NeoCapsules: modular living design

Team member(s): Anzhelika Ignateva and Leila Sheikhzadeh
Modified by Anzhelika Ignateva on December 22, 2024

NeoCapsules Residence: A Vision for Modern Family Living

NeoCapsules, an innovative residential complex inspired by the Nakagin Tower concept, offers a dynamic and adaptable living environment that seamlessly integrates sustainability with an urban lifestyle. This innovative approach fosters growth, flexibility, and community interaction, making it more than just a building, it’s a vibrant ecosystem for urban living.

Enhanced Flexibility: Each apartment is equipped with the capability to expand through modular attachable capsules. These capsules can be added or removed as needed, allowing residents to customize their living spaces to match changing needs, such as accommodating a growing family, creating a home office, or simply adding extra recreational areas. This ensures that the living environment evolves alongside its inhabitants, eliminating the need to relocate when circumstances change.
Parametric Design: The structural design employs parametric principles, enabling an adaptable core framework and allows for the reconfiguration of spaces within the tower without major structural changes. From open-plan layouts to segmented private spaces, residents have the freedom to redesign their homes with minimal disruption. This modularity not only enhances the utility of living spaces but also reduces waste, aligning with sustainable construction practices.
Community-Centric Spaces: It emphasizes community living through its thoughtfully designed outdoor green spaces and shared amenities. Rooftop gardens, vertical greenery, and terrace spaces provide a connection to nature in the heart of the city. Shared facilities, including co-working spaces, fitness centers, and community lounges, encourage interaction among residents, fostering a sense of belonging and collaboration. These amenities are designed to support diverse lifestyles, from young professionals to multi-generational families.
Urban Integration: The ground level is envisioned as a bustling hub of activity, featuring retail outlets, restaurants, and cafes that not only serve residents but also invite engagement from the wider community. This integration strengthens the bond between the building and its urban surroundings, creating a harmonious balance between private living and public interaction.

This design creates a dynamic living environment that evolves with its inhabitants, blending sustainability with urban lifestyle. Sustainability is a cornerstone of the Tower’s design. Energy-efficient systems, sustainable materials, and renewable energy sources such as solar panels are incorporated throughout the structure. Rainwater harvesting and advanced waste management systems further reduce the environmental footprint, ensuring that the building not only adapts to its inhabitants but also to the planet’s needs.

Modules & topography definition

In Wasp, we defined 7 main types of modules: 3 types of linear units and 4 types of corner ones, each type has 3 subtypes A (no balconies), B (with 1m balcony) and C (with 2m balcony).

The dimensions of the first module are 7×7 m, other module type are created by extension of one of the sides by 3.5 or 7m.

The modules has sleek rectangular shape with fillet corners. We also managed to attach the shades to each modules as option.

The back walls of modules are attached to the cores allowing smooth unobstructive circulation from one module to others and between the floors.

Each module has shades that can be controlled through Wasp node: like creating shades for all windows or any specific number, or of certain distribution using global constraints.

There is a good variety of modules ranging from 1-bedroom to 4-bedroom units, the quantity of each unit can be specified depending on the needs.

Moreover, all units can be replaced or added with time. For that purpose, we have naturally formed 3.5m gaps between some modules that provide a space for a crane to attach and place or remove the modules.

The height of the core might also be considered for future extension.

Building generation

We started with the parametrization of the core and defining the Wasp connection of each modules to the core depending on their type: linear or corner ones.

Once the connections and the modules were defined, we developed a strategy to generate a ground floor levels and the cores from the plot polyline.

After receiving a plot polyline, we create a voxel grid of 7a x 7a, a = 1, 2,.. (the value ‘a’ is defined based on the design and composition) and highlight a contour of all the squares that are totally inside avoiding the ones that might get a mistake after 7m offset inside.

By offsetting this curve by 7m and creating 7x7m grid on this curve, we define a core based on FAR value.

In case the surface is not flat, we project this plot curve on this surface, patch it and also creating a voxel grid of 3.5a x 3.5a (the value ‘a’ is defined based on the design and composition). After boolean intersection with the flat version of the ground floor, we manage to get the height-adaptive version of the base levels.

Variations

For future optimization process, we’ve created different variations of our the design and further developed our building generation strategy by creating various options of core design. As for input, the rectangular zone is provided, and then, by using Stream Filter node is GH, we create L, O and U-shaped cores. By varying these core shapes, we developed an optimization process.

Optimization

In addition to varying the core shapes, our optimization model includes the angles of the cores, its floor numbers and width, length for O-shaped version. Our research was made for the city of Singapore and Reykjavik and the goal was to minimize and maximize the radiation values accordingly. The single-objective analysis was made using Galapagos and run twice: for Singapore and Reykjavik using the context building as each city through OpenStreetMap and Elk plugin. Our simplified model of the building is a simple volume: the core curve was offset by 7m outside and extruded as the width of all our modules is 7m.

We defined ground floor levels and separated it to 4 rectangular zones. Each zone is defined with the genome: stream filter number (0, 1, 2 for each shape), core angle and floor number. All four sets were connected to the Galapagos genome and the radiation to the fitness value. As a result, we managed to find the optimal shape of the cores and managed to reduce the radiance by 32% for Singapore and increase this value by 37% for Reykjavik.