Advanced tools and algorithms for parametric landscape urbanism

Abstract

In the last decades, urban design has been influenced by its relationship with landscape. This has led to a new approach formalised and called Landscape Urbanism. Defining specific reading and analysis instruments together with proper design methods, capable of a transdisciplinary dialogue with geography, plant and biological world's languages, landscape urbanism can undoubtedly obtain more performing purposes than the ones achieved by traditional urban planning. Moreover, new digital tools are appearing, providing urbanism with new instruments for an advanced and interactive way to design cities in close relationship with landscape. The process starts with the acquisition of large quantity of data, like georeferenced maps in conjunction with relevant information about the territory, such as traffic and atmospheric pollution data, important buildings and monuments or significant landscape elements (rivers, mountains, etc.). All this information is combined onto multiple layers in order to be used by different design algorithms, connected by multi-dimensional arrays, whose reciprocal relations are dynamically controlled by architects and engineers. We will present here the case study of an ecological and regenerative infrastructure for the city of Bergamo designed on the basis of these principles, using a convenient combination of parametric tools.