Reading Territorial Metabolism

R E A D I N G TERRITORIAL M E TA B O L I S M S TOWARDS A PARADIGM OF COLLABORATIVE URBAN DESIGN

FARNOOSH FANAIAN

2

[ READING

TERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

R E A D I N G T E R R I T O R I A L M E TA B O L I S M S Towards an Paradigm of Collaborative Urban Design

Farnoosh Fanaian Design Thesis Report Word Count : 5093 B-Pro Urban Design RC-18

18th July 2018

3

4

[ READING

TERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

Special thanks to Enriqueta Llabres, Zach Fluker and Nuria Alvarez for their constant support and guidance

5

ABSTRACT: Radically rethinking the idea of urban metabolism aims to grasp an understanding of the continuous processes of energy, material, and resource exchange within and between cities, has been a subject of empirical research and an increasingly critical discourse between the social and natural systems.

However these challenges have not yet been met with an elegant response from the design disciplines. The goal of this paper is in re-establishing a design process that engages elements of urban metabolism to de-linearise the transformation of spatial forms and structures and subsequently the emergence of new governable territories for democratic design.

6

[ READING

TERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

Change however is not in merely upgrading the current noms of societal living infrastructure, but it is in optimisation of the potential that a geographical unit can have. This done through the aid of sensing technologies, that allow for a more heightened spatial awareness. ‘I construct, and I am constructed, in a mutually recursive process that continually engages my fluid, permeable boundaries and my endlessly ramifying networks. I am a spatially extended cyborg’ (W J Mitchell, 2003).

This mutual exchange of energy as a form of

currency between the various layers of the urban morphology lies at the foundation of visualising and reading territorial metabolism. Transformation of matter into energy, energy into information and information to an informed design decision.

7

Fig (01) 8

[ READING

TERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

9

10

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1

Establishing reliability .........................................................................13

THE NON- HIERARCHIAL FRAMEWORK

2

De-coupling urban complexity from natural systems.........................21 Inclusiveness of all ecosystems in urban design..................................24

THE EMPOWERED USER

3

The Mechanism of all ecosystems......................................................27 Sensing the Invisible...........................................................................31

ORCHESTRATING INTUITIVE NETWORKS

4

Acknowledging intelligence...............................................................37

TOWARDS THE NEW PARADIGM

5

Conclusion.........................................................................................51

Bibliography and References............................................................54

11

“People are the quintessential element in all technology... Once we recognize the inescapable human nexus of all technology our attitude toward the reliability problem is fundamentally changed.”

Hardin,G 1968 ‘The Tragedy of Commons’

12

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

INTRODUCTION : Establishing reliability

1

. The condition of cities today are a result of generations of human settlements attempting to define their surroundings with their current technologies and in that process transforming nature to meet their needs. There is a point when civilisations started to overcome the natural forces which has caused cities to spiral into multiple scenarios of crisis causing major imbalances in the environment today. Human settlements continue to over exhaust natural systems today, and are increasingly dependant on artificial systems as an environmental substitute. Hardins description from the ‘Tragedy of Commons’ of the this dilemma between the intentions of people over the ‘commons’ has not yet been met viable design solutions. It is evident that the current and future developments in our cities needs new technologies but what is more pertinent now is how the technologies are to be implemented into the urban realm.

The primary reason for this current paradigm, is the highly anthropocentric perception of urban design, which excludes the fundamental aspects and opinions of our ecosystem. Viewed through this skewed hierarchical perspective where humanity is at the top of the food chain, transforming nature to its needs without any retrospect, It is because of this individualistic perception that, issues relating to climate, water and food security, energy and transportation are becoming greater tasks to tackle within cities and what Garret Hardin termed in his seminal article as

13

Linear Systems of Production Fig (02)

De-Linearising Systems of Production Fig (03) 14

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

‘The tragedy of the Commons’ has clearly portrayed the crisis we getting deeper into.

