The City = the Brain = the Building
Again the answer is in the city!The city is a multilayer channel of different informationaldata. One of those layers relates to the brain activity.I have conducted several experiments with BCI in orderto collect brain data from the streets of New York. Istarted first analyzing the data for the attention levels ofthe Columbia Campus. An interesting map I have developedduring the research entails a relationship of theimmediate environment with the measurements givenby the BCI in those same specific points. In a broaderscale I have walked the entire section of Manhattanthrough 53rd street while collecting both the levels ofattention and meditation simultaneously. Lastly I generatedall possible sections within the island of Manhattanto establish a new map of brain data for thecollective living in the city. By extracting the maximumand minimum values we can learn many factors determiningconditions which rule the city’s neurologicalcomfort. The city itself and individual architectonic unitsshould accomplish different changes in density, proximity,aperture, etc, while responding to this data.My design strategy starts from understanding the naturalgrowth of the building and then studies a potentialgrowth both given by the individual as a unit living thespace and from the city as a brain map constrain. Thecity selects and intensifies. It plays a role in density, aperture,materiality, etc.The city as a field of nodes with specific characteristicsfor brain activity is constantly rearranging positionwhile creating branching systems with freeze conditionsof mental states. Like the master to his bonsai, the cityperforms constant modifications on the living art pieceduring generations to come. The pod is to the bonsaias the city is to the building.I have design a spatial sequence defined by the inhabitants.Their perception of the space is always in relationshipto their mental conception of the city map. Specificallyin the Nakagin building the window representingthe eye looking to the world should now break out andexplore the city and itself.My design strategy analyses first the natural growth ofthe building and then generates a potential growth systemgiven both by the individual living the space andby the city as a collective brain map constrain. The cityselects and intensifies those conditions.The city plays a role in parameters of density, aperture,materiality, visibility, etc.