PSI - Issue 10

N. Kourniatis et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 10 (2018) 187–194 N. Kourniatis and I. Fakiri / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000 – 000

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1. Introduction

Before tackling the main issue of the Research presented in this paper, it is necessary to present the broader context of this research, as this constitutes the basis, which feeds the research interests, produces general questions and directs research methods.

1.1. Research framework

In 2005 Philippe Morel (2005), in the introduction to a digital technologies workshop, argued that setting aside “stylistic and decorative” eclecticisms, in today’s age architectural composition is being shifted from a “first -level realism” which involves “the direct perception of data with the naked eye”, to a “second - level realism” which “has no eyes in order to see the whole”. For John Wiley (Wiley (2009)), the second attempt is more than a search for a “ style ” , it is a profound paradigm shift from, as the creative enterprise now rests less with the individual gesture, and instead in the refinement of design methods whose design outcomes oscillate from the accidental to the intentional. The breakthrough according to Wiley is the relationship of the architect himself with the dynamic field, where his every decision instead does not produce a designed object but contains a multiplicity of different results. At the decline of our late capitalist era, we are witnessing a paradigm shift that encourages a new relationship between design and object, which, according to Michael Hays (1998) is nothing other than the passage from a “ critical history ” to a “ theory ” of architecture. Many researchers believe that this change in paradigm opens up the door for Architecture to completely redefine its theoretical and tool-related position. In the field of design, new concepts and tools are established, placing emphasis on change, modification and the ultimate logic. According to Neil Leach (2009) for some time now, new technologies have had a substantial impact on archi tectural design. Back in 2002 Andrew Gillespie (2007) was forced to comment that planners have yet to develop the awareness, let alone the expertise or appropriate policy intervention mechanisms that would enable them to influence the spatial development of city. It would seem that we are now entering a new threshold condition, as the application of these tools has begun to shift up a scale to the level of the urban. This issue tracks these developments, and considers the real potential of using these tools not only to design better cities for the future, but also to understand and analyze our existing cities, and navigate them in new ways. Parametric Urbanism is not a new concept; rather, it is a new computational form that enables a shift from notions of the master-plan to that of master-algorithm as an urban design tool. This shift changes the conception of urban design from a sequential set of decisions at reducing scales, to a simultaneous process in which a set of micro or local decisions interact to generate a complex urban system. 1.2. Tools and strategies towards smarter cities In this section we attempt to define a methodology in which the urban landscape is shaped through a complex diagrammatic entity capable of operating through feedback. The integration of metabolic processes of the natural landscape , as defined by Corner (2003), in the production of the urban landscape also involving material and geometrical parameters, requires a management. The methodology is based on the Empirical Documentation investigating the establishment of the urban landscape through a composite diagrammatic entity, capable of operating with feedback and shaping a wider scope than that of the active metabolic factors. Therefore, the present study will formulate a new dynamic tool that incorporates the concepts of dynamic planning processes towards the re-management of the cityscape. Specifically, depending on the issue raised each time, the dynamic planning tool is organized in two levels, namely tanks (data collection), conduit (indicators), affordance. Along this policy lines, the first level regards the data configuration. Specifically, all data - parameters derived from the reading of the landscape are identified, recorded and assessed, as well as feed the system and affect its 2. The metabolism of cities: A new dynamic tool towards smarter cities