ARCH 510/610 Studio - Informatics
Student Team: Kelsey Miller, Ian Murphree, Reece Kremers
Faculty Mentor: David Newton
Studio Brief
Models estimate that by 2050, climate change will cause mass migration into cities from rural areas as farmland in some areas becomes unusable. Megacities like Mexico City (which already has a population of over 22 million) will dramatically increase in size as people from rural areas migrate to find a better life. In fact, researchers have identified a number of megacities around the world that will see dramatic increases in population due to climate-change driven migration – straining the infrastructural capacities of these cities and creating dense living conditions that may be unhealthy and dehumanizing. How can we design for this hot and crowded future? How can we design a better urban-architectural fabric that can manage these mega-density scenarios?
These questions were explored in the work of the studio. In the studio, each student was challenged with the task of designing architectural systems for selected megacities that were capable of efficiently integrating mixed programs and high population densities into small, energetic, and healthy configurations. In the project, students worked individually within the context of a chosen megacity to develop an innovative generative design process that created a mega-dense, mixed-use, architectonic system.
Student Project Descriptions
Kelsey Miller:
The contribution of this project is to propose an elevated residential fabric, intertwined with waste processing systems, intended to accommodate the projected needs of the Mumbaikars, as they acclimate to the impacts of climate change.
Ian Murphree:
This project explores the development of a high-density flood-resistant residential urban fabric for Mumbai.
Reece Kremers:
How can we rethink high density residential architecture to accommodate small scale agriculture in a drier, hotter, and denser future? This project explores this issue and proposes a new agri-tectural urban fabric for Mexico City.
Image
Kelsey Miller: The results of a multi-objective optimization process are shown in which structure, circulation routes, daylight exposure, and housing density are used to search a design space.
Image
Kelsey Miller: The project explored the use of cellular automata algorithms to grow the proposed residential fabric in a slum in Mumbai.
Image
Kelsey Miller: Aerial view of project growing over a flooded Mumbai waste dump.
Image
Kelsey Miller: Section view through air filtration and recycling towers that provide key services for the residential fabric.
Image
Kelsey Miller: View of proposed elevated residential fabric, intertwined with waste processing systems, intended to accommodate projected needs in a hot and crowded future.
Image
Ian Murphree: The growth and optimization of a high-density flood-resistant residential urban fabric for Mumbai. Circulation routes, services distribution, and daylighting exposure were among the objectives used to simulate the optimum growth of this urban fabric.
Image
Ian Murphree: A view from the market neighborhood of the proposed high-density flood-resistant residential urban fabric for Mumbai.
Image
Ian Murphree: The growth stages of the floating neighborhood.
Image
Ian Murphree: A section through the educational district of the floating neighborhood.
Image
Ian Murphree: A view from the residential walkways of the residential strata of the project.
Image
Reece Kremers: Example growth configurations of the residential-agricultural infrastructure in Mexico City.
Image
Reece Kremers: The project used a cellular automata growth algorithm to simulate the growth of the agri-tectural fabric through time in Mexico City.
Image
Reece Kremers: A section through an example configuration of one of the high-density regions of the agri-tectural fabric which incorporates bioremediation, areas to grow food, and solar collection.
Image
Reece Kremers: A visualization of the design space for the optimization of a portion of the agri-tectural fabric for solar exposure, floor area, and structural efficiency.
Image
Reece Kremers: A view of an example configuration of one of the high-density towers in the agri-tectural fabric where small-scale agriculture and residential spaces are combined.