Luca Caneparo

Shared virtual reality for design and management: the Porta Susa project

The paper presents the implementation of a system of Shared Virtual Reality (SVR) in Internet applied to a large-scale project. The applications of SVR to architectural and urban design are presented in the context of a real project, the new railway junction of Porta Susa and the surrounding urban area in the city centre of Turin, Italy. SVR differs from Virtual Reality (VR) in that the experience of virtual spaces is no longer individual, but rather shared across the Internet with other users simultaneously connected. SVR offers an effective approach to Construction Data Model and Computer Supported Collaborative Work, because it integrates both the communicative tools to improve collaboration and the distributed environment to process information across the networks.

Computer Supported Design Studio

Abstract The paper presents the ongoing experimentation of a Computer Supported Design Studio (CSDS). CSDS is part of our continuing effort to integrate computers and networks in the design studio. We recognise three corner stones to CSDS: memory, process and collaboration. They offer a framework for the interpretation of the pedagogical aspects of the teaching of architectural design in relation to the innovations produced by information and communication technologies. The theme of the 1998 CSDS is a railway station in Turin, Italy, to be incorporated in a reorganised rail transport system. The choice of this theme emphasises the realistic simulation aspects of the studio, where technical problems need to be interpreted from an architectural point of view.

Shared Virtual Reality for Architectural Design

The paper presents the implementation of a system of Shared Virtual Reality (SVR) in Internet applied to a large-scale project. The applications of SVR to architectural and urban design are presented in the context of a real project, the new railway junction of Porta Susa and the surrounding urban area in the city centre of Turin, Italy.

The Future of Cities and Regions

The Future of Cities and Regions: Simulation, Scenario and Visioning, Governance and Scales is committed to presenting and discussing international best practices in planning and design according to four leading issues in urban and regional development: (1) Simulation, (2) Scenario and Visioning, (3) Government and Governance, and (4) Scale. The case-oriented discussion is a peculiarity of the book, which emerges from the title itself, The Future of Cities and Regions. The aim is to critically explain how urban planning, policy and design issues are faced by each simulation case and their inherent similarities and differences. The book reviews computer models and media, socio-political experiments and professional practices which help in communicating the future effects of different design, policy and planning strategies and schemes with a wide range of aims: from information, through consultation, towards active participation. Our intent is that the four leading issues both advance the understanding of the cases across the chapters, and advance discussion of the experiences theoretically. These issues could offer the reader a framework within which to consider the specific cases, and for interrelation of the narration of the practices from a methodological perspective, in an attempt to provide answers to the four leading issues.

Simulation, Scenario and Visioning, Government and Governance, and Scale

The Future of Cities and Regions : Simulation, Scenario and Visioning, Governance and Scales is committed to presenting and discussing international best practices in planning and design according to four leading issues in urban and regional development: (1) Simulation, (2) Scenario and Visioning, (3) Government and Governance, and (4) Scale. The case-oriented discussion is a peculiarity of the book, which emerges from the title itself, The Future of Cities and Regions. The aim is to critically explain how urban planning, policy and design issues are faced by each simulation case and their inherent similarities and differences. The book reviews computer models and media, socio-political experiments and professional practices which help in communicating the future effects of different design, policy and planning strategies and schemes with a wide range of aims: from information, through consultation, towards active participation. Our intent is that the four leading issues both advance the understanding of the cases across the chapters, and advance discussion of the experiences theoretically. These issues could offer the reader a framework within which to consider the specific cases, and for interrelation of the narration of the practices from a methodological perspective, in an attempt to provide answers to the four leading issues.

