A Case Study of Script-Based Techniques in Urban Planning

Abstract

This paper introduces the use of parametric design tools in the domain of large-scale urban planning. The 253-hectare site in Moscow, Russia, was selected as the study case of the methodology. Through the exploration of a differentiated urban order functioning within a framework of overall coherence the site is interpreted as an informational data field. In the particular example, a data field represents a set of points distributed on the site. A manipulative set of input parameters is derived from the contextual forces around the site – such as 1950’s socialist housing, the new urban Moscow City and the Moscow river - while output variables incorporate a distance value for each important point on the site to those of the surrounding elements. Using script-based techniques, values are translated into the urban and formal responses of building typology, height, connectivity and directionality. These data-holding elements then cumulatively outline the pattern and grain of the site. The use of multiple transformative building typologies creates an urban tapestry bringing about diversification within the urban field, whereas the negotiation and continual shift between singular and plural building masses becomes the premise of the architectural condition. Hence, the design process focuses on the formal resolution of the multiple juxtaposed patterns that emerge from the site. Diversity within the field is amplified at the component scale where dynamic building sub systems exhibit a spatial flexibility and changing image idea.