Mo’town
design research thesis Twenty-one: João Br avo da Costa • Constanza Hagemann • Lydia Kim
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21 proposes a city of concentration, growth and movement: a diverse city that grows progressively and where movement breeds space. The planning strategy centers on concentration and growth. We propose a densely populated Expo site as the seed of an urban environment which will 21 proposes a city of concentration, growth and movement: a diverse growthat andgrows develop over time, responding to Shanghai’s changing city progressively and where movement breeds space.needs. design is strategy based oncenters the dynamics of pedestrian its influence The planning on concentration andmovement growth. Weand propose a on the organization of urban / architectural program. Motion through space densely populated Expo site as the seed of an urban environment which will grow and develop overcomplex time, responding changing needs. is a simple key to our experiencetoofShanghai’s the city. Through this key, we can, perhaps, give form to an environment that responds to planning and as to perceptual and movement experientialand ones. The strategic design is demands based on as thewell dynamics of pedestrian its influence on the This project organization starts with of urban / architectural two givens: (1) 528 hectares program.on Motion an industrial throughsite space on both is a simple margins of the key Huang to our complex Pu river, experience not far fromofcentral the city. Shanghai; Through (2) thisankey, existing proposal we the can,Expo perhaps, to anan environment that responds to planning strategy. for 2010give thatform provides urban design and its implementation and strategic demands as well as to perceptual and experiential ones. This project starts with two givens: (1) 528 hectares on an industrial site on both margins of the Huang Pu river, not far from central Shanghai; (2) an existing proposal for the Expo 2010 that provides an urban design and its implementation strategy.
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People’s Square
Expo 2010 site
0
5 km
2008
2008 18
2
8
hanghai World Expo 2010
2010
2010+
2010++
2010
2010+
2010++
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not dense
The existing proposal for the Expo 2010 site necessitates a very large-scale operation of demolition and building that will produce 5.5 million square meters of built floor area for a 6.7 million square meter site. Drawing a comparison with the most ambitious urban development in the West, this means clearing and redeveloping an area 100 times the New York World Trade Center (WTC) site, and accomplishing (from design to construction) almost 5 times the built floor area in less than 7 years – compared to the WTC project’s 12-year schedule, a speed of development 8 times faster. The resulting floor area ratio (FAR) according to the current proposal would be, on average, 0.82. This density is far below the reference value of 1.5 found in consolidated urban cores like Venice (mostly low-rise) or Paris (mostly midrise). In mid-Manhattan (mostly highrise) that value exceeds 1.6. The proposed FAR for the WTC site is 30. Density is a primary feature of a consolidated urban core, particularly a pedestrian-based one. The theming of the Expo (“Better City, Better Life”), and the choice of a location within central Shanghai indicate a clear intention to generate a distinctively urban environment. But the proposed building density would not achieve the urban quality of a city core. This propos-
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al is not urban enough, because it is not dense enough. The self-imposed obligation to develop the whole site in one sweep will force homogeneous development, regardless of the variety of urban program or architectural typologies, because real differentiation will be hard to achieve in one big move. Furthermore, such a move would be wasteful, demanding colossal resources to be stretched thin on a very large site. This strategy forces short-term goals for rapid development. The resulting urban environment would not be adaptable to an evolving urban condition — it would be a ready-made result for a short-term goal soon turned into a city where thousands of people will live for many years.
This strategy forces a compromise between rapid feasibility and spectacle — and it deters innovation. It is a missed opportunity for urban experimentation.
homogeneous
a city with a short-term goal
innovation?
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19.5 / 500
19 / 254
27.5 / 290
7.25 / 233
22 / 170
7.8 / 132
50.8 / 120
9.5 / 130 25 / 118
10 / 115
10 / 100
32 / 96 Total number of visitors in millions / site area in hectares
13 / 90
16 / 75
15 / 69
7 / 70 2.3 / 47
∙ = 10 million visitors
1.3 / 25
5 / 15
6 / 10
world expo overview
In order to ascertain a desirable size and density for the Expo, we looked at the site area and total number of visitors for past World exhibitions. We observed that an Expo spread over the whole 528 ha site would be one of the least densely crowded events in the history of World exhibitions.
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1915 San Francisco
1913 Ghent
1910 Brussels
1904 St. Louis 1905 Liège 1906 Milan
1900 Paris
1897 Brussels
1893 Chicago
1888 Barcelona 1889 Paris
1880 Melbourne
1878 Paris
1876 Philadelphia
1873 Vienna
1867 Paris
1855 Paris
1851 London
10 hectares
2010 Shanghai
22 / 170
2005 Aichi
2000 Hannover
22 / 70
1998 Lisbon
11 / 30
1992 Seville
4.8 / 41
1988 Brisbane
9.6 / 30
1984 New Orleans 1985 Tsukuba 1986 Vancouver
50 / ?
1982 Knoxville
1974 Spokane
6.4 / 38
1970 Osaka
1967 Montreal 1968 San Antonio
1964 New York
1962 Seattle
25 / 118
1958 Brussels
? / 30
1949 Port-au-Prince
1939 New York
1937 Paris
1935 Brussels
1933 Chicago
1929 Seville
45 / 500 70 / 528
64 / 330
51 / 260
41 / 200 41.8 / 215
20 / 152 18 / 160 22 / 173
31 / 105 20.3 / 101.6
11 / 70
7.3 / 34 18 / 40
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19.5 / 500
50.8 / 120
Total number of visitors in millions / site area in hectares
∙ = 10 million visitors
The Paris Expo 1900 entered history as a crowded event with a positive impact on the city and a long-lasting legacy of qualified urban space. The Expo 1900 was situated (and integrated) within the fabric of central Paris. The location within the city is comparable to the Shanghai Expo 2010, and different from less crowded Expos, situated often in peripheric sites. A significant example of the latter is the St Louis Fair of 1904.
Paris, 1900: condensed, urban, memorable
Using the Paris Expo 1900 as a guideline, we calculated that we need no more than 165 ha to accommodate the 70 million visitors expected over a period of 184 days.
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1904 St. Louis
1900 Paris
10 hectares
St Louis, 1904: sparse, peripheral, episodic
2010 Shanghai
70 / 528
?
25
1900 Paris
2010 Shanghai
50.8 / 120
Better Expo Better City
70 / 165
We propose a condensation of the Expo site, releasing a substantial area for slower development driven by long-term objectives. Progressive development will allow more opportunity for a differentiated urban environment.
This page: a concentration of the Shanghai Expo 2010 site, using the same area per visitor as the Paris Expo 1900. Facing page. Top: the available site (528 ha) and a concentrated area of 165 ha. Bottom: the site of the Paris Expo 1900, now a landmark of central Paris.
