We were looking for a way to implement the extracted ideas out of studies on “Endless House” by Frederick Kiesler-1959- into an urban scale in term of a bridge over the Besos river in Barcelona.Additionally we were working on the flows and networks, and were looking for an efficient and stable distribution network system example in nature, to develop this idea of continuity and endless space, at the end we found human brain as a very good example for inspiration.

Why brain??

Compared to other tissues, the brain is extremely dependent on a stable and efficient blood supply. Despite making up only 2% of total body mass, the brain requires 15-20% of total cardiac output. And also brain has distribution network of vessels which create a loop that is so close to the idea of an Endless house.

The Circle of Willis which creates the loop is a circular network of arteries that supply blood to the brain. It acts as a redistribution center for blood which is supplied to the Circle of Willis; blood is brought together here and then moved to the brain.

The arrangement of the brain’s arteries into the circle of Willis creates redundancies in the cerebral circulation. If one part of the circle becomes blocked or narrowed (stenosed) or one of the arteries supplying the circle is blocked or narrowed, blood flow from the other blood vessels can often preserve the cerebral perfusion well enough to avoid the symptoms of ischemia (restriction of blood supply).

After primitive studying of general rules in brain we were interested in the position of vessels itself and the way they divided into more vessels to have better distribution network system, so first we start to look at the vessels in general, the picture below and then going more in deep to the amazing microscopic images and always trying to have catalogue in each step and extract the rules and ideas which help us to develop a flow which produce a form in urban scale.

Site analysis and design developing

In the first step we did almost the same as had done in the studying in brains vessels, focusing on hierarchy of street, and also trying to keep the method of studying in different scale.so we studied hierarchy of street in the site and in larger scale in a bigger urban scale around selected site.

We try to implement the ideas to an existing urban fabric and see the potentials and problems to use and solve it later in the area with our proposal.

The other extreme was to ruin everything and considering only boundaries of our site and nothing else, to see the result of implementing our distribution rules.

Tutors:

Willy Muller
Hernan Diaz Alonso
Maite Bravo

International Jury Board:

Manuel Gausa - IAAC Dean
Areti Markopoulou - MAA Director – IAAC
Reiner Zettl - University of Applied Arts Vienna
Neil Leach - University of Southern California
Mario Corea - Mario Corea Arquitectura
Peter Trummer - University of Innsbruck
Maria Sisternas - Ajuntament de Barcelona
Glòria Viladrich - Ajuntament de Sant Adrià de Besòs
Juli Mauri - Ajuntament de Montcada i Reixac
Miquel Roig - Ajuntament de Santa Coloma de Gramenet
Antonio Alcarcón - Gerent Consorci del Besòs
Joaquim Calfí - Consorci del Besòs
Jordi Mas Herrero - Regidor de Territori de Santa Coloma de Gramenet

 

How important are inputs from other fields, such as biology, to architecture? And how can we apply “organs” from these fields in order to discover or reinterpretate the way in which architecture operates?

It’s all about particles, flows, intensities, gradients as well as shape, function and aesthetics that can be extracted and applied to an architectural project. However, it is indispensable to apply a technical layer, where all the material imported from other fields adapts in order to deal with the usual architectural and urbanistic purposes, like dwelling, public space, offices and all the functions that a city generates.

The main point of the “Body without organs”, by Gilles Deleuze, refers to the fact that everything that can be understood as an “organ”, can be used or reconceived for another purpose. It’s all about particles, flows, intensities, gradients… and architecture is one of the fields where all these concepts could be developed: how can we apply “organs” from other fields in order to discover or reinterpretate the way in which architecture operates?

 Beside this philosophical aspect, the relation between architecture and biology could be something pretty fruitful, as long as the translation between shape, function and aesthetics can be established. The study of the muscles has been capital in terms of shape exploring  and its application in the middle of the city represents a total renovation of the old urbanistic soul.

The case study of interest of this project is how to create a dense city in a situation of infrastructural nodes, producing waste of space, called junkspaces. This kind of situation is analyzed in terms of vehicular and pedestrian movement, program and activity.

The  final design of the project is developed according to the form and the spasms of the muscles which were  previously analyzed. The connection grows in stages, with a lot of different episodes happening, from filaments representing the stretched muscles to an intense moment of contraction of the mass, as well as of the program taking place inside.

