Softgrid’s entry for the Taiwan Tower Conceptual Design Competition (SKY-MILL) received a Merit Award. We have added additional images of the competition to this post. Please click on an image to enlarge.

Please see ‘Judging Results’ at:
http://www.twtower.com.tw/index_e.asp

Allowing the Informal – Urban Block – 001 from softgrid_limited on Vimeo.

A study into how emergence can be allowed and partially directed within urban territories by understanding the underlying rules.
Part of a series of urban models incorporating emergent behaviour by Eric Cheung while he was a student in Post-Graduate Unit 6 at the University of Nottingham.Please see the following link for more detail:
http://designunit6.com/

Student: Eric Cheung
Research Leader: Ulysses Sengupta

In a climate of increasing environmental and social awareness, in a world where recognition of limited resources and unnecessary displays of political power and wealth are perceived as both wasteful and crass, the competition for a new landmark tower in Taiwan was an interesting brief. Our approach was to interrogate both the possible functionality and symbolism in a new tower, in an attempt to find positive interpretations for both.

The design acts to stitch surrounding urban fabrics integrating civic landscapes, energy and production into a new form of landmark that creates spectacular views across the city of Taichung. An ephemeral silhuette is proposed that blurs form, material and environment while offering new possibilities for the creation of wind energy and crop production taking advantage of the verticality and height implicit in the  form.

Team:
Ulysses Sengupta
Tom Lea
Eric Cheung

Emergent Ecologies

Emergent Ecologies from softgrid_limited on Vimeo.

A digital exploration into parametric urban design methods by John Lynch while he was a student in Post-Graduate Unit 6 at the University of Nottingham. Please see the following link for more detail:
http://designunit6.com/

Student: John Lynch
Research Leader: Ulysses Sengupta

On a recent visit I was lucky enough to be shown around this beautiful mountain temple by the buddhist abbott, while I was studying temple typologies for another project in the same province.

I was invited to sit in as a panelist on a session at the festival by Marisol Garcia, from UCL at the Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries. The discussion was on the contemporary influences, forces, processes and outcomes of urban transformation in Istanbul, centred around the case of Kartal, where an international design competition has been won by Zaha Hadid Architects to transform a post-industrial neighbourhood into a new CBD for Istanbul (‘the CBD’ being the broad theme for this year’s festival).

Following a well researched presentation by the students, the discussion moved onto the possibilities that may exist somewhere in between practice and research to influnce urban change towards more inclusive futures. It was interesting to note both the depth of research and the attempt to implement methodologies for bottom up drivers within processes of urban transformation. The session proved to be too short for the discussion to progress to combining bottom up approaches and inputs with the top down policies and debates. It will be interesting to see if parallel tools will be proposed.

For further information on the context of the session, a web article by UCL’s MSc Building and Urban Design in Development (BUDD) is linked here

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/courses/masters/msc_building/Fieldwork/Istanbulreport2010lowres

Blog by MSc Building and Urban Design in Development course at UCL (within Development Planning Unit)
http://www.abitare.it/highlights/city-of-islands-istanbul-at-a-crossroads/

Festival Website
http://thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com/2010-programme/