2020 RESULTS
warming 2020 |
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THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM TOWER |
Antoine Chaignon
Captions
Methane tanks
1. Connecting pipe
Connection with the tanks
2. Biogas collectors
Collect biogas fumes
3. Copper tank
Corrosion resistance
4. Biomass
Organic waste and sewage sludge
5. Biomethane
Intended to be transformed into electricity
6. Biomethane tank
Receptacle for the two adjacent tanks
7. Digestate
Remains of digestion which will act as fetilizer
8. Methanization tank
Anaerobic biomass digestion
9. Filter
Removing the pollutants
Data center
10. Heat released by the servers
Intended to heat the aquaponics farm above
11. Data storage
Data storage for local company
12. Rail monitoring robot
Maintenance and safeguarding servers
13. Hot water outlet
Intended for housing heating
14. Liquid cooling inlet
Cold water from the treatment plan t
15. Energy
From the methanization unit
16. Server rack 42U
Total data capacity 45,000 terabyte
Aquaponics farm
17. Energy
From the methanization unit
18. LED lighting
Isolating blue and red spectrum
19. NTF nutrient film
Hydroponic technique for culture above ground
20. Automated harvesting robot
Detec ripe fruits and pick them
21. Heat
Released by the servers of the data center
22. Water
From fish tanks loaded with organic nutrietns
23. Fresh vegetables and fruits
2 tonnes/day consumed and delivery locally
24. Harvest bin
Intended for the distribution warehouse
1. Connecting pipe
Connection with the tanks
2. Biogas collectors
Collect biogas fumes
3. Copper tank
Corrosion resistance
4. Biomass
Organic waste and sewage sludge
5. Biomethane
Intended to be transformed into electricity
6. Biomethane tank
Receptacle for the two adjacent tanks
7. Digestate
Remains of digestion which will act as fetilizer
8. Methanization tank
Anaerobic biomass digestion
9. Filter
Removing the pollutants
Data center
10. Heat released by the servers
Intended to heat the aquaponics farm above
11. Data storage
Data storage for local company
12. Rail monitoring robot
Maintenance and safeguarding servers
13. Hot water outlet
Intended for housing heating
14. Liquid cooling inlet
Cold water from the treatment plan t
15. Energy
From the methanization unit
16. Server rack 42U
Total data capacity 45,000 terabyte
Aquaponics farm
17. Energy
From the methanization unit
18. LED lighting
Isolating blue and red spectrum
19. NTF nutrient film
Hydroponic technique for culture above ground
20. Automated harvesting robot
Detec ripe fruits and pick them
21. Heat
Released by the servers of the data center
22. Water
From fish tanks loaded with organic nutrietns
23. Fresh vegetables and fruits
2 tonnes/day consumed and delivery locally
24. Harvest bin
Intended for the distribution warehouse
NARRATIVE
We are 7.8 billion people on earth. By 2050 we will be 9.7 billion. This strong demographic growth will require an increase in food production of almost 70% while the amount of waste will also increase by 70%. It is from this equation that this project is born.
What if we thought of the energy we are producing, our garbage, our food and even our virtual data as flows ?
Today, all these flows operate separately, blind to each other. However, it is possible to consider these flows as a specific part of an ecosystem in which the rejects and raw materials of each programs correspond in order to optimize the available resources as well as possible. All in a single building.
The city of Paris produces 3,000 tonnes of waste per day as well as 600,000 m3 of wastewater. The Industrial System Building (IST) treats a quarter of this waste. First, they are sorted and then sent to recycling channels by train or barge. Organic refuse : food scraps, sewage sludge, wood, dead leaves, are for their part collected in anaerobic digestion tanks in order to extract biomethane after decomposition. This biogas is then transformed into electricity via cogeneration engines to power a data center, responding to the growing demand for data storage. The waste heat released from the servers is used to heat the aquaponics farm located above. Aquaponics is a system that unites the cultivation of plants and the breeding of fish using 90% less water than traditional farming. This completely above-ground farm is cultivated under artificial light (supplied with electricity from the biomethane), thus avoiding the day-night cycle. The fruits, vegetables and fresh fish are finally delivered and consumed locally in Parisian shops.
Located at the meeting point of the Seine, and the railway tracks of the Gare de Lyon, in place of a former disused warehouse, the building develops into a raw vertical infrastructure that echoes the urban density which is facing Paris. The different machines are inserted into the structure, like the methanization tanks or even fish tanks that serve as the backdrop to a nightclub perched 60 meters away above the waste.
The IST adapts to our consumption model while refuting our ways of producing. In a society with an exponential population, growing urban sprawl and ever greater needs, production infrastructure is emblematic of our time and this building is a mirror of it.
What if we thought of the energy we are producing, our garbage, our food and even our virtual data as flows ?
Today, all these flows operate separately, blind to each other. However, it is possible to consider these flows as a specific part of an ecosystem in which the rejects and raw materials of each programs correspond in order to optimize the available resources as well as possible. All in a single building.
The city of Paris produces 3,000 tonnes of waste per day as well as 600,000 m3 of wastewater. The Industrial System Building (IST) treats a quarter of this waste. First, they are sorted and then sent to recycling channels by train or barge. Organic refuse : food scraps, sewage sludge, wood, dead leaves, are for their part collected in anaerobic digestion tanks in order to extract biomethane after decomposition. This biogas is then transformed into electricity via cogeneration engines to power a data center, responding to the growing demand for data storage. The waste heat released from the servers is used to heat the aquaponics farm located above. Aquaponics is a system that unites the cultivation of plants and the breeding of fish using 90% less water than traditional farming. This completely above-ground farm is cultivated under artificial light (supplied with electricity from the biomethane), thus avoiding the day-night cycle. The fruits, vegetables and fresh fish are finally delivered and consumed locally in Parisian shops.
Located at the meeting point of the Seine, and the railway tracks of the Gare de Lyon, in place of a former disused warehouse, the building develops into a raw vertical infrastructure that echoes the urban density which is facing Paris. The different machines are inserted into the structure, like the methanization tanks or even fish tanks that serve as the backdrop to a nightclub perched 60 meters away above the waste.
The IST adapts to our consumption model while refuting our ways of producing. In a society with an exponential population, growing urban sprawl and ever greater needs, production infrastructure is emblematic of our time and this building is a mirror of it.
warming 2020 |
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DATA CENTER OF THE SEA |
T. Craig Sinclair | Lauren H. Kirk
Captions
1. Site plan of stings running along subocean communication cables on a Spillhaus projection map of Earth.
2. Water column section showing string of servers, connecting cables, subocean internet cable, and ocean layers.
3. Unit assembly axonometric
5. Server module: servers suspended in dense oil covered in thick coated metal housing (eight per unit)
6. Battery module: lithium batteries cast in dense foam and coated metal, storing and distributing
power via cables running through each unit’s arts (one per unit)
7. Power-generating hinges: movement caused by Jitterbug bloom generates electricity for the entire
unit, which is then stored in battery module
2. Water column section showing string of servers, connecting cables, subocean internet cable, and ocean layers.
3. Unit assembly axonometric
5. Server module: servers suspended in dense oil covered in thick coated metal housing (eight per unit)
6. Battery module: lithium batteries cast in dense foam and coated metal, storing and distributing
power via cables running through each unit’s arts (one per unit)
7. Power-generating hinges: movement caused by Jitterbug bloom generates electricity for the entire
unit, which is then stored in battery module
NARRATIVE
Data center of the sea: a carbon-neutral, hydrokinetic machine landscape
Data centers consume 416 terawatts of energy each year, pumping several billion pounds of greenhouse-causing CO2 into the atmosphere. These machine-centric architectures are designed using infrastructure meant for human comfort and result in carbon-soaked buildings ill-suited for their non-human inhabitants. Data centers are projected to double their energy usage every year, yet machines relate to the world differently than humans. Why is architecture for machines designed like architecture for people? If humanity hopes to avoid catastrophic climate change driven by our use of machines, architectural systems should adapt accordingly.
Data center of the sea evolves machines to suit environments on Earth that are inhospitable to humans: where humans need light, comfortable air, and a stable ground, machines are better adapted for the fluidity, cold, pressure, and volumetric groundlessness of the ocean. These linear, mid-ocean data centers run along thousands of miles of subocean communication cables, establishing a sustainable relationship between machine and world—a single module networked on a global scale.
Like Microsoft’s “Project Natick” experiments with underwater data centers, this project takes advantage of ocean temperature to cool servers without energy-sucking air conditioning. But instead of structural systems designed to maintain a consistent ground, this project is structured to bloom in place mid-water with Buckminster Fuller’s “Jitterbug Geometry.” The Jitterbug, formally called “vector equilibrium,” starts with a cuboctahedron, which collapses in on itself through icosahedral, octahedral and tetrahedral stages, then is inside-outed again. Data center of the sea activates the Jitterbug transformation with water flows, turning the massive kinetic energy of marine currents into carbon-free energy for machines through the movement of its structural members, like a windmill for the sea. Servers and batteries fill in the stable surfaces between members and are tethered to trans-ocean cables, jacking right into the internet. Units are connected in strings, forming a pulsating machine landscape suspended in the ocean.
Data centers consume 416 terawatts of energy each year, pumping several billion pounds of greenhouse-causing CO2 into the atmosphere. These machine-centric architectures are designed using infrastructure meant for human comfort and result in carbon-soaked buildings ill-suited for their non-human inhabitants. Data centers are projected to double their energy usage every year, yet machines relate to the world differently than humans. Why is architecture for machines designed like architecture for people? If humanity hopes to avoid catastrophic climate change driven by our use of machines, architectural systems should adapt accordingly.
Data center of the sea evolves machines to suit environments on Earth that are inhospitable to humans: where humans need light, comfortable air, and a stable ground, machines are better adapted for the fluidity, cold, pressure, and volumetric groundlessness of the ocean. These linear, mid-ocean data centers run along thousands of miles of subocean communication cables, establishing a sustainable relationship between machine and world—a single module networked on a global scale.
Like Microsoft’s “Project Natick” experiments with underwater data centers, this project takes advantage of ocean temperature to cool servers without energy-sucking air conditioning. But instead of structural systems designed to maintain a consistent ground, this project is structured to bloom in place mid-water with Buckminster Fuller’s “Jitterbug Geometry.” The Jitterbug, formally called “vector equilibrium,” starts with a cuboctahedron, which collapses in on itself through icosahedral, octahedral and tetrahedral stages, then is inside-outed again. Data center of the sea activates the Jitterbug transformation with water flows, turning the massive kinetic energy of marine currents into carbon-free energy for machines through the movement of its structural members, like a windmill for the sea. Servers and batteries fill in the stable surfaces between members and are tethered to trans-ocean cables, jacking right into the internet. Units are connected in strings, forming a pulsating machine landscape suspended in the ocean.
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'WIND' FARM |
Jordan Lutren
NARRATIVE
Every time a cow breaks wind the world gets a little warmer. This is because their ‘emissions’ include a whole lot of methane, a greenhouse gas nearly 30 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. A cow’s output in a single day is comparable to that of a car, and with nearly 1.5 billion heads of cattle worldwide, the impact is significant. Indeed, livestock contribute almost 15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, so mitigating their flatulence can go a long way!
‘Wind’ Farm is designed to prevent further acceleration of global warming by intercepting greenhouse gases at the source, keeping it out of the atmosphere while putting it to good use. It does this by retrofitting existing cattle farms, at any scale, with an autonomous methane collection and distribution system. Micro cannulas are attached to livestock, connecting directly to their digestive tracts. Inflatable balloon drones then attach to these artificial appendages, extracting gases as they are produced. Once full, these drones detach and carry their loads to the nearest methane storage ‘tree.’ Through an array of tubes, methane is pumped to adjacent generators where it is burned to produce electric energy, with byproducts of H2O and the less potent CO2. This energy can be used to power farms and charge electric vehicles, with excess sold back to utility companies.
While preventing global warming and producing renewable energy, so too does ‘Wind’ Farm create a new architectural aesthetic. Agglomerated across pastures and farmsteads, inflating ‘trees’, winding tubes, and floating balloons populate otherwise plain vistas. This changes the typical vernacular of this typology from its traditional past to one that’s layered and dynamic.
‘Wind’ Farm is designed to prevent further acceleration of global warming by intercepting greenhouse gases at the source, keeping it out of the atmosphere while putting it to good use. It does this by retrofitting existing cattle farms, at any scale, with an autonomous methane collection and distribution system. Micro cannulas are attached to livestock, connecting directly to their digestive tracts. Inflatable balloon drones then attach to these artificial appendages, extracting gases as they are produced. Once full, these drones detach and carry their loads to the nearest methane storage ‘tree.’ Through an array of tubes, methane is pumped to adjacent generators where it is burned to produce electric energy, with byproducts of H2O and the less potent CO2. This energy can be used to power farms and charge electric vehicles, with excess sold back to utility companies.
While preventing global warming and producing renewable energy, so too does ‘Wind’ Farm create a new architectural aesthetic. Agglomerated across pastures and farmsteads, inflating ‘trees’, winding tubes, and floating balloons populate otherwise plain vistas. This changes the typical vernacular of this typology from its traditional past to one that’s layered and dynamic.
