Integrated Parametric Urban Design in Grasshopper / Rhinoceros 3D Demonstrated on a Master Plan in Vienna

Integrated Parametric Urban Design in Grasshopper / Rhinoceros 3D Demonstrated on a Master Plan in Vienna Theresa Fink1, Reinhard Koenig2 1AIT Austrian Institute of Technology 2AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Bauhaus- Universität Weimar [email protected] [email protected] By 2050 an estimated 70 percent of the world's population will live in megacities with more than 10 million citizens (Renner 2018). This growth calls for new target-oriented, interdisciplinary methods in urban planning and design in cities to meet sustainable development targets. In response, this paper exemplifies an integrated urban design process on a master plan project in Vienna. The objective is to investigate the potential towards a holistic, digital, urban design process aimed at the development of a practical methodology for future designs. The presented urban design process includes analyses and simulation tools within Rhinoceros 3D and its plug-in Grasshopper as quality-enhancing mediums that facilitate the creative approaches in the course of the project. The increase in efficiency and variety of design variants shows a promising future for the practical suitability of this approach. Keywords: urban design, parametric modeling, urban simulation, design evaluation, environmental performance INTRODUCTION buildings. The term public realm has broader signif- A contemporary urban design process demands icance than public space because it includes build- human-centered development where future tech- ing facades and anything that is visible from eye level nologies intertwine with traditional approaches to (Karssenberg 2016). generate a sustainable, livable environment while In general, the collection of this data is rather saving time and resources. Frey defines urban de- simple in comparison with the capacity of process- sign as a discipline that deals with issues that ex- ing (Feng 2009). In contrast to traditional GIS-based ist due to the gap in responsibility between the two planning software, the use and application of para- disciplines of urban planning and architecture (Frey metric modeling techniques require a knowledge of 1999). Urban design focuses mainly on the public the individual parameters used and the digital data realm, containing public streets and squares, which is workflow (Speranza 2015). Thus, new tools allow the created by the physical boundaries as well as private simulation of different qualities based on parametric Data - CITY INFORMATION MODELLING AND GIS - Volume 3 - eCAADe 37 / SIGraDi 23 | 313 and algorithmic processes to capture the city with all possible outline for architectural competitions. Fur- its layers (Kwinter 2010). thermore, the comparison of various scenarios and Related research, for instance, is pursued by the the definition of appropriate analysis tools for an ur- Urban Strategy Playground research group at the ban design process is included. The extent of this Chair of Architecture Informatics at the Technical Uni- research focuses on the application of the method- versity of Munich [url-20]. They investigate differ- ology on a demo site in Vienna. Therefore, the de- ent densification strategies as decision support for veloped typology aligns with cultural and common authorities with a focus on the integration of digi- practice in Austria. Nevertheless, the information tal models, including data layers within analog plan- workflow can be applied in different locations all over ning methods. Synergies with the German company the world with some modifications of the definitions. DeCoding Spaces, which employs international ar- We argue that the further development of intelligent chitects and urban planners from Weimar, are rec- planning tools has a high scientific relevance due to ognized [url-4]. Their ambition is an efficient ar- the advancing urbanization. chitecture and urban planning with higher quality for which they develop the free software DeCoding METHODOLODY Spaces Toolbox for Grasshopper [url-3]. Therefore, Software. Rhinoceros 3D is a commercial Computer- this toolbox contains various analysis and generative Aided-Design (CAD) software developed by Robert components that were utilized in the methodology McNeel & Associates that bases geometry on math- of the paper. ematical nurbs models. Similarly, Esri CityEngine The development and application of urban mod- [url-21] as GIS-based commercial software converts eling and simulation tools are highly discussed as 2D data into intelligent 3D city models. The inte- mentioned above. Especially with focus on specific grated pull-through tool allows comparison of the analysis like space syntax, solar radiation, or the au- design proposal with other scenarios, that can be ex- tomated generation of urban designs