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N
0
1 1km
5
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Johannesburg
Los Angeles
6.65 km2 = 21,047 inhabitants
London
6.65 km2 = 26,088 inhabitants
6.65 km2 = 31,661 inhabitants
New York
São Paulo
Tokyo 0
1 6.65 km2 = 41,975 inhabitants
5km
Mumbai
0
1 6.65 km2 = 59,484 inhabitants
5km
Paris 0
1
5km
0
1
5km
6.65 km2 = 128,857 inhabitants
0 1 6.65 km2 = 68,601 inhabitants
5km
Cairo 0
1
5km
0
1
5km
6.65 km2 = 135,879 inhabitants
0
1
5km
0
1
5km
6.65 km2 = 182,809 inhabitants
How many people can inhabit 6.65 km2 (the total area of the site)? The average population density of different world cities is shown here as reference value. The site boundary is overlayed on the urban fabric of each city. The bar on the left of each pair represents 109,013 inhabitants (the Shanghai reference value); the bar on the right represents that city’s value.
Density, diversity, identity
his site has unique demographic characteristics: for a period of six months, it will be accessed by 380 thousand visitors per day (on average), plus several thousand Expo workers. These shifting crowds will be replaced by a settled population soon after the Expo closes. Their home-to-work movement patterns will define much of the requirements for program and infrastructure. The size of the settled population is a defining factor in planning and designing the future of this site. After the closing date of the Expo, the site will become another urban district of Shanghai. What will be the dimension of that district? What will its impact be on the wider context of the city? A comparative look at world cities gives us a plausible range of population density values. Between the low density of a typical Greater Los Angeles district to the very high density of central Cairo, we see a wide variation in population
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distribution patterns. These examples were collected from all major world regions. Population density is related to building density and with each city’s “fabric” – its characteristic distribution pattern of enclosed and open space, very much like the city’s fingerprint. Most of these patterns accommodate variations, while still remaining recognizable. This is the consequence of organic growth. Is it possible to launch a large-scale building operationt that contains variation within itself while retaining a recognizable identity?
The issues of diversity and identity are decisive in Shanghai – a place of amalgamated identities which is now, arguably, the world’s fastest changing city.
Shanghai
6.65 = 109,013 inhabitants = 4,100,000
0
1 1km
Shanghai’s urban fabric, the outline of the Expo 2010 site, and the population that a typical section of the city with the same area would accommodate
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Mo’town is an alternative future for the Expo 2010 site, a vision driven by critical observations of Shanghai and new ambitions for a world metropolis of the 21st century. Mo’town is an urban territory where the public and private domains, built mass and open space, structure and infrastructure are integrated in one system, coherent enough to have a recognizable identity and adaptive enough to accommodate different futures. The development strategy hinges on a concentration of the Expo grounds, releasing a substantial area for gradual development after 2010. The aim is to achieve a diverse range of spaces and forms over time, leading up to a dynamic urban environment. This design redefines the individual building, the urban block, and the street as one topological whole: a seamless flow of built mass and open space. Transformations of size, shape, and orientation organize these elements into urban cores, which function as distinct yet related local centers. The entire urban field is layered in strata that house different urban functions (public facilities, commerce, housing, and work), resulting in a vertical zoning of program and a three-dimensional organization of urban space.
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Mo’town
Site area = 1,528,ooo m2
Site FAR = 3.60
Expo program densification Once the area of the Expo 2010 has been concentrated into a smaller area (and the rest of the site liberated for long-term development), the distribution of program must be considered. Our model of program distribution takes into account (1) the growth scheme whereby initial nodes, or growth “seeds” are completed in 2010, followed by fur-
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ther nodes, which will be the focus of long-term development for the remainder of the site; (2) the three-dimensional integration of “public ground” with built mass – a proposition with, perhaps, more potential for realization in the Chinese political context than in the Western regime of private development and economically speculative vertical extrusion of sealed ground.
Expo program total = 5,500,000 m2
Existing proposal
Site area = 6,680,000 m2
Expo program total = 5,500,000 m2
Site FAR = 0.82
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Views from Lupu bridge. Top: To the west, upstream along the Huangpu river. Part of the Expo site is on the left. Middle: To the north, along Chong Qing Road, into central Shanghai. Bottom: To the east. The site is on both margins.
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site
Jiangwan Dachang
People’s Square
Zh Ro
Hongqiao Expo 2010 site Longhua 0
5 km
Chong Qing Road
site context
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Zhong Shan Road
Pudong
The site chosen for the Expo 2010 stretches across both margins 2010 of the Huang Pu river. Two river crossings feature prominently: the Lupu bridge and the Nanpu bridge. Both of them are segments of the main road network that serves Shanghai. The Lupu bridge, accessible to pedestrians and part of Chong Qing road, leads cross-town traafic
along the edge of central Shanghai. The Nanpu bridge, in turn, extends Zhong Shan Road – the inner ring – across the river, and is a gateway into the city on the route from Pudong International Airport. The two bridges are, thus, part of two vital arteries in Shanghai’s traffic network. Their points of access to the site
are the first places to be considered regarding the integration of this territory into the greater Shanghai context. Based on the existing infrastructure, three locations can be used as points of entry and, potentially, distribution hubs as well as urban nodes.
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1. Point grid (500m spacing).
2. Place first nodes (3 given locations).
3. Connect neighboring nodes. Expand radius of influence up to a given maximum.
4. Maximum radii achieved, find farthest locations from all other nodes. Place new nodes.
5. Connect new nodes with closest 2 neighbors.
6. Expand radius of influence up to a given maximum. Find new farthest locations.
local nodes Version 1.0 Urban nodes are meant to be zones that concentrate important activity, and therefore recognizable as reference points, or local “centers”. Their distribution is initially based on contextual givens. After the initial nodes – those to be developed for the Expo – have been fully developed, additional nodes will be the focus of further development. This principle was used to implement a scriptbased visual simulation of site development over time. The location and distribution of the the additional nodes follows simple rules – parameters of distance and scale. The drawings on these pages show steps in the simulation of such rules in action. New nodes “seek” optimal locations based on a specified rule of distance – in this case, the furthest distance from all previous nodes. By connecting neighbor42
ing positions with lines, we obtain each node’s degree of centrality and connectedness, in the form of a network. In addition to distance, the simulation is driven by a parameter of scale, translated as a “radius of influence” for each node. The size of that radius influences the appearance of new nodes, as well as the size of their own radius of influence.
Digital model: Autodesk Maya 8.0, mel script A Mel script reads a grid of points and a set of initial locations. it then assignes new locations according to a rule of furthest distance: the distance from any point in the grid to all other points is mesured, and the furtherst point from the exisiting locations is selected, marked, and connected with lines to its two closest neighbors.
\\ Distance from two points proc float distance(string $p1,string $p2) { float $pos1;float $pos2;float $dis; vector $a;vector $b; float $posn1[];float $posn2[]; $posn1=`pointPosition $p1`; $posn2=`pointPosition $p2`; $a=<<$posn1[0],$posn1[1],$posn1[2]>>; $b=<<$posn2[0],$posn2[1],$posn2[2]>>; $c=$a-$b; $dis=mag($c); return $dis; } $g=`ls -sl`; $p1=$g[0]; $p2=$g[1]; distance($p1,$p2); Mel Script by Shajay Bhooshan and Lydia Kim
7. Select new locations.
8. Connect new nodes with closest 2 neighbors.
9. Repeat step 6. Repeat step 7.
10. Repeat step 8.
11. Full site capacity reached.Network traces relational hierachy and node growth history.
12. Design input.
Above: Steps from an animated simulation of progressive site development, where points represent nodes, or “seeds” of urban growth. Each step is the result of executing the rules of location, connection, distance and scale specified by a script. Below: Measurements of the site in terms of the desirable dimension of urban nodes. The range is given by the limits of a comfortable walking distance; left: 12 nodes with a radius of 500 m; right: 37 nodes with a radius of 250 m. 12 nodes with an average radius of 500 m was preferred.
