The City and The City | parametrics beyond optimization

The City and The City Parametrics Beyond Optimization

Rudy Letsche

Š 2015 University of California Berkeley College of Environmental Design Department of Architecture Master of Architecture Thesis

The City and The City Parametrics Beyond Optimization

Rudy Letsche

Acknowledgements Special thanks to Nicholas de Monchaux, to whom I first talked about this topic, and who suggested I read the China Mieville novel of the same name for additional inspiration. Thanks as well to my advisors Kyle Steinfeld, who helped get me a foothold in these topics, and Jill Stoner for her support in the final months of a long journey.

Thanks to the Branner family for the incredible opportunity to travel and research this topic for a year. Thanks to Tom Buresh, fearless department chair, for steering the whole ship amid unpredictable storms. Thanks to my cohort of 2.5 years who decided to graduate without me, and to my adopted cohort wth whom I did graduate. All our late night discussions have influenced this work in some way. Most of all thanks to Fannie Cheung for her loving support and abundant patience.

Contents

Abstract

vi

I.

Travel Research

9

Concepts & Precedents II. Parametricism Optimization Complexity Emergence

15 16 18 20 22

III. Ideal & Authentic

The City Composed

The City Intersected

The City Emerged

24 26 36 56

IV. Installation

68

74

Bibliography

v

Abstract Thesis The difference between the authentic city - dense, traditional, low-rise and sometimes unnavigable, and the ideal city - ordered, legible, sometimes sterile - is rich with architectural possibilities. Through comparative studies of real and ideal urban form at similar physical and cultural latitudes, I propose a hybrid form of urbanism that intelligently combines the idealized world of energy flows, circulation and infrastructure, and the real, living tissue of the city. In an era of sweeping, informal urbanization, diminishing resources, and environmental instability, I believe the answer lies not in the city as it is, or in the city as we might like to to be, but in the fruitful coexistence and cross-fertilization of the two - The City and The City.

This thesis is an interrogation of the culture of optimization. We live in a time of unprecedented computational power. What does this mean for design culture and the built environment it will produce?

It is not possible to design or optimize a city as a whole, because architectural space is created by three influences: design, use, and time. Urban ordering systems are so complex in their interactions that it is futile to try to optimize them as a whole. Yet the tools exist, and a positivist attitude about the tools prevails. If the goal of our cities is to elegantly accommodate more residents, use resources more wisely, and brace against changing climate patterns, then it is crucial to understand the mechanisms that form the city. What systems can be ordered and optimized, and what should be left to evolve naturally? Where is the line between the ideal city and the authentic city?

As a 2014 branner scholar, a year of travel research in cities at various latitudes both physical and cultural led to the definition of “order� for this thesis as “a cohesive

vi

structure of intersecting systems”. Seemingly chaotic places may actually be complexly ordered systems, like Fez, Morocco and Jakarta, Indonesia, while highly legible “ideal” cities like Palmanova, Italy and Brasilia, Brazil are formally ordered but may actually impede the natural order of flows.

Testing The city of San Francisco was filtered for a set of systems to address - light, air, and view - to simulate ersatz cities (i.e. alternative versions of San Francisco) formed from the idealization of each parameter, respectively.

The testing goes a step further. Parametric design tools were here employed not to optimize, but rather to achieve complexity through the creation of generative programmatic and formal hybrids through the superimposition of the ersatz cities as proxies for larger patterns and networks.

Vacant or underdeveloped sites were then taken like core samples and analyzed for their constituent elements. A valence among the constituent elements would be necessary for the further development of form and programming for the intersecting systems.

The absolute valence is that parameter which enjoys the most favorable condition at that site. The relative valence is the parameter mix that is most abundant in the overlay.

Results Optimization is possible and productive when parameters are measurable. The results of optimization are in and of themselves not particularly interesting or desirable (the ersatz cities), but the intersection of different optimizations did yield unnameable hybrids. Prompts like a five-story park, an office/factory/view-deck complex with solar power plants, and a condominium building floating between two office buildings are a few of the findings.

Where monocultural buildings are discontinuities of larger patterns or networks, hybrids let the city in and through, achieving more complexity more quickly and maintaining a tighter relationship with the city as a whole. Programmatic conditions and form can be further developed from here, but will have the “DNA” of these larger networks or patterns that were considered important at the outset.

Abstract

vii

8

Travel Research Overview Based on a proposal I wrote, I was awarded a fellowship to travel and research in 2014.