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INFRASTRUCTURE |
Luis Miguel Pizano | Alice Fang
NARRATIVE
Fracture Of Infrastructure & Prison Obsolescence Sited on the electrical substations and undeveloped grounds of a decommissioned high-voltage corridor in Newburgh — NY, the project comprises a timber nursery, community land trust and dual-future correctional network focused on compulsory reformation in the near future and voluntary rehabilitation in the distant future. Preempting future climatic pressures, the correctional facility emerges from an adaptive module that generates a composite for residential and restorative units. A vertical wellness core, providing a therapy platform, connects these primitives into a Restorative Justice Block. Phased implementation on-site follows a cyclical tree harvesting strategy that produces better climate regulation, learning and work opportunities, and sustainable construction materials.
warming 2020 |
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SURFACE EX_TENSION |
Jonathan Craig | Luis Arjona | Marco Nieto | Philip Elmore
Captions
Image 01:
The notion of urban territory has remained land-based in its applications and in the language of architectural discourse. Conversely, water has been interpreted mainly as a resource or complementary object, rarely as the key subject of urbanity. The subsequent creation of a coastal extension brings into light the political potential water has as both a speculative claim on territory and a system for bargaining.
Image 02:
The typology for these structures is inspired by traditional fishing villages found in Asiatic communities. By borrowing certain cues that offer flexibility, the form provides housing, social interaction, farming systems, coral reefs, desalination stations, and layered opportunities for sustainable innovation.
Image 03:
The creation of a greenhouse environment that is surrounded by and filled with both land-based and hydro-grown flora allows for a synchronized setting that provides ample space for aquatic and terrestrial ecologies to thrive with humans as a part of the experience.
Image 04:
Representing only a segment of an ideal system, this spine covers a wide array of facilities dedicated to creating an aquatic instrument that reconfigures the domain of territoriality and its influence on architecture and planning by focusing on “hydro” driven concepts and not just “terra” derived practices.
The notion of urban territory has remained land-based in its applications and in the language of architectural discourse. Conversely, water has been interpreted mainly as a resource or complementary object, rarely as the key subject of urbanity. The subsequent creation of a coastal extension brings into light the political potential water has as both a speculative claim on territory and a system for bargaining.
Image 02:
The typology for these structures is inspired by traditional fishing villages found in Asiatic communities. By borrowing certain cues that offer flexibility, the form provides housing, social interaction, farming systems, coral reefs, desalination stations, and layered opportunities for sustainable innovation.
Image 03:
The creation of a greenhouse environment that is surrounded by and filled with both land-based and hydro-grown flora allows for a synchronized setting that provides ample space for aquatic and terrestrial ecologies to thrive with humans as a part of the experience.
Image 04:
Representing only a segment of an ideal system, this spine covers a wide array of facilities dedicated to creating an aquatic instrument that reconfigures the domain of territoriality and its influence on architecture and planning by focusing on “hydro” driven concepts and not just “terra” derived practices.
NARRATIVE
An Instrument for Aquatic Urbanity
Given the ever-changing and tempestuous conditions of our world today, it’s impossible to tell what our future might look like as climatic conditions continue to deteriorate. Our guess is as good as any, so all we can do is optimistically speculate, pro-act, and fantasize for the beginning of reconciliation with our ecology. SURFACE EX_TENSION aims to mitigate issues of coastal cultivation, over-population, expanding off-shore aquaculture, climatic refugees, and other marina deficiencies. While situated in one location, the following system is a proposal that is not tied to or constrained by a specific geography, but rather attaches itself to the edge condition of a landmass that is the coast. This allows SURFACE EX_TENSION to act as a metaphorical bridge that links together unlike coasts and conditions through an adaptive and organized framework of industrial support structures that bolster social, economical, and commercial aspects to better serve both humans and nature.
This specific version of SURFACE EX_TENSION is located off the coast of Antofagasta, a port-city in northern Chile. Chile occupies a long, 200-mile wide strip of land that stretches over 2,670 miles South to North, covering everything from the frigid Austral Zone to the desolate scenes of the great Norte Grande. Antofagasta finds itself in the dramatic East-West axis, where it stares peripherally at both the vast Pacific Ocean and the driest area on the planet, the Atacama desert. Due to the incredibly varied climate presented in such a short span, SURFACE EX_TENSION exists in this location in order to illustrate the potential and malleable nature of this model and offer insight into how it could be applied to other contrasting or similar regions of the planet.
Reflecting on the hopes of creating symbiotic relationships through architecture, SURFACE EX_TENSION begs the question, “What does our future hold and how can we provide spaces that solve issues of climate collapse, increasing density, and territorial appropriation?” Perhaps rather than instituting a rigid set of criteria, a simple suggestion of malleability for climatic interventions can provide a platform for environments to seek the help they need.
Given the ever-changing and tempestuous conditions of our world today, it’s impossible to tell what our future might look like as climatic conditions continue to deteriorate. Our guess is as good as any, so all we can do is optimistically speculate, pro-act, and fantasize for the beginning of reconciliation with our ecology. SURFACE EX_TENSION aims to mitigate issues of coastal cultivation, over-population, expanding off-shore aquaculture, climatic refugees, and other marina deficiencies. While situated in one location, the following system is a proposal that is not tied to or constrained by a specific geography, but rather attaches itself to the edge condition of a landmass that is the coast. This allows SURFACE EX_TENSION to act as a metaphorical bridge that links together unlike coasts and conditions through an adaptive and organized framework of industrial support structures that bolster social, economical, and commercial aspects to better serve both humans and nature.
This specific version of SURFACE EX_TENSION is located off the coast of Antofagasta, a port-city in northern Chile. Chile occupies a long, 200-mile wide strip of land that stretches over 2,670 miles South to North, covering everything from the frigid Austral Zone to the desolate scenes of the great Norte Grande. Antofagasta finds itself in the dramatic East-West axis, where it stares peripherally at both the vast Pacific Ocean and the driest area on the planet, the Atacama desert. Due to the incredibly varied climate presented in such a short span, SURFACE EX_TENSION exists in this location in order to illustrate the potential and malleable nature of this model and offer insight into how it could be applied to other contrasting or similar regions of the planet.
Reflecting on the hopes of creating symbiotic relationships through architecture, SURFACE EX_TENSION begs the question, “What does our future hold and how can we provide spaces that solve issues of climate collapse, increasing density, and territorial appropriation?” Perhaps rather than instituting a rigid set of criteria, a simple suggestion of malleability for climatic interventions can provide a platform for environments to seek the help they need.
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PLASTIC-SCAPE |
Steven Zhang | Nikos Tsokas
NARRATIVE
More than 300 million tons of plastic are produced each year, of which only 18% are recycled. Our project suggests utilization of such unrated resources, approaching global warming as a chance to restore the balance between human living space and natural habitat of other species.
To achieve that, recycling plastics replace construction materials. A small recycling apparatus is installed in each community while other machines are used to remold plastic trash in a form that a drone-based 3d printer can use. From now on, these drones will take over construction of temporary infrastructures that will shape the dryland following the frequently occurring floods. As sea level is gradually rising, the infrastructure also will increase in height layer by layer.
These plastic infrastructures will also serve as scaffolds for plants to grow. Soil and sand coming from the floods will deposit on the infrastructures supplying them with nutrients. As time passes, plants and plastic structures will form the new landscape and will reshape current city networks. Nature will intrude the originally isolated interiors of buildings while old man-made infrastructures will provide habitat for other species.
Rather than seeking to preserve the human living environment, the consequence of global warming might be a chance to invite nature into human infrastructure again. After many years of negotiation and reshaping, the human living space and nature will achieve a new balance.
To achieve that, recycling plastics replace construction materials. A small recycling apparatus is installed in each community while other machines are used to remold plastic trash in a form that a drone-based 3d printer can use. From now on, these drones will take over construction of temporary infrastructures that will shape the dryland following the frequently occurring floods. As sea level is gradually rising, the infrastructure also will increase in height layer by layer.
These plastic infrastructures will also serve as scaffolds for plants to grow. Soil and sand coming from the floods will deposit on the infrastructures supplying them with nutrients. As time passes, plants and plastic structures will form the new landscape and will reshape current city networks. Nature will intrude the originally isolated interiors of buildings while old man-made infrastructures will provide habitat for other species.
Rather than seeking to preserve the human living environment, the consequence of global warming might be a chance to invite nature into human infrastructure again. After many years of negotiation and reshaping, the human living space and nature will achieve a new balance.
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THE NEW PORT OF THE AMERICAS |
Federico Martinez de Sola Monereo
Captions
Three main strategies are introduced for the sustainability of the proposal:
1. RE-ACTIVATION
A new General Plan for a dead zone within the city of Ponce. The reactivation of the port is established as the main measure of sustainability for the city, so that its economy can be reactivated, and in this way the city looks back to the sea. For this, various action strategies are established, all of which revolve around the idea of mixed uses on the plot, combining the restoration of the industrial use of the merchandise port and a new space for leisure and tourism for the city. Generating a synergy between both worlds.
2. RE-UTILIZATION
The reuse and recycling of the infrastructures and pre-existing facilities offered by the port facilities are proposed as a fundamental axis of the project. In this sense, the circular economy is promoted and the costs of the project are greatly reduced, since we are using existing elements on the port plot. In this way it is possible to recover part of the investment that was made in the port and that had been lost at the expense of the taxpayers.
3. RESILIENCE
Given the nature of the project and the qualities of Ponce's tropical climate, different strategies are proposed that promote the resilience of the project. Firstly, a modular configurable system, capable of adapting to the conditions and needs of the use that is required; and secondly, the creation of a mangrove ecosystem and a new sustainable energy system. These strategies promote awareness of the importance of adopting systems that are capable of adapting to the consequences of climate change these days.
1. RE-ACTIVATION
A new General Plan for a dead zone within the city of Ponce. The reactivation of the port is established as the main measure of sustainability for the city, so that its economy can be reactivated, and in this way the city looks back to the sea. For this, various action strategies are established, all of which revolve around the idea of mixed uses on the plot, combining the restoration of the industrial use of the merchandise port and a new space for leisure and tourism for the city. Generating a synergy between both worlds.
2. RE-UTILIZATION
The reuse and recycling of the infrastructures and pre-existing facilities offered by the port facilities are proposed as a fundamental axis of the project. In this sense, the circular economy is promoted and the costs of the project are greatly reduced, since we are using existing elements on the port plot. In this way it is possible to recover part of the investment that was made in the port and that had been lost at the expense of the taxpayers.
3. RESILIENCE
Given the nature of the project and the qualities of Ponce's tropical climate, different strategies are proposed that promote the resilience of the project. Firstly, a modular configurable system, capable of adapting to the conditions and needs of the use that is required; and secondly, the creation of a mangrove ecosystem and a new sustainable energy system. These strategies promote awareness of the importance of adopting systems that are capable of adapting to the consequences of climate change these days.
NARRATIVE
On September 20, 2017, the Category 5 Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico, one of the strongest to date. Causing serious material damage to the island's infrastructure and multiple fatalities, revealing the island's shortcomings in the face of this type of natural disaster. Being the coastal areas, such as the port of Ponce, the most affected by the cyclonic tide and sea level rise generated by the hurricane.
In this context, the new General Plan for the abandoned industrial port of Ponce, the largest city in the South of Puerto Rico, emerges. The city has been in decline since the economic crisis of 2010, having to stop the port works due to lack of funds. The port has been abandoned since then, having invested up to 250 million dollars in infrastructure that has never been used.
After the passage of the hurricane and with the arrival of tourists back to the island, the need arises for the recovery of this abandoned infrastructure. The New Port of the Americas proposes a system that allows the industrial use of the port in conjunction with a new leisure area that promotes activity and tourism in the city of Ponce, establishing the Port of the Americas as the central axis of the economy for the city and for the South of Puerto Rico. A new mangrove ecosystem is created in the abandoned and flooded areas of the port, opening them to the sea and allowing the free movement of water on the plot, thus avoiding stagnation. The backbone of the proposal are the port's ERTG cranes, which serve as an element of synergy between the private industrial space of the merchandise port, and the new public ecosystem through an elevated promenade (the Container High Walk) that underpins the proposal.
In this context, the new General Plan for the abandoned industrial port of Ponce, the largest city in the South of Puerto Rico, emerges. The city has been in decline since the economic crisis of 2010, having to stop the port works due to lack of funds. The port has been abandoned since then, having invested up to 250 million dollars in infrastructure that has never been used.
After the passage of the hurricane and with the arrival of tourists back to the island, the need arises for the recovery of this abandoned infrastructure. The New Port of the Americas proposes a system that allows the industrial use of the port in conjunction with a new leisure area that promotes activity and tourism in the city of Ponce, establishing the Port of the Americas as the central axis of the economy for the city and for the South of Puerto Rico. A new mangrove ecosystem is created in the abandoned and flooded areas of the port, opening them to the sea and allowing the free movement of water on the plot, thus avoiding stagnation. The backbone of the proposal are the port's ERTG cranes, which serve as an element of synergy between the private industrial space of the merchandise port, and the new public ecosystem through an elevated promenade (the Container High Walk) that underpins the proposal.