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2 010++ Parameters: relative position on perimeter of previous node, size relative to all previous nodes.
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1.5:1:2 maximum density
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1:1:1 reference density
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1.5:2:1 minimum density
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1.5:1:2 maximum density
7 additional nodes radius ratio 1:2 maximum density
7 additional nodes radius ratio 1:1 reference density
7 additional nodes radius ratio 2:1 minimum density
7 additional nodes radius ratio 1:2 maximum density
2 010+ Parameters: relative position on perimeter of initial node, size relative to initial node.
2 010
Parameters: node position and size. 3 nodes minimum radius (244m) maximum density (FAR 2.0)
Maximum density (FAR 2.0)
growth in time version 2.0 This model outlines scenarios of urban growth based on the characteristics of local nodes. A set of 3 initial nodes contains the core of the program for the Expo. After 2010, the nodes become local centres and densify further. When a node reaches a critical density, a new node is created within a specified distance. The diagrams lay out scenarios of urban development according to parameters of nodal distance, size, and resulting concentration, expressed in floor area ratio (FAR). This development strategy uses a parametric model of rule-based growth as an alternative to the process of extensive redevelopment that characterizes the current proposal.
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Digital model: Dassault Systèmes CATIA V5R17. technique: This model relates the sizes and positions of circles (representing the local nodes) with each other and with the site context. Since the amount of program is given for each node, the area of the circle represents, in this model, not only the territorial extent the respective node, but also the building density within that area. Additional circles are placed on the perimeter of the first ones, and a third generation of circles on the perimeters of the second-generation ones. Circles are trimmed by the site boundary, and the position on the perimeter of a former circle follows a parameter whereby 0 equals the closest location to the river, and 1 the farthest.
final jury comments
des 1:2 ity
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1:1:1 reference density
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1.5:2:1 minimum density
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1.5:1:2 maximum density
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1:1:1 reference density
9 additional nodes radius ratio 1.5:2:1 minimum density
des
7 additional nodes radius ratio 1:1 reference density
7 additional nodes radius ratio 2:1 minimum density
7 additional nodes radius ratio 1:2 maximum density
7 additional nodes radius ratio 1:1 reference density
7 additional nodes radius ratio 2:1 minimum density
ity
3 nodes medium radius (270m) target density (FAR 1.5)
3 nodes maximum radius (387m) minimum density (FAR 0.8)
Target density (FAR 1.5)
Minimum density (FAR 0.8)
Above: Development scenarios generated through a rule-based model; the parameters are building density in each node and distance to the other nodes. The white arrows show the preferred scenario, shown as 21â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development strategy compared to the existing proposal, facing page bottom.
Adaptive growth based on a network of differentiated nodes of urban concentration. 2008 interrelated and 2010 2010+ 2010++
2008
2010
2010+
2010++
Uniform redevelopment in discrete stages through radical change.
2008
2010
2010+
2010++ 45
Above: Different urban fabrics in New York’s Manhattan Island (left) and Mumbai (right). Orthogonal grids are obviously two-directional, but “organic” grids are also very often based on two-line intersections – the same geometry. Occasionally, we observe variations or transformations to that geometry. They enrich the urban fabric in terms of choice of direction and enable a different logic of orientation.
urban plan structure
Every city has a characteristic spatial arrangement, which is the result of organic growth and planned intent. The factors that contribute to a city’s unique “image” are many and diverse – building density and height, architectural form, distribution of visual references, concentration of daily activities and traffic patterns, etc. The observation and documentation of that image is, therefore, elusive. Nevertheless, a city’s basic spatial organization is readable from a representation of its enclosed versus open space, often in the form of a plan or “figureground” pattern. Either a plan or a fig-
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ure-ground representation depict what is usually called the “fabric” of a city. The qualities of the urban fabric suggest, in the simplest form, the spatial and formal diversity of the urban environment. Although a city is often recognizable from its fabric – as a person is from his fingerprint – and although the fabric can reveal age, rate of growth, planned or unplanned development, etc., the fabric of many cities follows the same geometric pattern, whereby the street network is the result of the intersection of two lines (be they straight or bent, long or short. Occasionally, we observe urban zones where more than two lines intersect.
These, however, are exceptional. Clearly, the geometric pattern of a city’s fabric is related to the partition of a surface (the ground) into smaller units – a geometrical operation called the tesselation of a surface. Regular tesselation of the plane can be achieved using two directions (resulting in a grid of squares) or three directions. In most cities, two-directional patterns prevail. In nature, however, three-directional tesselation is the rule.
Above: The Hautepierre district of Strasbourg, France – a three-directional spatial arrangement. Below: Skectch for an adaptive urban fabric that integrates the different scales and geometries found in different cities.
Cairo
London
Mumbai
Los Angeles
Johannesburg
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Site information
Data sets
Building density
Boundary [Home use only] .../expoplan for catia_lk2.dgn 18/01/2007 18:23:40
Road traffic intensity
Parametric point grid [Home use only] .../expoplan for catia_lk2.dgn 18/01/2007 18:24:04
Human occupation (daily variations)
site contextThe Expo 2010 site, formerly an industrial area, has been cleared for development. Some features, however, were preserved: a number of sheds and shipyards remain scattered throughout. Two bridges span over the Huang Pu river. Both of them, elevated above the 50 meter clearance level for ships, support vehicular traffic and are connected to the expressway network of Shanghai. One of the bridges also supports pedestrian traffic. Our strategy takes advantage of these preserved features as potential nodes for future consolidation and elements of contrast with the new surroundings. Urban interface
1.technique This experiment is intended to provide a technique that will generate an adaptive pattern of organization of urban volume. There are two components in the experiment: the analytical and the generative With analysis, we attempt to obtain data that will inform a data-driven generative technique. We therefore built a model that translates urban parameters into a visual interface. The parameters are localized indices of, for example: building density, road traffic intensity, and daily cycles of human occupation.
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To achieve a visual interface, we simply translate the localized indices into displacement values. The result is a three-dimensional graph of the intensity of any given parameter. A point with an index of zero (minimum intensity) lies on the â&#x20AC;&#x153;groundâ&#x20AC;? plane; a point with the maximum index rises by a specified distance. The visual interface allows us to test and evaluate the distribution of urban features throughout the site. We can combine readings of different indices to produce an adjustable, dynamic diagram of the city.
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orthogonal grid
triangular grid
hexagonal grid
Symmetry
Topology
Bifurcation Scale
Curvature
Position
Above: The projection of a single row of regular hexagons produces a number of topological transformations.
