Follow the Church - Parameters

'Kaiserbrot - Solutions you cannot draw' is a spin off started at the ETH Zuerich at the Chair of CAAD, Prof. Ludger Hovestadt. They develop digital tools to optimise planning processes, focusing on the parametrical relationships of element. So the software is able to generate different possibilities using the same parameters, or the other way round, it can optimise the solution according to parameters, while still following the conditions.
This could be described as digitalized participatory planning, the computer is calculating the solution that serves all interests. Is this at all possible, you might ask now? Well no, but they are getting close.
Together with architect teams the software has been tested in design competition with some impressive results. For example the 'Kalkbreite' 2008 together with SLIK Architekten, Zürich, CH.


Image taken from Kaisersrot / Visualisation for the competition, the view from the road.

The animation 'Follow the Church' on youtube illustrates the concept. There are some buildings (red) that have to be next to the church. where ever you drag the church symbol the others wil follow and the ret of the buildings will adjust accordingly. In a selcond stage the and plots are added and in the end the roads are generated to gain access for every plot.



They also developed a agent based model, simulating citizens habits. It is one of the few models that explicitly looks at rhythms of the everyday. There are only three different stages for the agens, sleeping, working or leisure, represented with the colours red, blue and green. The agens follow their routine and crete places for each activity. Over time they start to share the spaces if they do the same activity and the model starts to look more coherent in the end.
However it is a very basic model and very abstract, but fun to see how the rhythms start adjusting.