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HYGGE |
Claire Shue | Danrui Xiang
Captions
1. 200’ Ice Shelf in 11,000BC
2. 50’ water height in 2145
3. 15’ water height during Hurricane Sandy in 2012
4. Packaging Station
5. Sewing Station
6. Cotton/algae Farm
7. Thread Bundles
8. Production Line
9. Cotton/Algae
10. Thread Maker
11. Thread
12. The Backpack of Protection gives the user the ability to move their home from place to place without worry if that place is on the water. The backpack inflates into an enclosed raft and forms to the body and is made from algae, grown in the factory, that helps clean the water around the raft while it floats. The mesh-like material of the raft, helps to filter and provide fresh water to the occupant. Other amenities in the pack include a waste disposal system, a fishing rod, a wifi hotspot and a lantern.
13. The Necklace of Attention improves its user’s focus ability and can be programmed in a variety of ways such as glowing when a person is not paying attention therefore bringing attention to the error or glowing when a person is paying attention in order to promote the continued continuation.
14. The Jacket of Acceptance allows for a greater acknowledgment of the fluctuating world without the crushing feeling of being alone. Using internal scanners that monitor both brain waves and heartbeat, the jackets’ kinetic knit “shrugs” closer together in order to provide needed/ perceived physical connection and essentially gives the user a “hug”. This will hopefully lower a racing heart and decrease uncontrollable panic and anxiety in this ever-changing world.
15. The Cover-All of Awareness inspires users to be aware of the part of the world that we cannot see. The cover-all translates the invisible information of our surroundings such as radio waves and ultrasonic waves into vibrations that affect different parts of the body.
16. The Crown of Responsibility teaches the wearer of the heavy responsibility that is placed on humanity to protect the earth. The crown is ever connected to both social media and major news outlets and responds by throwing off the
2. 50’ water height in 2145
3. 15’ water height during Hurricane Sandy in 2012
4. Packaging Station
5. Sewing Station
6. Cotton/algae Farm
7. Thread Bundles
8. Production Line
9. Cotton/Algae
10. Thread Maker
11. Thread
12. The Backpack of Protection gives the user the ability to move their home from place to place without worry if that place is on the water. The backpack inflates into an enclosed raft and forms to the body and is made from algae, grown in the factory, that helps clean the water around the raft while it floats. The mesh-like material of the raft, helps to filter and provide fresh water to the occupant. Other amenities in the pack include a waste disposal system, a fishing rod, a wifi hotspot and a lantern.
13. The Necklace of Attention improves its user’s focus ability and can be programmed in a variety of ways such as glowing when a person is not paying attention therefore bringing attention to the error or glowing when a person is paying attention in order to promote the continued continuation.
14. The Jacket of Acceptance allows for a greater acknowledgment of the fluctuating world without the crushing feeling of being alone. Using internal scanners that monitor both brain waves and heartbeat, the jackets’ kinetic knit “shrugs” closer together in order to provide needed/ perceived physical connection and essentially gives the user a “hug”. This will hopefully lower a racing heart and decrease uncontrollable panic and anxiety in this ever-changing world.
15. The Cover-All of Awareness inspires users to be aware of the part of the world that we cannot see. The cover-all translates the invisible information of our surroundings such as radio waves and ultrasonic waves into vibrations that affect different parts of the body.
16. The Crown of Responsibility teaches the wearer of the heavy responsibility that is placed on humanity to protect the earth. The crown is ever connected to both social media and major news outlets and responds by throwing off the
NARRATIVE
New York has been living 50’ underwater for over four decades. The traffic of New York City has been replaced by speed boats and kayaks, with ever present sea-life merging in to join the rat race. High above, sky bridges and floating walkways have taken the place of sidewalks while drones and airships litter the skies beyond what remains of the tall towers of decades gone by.
Hygge (HOO-GA) is a speculative company focused on the needs of people in a post-sea-level-rise New York City by understanding their collective kinship within the rest of the world. In a city used to “living with the trouble”, Hygge hopes to lend a helping hand while also reminding residents that they are ever connected to something much larger and greater than themselves.
Due to the rapid increase in sea level, large docks world-wide have all but been destroyed making traditional shipping nearly impossible. As such, Hygge hopes that their new airship factory becomes a new model for making and delivery, by having the factory come to the consumer for on-demand goods.
The factory is a double-shelled, completely automated airship. Hydroponic systems line the outer-shell of the factory, holding cotton and algae, which are then picked by drones and processed through large looms. The drones then separate the textile and store the large bundles in the middle of the factory. Then robotic arms, with the help of conveyor belts, make the products. When finished, products are then boxed and shipped out to the city below by drone.
The project is heavily influenced by notable futurist Donna Haraway’s ideals, philosophies and themes and begins to dissect these teachings into actionable items. Hygge questions what would happen if these teachings were corrupted for corporate profit rather than common societal gain.The design envisions the company’s airship-based factory and products to facilitate awareness and the necessity to “stick with the trouble” in the ever changing city.To promote these philosophies, Hygge has created its own Hierarchy of Needs called, “The Hierarchy of Trouble” that then has been actualized into products that can be sold to the people of New York City.
Hygge (HOO-GA) is a speculative company focused on the needs of people in a post-sea-level-rise New York City by understanding their collective kinship within the rest of the world. In a city used to “living with the trouble”, Hygge hopes to lend a helping hand while also reminding residents that they are ever connected to something much larger and greater than themselves.
Due to the rapid increase in sea level, large docks world-wide have all but been destroyed making traditional shipping nearly impossible. As such, Hygge hopes that their new airship factory becomes a new model for making and delivery, by having the factory come to the consumer for on-demand goods.
The factory is a double-shelled, completely automated airship. Hydroponic systems line the outer-shell of the factory, holding cotton and algae, which are then picked by drones and processed through large looms. The drones then separate the textile and store the large bundles in the middle of the factory. Then robotic arms, with the help of conveyor belts, make the products. When finished, products are then boxed and shipped out to the city below by drone.
The project is heavily influenced by notable futurist Donna Haraway’s ideals, philosophies and themes and begins to dissect these teachings into actionable items. Hygge questions what would happen if these teachings were corrupted for corporate profit rather than common societal gain.The design envisions the company’s airship-based factory and products to facilitate awareness and the necessity to “stick with the trouble” in the ever changing city.To promote these philosophies, Hygge has created its own Hierarchy of Needs called, “The Hierarchy of Trouble” that then has been actualized into products that can be sold to the people of New York City.
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ONGOING GREEN |
Cherrie Dong | Xinyi Chen
Captions
1. Night Rendering, Project Overview
Algae Farming, Water Park, Energy Hub and Innovation Pond
2. Site Selection, where 3 main rivers meet
3. Projected Site, City of Alton, Analysis
4. Original Lock 26 Infrastructure
5. City of Alton, Street View
6. Algae Industry Research
7. Biomass Energy Research
8. Projected Research Loop On Site
9. Projected Energy Hub Physical Model
Energy Production, Underground Fuel Storage
10. Projected Innovation Pond Physical Model
Algae Energy Research Pond
11. City of Alton, existing problems
Lack of Economic Development. Unemployment.
Population Loss, Uneven Development
12. Projected Feedback Loop
Projecting a Green Algae and Biomass Industry
13. Form Diagram, Energy Production Hub, hybridizing on Lock 26
14. Form Diagram, Energy Research and Innovation Pond, extending from Lock 26
15. Form Diagram, Energy Research Pond
16. Form Diagram, Algae Research Pond
17. Form Diagram, Storage Research Pond
18. Form Diagram, Energy Research Pond
19. Plan, Energy Hub and Innovation Pond
20. Rendering, View of Energy Hub
21. Rendering, View of Innovation Pond
22. Section, Energy Hub and Innovation Pond, Hybridizing on and Extending from Lock 26
23. Site Strategy Diagram, Bridging Existing Urban Fabric
24. Day Rendering of Hub and Pond
25. Section, Energy Hub
26. Overall Site Plan
Algae Farming, Water Park, Energy Hub and Innovation Pond
2. Site Selection, where 3 main rivers meet
3. Projected Site, City of Alton, Analysis
4. Original Lock 26 Infrastructure
5. City of Alton, Street View
6. Algae Industry Research
7. Biomass Energy Research
8. Projected Research Loop On Site
9. Projected Energy Hub Physical Model
Energy Production, Underground Fuel Storage
10. Projected Innovation Pond Physical Model
Algae Energy Research Pond
11. City of Alton, existing problems
Lack of Economic Development. Unemployment.
Population Loss, Uneven Development
12. Projected Feedback Loop
Projecting a Green Algae and Biomass Industry
13. Form Diagram, Energy Production Hub, hybridizing on Lock 26
14. Form Diagram, Energy Research and Innovation Pond, extending from Lock 26
15. Form Diagram, Energy Research Pond
16. Form Diagram, Algae Research Pond
17. Form Diagram, Storage Research Pond
18. Form Diagram, Energy Research Pond
19. Plan, Energy Hub and Innovation Pond
20. Rendering, View of Energy Hub
21. Rendering, View of Innovation Pond
22. Section, Energy Hub and Innovation Pond, Hybridizing on and Extending from Lock 26
23. Site Strategy Diagram, Bridging Existing Urban Fabric
24. Day Rendering of Hub and Pond
25. Section, Energy Hub
26. Overall Site Plan
NARRATIVE
Project Overview:
The “Ongoing Green” is a renewable energy production project, hybridized on the existing lock 26 in the city of Alton along Mississippi river. Envisioning a new energy economic cycle, this new assemblage localizes power generation, boosts local economy and greatly alleviates manmade damages to the Mississippi river through the adoption and planning of clean algae industry and its related byproducts.
Function:
The project features an algae energy production plant, providing the Alton city and the other cities along Mississippi river with clean electricity power as well as resources for future development and research. The byproducts of algae, including the biofuel used for transportation and food for consumption, also facilitates the completion of a brand-new eco-friendly production loop. The associate waterfront park mitigates the intensity of flooding caused by traditional levees and provides the algae farms with intermittent nutrition and protection.
Features of Design:
Projected Site
Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about 15 miles north of St. Louis, Missouri. It grew into a river-trading town in 19th century, and was once a prosperous river city benefiting from its heavy industry, manufacturing and shipping. As global warming and macro climate change has posed threats on a larger scale, the city of Alton has also been experiencing problems including flooding, pollution, loss of population, unemployment, and economic decline. Moving towards a clean and resilient future, it’s indispensable for the city of Alton to re-structure its industry, increase its economic growth, create social bonds, raise public awareness, and improve urban resilience, which also frames the five missions behind this project proposal.
Projected Program
The key programs for the project are consisted of:
a 20MW Algae Biomass Energy Production Center for electricity and thermal energy generation,
an Energy Research and Innovation Center open for public education,
on-river lodging,
a Water Park as recreation and flood mitigation,
underwater/ underground fuel storage,
400-acre inland algae cultivation ponds and 40-acre biomass storage.
New large-scale mechanical infrastructures are also proposed to transmit energy and related resources, and a monorail transportation system linking the Hub to the urban neighborhood is also proposed. Real estate development, landscape and urban masterplan are one part of the proposal. More importantly, the project is introducing a clean energy production and flow loop, which further impacts the city of Alton, and the lifestyles of local residents.
Potential Key Partners
There are multiple potential key parties which could be involved and collaborating on the proposal, which includes Alton Government, NGOs, US Army Corp of Engineers who originally owns the Lock and Dam #26, Alton local Industries such as Alton Steel and Imperial Manufacturer benefiting from the green energy for future production, and the National Great River Research and Education Center aiming for public education.
Financial Feasibility
The projected cost for developing the project is primarily comprised of land acquisition and construction fees at the initial phase, later extending into operation and maintenance cost, together with branding, marketing, contingency, overhead, staffing and administration cost. Meanwhile, revenue is generated from multiple sectors, including public and private electricity and thermal energy utility fees, biofuel, food and algae-related by-products, project rent, and parking. In addition, the proposed Energy and Innovation Hub is also the place where avant-garde green technology been studied and developed. Thus, research funding and investment could be largely expected.
Projected Impacts
As a milestone project proposed for the city of Alton, the 20MW Algae Biomass Energy Production Hub together with the urban strategy steps away from the traditional large-scale (500MW) energy production from coal burning, localizing small-scale green energy production, largely reducing pollution and inefficient transportation of resources. The development and future operation of the project creates job opportunities and brings in green-technology talents to the city of Alton, exacerbating the economic growth. The proposed water-landscape, softens the edges between the city and the river, increases water infiltration, and mitigates potential flooding. The projected public education center and the water park are free for public, bringing residents from inland to the water, promoting green energy education in a fun way while raising public awareness for environmental protection. By organizing social events and activities at the education center and water park, a strong social community is fostered, information flow is encouraged, and inputs from the local residents are collected for future improvement. Finally, the embracement of green industry and the notion of “going green” creates a new identity for the city of Alton, which will make its influence to the surrounding cities.
The “Ongoing Green” is a renewable energy production project, hybridized on the existing lock 26 in the city of Alton along Mississippi river. Envisioning a new energy economic cycle, this new assemblage localizes power generation, boosts local economy and greatly alleviates manmade damages to the Mississippi river through the adoption and planning of clean algae industry and its related byproducts.
