Our cities are space-time systems, constantly exchanging information among themselves and each other, mutating and fluctuating in an evolutionary manner. The traditional City lost its clear connection to a single static space location, underlining the emergence of a new elastic territoriality, a new informational order, in which traditional infrastructure networks coexist, and expand, into immaterial connections. A combined combinatorial, evolutionary set of Hyper-ecologies, referring to multiple physical and virtual cities.

Through data exchange and interaction, GSS16 – BCN explored the connection between multi-territorial cities, collecting and visualizing data into projections, interpretations, actions translated through robotic process of fabrication. This process of materialization was not only used as an information exchanging system but as a decision making tool for the city, citizens and its environment.

The students were engaged in an heterogeneous learning process exploring multiple urban strategies, shaping the invisible correlation between space and information. Data collection, Material interpretation, robotic aerial fabrication were interrelated into a design process interacting with the networked system of the hyper-city.

Global Summer School BCN is a full-time two-week course that provides both practical and theoretical knowledge. Its structure consists in three main learning modules, led by expert tutors. The following three course modules aim towards a common objective: the fabrication of a 1:1 urban machining intervention, transferring and digitally interrelating multiple sets of data collected from hyper-connected cities. The modules will be conducted every day with a max length of 4 hours each from Monday to Saturday.

Urban Strategies and Technology / 24 hours

Urban Strategies and Technologies is a 24 hour module that includes both the analysis of current urban anomalies as well as the definition of a generative design language that can correspond to a continuously evolving ecosystems such as our cities. The case study for our students was Barcelona, with its historical square blocks (manzanas) planned by Cerda in 1860. The students have been asked to identify the problematics, of five strategical sites along the city, through data collection and suggest an innovative, responsive infrastructure.

SANT ADRIA’ DEL BESOS – REEF-ITALIZE
The goal of this project is to revitalize the area by irrigating it with a split reef. The reef connects the public spaces and at the same time leads the water through the area to activate biodiversity. Moreover, the reef structure will grow and maintained by drones. The drones scan the environment, the water flow, pollution (through NDVI photogrammetry data) and people density to adjust to the future needs. The aim is to create an adaptable system which can be used by local people to grow their own food and as an infrastructure for healthy biodiversity. In this way it will act as a filter for the river and the contaminated ground.

PLACA DE LA CATHEDRAL – HYPER CONNECTED CITIZENS
Urban cities are based on the interaction of people of different cultural backgrounds. How do people move together in a public space? What makes them move? Observing and analyzing movement behaviors, through the collection of noise and twitter data, in a characteristic multicultural public space in Barcelona, Placa de la Catedral, the hypothesis of this project is the spatial interaction of locals and tourists. The solution derives from dynamic points, which are transformed into human-interactive aerial structures.

CIUTADELLA PARK – URBA…NATURAL
Cities become predominant in the world while urbanization leads to ecological collapse. In order to empower urban greenery to fulfill the needs of the society, this project, suggests the transformation of Ciutedella Park to an emerging place of food production. ?he park will become the springboard for vertical and horizontal interscalar plant growth along the city, enabled and maintained by aerial robotics.

PLACA DE LES GLORIES CATALANES – URBAN MATERIALS METABOLISM
Informed and inspired by the site of Glories the aims of this projects are: a) to respond to the need of local material production by repurposing waste into dynamic public spaces, b) to exemplify a generative system responsive and adaptive to the (multi-species) life of the city, c) to facilitate material cycles that trigger the emerging circular economy, d) to increase bioreceptivity of the built environment and accelerate re-naturalization. In this framework, a network of drones detecting, collecting and transforming local waste materials into dynamic public spaces is suggested in this project.

PARELLEL AVENUE – AVINGUDA DEL PARAL·LEL
Once a rich, vibrant stretch of Barcelona, Parallel Avenue today is used more as a passage, rather than a destination. Focusing on an active hub surrounding theatre Apolo as a case study, in this project, clusters of the street that can accommodate dynamic shifts in physical space are identified. The integration of agents and the use of swarm activity with drones will allow for dynamic public space adaptation and revitalization based on real-time change. The objective is the creation of responsive environments that facilitate human engagement with the street.

