London in time | A London's Evolution Animation

The Roman Road network 410AC, as a floating layer over contemporary London in 3D. 

How did London become what it is today? How did it evolve and why? It is widely known that London is a historical city. One that has been inhabited for over 1500 years. What most people don't know however, is that the greatest preserved feature of the city, is the road network itself. Unlike other historical cities such as Athens or Rome where there is an obvious patchwork of areas of different periods, London's scheduled sites and listed buildings are individual structures, in many cases assembled gradually by parts from many different periods. Those who tried to locate different historic structures will know that these features appear as pieces of different puzzles, scattered within the vast fabric of the contemporary city. What has been preserved, and what will we preserve in the future?

The London Evolution Animation (LEA) was developed by The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (UCL), as a partnership project between English Heritage, The Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (University of Cambridge)/Dr Kiril Stanilov and Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) (with the Mapping London and Locating London's Past projects), and was initiated and directed by Polly Hudson (PHD).

The London Evolution Animation for the first time, brings together and shows the historical development of London from Roman times to today, through the evolution of the road network and preserved structures of the built environment. The information is categorized by periods and the new road segments appear gradually over an image of the faded contemporary London. For each period, gradually enlarging yellow points highlight the position and number of statutorily protected buildings and structures. Datasets cover London's 19,000 Listed Buildings and 156 Scheduled Monuments which are categorized by period (listed date) and integrated into the animation. LEA brings together datasets provided by English Heritage’s National Heritage List for England, MOLAS, University of Cambridge -Dr. Kiril Stanilov and Ordnance Survey. Originally, LEA was meant to be developed fully in 3D, which is an ongoing project.

The animation was part of the "Almost Lost" Exhibition and aims to create awareness of the importance of preservation of the city's past and provide a reflection for the future. The exhibition included several digital exhibits from the Centre of Advanced Spatial Analysis, such as the popular Pigeon Sim and the Bloomsbury Augmented Reality Application, which allows visitors to view a 3D fully interactive model of the area's historic periods, using their iPad.

A series of digital pictures showcase the what if scenarios of developments in London that were never realized, while 3D animations of London's history of the built environment explain more about the city's architectural heritage.

The exhibition is found online in Polly's Hudson Almost Lost online and its a great showcase of London's historic wealth. Further information on the Animation, a historical overview and on the production of the video can also be found in Polly's Hudson website.


List of References:

A. Paolo Masucci, Kiril Stanilov and Michael Batty (2013) The growth of London's street network in its dual representation http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa/publications/working-paper-189

CASA UCL: http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa

MOLA: http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/NewsProjects/Current-News/LondonEvolutionAnimation.htm

Cambridge: http://www-smartinfrastructure.eng.cam.ac.uk/

English Heritage: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

Developing classical and contemporary models in ESRI's City Engine- CASA Working Paper 191

ESRI's City Engine not only is a great urban generator, but it also provides the ideal approach for turning the 3D virtual city into an urban modelling tool. Procedural modelling visualizes the results of mathematical models on a 3D Environment and simulate the changes real-time, providing all the necessary features for testing the consequences of Urban modelling theories onto the physical form of the urban environment.


I am very excited to have this first paper published in the CASA UCL webpage.

Abstract:

In this paper we describe the development of projects which aim to explore the use of procedural modelling as a complete toolkit for building interactive visualizations of urban modelling theories. We will use three case studies, starting with the original von-Thunen model, a generalization of von-Thunen using multiple centres and finally the standard dynamic retail model by Wilson and Harris. We will discuss the advantages and limitations in using ESRI’s City Engine and the use of interactive techniques, to visualize and explore classical and contemporary urban modelling theories, by introducing spatial interaction and spatial dynamics within the simulation of a 3d city. In this framework, we provide a guide for developing urban models to aid better analysis and understanding of the urban environment through 3d urban visualizations, complexity theories and interactive systems.


 


download the full paper and other publications by CASA from here


This paper presents work conducted within the context of the MRes in Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualization. Supervisor professor: Dr. Andrew Hudson Smith.


I will soon publish a brief tutorial.

Agents and Sustainability in Unity 3D

Built in Unity 3D, this is an early attempt to create a simple model of energy consumption using agents and interactivity in a playful manner. Eve, the avatar from the infinite museum and her sisters, are looking for energy to grow. Once found, they no longer move in panic. That is until they have consumed the energy they stored..

It is not arguable that there is a relentless hunt for energy supply these days and renewable energy is one of the key topics in discussions about the future of the city. Building an intelligent sustainable urban environment is a priority and we seem to be heading towards there... however, urban areas and the demand for energy keeps growing in an accelerating ratio, and the lack of it, seems to be causing panic. On top of that, unexpected events keep coming and they seem to destroy all the effort for planning and predictions.