using paramet- ported and used to present ideas to decision makers. ric definitions. But literature lacks the holistic frame- On the contrary to the GIS software Esri CityEngine, work of the application of different analysis methods Rhinoceros 3D is not meant for the handling of geo- within the urban design process. data. Lately, it is used in various disciplines due to its As a consequence of this gap in the literature, the high flexibility and therefore already became a state suggested integrated parametric urban design pro- of the art in many urban design offices. Particularly cess within Rhinoceros 3D [url-2] and Grasshopper is the use of Grasshopper provides many capabilities addressed. Innovative design and parametric plan- for the deployment of Rhinoceros 3D in urban devel- ning, digital tools and the experience of experts and opment. executive planners allow the fostering of designs that The methodology divides the urban design pro- can restore the quality of compromised ecosystems. cess into six steps, which are arranged linearly but A smart digital environment, supporting informative should be repeated in the form of feedback loops. decisions and facilitating the exchange of informa- Rhinoceros 3D and its parametric plug-in Grasshop- tion between stakeholders to design the built envi- per are set as the primary software environment ronment and public realm, is thus the key. The use of based on the reasons mentioned above. parametric modeling techniques furthermore allows Thus the following steps of the methodology are generating a broad set of urban design variants that linked together by Grasshopper, and the import and meet the criteria of sustainable development targets. export workflow for this methodology is defined pre- The objective is the generation and evaluation cisely. Accordingly, the data is further processed of different designs to achieve a decision base and in the stand-alone software QGIS [url-13], Mapbox 314 | eCAADe 37 / SIGraDi 23 - Data - CITY INFORMATION MODELLING AND GIS - Volume 3 Figure 1 Methodology steps 4-6: Urban Analyses, Concept Development and Design Development [url-11], Envi-Met [url-14], and Unity [url-16]. The extended street network, in which the output is de- methodology steps are envisioned as follows: fined by betweenness and closeness centrality, were carried out. Moreover, accessibility, visibility, micro- 1. Urban Analyses climate, solar radiation, and further parameters could 2. Concept Development thus be simultaneously combined in the workflow. 3. Design Development What is known as performance-based computational 4. Simulation & Analyses design contains the support in spatial analysis, syn- 5. Design Evaluation thesis, and evaluation that mainly focuses on the per- 6. Visualization formance during the design process (Nourian 2016). In the beginning, the existing urban data of the City In this light, the potential to create a sustainable en- of Vienna [url-18] is imported to the Grasshopper vironment by integrated parametric urban design is working environment as a basis in the form of SHP promising since this workflow allows further incorpo- files. This import procedure uses the library pyshp ration of additional analyses and simulation. [url-9] and besides geometry includes the informa- As a result, the semi-automated generation of tion attributes. The discussed workflow allows for a many informed design options in Grasshopper, the spatial analysis that provides traffic flows, the mix of corresponding performance measures lead to a de- uses, micro-climates, and human-centered metrics. mand for an efficient design space exploration. The The objective is to integrate the analysis of designs in intent of applying semi-automated, digital tools different disciplines such as climate, usage, and spa- within this process is to assist the designer intel- tial quality. The focus is the automation of processes ligently. Suyoto describes the goal of parametric such as the generation of building outlines in three- thinking not as a method to find a single solution dimensional volumes and the real-time control of the but to show the different possibilities by using algo- gross floor area (GFA), performance, and information rithms and modern calculation techniques (Suyoto flow. To identify the ideal urban design options, the 2015). Thus design space exploration accompanies key parameters (geometry, accessibility, visual inte- the design process to sort, quantify, and select the gration, environmental performance) are used to al- best scenarios (Barrios 2011). Furthermore, selected low information-based decision management. results can be integrated into interactive online map- The site simulations go beyond the conventional ping and Augmented Reality (AR) presentation to fa- methods belonging to traditional urban

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