Generative Techniques for Urban Place Making

Cities are complex systems made up of multiple inter-related layers and the process of urban design demands an attitude to developing sensible and sensitive design solutions. With the advent of computational techniques, a possibility to link design to analysis and hence the behavior to form has opened up. We will be analyzing various traditional urban fabrics, to extract rules and design parameters and operating on the same based on desired design ambitions. The studio process challenges students to deal with the multiple layers of network, land-use, open-space, built-density and morphology in a bottom-up approach using Genetic Algorithm. The expectations of this studio are a reflection of scientific detail and an analytical mind-set along with sensitivity to the cultural behaviour of people of the place and its climatic demands. Various analogue and digital tools like Rhinoceros + Grasshopper will be used for analysing environmental and spatial data and creating multi-objective iterations.