EMPATHIC SPACE THE COMPUTATION OF HUMAN-CENTRIC ARCHITECTURE GUEST-EDITED BY CHRISTIAN DERIX AND ÅSMUND IZAKI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 05 / 2014

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3 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN GUEST-EDITED BY CHRISTIAN DERIX AND ÅSMUND IZAKI EMPATHIC SPACE THE COMPUTATION OF HUMAN-CENTRIC ARCHITECTURE 05 / 2014 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 ISSN PROFILE NO 231 ISBN

4 1 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 PROFILE NO 231 Editorial Offices John Wiley & Sons 25 John Street London WC1N 2BS UK T: +44 (0) Editor Helen Castle Managing Editor (Freelance) Caroline Ellerby Production Editor Elizabeth Gongde Prepress Artmedia, London Art Direction and Design CHK Design: Christian Küsters Sophie Troppmair Printed in Italy by Printer Trento Srl All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Subscribe to 1 3 is published bimonthly and is available to purchase on both a subscription basis and as individual volumes at the following prices. Prices Individual copies: / US$45 Individual issues on 3 App for ipad: 9.99 / US$13.99 Mailing fees for print may apply Annual Subscription Rates Student: 75 / US$117 print only Personal: 120 / US$189 print and ipad access Institutional: 212 / US$398 print or online Institutional: 244 / US$457 combined print and online 6-issue subscription on 3 App for ipad: / US$64.99 Subscription Offices UK John Wiley & Sons Ltd Journals Administration Department 1 Oldlands Way, Bognor Regis West Sussex, PO22 9SA, UK T: +44 (0) F: +44 (0) E: cs-journals@wiley.com Print ISSN: Online ISSN: Prices are for six issues and include postage and handling charges. Individual-rate subscriptions must be paid by personal cheque or credit card. Individual-rate subscriptions may not be resold or used as library copies. All prices are subject to change without notice. Rights and Permissions Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to: Permissions Department John Wiley & Sons Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ UK F: +44 (0) E: permreq@wiley.com Front and back cover: Gianni Colombo, Elastic Space, c/o Galleria L Attico, Rome, Courtesy Archive Gianni Colombo, Milan Inside front cover: ART+COM, River is, Yeongsan River Pavilion, Gwangju, South Korea, ART+COM 05 /

5 IN THIS ISSUE 1 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN GUEST-EDITED BY CHRISTIAN DERIX AND ÅSMUND IZAKI In memory of Paul Coates EMPATHIC SPACE: THE COMPUTATION OF HUMAN- CENTRIC ARCHITECTURE 5 EDITORIAL Helen Castle 6 ABOUT THE GUEST-EDITORS Christian Derix and Åsmund Izaki 8 SPOTLIGHT Visual highlights of the issue 14 INTRODUCTION The Space of People in Computation Christian Derix HEURISTIC GENERATION 24 Generative Design Methods and the Exploration of Worlds of Formal Possibility Philip Steadman 32 The Deep Structure of the Picturesque Paul Coates and Christian Derix 32 EDITORIAL BOARD Will Alsop Denise Bratton Paul Brislin Mark Burry André Chaszar Nigel Coates Peter Cook Teddy Cruz Max Fordham Massimiliano Fuksas Edwin Heathcote Michael Hensel Anthony Hunt Charles Jencks Bob Maxwell Brian McGrath Jayne Merkel Peter Murray Mark Robbins Deborah Saunt Patrik Schumacher Neil Spiller Leon van Schaik Michael Weinstock Ken Yeang Alejandro Zaera-Polo 38 Crafting Space: Generative Processes of Architectural Configurations Kazuhiro Kojima 46 Solutions You Cannot Draw Markus Braach INTERACTIONS IN THE FIELD 54 Embracing the Creativity of Stigmergy in Social Insects Guy Theraulaz 60 Block/Tower: A Vertical Landscape in Midtown Manhattan Stan Allen and Rafi Segal 66 Programs as Paradigms Pablo Miranda Carranza 3

