CC1803

CASE study
places as well as rich green belts will be
placed at the foot of high-rise buildings
with a minimal ground area. The exterior
designs of the high-rises will make them
disappear into the sky to make sure they
do not have a dominating presence. The
beams supporting the structures of the
high-rise buildings will disappear into
vegetation and waterfalls that are part of
the public areas at their feet, creating a
comfortable environment in spite of the
external supports.
(2) Loop bridge
To consolidate lines of flow and
conserve energy consumed by traffic
speed reduction, "loop" bridges will span
the canyons between the 4 km loops
with curves ideal for electric vehicle
entry. The inside of the loop bridges will
contain urban parks to avoid interfering
with the existing scenery, and the
inclusion of walking and cycling paths
will offer views of the existing scenery
and the urban parks. These loop bridges
will be positioned where wind and rivers
flow through, making them places to
generate water and wind-powered
electricity from the terrain in addition to
urban parks to highlight the scenery.
(3) Residential areas
Places with relatively slight inclines
among the upward and downward
slopes along the loop's terrain will be
used as residential areas. They will
feature small roads that fit electric
vehicles comfortably, walking paths with
rich vegetation, and a comfortable
thermal environment thanks to the wind
flowing from the top to the bottom of the
mountains.
Infrastructure such as water, electricity,
and communications will be
concentrated in the loop along the
terrain, making it more efficient than the
usual net-like configuration. In addition,
the bridge areas will provide wind and
hydropower for the loop, making the
loop an energy generator. In residential
areas connected to the loop, not only
will electric vehicles deliver public
services and supplies, but the loop itself
will deliver energy.
THE PROJECT IN PROCESS
The Loop Linear City project was unique
in many ways. The team was divided
into two locations, half working on the
architectural and urban design concept
from TAKENAKA's main office in Osaka,
and the other half working from
Enzyme's headquarters in Hong Kong,
developing the terrain works and the
landscape modeling and producing the
renders and the animation.
Several scripts were created to analyse
and understand the complex topography
and locate areas where they could fit the
required amount of people, defining
nodes of activity that could be broken
down into different archetypes.
The terrain works were handled in
Rhino/Grasshopper, making it easy to
sculpt the roads and landscape features
that would create the loop identity.
Afterwards, the terrain was transformed
into ARCHICAD meshes using scripts
shared by Jaime Ingram.
In a separate script, the team designed
the urban areas defined by a structural
network of arches supporting the towers
and creating the urban spaces
underneath, merged with the
surrounding nature. Finally, the project
was put into Twinmotion, creating a VR
world from which the animations and
flythroughs were created. Still frames
from the presentation were further
enhanced using Photoshop.
The link from ARCHICAD to Twinmotion
and the speed and efficiency of working
on a real-time render engine (Twinmotion
is powered by the Unreal Engine)
enabled designers to continue working
on models right up to the last minute,
with the animation and renders exported
just a couple of days before submission.
CONCLUSION
This is the second collaboration project
between TAKENAKA Corporation and
Enzyme, and "one of the most
challenging and fun projects that Enzyme
has worked on in 2017," said Enzyme Co-
Founder Jorge Beneitez. “Each time the
engine just feels more and more
engaged. ...We are both so eager to
learn, to experiment and to explore new
workflows, tools and methodologies to
push ourselves," he added. Jorge also
said that the workflow between
Rhino/Grasshopper, ARCHICAD and
Twinmotion is great but still being tested.
"We spent quite a lot of time figuring out
the best ways to transform and convert
geometries from one software to the next,
especially working with terrain/meshes
and importing to Twinmotion."
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March/April 2018 17