AUD1_AHMAD_NADINE_ELIANA "SHAPE SHIFTED CITY"

OUR "SHAPE SHIFTED CITY"

MANIFESTO

A city is defined by its people, but are we the ones shaping it or does it shape us? The shape of Dubai is primarily driven by factors that weakened the intimate connection between man and neighbor, man and his community, and man and his city. 

The city is a mirror, a reflection of its people: its shape, a result of human behavior. We are too a mirror, a reflection of our city: our shape, is a result of how our city has been built. It’s unfortunate that our city’s shape has been compromised due to a factor far from human, a piece of paper, money. Since this is not the perfect and suitable shape of a city for people, and since people are a resultant and affected by a city, in return our lives become imperfect nor suitable.

In order to create a better and more suitable environment in a city, we have collected some data that are considered as stimuli inputs in this project. Beginning with data on transportation means currently in Dubai, which include pedestrian activity and vehicle transportation. Second, building typologies and their comfort and social implications. Third, data on infrastructure and land use, whether it’s mass vs. void, public vs. private, vegetation planning, or thermal comfort within a city. Fourth, having an idea of cultural diversities in the UAE, which result in societal/ behavioral branches under one context.

But the collection of information merely is still not ready to generate a more suitable city, one must turn information into data. This, begins by organizing and classifying information, drawing similarities and differences, extracting possibilities of relationships between data that can affect each other. For instance, drawing the relationship and differences between possibility and prioritization for pedestrian flow compared to that for motorized transportation (vehicles, metro, or hyper loop).

Another opportunity to generate data is to draw the relationship between building typologies and their implication on environmental and social comfort. This data could also allow the generation of more efficient hybrid typologies bespoke to our city’s needs. Same follows when considering infrastructure. Observing and understanding what different arrangements can offer, we can redesign the infrastructure to optimize user comfort, experience, and efficiency; based on shadow, solar radiation, wind and accessibility studies imposed by the infrastructure’s layout and planning. Lastly, identifying Dubai’s unique diversity, followed by understanding resulting differences in lifestyle and preferences and movement within the city, enables us to analyze how communities with better facilities have certain implications on the efficiency and movement of user’s vs other areas that are lacking.

COLLAGES

Cultural Branches

.  200 different Nationalities  = 200 different cultures

.  People from different cultures behave/live differently

Possible Reasons:

High class vs Lower class (Financial status)

Developed vs Developing Countries

Customs, Traditions, & Religions  

BIRD VIEW

CROSS SECTION

COMIC BOOKLET

Having to deal with an empty 1 km2

area, we needed a guide that leads

us to the starting point of the urban

design. There must be a grid that all

buildings will follow, & a city is never

perfectly geometrical. Therefore,

irregularity was needed to match

reality and radicality, & the grid

distortion here is based on the creek

& surrounding context.

The different building typologies

have different characteristics. They

differ in shape, height, and they also

differ in the building area. The areas

of the plot geometries taken from

the grid were the decision maker of

positioning the buildings. The

“Neutral” style units represent

buildings and institutions that every

city needs such as hospitals, schools,

& shopping malls. Thus, they were

situated in the plots with the largest

areas. On the other hand, the

individualistic style units were

situated in the smallest plot areas

as they are 1-2 stories small flats

that have the individualistic

environment. In addition, the

buildings deform to match the shape

of their plot geometries, which we

were able to do using “twisted box”

in grasshopper

After positioning the different

buildings in their geometry’s

“plots”, we used “graph mapper”

to adjust the building heights and

have more flexibility and freedom.

However, there was the problem

of some buildings being blocking

the creek view on the neighboring

buildings. Thus, we provided

more freedom & allowed all

buildings to have the view over

the creek by manually removing

unnecessary units that are

blocking the view.

CURRENT URBAN FABRIC

COULD BE OPTIMIZED TO BE A BETTER ARCHITECTECTURAL RESPONSE TO SOCIAL AND CONTEXTUAL REQUIREMENTS 

 

RADICAL CITY PROPOSAL

RADICAL CITY PROPOSAL TO RESPOND TO THE CONTEXT, CLIMATE, CREEK, AND DIVERSITY OF THE PEOPLE.