ABSTRACT

The loss of biodiversity is one of the defining issues of our time. Even though cities provide valuable spaces for many animal and plant species urban habitats are endangered by increasing densification. By fragmenting habitat networks, the built environment currently poses one of the main causes of biodiversity loss in urban areas. Urban biodiversity strategies are often lacking practical approaches to tackle the conflict between nature conservation and urban development. This shortcoming calls for a new and systematic design approach that reconciles the spatial needs of human and non-human inhabitants. This thesis aims at developing a framework prototype for determining points of intervention in the urban sphere as well as finding ways to incorporate animal species' needs into the planning and design process.

The methods used include a geospatial network analysis of the example city as well as an experimental design process. The analysis aims at determining building sites suitable for the application of a multispecies design framework. Based on the analysis as well as species occurrence data, one exemplary animal species was chosen to develop the design framework. Parameters for the design process were determined and tested throughout the process and include the spatial and climatic habitat requirements of the chosen animal species. In a multilevel process, these parameters were iteratively merged with requirements given by building regulations and site context through the Rhinoceros’ computational design and analysis plugin Grasshopper and its extensions, Kangaroo, Anemone, and Ladybug. Three main design scales were approached and schematically articulated throughout the process: building mass distribution, building zoning, and habitat geometry. This process resulted in a complex network of parameters, tools, and actions which were then organized to outline the framework. Additionally, the framework was exemplarily illustrated, and the findings of the process were evaluated within the scope of the thesis.

As a result, urban wastelands were determined as potential intervention points to apply a multispecies design framework as they constitute building land as well as biodiversity hubs. The potential of multispecies design to converge urban development and nature conservation lies in integrating ecological knowledge into the process and acknowledging the site as part of a natural ecosystem. The necessity but also the challenge of integrating ecological knowledge into architectural practice became evident during the process. By thoroughly documenting the framework design process, moments in time when ecological knowledge is needed are mapped out and provide orientation points for multidisciplinary collaboration. Finally, the design process showed the potential of computational design as a tool to address the problematic impermeability of contemporary building typologies. The insight resulting from design investigations is that to diminish the barriers created by the built environment a new urban typology is needed and could be approached through computational design. Adapting building mass and space distribution based on data derived from simulation and environmental information in Rhinoceros and Grasshopper points at a new field of informed space articulation that could potentially converge human and non-human needs.

(If you are interested in the whole thesis, you can find and download it on my CV page)