Healing urban tissue damages using artificial morphogenesis

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Bereczki, Zoltán and Lovra, Éva; (2022) Healing urban tissue damages using artificial morphogenesis. In: Annual Conference Proceedings of the XXVIII International Seminar on Urban Form. University of Strathclyde Publishing, Glasgow, pp. 173-180. ISBN 9781914241161

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Abstract

The events of the 20th century – wars, totalitarian regimes, utopian ideas – caused severe damages in the cities of Europe. The historical, organic urban tissues were erased in large areas, sometimes right next to or directly in the city centre. The majority of these areas – especially in the eastern part of Central Europe – is either urban void even today, or a slum with rundown prefab housing. Usually, even the original plots are eliminated. Reconstructing the entire original tissue is impossible and undesirable at the same time. But with the use of the method of integrated urban morphology together with Space Syntax the characteristics of the original tissue can be described, evaluated, and quantified. These data can be used as input for generative algorithms to simulate the organic morphogenesis of the original historical tissues, and with the deliberate definitions of constants, parameters, and variables – incorporating randomness – these damages can be healed. The resulting urban areas will share the characteristics of the original, erased ones, but the new street networks, plot structures, and building formations will fulfil the present needs as well. The current study will discuss the case of the former Gordon neighbourhood in Miskolc, Hungary. This area used to have notably dense urban tissue going back to the 18th century, but now is a prefab housing estate with low density, large parking lots, neglected green areas, four-track roads, and bad reputation.

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https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00080391
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