Established in 1971, the John K. Branner Traveling Fellowship has been the most distinguished award given by the Architecture Department. The 12-month fellowship supports the exploration of a particular architectural question or issue that may later be developed in a masters thesis. From 1974 to the present, the Branner Fellowship has been awarded to a total of 179 students.

Proposal The difference between the authentic city - dense, traditional, low-rise and sometimes unnavigable, and the ideal city - ordered, legible, sometimes sterile - is rich with architectural possibilities. Through comparative studies of real and ideal urban form at similar physical and cultural latitudes, I propose a hybrid form of urbanism that intelligently combines the idealized world of energy flows, circulation and infrastructure, and the real, living tissue of the city. In an era of sweeping, informal urbanization, diminishing resources, and environmental instability, I believe the answer lies not in the city as it is, or in the city as we might like to to be, but in the fruitful coexistence and cross-fertilization of the two - The City and The City.

Travel Research

9

Compressions Compressing Time and Space These images were taken every thirty paces with a 35mm focal length at the same horizon line, then overlaid. The idea is to challenge traditional opticality by compressing both time and space, highlighting rhythms and flows unique to a place. Repetitive objects and spatial proportions are thus amplified, while subtle differences exhibit vibration. The following diptychs show sharp contrast of urban fabric from the same cultural and physical latitude. An old town and a new town, a renaissance arcade and a modernist loggia, a local neighborhood and a global district, a native street and a conquester’s colonial street.

Old and New in Barcelona: CiutatVella (left) and Eixample (images by author)

Renaissance and Modernist in Marseille: Quai du Port (left) and Unite d’Habitation (images by author) 10

Islamic and French in Fez, Morocco: Medina (left) andVille Nouvelle. (images by author)

Local and Global in Jakarta, Indonesia: Kampong (left) and Jl. Sudirman (images by author)

Native and Colonial in Cusco, Peru: Incan street (left) and Spanish street (images by author) Travel Research

11

Traces Using GPS, I traced almost all of my movements in the cities I visited. The resulting form is the city as I experienced it - paths chosen rather than paths possible. These traces are shown at the same scale for comparison of city size and density.

12

Mediterranean :: Spain :: Barcelona

Mediterranean :: Italy :: Rome

Mediterranean :: Italy :: Naples

Mediterranean :: Italy :: Florence

Mediterranean :: Italy :: Palmanova

Mediterranean :: Morocco :: Casablanca

Mediterranean :: Morocco :: Fez

South Pacific :: Singapore :: Singapore

South Pacific :: Indonesia :: Jakarta

South America :: Peru :: Cusco Travel Research

13

14

Concepts & Precedents Parametricism has been the hot button of late in the field of architectural design. Its de facto spokesperson, Patrik Schumacher, wrote the Parametricist Manifesto in 2008.

A generally good analysis of what parametric design is and can do, it goes too far in prescribing an aesthetic to this movement; one that is basically that put forth by Zaha Hadid Architects, where Schumacher is a partner.

Optimization in architecture and urbanism is a term that is interpreted broadly. This thesis defines it narrowly. A city street grid and building heights could be optimized for sun, wind and view, but not without compromising some other system. A single building could be optimized for view, but not without compromising other buildings’ views. The idea of a modern city being optimized is outdated, and the revival of the idea’s possibility due to the explosion of parametric tools is ill-founded.

Complexity is not a new concept, but in recent years there has been a growing fascination with ideas such as decentralisation and self-organisation. Michael Batty interprets the implication for the urban sphere: the need for ‘a dramatic shift in the way we think about cities’.

Emergence is a key concept to the notion of design without designers. The resulting pattern or design is a product of repeated, local interactions by many agents. They have no preconception of the whole, just their local purview. The amalgamation of these interactions is the emergent pattern.

Concepts & Precedents

15

Parametricism: A parametric master plan model by Zaha Hadid Architects source: www.urbanismo.com/arquitecturayurbanismo/manifiesto-parametricista-patrik-schumacher-estructura-el-estilo-digital/

16

Parametricism parameter n. a quantity whose value is selected for the particular circumstances and in relation to which other variable quantities may be expressed Parametric modeling is also referred to as “relational modeling”. “Parametricism” is defined by Patrik Schumacher as the “creative exploitation of parametric design systems in view of articulating increasingly complex social processes and institutions.”

Where “Modernism was founded on the concept of space, Parametricism differentiates fields.” (Schumacher, 2008) Parametricism as a style is marked by the following tenets (not exhaustive): 1) Inter-articulation of sub-systems: Move from single system differentiation – e.g. a swarm of façade components - to the scripted association of multiple subsystems – envelope, structure, internal subdivision, navigation void.

