A CASE FOR H00255986 NEW ORDER: SARAH ASIF An Urban ...

A CASE FOR NEW ORDER:An Urban Biomimetic Cognitive System

D60DA DISSERTATIONH00255986 SARAH ASIF

2019-2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS1.ABSTRACT2.INTRODUCTION3.ORDER 3.1 Order and Complexity 3.2 Order and Complexity Ur ban agents 3.3 Order and Complexity Chronesthesia 3.4 The need for a shift in the ordering system4. BIOMIMICRY 4.1 General Biomimicry5. SOCIAL INSECTS 5.1 Introduction to social insects 5.2 Swarm cognition amongst social insects 6. HUMAN AGENTS 6.1 Swarm cognition amongst human agents 7. BIOMIMETIC MODEL 7.1DefininfUBCS 7.2 Home+Functions 7.3 Routes+Chronesthesia8. CONCLUSION9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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D60DA DISSERTATIONA CASE FOR A NEW

ORDER : AN URBAN BIOMIM

ETIC COGNITIVE SYSTEM2019-2020

3

ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of time, we as hu-mans, pursue a fundamental feeling ofsafetyattainedthroughashelterencasingus,ourfamilies,society.Inthebeginning,it was nature and now we have evolved to makingandcraftingourveryownartificialhuman ecosystem. This domain consists ofvariousurbanagentsthatinteractwithinitandwiththeirenvironment.Thisartificialenvironmentfollowsaparticularorderandastimepassesby,thistermmustevolvetoadapttothecurrentneedsanddemandsofthe changing environment. Our climate is ever changing and the human ecosystem thatweresideinisseverelyaffectedandinsomecasesdegrading;duetotheharmfulactionsofhumanbeings.Tomitigatethisloss; an urban designer must move away fromtheinefficientprevalentorderingsys-tem and embrace a system that is sensi-tive to its environment and its surrounding ecosystems.Cognitiveexamplesfromthenatural world are compared and analyzed with the existing human ordering system to bring about different skills and meth-ods that could be incorporated in our cit-ies, a special case are the social insects.The environment demands to be treated sensitivelyduringsuchstressfultimes.Byaddressing the climatic crisis the urban bio-mimetic cognitive model proposed would be discussed intensively to streamline its benefits for itsurbanagentsand itsenvi-ronment. Illustrating the Biodiversity and symbiotic nature of the Coral reef an ecosystem to

take inspiration from. (Alexander, 2016)




4

INTRODUC-TIONThe dissertation aims to examine and em-brace theprinciplesofbiomimicry forde-signing a sustainable environment that progresses towards translating ecological knowledge into practical research meth-odologiesforarchitecturaldesign,theseofwhich would help to mitigate the causes oflossofbiodiversityandclimatechange.Thecausesof lossofbiodiversityandcli-matechangearemanyandformacomplexsystemthatoriginatefromthewaywehu-mans live, comprehend and relate to theworld we are living in. The built environ-ment and the methodology used behind designing it could have a prominent role in thebehaviorofahumanreferredtoasoneoftheurbanagents.

As architects we strive to create the op-timum built environment in whatever con-ceptionwethink justifiesas“good”.Ourcreationof thebuiltenvironmentstronglystreamsthroughourperceptionofthewaywepicture theworldandeachoneofuspossesses a special image. The sky, theleavesswayingonthetreeallofwhichpos-sess an articulate order that we as human grasp and appreciate. All systems in the living world comprise of components ar-ranged in hierarchies that may progress in complexordersystems(Alexander,2002).

The existing ordering system is first dis-cussed by addressing the complexity an environment could possess. The research

then begins to breakdown the ordering systems to the components that compose itbyheavilydiscussingtheurbanagentsoftheenvironment-beingtheusers,wheth-er human or animal. By addressing the needforachangeintheorderingsystem,the findings are streamlined to be inves-tigative by searching for answers in ourneighboring animal societies and gaining insight on how our societies could evolve tofollowsuit.Thecognitivecapabilitiesofthe agents in an environment are heavily discussedineachsectiontoproduceafi-nal urban biomimetic cognitive model that addressestheneedsfortheurbanagentsand the environment. The investigative approach uses primary resources and is backed up by experiments carried out by like minded researchers.




Fire ants that construct rafts together to escape from floods. (Ratch, 2017)

Ensuring the survival of the entire colony (Ketchell, 2017).