6 COGNITIVE CONDITIONS 74 Spatial Cognition and Architectural Space: Research Perspectives Daniel R Montello 80 Empathic Imagination: Formal and Experiential Projection Juhani Pallasmaa 86 The Future is Curved Olafur Eliasson 94 The Aura of the Digital Jussi Ängeslevä EXPERIENTIAL TYPOLOGIES 100 The Generic City and its Origins Bill Hillier 106 Polyvalence: The Competence of Form and Space with Regard to Different Interpretations Herman Hertzberger 114 Encoding User Experiences Åsmund Izaki and Lucy Helme FUTURE FORWARD 122 New Curricula: Syntonic Systems Christian Derix and Åsmund Izaki 130 Near Futures: Associative Archetypes Christian Derix and Prarthana Jagannath 136 COUNTERPOINT How Can Code be Used to Address Spatiality in Architecture? Leon van Schaik 142 CONTRIBUTORS It is necessary to unlearn space in order to embody space. Olafur Eliasson 4

7 EDITORIAL Helen Castle Since the evaporation of the Modernist project, space has been losing ground in architecture. Whereas space as a term in the second half of the 20th century was constantly on the lips of every architect, echoing Le Corbusier, by the late 1990s and early 2000s it had receded. The onset of computer-aided generative design had led to new preoccupations with surface and parametricism. Space, though, did not wholly wane in the practice of architecture. It remained locked into the working methods and drafted plans of experienced architects, like Herman Hertzberger (pp ), who projected spatial configurations that intuitively responded to users needs. This issue not only effectively reasserts the position of space in architecture in a highly current computational context, but reframes its significance in the realisation of work that is human-centric, or empathic. In terms of architectural computation this publication builds on an existing lineage of work, which is fully described by Guest-Editor Christian Derix in his introduction (pp 14 23). It picks up the baton from 1960s computing pioneers, such as Paul Coates and John Frazer, who first experimented with self-organising systems and a theoretical framework for the autonomy of space, as well as the ground-breaking work undertaken by Bill Hillier in the 1970s, establishing space syntax as a comprehensive method for exploring how people relate to space in the built environment. Understanding the potential for an emphasis on the user and the occupation of space for practice, Derix, as Director at WoodsBagot, and previously Director for Computational Design at Aedas R&D ( ), has assimilated his knowledge of the work of the likes of Paul Coates, who he taught with at the University of East London, in an approach that applied algorithms in the exploration of human behaviours, which could be fully utilised in the development of large-scale masterplanning, major urban schemes and infrastructure projects, as well as in individual buildings. Just as the Guest-Editors Christian Derix and Åsmund Izaki acknowledge their debt in this issue to an earlier generation of computational designers and thinkers, so do they recognise the work undertaken by others in the field of cognition, perception and phenomenology. This is most apparent in the inclusion of articles by the renowned architectural thinker and author Juhani Pallasmaa (pp 80 5) and artist Olafur Eliasson (pp 86 93). The compatibility between an empathic approach and computation is not, however, quite a done deal. Could we be leaving too much to code? Could a focus on the computational aspect of mapping human behaviour lead to architects neglecting to develop their own spatial consciousness or intelligence? Controversially, Leon van Schaik, the author of the Counterpoint thinks so (pp ). 1 Text 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Image Illustration by Frances Castle 5

8 Aedas R&D Computational Design Research (CDR), Circulation resilience analysis, top: Part of the EU research project, Resilient Infrastructure and Building Security, in collaboration with the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Sciences, University College London (UCL). Aedas R&D Computational Design Research (CDR), Visual risk simulation, 2011 centre left: CDR has developed multiple visibility simulations for building volumes, multi-floor interiors and urban spaces. Aedas R&D Computational Design Research (CDR), Planning Narrative Visualisation, centre right: Time-based visualisation of online articles about the planning of the London 2012 Olympic stadium, in collaboration with Dr Albena Yaneva of the Manchester Architectural Research Centre (MARC). Aedas R&D Computational Design Research (CDR), Visual performance of the September 11th Memorial Museum, New York, 2007 bottom: Visualisation showing each location has a value of visual performance that approximates visitors legibility of the interior space. In collaboration with Davis Brody Bond Architects and Planners, New York. 6

