University of Oregon
School of Architecture and Allied Arts
485 Lawrence Hall
Eugene, Oregon
aerial view comparing eixample blocks at left with 22@ blocks at right; © 2011 Google, © 2011 Tele Atlas
Parametric Places: 22@ Barcelona, Urban Design From the Bottom Up
ARCH 424 524 - Spring 2013
Syllabus
“Id like to think that we are now entering a third, more mature phase in our
relationship to digital technology.
Thanks in part to a new generation of
architects who have been educated entirely within the digital regime, and on the
other hand to the first generation of digitally trained architects who have
continued to evolve their thinking, the computer is beginning to have a practical
impact, beyond the formal or the metaphorical.”
Architectural Speculations
-
Stan Allen,
If…then…
“Drawings are primary instrument for the production of architecture. But
a design process that remains limited to the relationship between
drawings and real-space buildings is constrained to the actualization of
conventions and commonly resists the integration of variation, local
specificities or changes of conditions. This is where the diagrammatic
process becomes advantageous in a culture characterized by change.”
-
Alejandro Zaera-Poloi
INSTRUCTORS
Philip Speranza, Assistant Professor
speranza@uoregon.edu
Office: 485 Lawrence
TIME & PLACE
Class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00- 3:50 PM, LA 278
COURSE OVERVIEW
Working with and adding to Barcelona 22@ planning department guidelines, the research
explored in this course will attempt to model as a system the block-by-block planning guidelines
as a way to support city planning from the bottom up. The course will allow students to look
closely at methods of adaptive systems design and how they allow the values of a place to
emerge from the bottom up over time by various inhabitants including workers, residents and
tourists. Work will be shared with the Ajuntament de Barcelona 22@ planning office as a way to
support cultural sustainability.
22@ district planning
The investigation will work at the scale of Barcelona Eixample blocks testing unit/whole cause
and affect at the scale of the block, neighborhood and district. The current block planning
guidelines transform the unplanned post-industrial blocks of 22a to provide for the 22@
objectives to for an information activities district for workers and residents. Block minimums
require 10% of the following uses without specifying their locations: open space, residential and
7@ institutional use. The resulting abstract system adapts to existing conditions of protected art
nouveau, Modernisme, built-fabric supporting an urbanism of agglomeration of smaller,
fragmented lots and spaces for targeted small and medium sized information and design
enterprises. The strategy prescribes no further top-down relationships between symmetrical
blocks yet gaming theory suggests that minimal inequities will cause asymmetrical ‘tilting.’ How
will existing and predicted real-life differences affect this abstract system including existing builtfabric, social behaviors, transportation networks, edge conditions, uses, and geographic
orientation? How can this planning strategy provide a framework for participation that is
evolvable?
Case studies will include urban system design by Ana Pla Catala, Michael Weinstock, Patrick
Schumacker and Zaha Hadid, Stan Allen and James Corner, Vicente Guallart, MVRDV and
others. The case studies will give students an opportunity to develop techniques of parametric
design at the scale of the city, testing limits, theory and context behind each designer’s work.
The second part of the course will allow students to develop an abstract bottom-up parametric
system that is calibrated and applied to the real-world contextual conditions of the 22@ district
and other locations including Portland and Eugene.
Student knowledge of abstract diagramming techniques, Rhinoceros and Grasshopper will he
helpful. The course will utilize theoretical readings, techniques and bottom-up urban design
methods in a lecture and workshop format.
