Conclusion

I would like to summarize the previous 10’000 words. Not by repeating it, but by bringing together the result of the work on this report. To take it ahead I really enjoyed working on this subject and found very interesting aspects along the path that I think could inform the project work. But now fi st some facts about the work.

The project
The project is closely related to the previous stage of AKA. Many elements are reused and therefore establish continuity.
There is no doubt that the cAKA part does not answer the remaining questions on the project of a fl oating city. It remains an utopic project but more and more realistic explanations are introduced. Especially the cycles bring in much more sense of live and activity. It brings somehow an understanding for the structure beyond the physical elements. This was actually what I was interested in from the beginning. To look at these mechanisms that drive fl ows and trough this form an environment.
The cycles therefore are a perfect tool to use in a development. It provided me with a new set of criteria to take decisions and strengthen the chain of arguments on how something is proposed like it is.
Still, the project is a huge collection of ideas that kind of feed into one proposal. Most of them have actually real sources like the new airport, which for already proposals in a similar way exist or are worked on. Or the fact that there is lots of fl oating structures to be reused, especially in the future as all the gas and oil rigs run out of natural recourses. There are also some elements that are newly introduced in the cAKA part like the cyclical seasonal exchange of units between the Thames River in winter and the Thames Estuary in summer. The weekly and daily cycles bring the structure to live. Most of it is quit trivial but essential, to sense how this theoretical proposal could gain live and move towards reality.
I think the aspect of the introduced cycles in the three scales yearly, weekly and daily give some kind of overall input. There could be some more detail work on the cyclical aspect to bring up even more details and a sense of how live there actually could be. It would be interesting to go into more detail again on a personal scale of different inhabitants for example.
But in general I found the input of the research work very helpful. It brought in a different perspective and it was fun again to work further on the same project with the new focus.

The research
It is the main part of the report that is occupied by the research work and its translation into this report.
The decision to look at my personal cycles along my activities was, seen from now, maybe a bit too strong and coloured the report and the writing in general with a strong subjective opinion.
Probably there are some more objective elements left out because of that, but in an overall picture I still think that this focus from the beginning helped to step into the subject and discover it from the bottom up.
I would love to go on now, considering a more objective focus and look into details of the proposed topics of orientation, identity and memory. Or search for more effects in the terms of points and repetition.
The big picture of how the cycles actually are or could work together is only partially covered by the proposal. There could be some more theoretical aspect be needed to see into more aspects of how cycles actually interact.
So lots of missing elements and areas to do some further research. But this does not mean that I am not satisfi ed with the work that is now in this book. I am quite happy with the output. It also opened my eyes differently to see my surrounding here in London. Despite the fact that I have, as it looks like, this boring routine of every day the same route, I discover always new things or see elements differently. To pay attention to my daily routine shows my activities in a new way and adds a lot to my experience of London. I can also take a lot from it personally.

Tool
The cycles are in the proposal mainly used as a tool to work but also as generators for the project. I found this very useful and can imagine using it in further works. To fi x certain aspects that are repeating means also, to have some constant elements that are supporting every other element and this helps to build up a story.
Maybe the stories around the cycles are almost buried at the moment beneath facts and explanations around structures and functions of Clock Bank. The by product kind of took over from the initial starting point. But to some extend this makes sense as the project gains more independence and is not just a transformation of the research.
On the other hand to degrade the research work to a tool can be understood wrong. And it can be seen as not enough translation into a proposal. I think it has to be seen as I present it in the report: two parts that form a whole and inform each other in the order they are undertaken. Therefore both have their independence but have infl uenced another.
To some extend I can even think of further use of the cycle term in planning as a tool. It could be used in case studies and scenario developments.
Specially in scenario development where programs are dealing with many unknown aspects cycles could bring in more or less predictable key points to any future plans. Just as a short introduction scenario planning is about projecting different images of a situation into the future. By comparing them one can get a feeling of which way to go and what kind of consequences this might have. But like all foresee techniques, the further it goes into the future the more blurry the picture becomes.
It was developed, like many things, by the military in the late 19th century and had it high time somewhere between the second world war and the sixties. In the last twenty years there where many computer based models developed. Many different work types are using such techniques. Insurance companies, banks, analysts, but also scientists in research - for example environmental [very detailed models exist around the global warming] and of course planning in spacial terms have integrated such tools in their work..
Many scenario planning strategies rely on predicting the current trend as on scenario, but I can imagine a scenario predicted by different cycles, also taken from the current situation, could be much more accurate. Combined with some planned actions and maybe predicted happenings, cycles could provide very detailed pictures even in midterm future.
Obviously there is one point that is not discussed in this report, the special event - the accident - the lucky number and this one will still be crucial in scenario planning.
But never the less, it is not about getting any scenario right or wrong, it is about getting trough different scenarios a picture of what actually to achieve. It is more about building up an idea and communicate a path along it.
Cycles are actually as mentioned earlier in the research part of this report very similar to computer programs. They have a rather simple script but a huge effect. So they could be implemented into a program easily and run trough out any process and highlight different key locations.
For these key locations the introduced terms meeting points, repetition, time, orientation, identity and memory could set up a fi eld of parameters along them indicators can be developed or even taken as an output.
Maybe it is just an extension pack for Sim City.

Personal
There is not much left to say as the whole report is written on a very personal level. Sometimes this is too much and a more objectivity would help the work, but on other parts this triviality brings up exiting aspects. It probably doesn’t fi t for a scientifi c paper, but for a story about cycles for me it matches.
This report is the last work in a series undertaken during the Urban Design course at the Bartlett School of Architecture in 2005/2006. I think it kind of summarizes all the topics that came up during the year, ether in the very beginning with the patchwork city work about how to fold a city, or during the heterotopia week with Dr. Graham Shane and of course during the AKA project with endless hours of discussions around mobility and process. The course was a whole was very intensive in a positive way and for me a could gain a lot for my future work.
I guess I could get used to live in London...