Abstract
This chapter opens up discussions upon the relevance of interaction of representations and data visualization modes for smart cities design, planning, and development that occur beyond paper and computer drawing. Although many practitioners usually relate smart cities and digital twins design exclusively to CAD/CAM/CAE and BIM methods, processes, and tools, a wider pool of techniques and forms of expression might be the key to a more accurate and comprehensive way of simulating the several kinds of alterations that happen in the planned built environment. The chapter deals with the study of concepts that relate to both physical and virtual prototyping, which underlines an interdisciplinary approach to design and the impact of integrating biologically inspired principles from different backgrounds to the field of smart cities design. In this regard, biomimetics and additive manufacturing may play key roles in smart city's modeling design and the frontier technology of 5D printing reveals real-time decision-making programmable 4D printing process as a potential future development.
TopBackground
Graphic representation of the built environment used to be traditionally made via sketches and technical drawings but in the last decades, more and more computational approaches were incorporated so that the necessary simulations for the smart cities could be planned and performed according to given parameters.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Biomimicry: A field whose practices mimic the strategies found in nature to develop technological innovation and solve human design challenges.
Additive Manufacturing: The processes to turn digital blueprints to physical objects by building them layer-by-layer. The term AM encompasses several technologies and it includes subsets such as Rapid Prototyping (RP), 3D Printing, Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM), additive fabrication, and layered manufacturing.
Biomimetics: An interdisciplinary field in which principles from biology, engineering, and chemistry are applied to the synthesis of machines, synthetic systems, and materials, or those whose functions mimic one or more biological processes.
Hydrogel: Cross-linked polymer chains built as a network and that are hydrophilic. They can be sometimes found as a colloidal gel where water is the dispersion medium. A three-dimensional solid object may result from the hydrophilic polymer chains being held together by cross-links.
Installation Art: A three-dimensional or poli-dimensional visual artwork that is generally created for a specific place and it is designed to alter the space perception.
Graphical Representation: The use of graphs and charts to visually clarify, analyze, display, and interpret functions, numerical data, and qualitative structures in general.
4D Printing: Smart materials and sophisticated product designs that are programmed to prompt the printing object to transform itself into another structure over the influence of external passive energy input such as temperature, light, pH, or other environmental stimuli.