It is evident today that urbanisation of cities towards a more productive reality, from aspects of food and energy production, to establishing healthy living and work environments that is resilient to climate fluctuations, can no longer be performed from a purely functional and morphological perspective. It requires reading of urban environments as coherent organisms, that fits within the theoretical framework of ‘urban metabolism’. Understanding urbanisation in terms of the vital flows of water, energy and food, that maintains a pulse of life within cities.

Human beings alone however, will not be able to improve this situation, it will require a combination of individual, collective and artificial intelligences to incorporate all the active agents of our ecosystem. Equipping each element of the ecosystem with a sensor to convey or communicate its needs. What then would our urban environments look like when every struggling aspect of the city is able to communicate its needs to feed the metabolic processes of the city as a whole?

Evolutionary sciences play a very crucial role of dealing with contemporary urban design, like a scientist observing a highly complex organism (the city) comprising of multiple systems and processes, understanding the realities of this artificial ecosystem through an approach of urban metabolism.

15

Systemic change in the current complexity of our failing cities requires us human beings to hack into the current systems and de-linearise the logistics of the metabolic processes at play, primarily of energy, water, and food production, and the deconstruction of wastes produced from those processes. This metabolic process of build-up and break-down that is essential to the life of the city, is currently unseen and deliberately hidden.

From the perspective of mass-production, a direct result of the industrial revolution, we now have capabilities of affecting technical change like no other time in history. The digital revolution as described by Mario Carpo has brought with it a new vision of individual empowerment that is no longer individualistic or anthropocentric. It empowers individuals to embed technology into every process of life. With this new found ability that humanity has acquired, the need of the urban environment however is to localise the metabolic process in a system of mutual accountability and trust. Thus creating a distributed network of open source data for the transfer of energy in a system that can be read and comprehended by all the individuals belonging to the geographical vicinity, will provide the city with new modes of functionality and elimination of redundancies.

In the context of this review the term ‘Reading’ suggests an ability of digitally accessing hidden territorial information that allow designers to create an outcome that is beyond the possibilities of a conventional individual. With the ability to embed sensors

16

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

into any house hold elements, the pervasiveness of technology allows us to visualise the journey of the items we consume or discard, thereby informing reasons for behavioural change among the citizens of a city.

Similarly it is now possible for the built environment to read its surroundings and transform in ways that only a few decades ago would have been considered impossible. Structures embedded with anonymous sensors tracking human movement, identifying its needs and responding to it in real time.

It is quite interesting to note that we sense and are being sensed in a mutually recursive process that engages our fundamental opinions on aesthetics and geopolitical governance, while going hand in hand with technological advances of observation. Thus re-establishing a design process that engages elements of urban metabolism to de-linearise the transformation of spatial forms and structures and subsequently the emergence of new governable territories for democratic design.

This text attempts at providing an outlook of a new paradigm in architectural design where co-creation and mass customisation are the new norm of societal living. Radically rethinking the idea of urban metabolism while grasping an understanding of the continuous processes of energy, material, and resource exchange within and between cities, with the aid of sensing technologies creating a dialogue between the social and natural

17

systems.

The essay is organised into three main sections. The first presents a theoretical and non-hierarchical framework, emphasising on the inclusiveness of all ecosystems within the influence of urban design. This primary objective in this section projects the sustainability of current living systems in the urban territories and outlines the challenges that confront our urban futures. It also illustrates the diverse disciplines that may contribute to an informed and resource optimised urban world. The second section informs the reader to the potentials of the individual users of the mentioned non-hierarchical framework. It begins to explain the de-coupling of peoples needs from the environment.

Establishing a radical artificial production system that allows for customisation of material systems to place the environmental needs as a priority to the needs of the people.

This section, also goes on to elaborate on the mechanisms of the open ecosystems and the responsibility of the human beings to facilitate the inclusion of digital technologies as an interface to communicate, collaborate and exchange, resources and information for optimal design using computational tools.