1:1 INSTALLATION IN PUBLIC SPACE

The common ground of the aforementioned projects is the real time data collection and response of the suggested infrastructures through the usage of aerial robotics. This creates the necessity for placing drone stations in key points of the city, in order to facilitate and program the movement of the agents, as well as store, analyze and project the acquired data. As the stations emerge in different sites, a modular and adjustable structure has been developed.

The design is defined by the base of the station and its capacity of drones, where programmed agents define a structural flow from the drone-ports towards the base. The path of these agents is rationalized into straight linear segments with predefined directions, which connect on distributed points in the 3d space, the nodes. The lines are materialized in 312 wooden sticks and the nodes in 87 unique modular press fit joints.

Prototyping and Fabrication / 24 hours

Aerial Robotics / 12 hours

GSS16 program was focused on Hyper cities. Hyper cities are overlaid with networks of information that helps you Analyses the present and endeavor the future probabilities. Hence its all about networking and Data interpretation.

Data interpretation is part of daily life in a networked society, we live in and now we are getting into the data-revolution.  This data revolution is that now we are actually able to do something with data and this will transform how we live, work and think. At the same time the implications of inaccurate or improperly interpreted data are wide-ranging. That’s where, Aerial Robotics module is focused.

Aerial Robotic Module was realized by NERO | networking environmental robotics. It was 3 Days long module divided in three different strategies focusing on translation of different environmental condition into data followed by the data visualization.

To achieve this goal, we used parametric drone as an open source tool and interoperable drone platforms that is efficient of carrying NDVI Cameras and SMART CITIZEN KIT.  To analyze the data collected with drones, we used different software solutions to generate database and cartographies that improve design decision intelligence and hence influence their ideas and methodology.

NDVI DATA ANALYSIS
The first strategy was NDVI DATA ANALYSIS, NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) is a measure of healthy, green vegetation. The combination of its normalized difference formulation and use of the highest absorption and reflectance regions of chlorophyll make it robust over a wide range of conditions. The value of this index ranges from -1 to 1. The common range for green vegetation is 0.2 to 0.8.

Reference: Rouse, J., R. Haas, J. Schell, and D. Deering. Monitoring Vegetation Systems in the Great Plains with ERTS. Third ERTS Symposium, NASA (1973): 309-317.

we attached NDVI Camera with filtered Near-Infrared (VI band) Lens to the drone to capture images of the terrain of Valldaura. In order to extract NDVI Values from the plants, we have used an add-on “NERO” for Grasshopper3D. It allows you to extract data from a single Image (JPEG format) and translate into Grasshopper and Rhinoceros interface and visualize” (NDVI) values from each pixel of the image. NDVI is directly related to the photosynthetic capacity and hence energy absorption of plants.

SCK DATA ANALYSIS
Second strategy of the Aerial robotic module was focused on Smart Citizen Kit; a global open-source environmental monitoring platform. The Smart Citizen Kit is a piece of hardware comprised of a sensor and a data-processing board. The SCK board carries sensors that measure air composition (CO and NO2), temperature, humidity, light intensity and sound levels. The device’s low power consumption and being lightweight, it allows for placing it on the drone interoperable platform along with other sensors.

Hence Monitoring Surrounding Environment has been enabled by technologies including the development of an array of real-time aerial robot mountable monitoring sensors that measure everything from chlorophyll levels to plant water status, air composition (CO and NO2), temperature, humidity, light intensity, multi- and hyperspectral aerial imagery, from which products like NDVI maps can be made for the further analysis of the environment.

3D SCANING ENVIRONMENT
The third strategy regarding intensive environmental data analysis was about 3D scanning environment, that analyses a real-world object or environment to collect data on its shape and appearance (e.g. colour). The collected data can then be used to create a point cloud of geometric samples on the surface of the subject. These points can then be used to extrapolate the shape of the subject. At the same time, the color information collected at each point can also be determined. Hence the purpose of this strategy was to explore the relationship between digital and environmental manufacturing, as multi-scalar construction techniques.

Aerial Robotics became a common applied research tool for many different fields. Over the period of time, It has become more capable of matching and exceeding human capabilities. They are no longer, seen merely as passive onlookers capturing information about an environment, but are engaging with that environment in a meaningful way through manipulation, construction and the way they interact with humans.