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No. 004 · Copenhagen, DK

The Square That Holds Rain

Drag the line: our clay model on the left, the AI concept on the right. The geometry does not change.

Grey clay model of the square: nine sunken terraced basins between level paths, seen from a low drone over a street corner. The same square as an AI-assisted concept image on a dry day: brick apartment blocks around nine terraced basins of different depths, with people sitting, skating and playing in them.
clay · our script AI concept
COPENHAGEN, DK · NEIGHBOURHOOD SQUARE55.68° N 12.57° E

Copenhagen gets heavier cloudbursts than its old drains were built for, and the city already plans for it. We wrote one rule for a neighbourhood square near a canal: each patch of the square drains a small catchment of roofs, streets and paving, and the volume of rain it collects sets how deep its terraced basin goes, 15 cm per step. On dry days the basins are steps to sit on and slopes to skate. In a cloudburst they fill one after another and overflow, basin to basin, into the canal, so the water has somewhere to go that is not a basement.

9basins
358 m³rain collected
60 cmdeepest basin
# No. 004 · Copenhagen, DK basin.depth = f(catchment, rain) # 9 basins · 358 m³ · 1 definition

Concept and AI-assisted visualisation, not a built project. Geometry from our own parametric script.

No. 004 · Copenhagen, DK

Every image from the post

The rule behind it

One idea, three parameters

One Grasshopper definition per post. If we can't say the rule in one sentence, it isn't ready.

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Atlas

Which city should this script visit next?

Every post is an atlas entry. Same script, new latitude, new sun, new design. Send us a city on Instagram and it may become the next entry.

Mira walking with a blue suitcase.
No. 001 No. 002 No. 003 No. 004
  1. No. 001Hills That Grow with the ChildEskişehir, TR · 39.78° N 30.52° Efirst entry
  2. No. 002The Corner Is YoursBarcelona, ES · 41.39° N 2.16° Epublished
  3. No. 003Rest Stops for Steep StairsAmman, JO · 31.95° N 35.93° Epublished
  4. No. 004The Square That Holds RainCopenhagen, DK · 55.68° N 12.57° Elatest
  5. No. 005Next entrysomewhere in the worldin the works
  6. No. 006Your city?send it to @revak.studioopen