2) Parametric Accentuation: Deviation amplification rather than ameliorating adaptations. For instance, when generative components populate a surface with a subtle curvature modulation the lawful component correlation should accentuate and amplify the initial differentiation.

3) Parametric Urbanism: Buildings form a continuously changing field, whereby lawful continuities cohere to a manifold of buildings.

Systematic modulation of the buildings’ morphologies produces powerful urban effects and facilitates field orientation.

Concepts & Precedents

17

Optimization: A history of runs of the genetic algorithm. (Coates, Programming Architecture, 2011) 18

Optimization optimization n. the making of something as perfect or effective as possible In a city, what can be ordered and optimized, and what is best left to evolve naturally?

As architects we must consider the quality of a space as much as the quantifiable aspects. Many optimized forms, streets, structures end up lifeless on the street level, the very antithesis of urban. When an environment is perfected geometrically it has the effect of predictability, which could be exhausting.

If “continuous differentiation” is now possible with parametric design tools, is the continuity resulting in a monotonous environment, regardless of its hosted differentiation? Or is the amplification of differing situations a redeeming quality that enables people to “read” the city holistically, while they dive into the local variations?

The city in its entirety is made up of numerous interconnected systems, the very definition of complexity. Complex systems are very difficult, if not impossible, to dissect. Therefore, despite the tools present today, there is no way to completely define the urban (the highly differentiated qualities of the city) parametrically.

Thus, it is impossible to optimize holistically. Only one or two systems could be optimized together, probably at the expense of other interrelated systems.

Concepts & Precedents

19

Complexity: Swarm by Michael Richard Harris, 2008.

20

Complexity complexity n. self-organizing, relational systems made up of interdependent parts Interconnections matter not just across population of pieces, but also across scales.

The interdependent relationships are difficult to track manually - the challenge is how to sort these relationships at a higher level. This depends on the data available.

Levels of

scientific inquiry: 1) Study of simple systems (2-3 variables, e.g. rotation of planets) 2) Disorganized complexity (millions of variables, e.g. patterns of heredity) 3) Organized complexity (interrelated variables)

“Scientific understanding of the world has moved on since conventional city planning was born. Advances made by emerging sciences of complexity and chaos theory have helped to unlock the underlying order in a variety of phenomena previously considered so trivial as to not require an explanation, or too complex or inscrutable to attempt it. For instance, we have gleaned the structure of social networks or even the internet, which has a distinct pattern, regardless of no central control or ownership.

In these cases, the broad aggregate patterns we observe are based on complex local interactions between individual elements. While these interactions of individual elements may themselves be un-coordinated or chaotic, the overall patterns might be recurring and familiar. This is a kind of order: but order without a plan.

While the ideas of complexity and self-organisation are starting to percolate into urban scholarship, converting these into useful strategies for actually planning or designing cities remains unfinished business.� (Marshall, p. 11)

Concepts & Precedents

21

Emergence: Groups of people lying on the floor of the Tate Modern to look up at the mirrored ceiling formed circles without meaning to do so.

22

Emergence emergence n. a global, unexpected behavior or pattern that results from decentralized, local rules (uncoordinated, local actions).

Natural selection is the blind watchmaker, blind because it does not see ahead, does not plan consequences, has no purpose in view.Yet the living results of natural selection overwhelmingly impress us with the appearance of design as if by a master watchmaker, impress us with the illusion of design and planning.

- Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker Some termite structures look as if they have been deliberately designed or planned.

However, termite structures were not purposively designed. As far as we know, there is no termite ‘master architect’ or ‘master planner’ preconceiving the design or supervising construction. In the urban world, while most buildings are designed in the sense that they are preconceived as a whole before construction, we sometimes have cases of ‘architecture without architects’. The form of the termite structures is not designed but may be said to be emergent. The emergent order came out of, or emerged from the interactions of individual termites doing simple individual actions, like picking up, carrying and depositing things. (Marshall, p. 159) While the ersatz cities are composed based on simple geometrical rulesets, the programmatic assignments come from the different types of overlaps. In this way, the resulting buildings emerge from a combination of the geometric and programmatic overlaps. They could not be predicted or preconceived.

Concepts & Precedents

23

Ideal & Authentic Where do the authentic city and the ideal city coexist? Where is one informing the other? Where do informal networks and flows infiltrate ideal urban fabric? Where is order amid a seemingly chaotic, formless city, where is “chaos� amid legible, ordered environments?