It concludes with an integrated approach towards urban sustainability while visualising the metabolic process of the city.

Section three, guides the reader through the ‘new norm’ of design process and societal living based on transparency of the

18

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

metabolic data of the urban territories. It references the research of ‘Prosthetic Ecologies’ where a new ecosystem is created as a prosthetic to the earths crust. ‘Redefining the surface of the earth as a living and governable epidermis’(Bratton 2015). The section also emphasises on moving away from the current technocratic approach of design to a behaviour based design approach that is constantly sensing and actuating within its environment, evolving to the needs of its new spatial requirements.

19

Fig (04) 20

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

THE NON- HIERARCHAL FRAMEWORK :

2

De-coupling urban complexity from natural systems “Cities happen to be problems in organised complexity, like the life sciences” (Jacobs 1961) The reality of cities today is defined by interacting systems concerning the various elements of ‘Urban Metabolism’ such as water, energy, construction materials and food. Cities can be viewed as linear machines, where its metabolism consists of consuming materials from one place and creating urban structures and products in another, not to mention producing externalities such as pollutants and waste materials.

The taxonomy of urban related systems and process, as mentioned is linear and therefore brittle because they are based on outdated modes of spatial organisation that does not consider the fundamental aspects of a digitally enhanced city. The ‘Search, don’t sort’

(Carpo 2017)

mindset that google has provided us in

the digital realm however is beginning to make its way into the physical, and changing the way we organise physical processes as well. From this approach our conception of physical space following a specific combination of architectural orders and styles that used to fulfil human beings lack of spatial awareness, is no longer needed, we can simply apply the same technical logic to public spaces assuming the human beings heightened

21

self awareness through geolocation technologies, and begin to organise and place structures and urban environments wherever we want, this is a possibility.The city as a geographic space of ‘human coexistence’ now can be self-defined and more manageable with the aid of the creatively evolving and learning technologies. This would suggest abandoning classical norms of city design that emphasised on place making and connectivity within a limited frame of technology, and moving towards creating more customised spaces that might not relate to the larger context of the city as a whole, but takes into account the individual preferences of all its citizens including all other agents within the ecosystem. Among other predominantly Top down approaches, design of urban spaces will begin to take on a new approach that is based on the ability to creatively adapt to the needs of the individual and the collective.

The problem that begins to emerge however is in the image of the future urban spaces. A very dystopian image of chaotic urban scenarios starts to emerge, because its being viewed a lens of outdated tools for design. This dystopian image need not be the case. Principles of design and aesthetics will always be valid in re-defining beauty and will now be viewed through fewer spatial restrictions and stronger tools to create more ephemeral structures, allowing for the beauty of natural process to be more transparent so as to embody architectural creativity we have not yet experienced. Cities are the most fundamental artefacts

22

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

of the current era, that is constantly evolving, and eliminating redundancies, while being host to the multiple artificial and biological ecosystems.Every aspect of our ecosystem is struggling to achieve a state of stability and balance, done seamlessly within nature through natural processes of living systems.

Balance, however is created by accommodating all elements of the ecosystem where every need is sufficed with the aid and exchange from its neighbouring species. The urban environment of cities today functions in a slightly different and unsustainable paradigm, it involves multiple, extensive logistical networks of transfer of resources from one location to another on very brittle and linear systems of production. Flattening the logistics of this linearity demands a very strategic analysis of the elemental sources of energy and its impact on the built environment, so that it can be optimised and utilised locally.

23

Inclusiveness of all ecosystems in urban design According to Rachel Armstrong, Sustainability in our urban environments can only truly be achieved if we start connecting the urban structures to nature and not insulating them from it.

Living systems in nature are in constant communication with each other and the natural world through sets of chemical reactions that can be defined as metabolism. Although, The urban environment today prioritises man as the top of the food chain that uses everything within his reach to satisfy the basic needs as well as greeds of its population.

