Iteration 3
In iteration two, the breaking down of the urban massing of the commercial strip to a more human scale leads to a better performance for the urban form. However, it is observed that the industrial, office and residential typologies were performing quite poorly.
In order to improve their performance, and to unify the urban form, a more refined urban typology is explored with three goals:
- one that is more porous and allows for better views and access to natural light.
- A narrower floor plate is needed to improve its passive performance.
- Views can be improved by twisting the blocks
- At an urban scale: introduce larger open spaces
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To improve the urban performance of the site, whilst enhancing the narrative of the pocket urban spaces that weave in and out of each other and enhance hybridisation of the space, the urban typologies were further refined to create four main urban types:
1. Mid-low Rise Commercial Strip with Residential Spaces on top
This allows for greater intermingling between the commercial strip and the residential space, it performs like a shophouse, but at a slightly larger scale. This proximity is good for owners of new businesses who want to invest more time in their shop, whilst staying connected to the unique community that the startups and schools provide.
2. Porous Residential Blocks: Made with a single script of overlapping L shaped blocks
The earlier poor performance of the residential blocks were a result of the close proximity between the blocks and the thick floorplate which results in a poor passive performance. To improve this, a slimmer floorplate is needed. L shaped blocks can help improve the performance.
The blocks are built by selecting the corner edges of the plots to create two L shaped blocks that enclose a courtyard. This blocks are then stacked two more times with some variation to the edge selection of the plots.
Due to the different sizes of the plots, the script responses procedurally to create three types of residential typologies:
a. Low Rise Courtyard Typology
b. Hybrid Block Typology
c. Pencil Block Typology
3. Single Twist Office tower block
The office tower blocks is made of two stacked blocks twisted in the middle to improve the views
4. Industrial Block consisting of two types:
a. Courtyard Block with L shaped footprint on top b. Typical Block
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The Result
The improvement to the urban typology results in a huge improvement to the performance of the urban form. Now, a large majority of the buildings are good buildings.
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