CloudNets
Investigations into Emergent Urbanism and Architectural Form Cities can appear to us as very real, material objects - we, as architects, tend to observe and manipulate forms, materials and appearances. Although we pay lip-service to the idea of program, very often we take this as given. We have a site, decide what program it should be and then concentrate on local organisation and form. An alternative model understands the city as a complex system that can be understood in terms of its distribution of valuable activities that are influenced and made possible by their relationships to one another. These relationships may be effective at a small scale - what is next door - or at a much larger scale, but how are the things that happen in this city different from another city some distance away? Consider, as a modest example, the difference between convenience stores and motorcycle shops. Convenience stores distribute themselves at equal distance from one another. Motorcycle shops are, by contrast, all next to each other. The difference is explained by the idea of search cost. Someone buying a motorcycle wants to shop around and compare - so a shop will do better business if next to another similar - despite the added competition. On the other hand, no one cares about comparing the price and quality of a litre of milk - so convenience stores are distributed to capture a territory or catchment without competition. This perspective sees cities as emergent phenomena - that is, simple local rules generate complex global ordered patterns. The CloudNets elective investigated these kinds of emergent relational phenomena through the use of various computational techniques to model aspects of these relationships and explored how they can lead to certain patterns within cities.
Square - Wombat
Scott Crowe & Patrick Eberle
All logical solutions with no design prejudice: The objective for this script was to take a programmatic-based analysis of the generation of a city and produce a system for the production of master-plans that could respond to both quantitative and qualitative input. There are many variables governing implementation that allow for more quantitative control over maximum volumes of programs within defined maximum space. However, the outcome of program dispersion across the site is largely due to qualitative objectives that designate public usage. This definition of public program and circulation values ensures a qualitative response within a system that produces infinite spatial types based on a process of logical analysis. This was originally designed for use at the scale of a city, but has been successfully tested within the tower profile as a case study. Commercial attaches itself to a point Adjacent to the Public for maximum accessibility to each building. Office is created as tower structures of either Medium or Small floor plates stacked vertically. They are created Near to Commercial to allow for the servicing of the users of these buildings. Residential likes to emerge neither near nor adjacent to any other program including itself. However, due to its construct as 33 cubic volumes they can become dense complexes. Car Parking forms below the Commercial or Office if near the ground plane and therefore accessible from the street. ClearSky is a cleaning up function that ensures that for a set number of points above public lane ways there is a clear zone of vacancy for light. PublicPlanes places a ground plane on the lowest Public points if they are stacked vertically above each other.
Sub SquareWombat() Sub SqaureWombat () ‘------------------Layer system: programs-----------------Call Rhino.AddLayer (“Program”, RGB(255,255,255))
Sets up a Layer system for each of the programs. Each program has a unique name and RGB colour that can be called. Using Layers speeds the processing required rather then using large arrays to store point collections. ‘-----------------Set maximum point array-----------------SetArray = Rhino.GetBoolean(“Do you need to set up an array?”,SetItems,SetDefaults)
This set up option is required when run for the first time. It establishes a point cloud for the programs to update as their respective functions are called. It also allows for block instances representing the various programs to align to. By using a point, object data is able to be stored on each point. In this case each point’s neighbours are stored either as “Adjacent” or “Near”. This data can be saved onto the object and once it has been stored it can be continually called without re-calculation. This data is essential for the each program function as all relationships between the programs are based on this proximity relationship. ‘-----------------Define the Public points-----------------PublicSelect = Rhino.GetBoolean(“How would you like to set your Public points?”,PublicItems,PublicDefaults)
Another set up option allowing for the selection of the Public program points in three different variations. The selection of the points denoted as Public is the main driver of the overall outcome, determining how the rest of the programs will respond. The three ways the points can be chosen is through user selection or through the proximity to a curve (street), or surface (wall). ‘-----------------Setup for screen capture----------------record = rhino.getboolean(“Do you want to record this Calcu lation?”,arrItems,arrDefaults) If record(0)=True Then
The last set up option is for the purpose of recording the process of the program distribution across the site. Four views from each corner of the site and a plan and front view are set up in a designated 3dm file to be rendered every time a program block instance is created on the site. These image files are saved in a user designated folder for the use in creating animations. ‘---------------Sequencial program functions--------------Call Institutional(strFilePath, strFileName, strView,imgcount,arrViews,record)
Institutional requires the user to select a start point and continues from here as a continuous building volume across the site. Call Commercial(strFilePath, strFileName, strView,imgcount,arrViews,record)
Commercial attaches itself to a point Adjacent to the Public for the maximum accessibility to each building. Call Office(strFilePath, strFileName, strView,imgcount,arrViews,record)
Office is created as tower structures of either Medium or Small floor plates stacked vertically. They are created Near to Commercial to allow for the servicing of the users of these buildings.