{"id":8913,"date":"2024-05-30T11:51:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T09:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/2024\/05\/30\/virtualizing-urban-transition\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T17:43:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T15:43:25","slug":"virtualizing-urban-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/2024\/05\/30\/virtualizing-urban-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtualizing Urban Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a time of global anthropogenic paroxysms, initiatives for urban transition are multiplying to ensure quality and resilience of life in cities. In particular, public open space holds immense potential for rapid adaptation to mitigate the severe risks to human health arising from global warming, pollution and pandemics. New methods capable of challenging and reimagining the public open space in cities can help to invent desirable futures.<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

Evolving imaginaries<\/h3>\n

The evolving dialogue between urban heritage and prospection has been shaped by people’s imaginaries according to technology, security and the now global economy. In Z\u00fcrich, major urban transitions in the past converted the medieval moat into today’s Bahnhofstrasse, dismantled the artillery ramparts in favor of urban densification, and installed the first railroad that still divides the city today.<\/p>\n

In parallel with these infrastructural transformations, Z\u00fcrich has also embraced innovative environmental strategies. Improved waste management has paved the way for a new watercourse concept aimed at restoring streams that had been artificialized, channeled, or culverted. As urban challenges like heat islands and biodiversity loss become more pressing, Z\u00fcrich’s eco-biological infrastructure is gaining recognition in ensuring better and resilient living conditions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The chronological map of the Limmat valley from 1880 to 2020 highlights major urban transformations, including the straightening of the Sihl river and the entrenchment of the Lake Zurich Left-Bank Railway in Wiedikon. Source: Swisstopo, Journey through time.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A contextual approach to places<\/h3>\n

The approach of adapting historical infrastructure while revitalizing natural waterways underscores Z\u00fcrich\u2019s commitment to dynamic and responsive urban planning. By integrating historical preservation with ecological restoration, the city is crafting a resilient urban landscape that meets contemporary needs while honoring its heritage.
\nSuccessive urban transitions created places that people identify with, materializing the Baukultur of contemporary cities. Imagining change today means to work selectively with existing qualities. In the course series Topology, we explore place and identity through a site-specific approach. The approach combines laser-scanning technology, 3D modeling and sonic techniques to analyze the existing setting and to virtualize new perspectives of an urban landscape.<\/p>\n

Recomposing space<\/h3>\n

Using a method of 3D collage to relate heritage with imagination, the course juxtaposes environments to question their status quo. Students investigated this question, identifying reference places that they digitized visually and acoustically and transposed them to cover the Seebahngraben or to reveal the culverted Wolfbach.
\nBy collaging, sound recordings and point clouds, models are recomposed in space to stimulate spatial imagination and explore the interplay of different ambiances and idiosyncratic qualities. The results were virtualized for spatial experience in the Large-scale Virtualization and Modeling Lab (LVML), equipped with a three-dimensional ambisonic sound system and a four-sided visual projection.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A
A skate park is modeled as a spatial collage over the Seebahngraben at the foot of the Lochergut to enable a new community use for the Aussersihl neighborhood.\u00a0Spatial compositions by the students: Omar El Sayed and Aaron Zilinski.<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Topology is a course series that investigates places with their many facets. It is offered across the departments D-ARCH and D-BAUG of the ETH Zurich, and is taught by sound designer Fabian Gutscher<\/a> together with Prof. Dr. Matthias Vollmer<\/a> and Dr. Philipp Urech<\/a>, who lead the Large-scale Virtualization and Modeling lab<\/a>. The LVML was integrated in Design++ in 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a time of global anthropogenic paroxysms, initiatives for urban transition are multiplying to ensure quality and resilience of life in cities. In particular, public open space holds immense potential for rapid adaptation to mitigate the severe risks to human health arising from global warming, pollution and pandemics. New methods capable of challenging and reimagining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"departemente":[194,203,247],"newsletter_ausgabe":[317],"class_list":["post-8913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter-artikel","departemente-departement-bau-umwelt-und-geomatik-d-baug","departemente-institut-fuer-raum-und-landschaftsentwicklung-irl","departemente-prof-dr-adrienne-gret-regamey","newsletter_ausgabe-nl-62"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":23,"label":"Newsletter-Artikel"}],"departemente":[{"value":194,"label":"Departement Bau, Umwelt und Geomatik (D-BAUG)"},{"value":203,"label":"Institut f\u00fcr Raum- und Landschaftsentwicklung (IRL)"},{"value":247,"label":"Prof. Dr Adrienne Gr\u00eat-Regamey"}],"newsletter_ausgabe":[{"value":317,"label":"NL 62"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Todays-Seebahngraben-is-the-result-of-entrenching-the-rail-spur-in-Wiedikon-to-solve-congestion-at-ground-level-1024x513.jpg",1024,513,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"_rotor@NSL","author_link":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/author\/_rotornsl\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":23,"name":"Newsletter-Artikel","slug":"newsletter-artikel","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":23,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":680,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":23,"category_count":680,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Newsletter-Artikel","category_nicename":"newsletter-artikel","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8916,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8913\/revisions\/8916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8913"},{"taxonomy":"departemente","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/departemente?post=8913"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter_ausgabe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter_ausgabe?post=8913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}