Function:
The project features an algae energy production plant, providing the Alton city and the other cities along Mississippi river with clean electricity power as well as resources for future development and research. The byproducts of algae, including the biofuel used for transportation and food for consumption, also facilitates the completion of a brand-new eco-friendly production loop. The associate waterfront park mitigates the intensity of flooding caused by traditional levees and provides the algae farms with intermittent nutrition and protection.
Features of Design:
Projected Site
Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about 15 miles north of St. Louis, Missouri. It grew into a river-trading town in 19th century, and was once a prosperous river city benefiting from its heavy industry, manufacturing and shipping. As global warming and macro climate change has posed threats on a larger scale, the city of Alton has also been experiencing problems including flooding, pollution, loss of population, unemployment, and economic decline. Moving towards a clean and resilient future, it’s indispensable for the city of Alton to re-structure its industry, increase its economic growth, create social bonds, raise public awareness, and improve urban resilience, which also frames the five missions behind this project proposal.
Projected Program
The key programs for the project are consisted of:
a 20MW Algae Biomass Energy Production Center for electricity and thermal energy generation,
an Energy Research and Innovation Center open for public education,
on-river lodging,
a Water Park as recreation and flood mitigation,
underwater/ underground fuel storage,
400-acre inland algae cultivation ponds and 40-acre biomass storage.
New large-scale mechanical infrastructures are also proposed to transmit energy and related resources, and a monorail transportation system linking the Hub to the urban neighborhood is also proposed. Real estate development, landscape and urban masterplan are one part of the proposal. More importantly, the project is introducing a clean energy production and flow loop, which further impacts the city of Alton, and the lifestyles of local residents.
Potential Key Partners
There are multiple potential key parties which could be involved and collaborating on the proposal, which includes Alton Government, NGOs, US Army Corp of Engineers who originally owns the Lock and Dam #26, Alton local Industries such as Alton Steel and Imperial Manufacturer benefiting from the green energy for future production, and the National Great River Research and Education Center aiming for public education.
Financial Feasibility
The projected cost for developing the project is primarily comprised of land acquisition and construction fees at the initial phase, later extending into operation and maintenance cost, together with branding, marketing, contingency, overhead, staffing and administration cost. Meanwhile, revenue is generated from multiple sectors, including public and private electricity and thermal energy utility fees, biofuel, food and algae-related by-products, project rent, and parking. In addition, the proposed Energy and Innovation Hub is also the place where avant-garde green technology been studied and developed. Thus, research funding and investment could be largely expected.
Projected Impacts
As a milestone project proposed for the city of Alton, the 20MW Algae Biomass Energy Production Hub together with the urban strategy steps away from the traditional large-scale (500MW) energy production from coal burning, localizing small-scale green energy production, largely reducing pollution and inefficient transportation of resources. The development and future operation of the project creates job opportunities and brings in green-technology talents to the city of Alton, exacerbating the economic growth. The proposed water-landscape, softens the edges between the city and the river, increases water infiltration, and mitigates potential flooding. The projected public education center and the water park are free for public, bringing residents from inland to the water, promoting green energy education in a fun way while raising public awareness for environmental protection. By organizing social events and activities at the education center and water park, a strong social community is fostered, information flow is encouraged, and inputs from the local residents are collected for future improvement. Finally, the embracement of green industry and the notion of “going green” creates a new identity for the city of Alton, which will make its influence to the surrounding cities.
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Server_FARM |
Josh Myers | Hallie Schuld | Angelina Laudato
Captions
1. Overall Axon - representing building form and pixelated facade in context
2. Systems Axon - demonstrating the interconnection between the three architectural systems, heat exchange from servers to greenhouses, and the function of the kelp shipping dock
3. Constituencies Diagram - representing human, technological, and ecological users
4. Map of Southern Norway - identifying site, hydroelectric power plant, and local kelp forest
5. Building Plan - expressing the overlaps between the labs, servers, and greenhouses
6. System Adjacencies Vignette - highlighting the collapse of hierchary between the three constituencies
2. Systems Axon - demonstrating the interconnection between the three architectural systems, heat exchange from servers to greenhouses, and the function of the kelp shipping dock
3. Constituencies Diagram - representing human, technological, and ecological users
4. Map of Southern Norway - identifying site, hydroelectric power plant, and local kelp forest
5. Building Plan - expressing the overlaps between the labs, servers, and greenhouses
6. System Adjacencies Vignette - highlighting the collapse of hierchary between the three constituencies
NARRATIVE
Server_FARM combines a hydroelectric powered server farm, hydroponic greenhouses, and research labs to create an architectural system that sustainably processes digital data for global internet users, and utilizes server waste heat to support greenhouses that foster the growth of native kelp to restore diminishing kelp forests off the coast of Norway. Sited on the island of Ytterøy in Norway, the project is occupied by humans, servers, and kelp and envisions a future in which humans, technology, and ecology can conflate their complex networks to reduce hierarchy and operate toward a more sustainable and regenerative future.
A drastic inflation in internet traffic has proven that internet access and accessibility are becoming an increasingly essential part of everyday life for the global population. However, many people do not realize that behind the internet lies millions of square feet occupied by servers churning through data and information required to accommodate the millions of internet users. Server farms around the world have a serious environmental impact, accounting for 200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and consuming 2% of the world’s total electricity each year. Additionally, on Norway’s eastern coast, warming ocean temperatures have depleted 8,000 square kilometers of native kelp forests. These rich and dense kelp forests provide food and shelter for many marine species native to this unique coastal ecosystem. The project crosses technological and ecological systems in a symbiotic exchange of energy and resources to address these two environmental issues: carbon dioxide emissions and the depletion of kelp.
By utilizing the naturally cool climate in Norway, Server_FARM does not require mechanical cooling for the operation of servers. To power the servers, the project utilizes existing Norwegian hydroelectric power infrastructure. Since heat is an inherent byproduct of servers, Server_FARM captures this energy to support hydroponic greenhouse farms that foster the growth of kelp, which can then be shipped from Server_FARM to the nearby delepted kelp forests. The labs, occupied by biological researchers supporting the greenhouses, also intervene in the system while creating visual and spatial adjacencies between the server spaces and greenhouses.
By translating Donna Haraway’s ideas in Staying with the Trouble, the project seeks “to make trouble, to stir up potent response to devastating events.” Server_FARM embraces the unusual overlaps that result from organizing/disorganizing human, technological, and ecological networks to work toward a more sustainable world.
A drastic inflation in internet traffic has proven that internet access and accessibility are becoming an increasingly essential part of everyday life for the global population. However, many people do not realize that behind the internet lies millions of square feet occupied by servers churning through data and information required to accommodate the millions of internet users. Server farms around the world have a serious environmental impact, accounting for 200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and consuming 2% of the world’s total electricity each year. Additionally, on Norway’s eastern coast, warming ocean temperatures have depleted 8,000 square kilometers of native kelp forests. These rich and dense kelp forests provide food and shelter for many marine species native to this unique coastal ecosystem. The project crosses technological and ecological systems in a symbiotic exchange of energy and resources to address these two environmental issues: carbon dioxide emissions and the depletion of kelp.
By utilizing the naturally cool climate in Norway, Server_FARM does not require mechanical cooling for the operation of servers. To power the servers, the project utilizes existing Norwegian hydroelectric power infrastructure. Since heat is an inherent byproduct of servers, Server_FARM captures this energy to support hydroponic greenhouse farms that foster the growth of kelp, which can then be shipped from Server_FARM to the nearby delepted kelp forests. The labs, occupied by biological researchers supporting the greenhouses, also intervene in the system while creating visual and spatial adjacencies between the server spaces and greenhouses.
By translating Donna Haraway’s ideas in Staying with the Trouble, the project seeks “to make trouble, to stir up potent response to devastating events.” Server_FARM embraces the unusual overlaps that result from organizing/disorganizing human, technological, and ecological networks to work toward a more sustainable world.
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INTERCHANGE |
John Gerard Perez | Nastassja Lafontant
NARRATIVE
The U.S. Interstate Highway System, constructed in the 1950s to prioritize the automobile, has created numerous environmental and societal issues that have had long lasting impacts. The development of this “ease of movement” from the suburbs to the city resulted in the displacement of local residents, specifically people of color, in many downtown neighborhoods across the country, but especially those of Los Angeles. In LA, the $27 billion construction of the downtown interchange section of the I-110 leveled more than 41,000 square miles of homes in areas considered “unsafe” or “slums”, displacing more than 4,000 residents and becoming the most expensive half mile highway ever built. The construction of the highway radically changed the layout of the neighborhood it was cutting through in the most negative way. Worst of all, the planners failed to spruce up the neighborhoods they had ultimately destroyed with parks and other green spaces and instead perfunctory residences were built.
Communities living near highways such as the I-110 in LA face societal, economic, and health issues caused by the environmental impact of thousands of cars driving by everyday. A single vehicle emits 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and these highways are the core problem of our air pollution. For our warming competition we wanted to focus on finding an intriguing way of tackling air pollution, specifically in Los Angeles, California. The project reimagines the configuration of roads, overpasses, and buzzing cars with greener pastures for pedestrians and takes more precedence on public transportation.
Society has resolved congested roads by supply side, adding more lanes only to end up where we started: traffic jams and unpleasant afternoons. But if we simply reevaluate how to resolve this issue by degrading the act of solo driving and reintroduce more carpooling and public transportation, it would not only better the environment but how we run our cities as well. As a result, the highway has been reconfigured into two lanes, either direction, with metro transportation stationed in the middle as the main feature of transference and planters filling in the remaining space to absorb the CO2 as well as creating a more aesthetically pleasing area for the people and the city. Rather than promoting supply-side solutions, we are proposing to implement demand-side, specifically congestion pricing. Charging higher-per mile rates during peak hours of the day will change drivers' habits to driving less and hopefully shifting to different means of conveyance. It is time to downplay on car-leading metropolises and reprioritize the citizens that make the city.
In order to tend to those Los Angelinos, we chose this timber wood gridshell method as one of the ways to react to congested air pollution and prevent the rise of CO2 through more green spaces, sustainable means of transmission, and promote more human powered transportation. The diagrid is meant to repurpose the highway without adding another harsh concrete feature to the downtown area. With the landscape features absorbing the CO2 from vehicles’ emittance, it is also providing an in-between space, restitching the separated downtown that was brought by the highway. As the eggcrate reconnects Downtown, programs are evolved from the topography of its shell. From grass patches, recreational areas, multipurpose spaces, open markets, to the playful pedestrian path coursing on top of the grid, all parts of the landscape accommodate pedestrians over vehicles. As you journey through the “park” both the pedestrian path and bike trail touch base with every program. The programs on top of the eggcrate is seen as a hyperfunctional park, consisting of water collectors, solar panels, green spaces, paths for both bike and pedestrian, and room for open markets. The eggcrate provides a sense of openness with the sun beaming down and still being able to hit the highway underneath the egg crate while presenting several opportunities for the pedestrians on top.
Los Angeles is in dire need of change and we need to follow the footsteps of other major cities already in motion of transforming their cities for the environment and its people. As the great Lorax one said, “Unless someone like us cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not”.
Communities living near highways such as the I-110 in LA face societal, economic, and health issues caused by the environmental impact of thousands of cars driving by everyday. A single vehicle emits 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and these highways are the core problem of our air pollution. For our warming competition we wanted to focus on finding an intriguing way of tackling air pollution, specifically in Los Angeles, California. The project reimagines the configuration of roads, overpasses, and buzzing cars with greener pastures for pedestrians and takes more precedence on public transportation.
Society has resolved congested roads by supply side, adding more lanes only to end up where we started: traffic jams and unpleasant afternoons. But if we simply reevaluate how to resolve this issue by degrading the act of solo driving and reintroduce more carpooling and public transportation, it would not only better the environment but how we run our cities as well. As a result, the highway has been reconfigured into two lanes, either direction, with metro transportation stationed in the middle as the main feature of transference and planters filling in the remaining space to absorb the CO2 as well as creating a more aesthetically pleasing area for the people and the city. Rather than promoting supply-side solutions, we are proposing to implement demand-side, specifically congestion pricing. Charging higher-per mile rates during peak hours of the day will change drivers' habits to driving less and hopefully shifting to different means of conveyance. It is time to downplay on car-leading metropolises and reprioritize the citizens that make the city.
In order to tend to those Los Angelinos, we chose this timber wood gridshell method as one of the ways to react to congested air pollution and prevent the rise of CO2 through more green spaces, sustainable means of transmission, and promote more human powered transportation. The diagrid is meant to repurpose the highway without adding another harsh concrete feature to the downtown area. With the landscape features absorbing the CO2 from vehicles’ emittance, it is also providing an in-between space, restitching the separated downtown that was brought by the highway. As the eggcrate reconnects Downtown, programs are evolved from the topography of its shell. From grass patches, recreational areas, multipurpose spaces, open markets, to the playful pedestrian path coursing on top of the grid, all parts of the landscape accommodate pedestrians over vehicles. As you journey through the “park” both the pedestrian path and bike trail touch base with every program. The programs on top of the eggcrate is seen as a hyperfunctional park, consisting of water collectors, solar panels, green spaces, paths for both bike and pedestrian, and room for open markets. The eggcrate provides a sense of openness with the sun beaming down and still being able to hit the highway underneath the egg crate while presenting several opportunities for the pedestrians on top.