5

ORDEROrder and Complexity

Order, a word often heard repeatedly inthefieldofarchitecture;fallsunderseveralinterpretations and principles that reflectits character based on the elements with whichitiscomposedof.Intheverybegin-ningthemundanetermorder,wassimplyseenandunderstoodasdifferentprocess-es.Thesewerevaryingfromourmorpho-genetic processes that composed us as living systems, to the creation of stars,matter,galaxies,theinterplayandcreationofatoms,molecules,particlesandsoon.To understand the world around us as a system and to design a system wherein there exists a constant interplay between varying agents- biotic and abiotic; one must oftenunderstandtheorderwithwhichthesystemiscreatedandtheinterplayoftheexistingagents thataid in thecreationofthe ordering system.

Theideaofordercanbetracedallthewayback to Descartes in 1640. His speculation wasifwewanttounderstandhowsome-thing works we must begin to see it as a machine,webegin to isolate thecompo-nents relevant to our study and then you progress towards crafting a mechanical“toy”whichfollowsacertainsetofruleswhich replicate and translate the behavior ofthings(Alexander,2002).

Similarly, during the lecture “What isLife?”at Trinity College Dublin, 1943; Er-win Shrodinger approached this question

in reference toentropy, thatmatter is al-ways subject to the second law of ther-modynamics.“Howwouldweexpressthemarvelousfacultyofa livingorganism,bywhich it delays the decay into thermody-namic equilibrium (death)?” His answerincluded the process of metabolism ob-servedinall livingorganisms.Hisviewoflife suggested that “organization ismain-tainedbyextracting‘order’fromtheenvi-ronment”, this led to thenotionof ‘orderoutofchaos’(Portugali&Stolk,2016).

When studying human ecosystems oneoften understands the different levels ofcomplexity that exist within the domain. These could simply be understood as hy-bridsystemsthatcomposeofbiotic-biotic,abiotic-bioticandabiotic-abioticsystemsofinteractions that exist as human agents or ascollectiveswiththeirartifactsofvariousscalesbuiltbythem.Whileunderstandingthese ecosystems one can breakdown the domainbasedonthehierarchyofthesys-temsoverlayed, theconstant interplayal-lowanceofdifferentagents,theboundaryofthesystemspresentandthegrowthanddecayofdifferentcomponents.

An urban designer must always design cit-ieskeepinginmindthenatureoftheselforganizingaspectsofthesystemssetfor-ward by the urban agents in the domain. These urban agents with their unique cog-nitive capabilities, take role in the urban

planning of the domain andgenerate complexity.

Severaltheoristsfromthenon,set out on a quest to under-stand the complexities and or-ganizational systems that com-pose a city. Peter Allen and his groupoflikemindedresearch-ers, developed a set of com-plexitytheoriesofcities(CTC).They have displayed how cit-ies; despite being hybrid sys-tems, possess properties ofnatural complex systems vivid-ly:theyarecomplex,openandself organized, and are oftenchaotic and fractal (Portugali&Stolk,2016).Allthesechar-acteristics serve as prominent principles in natural systems. One can study these complex cognitive systems, hierarchi-cal systems and map them against our own to understand the similarities as well as the areas with which we could blur the lines between differentecosystems.




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ORDERUrban AgentsOrder and Complexity

The city referred to as the human eco-systemhere isanartificialproductthat iscomplex in its nature, not because of itsdesign but due to its urban agents interac-tions with it and amongst themselves. The urban designer would be responsible to how these urban agents are placed within the system and how the city allows them to interact with all components - biotic and abiotic.

Turner a prominent researcher, whenasked about what an urban planner must keep in mind while designing; aptly an-sweredthattheroleofdesigningisnottoforceorimposeanorderingsystembuttofacilitate it.Hefurtherwentontoexplaintheroleofacitizenorabioticagentwith-in an environment that the urban design-er has crafted; “The ability of the manycognitive agents-citizens-that make up our cities to judge theirenvironments forthemselves and their many individual judg-mentsofhowtheycanbestconstructtheirenvironments” (Turner, 2002). An urbandesigner thereby possesses the power to directionally manipulate the cognitive agents, being the citizens and their inter-play amongst other agents. This principle can be enhanced to cater better towards improving the health, sustainability, effi-ciency,transportandsoonofaparticularniche in our ecosystem.




A transect from Ankara, Turkey. Planned urban fabric. (Stephen Marshall, n.d.).

A transect from Ankara, Turkey. unplanned urban fabric. (Stephen Marshall, n.d.).

7

ORDERChronesthesiaOrder and Complexity

AhypothesissetforwardbyTulving(1983),suggested the concept of Chronesthesiaalsoreferredasmentaltimetravel.Theno-tion sprung originally in relation to episodic memory which begins by explaining how an urban agent possesses the ability to “mentallytravel”tothepast,presentandthefuturewhileencounteringtheorderingsystem laid out and designed by the archi-tect. This hypothesis is related to several principlesofcognition.

