Sandy City
A software for the generation of rule-based geometries of buildings and cities
This digital tool was created to explore and test ideas related to the rule-based computational generation of architectural and urban geometries. By means of visual and geometrical computing different architectural elements like plots, houses, walls, roofs, and windows can be created and combined according to a mixture of typological, conditional, probabilistic, and parametric rules. Each geometric element relies on a different code that can span from classic to contemporary and can draw inspiration from different cultures. A hierarchy then defines the parent-child relationship between the elements, making, for example, a plot to be the child of the city, and at the same time the parent of several houses.
A graphical user interface allows to modify the parameters and rules that instantaneously affect the visual results. In addition, dynamic simulations can show the evolution of the city according to time-related rules. Quantitative indicators on the current status of the city, for example in terms of total amount of living surfaces, or total available parking places, can be easily computed and visualized. This tool enables thus a visual and quantitative simulation of different scenarios, allowing to reason on the forces that influence the shape of a city.
Project and realization by M. Leidi, M.-C. Chen, and J. Przybylo, developed as part of ETH Zürich, 2010.
Assistants: M. Hansmeyer, S. Lemmerzahl, B. Dillenburger, professor: L. Hovestadt.
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Archimethod SA
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