Challenging the idea of ‘bridging’ and ‘connection’ in case of Besos river ; looking for a new and radical way for ‘connected’ urban grid and flow network was the main principle for the project related to the subject of the studio.

Between two sides of the river, we defined our case and keywords as ‘weaving the broken grid’ and connecting flows with a multi directional connector.The research about the tendons, the connectors of human body, gave us a formal and structural catalogue of a living fibrous structure on the first part of the studio.

The final proposed connection network has been shaped with the idea of merging bridging fibers into the site and each other.The bridge has been considered as the continuing lines of existing street network and flows.In specific area, after defining the edge points of the broken gap between two sides, points have been connected with fibers of the bridge and created another urban layer over the river.Instead of classical ‘A to B’ bridging systems, the proposal has been aimed to be a connection experience which can offer different routes for users and gives a flexibility for bridging routes as an over layer of public spaces and connections with fibrous formal and structural strategies.

We studied a specific parasite, called Leucochloridium paradoxum or “green banded broodsac”, that affects snails and has as its main properties the proliferation inside their tentacles and its consecutive deformation, a behavior that inspired us to use an architectural symbol of the urbanised and functional Barcelona as the basic partice of our constructive system.
Through the agglomeration and the deformation of the Cerdá block, we came to a basic component that forms our bridge, with a range of porosity that increases with the lack of use of the spaces, connecting them and generating new ones.

Our project focuses on an area of the Besòs river called Nus de la Trinitat, a very large space, of approximately 70.000 squared meters, with a huge traffic node, built to decant the traffic of Barcelona`s metropolitan area. Summed to low density and social and economical problems, this infrastructural construction ends up in lots of under used areas and bad quality spaces.
The Besòs separates Barcelona from Santa Coloma, a different municipality, with more densification of dwelling and services and, although there`s a massive conector for vehicles, a lack of connectivity for people is noticed.
The disuse and residual carachteristic mainly of the Barcelona side and the specific situation of the Nus de la Trinitat took us to the concept of Junkspace, explored by Rem Koolhas on his homonym book.
Despite the critical ideas of the author about these spaces, we believe that they are part of every city, the reality of several public spaces and the only option for many people who live sunken in them. Assuming that, we want to propose the connection between these “junkspaces”, as parasites that are installed in the city and proliferate through other areas.

Through the agglomeration and the deformation of the Cerdá block, we came to a basic component that forms our bridge, with a range of porosity that increases with the lack of use of the spaces, connecting them and generating new ones.

Swarm intelligence research deals with natural and artificial systems composed of many individuals that are coordinated using decentralized control and self-organization. This is a project to embrace complexity and to develop non-linear design that operates through multi-agent algorithms, generating an emergent architecture.

In particular, it focuses on the collective behaviours that result from the local interactions of the individuals with each other and with their environment. Examples of systems studied in this field are for example colonies of ants and termites.

Ants and termites are both examples of swarm intelligence but they behave differently. Termites use their behaviour to make a structure whereas ants use them self to design a methodology to make a structure. While researching about those creatures we discover the rules of this complex and efficient decentralize control and self-organization. Could these rules be extracted, analysed and with the correct material and technology be applied by humans in new territories?

Looking closer at ants and their swarm intelligence. Their collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized system, resulting from the local interactions of the individuals with each other and with their environment.

This behaviour of the ants allows them to solve their problems by aggregation. This system allows the ants to have a hierarchy and roles for each ant within their community. When heading out for food collecting the Pathfinders find the shortest and best path to take. They find obstacles on the route. Another set of ants come to fix the problem, fill the holes or build a bridge over the gaps so the food collectors can reach the maximum efficiency.

This project is situated in and around the Besós River in Barcelona. The river flows along Barcelona metropolitan area, connecting the Catalan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. he site offers possibilities but its main problem is the lack of accessibility, both for public transport, cars, bicycles and pedestrians. In order to pass from one side of the river to the other, one might have to travel for up to an hour to reach one‘s destination, even though the river measures only 25m, in diameter. By ameliorating this problem of accessibility the site in the suburbs of Barcelona city will regain its potentials.

Visit the project Book publication :

http://issuu.com/huldajons/docs/maa01_book_final_02

http://issuu.com/mehran_davari/docs/maa01_book_final_02

Using the parasite`s properties, we aimed to grow the “junkspaces”  towards the existing bridge.