This 6th year thesis project was completed in collaboration with Thomas Cooper and Hannah Byrom. This year we explored how we can address zero-carbon cities through urban design solutions and computational thinking. The project involved live clients, the Manchester City Council (MCC) and the Far East Consortium (FEC), on the large scale re-development of the Northern Gateway. Our thesis expanded on this brief and focused in on aspects of building performance to understand how operational energy use (which makes up a large amount of carbon emissions over the years) can be reduced through both a range of passive methods and energy generation systems. In addition to all this, we recognised that the push for high performing, low carbon cities can result in spaces which are not liveable and do not create a positive experience for those living there. To address this, we also developed hybrid typologies and set up agents to test which scenarios, urban arrangements and buildings would provide the optimum levels of both building performance and resident satisfaction.
