The urban void as an intimate dimension and slow biological rhythm against the condition of acceleration that pervades the metropoli. The project speculates on the concept of emptiness as permeating definition of the postmodern society and the prospect of its exploitation not for capitalistic or social-oriented purposes, but for an emotional- driven experimentation apt to define the role of the urban gap as a self-generative space made of environmental matter able to stimulate and respond to the emotional level of its users, preserving at the same time the proportional detachment of the urban void within the city and its functional absence.

The pulsative rhythm is data flow that generates space through local materials such as sand, bacteria and water. Bacteria fueled with urine collected from the users merge grains of sand together in shaping a formal catalogue that, emerging from the ground and the concrete ruins, evolves and responds within the users experiences. Water is pumped and spread in form of liquid or gas in order to affect the pulse coherence. The site is a constantly-mutating landscape made of dunes, oasis, enclosed sandstone shells and atmospheres.

Students

Luca Gamberini

Ryan Christoffer Chua

Atessa Zandi Mofrad

Tutors

Pablo Ros

Willy Muller

Hernan Diaz Alonso

How can we transform POLLUTION into a CELEBRATION? Welcome to Acoustic Ecology:

Our project reacts to the fact that throughout the years cities have been designed taking sound as a negative environmental factor. On the other hand we use sound as a parameter of design we experiment with different morphological urban patterns in Santa Coloma that are interactive to real time data.

Each component in our landscape has a specific function according to the zoning, using sound as an ABSORBER, DEFLECTOR, and RECORDER which react to sound and blends with landscape in between this post-industrial neighborhood. This representation gives an overall understanding of how the acoustic ecology hacks the industrial area with the different zones of intervention according through the zoning and sound mapping. As a result the landscape is piercing through the industrial area, at the same time that acts like a connector.

From now onwards we insist this invisible layer will also be a priority before designing a city.  Its effects are as not invisible as its nature itself, but everyday there will be new sounds  that will create new adaptive and interactive structures.

PART 1

“CONNECTIVITY”
Santa Coloma de Gramenet is a city in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the south-east side of the Litoral range, with the Puig Castellar (299 m) as its highest point; on the left bank of the Besòs River the municipalities of Sant Adrià de Besòs and Badalona separate it from the coast.

Santa Coloma has won a lot of awards with respect to sustainability and is quite successful as a city as 80 % of the residents walk within the city. There is an EVIDENT disconnection between both these sides and we started to investigate this issue.

“INDUSTRY”

Industries have always been a part which is designed along the outskirts of the city to avoid interaction with the city.

Due to the urban sprawl along the years in Barcelona the industries have been in the same location and the residential areas have been made around them.

In SANT ANDREU certain manufacturing industries have gone into a decline due to various economic factors including the development of replacement technology or the loss of competitive advantage. They were a heavy duty industry which have been converted along the years to suit the surroundings of the site but has not been able to fit in.

The environment of this industry is not habitable for the pedestrians or for the residential area around it

This became the starting point for a series of urban and spatial zones that occupy and transform the existing grid structure of the post-industrial neighbourhood and converting them into a new ECOLOGY shaped by street noise and other urban sounds.”

We want this soundscape to function responsibly for its surrounding neighbourhoods, as well as for the industries.

It is a concept emerged as an interrogation to the current urban mobility nexus with a critical forethought of upcoming conveyance models. This objective is inspired from our site ‘’Nus de la Trinitat’’ , Barcelona, which is a layered overlap of ring roads. Though, it connects at intercity level, it declines the space quality in terms dwelling environment and economy of land to name a few. We propose a system that liberates urbanism from the cycle of rapid growth of infrastructure as a function of increasing program. The unit of mobility, Car, is no-more adhered to road networks but is an autonomous aerial vehicle. It has sensor enabled, data interactive body driven by binary and solar power. Activation of the skycars would revolutionize the city. There shall be technology shift at building, traffic and user level.

-the buildings shall mutate to allow and accommodate the skycar.

-the traffic management shall be real time.

-the user can ring a car for its service at its doorstep.

This comprehensive system shall metamorphose the gridlock of Cerda to a random codedness. Also, the built spaces shall be redefined as the skycar shall become an integral body of the whole volumetric structure. The volume shall diminish with the absence of activity and user. The focus is to reformulate the whole city by mutating a unit. The mutation of car into skycar deploys more green spaces and better habitation.

proximity from site:

zoning :

Area: Road networks and Infrastructure in Barcelona

Site Analysis

Visions of Future

Comparison : Driver operated VS Driver-less Vs Airborne

City Transformation with change in mobility unit

Welcome to skycar city

Future unit of mobility and its characteristics 

Study of Aerial routes – Motion Vectors

Classification of Flying and speed zones

Motion vector based form Development strategy : connecting important nodes around sites

 CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO SEE THE VIDEO

Plan and zoning

Sectional Zoning

 Section

Housing Units

Workspace units

Docking Stations

City level transformation with the implementation of skycar city