Author(s)/Creator(s)

Ben Anderson-Nelson

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

B. ARCH

Date

Spring 5-2016

Keywords

architecture, settlement, growth, master-planning, housing, video game

Language

English

Disciplines

Architectural Engineering | Architectural Technology | Urban, Community and Regional Planning

Description/Abstract

The position of the architect when designing is to arbitrate which information is relevant and which is not, and to do so across a broad spectrum of fields. Considering this, Christopher Alexander claimed as long ago as 1964, that “design problems are reaching insoluble levels of complexity.”This thesis focuses on informal settlement growth and how architects can investigate growth as a part of master-planning new housing. Drawing on case studies of settlements, video game logics, and existing architectural tools, a tool was developed to study the growth of settlements. This tool is based on cellular automata, a spatial and algorithmic method of computer modeling based on specific rules. The rules themselves have been developed to model settlement growth from both single house and neighborhood level as accurately as possible. The final result is a visual representation of hypothetical additions to homes over a period of time. The information produced can be used by architects to more holistically understand planning effects on settlement growth, and then to plan settlements with that informal growth in mind.

Source

local input

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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