This page. Top:Parametrically manipulated regular tesselations of the plane as the basis for urban spatial organization. Left column: rectangular (two-directional) tesselation. The triangular tesselation (middle column) has a subset, the hexagonal tesselation (right column). Both are three-directional. Bottom: result of deformed orthogonal and hexagonal patterns with recognisable nodes of concentration and urban grain size.
Facing page : Hexagonal pattern formations occur in Nature whenever an aggregation of cells achieves its densest packing. This can be observed in biological as well as inanimate systems. 52
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Total connectivity.
Choice. Radius = 5 000 m Also known as the “taxi driver’s route” – a preferential connection between reference points
Radius = 50 m
Absolute connectivity. Based on segment length and angle of turn.
Choice. Radius = 50 m
5000m
3. connection The urban fabric is a form of representation of Mo’town’s urban environment, and also a diagram – not a literal representation – of the structure of its road network. In order to complete that diagram, we analyzed the entire network with Space Syntax’s axial analysis algorithm – a procedure that rates each road segment in a scale of connectivity. This allows us to obtain a hierarchy within the network of connections, and to understand which routes are preferential,
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due to their position in the network. The analysis is mailny based on two parameters: segment length and angle of turn. It is a contextual analysis, able to measure each segment’s relationship to all other segments, but it can be restricted to a given radius. Using that radius restriction, we obtain the hierarchy of connections at the local scale (50 m radius), at the pedestrian scale (300 m radius), and at the site-wide road traffic scale (5,000 m radius).
This page: axial analysis diagrams. Acknowledgemnts: Alain Chiardia. Facing page: urban mass model.
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Exhibition area (pavilions)
vertical zoning
1. Program Strata V 1 Conventional urban planning partitions the land and assigns each zone with a specific use. This is almost always done in plan and implies a vertical extrusion of the ground floor “footprint” of a building. In Mo’town, zoning is done vertically: the requirements of each program category (housing, offices, retail, etc.) are calculated for a certain area
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(such as a local node). Depending on the desired plot area ratio (PAR), a number of floors – and therefore a height – is calculated for each program category. That height is the thickness of a stratum – a zone in three-dimensional space where a given program category is predominant. Strata accumulate throughout the site. Their stacking order changes between different locations, causing the strata to weave into each other.
Shanghaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban fabric, the outline of the Expo 2010 site, and the population that a typical section of the city with the same area would accommodate
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right: urban massing model void left: urban massing model solid with program strata 74
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urban interface Catia workshop
software : Dassault Systèmes CATIA V5R17, Microsft Excel 2003, Rhinoceros 4.0 technique : The first element is a point grid, where each point locates a specific measurement of an urban parameter (e. g. population density, building density, daily occupation patterns, etc.). Each measurement is translated as a vertical displacement value. After a surface is generated from all the pointvalues, we obtain a three-dimensional graph of the variations of, for example, building density across the site. We can, thus, see where the site will be more
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densely built, and also adjust the building density distribution. An important feature of this model is the possibility to lay several graphs over each other, which makes correlations visible. Any given set of urban parameters can be correlated (e. g. population density with traffic intensity and plot area ratio) in a straightforward manner.
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solid and void
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100
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Choice. Radius = 5 000 m Also known as the “taxi driver’s route” – a preferential connection between reference points
Total connectivity. Radius = 50 m
Absolute connectivity. Based on segment length and angle of turn.
Choice. Radius = 50 m
5000m
connections
1. urban fabric network The urban fabric is a form of representation of Mo’town’s urban environment, and also a diagram – not a literal representation – of the structure of its road network. In order to complete that diagram, we analyzed the entire network with Space Syntax’s axial analysis algorithm – a procedure that rates each road segment in a scale of connectivity. This allows us to obtain a hierarchy within the network of connections, and to understand which routes are preferential,
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due to their position in the network. The analysis is mainly based on two parameters: segment length and angle of turn. It is a contextual analysis, able to measure each segment’s relationship to all other segments, but it can be restricted to a given radius. Using that radius restriction, we obtain the hierarchy of connections at the local scale (50 m radius), at the pedestrian scale (300 m radius), and at the site-wide road traffic scale (5,000 m radius).
This page: axial analysis diagrams. Acknowledgments: Alain Chiardia. Facing page: Mo’towns urban mass model showing two main nodes and one sub-node.
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A / Mat’blocks
B / Mo’blocks
Above Left: Mat’blocks -landscape as system of infrastructure. Middle: Mo’blocks dimensioned to a dynamic range of scales of traditional urban blocks. Right: Mo’blocks + “ground”, witch is three-dimensional, not planar. Bellow: Mo’blocks to Mat’blocks; dynamic ground.
3. mat’blocks: landscape as infrastructure
To achieve innovative alternatives of contemporary urbanism, integration is a potentially innovative way to plan and design the city in the contemporary context of suburbanization and segregation of urban systems (“theme” urbanism separates physical elements and fragments the environment — highways and suburbia, shopping complexes and residential areas, public parks and gated condominiums).
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To stimulate and recuperate the richness of urban life: Integration maximizes social and cultural interaction, therefore enhances the urban experience.
A+B / Mat’blocks + Mo’blocks A
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Above: Mat’blocks -structured landscape as system of infrastructure. Facing Page Top: Section STL model of a cluster of Mo’blocks connected between them and to the dynamic “ground”, witch is three-dimensional, not planar. Bellow: View of Mat’blocks structured landscape by a system of 3D perforations.
Mat´blocks integrate structure and infrastructure as one continuous system, controlled by program and density. Mats or fields, grounds, carpets, matrices cover a large area. It calls for indeterminacy in size and shape, flexibility in use, and mixture in program. It expresses architecture increasing on both city and landscape and as the open exchange between structure ‘building’ and infrastructure ‘context’ that this encroachment professes. The mat allows the growing scale of shanghai to be able to adapt and transform in time. The mat as an urbanism + building structure could act as a flexible
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framework rather than a rigid container to these new ‘shapeless’ functions. The mixture of program needs new types of building types. Buildings that could give space to the active unfolding of urban life without abrogating the architects responsibilities to provide some form of order. Mo’town includes urbanism and landscape. Shanghais large scale and multispeed movement needs unique qualities for movement. Motown exchanges between structure and infrastructure in a 3D way, trough its dynamic ground. The section model above shows the studies we did regarding the perforation
of these surfaces we refer as program stratas. The surface also serves as light to program given in_between program stratas on some areas of the site where the mat ‘landscape of movement’ becomes Mat’block.
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urban block movement
The perception of urban space is a complex interplay of stimulation and action. Can a parametric urban design, beyond form and statistical data, incorporate such imponderables? Perhaps it can incorporate at least aspects of what makes our living experience of the city. Movement is an easily quantifiable aspect of the perceptual experience. And, for that reason, one of the concepts informing this design – while program determines the enclosure of the Mo’blocks, pedestrian accessibility determines their openness; easy accessibility and movement also require the connections between the Mo’blocks and a site-wide diagram of speed, orientation, and visual
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reference – a diagram of possible four-dimensional trajectories through the city. That diagram – not yet accomplished – is meant to trace the pedestrian paths through the Mo’blocks as well as their connections, covering more than 6.5 km2 with a network of pedestrian and vehicular pathways integrated with the inhabitable built mass. We intend such a diagram to follow a bottom-up procedure, tracing local elements to eventually reveal a large-scale pattern. We can then adjust and optimize the large-scale pattern with a procedure based on spatial analysis, as described under the topic “Connections”.
