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Last update: July 06, 2010, at 11:27 AM
Future Cities
Academic Research Symposium
Location: Conference center of Science Hall in Xi'an Jiaotong University → more info
Date & Time: Wednesday, June 30th, 9:00am to 4:00pm
Abstract
Today, about half of the world's population lives in cities and estimations expect that by 2030, this number will increase to 5 billion out of a world total of 8.1 billion. The fast advance in urbanisation resulted in generally unsustainable entities with the highest impact on CO2 emissions and climate. Thus, the biggest challenge of future city design is sustainable planning and realisation. While facing the challenge per se requires enormous efforts in established fields of architecture, urban planning and modelling, it also calls for novel and creative methods across a broad range of disciplines such as digital design, modelling and fabrication, information architecture, information visualisation and computer science in general. The symposium revolves around the evolution and use of new methods, technologies and tools, what roles they play as entities inside a larger framework, and how they may strengthen our understanding of the essence of future cities. In addition, and with reference to Xi'an's important historic background, the first part of the symposium also includes topics of cultural heritage and archaeology.
Chair: Dr. Stefan Müller Arisona, ETH Zurich
Moderator: Prof. Dr. Honji Yang, De Montfort University
Academic Partner & Coordination: Xi'an Jiaotong University; Prof. Dr. Feng Wei
Project Coordination: Arthur Clay, DAW XIAN 2010
Morning Session
Welcome & Introduction
Prof. Dr. Jürg Gutknecht, Chair Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich
Opening Key Note Address: Planning Environment for the Design of Future Cities
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt, Chair for Information Architecture and Senior Vice President for International Institutional Affairs, ETH Zurich
Talk: On Social Thoughts and Burial Rituals of West Han
Prof. Dr. Sun Fuxi, Vice Director of Xi’an Administration of Cultural Heritage, Executive Vice Director of IICC-X, Visiting Professor of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Professor of Northwest University
Dr. Cheng Linquan, Vice-Director, Xi’an Institute of Cultural Heritage Conservation and Archaeology
Talk: Towards a Virtual Museum of Western Han Dynasty
Dr. Sofia Pescarin, CNR ITABC, Rome, Italy
Maurizio Forte, UC-Merced, USA
Talk: Virtual Panorama for Tomb "27": HCI at Work
Prof. Dr. Jürg Gutknecht, Dean of the Computer Science Department, ETH Zurich
Talk: TBA
Lunch Ordinary People (Lao Bai Xing) → more info
Afternoon Session
Welcome & Introduction
Dr. Stefan Müller Arisona, ETH Zurich
Talk: Urban Multi-Scale Dynamic Visual Information Extraction
Prof. Dr. Yanning ZHANG, Director, Department of Computer and Information Engineering, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an
Talk: The Sensitive Tapestry
Christian Schneider, Chair for Information Architecture, ETH Zurich
Talk: An Interactive City Simulation System
Basil Weber, Procedural Inc
Talk: Energy and Water Management of the new Monte-Rosa-Hut
Dr. Simon Schubiger, Procedural Inc
Talk: TBA
Related Events
→ City Engines & Selected Works in the Exhibition
Abstracts
Planning Environment for the Design of Future Cities
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Zurich
In the global context, the population of cities has developed from a minority to the majority. Before the emergence of a highly interconnected information society, this would have been less of a concern. Now cities are the largest, most complex and most dynamic man-made systems. They are vibrant centres of cultural life and engines that drive local and global economies. Yet, contemporary metropolitan territories are environmentally, socially and economically unsustainable entities. They have the highest impact on greenhouse gas emissions and directly and indirectly on climate change. Traditional methods of planning and managing large cities have reached their limits. We therefore propose a radical re-orientation and a set of methods and instruments to achieve sustainable future cities. Switzerland and ETH Zurich Science City serve as test cases.
On Social Thoughts and Burial Rituals of West Han
Prof. Dr. Sun Fuxi, Vice Director of Xi’an Administration of Cultural Heritage, Executive Vice Director of IICC-X, Visiting Professor of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Professor of Northwest University
Dr. Cheng Linquan, Vice-Director, Xi’an Institute of Cultural Heritage Conservation and Archaeology
West Han witnesses the prime time of the Chinese civilization. It is a stage featured by the initial integration and the subsequent formation and consolidation of the Chinese nationalities on one hand and by the vigorous development of the ancient Chinese society on the other hand. Given this, West Han civilization is the cornerstone of the Chinese civilization. Understanding it helps to identify the cultural root of the Chinese nation. With rich contents, murals from West Han display faithfully the life during the West Han and provide highly valuable references to different aspects of West Han Society. An investigation is made from the archaeological approach into the social thoughts of West Han and the burial rituals under the impact of those thoughts as well as the understanding of life and death underlying the burial practices.
