Procedurally Generated Cities

The procedurally generated city raised numerous questions about what a city needs and whether it can be discretized into small enough chunks to become building blocks themselves. Further, is there an algorithm or formula that we as humans follow that can be mapped out and implemented digitally to give the appearance of an outcome that is close enough to appear as though it was spawned by the same set of external forces that actual cities are sculpted by?

Obviously this is in dialog with resolution as well. At the facade level there is the spectrum between exposed structure and decoration, but at the building scale there is the question akin to what Aldo Rossi is dealing with in the Quartier Schutzenstrasse between building a building the size of a block, to look like a series of buildings along a block the way they have historically been implemented.29 Why doesn't the form of the building reveal its interior expression? And at what point do constituent units lead to a reading as a single form?

So as we began to think about urban interventions, we knew we were speaking a language of density, but we were unsure how this density would exist as a thing without erasing or desacrating the urbanism beneath or adjacent.

Here it is fascinating to see the different approaches to the procedurally generated city and see the tacit assumptions that follow the architecturally canonical archetype. The procedure to the left demonstrates a Camillo Sitte-esque street as architectural generator.30 But this is also an excellent reminder that we do not have all that much control over the city itself. Often the mere value of land in terms of its distance from particular landmarks and points of interest determine the level of demand and thus the vertical degree of extrusion from the plot.

But I would be remiss if I did not at this point redirect to Delirious New York where sheer vertical extrusion in the face of steel led to unanticipated codes that then schulpted skyscrapers along new criteria.31 If we are going to attempt to densitfy in an urbanism beyond the limits posed by pre-steel European and post-steel New York City, then we have to consider the "how" we might build vertically to accomodate density without falling victim to either the trope or the trap of the tower, or alternatively returning to sprawl.

That is the challenge.

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COMBINATORY MODEL OPTION 1 - PRIMATIVES COMBINATORY MODEL OPTION 1 - PRIMATIVES

Points

Lines

Planes POINTS

LINES

SURFACES

VOLUMES It is probably also worth exploring the difference between the Combinatory Form generating approach of Morphosis and consequently SCI-Arc's M.S. Design of Cities and other procedurally generated cities, data driven urban adaptation, or AI generation. Our team has certainly had experience in the Design of Cities Studio. This is a key precedent and provocation, in that it is urbanism derived from an intelligence, but it differs in it's architectural scale.

Combinatory takes a series of elements and determines a general pattern for instantiation and interaction based on sensibility. Random variations in scale, shape, orientation, and location then allow an inifinite number of iterations to be produced, after an adequate sample size showing the range of possibilities has been determine, a selection process is the design process.

The procedurally generated city is a tighter system with more codification and predicatable results, but it also seems the emphasis for it's use and application is far less about design and far more about background infill.

Finally, A.I. generated urbanism would involve the inverse, allowing the infinite possibilities of a diverse world of urbanism to aggregate into a middle ground of commonalities.

If we apply the application of data to these three in real time, the challenge then becomes does this data lead to rigid deductive imperatives or a general guide for how change is instantiated?