{"id":648892,"date":"2024-02-08T17:06:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T01:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&p=648892"},"modified":"2024-02-09T10:32:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T18:32:06","slug":"what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build","title":{"rendered":"What If the Urban Utopia Was Something We Could Actually Build?"},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[471931,121552,24992],"tags":[276202,237681,486782],"arcuser_issues":[487872],"class_list":["post-648892","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-cityengine","category-geodesign-2","category-special","tag-3d-visualization","tag-urban-planning","tag-utopia","arcuser_issues-winter-2024"],"acf":{"short_description":"Utopian Disruption uses GIS to envision an ideal city space in 3D. ","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":648902,"file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","content":"Anca Badut and Ulrich Gehmann built a utopian city.\r\nIt only took a couple of weeks."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The city was brought to life by advanced 3D visualization and modeling tools, along with a 3D content library, using GIS technology. Swiss 3D urban modeling firm and Esri partner vrbn teamed with Ideal Spaces Working Group (ISWG) on a project to design an ideal contemporary utopian city.\r\n\r\nThe goal was to create a digital reality that reflected the tradition of utopian architecture, while minimizing the grandiose elements typical of depictions of ideal cities. It had to somehow integrate the elements of European cities that enhance quality of life. Badut and Gehmann presented their creation, called Utopian Disruption, at Esri\u2019s 2023 Geodesign Summit.\r\n\r\nBadut is an architect by training. She works as a technical director at vrbn (pronounced \u201curban\u201d), a Zurich-based firm that designs detailed computer-generated environments. [Vrbn is an Esri partner.]<\/em> Vrbn\u2019s clients include video game designers, Hollywood filmmakers, and advertising agencies.\r\n\r\nGehmann, an urban theorist and academic, is the founder and director of ISWG, a German nonprofit foundation. With an interdisciplinary team that includes engineers, digital modelers, architects, and historians, ISWG conducts research and develops projects that explore how architecture is perceived. The foundation focuses on optimizing the built environment to best serve the needs of people. As ISWG\u2019s manifesto explains, \u201cThe ideal space is a mythic theme, but at the same time, very practical.\u201d\r\n

Exploring the Concept of Ideal Spaces<\/h3>\r\nISWG\u2019s most recent exhibition, The Heavenly City and Paradise, displayed at the central church in the German town of Karlsruhe in 2022, foreshadowed Utopian Disruption. Through images and text, it traced the evolution of ideas of paradise, from ancient images to contemporary futurism concepts.\r\n\r\nVrbn and ISWG have had a working relationship since 2015. Vrbn helped build 3D models that were part of ISWG\u2019s display at Biennale Architettura 2016 in Venice, Italy.\r\n\r\nTwo years later, as part of ISWG\u2019s Artificial Natures exhibition at Biennale, vrbn constructed multiple interactive 3D models of cities. Some were based on real planning projects, such as Patrick Geddes\u2019s 1935 plan for Tel Aviv, which is an exemplar of the movement. Others were imagined or imaginary. These included Sforzinda, a never-realized Renaissance utopian city imagined by Italian architect Filarete in the 15th\u00a0century.\r\n\r\nGehmann was intrigued by vrbn\u2019s model of a Brazilian favela, or shantytown, displayed as part of the 2016 Biennale. Matthias Buehler, vrbn\u2019s founder and chief technology officer, had studied the architecture of favelas, knowledge he used to begin constructing the 3D model in 2012. This initial project, done in collaboration with Cyrill Oberhaensil (who is now the software developer lead at vrbn), began as a hobbyist project. It was a way to test and showcase the technical capabilities of ArcGIS CityEngine. As with all vrbn work, the visualizations reflect an attention to realism, achieving a lived-in look rather than the gleaming architectural renderings typically made by most firms.\r\n\r\nIn 2015, an ISWG member learned of the project and asked Buehler if parts could be repurposed for the group\u2019s 2016 Biennale exhibition project. The idea was for the favela model to serve as a counterpoint to the other examples on display, which followed a more conventional model of ideal worlds. It facilitated a deeper discussion of the urban and spatial qualities of ideal worlds, a core focus of ISWG.\r\n\r\nThe dialogue helped Buehler realize that although favelas embody spatial chaos, they also reveal something profound about modern cities.\r\n\r\n "},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":648962,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cA favela certainly doesn\u2019t provide anything close to ideal living conditions, of course, but there are certain interesting spatial qualities of its urban fabric that modern cities lack or have lost over time,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cHaving seen a favela myself, I know that people who live there have a strong influence on the design, function, and construction of their spaces. You can interact in these spaces socially and develop connections with your neighbors and the community. In the Global North, building codes and regulations often make that virtually impossible.