Towards a Virtual Museum of Western Han Dynasty
Dr. Sofia Pescarin, CNR ITABC, Rome
Prof Dr. Maurizio Forte, UC-Merced, USA
The Virtual Museum of the Western Han Dynasty is a three-lateral project of the Jaotong University (Xian, China), University of California-Merced (USA) and of the National Research Council - Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage (CNR-ITABC). Its final goal is to create the first Virtual Museums on Western Han Dynasty (1st BC - 1st AD), accessible on line and through different VR installations located in China (new Jaotong University Art Museum, Xian), in Italy (Museum of Oriental Art, Rome), and in USA (possibly in San Francisco). The development of this virtual museum, started in 2008 is aimed to integrate new archaeological datasets coming from the fieldwork activities (most part of them unpublished), monuments, sites and famous collections of artifacts of the Xi’an archaeological museums. All the archaeological datasets will be virtually reconstructed in a very accurate way, keeping all the spatial information even in the cyber space.Its main activity on the field was the digital acquisition, (by 3D laser scanner and DGPS), of several archaeological sites and remains belonging to Chang'an city (the ancient capital of this dynasty) and other important tombs with mural paintings. In 2004 Chinese archaeologists, directed by Dr. Cheng Linquan, discovered one of the most extraordinary mural tombs of the Dynasty, named Tomb M27. The virtual model remains the only possible way to see and interpret the monument.. Currently the work is carried on by the University of California, Merced, Prof. Maurizio Forte, principal investigator, in charge of 3d reconstruction of the sites and of the remains; by CNR ITABC, Sofia Pescarin, in charge of 3d scanning acquisition and reconstruction of the landscape; by Jaotong University, Prof. Li Jiajun, Vice-Director of Art Museum; and by Xi’an Municipal Institute of Archaeology, Dr. Cheng Linquan, Vice-Director and Captain of the Archaeological Excavation Team for the Western Han Dynasty Tomb.
Virtual Panorama for Tomb "27": HCI at Work
Prof. Dr. Jürg Gutknecht, ETH Zurich
10 years ago, Mark Weiser predicted the age of the disappearing computer. Computers will gradually penetrate everyday's objects and will transmute them into "smart objects" by adding information and intelligence. The "Virtual Panorama" is a good example of how a simple object like eyeglasses can be transmuted into a panopticon by adding computational power. At the example of the Xian tombes we will show how the Virtual Panorama uses augmentated reality to act as an advanced electronic guide.
Urban Multi-Scale Dynamic Visual Information Extraction
Prof. Dr. Yanning ZHANG, Director, Department of Computer and Information Engineering, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an
Digital City is the representation and reflection of the static and dynamic information of physical city in digital space, the extraction and analysis of the urban dynamic information have been the hotspot of Digital City. This talk will focus on the applications of urban multi-scale dynamic visual information extraction based the multi-sensor network. Firstly, the acquisition of the urban dynamic visual information, which is the Urban Change Detection, at large scale based on the space-based observation is introduced. Secondly, the acquisition of the urban dynamic visual information based on the airborne platform is introduced, the main content of this part is the Real-time Aerial Video Mosaicing and Ground Moving Objects Segmentation and Tracking. Thirdly, I will introduce the acquisition of the detail dynamic visual information though the multi-sensor network on the ground fixed platform, the contents of this part include: Moving Objects Detection in Large-Scale Complex Scene, Motion Trajectory Analysis and Application in Visual Surveillance, Synthetic Aperture Imaging and Vision-based Passenger Flow Estimation. Some outlook under
The Sensitive Tapestry
Christian Schneider, Chair for Information Architecture, ETH Zurich
The talk introduces 'The Sensitive Tapestry', an interactive installation using body-input together with building attributes in order to obtain a nontraditional user interface. A thermal imager and other sensorial equipment are used for capturing the activities in public areas at a large scale. Additionally, the imager captures thermal occurrences in the environment, e.g. on a building. The installation has been developed as a prototypical example in the architectural education at the ETH Zurich, Science City. Physical architecture and digital information are merged. This creates a novel user experience. Architecture used as an interface reveals information about the building itself, its occupants and its environment. The talk describes the research that employs design experimentation and information visualization with the use of computer supported, interactive, visual representations of abstract data in order to amplify cognition. The talk suggests that introducing this kind of display in a social scenario can enrich the casual interaction of nearby people, which, in a good scenario, enhances engagement and social awareness in the participants.
An Interactive City Simulation System
Basil Weber, Procedural Inc., Zurich
We present an interactive simulation system that can simulate a three-dimensional urban model over time. The main novelty of our approach is that we do not rely on land-use simulation on a regular grid, but instead build a complete and inherently geometric simulation that includes exact parcel boundaries, streets of arbitrary orientation, street widths, 3D street geometry, building footprints, and 3D building envelopes. In an example we visualize a fictive city developing over one hundred years and try to include as many characteristics as possible, while - at the same time - keeping spurious repetition limited.
Energy and Water Management of the new Monte-Rosa-Hut
Dr. Simon Schubiger, ETH Zurich / Procedural Inc., Zurich
After about six years on the drawing board, the New Monte Rosa Hut above Zermatt is finally open for business. Nicknamed "Mountain Crystal", the innovative building generates over 90 percent of its energy itself. It is scheduled to start receiving guests normally in March 2010 and will continue to serve ETH Zurich as a research object in power and building service engineering. 2,883 meters above sea level, the New Monte Rosa Hut is currently the most complex wooden construction in Switzerland. Covered in a shimmering silver aluminum shell and with a photovoltaic system integrated in the southern facade, it generates its own power and is expected to be at least 90 percent energy self-sufficient. Solar collectors installed in the grounds generate solar heat, which provides warm water and heats the ventilation system's supply air to control the temperature in the rooms. In the few months of the year where the ice melts, the water is collected and stored in a cavern to provide the guests with flush toilets and four hot showers. A bacteria-based microfiltration system cleans the sewage.
The high level of self-sufficiency and the innovative energy management of the new monte-rosa-hutt should not only be experienced through the high level of comfort but also accessible to the interested visitor. The energy management incorporate various real-time measurements as well as prospective values such as weather forecasts and number of visitors. With these parameters, the energy and water budget of the hut is optimized and in order to achieve full self-sufficiency. Beside the management, past energy and water consumption together with its forecast is visualized thus adding the visitors to the loop which can adapt their behavior based on the data.
This talk will present the advanced energy and water management technologies as well as its visualization in use for the New Monte Rosa Hut.