TPE 2.0.2: Computation and the Urban Generic

A long overdue post following the completion of my thesis. So much of the documentation produced was in expectation of always being accompanied by a live parametric model that I may be some time yet getting the project into portfolio shape.

Rendering, Section 1 Sinhai Rd. and Wunjhao St.

TAIPEI 2.0.2: Computation and the Urban Generic
Taipei 2.0.2 is a "black-box" interface which projects parametrically computed urban futures at multiple levels of resolution. Tower clusters are produced fully-formed and complete (down to emergency stairs) into an environment itself inflected by their existence and anticipating their expansion.

The thesis is bound within a twofold existence: undertaking a project so large as to be almost unavoidably iconic and, at the same time, embodying precisely the noniconic fabric of the city. Thinking the masterplan in reverse, the design engine reflexively projects new context and urban legislation based on the proposed towers. Architecture then becomes a tool and agent in urban analysis.

Based on analysis of Taipei's paradigmatic urban form and development patterns, the thesis rewires the supertall project, now stripped of its signature, iconic status and repositioned as an anonymous "many".

Generative Components transaction file

The parametric model operates simultaneously in three model spaces-Tower, Block, City-which, while all representing the same project, do so to varying degrees of resolution, each also able to read only certain sets of data.

Dynamic data mapping
Dynamic development intensity diagram
Certain of the data being referenced by the design engine represents persistent urban form and data (the position of the river and major superblocks), while other information is recalculated dynamically alongside the proposal of the tower (such as land value, and various zoning regulations).
Tower cluster and metro connection, section.

Context alignment and generation, animation stills.
Acknowledging the scale of development involved in supertall construction, the design engine reconstructs new context in the adjacent superblocks (typically ~1km in diameter) based on their area, position in the city, preexisting program usage>. MRT stations, and their access points are reconfigured, linked with the tower podia around which new urban fabric is reconstructed.

Urban projection and realignment, animation stills.

Depending on the choice of site (yellow dot) and the details of the towers, the model (reflexively) projects new incentivized zoning for further supertall and highrise development (majenta bars), reconfigures existing typical zoning (white bars) and recalcuates projected land prices (green bars).

Rendering, street level.