Real-Time Urban Design Tool

This project is located in Nesselande, which is in the vicinity of Rotterdam. It is a site of 20ha and lies next to the A20 . The site needs a soundbarrier because the area behind the site is a park-city-zone. The buildings and landscape in this proposal are considered as continuity which cannot be separated. The 3-dimensional landscape can be transformed into a building. Even the soundbarrier is formed by the heads of the buildings. In that way, they are clearly visible from the A20 because they are not behind the soundbarrier, but they take part of the soundbarrier.

The directors of the companies that would like to build in Nesselande are becoming a participator in the architectonical and urban development. They are submitted to certain rules which they must obey to get an overview of the total Nesselande-area. Within these rules, the participators can adjust their own parameters of the design-formula, still staying inside a given width. This width is chosen according to the flows of the landscape. Continuity is the main theme between relations such as volumes, buildings-landscape and facades-roofs.

The interactive game "Participator Nesselande" gives the companies an immediate overview of the building-possibilities on the site. The rules of this game are the urban criteria and the architectonical rules. By playing this game, the stakeholders have an immediate view in the consequences of a choice that they make. By making the choices visible in an interactive, architectural, urban 3d-model, the process of designing and deciding are going a lot quicker. The requests of the city are a design-rule in the game, so the game has never got to restart. The stakeholders can easily adjust their own building so that the other participants can see the effect instantly. This game has a big effect on the contact between the city and the clients. 

The model is completely parametric. All building-elements are dynamically connected to each other. There is a possibility to fix certain parameters, when a client has a desire to do so. This technique of designing parametrically is used by the stakeholders.

Employer: ONL

Team: 
Kas Oosterhuis, Sander Boer, Cas Aalbers, Dara Burke, Christian Friedrich, Stefan Schneider, Gon Zifoni

Client:
OBR Rotterdam

My involvement: 
I built the parametric design game.

Impression modeled by Sander Boer

Screenshot of 'Participator Nesselande' design game made by Christian Friedrich