, water source for irrigation, a source of protein, as well as a possible economic-input. Urban Culture is closely linked to the stability of other systems, the peaks and troughs of biodiversity and food production. Permaculture will create a stable system, with an almost closed loop of nutrients feeding the cycle of growth.
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MorphingToNew York Phenotypic Plasticity The phenotypic plasticity model can be applied to any contemporary urban environment to aid in the development of urban form and city planning. Manhattan offers an ideal example of how these principals can be integrated into a high density, high rise metropolitan area. Its layout is follows a strict grid system giving the area a clear genotypic plan. However there is uniformity of building height, leading to buffeted wind hitting the tall buildings and creating uncomfortable wind surges at ground level. Also, small buildings surrounded by taller structures often suffer from extreme overshadowing. By applying the model, to form a uniform density then shaping the structures to the environmental conditions, by twisting and chamfering to maximize sun penetration for example, the famous New York skyline could have a very different aesthetic that is more responsive and resilient to it’s surroundings.
MorphingToParis Phenotypic Plasticity Paris offers an opposing sample of how these principals can be integrated into a high density, low rise metropolitan area. Paris is formed of a nexus of interconnecting streets, following a more organic layout. The building heights are predominantly relatively low rise, and streets will often have an element of uniformity in building height. The non-regular genotype and low-rise qualities of Paris provide an opportunity for a greater complexity in phenotypic form with a wider overall variance in height and density.
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Acknowledgements The people we wish to thank
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Bibliography
The sources we wish to thank
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URBAN-EVOLOUTIONARY-MORPHOLOGY THE VESTIGE CITY