This hierarchy of power needs to shift to a new paradigm. Today every aspect of the natural and artificial environment can be visualised through digitally sensed factual data, that enables the ecosystem with a dissonant set of opinions and voices, potentially placing all of the active agents within the same platform to listen to each other within a cloud of digital data. The designed framework of influence would therefore need to be informed by this constant communication of data from the network of users, so as to accommodate for new modes of non-linear transfer of data that can be materialised in the form of energy, materials, food and water.

24

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

Non-Hierarchy in this framework does not limit the potential of humans in the development of this ecosystem, but rather places a far greater responsibility to orchestrate the built environment through informed decisions that take into account the invisible yet crucial needs of all the living species. Humans takes on a role of a service provider to the ecosystem by becoming the link that ties together the ecology with intelligence technologies.

Visualising this scenario is possible today because of the ever shrinking opportunities of sensing technologies. We are at a position where we are able to embed sensors into the remotest harshest and smallest areas in the environment, establishing an identity and an address for all the elements that make up our current ecosystem. Suddenly our understanding of the worlds population of ‘users’ broadens to embraces a much more realistic scenery of the co-inhabitants of the planet we call home.

25

Fig (05)

26

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

THE EMPOWERED USERS

3

The mechanism of all ecosystems with the inclusion of sensors The vision of Nicholas Negroponte in ‘being digital’ that humanity is inevitably headed towards a future where everything that can, will be digitalised. This strongly suggests the power individuals will have in the digital realm in reinventing conventional norms of social practices, while strengthening key aspects of the urban experience. It is important at this point to begin to identify individual human beings as a “user” within the digital realm, because to the computer the needs of the human will remain as important as the needs of a piece of house hold waste, that Carlo Ratti with the SENSable Cities Lab elaborated in his experiment ’Tracking Trash’ (fig5&6) to visualise what happens to pieces of house hold wastes after they have been thrown into the garbage and the distances it travels before being completely disintegrated.This project opens an interesting conversation as to including the cities inhabitants to visualise their personal impact onto a metabolic process of an urban scale. It begins to create avenues for behavioural change among the population. It is not hard to imagine now the future cities and all of its minutest elements having a digital signature along with an address, that can be traced tracked and monitored, if needed.

A truly democratic scenario starts to emerge, where we begin to acknowledge the neglected users of our current ecosystem. The

27

Fig (05)

services at the interface between the physical and digital worlds.30 These integration perspectives can be found in major projects for new smart cities where the emphasis is simultaneously on sustainable development and digital technology, such as Masdar and Songdo. Behind these flagship projects, it must nevertheless be admitted that many plans for developing urban intelligence are still lacking in coherence, and seem to have come from a catalogue of separate initiatives that are as yet rather poorly coordinated. The digital strategy proclaimed by the French city of Lyons, among other examples, mixes together very different themes – encouraging energy transition, proposing new mobility solutions, aiding business creation – while seldom making clear how they may be linked.31 This undoubtedly stems from what is still the very experimental character of many developments. It is as though this were the time for expansion, rather than for the consolidation that is nevertheless necessary once a certain stage has been reached.

SENSEable City Lab, MIT, ‘Trash Track’ project, Seattle, 2009 The experiment led by the SENSEable City Lab reveals the sometimes extremely complex itineraries of discarded objects on their way to recycling or final disposal. It contributes to the development of a new field of research on how to improve the ecological footprint of cities.

There are many more examples of ‘smart’ experiments and achievements.

They rely on the capacity to detect and record, often in real time, what is going on in the urban grid. In a certain number of cases, these recordings can directly generate instructions for the automatic control of technical infrastructures, in the manner of thermostats and other temperature

040

Fig (06)

28

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

very neglected users such as flora and fauna of a city, or even the water and sewage systems, begin to contribute to growing data sets of information, open to be read and comprehended.