Above left: Sketch diagram of a site-wide system of pedestrian trajectories, based on the multiplication of the individual paths that structure the Mo’blocks. Each Mo’block is dimensioned to the scale of a traditional urban block; its “ground”, though, is three-dimensional, not planar. Left: Two connected Mo’block paths.
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Jazz Performance
Informal Meeting
Playground
Street Basketball
We aim to create urban trajectories by mapping the locations of programmatic events formal and informal, permanent structures and temporary happenings. When moving along such a trajectory, one encounters a unique combination of conditions, forming a spatial narrative. This narrative can be repeated, broken off, abbreviated or combined with others, as one wanders off, takes shortcuts, or proceeds along consecutive trajectories. The paths through the city will make it possible to find one’s way through certain spatial references, but they will also make it possible to lose one’s way and experience the city through surprise and discovery.
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Symphonic Concert
S
Street Football
Music Festival
Rock Concert
Street Market
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Strata: Multiple “footprints” define program areas stacked vertically.
Tesselation: the bounding volume of the program strata is partitioned into cells; each cell contains a point of the movement path.
Path platforms: the path is reconstructed as a continuous slice through the tesselation cells.
Mo’block: a continuous path made of public platforms weaves through an aggregated urban block; a combination of open space and built mass, informal and programmed space.
Reference points: a location on each program stratum serves as a “departure”, with an “arrival” at the next stratum up.
Pedestrian movement simulation: the connection between “departure” and “arrival” points is made of segments extracted from the “footprint”. This process simulates pedestrian movement in the city, with a choice of direction at every turn, based on successive referencing to a destination.
Cellular organization: the result of the tesselation is an aggregation of cells whose geometry is based on the movement path.
Movement breeds space.
3. mo’blocks Buildings on the site contain a portion of each program stratum. They are permeated by openly accessible pedestrian paths that subdivide and carve out the built mass. Thus, each “building” contains several program compartments, as well as public space and the infrastructure that serves the whole. Rather than buildings, we propose hybrids. Housing, leisure, shopping, work, and circulation are interwoven in threedimensional urban blocks – everything that is attached to the ground in conventional zoning is assembled three-dimensionally in Mo’town. The volume of each Mo’block is given by stacked footprints embedded in the program strata; inside that bounding vol-
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ume, a path is generated by an algorithm that simulates a walking pattern – the walk starts on a reference point, then moves in three dimensions towards a target on the next program stratum, using the alignments given by the footprints; the path carves out a continuous void – a sequence of public spaces that permeates the entire block.
digital model : The model takes two inputs: the stacked “footprints” obtained from the vertical zoning model and the paths, remodeled with planes that contain the straight line segments. First, an envelope is built around the footprints. The volume thus obtained is then tesselated with a Voronoi algorithm, for which the reference points are the vertices of the straightsegment paths. Finally, the tesselation cells are cut using
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Digital model: paths and movement simulations March to June 2007 ///LINE CATALOGUE /////to draw the 90,30,10,etc degrees lines in each of the hexagonal vertices of the footprint, //but half the scale of the segment //Reza vector $pos1; vector $pos2, $pos3, $pos4, $pos5; float $dis, $angle= deg_to_rad(30); int $d; for ($i=1; $i<13 ; $i++) { $d= getAttr(“co_1_”+ $i + “.spans”); $pos1 = pointPosition (“co_1_”+ $i + “.ep[0]”); $pos2 = pointPosition (“co_1_”+ $i + “.ep[“ + $d +”]”); $dis = (mag($pos2-$pos1)/2); $pos3= cross($pos2-$pos1, <<0, 1, 0>>); $pos4= unit(rot($pos2-$pos1, $pos3, $angle)); $pos5= $pos1 + $dis*$pos4; curve 124 -d 1 -p ($pos1.x) ($pos1.y) ($pos1.z) -p ($pos5.x) ($pos5.y) ($pos5.z); $pos4= unit(rot($pos2-$pos1, $pos3, $angle*-1)); $pos5= $pos1 + $dis*$pos4;
curve -d 1 -p ($pos1.x) ($pos1.y) ($pos1.z) -p ($pos5.x) ($pos5.y) ($pos5.z); }
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------//CREATES THE PATH $curve = `curve -d 1 -p 0 0 0 -p 144.70064 11.774668 143.921854 `; vector $node = `pointOnCurve -pr 1 -p $curve`; vector $target= <<147.250873, 15.33911, 145.754858>>; vector $pos1, $pos2, $line, $direction, $newnode; string $name = `curve -d 1 -p ($node.x) ($node.y) ($node.z) -p ($node.x) ($node.y) ($node.z)` ;
for ($i=0; $i<20; $i++) {
int $j = rand(1,19); string $unitLine = “c90_1_” + $j; $pos1= pointPosition($unitLine + “.ep[0]”); $pos2= pointPosition($unitLine + “.ep[1]”); $line= $pos2- $pos1; $direction= $target- $node; if (angle($direction, $line)<deg_to_rad(80)) { $newnode= $node + $line; curve -append -p ($newnode.x) ($newnode.y) ($newnode.z) $name; $node= $newnode; } } curve -a -p 147.250873 15.33911 145.754858 $name;
////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////
This page: multiple paths generated by consecutive runs of a script; the angle of turn can be adjusted.
Length open
quantity
Number of segments
â&#x2030; walking distances
Angle (H-V) Path Value of angle (H-V) closed
quality
narrow, long, wide...
â&#x2030; experiences
Program total path length 3.000 mts 10 segments 6 control points
total path length 3.000 mts 20 segments 11 control points
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This page top: A path-simulation model enables infinite iterations, generated by scripted rules. A next step in the process could be a selection algorithm. Bottom: Paths are assemblies of straight line segments taken from the footprints and added until the destination is reached.
1. mo’blocks pedestrian simulation
Our first approach to movement at the scale of an urban block was to simulate pedestrian paths to then define the Mo’Blocks infrastructure. Pedestrian movement was simulated digitally with two parameters: direction and distance; both are obtained from the urban fabric “footprints”.
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In order to generate movement paths based on pedestrian motion, we scripted an assembly of segments, picking randomly from a choice of orientations and lengths, until a given destination is attained. The choice of segment orientations and lengths is taken from the program strata “footprints”; each destination is a given point in a program stratum. Since the footprints are planar, we added a vertical inclination to each
segment, so that the path can reach a destination in a different stratum.
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This page top: Two oppossite diagrams in terms of building spatiality, a rigid orthogonal scheme against a fuild curved one. Facing page: Paths on the site scale and nodal scale are guides to define the range and transition of surface topologies. The range of topologies enables the adaptability and mixture of the expo proposal to the existing fabric and river front.