Los Angeles is in dire need of change and we need to follow the footsteps of other major cities already in motion of transforming their cities for the environment and its people. As the great Lorax one said, “Unless someone like us cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not”.
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NEO-PESCETARIANISM |
KongHo Wong | KwanHui Ho
Captions
1) Neo-Pescetarianism: The New Diet
2) 2020 UK Flood Map and Regional Flood Map
3) Statistic Of Related Subject:
a) Global fish stocks that are not overexploited
b) Global Liquid biofuels production
c) World wild fish catch & aquaculture,1960-2015
d) EU consumption per capita 2018
4) Ecological Benefits of Seaweed
5) Site Relations Diagram
6) Sustainable Develpoment Model
a) Waterfront Public Realm
b) Aquaculture
c) Green Energy
7) Oyster & Marine Ecosystem Build-up By Year
a) Targeting Fish Species:
- Anchovy
- Mackerel
- Whiting
- Sea Bass
- Common Dab
- Bull Huss
- Smoot-hound
b) Targeting Shellfish Species:
- Clam
- Mussel
- Native Oyster
- Abalone
- Balanidae
8) Water Activities Promenade
9) Sports & Harbour Bath Complex
10) Fishing: Brighton’s Old Fashion
11) Co-living With Nature Is The New Norm
12) Tidal Aquarium
13) Adapt & Transform
2) 2020 UK Flood Map and Regional Flood Map
3) Statistic Of Related Subject:
a) Global fish stocks that are not overexploited
b) Global Liquid biofuels production
c) World wild fish catch & aquaculture,1960-2015
d) EU consumption per capita 2018
4) Ecological Benefits of Seaweed
5) Site Relations Diagram
6) Sustainable Develpoment Model
a) Waterfront Public Realm
b) Aquaculture
c) Green Energy
7) Oyster & Marine Ecosystem Build-up By Year
a) Targeting Fish Species:
- Anchovy
- Mackerel
- Whiting
- Sea Bass
- Common Dab
- Bull Huss
- Smoot-hound
b) Targeting Shellfish Species:
- Clam
- Mussel
- Native Oyster
- Abalone
- Balanidae
8) Water Activities Promenade
9) Sports & Harbour Bath Complex
10) Fishing: Brighton’s Old Fashion
11) Co-living With Nature Is The New Norm
12) Tidal Aquarium
13) Adapt & Transform
NARRATIVE
“We believe what we eat can change the world.’’
Global warming is a long-existing problem. Its consequences may still not seem apparent, but by the year 2050, many of us around the globe will be experiencing a different degree of loss. Brighton is one of the British vacation hot spots that will be threatened by 2050, which it’s famous coastline and beaches will be submerged into the English Channel. The anticipated sea-level rise of 1.5m results in the flooding of the beach and its nearby facilities, including the aquarium. Our paved way for the creation of a new strategy of sustainable framework and lifestyle will provide a new alternative of living by the sea. The solution of reacting to climate change is all about a recipe and a new trend of diet and the development model behind the scenes. The revolutionary diet, Neo-Pescetarianism, that includes fish and shellfish while excluding land-based meat products could add an extra layer of sustainability to push it forward.
Changes are necessary when reacting to the consequences of global warming. This includes changes in our electricity generation, food production and eating diet. These elements combine as a sustainable model in terms of both ecological and resource development.
The idea of Pescetarianism dates back to 1991, but we would like to introduce it in a new form by also securing sustainable aquaculture whilst encouraging the redevelopment of a healthy marine ecosystem and emphasizing a new form of energy-seaweed electricity, redefining our consumption and production behaviour. This new metabolism sees the input of seaweed and shellfish not just to meet our consumption, but also to re-define those outputs as the means of green energy and accommodation of marine habitats.
The value of seaweed is often being neglected in the business of sustainability. The growth of seaweed in the sea also benefits the ecosystem by absorbing CO2, currents and protecting the shore. More importantly, it is also a form of biomass that could generate energy. A biomass fermentation system will be set up in the former pier so as to process the seaweed. The methane gas that results from this process is used as fuel for a gas engine that produces electricity. By investing and consuming seaweed, and reducing meat consumption at the same time, the local business will be a step closer to achieve a carbon negative model. Oyster will serve an important role in this new development scheme. Similar to seaweed, the oyster reef also provides a suitable habitat for marine wildlife. It cleans the water and breaks the currents. Moreover, it is the source of protein with the least cost of greenhouse gas. Visitors are eventually guided through this meaningful change with the help of our meticulously designed menu.
Brighton has always been a famous recreational spot among locals and tourists. We treasure this reputation, therefore recreational function is never neglected in the design. Harbour bath is created for people of all ages and abilities while the water sports area encourages a variety of water sports, including canoeing, paddle padding and diving. An underwater tidal aquarium is being designed in order to give visitors a better understanding and experience. Global warming may have caused an adverse impact on Brighton, but it also created opportunities for better experiences and functions which contributes to our mother earth. The brand new public realm refills the loss of touristic treasures that were destroyed by the global climate crises, with a special added value of local educational meaning.
Only 66.6% of fish stock is not being exploited globally. Fish species that are common among fishers in Brighton are actually threatened species. Therefore, we aim to re-create the marine habitat with aquaculture. The full development of an oyster reef takes 6 to 7 years. Non-living materials such as limestone piles, nets and box structure are used to facilitate the growth of oysters. Together with the seagrass plantation, it creates habitat for small fish like Mackerel and Anchovy. By the third year the oysters spawning occurs, they also serve the function of cleaning the seawater, creating a better habitat. Then it matures by the fourth to fifth year as several generations of oysters have been developed, also attracting larger threatened predator fish.
This scheme brings numerous benefits, both locally and globally. In addition to the global benefits stated above, it encourages growth in the local economy by promoting tourism and enhancing the development of local aquaculture. A stable and prosperous economy ensures stable investment in the power plant, which in turn supports local needs, as well as the conservation of the local marine ecosystem. This infinite loop of benefits supports the community in the long run.
Global warming is a long-existing problem. Its consequences may still not seem apparent, but by the year 2050, many of us around the globe will be experiencing a different degree of loss. Brighton is one of the British vacation hot spots that will be threatened by 2050, which it’s famous coastline and beaches will be submerged into the English Channel. The anticipated sea-level rise of 1.5m results in the flooding of the beach and its nearby facilities, including the aquarium. Our paved way for the creation of a new strategy of sustainable framework and lifestyle will provide a new alternative of living by the sea. The solution of reacting to climate change is all about a recipe and a new trend of diet and the development model behind the scenes. The revolutionary diet, Neo-Pescetarianism, that includes fish and shellfish while excluding land-based meat products could add an extra layer of sustainability to push it forward.
Changes are necessary when reacting to the consequences of global warming. This includes changes in our electricity generation, food production and eating diet. These elements combine as a sustainable model in terms of both ecological and resource development.
The idea of Pescetarianism dates back to 1991, but we would like to introduce it in a new form by also securing sustainable aquaculture whilst encouraging the redevelopment of a healthy marine ecosystem and emphasizing a new form of energy-seaweed electricity, redefining our consumption and production behaviour. This new metabolism sees the input of seaweed and shellfish not just to meet our consumption, but also to re-define those outputs as the means of green energy and accommodation of marine habitats.
The value of seaweed is often being neglected in the business of sustainability. The growth of seaweed in the sea also benefits the ecosystem by absorbing CO2, currents and protecting the shore. More importantly, it is also a form of biomass that could generate energy. A biomass fermentation system will be set up in the former pier so as to process the seaweed. The methane gas that results from this process is used as fuel for a gas engine that produces electricity. By investing and consuming seaweed, and reducing meat consumption at the same time, the local business will be a step closer to achieve a carbon negative model. Oyster will serve an important role in this new development scheme. Similar to seaweed, the oyster reef also provides a suitable habitat for marine wildlife. It cleans the water and breaks the currents. Moreover, it is the source of protein with the least cost of greenhouse gas. Visitors are eventually guided through this meaningful change with the help of our meticulously designed menu.
Brighton has always been a famous recreational spot among locals and tourists. We treasure this reputation, therefore recreational function is never neglected in the design. Harbour bath is created for people of all ages and abilities while the water sports area encourages a variety of water sports, including canoeing, paddle padding and diving. An underwater tidal aquarium is being designed in order to give visitors a better understanding and experience. Global warming may have caused an adverse impact on Brighton, but it also created opportunities for better experiences and functions which contributes to our mother earth. The brand new public realm refills the loss of touristic treasures that were destroyed by the global climate crises, with a special added value of local educational meaning.
Only 66.6% of fish stock is not being exploited globally. Fish species that are common among fishers in Brighton are actually threatened species. Therefore, we aim to re-create the marine habitat with aquaculture. The full development of an oyster reef takes 6 to 7 years. Non-living materials such as limestone piles, nets and box structure are used to facilitate the growth of oysters. Together with the seagrass plantation, it creates habitat for small fish like Mackerel and Anchovy. By the third year the oysters spawning occurs, they also serve the function of cleaning the seawater, creating a better habitat. Then it matures by the fourth to fifth year as several generations of oysters have been developed, also attracting larger threatened predator fish.
This scheme brings numerous benefits, both locally and globally. In addition to the global benefits stated above, it encourages growth in the local economy by promoting tourism and enhancing the development of local aquaculture. A stable and prosperous economy ensures stable investment in the power plant, which in turn supports local needs, as well as the conservation of the local marine ecosystem. This infinite loop of benefits supports the community in the long run.
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SARCS |
Jin Young Song | Rahul Rai | Souma Chowdhury | Karthik Dantu
NARRATIVE
SARCS
(Swarm Activated Reconfigurable Construction System)
Individual buildings are smart in sustainability measurement. However, the collective practice of the construction industry is not smart (ineffective) in the crisis of climate change. Construction in nature (by ants, bees, beavers) is vastly different from human construction. Nature re-purposes available materials (twigs, mud, pebbles) while humans build new products for construction. Nature builds around the surroundings optimizing for function (lighting, ventilation, water) while human structures dictate the nature and customize the environment to suit the construction. Because of these distinctions, while the agents in nature such as ants and bees are much less capable individually as humans, their collective ability is highly intelligent, sustainable and energy-efficient.
SARCS (Swarm Activated Reconfigurable Construction System) proposes a theoretical framework to innovate the way we produce and reconfigure built environments using swarms of robots learning from the insect world. The reconfigurability activated by SARCS provides a resilient construction and deconstruction method contributing to the broader sustainability in the built environment, not only for the flexible reconfiguration per dynamic human programs but also resilient solutions to the sites with disaster events where conventional methods are not effective. In particular, the SARCS framework will change the paradigm of construction in three dimensions - construction methods, time, and resilience.
CONSTRUCTION METHODS
SARCS uses a swarm of ground and robot fabricators, and uses two main construction methods for construction/deconstruction/reconstruction. Stacking is an additive process that uses gravitational forces for structural support. Weaving combines stacked structures and provides structural support by tensile forces.
Stacking: One mechanism to maximize the efficiency of swarms of ground robot fabricators is stacking. Stacking in a termite mound is an additive manufacturing process based on coordinated multiple local decisions rather than human’s conventional single design operation. Current individual robot-based stacking (for example, SAM-100, Hadrian X, and more) pursues precision as a robot mason for conventional construction. However, the self-interlocking unit block design in SARCS allows imprecise stacking for precise structural support. The stacking without complicated bonding agent allows reverse action to disassemble and reconfigure the structure by swarm fabricators.
Weaving: Weaving is where the capacity of the swarms of flying robot fabricators are maximized. Like the structure of silkworm cocoons, the fiber-based weaving will compensate for the compression oriented stacking behavior. The weaving sequence is programmed to structurally tie the corresponding blocks(like weaverbirds). SARCS operates larger drones to perform the fiber placement and smaller tying drones to weave the fiber band with the stacked blocks. Skin weaving provides the traditional function of rain-screen, controlled translucency, insulation, and necessary openings. Flying fabricators will coordinate with ground robots to execute the program of stacking and weaving.
TIME
The current sustainable measure is closely tied to the capitalist market system focused on building products. However, Time should be considered as an important aspect of the overal life cycle energy usage. A city once hosted a permanent architecture to represent the identity of the society, has shifted its paradigm to a fastly changing, heterogeneous, temporary, and eventful assemblage. The life of the program is radically shorter than the life span of the physical building set due to the conventional construction method used. SARCS proposes alternate scenarios. What if, by changing our construction process, we are able to build structures in a very short timescale? What if we are able to reconfigure parts of the structure in hours? Because we are having guests, we build additional bedrooms. Since there is a damaging hurricane approach, we reinforce the skin of the building temporarily. For the upcoming winter, we modify the size and the opening ratio of the building for energy efficiency. The possibilities abound if we can change the timescales of construction/deconstruction/reconstruction using a combination of novel methods as well as automation using SARCS.
RESILIENCE
Cities built with conventional construction are vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters. According to recent studies on climate change and sea-level rise, more than 300 million homes will be affected by coastal flooding in the next 30 years. And the number could be much worse in our lifetime if carbon emissions do not decrease. SARCS can provide a resilient construction framework unlike conventional methods. Temporary housings and shelters can be quickly built, coastal erosion control structure can be constructed in difficult sites, impact screen walls against hurricanes can be built on top of the existing structures all using SARCS. The reconfigurable structure can further develop the form of resiliency in the case of various disaster events and also adapt to the situation as required.