Reading as mentioned in the title of this paper suggests this new ability of visualising flows of the elemental aspects of a living and functioning city. From a geopolitical perspective this data will need to be open to all individuals to actively contribute through alterations in social practices because of their ability to comprehend the health of their city.

According to Guattari an organisational approach to reinvent social practices is needed to give back to humanity a sense of responsibility towards the material and immaterial components of urban life. Bringing along with itself new concepts of aesthetics, that relate directly to the ecology, where our senses were not meant for detached cognition but for participation, collaboration and exchange. The role of the users in this digitally connected ecology begins to take the design conversation on very different levels, creating involvement and interaction of users as part of the design process. Architecture and therefore the scope of architects begins to shift and reframed as an organisational role within the non hierarchical framework, where it facilitates a platform or an interface that connects spatial design problems to the needs of the users while borrowing methods and theories from various scientific disciplines that can contribute to a more holistic solution. The notion of power in design decision making

29

Fig (07)

Fig (08) 30

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

is being redefined here, and it is worth mentioning this because to effectively make this happen we must fundamentally redefine the prevailing conceptions of power that dominate contemporary top down approaches.

Sensing the Invisible The notion of a ‘digitally equipped individual’ that is the protagonist in the self-fulfilling fiction of the world today, exists because we want it to exist……‘The digital age of individuality goes with a new sensory receptivity that can be mobilised to promote civic goals as well as mass-customised consumption.’

(Antoine Picon 2010)

thereby reconfiguring the city in terms of

sensory stimulations, and making more symbiotic boundaries between human beings and natural systems.

Environmental sensing, computation and robotics have begun to change the relationship between human beings and the environment, where simulations and multi criteria optimisations equip us with a knowledge that can predict possible scenarios of crisis and take nuanced decisions concerning design of cities.

Achim Mengez and his team elaborate this through their project installation at the V&A in London the ‘Elytra Filament Pavillion’ (fig 7&8)

where the architecture begins to “read” the users within its

territory, in the language of thermal comfort. Thus morphing itself to adapt to the needs of its co-inhabitants. Not very different to the ‘Tracking Trash’ project this project by Achim Menges opens a different perspective where behavioural changes begin to take

31

place in the architecture or the built environment. A whole new perspective of interacting elements within the urban morphology that communicate with each other with the help of artificial intelligence and sensing technologies so as to accommodate, adapt and listen to the needs of the other users of the ecosystem, be they synthetic or biological.

This approach allows us to create landscapes that are natural extensions of the environments they occupy. While the current systems and process that the urban metabolism entails , will also take on new forms of involvement within a city, Agriculture and food production for example will need to naturally move back into cities, but strategically placed and included so as to become a natural extension of its surroundings while functioning as good, if not better than the current linear and industrial modes of food production, using models similar to the blockchain technology.

The relationship between data and physical space becomes more and more pertinent, as computation in design plays a role in making faster and more holistic decisions. Typically we are able to observe data of say food and water production logistics over many years and make large infrastructural changes that aim to counter or promote a very specific behaviour. But with abilities of reading the environment through computation, sensing and monitoring technologies we can alter ecologies in very small ways and direct them in very specific paths.

It is possible now to build much more responsive landscapes,

32

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

that constantly communicate and receive decisions and directions on how they must operate where algorithms interact with algorithms influencing patterns of growth that establishes a middle ground between top down and bottom up processes of design. Coherence in the artificially intelligent systems and the ecological systems opens new doors for ‘new normals’ within our cities. Although the ability to read realities of our immediate surroundings plays a vital role in decision making, it also needs a digital social platform where the various users may begin to communicate with each other. The current paradigm of social media may extend into a realm of hyper awareness, functioning as a source of factual and validated information that is encrypted and reliable.