This potential to mutate forms within the same language is an opportunity to engage the context of the site, with extensive slab buildings at the edges and the two margins of the riverfront as opposites. We considered some aspects of the context as well as the road network described before as rules for integration and movement that can breed a family of forms where each form fulfills requirements of continuity, connectedness, and orientation for its specific location. But, while considering the point tower typology as a context, we use topology
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to reverse the performance of the tower core as an internal linear element. Instead we propose an infrastructural surface that accommodates movement, structure, and services â&#x20AC;&#x201D; plus it extends to the public domain. These thick surfaces would become, then, urban platforms â&#x20AC;&#x201D; supports for spontaneous and programmed activities that complement the enclosed built volumes. The surfaces have individual characteristics, but they belong in an urban continuum, and must be understood in that context.
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Our application of topology begins with nodal surfaces. Nodal surfaces are being studied by material scientists and chemists, for example, because they are minimal surfaces and therefore have very high structural resistance. A common way to define nodal surfaces is as the solution-space to a certain category of trigonometric functions. That’s what we did. By changing one of the six variables in the function we get different topological configurations that change along one direction and orientation. By changing each of the other six variables we get corresponding changes along three directions and six orientations.
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By changing more than one variable simultaneously, the number of configurations is virtually limitless. In order to make sense of this diversity, we identified the thresholds of topological transformation for each variable and used those values as references for a genealogy of forms. Thus, each configuration can be assigned a “genetic code”, which is either “pure” (at the threshold values) or “mixed” (in the transitional values). This code can be used to achieve Cartesian and separated forms, as well as double-curved, perforated, and and continuous ones.
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nodal SurfaceS of degenerate StateS
Structure envelopeS
Nodal surface of a degenerate state in a 3D infinite square potential well. Degenerate solutions of an eigenvalue problem are linearly solutions StateS to the same eigenvalue. For the Helmnodal SurfaceS of independent degenerate holtz equation within a cubical box with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions, most states surface have sixfold degeneracy. thewell. exploration of solutions the spaceofof posNodal of a degenerate stateThis in a Demonstration 3D infinite squareallows potential Degenerate sible nodal surfaces low-lying state. The nodal surface is the eigenfunction locus. an eigenvalue problemfor arealinearly independent solutions to the same eigenvalue. For thezero Helm-
Generating structure envelopes and using them to facilitate structure determination
holtz equation within a cubical box with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions, most states have sixfold degeneracy. Demonstration allowsDemonstrations the exploration of Project the space of posAcknowledgements: MichaelThis Trott and the Wolfram sible nodal surfaces for a low-lying state. The nodal surface is the eigenfunction zero locus.
Simon Brenner, Lynne B. McCusker and Christian Baerlocher Source: ETH Zurich
Acknowledgements: Michael Trott and the Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Structure envelopeS Generating structure envelopes and using them to facilitate structure determination Simon Brenner, Lynne B. McCusker and Christian Baerlocher Source: ETH Zurich
This page top: A nodal surface equation that enables infinite iterations of topologies. Facing page: Mo’block laser cut model. Topological surface witch enables open space along with build mass as one coherent structure.
Structure StructureenvelopeS envelopeS Generating structure envelopes and using Generating structure envelopes and using them to facilitate structure determination
them to facilitate structure determination
Simon Brenner, Lynne B. McCusker and Christian Baerlocher Simon Brenner, Lynne B. McCusker
and Christian Baerlocher
Source: ETH Zurich
2. mo ’ETH blocks topological sur Source: Zurich faces
Buildings on the site are distributed inside the Mo’blocks envelope space. They are permeated by openly accessible pedestrian paths and, as mentioned earlier, each “building” contains several program compartments, as well as public space and the infrastructure that serves the whole. Rather than buildings, we propose hybrids. Expo program is interwoven in three-dimensional urban blocks. To define the building mass in relation to the urban void and infrastructural space-
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that structures each block- we decided to work through Nodal surfaces. The volume of each Mo’block is given by stacked footprints embedded in the program strata; inside that bounding volume, a topological surface structures and generates the building mass along with the open areas. The surface generates a walking pattern, a formal definition. By using the alignments given by the footprints; the surface of each program strata structures a continuous void – a sequence of public spaces that permeates the entire block.
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Top: Series of STL models of the topological types choosen to further take into the design. This page: one program strata Mo’block and its conection to the landscape. Facing page: Expo plan and the defined typologies for those areas.
Topology is mainly a qualitative evaluation of form and space, and its key notions of continuity and connectivity have a very direct relation to movement. The internal structure of the blocks we see as a structural and material concept that reinforces the urban strategy and design. This is why we coded on the site-scale differences. Four types as mentioned previously, with a distinct yet complementary topology ‘structure’. ‘The defined topology and its application as an aspect of urban space’.
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We took our study of form in a new direction, toward an exploration of topology. After having exhausted the geometrical repertoire of the urban fabric, topology became a method for investigating the deep spatial properties of built mass, as well as a means to expand the formal variety in the design.
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final jury comments January 2008
DRL Phase II Thesis Candidacy Jury, Thursday 24 and Friday 25 January Invited jury critics, among others from the AA: Ben van Berkel, Karl S. Chu, Sulan Kolatan, Bill MacDonald and Franรงois Roche.