It is imminent for the building industry to react to global warming and climate change. Fundamental sustainability of energy-efficient buildings should consider the time factor for the rapidly changing urban dynamics. In the play of time, reconfigurability is a mode of sustainability and a tool for resiliency. To achieve such reconfigurability, we need a new construction system to allow rapidly changing programs and dynamic behaviors for people. SARCS revisits the collective intelligence of swarm behaviors to respond to the broad sustainable construction method.
1. Large flying weaving fabricator (Skin weaving).
2. Small flying weaving fabricator (Block weaving).
3. Stacking robots.
4. Ground movers.
5. Foundation connection for future expansion.
6. Self-interlocking unit blocks.
7. 600 sf (56m2) studio unit.
8. 1200 sf (111m2) housing unit.
9. 1800 sf (167m2) housing unit.
10. 2400 sf (223m2) 3 bedroom housing unit.
(Swarm Activated Reconfigurable Construction System)
Individual buildings are smart in sustainability measurement. However, the collective practice of the construction industry is not smart (ineffective) in the crisis of climate change. Construction in nature (by ants, bees, beavers) is vastly different from human construction. Nature re-purposes available materials (twigs, mud, pebbles) while humans build new products for construction. Nature builds around the surroundings optimizing for function (lighting, ventilation, water) while human structures dictate the nature and customize the environment to suit the construction. Because of these distinctions, while the agents in nature such as ants and bees are much less capable individually as humans, their collective ability is highly intelligent, sustainable and energy-efficient.
SARCS (Swarm Activated Reconfigurable Construction System) proposes a theoretical framework to innovate the way we produce and reconfigure built environments using swarms of robots learning from the insect world. The reconfigurability activated by SARCS provides a resilient construction and deconstruction method contributing to the broader sustainability in the built environment, not only for the flexible reconfiguration per dynamic human programs but also resilient solutions to the sites with disaster events where conventional methods are not effective. In particular, the SARCS framework will change the paradigm of construction in three dimensions - construction methods, time, and resilience.
CONSTRUCTION METHODS
SARCS uses a swarm of ground and robot fabricators, and uses two main construction methods for construction/deconstruction/reconstruction. Stacking is an additive process that uses gravitational forces for structural support. Weaving combines stacked structures and provides structural support by tensile forces.
Stacking: One mechanism to maximize the efficiency of swarms of ground robot fabricators is stacking. Stacking in a termite mound is an additive manufacturing process based on coordinated multiple local decisions rather than human’s conventional single design operation. Current individual robot-based stacking (for example, SAM-100, Hadrian X, and more) pursues precision as a robot mason for conventional construction. However, the self-interlocking unit block design in SARCS allows imprecise stacking for precise structural support. The stacking without complicated bonding agent allows reverse action to disassemble and reconfigure the structure by swarm fabricators.
Weaving: Weaving is where the capacity of the swarms of flying robot fabricators are maximized. Like the structure of silkworm cocoons, the fiber-based weaving will compensate for the compression oriented stacking behavior. The weaving sequence is programmed to structurally tie the corresponding blocks(like weaverbirds). SARCS operates larger drones to perform the fiber placement and smaller tying drones to weave the fiber band with the stacked blocks. Skin weaving provides the traditional function of rain-screen, controlled translucency, insulation, and necessary openings. Flying fabricators will coordinate with ground robots to execute the program of stacking and weaving.
TIME
The current sustainable measure is closely tied to the capitalist market system focused on building products. However, Time should be considered as an important aspect of the overal life cycle energy usage. A city once hosted a permanent architecture to represent the identity of the society, has shifted its paradigm to a fastly changing, heterogeneous, temporary, and eventful assemblage. The life of the program is radically shorter than the life span of the physical building set due to the conventional construction method used. SARCS proposes alternate scenarios. What if, by changing our construction process, we are able to build structures in a very short timescale? What if we are able to reconfigure parts of the structure in hours? Because we are having guests, we build additional bedrooms. Since there is a damaging hurricane approach, we reinforce the skin of the building temporarily. For the upcoming winter, we modify the size and the opening ratio of the building for energy efficiency. The possibilities abound if we can change the timescales of construction/deconstruction/reconstruction using a combination of novel methods as well as automation using SARCS.
RESILIENCE
Cities built with conventional construction are vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters. According to recent studies on climate change and sea-level rise, more than 300 million homes will be affected by coastal flooding in the next 30 years. And the number could be much worse in our lifetime if carbon emissions do not decrease. SARCS can provide a resilient construction framework unlike conventional methods. Temporary housings and shelters can be quickly built, coastal erosion control structure can be constructed in difficult sites, impact screen walls against hurricanes can be built on top of the existing structures all using SARCS. The reconfigurable structure can further develop the form of resiliency in the case of various disaster events and also adapt to the situation as required.
It is imminent for the building industry to react to global warming and climate change. Fundamental sustainability of energy-efficient buildings should consider the time factor for the rapidly changing urban dynamics. In the play of time, reconfigurability is a mode of sustainability and a tool for resiliency. To achieve such reconfigurability, we need a new construction system to allow rapidly changing programs and dynamic behaviors for people. SARCS revisits the collective intelligence of swarm behaviors to respond to the broad sustainable construction method.
1. Large flying weaving fabricator (Skin weaving).
2. Small flying weaving fabricator (Block weaving).
3. Stacking robots.
4. Ground movers.
5. Foundation connection for future expansion.
6. Self-interlocking unit blocks.
7. 600 sf (56m2) studio unit.
8. 1200 sf (111m2) housing unit.
9. 1800 sf (167m2) housing unit.
10. 2400 sf (223m2) 3 bedroom housing unit.
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COSTA DEL ALEXANDRA 2050 |
Victor Leung
Captions
BOARD 1
Costa del Alexandra 2050 (earlier iteration) sits across the West Coast Main Line railway, which borders Neave Brown’s Alexandra Estate;
Building Section, the ground floor holds community shops facing the street and looking over a timber workshop and enclosed timber drying chamber, above are four floors of flats lined by south-facing communal walkways, the roof holds an external walkway and hydroponic racks.
BOARD 2
Basswood model test of a railway sleeper structural frame; Diagram of structural frame in use; Sectional isometric of dual- layer glazed facade and communal walkways with timber drying chamber below; Isometric of communal kitchen/gathering space bordered by residential units.
BOARD 3
Retiree relaxing in flat; Morning exercise between hydroponic stands; After-school program beginning in the late afternoon; View over railway between Alexandra Estate and Costa del Alexandra 2050.
BOARD 4
Base of communal space atrium; Communal walkway outside residential units.
Costa del Alexandra 2050 (earlier iteration) sits across the West Coast Main Line railway, which borders Neave Brown’s Alexandra Estate;
Building Section, the ground floor holds community shops facing the street and looking over a timber workshop and enclosed timber drying chamber, above are four floors of flats lined by south-facing communal walkways, the roof holds an external walkway and hydroponic racks.
BOARD 2
Basswood model test of a railway sleeper structural frame; Diagram of structural frame in use; Sectional isometric of dual- layer glazed facade and communal walkways with timber drying chamber below; Isometric of communal kitchen/gathering space bordered by residential units.
BOARD 3
Retiree relaxing in flat; Morning exercise between hydroponic stands; After-school program beginning in the late afternoon; View over railway between Alexandra Estate and Costa del Alexandra 2050.
BOARD 4
Base of communal space atrium; Communal walkway outside residential units.
NARRATIVE
Costa del Alexandra 2050 builds upon Neave Brown’s weathered Alexandra Estate, once dubbed a utopian “Costa del Alexandra,” to create intergenerational retirement co-housing directly across the railway neighboring it. This responds to the UK’s continually ageing population, faced with likely-reduced pensions/care, social isolation and material deprivation, issues likely further compounded by climate change, threatening retiree livelihoods.
The scheme redevelops the undesirable site into a carbon-offset building for High Speed Two (HS2) powered by waste railway heat. Reclaimed Network Rail railway sleepers form the structural framework and internal elements, whilst cleared woodland timber along HS2’s route are used to construct the glulam façade, both of which are processed on site, forming part of the climate strategy and resident recreation. Coppice wood is also grown on the rail-facing façade, establishing a noise barrier and insulation, whilst also a continual source of carbon-sequestered timber. These materials become part of the building’s circular economy, for later repurposing or downcycling following its end of life to further a carbon-offset legacy.
The scheme redevelops the undesirable site into a carbon-offset building for High Speed Two (HS2) powered by waste railway heat. Reclaimed Network Rail railway sleepers form the structural framework and internal elements, whilst cleared woodland timber along HS2’s route are used to construct the glulam façade, both of which are processed on site, forming part of the climate strategy and resident recreation. Coppice wood is also grown on the rail-facing façade, establishing a noise barrier and insulation, whilst also a continual source of carbon-sequestered timber. These materials become part of the building’s circular economy, for later repurposing or downcycling following its end of life to further a carbon-offset legacy.
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REFLECTIVE BALLOON |
Gabriele Mundula | Federica Sanchez
Captions
(1.a) Scientist: We’re almost there, it’s gonna be ready soon...
(1.b) Scientist: Alright! I can’t wait to see it among the clouds...
(1.c) World map that shows Earth’s albedo4 and the main wind directions5. The combination of these two elements allow the balloon to move and float in the air, crossing the entire planet
(2.a) Leon M. An enormous mirror able to reflect solar light, decreasing the
accumulation of heat and radiations. A balloon, it’s just a balloon that...
(2.b) Plan_scale 1:150_Balloon diameter: 8 mt
MATERIAL
Balloon
Skytex 38 (black)
Structure
Kevlar fiber
Feathering
Isothermal sheet
(2.c) Elevation and Section_scale 1:150
The air inside is warmer than outside, thanks to the color of the balloon
(2.d) Exploded detail: Feathering layer (Each feather is able to rotate 30°)
W: Connection with the main ring X: Anchor points
Y: Isothermal sheet (silver side) Z: Anchor points
(3.a) Volunteers: We made it! It took off!
(3.b) Ideal launch site. Areas with a high albedo percentage (i.e.:deserts, ocean ice, fresh snow) are strongly recommended, as they facilitate the increase of hot air in the balloon6
(3.c) Launch preparation steps. At the beginning, the balloon is tied to the ground and it gets filled with hot air through insufflation. When it starts to rise, the cables are cut and it’s finally free to fly
(3.d) Location of the balloon in the Earth’s atmosphere. Floating between 50 and 200/300 meters, the balloon will be able to reflect as many rays as possible without becoming an obstacle for vehicles. Furthermore, thanks to the presence of the ionosphere, the ionic wind propulsion will be facilitated
(4.a) Main structure of the ionic wind propulsion. The ionic wind consists of a silence ionic flow that generates a thrust which gives the necessary sustenance to keep a body on a constant flight
(4.b) Detail: Ion exchange between the positive and negative poles. The shape of the negative pole increases the output speed of the poles, improving the general thrust
(1.b) Scientist: Alright! I can’t wait to see it among the clouds...
(1.c) World map that shows Earth’s albedo4 and the main wind directions5. The combination of these two elements allow the balloon to move and float in the air, crossing the entire planet
(2.a) Leon M. An enormous mirror able to reflect solar light, decreasing the
accumulation of heat and radiations. A balloon, it’s just a balloon that...
(2.b) Plan_scale 1:150_Balloon diameter: 8 mt
MATERIAL
Balloon
Skytex 38 (black)
Structure
Kevlar fiber
Feathering
Isothermal sheet
(2.c) Elevation and Section_scale 1:150
The air inside is warmer than outside, thanks to the color of the balloon
(2.d) Exploded detail: Feathering layer (Each feather is able to rotate 30°)
W: Connection with the main ring X: Anchor points
Y: Isothermal sheet (silver side) Z: Anchor points
(3.a) Volunteers: We made it! It took off!
(3.b) Ideal launch site. Areas with a high albedo percentage (i.e.:deserts, ocean ice, fresh snow) are strongly recommended, as they facilitate the increase of hot air in the balloon6
(3.c) Launch preparation steps. At the beginning, the balloon is tied to the ground and it gets filled with hot air through insufflation. When it starts to rise, the cables are cut and it’s finally free to fly
(3.d) Location of the balloon in the Earth’s atmosphere. Floating between 50 and 200/300 meters, the balloon will be able to reflect as many rays as possible without becoming an obstacle for vehicles. Furthermore, thanks to the presence of the ionosphere, the ionic wind propulsion will be facilitated
(4.a) Main structure of the ionic wind propulsion. The ionic wind consists of a silence ionic flow that generates a thrust which gives the necessary sustenance to keep a body on a constant flight
(4.b) Detail: Ion exchange between the positive and negative poles. The shape of the negative pole increases the output speed of the poles, improving the general thrust
NARRATIVE
In the coming years, global warming will provoke many disasters that are still hard to imagine now. Scientists agree on the fact that if warming reaches 2/3 C°, the alterations will affect heavily humans and the entire ecosystem1. One of the causes of temperature rise is the great amount of rays coming from the Sun, responsible of heat accumulation and unmanageable ultraviolet radiations2. Melting glaciers, sea level rise and desertification process are only few examples that testify how much the planet needs prompt changes. What can be done?
