The Scalable City (VR Arena)

2006

Sheldon Brown (US)
Alex Dragulescu
Erik Hill
Mike Caloud
Joey Hammer
Carl Burton

Take a virtual walking tour of “Scalable City.” The point of departure is provided by actual satellite data that undergo a fascinating process of transformation to become a fictive urban landscape!

The chief components of “Scalable City” are a topographical layout, streets, blocks, architecture and vehicles. Each one of these elements goes through an algorithmic transformation—that is, the landscape is modified through, for example, duplication, rotation, copying and insertion, and the result is the emergence of a completely new layout.

A system of streets—reminiscent, perhaps, of decorative forms used in Art Nouveau or Oriental ornamentation—then “grow” into this landscape. City blocks, architecture and vehicles originate in similar fashion.