Evolutionary Automata for Suburban Form Simulation

The paper outlines a research project to develop a dynamic simulation of suburbanization processes. The approach to simulating suburban form relies on modelling different interacting processes on various scales. Two layered models are implemented, the Socio-Economic and Zoning model and the Suburban Form model, respectively by means of cellular automata and genetic programming. The Socio-Economic and Zoning model simulates exogenous factors and endogenous processes of large-scale suburban dynamics. The model approximates the area by means of a rectangular grid to the scale of hundred meters. The Suburban Form model uses a smaller grid, to the scale of meters, and is three-dimensional. The resulting dynamic, 3D, fine-scale model will create scenarios of suburban growth, allowing evaluation of their consequences on built environment and landscape.

Dynamic Generative Modelling System for Urban and Regional Design

This paper introduces a dynamic generative modelling system for urban and regional design. Through dynamic modelling the system evolves in time according to the interactions of the planners, decision-makers and citizens. On the basis of several synchronous and/or asynchronous user interactions, models are dynamically generated at run time. The models are built by defining the data (datasets) and the actions to perform on that data (tasks). The system reads and correlates data at urban and regional scale from various authorities to generate dynamic datasets. Tasks are especially powerful when they integrate generative procedures in a hierarchical structure. This allows us to model urban and regional dynamics through the interaction of tasks at micro- and macro-scale. Tasks can also implement either Cellular Automata or software agents. We examine the system application to a case project: the simulation of micro- and macro-dynamics in an Alpine valley, with specific challenges to fit competitive and sustainable growth in a landscape quality perspective. The simulation in spatial and temporal dimensions of regional data provided us with the elements to study the territorial evolution over the next twenty years. Four strategies gave as many scenarios highlighting the results of specific policies.

Self-Awareness Tool for Renewable Energy Production in Mixed-Use Urban Tissues: Incubators European Project for the Mediterranean Region

Drawing on the Incubators of Public Spaces project, funded by JPI Urban Europe, this chapter considers the methods and tools used to support individuals’, groups’, organisations’ and enterprises’ self-ability to evolve towards grassroots interventions in urban regeneration processes. In particular, the chapter focuses on the assessment of the rational use and sustainable production of energy in mixed-use urban tissues, especially located in the Mediterranean region.

Semantic urban modelling: Knowledge representation of urban space

The paper presents a methodology for describing in generative terms the structure of urban fabrics: the objective is to transfer conceptually the knowledge about the domain of urban space into a hierarchical and interrelated semantic structure with relevant concepts, elements and their mutual relationships, providing explicit and unambiguous definitions. The conceptual and operational instrument adopted for this purpose is the ontology, a method of knowledge representation and management coming from the Artificial Intelligence. This approach aims to create a customisable digital design tool, to support the designer in the early stages of urban design process, such as street pattern and massing definition, by generating in real time a number of design scenarios, starting from a large number of constraints and requests. This paper focuses on the knowledge formalisation aspects of the research that is the basis for the generative modelling of urban space.

Design for Manufacture

This chapter considers the digital continuum between design and manufacture, achieved with the technologies of CAD/CAM, numerical control and prototyping. Although the ‘digitalization’ of architecture is sometimes seen as a threat to the physical aspects of construction, the opportunity to use a digital model directly in the context of production actually strengthens the traditional links between design and practical craftsmanship. The chapter offers an overview of manufacturing processes currently or potentially relevant to construction. Units of manufacturing processes may be described in sufficiently general terms so as not to be restricted to working with a specific material, a given component or a certain producer of machine tools. Key unit manufacturing processes are identified: (1) mass-change, (2) phase-change, (3) structure-change processes, (4) deformations, (5) consolidation, including (6) rapid prototyping. It concludes by considering integrated manufacturing. Two projects are examined in detail because they have been precursors of the principles of design for assembly: Frank Gehry’s “Fish-sculpture” at the Olympic Village, Barcelona (1989–1992), and Norman Foster’s Swiss Re Tower in London (1997–2004). The analysis of these projects confirms the recurring importance of the “craft” factor. Computer-aided design and production systems have shifted the emphasis from skills in craftsmanship to competence in the control of the manufacturing machinery. As manufacturing and construction become increasingly automated, more and more skills are required of the designers.