Avani Project Book Final

Avani INTRODUCING ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY TO THE URBAN LANDSCAPE AVANTIKA VELHO & VARUN MEHTA



A NOTE FROM THE CREATORS In Sanskrit, avani can be interpreted as the soil or the earth. We want our cities of the future to possess a richer tie-in to the ground they stand on and the ecologies they live among. This project is about embracing our biological foundations as we innovate our structural systems. —i—

MEET THE AUTHOR AVANTIKA VELHO is a junior at RISD pursuing a degree in Industrial Design with a concentration in Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies. She is an inquisitive thinker who is passionate about designing accessible, sustainable future technologies. — ii —

MEET THE AUTHOR VARUN MEHTA is an artist, designer, & 4th year student at RISD. He’s interested in emerging tech, speculative design, and meshing design with other fields of study. His name rhymes with maroon. — iii —

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Intro



LÉON KRIER ONCE SAID “A city is not an accident but the result of coherent visions and aims.” JANE JACOBS ONCE SAID “There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” VARUN & AVANTIKA ONCE SAID “Let’s get to work.” —9—

Course Info COURSE Adaptive Ecologies: Technologies, Natures, Societies INSTRUCTORS Soojung Ham & Ryan McCaffrey DEPARTMENT Industrial Design + Architecture — 10 —

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Project Brief This project tasked us with researching how natures, technologies, and social interactions can redefine smart cities as adaptive ecologies, split into two phases, Research and Design. — 12 —

RESEARCH As researchers, we examined natural energy DESIGN systems. We asked ourselves, how were these structures of energy related to their large ecological conditions? What could we learn from these systems about social organization? We aimed to understand how nature metabolizes and distributes energy in both centralized and decentralized networks, and how these networks create adaptive relationships between ecological, technological, and social systems. As designers, we focused on the issue of how communities can live with nature, as well as be a part of its dynamic processes. How do energy infrastructures, social infrastructures, and natural ecosystems interact? How can these systems be adaptive to each other? In order to take on these questions, we worked with analytical models and scenario-based planning to propose ecological modules, social scenarios, and technological fragments of future environments. Our goal is to design new systems of sustainable energy infrastructures that are adaptive to the changing ecological and social conditions our societies will face. — 13 —



Research Phase



Biological Altruism RESEARCHERS Avantika Velho with Al Huang WHAT IS IT? Altruism is the behavior of an individual that benefits another at its own expense. It is different from symbiosis. Altruism has a risk or cost associated with it. WHY CARE? Phenotypic plasticity allows for a significant level of adaptation to be enacted within an organism, crucially within its lifespan. This means that organisms with phenotypic plasticity can adapt to their surroundings on the same level as evolution/nature selection, but they can do it much, much, much faster. — 17 —

ALTRUSIM Altruism is traditionally defined as but boosts the fitness of its the behavior of an individual that relatives—who have a greater than benefits another organism at its average chance of carrying the own expense. gene themselves (Kin selection). Altruism has also been observed The biological notion of altruism between unrelated individuals and is not identical to the everyday even across species. This type of concept as it is not motivated by interaction is called reciprocal intentions. It is important to note altruism. The logic behind it that altruism is not mutualism suggests that it may pay an as the altruistic act has must organism to help another if there pose the actor an apparent is an expectation of the favor disadvantage. being returned in the future.i While behaving altruistically is i. https://www.researchgate.net/publica- disadvantageous for the individual tion/230818222_The_Evolution_of_Reciprocal_Altruism organism itself, it is advantageous at the group level. Within each group, altruists will be at a selective disadvantage relative to their selfish colleagues, but the fitness of the group as a whole will be enhanced by the presence of altruists. Groups composed only or mainly of selfish organisms are outcompeted. From a genetic standpoint, the altruistic gene allows an organism to behave in a way that reduces its own fitness — 18 —

ALARM–CALLING IN MONKEYS & DEER The Grey Langurs give alarm that benefits the collective and calls to warn their groups of allows the group (in the short the presence of predators (ex. term ) to adapt to face the threat tiger/ leopard), even though in and in the long term ensures the doing so they attract attention survival of this cooperative group to themselves, increasing and others that are connected their personal chance of being to it ecologically. In this way, one attacked. Other species (ex. can also view this arrangement as Spotted Deer -Chital ) that self-organized and decentralized recognize the meaning of the group awareness where it is the alarm call, benefit from it and also individual’s responsibility to self- exhibit a tendency to reciprocate delegate the risk and give a signal. the identified altruistic behavior. Altruism is the behavior of an Alarm-calling can be understood individual that benefits another as adaptive on multiple levels. at its own expense. It is different Firstly, it is a reaction to a from symbiosis. Altruism has a change/threat in the environment risk or cost associated with it. that is astutely detected and responded to. If one scales up to Many organisms exhibit altruistic the group level, alarm-calling is behavior, including bacteria, an evolutionarily stable strategy birds & mammals. We chose the monkey, deer and tiger system to investigate because Avantika has personally observed altruism between langur & chital and their behaviors are widely documented. — 19 —

