This design studio focused on the creative deployment of computational design techniques for developing generative data-driven urban design solutions. Western Sydney, with its latest urban implant in the form of the new airport at Badgerys Creek and associated urban growth scenarios, created a case for the studio.
The studio proposed fully scalable generative design systems that gave primary aid in questioning urban density, and asked students to compare computationally generated urban growth densities according to different performance criteria. Students studied the different possible spatial arrangements through which density with multiple different uses can be generated, whilst also accounting for crucial issues of mobility, health, economics and energy.
The studio, via its city-scale data-driven design (DDD) approach embarks upon the application of generative computational design strategies to envision new urban spaces. Students produced intense investigations into computational strategies, such as cellular automata, recursive branching, multi-agent systems and grid distortion. By combining these strategies with raw data relating to ecological conditions, governmental regulations, gentrification and environmental conditions, they were able to build informed spatial responses to dynamic urban conditions.
