IPCITY . . . a very first and very rough possible approach !

IPCITY

At first a quotation by "Paul Virilio"

stereo-reality "a condition that can be obtained when the simultaneous presence of two dimensions - the real one and the virtual one - generates a completely new spatial and temporal deepness effect " (Paul Virilio, "From the Media Building to the Global City: New Scope for Contemporary Architecture and Urban Planning." Crossings 1.1, December 2000)

In the next short paragraph I "quoted" (www.ipcity.eu) the from my point of view most basic intensions or aims of IPCITY

IPCITY ! ! ! A project on Interaction and Presence in Urban Environments. With the aim to investigate analytical and technological approaches to presence in real life settings. The vision is to provide citizens, visitors, as well as professionals involved in city development or the organisation of events with a set of technologies that enable them to collaboratively envision, debate emerging developments, experience past and future views or happenings of their local urban environment, discovering new aspects of their city. IPCity moves beyond the state of the art of Presence Research also in respect to methodology. Mixed reality allows participants to change and actively shape the configurations of real and virtual layers into an experience. A set of technologies that enables them (citizens, visitors, as well as professionals) to collaboratively envision and debate emerging solutions through making artful use of a plethora of representations and of location-based services within the physical environment of a planning site. Seven themes have been identified to address: scale, time, borders, layers, fuzziness, aroundness, and mobility. Real urban renewal projects are involved as partners for field work.

Me:

The following aspects I got form the www. ipcity.eu webpage which I already "quoted" above. Accoriding to them I will let emerge my first idea what I expect by the project.


Interaction and Presence in Urban Environments:

The terms of intercation and presence are essential in urban planing. The presence of inhabitants and the existence of a urban environment (buildings, public spaces, infrastructure etc.) are the objects which will interact and influence each other. There is on the one hand the static (here maybe mutable) presence of the building environment and the existing street- and transport infrastructure ("Building Code" and the "Grid") and on the other hand the everyday flow/traffic of the agents (pedastrians) by foot or by the infrastrucutres. There is a high potential in analysing the traffic-environment (agents (pedeastrians)-environment) interaction and getting real-life on site data/experience.

Analytical and technological approaches to presence in real life settings:

As mentioned in the first aspect above the traffic-environemt interaction is of high importance for future urban planing and developing. Therefore specific analytical and technologcial approaches to presence in real-life settings have to be developed. The analytical part can be supported by the successive contribution and mutation of certain urban parameters.

Technologies that enable them (citizens, visitors, as well as professionals) to collaboratively envision, debate emerging developments, experience past and future views or happenings of their local urban environment, discovering new aspects of their city:

Looking forward . . . what TU will built up . . .

Beyond the state of the art of Presence Research:

"Presence Research" as . . . Mixed reality (MR) which allows participants to change and actively shape the configurations of real and virtual layers into an (on site) experience.



A possible Idea . . .

For the Aspern site that means to define precise urban parameters. Urban parameters like a "Grid" of street infrastructure which respect, in the case of aspern, certain local characteristics - means the adjacent already established build environment (within and surrounded by Vienna's urban context) or the planed extension of the u-train etc. (things that are already discussed in the modul by R.Neumayr). But each of the urban parameters should be adaptable ( . . . or on demnand changeable/mutable) - means that it might be possible to figure out which urban parameters fits more perfect to the site of aspern. Starting for example with an urban configuration that fits to the adjacent environment and then using traffic/flow behaviour of the agents (pedestrians/cars) finding out how this configuration works in "practice" (MR (Mixed Reality)). At the end we may find an optimal configuration which approximatly fits at its best to the adjacent environment, the on site building environmet and to the agents (pedestrians/cars) behaviour.


Urban Parameters:

"The Grid". Developing a Aspern site specific "Grid" we should regard the existing urban context (as mentioned above) with its streets which are located at specific places around the site and the planed extension of the u-train. But the real necessity of this by the urban context existing street-infrastructure will be figured out by the emergent flow/traffic behaviour in the to be developed "Grid" and "Building Code" of the Aspern site - means the existing urban context can be used as a first point of orientation.

"Building-Typology". Different types (at least Dwelling, Industry, Revival, etc.) of building-typologies should be possible.

"Building Code" - means how to code the scale (FAR (floor area ratio) (Geschoßflächendichte GFD netto = Bruttogeschoss fläche / Nettobaulandfläache )) of the Buildings, the street and (maybe) sidewalk width.

"Agents" as representative of the pedestrians and cars. Later on we should be able to introduce different kinds of agents like pedestrians, cars, public transport systems etc. .

As a start the amount of urban parameters (for now four) should be well arranged so that the influence of each parameter can be better observed and analysed. Further the "interaction" between the urban parameters must be warranted - means a certain interactivity of the entire systems. The agents should be able to recognize the different building-typologies (Dewlling, Industry, etc.) and the "Grid" infrastructure.


. . . this all is a very first and very rough approach ! ! ! ! !

And for sure some pictures will follow as soon as possible . . . !