Oneamongstthemany,thatwouldbeex-tensively discussed here is cognitive plan-ning.Thisprincipledealswiththeabilityofthe urban agent - humans to observe the orderofanareaandtothinkaheadtothefuturewhich influences the action of thepresent(Milleretal,1960;Dasetal,1996lMorris and Ward, 2005; Portugali, 2011;Chap, 13).Similar to the conceptofStig-mergy-whichdealswiththeabilityofanindividualagentoracollectivethatperformactionsthatinfluencethesucceedingindi-viduals actions, observed in several eco-systems such as the social insects.

Aseconddomainof cognitiondealswithprospectivememory,thisconceptexploreshowurbanagentsremembertoperformaparticulartaskoraction,duetothearrange-ment and hierarchy in the environment that it encounters. Studies suggest that unlike other urban agents - organisms excluding humans; we humans spend half of our

daysmentally travelling in time,“thinkingaboutwhat isnotgoingonaround them,contemplating events that happened in the past, might happen in the future, or willneverhappenatall,’’(KillingsworthandGil-bert,2010).

The suggestion implied through this re-searchisthattheplanningofcomplexcit-iesaredirectlylinkedtothemanifestationsofanurbanagentschronestheticmemory.This phenomena is closely observed in oth-erurbanagents,fromcloselyrelatedapes,to social insects. By studying and predict-ing the chronesthetic memories and pre-dicting movements; urban planners could betterplanthecompositionofcities.




Chronesthesia (Chung, n.d.).

Brain activity due to Chrones-thesia (Zyga, 2010)

8

ORDERTHE NEED FOR A SHIFT IN THE ORDERING SYSTEM

Since thebeginningof time the term ‘or-der’ has been used for defining variousprinciples, movements and defining sys-tems-rangingfromtheclassicaltimes,tothe simplistic hierarchical movements. But withtime,urbandesignersarefacedwithseveralotherfactorstoconsiderwhilede-signing; that demand a sensitive interplay between the urban agents which include all organisms within the domain. These factorsmainlystemfromtheactionsofur-banagentsthatincludepollutionofoceans,atmosphere,waterwaysandsoilthatleadto changing climate and the constant strug-gleforsurvival,amongstthe lesserurbanagents of the domain. With these risingchallenges an urban designer must design differentlytoaddressthem.

Our neighboring ‘natural’ ecosystems crafted around us have grown and haveadapted to the changing environment suc-cessfully.Over10-30millionspecieshaveevolved over the past billion years; each have adapted to their own unique environ-ment and have specialized functions thatcould be utilized as design principles to producealogisticorderingsystem(Dietzel,2016).

This particular approach of understandingthe principles of functioning in a naturalecosystem,gaininginsightandtranslatingit in our human ecosystem would help us address the changing environment within

which we live upon and help blur the lines and instigate harmony between the order-ingsystems frommacro tomicroscales.This phenomena when practiced is known as biomimicry.

How could this practice be observed amongst urban designers?Asmentionedabove, urban agents of an ecosystempossess the power to manipulate the ur-ban agents in the domain. This principle is prominently observed during the late 1950’s in Tel Aviv. An urban agent began to predict or utilize her/his chronesthetic memorytoperceivethefutureconditionofhis/her balcony being realized as an open balconyasahalfroom.Theurbanagentre-alizedthedesignandsetforwardthe“thebutterflyeffectofTelAvivbalconies”.Thisthen led tomassselforganization follow-ing the actions of the anonymous urbanagents. It takes a single idea that seems plausibleinthemindsoftheurbanagenttomanipulateandfollowsuitforallcompati-bleurbanelementstofollowsuit(Portugali&Stolk,2016).Thisphenomenoncanthenbe realized by a mimicked natural principle from nature, thereby increasing the sus-tainabilityandefficiencyofthedesignovera wide scale.

Termites known as one of the most so-phisticated animal architects have their own unique swarm cognition with which they cooperate to construct and maintain

thecomplexityofthemounds(Turner, 2010, p.20). Thesemounds are constructed in coordination to regulate gas exchange and balance the ho-meostatic condition in the site. Birds, gorillas, beaver dams,termite mounds, all of whichconsist of their own uniquelyevolved urban agents that cog-nitively react to their urban ele-ments and adapt them to their specific needs manipulatingthem and starting their own “butterfly effect”, to ensuresurvival in their domains (Por-tugali&Stolk,2016)




Tel Aviv balconies (Anony-mous, n.d.)

9

BIOMIMICRYTHE ORDERING PRINCIPLE - GENERAL BIOMIMICRY

Biomimicry is an old notion that took root years ago. The early greek mythological legend of Icarus was based of Daedalusexperimentingandmimickingtheflightofbirds to escape the prison they were en-closedin(Ovid,2004;Lurie-Luke,inpress).

