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OREGON      EUGENE, AGATE STUDENT HOUSING
A NEIGHBORHOOD FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON



PROJECT HISTORY
Agate Student Housing


This mini-neighborhood contains 20 married student apartments, in four buildings, with common land between them, and private terraces and gardens.

The entire neighborhood was built (in 1993) for $800,000 -- $40,000 per apartment -- and came in exactly on budget.

To generate this design, we used a generative code that was originally developed for high density, low rise housing in Japan. A version of the Japanese neighborhood is shown below. It contained the following instructions:

Cycle 1 In the first cycle the basic plan layout, outdoor space, and volume pattern was created.

Cycle 2 Use of the fifteen properties, sharpening of the design, and intensification of main centers.

rative sequence, in this instance, is only a list of elements, without further elaboration. This may seem something short of "generative," but it is important to note that the environment of a place is very much defined by the list of entities which are repeated there. Thus in this case the rather exotic list of entities speaks volumes about a special kind of place, also visible in the large colored drawing: and thus defines the living character this place will have.
In similar fashion, if someone lists the entities they want in a place, this list of entities will define a very large portion of the environment that is generated. --




FURTHER DISCUSSIONS OF THE GENERATIVE CODE FOR THIS PROJECT First generative pattern Sequence for the stepwise conception and layout of the new Center of Samarkand
3 pages

Second generative pattern Sequence




CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STRUCTURE
established 1967
and
CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STRUCTURE, EUROPE
established 2005


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