At the beginning of this 2020, Tomàs Saraceno presented to the world his new work, FLY WITH AEROCENE PACHA: a giant balloon able to float in the air without any fossil fuel, using instead exclusively the energy coming from the sun and the wind.
Inspired by this device and by the animal world, the project proposed here consists of a balloon surrounded by a rigid and light structure. On top of the latter, a feathering layer serves as reflective surface of the sunrays: the rays will not fall on Earth, but will be sent back to the outer space. With a combination of technologies and innovative materials, such as the ionic wind propulsion3 and 3D printed Kevlar fiber, the balloon constantly drifts on the wind, operating as a moving shielding without using any fuel. After some time, thanks to the presence of these balloons in the air, the general albedo (reflecting power of a surface) that characterizes our planet, will increase. This mechanism could help limit the consequences of the Sun radiations and, therefore, will keep a balance between the inevitable changes that affect our planet and the entire biosphere.
At the beginning of this 2020, Tomàs Saraceno presented to the world his new work, FLY WITH AEROCENE PACHA: a giant balloon able to float in the air without any fossil fuel, using instead exclusively the energy coming from the sun and the wind.
Inspired by this device and by the animal world, the project proposed here consists of a balloon surrounded by a rigid and light structure. On top of the latter, a feathering layer serves as reflective surface of the sunrays: the rays will not fall on Earth, but will be sent back to the outer space. With a combination of technologies and innovative materials, such as the ionic wind propulsion3 and 3D printed Kevlar fiber, the balloon constantly drifts on the wind, operating as a moving shielding without using any fuel. After some time, thanks to the presence of these balloons in the air, the general albedo (reflecting power of a surface) that characterizes our planet, will increase. This mechanism could help limit the consequences of the Sun radiations and, therefore, will keep a balance between the inevitable changes that affect our planet and the entire biosphere.
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TUBULAR BIOREACTOR |
Raffael Grimm | Paul Böhm | Johannes Schlusche
Captions
1: In the surrounding area, a network of higher lying water tanks collects the water and trasnports it to the tower, which is located in the valley bottom.
2: The Transalpine Pipeline runs between the Italian port city of Trieste and the metropolitan area of Munich. The tower is located in the village of Gruben, in the middle of the east-alps.
3: Parts of the extensive pipeline network through Europe and the potential for expansion of the pipeline network.
4: top row left to right: Algae - net facade - Expandable-support structure - Modular room organisation; middle left to right: Tubular bioplastic tubes - Water supply system - Ramp circulation for the vertical access; middle and bottom: Primary support structure - Infrastructure and transferzones
5: Section Plan
6: Algae growth pattern: The facade as living organism creates an ephemeral and vivid shell
7: Tower Plattform
8: 3D-Section Tower
9: 3D-Section Bottom building
2: The Transalpine Pipeline runs between the Italian port city of Trieste and the metropolitan area of Munich. The tower is located in the village of Gruben, in the middle of the east-alps.
3: Parts of the extensive pipeline network through Europe and the potential for expansion of the pipeline network.
4: top row left to right: Algae - net facade - Expandable-support structure - Modular room organisation; middle left to right: Tubular bioplastic tubes - Water supply system - Ramp circulation for the vertical access; middle and bottom: Primary support structure - Infrastructure and transferzones
5: Section Plan
6: Algae growth pattern: The facade as living organism creates an ephemeral and vivid shell
7: Tower Plattform
8: 3D-Section Tower
9: 3D-Section Bottom building
NARRATIVE
TRANSALPINE ENERGY NETWORK
A fair distribution of resources is the asis of a well-functioning society. Pipelines seem to be an important part of such a distribution in the context of energy, but are always the focus of political conflicts and often encounter local dislike. A densely developed pipeline network with its infrastructure is an important requirement for the global economic system based on oil trading. The climate crisis we are currently facing must be reason enough for us to rethink these systems to get independent of oil and gas, which at the same time requires the development of new ideas for the reuse of these pipelines.
The European continent has a vast network of existing oil and gas pipelines like the Transalpine Pipeline which connects the Italian seaport Trieste with Germany, special the metropolitan area of Munich. It is 470 kilometre long and has a dimension of 1 meter each tube. The network primarily serves to supply the refineries in southern Germany, but is also connected to other metropolises in Europe via the extensive infrastructure. The towers are designed to be connected to this specific distribution system for an alternative use of the pipelines. New systems for renewable energy generation have been known for a long time, but finally they have to be implemented on a large scale. Decentralization and focus on resources in the respective areas should be in the foreground. Algae as energy resource are in their beginnings and are seen as highly potential. Extensive research work has dealt with algae as an energy source in recent decades. As a biofuel, they are up to 6 times more efficient than e.g. comparable fuels from corn or rapeseed.
Vertical Algae Farm
The project focuses on the production of microalgae and their distribution using existing pipelines. The towers are positioned along the Transalpine Pipeline in a barren mountain landscape. Water is supplied from the surrounding mountain streams and springs, and can also be obtained from the Mediterranean using salt water. New, empty pipes will be drawn into the existing pipeline. On the one hand, these serve to distribute the sea or mountain water, on the other hand, the microalgae produced can be transported both south to the sea coast and north. The energy for transport is to be obtained from environmentally friendly hydro power.
The tower is circular and both constructed and designed from the inside out. The water is transported upwards via vertical pipes and distributed into the water tanks in the atrium. They are positioned at different heights. A total of 4 maintenance levels ensure that these tanks are easily accessible. The kilometre-long helical tubes, in which the microalgae grow, form the envelope of the atrium. They form the heart of the system and are responsible for the tower’s unique colour scheme. Artificial light is said to support the natural in photosynthesis and to accelerate the growth process of algae. The remaining components of the photo bioreactor, e.g. carbon dioxide tanks and pumps are positioned in the base of the tower. The tower is accessed via a spiral ramp that is docked to the outside of the algae tubes. It is supported statically by vertical steel frames, which are braced inwards via the four maintenance levels. The spiral staircase is also attached to these frames. The inner core is encased in a construct of platforms and capsule-like spaces. These rooms are used as laboratories and high-tech production facilities for the development of new algae materials. The outer skin is formed by a facade made of vertical thin and perforated tubes. These serve as breeding grounds for the natural algae which give the tower an iconic look.
A fair distribution of resources is the asis of a well-functioning society. Pipelines seem to be an important part of such a distribution in the context of energy, but are always the focus of political conflicts and often encounter local dislike. A densely developed pipeline network with its infrastructure is an important requirement for the global economic system based on oil trading. The climate crisis we are currently facing must be reason enough for us to rethink these systems to get independent of oil and gas, which at the same time requires the development of new ideas for the reuse of these pipelines.
The European continent has a vast network of existing oil and gas pipelines like the Transalpine Pipeline which connects the Italian seaport Trieste with Germany, special the metropolitan area of Munich. It is 470 kilometre long and has a dimension of 1 meter each tube. The network primarily serves to supply the refineries in southern Germany, but is also connected to other metropolises in Europe via the extensive infrastructure. The towers are designed to be connected to this specific distribution system for an alternative use of the pipelines. New systems for renewable energy generation have been known for a long time, but finally they have to be implemented on a large scale. Decentralization and focus on resources in the respective areas should be in the foreground. Algae as energy resource are in their beginnings and are seen as highly potential. Extensive research work has dealt with algae as an energy source in recent decades. As a biofuel, they are up to 6 times more efficient than e.g. comparable fuels from corn or rapeseed.
Vertical Algae Farm
The project focuses on the production of microalgae and their distribution using existing pipelines. The towers are positioned along the Transalpine Pipeline in a barren mountain landscape. Water is supplied from the surrounding mountain streams and springs, and can also be obtained from the Mediterranean using salt water. New, empty pipes will be drawn into the existing pipeline. On the one hand, these serve to distribute the sea or mountain water, on the other hand, the microalgae produced can be transported both south to the sea coast and north. The energy for transport is to be obtained from environmentally friendly hydro power.
The tower is circular and both constructed and designed from the inside out. The water is transported upwards via vertical pipes and distributed into the water tanks in the atrium. They are positioned at different heights. A total of 4 maintenance levels ensure that these tanks are easily accessible. The kilometre-long helical tubes, in which the microalgae grow, form the envelope of the atrium. They form the heart of the system and are responsible for the tower’s unique colour scheme. Artificial light is said to support the natural in photosynthesis and to accelerate the growth process of algae. The remaining components of the photo bioreactor, e.g. carbon dioxide tanks and pumps are positioned in the base of the tower. The tower is accessed via a spiral ramp that is docked to the outside of the algae tubes. It is supported statically by vertical steel frames, which are braced inwards via the four maintenance levels. The spiral staircase is also attached to these frames. The inner core is encased in a construct of platforms and capsule-like spaces. These rooms are used as laboratories and high-tech production facilities for the development of new algae materials. The outer skin is formed by a facade made of vertical thin and perforated tubes. These serve as breeding grounds for the natural algae which give the tower an iconic look.
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HOME ON THE RIPARIAN |
Ericka Song | Justin Oh
Captions
BOARD 1
Left: Adapted from the NYC DCP’s Flood Hazard Map of NYC, existing flood zones (dark blue) and future projected floodplain in 2100 (light blue) are overlaid with existing NYCHA sites in parts of Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. Sites in deep red indicate current at-risk locations - these alone house over 38,500 New Yorkers. The area of the sites total over 200 acres of opportunity where creative flood protection strategies that also serve as amenities - for these residents and the public - can be deployed.
A. NYCHA developments employed typical “tower-in-the-park” typologies. Duplicated tower footprints sit in a typically underused and generally flat site.
B. Residents living in ground and second level units are re-located to replacement units in smaller buildings
constructed on-site so as not to displace them from the community.
The walls and interiors of the ground and second level units are demolished, leaving behind only the structure, resulting in covered outdoor community rooms and sheltered gathering spaces. Entries and mechanical systems are reconfigured to mitigate flood risk.
C. The new waterfront landscape protecting the NYCHA towers give a reinvigorated identity to the city’s aging housing projects - an identity of adaptation, resilience, and community.
BOARD 2
A riparian zone imagined on an East Harlem NYCHA site that creates an additional 1.25 miles of waterfront access.
The center of the site, typically bisected by a street, is closed off to all traffic besides bike and bus lanes, and is transformed into a water filtration zone. Water to the left of this zone can become safe enough for swimming and active recreation.
A dashed white line threading through the site proposes the line of raised topography that would offer flood protection.
BOARD 3
Redefining New York City’s coastline, the waterfront penetrates deep into existing NYCHA sites, utilizing the new flood-resilient landscape for active recreation and natural cooling. A diverse array of public spaces are created not just along the water’s edge but beneath the towers.
BOARD 4
Landscape improvements prepare flood-prone NYCHA neighborhoods for rising ocean levels and storm surge while increasing transit connectivity to the greater city. This proposal seeks to create a new inventory of spaces for the community and the neighborhood through embracing and adapting to rising water levels.
Left: Adapted from the NYC DCP’s Flood Hazard Map of NYC, existing flood zones (dark blue) and future projected floodplain in 2100 (light blue) are overlaid with existing NYCHA sites in parts of Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. Sites in deep red indicate current at-risk locations - these alone house over 38,500 New Yorkers. The area of the sites total over 200 acres of opportunity where creative flood protection strategies that also serve as amenities - for these residents and the public - can be deployed.
A. NYCHA developments employed typical “tower-in-the-park” typologies. Duplicated tower footprints sit in a typically underused and generally flat site.
B. Residents living in ground and second level units are re-located to replacement units in smaller buildings
constructed on-site so as not to displace them from the community.
The walls and interiors of the ground and second level units are demolished, leaving behind only the structure, resulting in covered outdoor community rooms and sheltered gathering spaces. Entries and mechanical systems are reconfigured to mitigate flood risk.
C. The new waterfront landscape protecting the NYCHA towers give a reinvigorated identity to the city’s aging housing projects - an identity of adaptation, resilience, and community.
BOARD 2
A riparian zone imagined on an East Harlem NYCHA site that creates an additional 1.25 miles of waterfront access.
The center of the site, typically bisected by a street, is closed off to all traffic besides bike and bus lanes, and is transformed into a water filtration zone. Water to the left of this zone can become safe enough for swimming and active recreation.
A dashed white line threading through the site proposes the line of raised topography that would offer flood protection.
BOARD 3
Redefining New York City’s coastline, the waterfront penetrates deep into existing NYCHA sites, utilizing the new flood-resilient landscape for active recreation and natural cooling. A diverse array of public spaces are created not just along the water’s edge but beneath the towers.
BOARD 4
Landscape improvements prepare flood-prone NYCHA neighborhoods for rising ocean levels and storm surge while increasing transit connectivity to the greater city. This proposal seeks to create a new inventory of spaces for the community and the neighborhood through embracing and adapting to rising water levels.
NARRATIVE
As climate change yields extreme heat waves and rising sea levels, New York City - with its existing urban heat island effects and high risk flood zones along its 520 miles of coastline - is in a particularly vulnerable position. For New Yorkers living in many public housing sites across the city, the heat-related health risks are exacerbated by a dearth of affordable cooling options inside homes, and flood-related risks threaten the stability of lives and communities in public housing developments historically built on low-lying, flood-prone land.