The flyingmachine designedby leonardodavinciwastheperfectexampleoftrans-lating natural functional movements ofbirds and bats. George de Mestral was tak-ing a stroll through the Alps with his dog andwasfascinatedbytheburrsattachedtothedogsfur.LateronhestudieditcloselythatinspiredhimtocreateVelcro(Benyus,1997;Lurie-Luke,inpress).Manyorganiza-tionswithin the livingworldusedifferentmodelofsustainability for increasedresil-ienceandbetterorganizationofurbanfab-rics. The application of biomimicrywouldprovidethedesignertherightstudyofdy-namicnaturalsystemsspecifictoaregionthatholdsthepotentialofecologicalequi-libriumwhichistestedthroughmillionsofyearsofevolution.TheStandardapproachto Biomimetic design has always been to scan the biological studies for functionalanalogiesthatmightbeofusetoadesign-er.

The largest structures present on the plan-et are not our creations but are rather the coralreefecosystemthatarethousandsofmileslong(GouldandGould,2007).Thesecoral reefs are components of colonies

that house tiny animals and form one ofthe most diverse ecosystems on the plan-et.“Likewise the tallestbuildingsare lessthanthreethenthsofamileinheight,andthedeepestwellsarelessthanfivemilesdeep” (Hanley, 2015). Individual termitesare lessthanatenthofan inch in length,they possess the capability of construct-ing towers25 feet inheight.Atahumanecosystem scale, this would be about2 ½ miles tall. These creatures can also digg wells that are about 150 feet deepthat leads them towards water resources at a human ecosystem scale this is equal to nearly twenty miles deep (Gould and Gould,2007).

The Lament for Icarus, Herbert James Droper, 1898; from : Tate (2015)Velcro, Biomimicry (Funther, 2016)




10

SOCIAL IN-SECTS AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL

INSECTS

Citiesandecosystemswhenviewedfromthe perspective of their cognitive swarmdisplay an untold story that leads an urban designer to better integrate their urban sys-temswiththeexistingurbanagentsofthedomain.Insimplerterms,thefirstbasicas-pectoftheurbandesigneristounderstandtheworkingsoftheexistingurbansociety- primarily being humans.

Human societies are not the only notable examples for their structure and orderingsystem as compared to other societies such as social insects. Amongst these social insects the social habit of formingasociety is found in twospecial classes,namely : the Hymenoptera, which com-prisesofwasps,antsandbeesand Isop-tera thatcomprisesoftermites.Theseso-cietieshaveevolvedatdifferenterasandhave drastically adapted to the changing environment. The Isoptera or the termites appearedinbetweenthe“ageoftheam-phibians”alsoknownasthePaleozoiceraand the“ageof reptiles”, also knownasthe Mesozoic era. These termites are also coined as monophyletic which roughly means that all 4000 species that belong to the class Isoptera can be linked back to a single origin root. This basically implies that this particular cognitive swarm developed its social habits and social structure all the way back to the Paleozoic era. The Hyme-noptera class are also coined as mono-phyletic; fromacommonstockofwasps

thatdevelopedtoadvancedbees,antsandwaspsoftoday.Despitethedifferenceoforigin of both the classes -HymenopteraandIsopterasocialhabitstructureoftheseclasses have evolved to be similar (Portu-gali&Stolk,2016).

These species are characterized by their dy-namicsystemofsocialbehaviorcommonlyknown as eusociality. This incorporates a cohesive yet complex social behavior that initiate cooperative behavioral order within a particular colony.The communal behav-ior in this ecosystem is seen prominently where individual species share common nestinghabitats.Thebehaviorofeusocialis a form that overlaps generations thatcare for brood that are brought about byasinglefemale.Theremainingindividualswithin the colony are sterile or inactive.

These social insects organize themselves into colonies; each with their own king andqueenandaclusteroftheirsterileoff-springs that are also coined as the workers. The king and queen have a much longer lifespanand theentire roleof thisgroupofsocialinsectsisthereproductionofster-ile offspring. The social insects and theirorganizationservesastheperfectsystemto relate to the urban human ecosystem. Thereareover750,000insectspeciescat-aloguedglobally,whilemanymoreareyetto be identified and discovered. The suc-cessofthesystemisproventhroughthe

manyyearsofresilienceinthenatural environment that have led them to achieve a level ofequilibrium (Scheffer,etal,2001).

