3. Integration Context. | Virtual City Model

Integration context :

In an expanding World there are many challenges to face for urbanists, engineers and designers. Having three different products we came with one idea to merge the individual systems.

The first idea goes to the merging of the ontologies. Since the focus of the ontologies are quite unique, we connect them as a puzzle to serve a purpose in common. The purpose in this case are different stakeholders on the building branch. Building companies are there for building infrastructure in order to develop a city. In our specific case, the infrastructure at issue is a building and a suspension bridge. This infrastructure consists of different components, which in turn need materials to come alive. We then set the focus on the path. Meaning that in order to build these components, the materials have to be brought from the manufacturer to the construction site. This transportation should be environmentally friendly, also minimizing the costs. In summary, the first two ontologies focus on the “thing” that needs to be built (building or a bridge). The third ontologie figures out the transportation of the materials to be able to construct, as well as the people working on the project, the stakeholders. In addition, the ontology of the suspension bridge had the focus on a cost and benefit analysis, as well as a risk analysis. This could be connected to the different materials used, as well as the different uses of both of the infrastructures. Keeping in mind the goal of minimizing the costs.

For the combination of the parametric models we started with the idea that cities don’t stop developing and expanding their boundaries. Even some small towns are merging with the big metropolys. Driven by this thought, we came up with the following scenario. The scenario in mind talks about a small city in the countryside, where people have a peaceful life. It’s an environmentally friendly town, where the people in charge encourage their citizens to use the car less and move more.

https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/san-francisco-bay-landscape-cartoon-with-suspension-bridge-water_4758647.htm

Small towns are merging with the big metropolis. This is mostly happening because people are searching for better life opportunities. Many times these better conditions are found in the big cities, where there are a lot of work opportunities. Let’s say our town is rounded by a body of water. For this means the habitants would need a way and a connection path to the big metropoly. This is the moment where the engineers decide that the best solution is to construct a hanging bridge, in order to give an alternative connection.

Both bridges are suspension bridges but they vary in their capacity, their length and the traffic capacity, traffic lines. So depending on the population of the small town which would be crossing the bridge to the metropoly and depending on the length to be crossed; bridge A or bridge B would be more suitable to fulfill the task.

In summary, the merger consists of a small town where habitants live in a residential building. and are searching for better life opportunities in the big metropoly. This is possible thanks to the creation of a suspension bridge, which goes over a body of water, connecting their living city to the big city where they go to work.