22@ use guidelines, Ajuntament de Barcelona
COURSE PURPOSE / INTRODUCTION
- Learn the limits of parametrics and urban design
- Neighborhood planning and identity, bottom up, in 22@
- Build parametric skills
- Theory, reading and writing skills, update of contemporary conversation
-
Plug Department of Architecture into global conversation of parametrics
and urban design topic (weblog that feeds to DMC and Department
website)
APPROACH, READINGS
-
22@ Background + Theory on Adaptive Systems
o Bruno Latour & Albena Yaneva, Give me a Gun and Ill
Make All Buildings Move
o Philip Speranza, Parametric Places 22@: Smart Urban
Analysis Tools and Place Branding Value
o Stan Allen, Field Conditions (Systems thinking)
o James Corner, Not Unlike Life Itself (Frameworks: openended but specific)
o Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Between Ideas and Matter (Abstract
and real; Drawings and Diagrams)
o Philip Speranza, Place Branding from the Bottom Up:
Strengthening Cultural Identity through Small-Scaled
Connectivity
o Jane Jacobs, The Nature of Economies (Positive and
negative feedbacks)
o Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History,
(evolvable criteria + agglomeration)
o 22@ Ten Years of Urban Renovation: models, MBM, Manel
Bailo, others
o PUARL Paper: Eixample, Olympic Village, 22@
o Manuel Sola-Morales: 10 lessons of Barcelona, chapter “05: The
Eixample”
DATA / METHOD
I. Case Studies of Parametrics and urbanism: rebuilding Grasshopper
definitions
- Michael Weinstock, AA
- Anna Pla Catala, Harvard GSD and IE
- Patrick Shumaker and Zaha Hadid
- Field Operations, Allen Corner
- MVDRV
- Vicente Guallart, IaaC
- Karen McClosky, University of Pennsylvania
- Neil Leach and others
II. Creating systems- kickoff project
- Abstract
o Analog tiling, Time Based systems, modeling bottom-up systems
o Simple parametrics, Grasshopper intro
o Map existing conditions
o Identify live inputs? How to integrate live inputs?
o Inputs to system? 22@ data, Oregon data SRML, cell phones,
GIS?
- Real World, 22@ study area
o Select study area + District, neighborhood, urban room
o **Limits of study- not qualitative, how to indicate qualitative aspects
o What are parameters? What is timeline, period of time based
system?
o Software limits?
Artist Janet Echelman; Architect Philip Speranza; ARUP Engineering; diamond drawing Buro Happold, stress image by ARUP London,
Photo © Will Novak
Deliverables:
Reading, Writing abstracts/outlines, discussions
- Weeks 1-2 intensely building a dialogue/language
o (Write once a week, Final 2 weeks no writing)
Case Study diagrams
- Week 2, carry hand drawn diagrams throughout term (Vicente Guallart
diagrams)
Rebuild Case Study or kickoff system in Grasshopper
- Weeks 2-3, unit to whole
- Week 4, presentations to group (share, identify, understand why, chart
findings)
Final project in Grasshopper
- Weeks 5-9
o Research, week 5
o Analog building system, week 5-6
o Testing technique, abstract, 6-7 **Present findings to group, limits,
questions
o Building system, 22@ unit/whole, 7-9
o Final system, second pass, design communication, 9-10
FINDINGS
Paper with 5 images or other graphic deliverable to Ajuntament de Barcelona
22@.
Final event presentation show, movie/animation, fabrications of abstract system
+ scenarios
CRITICAL DESIGN ISSUES
-
Context
Organizational systems
Parametric Modeling at the scale of blocks and the city
METHOD
This course is organized as one lecture group and smaller lab setting in which
students engage in independent project-based learning.
The course time will be
split between lectures, discussion and workshops using the analog and digital
media in the lab environment. The work will be shared in class to foster peerto-peer learning. Class meetings include a variety of communication formats
including lectures, tutorials, desk-critiques, pin-ups, reviews, in-class discussions
and reading assignments.
digital archiving system.
*Students are required to document their work to a
EVALUATION
Performance in course will be graded. Student work will be evaluated for
achievement in all of the areas listed in the Department of Architecture's studio
evaluation form.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
Students are expected to attend all course meetings, be on time, and stay for
the entire scheduled session working on course activities. Unexcused absences
are not permitted. Students with three (3) or more unexcused absences are
required to meet with their instructor before returning to studio. Excused
absences (such as illness or personal emergency) must be reported to the
instructor prior to the missed class if at all possible.
