While in this decade cities will grow exponentially to host more than half of the world population, architects are not yet ready to design adaptive urban models capable to react to this phenomenon.
“Encrypted mega-cities” provides an opportunity to think critically about urban potentials responding to this rapid growth through a mode that utilizes analysis, computer advanced tools and the tactical intuition of the architect and in a rapid manner.
The seminar will collectively navigate a vast cloud of examples that will be used to approach and imagine future models of mega-cities. The primary mission of this research will be unveiling the logics and relations that make these cities not chaotic but complex, not frozen but vivid, not stable but adaptive, not only geometric but social.
The second part will encrypt all these discoveries in a digital machine that will provide a solution for a Mega-City of the future. It is important to understand that the so-called supermodel is not just one “master” digital model, but rather an entire body of exploration that can provide a catalog of solutions in different types of environments, scenarios and social behaviors. What would it be the impact of this digital tool in the design of the city?
“Encrypted mega-cities” architects will heavily utilize a robust spectrum of automated and manual tools and techniques with great rigor and agility. The architect, instead of just being a traditional masterplanner will operate as a DJ mastering a session for citizens in an encrypted mega-city.