9 ABOUT THE GUEST-EDITORS CHRISTIAN DERIX AND ÅSMUND IZAKI Christian Derix and Åsmund Izaki have developed a unique design strategy using computation as a vehicle to embed human-centric concerns in spatial systems. With the Computational Design Research (CDR) group of Aedas R&D, founded by Derix in 2004, they have created design simulations for many projects in different contexts, from large professional urban and architectural projects, to speculative research in academic collaborations, Web-based visualisations and furniture systems. Their collaboration started in 2007 on the development of new spatial analysis simulations for the National September 11th Memorial Museum project in New York. Here, it became evident that they share a strong interest in spatial qualities and algorithmic design, focusing on the user as occupant and designer to access phenomena of space through algorithmic processes. Both are architects, with Derix providing expertise in algorithmic models of self-organisation and spatial cognition, while Izaki has extensive experience in interactive systems of design. They have integrated their complementary knowledge for projects based on simulating human perception and user interaction for the analysis and generation of architectural space. This synergetic set of knowledge and skills has not only provided a direction for CDR, but also a research focus user-centric simulation for the Aedas R&D initiative as a whole. They have published their approach and projects through more than 40 academic papers, book chapters and guest lecturing, leading to a new view of architectural computing that has been adopted by several architecture schools of universities including ETH Zurich and KTH Stockholm. The work of CDR has received commendations for spatial simulation at awards such as the 2010 Presidents Medal for Research in Practice of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the 2011 Italian Compasso d Oro for the online algorithmic design engine of the VITA Shelving System for MDFItalia, and the 2012 Centre for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats (CTBUH) Innovation award for the computer-activated responsive facade of the Al Bahar towers. CDR is now advancing the field of human-centric computational design for spatial strategies at global design and consulting firm WoodsBagot, of which Derix is a director. Christian Derix co-founded Aedas R&D in London. He studied architecture and computation in Milan and London, and has taught the subject at various European universities since 2001, including the University of East London, University College London (UCL), Milan Polytechnic and the Technical University of Vienna, and as a visiting professor at the Technical University of Munich. He is currently an associate professor at IE University Madrid, and a visiting professor at the University of Sheffield. In 2002 he founded the Centre for Evolutionary Computing in Architecture (CECA) at the University of East London with the late Paul Coates, with whom he taught until Here he introduced the use of self-organising neural networks to space planning and developed a series of algorithmic models to investigate artificial cognition and spatial organisation, including models of evolutionary computing for masterplanning with multi-criteria optimisation. Åsmund Izaki is a senior designer at WoodsBagot. He previously worked as a senior designer and researcher at the Aedas R&D CDR, during which he developed computational models for urban planning, architecture and furniture through code, in the form of interactive tools. Projects have included an interactive interface for the VITA shelving system, and visibility analysis for the National September 11th Memorial Museum to research modelling perceptual and experiential aspects of architecture. He holds an MArch from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he specialised in architecture and adaptive systems, before sharpening his expertise with graduate studies in art and technology at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. After finishing his studies he worked with the architecture group servo and the interaction design office Kram/Weisshaar on projects that have been widely exhibited and published internationally. He has led a number of courses on topics related to design and technology at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design and at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. 1 Text 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images: p 6 Aedas; p 7(t) Christian Derix; p 7(b) Ami Izaki 7

10 SPOTLIGHT Stan Allen and Rafi Segal Block/Tower, 119 Third Avenue, Manhattan, New York, 2011 Views of the south (left) and north (right) elevations showing the spatial arrangement of programmes. 8

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12 Pablo Miranda Carranza Betweenness centrality of Apple Valley, Minnesota, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, 2014 The width of the roads shows their betweenness centrality, a measure used in network analysis. It is calculated by counting the amount of shortest paths that pass through an edge or node, for all shortest paths from every node to all other nodes. Calculated using the Open Source Boost graph library. 10

13 Olafur Eliasson Your rainbow panorama, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark, 2011 Situated on the roof of ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Your rainbow panorama is a 150-metre (490-foot) long coloured glass circular walkway. 11

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15 John Harding Artificial Curator, Centre for Evolutionary Computing in Architecture (CECA), University of East London, 2008 A multi-stage synthetic machine learning model to generate intuitive exhibition layouts. The figure shows an image composition of various stages of associative networks interpreting exhibition features, schedules and layout modules, before the resulting plans. Text 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images: pp 8-9 Stan Allen and Rafi Segal; p 10 Pablo MIranda Carranza; p Olafur Eliasson. Courtesy of ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark pp John Harding 13