Grading
20% PROJECT 1 /// Writing Assignment
30% PROJECT 2 /// Case Study
40% PROJECT 3 /// Final definition and application/test
10% Class Participation
Students will not receive a final grade until all work has been uploaded for
digital submission.
Projects
The projects for this course are designed to encourage exposure to various
means of communicating your designs through a variety of tools including
everything from hand sketching to digital modeling. Detailed descriptions and
requirements will be given at the time each project is assigned.
Schedule (this schedule may change with notice)
Background, Objective, Language: 22@, Barcelona, Grasshopper, Parametrics;
Writing Assignment
Week 1
Lecture/Workshop
Lecture/Workshop
Case Studies
T
Th
Week 2
Lecture/Workshop
Week 3
Lecture/Workshop
Th
Workshop
04/16 Definitions development
04/18
T
Th
04/09 AnalogDigital Parametrics
04/11
T
Week 4
Lecture/Workshop
04/04 Barcelona+Parametrics
T
Th
04/02 Introductory Lecture
Workshop
04/23 Presentations
04/25
Workshop
Final Project, definition modeling 22@ block guidelines
Week 5
Lecture/Workshop
T
04/30
Th
Week 6
Lecture/Workshop
T
Th
Week 7
Lecture/Workshop
Th
Presentations
Week 9
Lecture/Workshop
confirmed
05/07
Workshop
05/14
05/16
T
Th
Workshop
05/09
T
Week 8
Lecture/Workshop
05/02
Workshop
05/21
05/23
T
Review/
05/28
Th
05/30
Workshop
Week 10
F
06/07 Final presentation, date to be confirmed
Week 11
F
06/07 Digital Archive Posting, date to be
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory. Lateness will be counted 15 minutes after class has
started. Absences will be counted 30 minutes after class has started. After 3
unexcused absences your grade will be lowered by a grade point for each
additional absence if you do not have a written medical, school or religious
excuse. All students are expected to participate in class discussions and to
develop their projects beyond the minimum requirement.
PROJECT OWNERSHIP, PUBLICATION, AND PUBLICITY
Work created for credit and/or using the facilities of the School of Architecture
and Allied Arts belongs jointly to the school and the student. The AAA reserves
the right to document and display all original work for the purpose of
documenting student performance as mandated by the National Architecture
Accrediting Board [NAAB]. Furthermore, the school reserves the non-exclusive
right to use images or likenesses of the work for publicity and display in print
and electronic media as well as to submit such work for competitively reviewed
exhibitions or to various award programs, The School and its representatives
[including faculty and teaching staff] have the non-exclusive right to use such
work as illustrations in scholarly and/or technical publications and presentations.
DISABLED STUDENTS
If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in
this course, please make arrangements to meet with faculty soon. You should
also request that the counselor for students with disabilities send a letter
verifying your disability.
Reading References
Allen, S. (1999), “Field Conditions,” Points and Lines, Princeton Architectural
Press, New York, NY.
Allen, S. (1998), “Diagrams Matter”, in ANY 23, Dec. 1998
Barcelo, M. (2001), La Ciutat Digital, Pacte Industrial de la Regio Metropolitana
de Barcelona, Beta Editorial
Franck, K (2007) Design from the Inside Out, Wiley, West Sussex, England
Jacobs, J. (2001),
The Nature of Economies, Random House, New York, NY.
Jacobs, J. (1969), The Economies of Cities, Vintage Books, New York, NY.
Koolhaas, R. (1994), Delirious, Monacelli, New York, NY.
de Landa, M. (2000), A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, Zone Books, MIT
Press, Cambridge, MA.
de Landa, M. (2001), course lecture for: Theories of Self Organization the
Dynamics of Cities. GSAPP, Columbia University
Scwartz, P. (1991), The Art of the Long View, Doubleday, New York, NY
Tschumi, B. (1996), Architecture and Disjunction, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Zaera-Polo, Alejandro (2010) “Between Ideas and Matters: Icons, Indexes,
Diagrams, Drawings and Graphs”, AD The Diagrams of Architecture, Wiley,
West Sussex, England