Human intelligence and artificial algorithmic intelligence listening to the natural metabolic processes of a city involves talking about sensors at a very personal level. Visualising the invisible elements of the environment through sensing technologies empower us with layers of information, that further uses computational tools and simulations to arrive at parameters for a strong environmentally sensitive design

33

Fig (09) 34

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

Fig (10) 35

Fig (11) 36

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

ORCHESTRATING INTUITIVE NETWORKS

4

Acknowledging Intelligence : Human intelligence(Individual+collect ive), Natural Intelligence artificial algorithmic intelligence

Observing and Listening to the natural metabolic processes of a city involves talking about sensors at a very personal level.

Heightening our visual perceptions of the invisible elements of the environment through sensing technologies empower us with layers of information, that with the aid of computational tools and simulations help arrive at a set parameters for a strong holistic design solution.

A new urban territory that is backed by the fundamental elements of a collective that is unified through a common platform of the interface and the empowered users, creates a sentient and sensual city

(Antoine Picon, 2015)

that accommodates for

augmented reality and geolocation that begins to enrich every square inch of the urban spaces, investing it with new and unexpected functionalities. ‘Even more importantly through connected individuals and sensors, city intelligence seems to be present everywhere, like a sort of fluid that could give urban structures access to higher levels of existence.’ (Antoine Picon, 2015) This new envisioned city is not an ethereal entity, it needs to be localised and inseparable from its physical environment, within which its citizens will evolve.

37

Fig (12) 38

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

While all agents of the metabolic process embody complexity and diverse relations of its past making, it enters in its turn and in a specific way into new forms of metabolic transformation.

This however depends on the data received from the metabolic processes at play in the environment. This data helps not only shape the built environment, but it provides us with a sound understanding of the current reality and prompts constant suggestions for further optimisation. Merging the two essential elements of human habitation-agriculture and societal living within the same vicinity, establishes a sense of mutual accountability, thus customising the urban spaces based on the specific needs of the human habitable spaces as well as the plant species.

The role of creativity inherent to human beings alone, take expression in the aesthetics of a very precise set of parameters.

The restrictions of which leave very little room for artistic expression of the human, but it is in these conditions where the true potential of human creativity can thrive, the multitude of options that computational design can provide us must still be skilfully curated and applied within nuanced theoretical circumstances. A majority of what designers and scientists do is either exploratory or combinational, and a very small percentage is actual transformational creativity. From the perspective of reading territorial metabolisms, a strong creative expression that lies in the hands of human beings alone is to orchestrate the multitude of new systems and networks, both artificial and natural. We use computation to imagine new processes that can

39

build a whole new range of urban design, we can imagine them performing as well as the natural ecology, but they are built from process that was curated and skilfully harmonised.

Computational models opens up new avenues of design, that has the potential to develop algorithms that mimic biological evolution and its intuitive coherent networks with the aim to compress the evolution of urban design into a very rapid process.

The research project titled ‘Prosthetic Ecologies’ (fig) adopts this new paradigm of design and user interactions by envisioning a new layer within cities customised to agriculture and its production related activities. This new ecosystem that is envisioned through the theoretical discourse of ‘The Stack’ by Benjamin Bratton, an interdependent layer system that explain the planetary scale computation within our geopolitical realities, takes into account the bridging of these different layers (Fig) Focussing onto the mineral layer to act as an interface between people and geology. ‘Beginning to envision the earth as a layer within a synthetic machine’ (Benjamin Bratton 2015).

The project strategically adopts digital tools (fig) to analyses the earths natural ability to facilitate optimum conditions for plant growth and therefore recreating those conditions through computational design tools and processes (fig) . The very term ‘Mineral intelligence’ suggests a fundamental shift in the way we perceive the use and application of sensing technologies

40

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

in urban design. The need is to envision a non-linear material system (fig) that is capable to morph, rearrange and adapt to its immediate surroundings, reinforcing the elemental relationship that natural systems inherently possess and computing that into artificial processes that begin to seamlessly communicate collaborate and exchange data. Data being the new building blocks of future cities.

