Parametric Sankey: Interactive Mapping of Complex Material Flows for Urban and Architectural Design

The mapping of flows in a city is essential for understanding urban systems and enabling the transition of the city into a circular economy. However, while tools for the virtual representations of physical volumes and spaces in urban environments have proliferated, effective tools for modeling the underlying flows are still missing. This paper discusses the development of Parametric Sankey, a tool for the trans-scalar representation of flows, and demonstrates its instrumentation in a research design process. The proposed Parametric Sankey tool overlays different flow categories (material, energy, labor, customer, waste, etc.) into one dynamic trans-scalar system, enabling interactive processes between analysis and intervention, and providing thereby an experimental interface to envision future circular cities and architectures.