Thesocialstructuresof theseinsectsbenefitallmembersofthe colony. Colonies of socialinsects are categorized and or-ganized according to division oflaborandthentheyareunit-ed by a communication sys-tem. These workers possess the capability to switch fromtask to task when demand rises. Social insects display a leveloforganizationthatisnotinherently hierarchical as seen in human centric organization. Inasocialstructureofinsects,no individual directs behavior of another (Culos,2015).Tak-ing the example of weaverants, their nests are broughttogether using leaves that are strewn together by larval silk. The level of cooperation be-tweengroupsofantsthatpullleaves while the other group move the larvae secreting silk between themselves require awhole new level of cooper-ation amongst the individu-al species. The cooperation




11

AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL INSECTS

SOCIAL IN-SECTSamongst these individual members arises fromtheconceptofstigmergywherethechain of leaves if larger or longer wouldattract more workers to join the construc-tion, the smaller the chain of leaves theless inclined the workers are towards the constructionofthechain(Culos,2015).

Social insects have a closed communica-tion system within their insect colonies. Theyarebasedonfeed-forwardbehaviorswhicharebeneficialfornotjustanindivid-ualmemberofthecolony;butthecolonyas a whole. This closed communication amongst social insects include trophallax-is, broadcasepheromonal signaling, indi-vidual contract that display behaviors that towardstheendarebeneficialtotheentirecolony(Culos,2015).

While considering the urban fabric, tak-ing inspiration from the complex societalstructure of social insects, our neighbor-hoods could be designed in a similar man-ner.Zoningoutareasoffunctionsor jobsneeded and governmental incentives forpeople of that occupation to house thezones could be incorporated. In this sense wecanfactorinreducingtransportationofpeople of different occupations. Plannerscould then use task allocation inspired by social insects to thereby reduce the eco-logical footprints of the urban fabric Thequestion then arises if we as architectscould embed a formof societal structure

whetherbyzoningofallocatedtasks,orbyzoningoftransportationthatincreasesoci-etal exchange by studying the interactions oftheurbanagents.Theanswerthenliesback relating it to theperceptionoforderdiscussed earlier and factoring emotionalresponse.




Example of ant morphology. (Hanley, 2015)

Example of termite morpholo-gy. (Hanley, 2015)

12

SOCIAL IN-SECTS SWARM COGNITION AMONGST

SOCIAL INSECTS

By understanding and studying how so-cial insects respond to the environment,we can draw up the similarities observed amongst human agents responding to theirevolvedartificialworlds.Eachmem-berof thecolony in theclassof Isopteraor termites, exists as a cognitive entity;that holds the power to sense and per-ceive its own local environment and aptly respond to it. Generally amongst termites there are two forms by which these in-sectscommunicateamongstoneanother,namely : chemical and tactile communica-tion. Termites build their mounds keeping inmindthecoreprincipleofwaterbalancefollowed by gas exchange in themound.It is the demanding need to transport the excess water that percolates into the nest during monsoon seasons that provide the initialsignalfortheurbanagents-termitestobeginmoundexchange.Therefore,themoundfirstbeginsas“roughdraft”,cater-ing towards fixing thewater issuewhichis then shaped by redefining the moundaccording to other environmental factorsthat interfere or affect the working livesof the urban agents. For example, whiletransporting the excess water the mound is exposed to turbulentwinds, this leadstermitestorepairthehighpressurezones,and drill holes to let outwarm air, form-ingaventurieffectphenomenawithinthemound toensuresufficientgasandwindexchange. In this manner a termite mound isconstructed(Portugali&Stolk,2016).

Another interesting phenomena in relation to cognition amongst these specialized in-sect societies is when there is a damage in the mound. How do all the termites in the mound collectively address and cogni-tively respond tosuchacrisis?Once thetermites communicate the crisis to one another through chemical or tactile means of communication they first move on tophase 1; being recruitment. The workers in the termitecolonyare informedof thedamage and begin to enter the mount to inspect.This is followedupbyadecisionmaking process whereby the nest workers begintoproposehypothesesofwhereex-actly the mound is damaged. This process inducesperturbation,which isembeddedin the termites behavior due to which they begin to lay down moist dollops of soilon the assessed and collectively decided damaged surface. The first dollop of soillaidoutbythefirstphaseofperturbation-induced building consists of an attractivepheromone known as the cement phero-mone. This pheromone stimulates the oth-er nest workers to build upon it. This pro-cessisknownasstigmergy,anactionthatinfluencetheactionofthenextorganism.Inthismannerthedamagedsurfaceiscol-lectively and cognitively repaired (Portugali &Stolk,2016).

Thisprocessofmoundrepairandmoundconstruction are remarkable in such societ-ies.Whatisinsightfultobetakenoutofthis

isthecompleteabsenceofthe“initial plan” for the mound,or how the construction pro-cess is to be carried out. Each ofthesemoundsserveastheoutcomeresultingfromamultiscale cognitive phenomena.