DIAGRAMS — 20 —

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Phenotypic Plasticity RESEARCHERS Varun Mehta with Stephanie Hu WHAT IS IT? The ability of an organism to change in response to stimuli or inputs from its environment over time, specifically without a change in organism’s genes. Basically, it’s a quick–draw system of adaptability that reacts to a changing environment. WHY CARE? Phenotypic plasticity allows for a significant level of adaptation to be enacted within an organism, crucially within its lifespan. This means that organisms with phenotypic plasticity can adapt to their surroundings on the same level as evolution/nature selection, but they can do it much, much, much faster. — 22 —

During the research phase, we chose to analyze phenotypic plasticity as demonstrated by ants. We chose ants because in addition to exhibiting physical plasticity, they also express social plasticity, allowing their social systems to be highly adaptable. — 23 —

DIAGRAMS This diagram illustrates the fact that some ants are able to shift between their social castes based off the needs of the colony. This diagram demonstrates how ants decide whether or not they need to shift castes, gauged through social interactions. — 24 —

This diagram shows two logic loops used by ants while foraging for food. The positive loop (left) follows the logic that ants in a lush environment might follow, like in a forest. The negative loop (right) follows the logic that ants in a scarce environment might follow, like in a desert. One of the major takeaways from our research into ants was the extent to which they follow algorithmic programming while addressing the needs of their colony. — 25 —



Design Phase



Process Once the design phase began, we chose to join forces and combine our ideas into one unified team for the final stretch. WHY? Our individual research areas complimented each others well. 1. Avantika was drawn to bringing nature fully into our urban systems and Varun was very excited about focusing on how socially-minded design could aid the lives of urban citizens. 2. Looking at biological altruism calling provided us with a basis to address the disconnection and apathy present in present day society. The benefit of having a system where individual action contributes to a decentralised collective awareness is that the system is responsive to environmental changes and collectively benefits the group. 3. Phenotypic plasticity lended itself to the concept of multiuse: the idea that things are flexible and can switch between phases depending on what is needed at that time. This fed into an idea to create spaces that would cater to the needs of the public. — 29 —

BRAINSTORMS We quickly began to map out our shared interests using a variety of brainstorming methods. It became apparent that our target for our urban redesign was going to be a very specific type of location: Single-Use Spaces — 30 —

SINGLE-USE SPACES We quickly began to map out our shared interests using a variety of brainstorming methods. It became apparent that our target for our urban redesign was going to be a very specific type of location: THE PARKING GARAGE Out of all our single-use options, we chose parking garages because of how limited yet common they currently are. This map highlights every parking structure in the Boston Seaport region. — 31 —

ISSUES WITH MODERN GARAGES As we outlined earlier, garages now are inherently single-use spaces. They exist to house personal vehicles. In a future where there will be more people than ever and less space than ever, how can we continue to justify this inefficiency? Making matters worse is the large urban footprint garages occupy. The Boston Seaport map is just one small example of this issue. Due to the reliance we currently have on the automotive industry, parking garages are some of the most common buildings in a city. Additionally, parking garages are hotspots for violent crime. 7.3% of all violent crimes in the USA occur in parking spaces annuallyi. These spaces are highly anonymized, often vacant, and very disconnected from the communities they exist within. i. https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=44 — 32 —

MODULE MAPS Our brainstorms culminated in this abstracted graphic of a city block. Here, we built a modular map of what a city block might look like, to help us envision the current setups and what future ones could be. This map shows a modern city block, built using satellite imagery. This generic city block as it would exist today features parking garages, public parks, commercial buildings, and other types of adjacent elements. We then created a speculative map of how we would like to transform the city module in the future. At this point we researched existing projects for inspiration and collaged images together to better visualize our direction. — 33 —

