SUPat

Traditional planning methods for urban systems reach their limits. Continuous interactions among people and socio-economic and ecological variables generate increasingly complex and unsustainable environments. These impact human health, well-being, and ecological quality. Our goal is therefore to integrate previously separated qualitative and quantitative design and research activities to gene­rate exemplary sustainable urban patterns on regio­nal and local scale. This requires developing new approaches clarifying design tasks through an ite­ra­tion of thorough spatial, infrastructural, and socio­eco­nomic readings, conceptual interpretations and their testing – guided by design, supported by simulation and collaborative modeling.

Developing a generic urban 3D visualization and evaluation model
Integrated ecological-economic modeling is linked to procedural urban 3D visualization for participa­tory evaluation and optimization of urban design in an interactive and iterative process. Criteria for the quality of urban patterns with regard to the provision of ecosystem services are deduced from ecological process models and transformed into rules for integrated urban green space modeling. Sustainability indicators allow for in-depth analyses and assessment of the resulting urban patterns by an interdisciplinary stakeholder group in a series of collaborative workshops. The stakeholders’ feedback is used for altering the urban design rules and thus iteratively enhancing the urban patterns.

Collaborative modeling platform for accelerating knowledge exchange
The resulting generic 3D urban green space model is one part of a collaborative modeling platform:

• Integrating interdisciplinary criteria for urban quality
• Combining urban simulation and visualization tools
• Facilitating a transdisciplinary dialogue
• Identifying novel urban patterns offering new urban qualities

Project data

Involved people

Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Ulrike Wissen Hayek
Noemi Neuenschwander

In collaboration with:

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt
Prof. Dr. Roland Scholz
Prof. Dr. Thomas Rutherford
Prof. Dr. Michel Bierlaire / Dr. Gunnar Floetteroed
Prof. Dr. Angelus Eisinger (Perimeter Stadt)
Franz Eberhard (Franz Eberhard)
Piet Eckert (e2a, Eckert Eckert Architekten)
Markus Schaefer (Hosoya Schaefer Architects)
Mathias Müller (em2n, Mathias Müller Daniel Niggli Architekten AG)
Silva Ruoss (Guagliardi Ruoss)

Duration

10.2010 - 09.2013

Website

www.supat.ethz.ch