13

HUMAN AGENTS SWARM COGNITION AMONGST

HUMANS

Now taking all these insights into urban planning for human societieswe can be-gin to map out similar cognitive patterns amongst human urban agents. For exam-ple; A personal experience documented by the author Portugali (2016), begins bynarrating theheavychaotic trafficflowofBangalore,acityinIndia.Theurbanagentsof the domain that the narrator travelsthroughdonotabidetothetrafficrulessetby the government. The roads and streets were designed in such a manner that did notdictateorallowdirectionalflowofthepedestrian nor themovement of animalssuch as cows. There was an instance at which a car began to travel against the trafficflow, thedrivers responded to thischangewithcoolindifference.Throughoutthe authors journey, there were severalinstances that could’ve developed into an accident,butthroughoutthejourneytherewere no collisions.

It is expected that a city like Bangalore,thatishighlycongested,withareasofpoorurban planning of streets and roadwayswouldberankedhighforthenumberofac-cidentsintheregion.Surprisingly,accord-ingtoWorldHealthOrganizationstatistics,the traffic fatalities in India rank amongstthe lower tiers of accidents world wide(Portugali&Stolk,2016).

Nowitiswellknownthatoneofthemostdangerous traffic in theworld is found in

Namibia,acountry inthecontinentofAf-rica. The country along with their urban agentsfollowthetrafficlawsandarepro-vided with efficient good infrastructurealong with well planned streetways and roads. Despite all these provisions Namib-ia is one amongst the many to have high trafficfatalityrates.

These anecdotes serve as perfect exam-ples by which a particular design is devel-oped further by the urban agents them-selves. These complex urban systems emerge from the behavior of all urbanagents within them. In the case of Ban-galore, theswarmcognitionbetweenthedrivers displayed as a set of emotive re-sponsesintheformofsoundsandsignalsreducesthenumberofaccidents.Thecog-nitiveresponseoftheurbanagentsareassuchthattheymodifytheirenvironment.

Inareasofhighpedestrianflow,thedriv-ers have an embedded cognitive ability to be attentive and respondwith cool indif-ference, thus creating a pedestrianwalk-way generatively that was not designed by theurbandesigner.The“initialdesign”ofwhichwouldhavebeenwaydifferentandsought out if the urban agents cognitiveabilitiesandactionswerestudiedclosely,toprovideanenvironment that isflexibleand adaptive such that an urban agent can modifytotheirownneeds.Theaimoftheurbandesigneristofacilitatetheabilityof

the urban agents cognitive abil-ities to judge their surrounding environments. The individual response and judgments ofthese urban agents collectively providethepalettefordesign-ing the city.

Similartothetermitemounds,the initial response of the ur-banagentsneed,toextracttheexcesswaterwasaddressed,followedby the nestworkersfacilitating the cognitive abili-ties of the othermembers ofthe colony by building up the mound to their reaction to the externalenvironmentalfactorssuch as wind, gas exchange,solar and so on.




14

HUMAN AGENTS SWARM COGNITION AMONGST

HUMANS




Indian roadways, showing heavy traffic flow, cognitive signals, generative route creation, cluster of urban agents

Well planned out Namibian streets

15

BIOMIMETIC MODEL DEFININF THE URBAN BIOMIMETIC

COGNITIVE SYSTEM

While planning a city, or constructing amound,burrowsandsoon;theurbande-signermustfirstconsiderwhatinherentlydefinesahomefortheurbanagentsofthesociety.Thehomeoftheseurbanagentsisessentially a physical construct that serves as a formof residence, housingdifferentfunctionsfortheurbanagents(Portugali&Stolk,2016).

When designing the position and spatial-ly planning out how this space is situated onthesite,theurbandesignermustkeepseveralfactorsinmind;fromthebehaviorscarriedoutwithinthehomeforthepartic-ularurbanagent,totheallowanceofcreat-inganidentityinthespace,buildingasafehaven for the urban agent and designingthe routes and landmarks, aiding the ur-ban agent to cognitively map out the entire landscape where its home is situated in.

Whilethereexistsseveraldifferencesbe-tween human urban agents and animal ur-ban agents, the essencewith which theemotive response of home can streamseveral similarities, and this biobehavior-al systems could provide converging ap-proaches to designing the spatiotemporal essencesurroundingthe“home”

Hediger (1964), began to explain this ha-bitualspatiotemporalbehaviorintheformofanimal territory.TheterritoryaccordingtoHediger, isasetof locationswithinan

urban landscape in which an animal or a humanagentperformsspecificbehaviors.

Thesesetoflocationsdefinedbytheurbanagents themselves are interconnected by asetofpaths,someofwhichprogresstobe personal regular paths to certain urban agents(Hediger,2964).Thereby,allurbanagents - Human and animals alike possess theneed todetermineaspecific locationand develop it in its essence as a home.