It is a fact though, that simulations, can help us understand the consequences of decisions and help in avoiding at least the obvious mistakes.

This is part of a PhD research and part of the research work at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis in UCL.

    

Invisible fields

The Washington Post recently released a front-page article claiming that "The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation...Cities support the idea because the networks would lower costs for schools and businesses or help vacationers easily find tourist spots. Consumer advocates note the benefits to the poor, who often cannot afford high cellphone and Internet bills."

I will not comment on whether this is a true or false statement, however I am at the CASA office in Tottenham court road and right now i am probably within the range of more than 100 sending and receiving signals. From mobile phones, to wireless networks, to the Geiger counter which measures radiation levels and shows results real-time via CASA’s online webpage “CityDashboard”. Sensors have come to realize a new urban landscape. A new locality which is not however making a realized dialogue with the physical environment... However, there are side-effects.

Wireless in the world from Timo on Vimeo.

"This new urban landscape is no longer predicated solely on architecture and urbanism. These disciplines now embrace emerging methodologies that bend the physical with new measures, representations and maps of urban dynamics such as traffic or mobile phone flows. Representations of usage patterns and mapping the life of the city amplify our collective awareness of the urban environment as a living organism. These soft and invisible architectures fashion sentient and reactive environments."(1)

In that sense, Urban transformations may not result merely from "changing economic and social drivers within and around densely populated areas" (2), but from a more abstract distortion of time and space. Utopian Architects and planners predicted from a very early age that future cities would not only be defined by buildings and streets, but also by different flows of information. It is now widely accepted that citizens would have to live in a constant flux and there is a need for identifying the possible effects of these new systems, as they are potentially new constituencies for the development of planning.

The introduction of open real-time data may aid in the development of new scenarios and a hint that we are leading in this direction is the recent interest in crowdourcing data analysis and visualizations e.g. the Twitter API which is one of the most popular APIs for visualizations. There are now over 50 Twitter visualizations. "These applications mine Tweets to provide services that help users track topics of interest, geolocated Tweets and are even used to predict flu outbreaks".(2)

The globe tweeter visualizes real-time twits on a 3D globe project by Cedric Pinson (code development), Design by Guillaume Lecollinet, Node.js hacking Johan Euprhosine.

We are officially living in hybrid environments where space and flowing data interact with each other. At the same time, the ways in which we perceive this information plays an important role on our understanding about the environment we live in and therefore affects decision making. The realization of such an era is certainly important for the development of new solutions.

Speaking about invisible fields, Stefan Berke and Martin Hunniger thought of sound as Anthony DeVincenzi (invisible forces) thought of fields. This is a project were midi notes drive the creation of an openGL shader, seeking new aspects in the 3d visualization of invisible fields.

Downtrib, screened at Fulldome UK 2012.

UNITY 3D - The infinite museum

In the 2011-2012 MRes of Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualization we worked on some fascinating topics and new year is always a good time to re-cap. The Infinite museum is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration with Martin Dittus, Ian Morton, Mohammad Masum and myself, for the design of a virtual exhibition space, as a showcase for a constantly updating database of different visualization techniques. The first question that emerged in this case, was why build a spatial structure for the presentation of a-spatial information. In this case the answer is conceptual.

In 1929, Le Corbusier designed the Museum of Unlimited Growth (Musée à croissance illimitée) for the Mundaneum in Geneva. He imagined a square spiral that would develop and grow infinitely in time. In his vision, visitors would follow a path which would let them explore exhibits via a continuous circulation, allowing them to experience what he called a "promenade architectural" (an architectural walk). Despite its utopic nature, the vision behind this concept is the realization of an era of constant change and non-permanence, followed by an optimism of continuous growth.

Later, the idea of "virtuality" provoked an even more interesting swift in planning and design with the emergence of parametric modelling, sensors and new interaction techniques, which allowed new notions, e.g gaming, to become an active player in the design process. This awareness became an inspiration for the development of new solutions, such as the experimental project Arctic Research Facility by Polar Ants for building structures in constantly fluctuating physical surroundings. Or even projects which address to philosophical questions, as in the case of the Lotus Dome  by studio Roosegaarde, in whether technology can be sacred.

The museum of Unlimited Growth - Le Corbusier 1929

In continuance to these ideas, the Infinite Museum, is an interactive application that allows players to visually explore exhibits (images, movies, 3D models, animated objects) and the complex network of relations between them. The project, follows the inspiration of unlimited growth museum, with the difference that in this case, it moves away from the traditional 3d exhibition spaces which rely on a pre-built structure with a "continuous" or a tree- type "network" circulation. Instead, the Infinite Museum explores the possibilities of modular construction and dynamically constructs a map of rooms whose topology is a result of both player choices and pre-defined exhibit relationships.