EARLY SKETCHES — 34 —

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Framework THE SITUATION Currently many of our spaces awareness network that ensures the serve a single purpose, and are only prosperity and survival of the group. activated for periods of time after which they sit vacant and in disuse. We want to take away the selfish As our population continues to grow, idea of each person having to fend these single-use spaces become for themselves and develop an urban increasingly wasteful. community that aids each other and is plastic enough to adapt in the On the other side of this unused short term to immediate responsive potential, there is immense unmet scenarios and in the long term to need. People don’t have the space or drastic climatic change. the infrastructure to eat, sleep, learn, play, or even protect themselves. To add to this, people are becoming increasingly disconnected from each other and their environments and are often oblivious to others’ needs. This perpetuates the bystander effect and decreases the overall empathy in a community. In our future city, we want to imagine a versatile society modelled after systems of phenotypic plasticity and altruism in nature that would allow the individuals in the system to be part of a larger adaptive collective — 36 —

OUR PROPOSAL We propose designing an interconnected system of multilevel stability to be implemented into existing coastal cityscapes. This Brownfield development considers stability in terms of food, water, climate change, biodiversity, and the citizens in this system. — 37 —

A STAGED APPROACH Our project is framed across 4 stages, moving from modern day to possible future. When we think about the future of our cities, we must acknowledge the environmental conditions in which they will exist. Because of this, we chose to look at projected trends in climatic conditions, emerging technologies and prospective energy systems to better understand the future in which our cities will exist. By doing this, we grounded our speculative city in a plausible future based on our current conditions. Our chosen progression of stages are one track of many possible trajectories the future might take, but it is one that we think is highly likely to occur. We were very invested in offering this model through a sloped approach rather than a cliff. While we are very interested in the speculative future scenarios, we wanted to build our project in a way that offered a clear roadmap to our proposed sustainable future. A staged approach allows us to consider what emerging technologies being developed today should be accelerated and make decisions on the ones we should leave behind. It also allows us to make our desired futures more achievable by working backwards to see what must be done now. This leaves us with a sense of optimism and control over our future. — 38 —

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Stages The staged approach makes our ideal future more tangible as it lays out the logical evolution of our prospective changes. We were able to map out designed elements in our early stages and then imagine how those elements would expand and evolve across the later stages. STAGE 1 STAGE 0 — 40 —

STAGE 3 STAGE 2 — 41 —

Now Stage 0 STATUS Fossil fuels are commonly used, with renewable options only partially adopted. Transport is primarily powered by fossil fuels, EV options only partially adopted. GOALS Actionable items we could enact as soon as possible, using the technologies we have. Focusing on the case study solely. NO COASTAL FLOODING

2040 Stage 1 STATUS Renewable energy is widely used, fossil fuels discarded. Transport is primarily powered by EV options. Solar & battery technology has become more efficient. Human population is 9.8 billion. GOALS Primary focus area for the case study, examining the structure and the systems. Focusing on the case study. 5–10% COASTAL FLOODING

2050 Stage 2 STATUS Renewable energy is widely used, fossil fuels discarded. Transport is primarily powered by EV options. Solar & battery technology has become even more efficient. Human population is still 9.8 billion. GOALS Moving beyond the case study in a similar timeline and beginning to expand modular logic across the rest of the city. Building out social systems and policy planning elements. 6–12% COASTAL FLOODING

2100+ Stage 3 STATUS Renewable energy is widely used, fossil fuels discarded. Transport encompasses aquatic options due to flooding. Solar & battery technology have reached peak efficiency. Human population is 11.2 billion. GOALS Speculating the future of urban systems under the lens of a plausible environmental outcome. Continuing to expand modular logic from case study across the rest of the city. 25–35% COASTAL FLOODING

Levels Having sorted our project into the stages we described earlier, we realized the format of our topic required a further degree of organization. While the stages covered the chronological element of our work, we still needed something to separate out the types of work we hoped to create. After some consideration, we eventually chose to separate each of our stages out into three levels of focus: Structural, Social, & Natural These 3 interconnected levels each contain plans for every stage of our 4 stage plan. In simpler terms, we’ll be viewing our case study from 3 angles, across 4 time periods. — 46 —

SOCIAL Looking at optimizing the space to work for the people who use it. STRUCTURAL NATURAL Outlining the physical Building up the bond changes that will be between the natural made to the space. world and the city. — 47 —

The Why During our planning, the question of which city we should target came up several times. But ultimately, we decided the specific city was not our focus — the methodology was. What we’re really designing is a module that can be applied to (ideally) any coastal city. The idea was to build up our modular idea block by block, beginning with our parking garage case study as the first of many to follow. WE ARE HERE — 48 —