The urban agents once determining the position of their homewould then beginbymemorizingitslocationbyfirstlocatingspecific landmarks, then spatial informa-tionderived from theorderof the routesthat directs it away and towards its home.

From analyzing the cognitive aspects with which animal urban agents design their landscape, The urban design model pro-posed in simpler terms is listed below:

1. Understanding the home-related behav-iorsofthephysicalconstructofhome

2. Mapping out routes in relation to the to-pographyandthefunctions(pertheurbanagent)demandedbytheurbanagents

3. Mapping out the routes directing to-wards the home to aid easy cognitive map-ping and having the landscape designed in suchamannerthat theperceptionof the

landscape aids for easy re-membrance

4.Mappingoutzonesforhigh-er experiential quality




16

BIOMIMETIC MODEL

HOME AND IT’S FUNCTIONS

In our natural environment all urban de-signers including human and animal urban agents should design considering various factors; such as, other urban agents(oth-er species), food resources, prospectivehome locations, physiology, topographyandsocialrankofthesociety(Portugali&Stolk,2016).

Forahumanurbanagent,thewordhome,cantakedifferenttermsandscales,rang-ing fromahouse, toaclusterofhouses,anoutdoorlocationforahomelesspersonandsoon.Onamacroscale, itcanbeahometown, town or a country. This per-spective can narrowed to its very physical essenceofpossessingastructure,asizeand a prominent location. For a human ur-ban agent a house would possess the basic functions:livingroom,bedrooms,kitchen,washroom,etc.Whereasananimalurbanagent such as a rat when introduced to a large area begins to spatially organize the space into food stores, latrines, nestingsites and runways (Leonard and McNaugh-ton, 1990). While considering rats, thehomeservesasaterminalforroundtripsundertakenintheenvironment.Thefunc-tionalpartitioningof thesespaces inbothanimal and human urban agents remains thesame(Portugali&Stolk,2016).

A female polar bear is observed to dig a600 cm long den that usually comprises ofasingleentrance that leads toanoval

chamber; consisting of ventilation holes.Theseparticular dens vary fromspace tospaceaccordingtocognitiveabilitiesofthepolar bears and their navigator skills in re-lation to the existing topography (Portugali &Stolk, 2016).We as humans are oftenaccustomed to manipulating the existing topography to benefit the spatiotemporalaspectofourhomes,thismethodhasad-verseeffectsonthesurroundingtopogra-phydestroyingthehabitualspacesof thebiodiversity that exists in those spaces.




Polar bear den near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, 10 April 2000. Durner et al. (2003)

Burrow systemof a mole rat. The position ofmounds is depicted by circles, and the nest locations bylarge circles (based on Erez2005)

17

BIOMIMETIC MODEL THE ROUTE AND CHRONES-

THESIA

Onceestablishingthenotionofwhathomeis perceived as within an urban domain we must consider the periodic pathways and periodreturnstothisveryhome.Whiletrav-elinginroutes,urbanagentswouldsituateand cognitively map their routes either by internalorexternalcues.Thesecues,helpin navigating the urban agent through the environmentby forminga cognitivemap.For example, when considering externalcues,wecanconsiderdeepaquaticenvi-ronments,wherethevisibilityofthespaceisrelativelypoor(Portugali&Stolk,2016).Insuchacase,theurbanagentorthede-signerwouldcreatealandmark,avisuallydistinctiveurbanelement,onewhere thechronestheticelementoftheurbanagentis reduced. This landmark would then help the urban agent to understand distances and directions to the destined locations in their environment. This principle can easily be perceived in our urban landscape.

Whilewalkingaround inacity, theurbanagents moving about do not only perceive thebuildings, landscape,streets,butalsobegin to thinkof theexpectedurbanele-ments(Portugali&Stolk,2016).Thisphe-nomena along with an urban agents abil-ity to construct cognitive maps leads the agents to behave not only in response to the present existing city but also to the part ofthecitythathasn’tmaterializedyet.

Sohowdoesonemanipulatetheinforma-

tion perceived in the ecosystem designed by an urban designer. This heavily depends on the levels of information displayed at“firstglance”.Forexample,let’sconsidera street where all urban typologies are sim-ilarandofthesameheight,theinformationperceived at “first glance” of this urbanmorphologywouldbelow,andthechron-esthetic level of this experience wouldgenerally be higher as the urban agent be-gins to predict the typology ahead. Let’s consider the information levelbeinghigh-erthistime,asdisplayedinthefigure;thechronestheticlevelofexperiencewouldbelower,unpredictable,andwouldbehardertocognitivelymapouttheurbanplanofthedomain. This phenomena is widely used in the best interest of the urban plannerto play with the chronesthetic or episodic memoryoftheurbanagentandtheallow-anceofthepersontocognitivelymapouttheirsurroundings,thishastobemappedout against intriguing urban agent as well to spatially enhance the experiential quality oftheurbanmorphologylaidout.

