Thesis Project: AccessOurCity
With a national climate emergy being declared by the UK Government, cities are now seeking to implement low carbon to zero carbon strategies. Manchester aims to become a Zero Carbon City by 2038, twelve years ahead of the target set by the UK Governement (2050). Working as consultants for the Manchester City Council, we have developed our own computational tool to propose zero carbon solutions for the regeneration of the Eastern Gateway.
Researching our site we understand that transport remains the largest contributor of carbon emissions in Manchester, due to low accessibility to amenities and high dependency on private car usage. Hence, identifying urban accessibility as the key issue, we have designed our computational tool to generate urban plans based on the urban principle of transit oriented development, to achieve a highly compact city and high walkability to amenities.
Our computational tool is designed such that a user is able to input a plot size and a population size, which generates a peculiar urban plan. Our tool calculates the Accessibility/Walkability measure based on the gravity accessibility measure and using an Agent based model. The tool also calculates Carbon emissions due to motorised travel, embodied carbon emissions and energy generated for each urban plan produced.
Following the creation of our compuational tool, we developed a User Interaction Tool which enables users to view a set of twelve distinct iterations, and compare their performance within an interactive interface. This is a valuable tool for anyone with an interest in Zero Carbon Cities and the Redevelopment of the Eastern Gateway, and showcases our vision for the regeneration of Eastern Gateway.
