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More Than Human explores how deep learning can aid in developing novel design tools. It continues the biospatial design research agenda of Research Cluster 7, challenging the paradigm of building first and landscape second. It rejects the long-standing conceptual separation between humans and the natural environment and aims to reintegrate non-human agency into architecture.
Extensive experimentation with procedural dataset design and generative neural networks has culminated in the creation of a sketch tool that integrates both human and non-human spaces as lines are drawn. Simple human input is interpreted by a neural network and processed through a series of site-specific environmental analyses, producing a massing model and plans with embedded ecological intelligence. This model represents a 3D map of the characteristics of the site and can be used to inform developed architectural designs.
The following animation shows the complete design process from the designer perspective.
The design tool has been tested on three sites within London, exploring its application at different scales and in varied contexts.
Examples of the procedural dataset of floor plans used to train the plan synthesis GAN.
Characteristically of our design process, large angled atriums are carved out of the mass, creating well-lit and varied habitats within, suited to both humans and non-humans.
The massing process creates a form that mediates between the varied scale of context buildings and has an appropriate relationship to each surrounding building.
On a smaller scale site, the process of sunlight carving creates atriums with more variation in form and distribution.
In predominantly human areas spaces are flooded with light, with cantilevered terraces and walkways overhead.
Over time the planted areas will grow out of the terraces and begin to take over much of the façade, blending the human with the non-human.