InthecaseoftheDubaiskyline,onepre-dicts unconsciously the order of the sys-tem while passing through and the order-ingsystemtofollow.Toacommonurbanagentwithnoknowledgeoftheirsurround-ings the urban sprawl appears to be too similartherebylosingtheiressenceofen-hancing the unpredictability or the unique-ness of the urban design. As compared




round trips to the house and the trajectories of returns tothe house- gerbil-like rodent (Portugali & Stolk, 2016).

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BIOMIMETIC MODEL THE ROUTE AND CHRONES-

THESIA




Dubai, predictable Chronesthesia

Sienna, unpredictable Chronesthesia

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THE ROUTE AND CHRONES-THESIA

BIOMIMETIC MODELto theSienna landscape that consistsofonelandmarkthatdistinguishesitfromtheordinary typology and surprises the urban agent thereby manipulating the chrones-theticmemoryoftheurbanagent.

Similarly beavers build dams when they re-quire their burrows to have access points that are present under water (Gummell,1998).Beaversneverbuildonlyoneformofdam,ofanyonetypeofmaterial.Theseanimals cooperatively work together to modify their environment and increasetheepisodicmemoryoftheirurbanagents(Portugali&Stolk,2016).

Now by understanding the ubiquitous need forcognitivemapping towards thehome;It is then necessary to understand the be-havior of urban agents from their homestospecific locations.Thisubiquitousphe-nomena by which an urban agent sticks to a particular route is seen across all agents including aquatic organisms to primates. Baboons,woollymonkeys,spidermonkeyalltravelthroughaspecificroutethathasanequalbalanceofexperientialqualityandchronesthesia along their routes. In certain cases,thebeardedsakisappeartocreatespecific landmarks that enable to reachfoodpatches(Portugali&Stolk,2016).

There exists classical models that over years of study have begun to map outthe human spatial behavior or human mo-

bility patterns (HMP), this usesBrownianmotion also known as random walk to de-scribe these patterns (Camp et al, 2002;Groenevelt et al, 2006). Thismodel pres-ents human movement patterns by assum-ingasuccessiveamountofrandomsteps,in termsof direction aswell as distance.This particular study has been enriched over the years to the added date and tech-nological input from mobile usage. Thefindings and patternswere supported byGPS data. This particular model was then used for for studying behavioral patternsin existing street networks and examin-ing the persons motive to ‘move’ fromone place to another. The resulting study

found out that the probabilityof movement of the agentsis entirely dependent on the number of intervening oppor-tunities (landmarks, typologydifference)thatarisefromtheoriginofmovementtotheur-ban agents destination. This analysis then proved that the physical distance between the origin and destination was a factor that was consideredway below then the urban de-sign intervention in the agents routes (Camp et al, 2002;Groeneveltetal,2006).




The structure of territory, (Hediger 1964)

20

CONCLU-SIONTherearemillionsof species inournatu-ral world that exhibit functions that offerstability within their regional environment. Thisletsthemreachanoverallresilientfac-tor that we as human kind have in a way failedtoachieveinourhumanecosystem(benckiser,2010).Humanagricultureorig-inated about 10,000 years agowhich ca-tered towards population growth and urban existence(HolldoblerandWilson,2009).Incontrast,antsmadethisparticularshiftabout 60 million years ago which led to-wards ecological dominance. Along with this shift and many others, the stabilityof the ecosystem domain of ants weremaintained to bring about ecological equi-libriumwithin their specificenvironmentsand thisbroughtabout theadvantagesofresilience(Schefferetal,2001).Theurbanplanner whether in the human world or the animal ecosystem possesses the main role tosubtlydefinetheexistingtypographytoafford theagentswithin it to interactandcarryouttheirfunctions.Thisparticularroleinthehumanecosystem,attimeslosesitsmeaning,wherebytheorderof theurbandesignisassuchthatitnotonlyconfinesand harms the agents in its environment butleadstootherharmfuleffectssuchasloss of biodiversity and climate change.By adapting to the urban biomimetic ap-proach, the designer cognitively lays outtheenvironment inasustainableandeffi-cientmannerthatenablesthesurvivalofallurban agents through all ecosystems.




(Jáchym Pešek,n.d) Swarm urbanism

Softwares encoded with specific algorithms to mimic agent cognition and inter-action with the environment, resulting in better urban planning according to the Urban Biomimetic Cognitive model. Image (Fran Castillo, 2012)

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