Arthur Modine
A.U.R.A.
(Augmented Urban Regeneration Accelerator)
Interactive Simulation, Mixed Reality, City Scale
In conventional architectural discourse, gallery projects are often conceived as static, immutable art objects that invite criticism but reject reconfiguration. Contrary to this paradigm, my thesis seeks to reinterpret architecture as an evolving, participatory canvas, one that actively encourages designers to superimpose their unique visions onto the urban landscape. Fostering a collaborative dialogue is crucial for integrated, human-centric architecture. The first piece of the puzzle is AURA, a smart, responsive physical model that invites real-time interaction and modification. It invites all stakeholders – from architects and investors to residents and policymakers – to touch, reshape, and propose alterations to the design scheme, democratizing the planning process and guiding design decisions on a massive scale.
This second part of the thesis is an urban design application of the AURA system in the form of a large-scale and multifaceted redevelopment plan for underused urban land around Los Angeles' highway infrastructure. By leveraging the concept of 'DATASPACE' (Digital Augmentation for Transit Adjacent Spaces with Public Accessibility, Connectivity, and Engagement), the project aim is to create highly dense mixed use urban networks within ecological, multi-level megastructures. Marrying the efficiency of large-scale construction with a focus on community-oriented clusters, the structures featured in this project are designed as permeable, living environments wrapped with ‘Vertical Streets’, platforms of flying communal space that foster interconnection and shared identity. By building new platforms of habitable space over the freeways, neighborhoods that have long been severed are reknit and polluted brown-sites are given new purpose. Stacked pockets of lively atrium space provide public space to residential blocks, and a sense of place can be formed even in an extremely high density environment.
To make the integration of these parts possible, new technology for real time AR architectural, landscape, and urban design integration was developed. Every second, dozens of frames from the camera rack above the model are processed using a custom ARUCO tag detection and image processing scripts built in C++. Errors due to alignment and parallax are corrected using homographic and trigonometric transformation algorithms and sent to Unreal Engine 5 over a UDP network socket. Unreal uses this array of data to drive emergent simulation across a number of metrics, and these “underlays” are displayed under the model on the screen built into the model stand. Since this process takes less than a tenth of a second, feedback to changes can be taken into account in real time - helping users grasp a complex system and understand potential impacts of planning decisions across the city.
The number of ways that structures can be arranged and reintegrated using AURA is greater even than the number of atoms in our galaxy, and new underlays can be added at any time to add greater levels of detail and complexity to the model. Taken as a whole, this project seeks a new perspective, one where “architecture” is no longer understood as a slow step in the process of real estate development or civic improvement, but where the built environment is seen as a transformative playground for the best emergent ideas of all its residents.
AURA City Urban Landscape
AURA Table Simulations