The idea is to create a typical spatial structure of an exhibition space which will be augmented with the ideas of Web3 such as the use of a cloud network for categorizing the exhibits and guiding the viewer. 3D “types of rooms” connect to each other, in order to create a sequence of spaces that will guide the viewer through the exhibition, while providing him the choices of the cloud network. The user becomes the curator, who structures the exhibition, not by designing it, but by choosing types or “tags” of exhibits and therefore, he is more likely to run into the exhibits that are more related to his group of preferences.

This is a UNITY 3D application, which includes assets built in a range of 3D modeling software packages. Unity, as a game engine, provides excellent tools for interactive 3d space as well as the possibility for developing interesting multi-player game-play.

The infinite museum is a showcase for a range of visualization techniques such as images, videos, 3d objects and 3d animations. 

The application explores the possibilities of modular construction

The application doesn't rely on a pre-built structure, instead it dynamically creates a map of rooms whose topology is a result of player options and  pre-defined exhibit relationships. 

In terms of typology, the rooms of the Infinite Museum are especially designed so as to be "convex", meaning they all connect seamlessly, and in their combination fully cover a 2D area. The impression in this case, is not a sequence of rooms, but more of a collection of infinite spaces. Very much like a puzzle with different pieces that are all linkable to each other. In that way there are 6*6*4= 144 possible connections and therefore 144 different spaces generated by just 6 cubic rooms.

The 6 rooms of the infinite museum

The generation of different spaces is illustrated above using random formations.

At this point the project is aimed to be a tool for the collection and presentation of different visualization works. Textures and lighting are defaulted and flexible for further development as the game play progresses. Next steps include texture and pattern design, association of spatial items with exhibit tags, real time shadows and interactions, game-play development and the introduction of multi-players.

The exhibition incorporates visualizations that were produced as part of taught courses, while the project itself was made in the context of the visualization course by Andrew Hudson Smith and Martin Austwick, in the MRes ASAV 2011.

This blogpost contains extracts from our group essay.
Team Members, visit their blogs at:

Martin Dittus              COVSPC
Ian Morton                 visual metro
Mohammad Masum    Spatial Urban
Flora Roumpani          En-topia

Part 3: Agent Based Modelling - Turning an Image into space

The next assignment in the Visualization course of the MRes Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation in CASA, was relevant to "Agent based modelling". In this project the idea is to create a tool which loads the pixels of any image, recognise their contrast in comparison to their neighbours and finally produce points which interact with wandering Agents. In this case, the Agents are just moving points which perceive pixels as boundaries and change direction when they get close to them. 

However in this project, the Agents are not aware of each other. They move independently, creating random paths. "In  Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) the agents are autonomous entities that have certain characteristics and either cooperate or act selfishly. "[1] Even though the strategy of each individual entity is straightforward, these systems can aquire  complex behaviours and therefore can be used for problem solving. "Analysed agents are intended to accurately mimic real world entities, based on empirical data or ad hoc values that are realistic substitutes of observed processes."[2]. 

In that context, the next step is for these Agents is to become aware of each other and start having swarm behaviours. 

[1]  Definition of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS): http://www.dortmundintelligence.com/technology_ci_mas.html

[2] Batty Michael, [2005], "Cities and Complexity, Understanding Cities with Cellular Automata, Agent-Based Models, and Fractals", N. York: The MIT Press, p. 385

Assignment in the context of the visualization course by Martin Austwick, in the mres ASAV 2011. 

music: Cannonball Adderley feat. Miles Davis " Autumn Leaves" (1958)

Learning processing part:2 Building structures over time

In the MRes of Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation in CASA, we are exploring various techniques that are relevant to urban modelling and visualisations, such as Cellular Automata (CA), Agents etc. These approaches can be abstract visualizations and in these terms, i m exploring CA  by building vertical structures over time using Processing. 


Assignment in the context of the visualization course by Martin Austwick, in the mres ASAV 2011. 

music: J.S. Bach Menuet  Gameboy Tetris.

part:1 visualizing flows in processing: Barclays Cycle Hire Bikes

"Take a cycle, ride it where you like, then return it, ready for the next person. Available 24 hours a day, all year round. It's self-service and there's no booking. Just turn up and go." Barclays Cycle Hire is certainly popular in London. Every time a bike is been hired or returned the time and the location is recorded into the system. 


Here is a simple visualization in processing, showing the starting and end point of each bike's journey per minute. Each yellow point, illustrates the starting point of the journey, while the dark blue points are the final destinations. The direction of the bikes is also animated, showing intentions of travel paths.

Assignment in the context of the visualization course by Martin Austwick, in the mres ASAV 2011.

intro piano: Hauschka.