Parametric Urban Design

In this project, I tried to explore the daylight impact of a proposed high-rise building on an existing low-rise courtyard building. Then I used Genetic Algorithm to optimize the shape and height of the high-rise building that maximized the solar gain on the existing low-rise building.

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At first, I created the existing low-rise building with courtyard in Grasshopper.

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Then I used DIVA plug-in to carry out the daylight simulation on this block. I chose outside façade as the building material and a typical summer day in Houston, TX for the simulation.

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In the next step, I created the proposed high-rise building to the south side of the existing building, with the width and volume fixed, and the length and height variable.

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Then I performed daylight simulation in DIVA with the same material and weather condition as the existing building.

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In the last step, I used Galapagos to optimize the shape of the tower to maximize the solar gain of the low-rise building.

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CASE STUDY

My Case Study is the Kartal-Pendik Master Plan in Istanbul, Turkey which was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. This is an interesting case study of parametric Urbanism as it takes the basic infrastructure and urban context as the design framework where the building forms create programmatic intensity.

Master Plan Render
Source: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/masterplans/kartal-pendik-masterplan/

Perspective of Master Plan
Source: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/masterplans/kartal-pendik-masterplan/

Perspective of Building Forms
Source: http://www.zaha-hadid.com/masterplans/kartal-pendik-masterplan/

DESIGN INTENT

My design intent is to create a framework of an urban grid with the parameters of urban block size, road width, inner courtyard and building heights. These elements will be controlled by a system of attractor points which can be translated into points of interest such as grocery, park, schools, banks, post office etc. in an urban fabric. Depending on the location of these points and the distance from them, the height of the buildings will be changed accordingly. The closer to the attractor points, the higher the density and the farther from the attractor points, the lower the density.

I. Basic Urban Grid

First I created an urban grid system in grasshopper where the lines represent the center lines of roads.

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2. Block Form Control with Attractor Points

a. Block Size

Multiple individual attractor points were added to the basic grid system. Each point has a attraction or a repulsion according to their locations and distance from them. By using the vector calculation between each intersection and control points, we can change the block form.

The block size will enlarge when the block size factor is a positive number and it will decrease in size when the factor is a negative number.

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b. Road Width

By creating polylines with intersection points and scaling the polylines by road width rate, the block boundary was created. If the control points are moved, the block boundary will change accordingly.

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c. Inner Courtyard

Using the same attractor points to generate various frontage space from high rise to low rise buildings, the space dimension was remapped according to the distance between the center of each block to the attractor points.

In this way, a series of inner courtyard spaces dimension was created.

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d. Building Height Control

By using the same attractor points as the block size control, and the vector calculation in the direction of z axis, different height number according to the distance between block corner to the attractor points was achieved..