Planning from Within and Alongside Informal Urban Metabolism: A Multi-agent Approach to Adaptive Masterplanning

This paper describes a possible adaptive approach to redevelopment planning in Guangzhou’s urban villages that taps into the material processes of an existing metabolism. Rather than attempting to control an entire plan, this approach sets in motion a continuous swarm of random walks within a multiagent simulation, each agent analysing partial fragments of the urban fabric as they move. The various analyses of the agents are aggregated and form a fuzzy picture of the current situation from which small, punctual interventions (new pedestrian passageways, small public spaces, etc.) can be proposed. Such proposals are paired with reconstruction methods already occurring throughout the village in order not to disrupt the unique character of the urban fabric and to allow the model to engage with the ongoing sociomaterial practices within the village. Prominent among these is a cycle of recycling material from demolished buildings into new structures. This approach differs from existing strategies that cannot incorporate informal practices and rely on representational tropes or importation of entirely new plans based on a complete demolition.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Intl.2018.12

Volume Editors
Ángela García de Paredes, Iñaqui Carnicero & Julio Salcedo-Fernandez

ISBN
978-1-944214-18-0