Integrated modification methodology

IMM is the acronym of Integrated Modification Methodology, an innovative 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. It is a multi-stage, iterative process, applied to urban components, for improving their environmental and energy performances. IMM is fundamentally Holistic, Multi-Layer, Multi-scale, it investigates the relationships between urban morphology2 and energy consumption by focusing mostly on the ‘Subsystems’ characterized by physical characters and arrangement; hence, the text casts spotlight on IMM phasing process. The main object of this design process is to address a more sustainable and better performing urban arrangement. 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 methodology through an interconnected Phasing Design Process3 shows how incorporating a wide range of issues makes it possible to improve the metabolism of the city as well as its energy performance, transforming the it into a lower energy consumption system. In this methodology, the city is considered to be a dynamic Complex Adaptive4 System (CAS) comprised of the superimposition of an enormous number of interrelated components, categorized in different Layers or ‘Subsystems’, (also complex adaptive systems) which through their inner arrangement and the architecture of their ligands provide a certain physical and provisional arrangement. The constituents of the CAS adapt themselves to react to the newly imposed constraints, in order to improve upon the entire system’s performance. The complex adaptive system is composed of heterogeneous elements, linked together either directly or indirectly, and the final system performance emerges from all of the elements as a whole. This adaptation occurs within or on members of a single subsystem, hereafter known as Horizontal Adaptation, and between the different subsystems, hereafter termed Vertical Adaptation. In other words, the adaptation of existing members in a subsystem, or horizontal adaptation, as a response to the newly imposed conditions and constraints, changes the subsystem’s performance, which will be the cause of the entire system’s transformation over time. According to this view, the city, considered as a CAS5 , is not solely a mere aggregation of disconnected energy consumers and the total energy consumption of the city is different from the sum of the 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.