Although a parallel study – the Sahra:denCity project at the DRL AA in London based their urban planning around case studies and simulations around 3 parameters(also), neither project addresses cultural proximities and relations (i.e. theatre,cafe,nightlife to business,nature,demographics) and more openly some “noise” in the system! The grid can be morphological (as shown by AA) but also relational to splines from rivers, lanscapes, and geological formations that could force you to think more in section beyond any grid or fancy parametric pattern representing itself as “buildings”! Its about experiencial value within the city. Thus perhaps the idea of “weaving” the grid of the city into a formidable esoteric new face could give “better” reasons than regenerating typical building typologies at surface level to form the city. Overall, I’d like to use this interface simply because it gives you interesting feedback in realtime. It does however need the callapse of complex feedback loops informing the user of senario’s that have either succeeded or failed from real life – that of which you would not succeed in 6weeks time!

Peter Dang (Snøhetta)

The most amazing thing about a city is not that which can be described in visual terms but all that is ineffable.

A city is much more than a collection of objects attracting and repelling each other.

I appreciate that the project was of a short duration, however, no amount of scripting or programming will ever truly mimic the infinite range of parameters affecting a cities development, nor should it ever hope to achieve such.

Many claim that the city of Dublin could be rebuilt from the James Joyce’s Ulysses and yet the book contains little or no reference to the physical city. The text in fact dwells on the ephemeral, the fleeting, the atmosphere of the city. That which can not be modelled.

we want to make this tool more intelligent. this was just a 6 weeks project. no one in our team has scripted before. so the output is quite impressive for us. but the connection to a “real dynamic city development” is still missing.
investigating for dynamic urban rules in a future social network, patterns and meanings- social mirrors. how can we enrich public spaces? how can we emancipate and encourage citizens to take part in decisions?

by steffiX