Parameter

I've been told that my posts are 'shop-talk' heavy. This post probably won't differ in that regard, but it'll have way more explanations and illustrations--starting with the results of an experiment in parametric design I conducted in my third year in school.

Parametric design is a fancy name that can lend itself to several interpretations. It refers to a mode of computer assisted design where forms, surfaces, sizes, shapes, configurations etc. are manipulated and controlled by a set of parameters. In execution, it usually entails the use of a software that generates shapes mathematically, which allows easy manipulation by applying mathematical functions. Here, 'parametric' refers to parametric equations.

Now when I say Parametric design can be variously interpreted, it is due to the notion that all design is 'parametric' in the sense that it is developed using sets of parameters. The model of design thought (framing a problem, making a move, then evaluating) comes down to what criteria--which parameters--you assess your work by. However, when generating design solutions using scripting (scripts-small computer programs that perform specific functions) and mathematical equations, the steps of design thinking collapse into a fluid state. The script is formed with a specific framing of the design problem in mind and evaluating parameters are built in. A series of moves are undertaken by the script, which output a result that can be manipulated (move + evaluate). All of these steps happen in real-time nearly simultaneously with a degree of fluidity which is harder to achieve with traditional methods.

South Street 1

Corner of 4th & South, 1963 and 2011.

In 1968, the same year Jane Jacobs was arrested during a protest against the Lower Manhattan Expressway, Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi took up the fight against the Philadelphia City Planning Commission's scheme to replace South Street with a cross-town highway. Hanging in the balance was the premise that cities can be shaped and formed to meet the needs of their residents.

After the plans for the 'Crosstown Expressway' were made public, the Citizens’ Committee to Preserve and Develop the Crosstown Community (CCPDCC) formed to unite the communities of the South Street corridor against the highway and to create an alternative vision.[1] A driving factor behind the opposition was the idea that communities have a right to self-determination. This concept grew as a response to the power of planners in shaping urban environments, which arguably hadn't changed since the sweeping plans of Fredrick Law Olmstead and the City Beautiful movement transformed cities earlier in the century. However, the seeming absolute power that figures like Robert Moses engendered in treating populated neighborhoods as blank slates contrasted starkly with democratic principles.