Urban bio-hybrid is one of the results of a urban research platform developed by upgrade.studio office in Bucharest[Romania's capital]. The research was emphasizing a new way of urban development by analyzing the urban tissue and the way it has been generated so far. We consider that each city has emerged differently with their own genetic characteristics encoded in the urban tissue. Building-up a new future with no reference to this matter, in the context of architectural globalization where any new building could fit in almost any place in the world, could harm our cultural expression.
The research implied an urban tissue "scan" with the help of a software [developed in the office] based on mathematical models and algorithms [ such as Flocking Theory, Harmonic Search Optimization etc.] Onward, a second phase of the research analyzed the urban tissue in terms of dynamics and functionalities underlining the spots where hybrid architecture could be used to reanimate the urban tissue.
At the end of the urban research process there were chosen the most critical spot-site where an intervention was necessary. On this site the office designed two hybrids based on the diagrams it had previously obtained.
NYMPHA Cultural Center is a cultural bio-hybrid inspired by the principles of the biological paradigm, a particular architectural specie [the architectural hybrid mix of architectural functions being needed in that particular urban tissue] grown into the environment.
The bio-hybrid is a morphogenetic reaction to the state of complexity of the environment. It is the result of a number of virtual simulations with parameters measured in the natural environment [wind, sun, temperature, circulations, structure, functional spaces, urban attractors, accessibility and so on]. The object resulted is a processed set of information, an architectural endeavor to ease the architect's understanding of the real architectural potentials.
The final design of the building following the general morphogenetic approach is also inspired by the biological life, in this case the circulatory system of the leafs and the butterfly chrysalis as a smart reactive skin which protects the inside.
The biologically grown NYMPHA Cultural Center performs like a biological organism reactive to the changing urban context trough a network of veins merged into the body of the building in close relation to a smart skin. This hierarchical system of veins represents the metamorphose of structure, ducts and passageways in a unifying morphology. The organic property is meant to consistently reduce the energy consumption and the impact the building has on the environment.
Some of the functions of the veins system: _collecting the pluvial water and recycling it; _ capturing the solar energy and filtrating the amount of light that penetrates inside the building; _ cooling and heating the entire body of the building; _ cooling the exterior environment trough a mist dispersal system incorporated on the outside face of the vein system; _ storing the water at a medium temperature into the underground; _ providing flexibility and structural support; _ monitoring the inside and outside environment through a sensors embedded into the structure of the veins; _generating different light intensities during the night in response to the specific functions it comes into contact with.
NYMPHA is the centre for creative processes [the name being a metaphor for the analogy with the biological metamorphosis caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly], hosting a cultural performance hall, conference spaces, workshops for artists and designers, exhibitions, restaurant/student cantina with its green technological glass house, green market, library, tea house and coffee shop, shops and offices for designers and urban exhibition spaces.
This kind of approach introduces a better relationship with the urban space and the urban tissue solving some of its biggest problems facing the old and the new architectural objects. Using a bottom-up criteria [emergent process] the urban tissue affected by necrosis, inactive or transformed in a "bad neighborhood", could be reanimated and it could gain a new value.