San Francisco Bay

24

wind + light +

view +

ion

ons]

specificat

preconditi

nogical

favorable

phenome

[areas of

The City

The city as it stands is the point of departure. From this palette will begin a series of simulations of ersatz cities - ideal for some parameter, but compromised in others. For this thesis testing was done on a swathe of downtown San Francisco, straddling Market Street on the left and Montgomery Street across the top. In the upper right is Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill.

Ideal & Authentic

25

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The City Composed The ideal city exhibits symmetry or optimized geometry derived from performative requirements like traffic flow, defense, or finance. As the modern era brought forth a new urban texture with larger, taller buildings standing alone, like pavilions in ever larger swaths of open land, the walking city gave way to the driving city.

The City Composed

27

The City Composed: 16th Century Plan for an Ideal City by Filarete sought clarity and simplicity.

The City Composed:TheVenice skyline exhibits a hierarchy of form (sketch by author).

28

The City Composed:The post-modernist / constructivist plan for parc de la villette by OMA attempts to manufacture a level of complexity.

The City Composed

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N

10am

azimuth

2pm

azimuth N

45째

envelope

am

pm

light +

phenomenogical specification

light +

wind +

view +

light + phenomenogical specification [areas of favorable preconditions]

30

wind + light +

view +

ion

ons]

specificat

preconditi

nogical

favorable

phenome

[areas of

The City of Light South facing slopes offer a greater advantage for solar access, the steeper the slope, the more solar access is possible without sacrificing density. The effect is opposite on north facing slopes. The ideal grid is rotated 45deg from north-south axis, with courtyards in the middle of the block.

This ensures maximum exposure to direct sun for nearly all faces.

The City Composed

31

(-)

(+)

30째

(-)

(+)

phenomenogical specification

light +

wind +

view +

phenomenogical specification [areas of favorable preconditions]

wind +

32

wind + light +

view +

ion

ons]

specificat

preconditi

nogical

favorable

phenome

[areas of

The City of Air The ideal grid is rotated 20-30 degrees oblique to favorable winds, and elongated.

Taller buildings would be curved in plan to allow wind to pass around the mass. The hotter the climate, the more desirable this wind would be, and the more square and monolithic the buildings could be, effectively serving as wind catchers that bring the higher velocity winds from up high down to the street.

The City Composed

33

phenomenogical specification

light +

wind +

view +

phenomenogical specification [areas of favorable preconditions]

view +

34

wind + light +

view +

ion

ons]

specificat

preconditi

nogical

favorable

phenome

[areas of

The City of Views The San Francisco Bay is the object of desire for so many that live there.

To make every space have a view to the bay would require building high on the more pronounced topography of the area, and staggered on the low parts. It may also be possible to create a checkerboard slab system across the different buildings so one can ‘see through’ another.

The City Composed

35

36

The City Intersected Where do the authentic city and the ideal city coincide? Where is one informing the other? Where do informal networks and flows infiltrate ideal urban fabric? Where is order amid a seemingly chaotic, formless city, where is “chaos� amid legible, ordered environments?

The City Intersected

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The City Intersected: Double-house by MDRVD

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The City Intersected: Weave diagram

The City Intersected

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The City Intersected: Sunken courts of Ur with San Francisco freeway overpass. (image by author)

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The City Intersected: Reindeer herd beneath helicopter with plan for Palmanova (image by author)

The City Intersected

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(-)

N

10am

azimuth

2pm

azimuth N

(+)

45째

envelope

30째

am

pm

(-)

(+)

phenomenogical specification

light +

wind +

view +

light + phenomenogical specification [areas of favorable preconditions]

wind +

view +

42 phenomenogical specification [areas of favorable preconditions]

wind + light +

view +

ion

ons]

specificat

preconditi

nogical

favorable

phenome

[areas of

The City Intersected

All simulated cities are here overlayed. This composite serves as a macrounderlay informing potential site interventions where the existing city has gaps in the form of vacant lots and surface parking lots. On the left is a composite analysis of site potentials, which influence the simulation in density and size, as well as inform which parameter has dominance.

The City Intersected

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4

3

2

1

5

44

30m

30m

1

3

30m

2

30m

4

30m

5

South of Market (SoMa) is the part of San Francisco with the Spanish grid, characterized by its orientation of 45째 W of North. The area has a good deal of warehouse type buildings, but nearest the Financial District the buildings are high-rise office buildings.

