*** Welcome to piglix ***

Integrated modification methodology



Integrated modification methodology (IMM) is a multi-stage, iterative process for improving the performance of cities seen as complex adaptive systems. It is intended to assist designers and decision-makers, providing them a fully integrated design process plus a set of Design Ordering Principles to transform an existing urban context into a more sustainable one. IMM is a design methodology based on a specific process with the main goal of improving the urban energy performance, through the modification of its constituents and optimization of the architecture of their ligands. According to this view, the city, considered as a complex adaptive system (CAS), is not solely a mere aggregation of disconnected energy consumers and the total energy consumption of the city is different from the sum of all of the buildings' consumption. This considerable gap between the total energy consumption of the city and the sum of all consumers is concealed from the urban morphology and urban form of the city. IMM is a multi-stage, iterative process, applied to urban components, for improving their environmental and energy performances, is fundamentally holistic, multi-layer, multi-scale; it investigates the relationships between urban morphology and energy consumption by focusing mostly on the 'subsystems' characterized by physical characters and arrangement. Unlike most of the current theories and methods, which, through simplification, are inclined to offer generic and commandment-like principals for urban sustainability, IMM proposes a systemic inquiry into the local structure of the built environment and tends to include the sources of its complexity. Its main element of approach is to regard the city as a complex adaptive system (CAS). According to the definition, local changes in system’s parts produce a chain reaction that ultimately will change the system globally. Relying on this principle, IMM tries to envision the indirect effects of the limited interventions beyond the local scale/subsystem, and explain how a collection of small changes can produce considerable performance improvements in energy efficiency, environmental protection, and social well-being in our cities

From 2010, IMM grew from an academic research developed at Politecnico di Milano to a comprehensive system to evaluate environmental performances of existing urban contexts seen as a Complex Adaptive Systems. IMM is an analysis and design methodology based on a nonlinear phasing process. With a holistic approach, the main aim of IMM is to deliver a new understanding of the city’s behaviour by decomposing it into its consisting part and studying the structure of its subsystems. IMM methodology covers aspects from urban morphology, mobility, public transportations, waste and water management, energy production. It aims to provide a precise diagnosis of the malfunctioning elements or components of the urban context as a system in order to address design. IMM aims to support architects, urban planners, designers, investors and policymakers with a comprehensive methodology for strategic sustainable urban design and urban planning. IMM has been already applied and tested in many cities worldwide.


...
Wikipedia

...