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François Roche What me myself, I am interests about the post Jurassic effect, whether the river was up and down and let the current of erosion of your landscape coming from the bottom of the river. It exists as a tradition in China about ‘culting’ artificially sculpting the stone by the un-phases of the erosion of the natures to create artificially this kind of topological change inside the stone. It could be done on a very small scale, but I remember some ‘Baldas Arribuck’ presenting some of the eighteenth century, when Marco Polo came, I remember, an entirely mountain was done like that. Mountain, unusual, but mountain deep by fake weeded process to make a similar proof of the un-phases of the natures, and changing the natures itself. I think it’s a skew so you forget the city, but you are coming from these streams of the waters, how the streams of the waters decrease the turbulences of the modification so you are in a dinosaur system. If you understand what I mean, the dinosaur reconstruction of the system of erosion. I am a little bit afraid about why you are not using the turbulences; I don’t understand why these turbulences are not coming from the stream of the water itself. Why you don’t use the river, because they are lacking in your system because you have the stream just in front of you and why the process of the water, the process of the reconstruction of the natures, doesn’t see here. It’s not fully embedded in the location. And how the parametrics has not steady very precisely what could be a stream, what could be a sedimentation, what could be the alluvium system, what could be a river ‘cultiv’ one part and the sedimentation as the other one. So how you could construct a morphology, the typology coming from this fake of the nature process of erosion of transformation. Joao Bravo da Costa Maybe the result has some identity with the process you are describing, but we were actually much more pragmatic than… François Roche I’m not pragmatic myself? Joao Bravo da Costa I don’t know, but I’d say we where less elemental, and more, numbered. I mean pragmatic in the terms of having to deal with certain urban parameters like building density, population density, derive from those studies we did and also how to lets say re-arrange or re-shape the initial proposal for the expo 2010. So, those concerns, that is…. Patrik Schumacher Can I ask a very simple question? I see a series of kind of architectural models, this one and the rendering there at the edge, a kind of blobby interpretation of this minimal surfaces, and then we have the kind of ‘crackable’ zone. Where are these sitting within the urban field? Point it out. Constanza Hagemann Each one of these envelopes would be then defined as one of this. This is just defining the envelope of an urban block which is then carved out or defined with a different topology, so each one of these hexagons, which in plan look completely solid, then start having porosity and they become a system of movement within itself and related to the surfaces, instead of being this one of this guys, so that is how they fit in. Sulan Kolatan But I think the question is a deeper one, because I lost that connection as well. I mean what is the conceptual connection between the topology and the massing strategy. Because I think right now from what we are seeing it seems sort of an uncomfortable relationship, it’s not quite. The section is I think the best illustration of that discomfort, where you have the horizontal spaces witch are still a residue of the original operations, both literally as well as conceptually. The kind of ground extrusion massing stratification, all those things, and then you have the topology kind of just cutting through it, just cutting out. And it seems that, I mean that’s why I’m also interested in the response to that question because it seems that there could be ways in witch, it’s an interesting very contour intuitive thing to do in my mind, to try to kind of work in the massing and the stratification paradigm for a large part of the project and then suddenly introduce minimal surfaces in to it. But I’m also intrigued by the potential of it, because it could be, if the connection between them mean, in a way that is very deliberate and precise, it could be a very interesting way of constructing the project. But from the section in particular I have a feeling that that connection is not so precise. So I’m sort of wondering. For example, very basically the reason why it looks so randomly put together is, there are places where the topology has a potency to almost become horizontal and just on a very simple formal level, wouldn’t one want to see those kind of moments where there is an affinity suddenly because the topology has the potential of becoming hundred percent plan horizontal surface. So those could be moments where it’s not a kind of blend of two systems, but where one system could suddenly become the other system. And certainly find other kind of mechanisms that could operate on a smaller level, so it’s that end. But it’s also I think, already before that stage, where that relationship needs to be very precisely articulated. Joao Bravo da Costa The issue with working with minimal surfaces was not only formal it had to do with level of control the parameters of connectivity and continuity. Because we thought from the start that it would be simple and possibly effective means of acquiring some
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order over this immense urban system, we are talking about 528 hectares. So we thought that of course, working with movement would be a simple way to get into this. And the minimal surfaces gave us that control by lets say giving shape to those forces by the very shape of the surfaces while at the same time having a formal range that was beyond any geometrical operation that we could do. We thought that the surfaces could be important as a kind of agglomeration of functions; we thought that they could be structural and infrastructural and they could permeate the public domain as well as the private domain, that they could somehow bring several urban systems into each other and in a way that we wouldn’t have suspected before. Brett Steel I think what is trickier is seeing, I mean I think it’s a beautiful project, what seems difficult though, in terms of that description, is to see exactly what those urban systems are that these, I think you keep calling them nodes, or these kind of hot spots in the field, really bring together. I mean, I can imagine that being the thesis and the argument, that the record of what those systems might be, weather they are infrastructural systems, certain categories of program that don’t exist elsewhere, are really describing the picture. I would say that would be one thing to try and tease out on just to test your thesis. Because otherwise, another way in witch you describe it is decidedly, could say compositional in appearance. It’s a kind of English landscape strategy organizing a field by the manipulation of ground, instead of by fixed pathways, but the shaping literally the topography and not just topology of the surface, so that it becomes orientable and coherent and understandable. Witch you know, at a certain level is a kind of interesting critique of lets say twentieth century infrastructural sensibilities that would say the only way to organize movement is to lay down a bunch of single lines into grid or a street system or a path network witch we would say the last project was the perfect example of. The kinds of traffic engineers’ nightmare of just everything becoming fit pathways to the point of almost just sew. The great thing about this project it seems that you, I don’t know if it’s a great thing, but it’s a distinguishing feature, there is no evidence of infrastructure. Unless one accepts the thesis that this surface is the infrastructure, witch would have an argument that could be carried forward, and again in the history of English landscaping sensibilities bizarrely for a China in the twenty first century could be brought on board. But one of the things that seems to recognize is that in this super fast cities in Asia and parts of the Middle East the infrastructures that we all imagine from the North American or European settings they are there first to tell us where to go make buildings, in fact are happening in reverse over and over again. I mean, Pudong witch is up there on your, up in the top of that image, witch Richard Rogers was talking about on Tuesday night here, when he first draws that site, you know, in witch they were projecting a million people ends up getting inhabited by eleven million people. Wherever that diagram was made no sense because no one bothered to put the infrastructure, and then they started building eighty story towers, you know. The way in witch you can fold the argument around the relationship between the infrastructure and the inhabited space of the city seems an interesting dimension, lets say of this project. I don’t think you are talking about it, yet, so much, but I think that seems to be one of the great potentials in it. To try and rethink that relationship and to not simply superimpose the twentieth century assumption that we first have in ordering system for the infrastructure network of roads, highways, walkways, etc. And then we can figure out whether to go put these things, referred to as buildings. But it’s a very, whatever that relationship is in this one isn’t really being, it certainly isn’t being diagramed, discussed, analyzed, or really, I think, assessed yet. But I certainly recommend it for the next three weeks when you put together the monograph; sort of tie the things together. I think you have an obligation to really critique weather there is a new form of thinking the relationship, or you just didn’t bother with infrastructure, because it looks like everybody else in the studio was obsessed with it. Lydia Kim I think what we where trying to... in the very beginning it was much more about it, but since we then derived from that more to solid and void that we have undermined the logic of the infrastructure and we tried to use the system of the program strata and the intersections as our primary and secondary movement which we haven’t resolved it… so we didn’t want to make it like a big topic. But the idea was that the program stratas define neighborhoods and the boundaries and infrastructure around it, then also intersecting with any buildings and masses between them, and they are always lying on a strata, which means that you physically will be able to know that you are walking from one to another and in a sectional way, not in a vertical way only. But yeah that was something that we haven’t resolve and we were interested in Phase 1 specially. Joao Bravo da Costa It is true that the logic is reverse because the intention of working with program strata is to allow for lets say different future scenarios. So if there is less demand of a certain kind of program on the site that would necessarily create a change in how the infrastructure is laid out and not the reverse that if there is a highway there we are all forced to, lets say have an office apartment next to that. Brett Steel To this point I would be saying, it is not that you have to resolve that relationship, but it’s more a question of, have you develop a set of tools that could literally test… You know, are we at the point where you got a set of tools or techniques or operations where you could at least test the relationship. I’m not like it to be resolved with some magic formula that suddenly make the site work on the terms that you want it, but one of the implications of a project like this would be that there is some way of now having achieved this stage of development that can’t be tested in terms of how the performer operates. The kind of classic modern example of that would be Disney’s first creation of Disneyland where he says he first puts the buildings down on the site and says, let’s not bother with sidewalks and roads and stuff, lets just get the buildings, lets get the park laid out, watch
