Hi, my name is Alan Paz, and I am a senior majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. I joined this class because I’m eager to apply my artistic interests to 3D printing and explore new design methods. I’ve always enjoyed painting and drawing, and as I continue my journey in learning how to code, I believe this class is the perfect opportunity to see how I can combine these passions.
Project
At the beginning of this year, I had the opportunity to travel to a different continent. During my stay in Paris, I found the architectural road structure particularly interesting because there seemed to be a distinct pattern, unlike what I’m used to seeing in the United States. The roads appeared to have mostly sharp edges, with only a few circular nodes connecting them. These nodes often feature significant landmarks in France, such as the Eiffel Tower, churches, or an arc.
The visionary behind this design was Baron Haussmann, who oversaw the transformation of Paris. He ensured that there was structure and order in the roads and buildings, and he called his concept a “radial city.” This idea meant that the expansion of houses and roads would always occur at the edges of the city, maintaining a structured and organized growth pattern.
Link
https://medium.com/pythoneers/paris-street-networks-explained-7b99bddc7245
Hey Alan, that is really awesome that you noticed this type of computational design during your travels . This is extremely interesting and cool, it is especially fascinating how Paris is built to be a radial city in a way that supports growth of civilization infrastructure. This definitely sparks my interest to find out the way that other big cities were planned out and see how it compares to this one from a computational design perspective.
Hi Alan,
I also think city planning is extremely interesting. I find it so cool that you were able to notice these types of things during your travels. The idea of a radial city is so intriguing because I find it different from the city planning that occurs here in the U.S. (for the most part).
Hi Alan,
Your post is definitely a very observant one. I have noticed that in some European countries the layout of their cities is very thoughtful and sometimes meaningful. Just like the radial city example you showed it can highlight the art that can be implemented into the creation of cities. We can clearly see that the builder took some time to think about this design and the vision that he had with it. Where in some cases when you drive around cities in the United States some of them seem haphazard and like the builders put very little thought into the design and just made it so they could get paid. Thank you for showing us this project and providing
insightful information about it!