PDF HERE

As connection to our Research Studio EMERGENT TERRITORIES, we developed a smart structure that will allow to use the area of the Port of Barcelona as both a Dock for cruisers and a Public space as a Plaza. Depending on the needs of the city for public space and of the activity as dock for cruises, the DockHub can be totally managed in real time, by embedded sensors and automatized network system that receives information of space requirements to begin its form transition between Plaza and Dock.

Regarding the GH definitions, we used the Curve Attractors as our Ship’s Routes, simulating the path that the ship will use to cross through our Structure, and we were able to see the how does it works. After defining our main Route with the attractor, we introduced the Metaballs. They would represent our focus points and between them our attractors would work as our flows and connections. We used different combinations of their positions to simulate the scenarios.

We took advantage of the GH tools to design and visualize the FlexHubDock structure including the different possible scenarios we were analyzing for our Studio. The mesh represents our reprogrammable surface that can change its shape depending on the activities, flows and the demand of the city for public space as well as for a dock.

Finally, the definition was ready to simulate the performance of our FlexHubDock, combining the Metaballs with the Attractors and at the same time modifying the pixelated surface structure by adapting it to the Spaces/Activities/Metaballs.

The goal was to create a Data Machine that can perform as our main structure, allowing the ships to cross through it while it goes down and restore its position. The GH definition is able to behave as our simulator.

The DOCK, THE SHIP AND THE ROUTE
The Dock is defined by a grid formed by independent structural elements that are visualized as one but can perform individually. The data defines the boundaries of the Dock: its total dimension, number of structural elements within and distance between them.
The ship is the element that will follow the Route. The data to use of the Ship: its lenght, width and depth, to calculate how the Dock has to adjust depending on each different one and its crossing speed.
The Route is the path that the ship traces each time it has to go across the Dock determining its next behaviour. The data managed are the coordinates with the position of the Ship, from the point of origin to the point of destiny while crossing the Dock.

While developing our “machine”, we fabricated one instance of our system to test its operation. The physical model is more like a “studio machine” than a finished one, because it allowed us to make some improvements to our work-in-progress, the GH Machine.

PDF HERE

Barcelona and the Ports of the World

The activity in the Port of Barcelona has been changing during the last years.. but how? and where it’s leading to?

What is the trend of traffic between the Port of Barcelona and the rest of the world?

The answer to this question will help us to figure out a future projection for the area for our Studio research.

PRESENTATION HERE