\u201d\r\n\r\nApplying these concepts to a modern utopian ideal became a driving force of the Utopian Disruption project. \u201cSince the dawn of time, deep connections in communities have been an essential aspect of supporting meaningful social life, a sense of place, and a kind of spiritual home,\u201d Buehler said.\r\n\r\nBuehler offered a comparison with Brasilia, Brazil\u2019s capital city. Built according to a master plan between 1956 and 1960, Brasilia has since become an urban planning cautionary tale. \u201cBrasilia was designed as an ideal city, and it is ideal in the geometric sense,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cIt has broad highways that reflect a transport-centric philosophy, but with too little thought on social space for actual living. Brasilia was designed more like a sculpture. It\u2019s not a truly livable space if function follows form and the form is unchangeable.\u201d\r\n\r\nBuehler proposed the Ideal City project to Gehmann, as a way to collaborate again and explore these concepts. Although Buehler did not have time to devote himself personally to the project, he deputized Badut to be vrbn\u2019s representative.\r\n

Modeling Tools Bring Ideas to Life<\/h3>\r\nOne of the primary tools Badut used to create Utopian Disruption is ArcGIS CityEngine, advanced 3D modeling software for massive, interactive, and immersive urban environments. Urban planners and architects use CityEngine for realistic visualizations of their projects.\r\n\r\nBadut had first encountered the tool during her studies at Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning in Romania, where she used it to examine real spaces. \u201cSo, I already knew that it\u2019s a super powerful tool, not only for doing a conceptual project from scratch, but also for analyzing existing areas of a city,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nCityEngine employs an approach that makes the challenge of creating an entire realistic city more manageable. It involves a set of rules that can be applied and easily altered for individual sites or across whole landscapes.\r\n\r\n "},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":648972,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The basic dimensions of one building or street, for example, can form a template for others. Parameters of one element, such as curb heights or centerlines, can be tweaked to make another one rather than starting from scratch. Small differences in a facade, such as windows with sashes or without, can all be modified together to save time. Using such procedural rules and tapping into a large internal library, vrbn can create many variations to avoid cookie-cutter sameness, while keeping control on design for very large areas.\r\n\r\nAs an engineer, Buehler had helped build early versions of ArcGIS CityEngine. He felt the time was right to push the tools and internal production workflows toward a utopian direction. \u201cAt vrbn, the tools we use to create our 3D visualizations had progressed far enough that we could do one of those collaborative projects relatively efficiently,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nWhat most intrigued Badut about the project was the chance to diverge from \u201cthe old way of designing a utopian or ideal city, in which everything would have a kind of opulent vibe, with lots of piazzas and super intricate buildings,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nUtopian Disruption shares some characteristics with classic approaches to utopian cities. Like Sforzinda, it has a geometric symmetry with an emphasis on waterways. In Utopian Disruption, four canals meet at the city\u2019s center. These canals extend outward throughout the city and are designed to be scalable as the city expands. As the city moves away from the center, open space increases. The architecture becomes more integrated into the \u201corganicity of green areas,\u201d Badut wrote in the project notes.\r\n\r\n "},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":648982,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"There is a futuristic quality to Utopian Disruption, an almost mythic, garden-like quality. At the same time, it looks like a city, with skyscrapers and parks and recognizable infrastructure. One of the project\u2019s guiding principles was to avoid using architectural styles, such as baroque, that have historically been used to depict utopian cities throughout history.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s not about luxurious spaces or castles or fountains,\u201d Badut said. \u201cIt was more like we wanted to use contemporary and affordable architecture that people can interact with, including beautiful public spaces, parks, and waterways. It\u2019s very conceptual, but when you look at the buildings and how they\u2019re placed next to one another, it\u2019s basically North American-inspired architecture. We wanted to take what\u2019s existing yet propose a design approach that could scale from very small plot-scale interventions to vast cities.