Sun, Air, and the City
Conceptual design of sustainable architecture using environmental information in Kyoto 京都
A range of experimental concepts of urban architecture have been developed during an interdisciplinary workshop at the Kyoto Institute of Technology. The participants of the workshop explored the use of Volumetric Site Analysis for the conceptualization of sustainable architecture in dense urban settings. Through this technology they were able to visualize and handle complex environmental information related to solar radiation, airflows, and views. The investigated volumetric patterns, and their quantitative, directional, and dynamic dimensions, were used as source of information to retrieve design propositions directly from the environment. The deep inclusion of environmental information in the conceptual process made it possible to conceive innovative concepts. The building designs were modulating, with accuracy and in advance, elements such as daylight, shading, sight, and ventilation, according to the specificities of their context.
These conceptual sketches included towers that ensured daylight and view to their inner spaces by stepping away from adjacent neighbours, or buildings based on cellular approaches that were reacting to the presence of different environmental resources in different locations of the site. Interestingly, some building designs also presented symbiotic schemes that reminded natural behaviours. Similarly to how living organisms relate to each other and to their environment, some design schemes were in fact parasitic, with buildings acquiring resources at the expenses of their neighbours; others were mutualistic, drawing reciprocal but different advantages from each other; others communalistic, as in the case of the open view resulting between two adjacent buildings which benefits both in equal measure. A series of physical models of these architectural concepts were 3D printed and exhibited at the Kyoto Institute of Technology.
Project by M. Leidi, R. Tateyama, J. Hee Young, J. Lopes, T. Senoh, T. Doan, and B. Noris.
Developed in collaboration with ETH Zürich, the Kyoto Institute of Technology, and the CAADRIA international conference 2014.
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