Key to the functioning of this concept is data collection and its application in the digital platform. Data collection through sensors and social media will always be limited in what it can capture, hence the need for ephemeral spaces that have been coded to evolve within the mentioned conceptual framework. While the current anthropocentric perspective of the environment we live in is no longer sustainable, the need for a non-hierarchical ontology system where human and non human users can communicate, collaborate and exchange resources or energy using a singe framework. This distributed network of farming provides us with an encrypted interface that is customisable to every user and directly correlates to the growable food and energy they consume. Visualising the transfer of embedded energy and mineral resources, growing only the needed amounts of food and eliminating the need for excess.

The term prosthetic is employed in the title of this research because of its ability to enhance the current stifled potentials of the earth we take for granted. This prosthesis now begins to

41

Fig (13) 42

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

Fig (14)

function as the new epidermis of the earth, with a functionality that will transform the behavioural patterns of current urban scenarios. This new layer begins to perform as an interface of communication between people, plants and the earth. If the system senses a lack of one of the resources say water, it interacts with the ‘earth user’ to extract the needed resource and deliver it to the position of the ‘plant user’. Embedded sensing plays a crucial role in the ability to read this metabolism, however reading the growth of plants can also be done through advanced cameras capable of sensing elements natural metabolic process that are invisible to the naked eye. NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) cameras are now used to read plant photosynthesis with absolute precision, providing the system with realtime data and is in the best interest of the plants. Design now moves in a very informed direction, as illustrated in the research of ‘Influencing patterns of Growth’ (fig) here the NDVI camera informs the turning mechanisms to allow precise amount of light

43

Fig (15) 44

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

to the plants, all this done without the need for human intervention after the mechanism is designed. The artificial intelligence then determines in what ways the will be utilised.

The idea of transparency then, suggests enhancing the city experience even as a cyborg city, that consistently works towards optimization while “abolishing all forms of negativity in order to accelerate itself”(Byung-Chul Han 2012) generating a transparent process between the individual data and the product result. This then further implies that all aspects of the urban morphology would have a corresponding parallel space in the digital realm, both being open source, and willing to accept improvements on a regular basis. What then would the design of public spaces look like when the physical and digital platforms begin to blur boundaries?

It is important to note here that the ability of reading territorial metabolisms is currently in the hands of major corporations to the likes of google, that give you something free in exchange of data. The outcome of the project ‘Prosthetic Ecologies’ paints a utopian image of individual independence from the clutches of top down mechanisms governing societal living in the physical as well as the digital platforms, but it also creates an opportunity for a possibility say of amazon taking ownership of this new ecosystem, and its production in exchange of people interacting with its comforts and benefits. However reading this territorial metabolism empowers the everyday citizen to independently

45

Fig (16) 46

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

investigate the legitimacy of his reality through the interface that connects citizens, the environment including the geology and Artificial intelligence. Transparently exchanging information in a framework designed to encourage trust, ownership and prioritising the overall balance of the environment rather than personal greed.

A new governable epidermis of the earth as a living infrastructure that is customised by human beings, natural systems and artificial intelligence. The social impact of this new paradigm shifts the relationship between people and the environment, it empowers them to take back control in the quality and value of the consumable products.

“Redefining the surface of the earth as a living and governable epidermis.”

Benjamin Bratton 2015 ‘The Stack’

47

Fig (17) 48

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

49

Fig (18) 50

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

TOWARDS THE NEW PARADIGM

5

Conclusion : As cities have adopted the priorities of resource efficiency, a new found focus will be on the ways to monitor progress.Implicit in the use of unpredictable technologies are moral and ethical questions that outline the directions of future applications of new ontologies of design. Architects will need to develop a variety of skills for environmentally compatible programs to identify alternative and collaborative frameworks and material systems for the productions of spatial experiences that facilitate non linear collaboration between the active agents of our artificial ecosystem- the City. ‘Acts of Co-design are therefore equivalent to acts of ‘life’ which possess a ‘will’ and ‘force’ of their own to be fixed by deterministic pathways that are contingent on past events’ (Rachel Armstrong 2014) Efforts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the modern day city has undoubtably become highly multidisciplinary.