The City Intersected

45

3 2

5

1

4

46

30m

30m

1

2

30m

3

30m

30m

4

5

The Financial District (FiDi) is characterized by high-rise office buildings with street level amenities. It also boasts a number of privately owned public open spaces (popos), but they are not networked. There is very little housing in this district.

The City Intersected

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1

5

2

3

4

48

1

30m

30m

3

30m

30m

30m

2

4

5

The Northeast Waterfront District is flat, and is comprised of mainly low-rise warehouses. The area used to be water over 100 years ago, before it was reclaimed with fill from Telegraph Hill.

The City Intersected

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5

1 4 3

2

50

30m

30m

1

3

2

30m

4

30m

5

30m

Telegraph Hill is almost entirely residential and has a relatively low density.

The City Intersected

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30m

South of Market selected site

52

30m

Financial District selected site

The City Intersected

53

30m

Northeast Waterfront District selected site

54

30m

Telegraph Hill selected site

The City Intersected

55

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The City Emerged Patterns or prompts have resulted from the intersections of the various cities. A key to this is the pre-assignment of program (use) based on the overlap typology. A city of air is conducive to serving large offices with high internal heat gain, while a city of view lends itself to housing and hotels. The city of light is good for growing vegetables, charging cars with solar energy, and providing warmth in a spa, or inspiration in a church.

city(view): housing small office hotel

city(air,view): sport facility office discotheque dance studio

city(air): larger office server farm retail theater

city(light,air,view): food complex beer garden public restrooms city(light,air): park square manufacturing

city(light,view): rec center art studios cafe museum

city(light): greenhouse charging station spa church

The City Emerged

57

The City Emerged: Original city blocks and streets find registration with a new building proposal by Peter Eisenman in Santiago de Campostella, Spain.

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The City Emerged: City of the Captive Globe by Rem Koolhaas.

The City Emerged

59

site........................................ status...................................... neighborhood................................ valence_absolute............................ valence_relative............................

60

04 vacant SoMa view view / air

greenhouse park/field

amenities

sport facility

housing

spa office

park office

1:500

SoMa: A partially enclosed public plaza in front of a high-rise (image by author) The City Emerged

61

site........................................ status...................................... neighborhood................................ valence_absolute............................ valence_relative............................

62

08 parking garage FiDi air view / air / light

square

retail food complex dance studios office

retail

art studios

1:750

FiDi: A highrise floating above its podium, allowing sun and air to flow through the complex (image by author) The City Emerged

63

site........................................ status...................................... neighborhood................................ valence_absolute............................ valence_relative............................

64

25 parking lot embarcadero flats air air / light

office view decks

power factory event space

office

workshop

power

office

power

view decks factory

office gym

1:750

NortheastWaterfront: An event space with views to San Francisco’s landmark buildings (image by author) The City Emerged

65

site........................................ status...................................... neighborhood................................ valence_absolute............................ valence_relative............................

66

32 green field telegraph hill light air / light

offices

park

spa

spa

rec center food park

housing gym gym

spa

1:750

Telegraph Hill: Light-dappled, intersecting programs with views to the SF Bay (image by author) The City Emerged

67

Final Thesis Installation, May 2015 68

Installation The City and The City was installed for two weeks in May 2015 at Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley. During this time several guest critics were invited to review the work.

Final Thesis Installation, May 2015 Installation

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Installation

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72

Installation

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Bacon, Edmund N. Design of Cities. New York: Penguin, 1974.

Brown, G. Z. and Mark DeKay. Sun, Wind & Light. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001.

Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. Orlando: Harcourt, 1974.

Coates, Paul. Programming Architecture: New York: Routledge, 2010.

De Landa, Manuel. Philosophy and Simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason.

New York: Continuum, 2011.

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961.

Johnson, Steven. Emergence: the connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software.

New York: Scribner, 2001.

Knowles, Ralph. Sun Rhythm Form. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981.

OMA, Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mao. S, M, L, XL. New York: Monicelli, 1995.

Kostof, Spiro. The City Shaped. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.

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Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1960.

Maki, Fumihiko. Investigations in Collective Form. St. Louis: Washington University, 1964.

Marshall, Stephen. Cities, Design and Evolution. New York: Routledge, 2008.

Morris, A E J. History of Urban Form: Before the Industrial Revolution. Essex: Longman, 1994.

Schumacher, Patrik. Parametricism as Style - Parametricist Manifesto. http://www. patrikschumacher.com/Texts/Parametricism%20as%20Style.htm (2008).

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