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how people use it for a few years, this engineers go back and start to put down the pathways and the systems to actually make it perform. But it’s a system that is learning from itself in some way. In a way you’ve got such an incredible simulation of this system already going, that, having the plan with all the buildings on site, that would be interesting as a design operation. You are already working on that problem in some way. Constanza Hagemann If there is two surfaces, one would be, when we talk about the mo’blocks, is each one of this hexagons extruded as solid, which then define envelopes for building mass, but there is also the inter-relation with the mat-blocks which is this mesh, which is a different surface which then separates from each other and they can coexist being the same and then divided. So if that relationship would interlink them or make them to achieve differentiation in different areas of the city then we get that fluidity and at the same time I think that is the primary way of moving through, through this continuous landscape. François Roche Here the parametrics is not have been used to extract some processing coming from the situation, coming from the valley top, coming from the location, here the parametrics is just a tool of composition….for me it brings kind of problems. Honestly…because you have the chance… is like if…imagine you are building inside a twister, a windy twister, and you are doing in this twister a drawing with the use of the parametrics without the use of wind effect as a process to design, to design… to understand how is effect, how is action on your personal processing to develop it inside. For me is the same, it’s a misunderstanding of the water stream completely, is very important, if you use, try to re-generalize, re-generalize the parameters. When ‘Langley’ talks about the ‘Monard’, he is always talking of how the ‘Monard’ could be rigid coming from a region. So ‘Monard’ could be, you never said, that it’s always extract from the situation. And I love when some say… which is global tool and, naaa….but is, is a kind of ‘departamentalization’, its extract from the situation; it’s a nerve from the situation. I think an important misunderstanding in your project is when you are talking of turbulences you are making it ‘Bossard’, for me, composition of turbulences totally disconnect of the French way. ‘Bossard’ is totally disconnected to the turbulences you have just in front of you. I just used a scheme for a project, when you have the chance, when you have the luck to be in front of a dynamic system, please try to put your finger on, to put your, to walk inside, to walk, to like a Japanese ‘armaceau’ you are using the inert of something to do something else, to do something else, like, what did you say?....martial arts… like Kung-Fu. And you need to do, like Kung-Fu she said, you avoid the forces but you take the forces to do something. Joao Bravo da Costa In this case we extracted the energy from pedestrian movement and let’s say urban connectivity into form, not from water or wind, so that was the basis. François Roche You are hanging it back, you are re-naturalizing, naturalization, re-naturalizing for them selves. A primitive way of reconstructing the bank, I mean this little bridge, this Bauhaus bridge….something and after you wind, you wind your building seeking like a bird and then this traditional bridge in the middle. Tom Verebes It’s existing. François Roche Then destroy it, when you are doing something like this destroy the bridge, please. In the parametrics… pragmatic and parametric.
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about us - AADRL agenda
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21 team: Constanza Hagemann (1979, Chile) studied architecture at the UFT School of Architecture in Santiago - Chile obtaining her degree (above BA, below MAs) in March 2004. She received a Special Distinction in 2001 to study at Los Andes University for the XV International Architectural Workshop in 2001. From 2001 until 2003 she has taught as an assistant to Mariana Vergara at the UFT. She contributed as assistant and project architect at A. Fernandez, M. Gonzalez and Associates from 2004 to 2006, carrying out a number of residential projects in Chile. Having lived and worked for some years in Santiago she moved to London - UK in 2006 to study a Masters degree in Architecture and Urbanism at the Architectural Association, given the Scholarship ‘Beca Presidente de la Republica’ by the Government of Chile. She completed the Design Research Laboratory Program, obtaining her MArch in 2008. João Bravo da Costa is was born in Lisbon in 1975 and studied at the School of Architecture of the UTL, in the same city. He has worked in the Netherlands with de Architekten Cie. (2001-2002) and with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture -- OMA (2003-2006), contributing to numerous architectural projects, urban plans and exhibition designs in Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has also worked independently on architecturural projects and art exhibitions. In 2006 he enrolled in the Design Research Laboratory (DRL), within the Graduate School of the Architectural Association in London, to pursue a Master’s Degree in Architecture and Urbanism, which he completed in 2008. He was a practicing musician, keen sportsman and competition rower, and remains an eager traveler. Su-Hi Lydia Kim (1975, Germany/Korea) studied (interior) architecture at FH Duesseldorf (Dipl. Ing.), Chelsea College of Art and Design (BA honours), UK and granted a Fulbright scholarship to study at the M Arch program at Texas A&M University. During and between studies Lydia has been working and living in various offices and countries, e.g. Ingenhoven, Overdiek and Partners in Duesseldorf and OMA Asia in Hong Kong. Since 2003 she is living in London and working for Kohn Pederson and Fox International where she had been involved in the refurbishment of the HQ Unilever House (Victoria Embankment 100) from 2003-2007 and several international competitions. In 2006 she returns to academia and enrolls for the Design Research Laborator Program at the Architecture Association, completing in 2008 with the Masters degree in Architecture and Urbanism . Parametric Urbanism two With over half the world’s population now living in cities, global urbanisation is developing at unprecedented rates, scales and densities. The AADRL aims to contest the perpetuation of urban design techniques which we consider incapable of managing the immense complexity and relational logic inherent to vast cities undergoing accelerated change. Parametric Urbanism addresses the ways in which associative design systems can control local dynamic information to effect and adjust larger urban and global life-processes, embedding intelligence inot the formation, organisation and performance of urban spaces, uses, activities, interfaces, structures and infrastructures. The twenty-first-century city embodies extreme qualities of complexity of interaction, communication and exchange - and in fact, large cities behave parametrically and are the expression of associative systems and networks. A seemingly natural evolution of the international make-up of the staf and student population of the AADRL led to DRL v. 10 in 2006-2008 targeting sites located outside London for the first time in the AADRL’s history. Eleven design teams worked on a shared 5.3 km” site for the Shanghai Expo 2010, in one of the fastes-expanding and densifying cities in the world. Staff and students visited Shanghai for a workshop collaboration with Studio 6 and the Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute to kick-start these year-long dessign research projects. Serial City Tom Verebes Studio The central topic of this studio is seriality. the forces of standardistion and homognisation of urbanism are challenged seeking new modes and models of urban organisation. cities are understood as mathematical expressions of global and local regulations, codes and plicies, played out parametrically in time, continually shaing the spatial relations of parts and wholes. Design teams have pursued computaitonal tools with capacities to manage high orders of complextiy, experimenting with new forms of iterative graphic space - dynamic pattern formations with coninous yet discrete cellular spatial properties - generated from associative modeling and algorithmic procedures. the proposals engage with a broad range of scales and topics of experimental design, including the modulation of urban and architectural spaces, structures, systems and componentes, while investigating new, softer, aggregate and incremental models of control of urban growth, densiicaiton, evolution, transition and distribution - in both vast and infinitesimally small increments of space and time. The projcet brief for Serial City is twofold: firsly a prototypical Urban-Expo 2010, as well as planning for several possible futures for the legay of the site after 2010, proposing a new civic, cultural and conulate core for Shanghai.
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