This is a positive development for the current digital sensing technologies to thrive and be completely embraced into every element of ecological, environmental and economic studies informed by a wide array of distinct scientific methodologies Given its intellectual diversity this new paradigm of urban design allows for technical change taking place within a context of collaborative co-users of urban systems that sustain our

51

Fig (19) 52

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

urban territories. Cities lead on to become platforms of artistic expressions, where new limitations propel humanity in creatively expressing its devotion and respect to the environment, even as custodians of earth, listening to the rhythm of the earths pulse, reading its metabolism and skilfully responding to its needs.

Although this view on urban design may project a limited vantage point of the possible implications in the future, its success however, will depend on democratisation of the decision making process. With the aid of reading and comprehending territorial metabolisms, orchestrated by designers to harmonise the currently dissonant voices of our ecosystem into a well tuned mechanism, will help our cities not only be sustainable but advance far beyond it, and flourish in its potential to give rise to synthetic urban environments that are indistinguishable from natural systems.

53

BI BL I O G RAPH Y : Antoine Picon, (2015) Smart Cities : A Spatialised Intelligence Benjamin h. Bratton, (2015) The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty Erik Swyngedouw (2016) Circulations and Metabolisms: (Hybrid) Natures and (Cyborg) Cities Felix Guattari (1989) The three Ecologies, 1989, Ilaria Di Carlo (2016) The Aesthetics of Sustainability Ikujiro Nonaka (1994) A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation John H. Miller and Scott E. Page, (2007) Complex Adaptive Systems: An introduction to computational models of social life Mario Carpo, (2017) The Second Digital Turn : Design Beyond Intelligence Michael Hensel, Achim Menges and Michael Weinstock (2010) Emergent Technologies and Design: Towards a biological paradigm for architecture Michael Weinstock (2008)- Metabolism and Morphology Architectural_ Design (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ad.638) Paulo Ferrรฃo and John E. Fernรกndez (2013) Sustainable Urban Metabolism, The MIT press Richard Sennett, The Open City William J Mitchell, (2003) Me++ :The Cyborg Self and the Networked City Achim Mengez- Elytra Pavillion project (http://www.elytra-pavilion. com/#page-top) Last Accessed 1st July 2017

54

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

Jacobs Jane. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Hardin Garret (1968) The Tragedy of Commons Byung Chul Han (2015) The transparency Society AD Future Details of Architecture 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Racheal Armstrong- The Post Epistemological Details of Oceanic Ontologies Tracking Trash - Sensable Cities Lab- Carlo Ratti (http://oro.open. ac.uk/35876/1/TT.pdf) Last Accessed 12 July 2017 PBL Environmental Assessment Agency, TU Delft- Metabolism of Albania (https://www.behance.net/gallery/40339307/The-Metabolismof-Albania) Last Accessed 1st July 2017

55

IMAG E RE F E RE N C E S : Figure 01. Author’s own. 2018. Design project.

Figure 02. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 03. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 04. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 05. (http://oro.open.ac.uk/35876/1/TT.pdf) Last Accessed 12 July 2017 Figure 06. (http://oro.open.ac.uk/35876/1/TT.pdf) Last Accessed 12 July 2017 Figure 07. (http://www.elytra-pavilion.com/#page-top) Last Accessed 1st July 2017 Figure 08. (http://www.elytra-pavilion.com/#page-top) Last Accessed 1st July 2017 Figure 09. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 10. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 11. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 12. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 13. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 14. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 15. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 16. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 17. Author’s own. 2018. Design project Figure 18. Authors own + https://www.loook.io/ Figure 19. Author’s own. 2018. Design project.

56

[ READING

T ERRI TO RI AL M ETABO LI SM

]

57

18 July 2018

FARNOOSH FANAIAN

B-PRO URBAN DESIGN RC 18