Initiatives / Experiments / Visions

Kvartal 42

Principal author

Sebastian Comănescu

Profession

Architect

Collaborators (team members)

Abeer Basha

Project year

2017

Location

Block 41, Belgrade, Serbia

Project description

Kvartal 42 is the result of En{coded}fields’ Fibrous Agency Workshop which took place in Florence in July 2017. The project is a formal exploration enacted by the medium of computation and parametric design. It presents a possible design heuristic using a computational and parametric toolset in order to parse through a solution space. The studied area is located in Belgrade on Ciganlia Island, a strip of land on Sava river in the close proximity of the point in which it reaches the Danube. The placement of the proposal is reinforced by the urban discepancies that can be identified on the banks of the river. The northern side is a series of soviet style mircorayons whilst the southside is lined with historical urban fabric. Without providing an in-depth solution, Kvartal 42 aims to generate an urban gradient between the two banks by means of hybridisation between a the high-rise typology and the low-rise-inner courtyard urban island making use of network theory and field conditions. “Field condition move from one toward the many, from individuals to collectives, from objects to fields” (Allen, 1999: 92) On an object scale, the high rise typology is forward developed in terms of facade, mergin a agent based system, with goal-oriented behavioural strategies. The result is a structurally and environmentally generated morphology, a highly differentiated fibrous exo-skeleton.

Text description of the author

Computational Designer/Architect. He graduated from “Ion Mincu” University for Architecture and Urban Planning in 2018 with a Msc. in Architecture. He has been working as a freelancer for 5 years, having participated in artistic/design projects in Sofia, Bratislava, Stuttgart, Bucharest, Timisoara, London and Manama. His works focus on themes such as generative design, digital fabrication, emergent technologies and soft arhitecture.

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