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe team also didn\u2019t hold back on one of its strengths: realistic visualization.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe way the project\u2019s concept also includes the necessary industrial parts, with pipes and gas tanks, that\u2019s something you typically wouldn\u2019t see in the planning of an ideal city,\u201d Buehler said.\r\n\r\nBuehler hopes Utopian Disruption will inspire professional urban planners to plan ideal cities, despite the inherent limitations of contemporary construction principles. These cities would stress the inclusion of public space, parks, and other places where nature and culture meet.\r\n\r\n "},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":649002,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Ideal Futures in the Present<\/h3>\r\nUtopian Disruption is not a detailed blueprint of a city. It doesn\u2019t confront the gritty planning realities of sprawl, traffic, walkability, and pollution. Yet, it\u2019s not obsessively ideal. Instead, it shows what can be achieved in reality.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s not just aqueducts and green ponds and lush gardens,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cReality is a bit messier, and it\u2019s OK to see industrial infrastructure. But if we could just push ourselves a little, we could do this.\u201d\r\n\r\nBadut and Gehmann were careful to make the ultimate borders of the city invisible, something for the reader to fill in. Badut compares it to a puzzle piece, a place in flux where the viewer can imagine how the city might expand, perhaps eventually meshing with similar cities. \u201cA boundary is no sharp line, but a transition zone where something different begins,\u201d she wrote. This echoes the democratic ideal Buehler noticed in favelas, where the lack of rigid urban planning gives residents an opportunity to sculpt their neighborhood\u2019s contours.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis idea of letting a story have an impact on the viewer was really important to me, which is why I didn\u2019t want to have any boundaries,\u201d Badut said. \u201cSo, it wasn\u2019t only about making it beautiful or functional. It was also about what stories the viewer can generate. It can be like a book without an ending.\u201d"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nBuilding a utopian vision with GIS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Esri CityEngine helps envision utopian cityscapes in 3D that can inspire urban planners.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What If the Urban Utopia Was Something We Could Actually Build?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Esri CityEngine helps envision utopian cityscapes in 3D that can inspire urban planners.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esri\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-09T18:32:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2024\/01\/utopia_banner.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Esri\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n\t \"@graph\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build\",\n\t \"name\": \"Building a utopian vision with GIS\",\n\t \"isPartOf\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\"\n\t },\n\t \"datePublished\": \"2024-02-09T01:06:45+00:00\",\n\t \"dateModified\": \"2024-02-09T18:32:06+00:00\",\n\t \"description\": \"Esri CityEngine helps envision utopian cityscapes in 3D that can inspire urban planners.\",\n\t \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build#breadcrumb\"\n\t },\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t \"target\": [\n\t \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build\"\n\t ]\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/what-if-the-urban-utopia-was-something-we-could-actually-build#breadcrumb\",\n\t \"itemListElement\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 1,\n\t \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 2,\n\t \"name\": \"What If the Urban Utopia Was Something We Could Actually Build?\"\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/\",\n\t \"name\": \"Esri\",\n\t \"description\": \"Esri Newsroom\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t \"target\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t },\n\t \"query-input\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t }\n\t }\n\t ],\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/82e5143bcdebadf8fd64d84e503ca468\",\n\t \"name\": \"Monica Pratt\",\n\t \"image\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MonicaMug_agol2.jpg\",\n\t \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/MonicaMug_agol2.jpg\",\n\t \"caption\": \"Monica Pratt\"\n\t },\n\t \"description\": \"Monica Pratt is the founding and current editor of ArcUser magazine, the executive editor of ArcNews magazine, the editor of Esri Globe and head of the Publications team at Esri. 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