Rather than rely on immobile, energy-intensive cooling centers across the city, and build walls to shut out rising waters, can the city embrace and rise above the incoming tides, pioneering a new form of urban amenity on the grounds of the public housing sites for protection, relief, and pleasure?
This project introduces new urban riparian zones as resilient flood protection and public recreational amenities to the most flood-prone public housing sites in New York City.
1 COOLING & RECREATION
There is a greater need for relief from heat as global temperatures rise. Aggravated further by the urban heat island effect, existing cooling centers often rely on energy intensive means of cooling it’s occupants. This proposal redefines New York City’s coastline by inviting the waterfront deep into the neighborhood, extending a naturalized shoreline, increasing biodiversity, and utilizing the landscape and water as a series of civic centers of active recreation and cooling.
2 RESILIENCY & PROTECTION
Historically, the sites of many NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) public housing projects were selected based on inexpensive land in declining neighborhoods or in undesirable areas in proximity to polluted post-industrial waterways. These sites, often low-lying and stripped of natural systems of storm buffers, are reimagined with a new raised topography enveloping and overlooking the new riparian zone. The flood protection becomes indistinguishable within the landscape.
3 HABITATION & COMMUNITY
The impulse to completely demolish and build new is not only unsustainable but can uproot and displace residents, disrupting long-standing social support networks. NYCHA is the largest holder of land in the city. This proposal seeks to maintain and improve NYCHA’s existing housing stock, leveraging its underutilized green area at the base of the typical “tower-in-the-park” typologies by combining the city’s need for flood protection and communal amenities. Flood-prone units at the lower levels of each tower are relocated to higher topographies on-site, and the resulting ground level voids create covered outdoor community rooms and sheltered gathering spaces. The new waterfront landscape protecting the NYCHA towers give a reinvigorated identity to the city’s aging housing projects - an identity of adaptation, resilience, and community.
Rather than rely on immobile, energy-intensive cooling centers across the city, and build walls to shut out rising waters, can the city embrace and rise above the incoming tides, pioneering a new form of urban amenity on the grounds of the public housing sites for protection, relief, and pleasure?
This project introduces new urban riparian zones as resilient flood protection and public recreational amenities to the most flood-prone public housing sites in New York City.
1 COOLING & RECREATION
There is a greater need for relief from heat as global temperatures rise. Aggravated further by the urban heat island effect, existing cooling centers often rely on energy intensive means of cooling it’s occupants. This proposal redefines New York City’s coastline by inviting the waterfront deep into the neighborhood, extending a naturalized shoreline, increasing biodiversity, and utilizing the landscape and water as a series of civic centers of active recreation and cooling.
2 RESILIENCY & PROTECTION
Historically, the sites of many NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) public housing projects were selected based on inexpensive land in declining neighborhoods or in undesirable areas in proximity to polluted post-industrial waterways. These sites, often low-lying and stripped of natural systems of storm buffers, are reimagined with a new raised topography enveloping and overlooking the new riparian zone. The flood protection becomes indistinguishable within the landscape.
3 HABITATION & COMMUNITY
The impulse to completely demolish and build new is not only unsustainable but can uproot and displace residents, disrupting long-standing social support networks. NYCHA is the largest holder of land in the city. This proposal seeks to maintain and improve NYCHA’s existing housing stock, leveraging its underutilized green area at the base of the typical “tower-in-the-park” typologies by combining the city’s need for flood protection and communal amenities. Flood-prone units at the lower levels of each tower are relocated to higher topographies on-site, and the resulting ground level voids create covered outdoor community rooms and sheltered gathering spaces. The new waterfront landscape protecting the NYCHA towers give a reinvigorated identity to the city’s aging housing projects - an identity of adaptation, resilience, and community.
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AQUA PAVING |
Marwan Omar
Captions
As the globe warms, sea levels rise, and storm surges increase, existing and new urban and architectural designs need to incorporate more water control strategies. From proving safe egress across a flooded area, to protecting buildings from water infiltration, small, localized solutions have the capacity to help protect people, buildings, and ecosystems from the damage and problems cause by rising water levels. Aqua Paving proposes a responsive, passive system that utilizes water to combat flooding and sea level rise.
Inspired by super absorbing polymers -commercially found in children’s water toys or diapers- Aqua Paving repurposes the abundant surfaces of the pedestrian realm to help store, block and direct water. The flat unit, expands in volume upon contact with water, extruding vertically as it stores water through the aid of super absorbing polymers. Through careful design of the pedestrian realm, Aqua-Paving can be deployed for multiple purposes, including coastline Riprap walls; a replacement for sand bags at the perimeter of buildings; use in blocking doors, windows and openings from water infiltration; storage of rainwater and slow release for irrigation; recreational passive sculptures in parks; stabilizing sediments and decreasing turbidity; and potentially helping preserve wildlife above and below ground.
The super-absorbing polymer explored – sodium polyacrylate- expands up to 300 times its size when exposed to water, and reduces in size when exposed to air and salt. It could potentially attract plant life through its absorption of water, and through its expansion could provide a method to dissipate wave energy. A byproduct of the material investigated in this submission is the Aqua Paving unit that would continuously change based on the weather.
Inspired by super absorbing polymers -commercially found in children’s water toys or diapers- Aqua Paving repurposes the abundant surfaces of the pedestrian realm to help store, block and direct water. The flat unit, expands in volume upon contact with water, extruding vertically as it stores water through the aid of super absorbing polymers. Through careful design of the pedestrian realm, Aqua-Paving can be deployed for multiple purposes, including coastline Riprap walls; a replacement for sand bags at the perimeter of buildings; use in blocking doors, windows and openings from water infiltration; storage of rainwater and slow release for irrigation; recreational passive sculptures in parks; stabilizing sediments and decreasing turbidity; and potentially helping preserve wildlife above and below ground.
The super-absorbing polymer explored – sodium polyacrylate- expands up to 300 times its size when exposed to water, and reduces in size when exposed to air and salt. It could potentially attract plant life through its absorption of water, and through its expansion could provide a method to dissipate wave energy. A byproduct of the material investigated in this submission is the Aqua Paving unit that would continuously change based on the weather.
NARRATIVE
Board 1
Render showing units deployed as Riprap around Boston’s coastline. The units closest to the water edge are shown expanding from a rising sea level, and potentially slowing down the tidal waves from reaching the urban fabric through absorption and blocking.
Board 2
01 - Super Absorbing Polymers – SAP
Top: Diagram showing atomic untangling and volumetric expansion of SAP as a result of bonds forming with water.
Bottom: Diagram showing the project’s idea inspiration coming from expanding water toys. The SAP in the toys increase dramatically in size as they absorb the water.
02 - Unit Exploded Axonometric
The SAP are sandwiched between the unit’s tiers to allow them to extrude vertically. As water is absorbed, the Polymers expand in size and create an upward force on the light-weight tiers. The dynamic tiers are proposed to be made from light-weight buoyant material to aid in the process of extruding the unit vertically. With a stopper and a railing system, each tier can move up-to the inward height of its engulfing tier, allowing the overall unit to extrude 2 times the height of the underground base.
Board 3
Render showing potential site locations in and around Boston’s coastline and fabric.
03 - Modular unit and its aggregation [through orthogonal rotation].
04 - Sections through Dry and Wet Unit Conditions
The unit is designed to have slits for the water to reach the Polymer layers as well as a porous top tier to speed up the absorption and expansion process.
Left: Section showing water reaching the unit and sipping through the top tier and slits.
Right: Section showing expanded unit and potential slowing down of waves.
Board 4
Testing Protocols
The design team is in the process of testing the Aqua Paving proposal. The process will initiate with material investigations for the Super Absorbing Polymer, Sodium polyacrylate.
From left to right: Initial conceptual render with the aspiration to reinforce the polymer and 3D print it as a stand-alone material. The concept is then further refined and classified to material investigations and building scale interventions. The team has invested in a water tank to allow for water testing and documentation. The goal is to test the material’s expansion coefficient, reversibility, responsiveness to pressure, polymer growth, and it’s response to temperature, sun, salinity and turbulence. The lateral strength of the unit and its ability to block and reduce wave action will also be tested using robotic arms to attempt to create a one to one wave simulation. This series of experiments have been planned to allow for unit iterations through data-driven design. Depending on the results achieved, the team will look into further developing multiple casting methods, 3D printing the material, or attaching the material to other mechanism as displayed in this proposal’s unit.
Render showing units deployed as Riprap around Boston’s coastline. The units closest to the water edge are shown expanding from a rising sea level, and potentially slowing down the tidal waves from reaching the urban fabric through absorption and blocking.
Board 2
01 - Super Absorbing Polymers – SAP
Top: Diagram showing atomic untangling and volumetric expansion of SAP as a result of bonds forming with water.
Bottom: Diagram showing the project’s idea inspiration coming from expanding water toys. The SAP in the toys increase dramatically in size as they absorb the water.
02 - Unit Exploded Axonometric
The SAP are sandwiched between the unit’s tiers to allow them to extrude vertically. As water is absorbed, the Polymers expand in size and create an upward force on the light-weight tiers. The dynamic tiers are proposed to be made from light-weight buoyant material to aid in the process of extruding the unit vertically. With a stopper and a railing system, each tier can move up-to the inward height of its engulfing tier, allowing the overall unit to extrude 2 times the height of the underground base.
Board 3
Render showing potential site locations in and around Boston’s coastline and fabric.
03 - Modular unit and its aggregation [through orthogonal rotation].
04 - Sections through Dry and Wet Unit Conditions
The unit is designed to have slits for the water to reach the Polymer layers as well as a porous top tier to speed up the absorption and expansion process.
Left: Section showing water reaching the unit and sipping through the top tier and slits.
Right: Section showing expanded unit and potential slowing down of waves.
Board 4
Testing Protocols
The design team is in the process of testing the Aqua Paving proposal. The process will initiate with material investigations for the Super Absorbing Polymer, Sodium polyacrylate.
From left to right: Initial conceptual render with the aspiration to reinforce the polymer and 3D print it as a stand-alone material. The concept is then further refined and classified to material investigations and building scale interventions. The team has invested in a water tank to allow for water testing and documentation. The goal is to test the material’s expansion coefficient, reversibility, responsiveness to pressure, polymer growth, and it’s response to temperature, sun, salinity and turbulence. The lateral strength of the unit and its ability to block and reduce wave action will also be tested using robotic arms to attempt to create a one to one wave simulation. This series of experiments have been planned to allow for unit iterations through data-driven design. Depending on the results achieved, the team will look into further developing multiple casting methods, 3D printing the material, or attaching the material to other mechanism as displayed in this proposal’s unit.
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DECARBONIZED REEF CITIES |
Alan Cation | Stefani Fachini - Ennead Lab
Captions
Board 1 – The financial centers of Manhattan are strategically flooded as Reef Pods aggregate along the water’s edge. Air reefs rejuvenate the formerly all glass skyscrapers as they are repurposed. Agriculture, permaculture food forests, public maker-space, housing, and various lab and art spaces line the perimeter.
Board 2 – We get a view into lab and upcycling spaces as we peer into the Reef Pods. The Air Reef acts as a habitat for birds, insects, and plants, while the Aquatic Reefs act as habitats for fish, muscles, and mollusks.
1. The City System as a self-sufficient feedback loop.
2. Any Carbon output from past buildings becomes absorbed into the Air Reefs.
3. Bio-waste is output from the urban core and processed in underwater facilities.
4. Bio-waste converts into fuel for agriculture.
5. Algae is farmed and processed and taken to a processing laboratory.
6. Plant food, fish, and algae resources are fed back into the urban core.
7. Air Reefs capture carbon from the environment and provide habitation.
8. Aquatic Reefs filter the water and provide habitat for various fish species.
Board 3 – Scientists analyze illumination and fuel systems in an Algae Laboratory. Algae LEDs illuminate the space as a 0-carbon emitting energy source.
Board 4 – A fisherman floats along the tranquil water on a cool evening in Rio De Janeiro. They overlook a permaculture food forest adjacent to a cluster of Reef Pods, as they make their way to the public fishery center.
Board 2 – We get a view into lab and upcycling spaces as we peer into the Reef Pods. The Air Reef acts as a habitat for birds, insects, and plants, while the Aquatic Reefs act as habitats for fish, muscles, and mollusks.
1. The City System as a self-sufficient feedback loop.
2. Any Carbon output from past buildings becomes absorbed into the Air Reefs.
3. Bio-waste is output from the urban core and processed in underwater facilities.
4. Bio-waste converts into fuel for agriculture.
5. Algae is farmed and processed and taken to a processing laboratory.
6. Plant food, fish, and algae resources are fed back into the urban core.
7. Air Reefs capture carbon from the environment and provide habitation.
8. Aquatic Reefs filter the water and provide habitat for various fish species.
Board 3 – Scientists analyze illumination and fuel systems in an Algae Laboratory. Algae LEDs illuminate the space as a 0-carbon emitting energy source.
Board 4 – A fisherman floats along the tranquil water on a cool evening in Rio De Janeiro. They overlook a permaculture food forest adjacent to a cluster of Reef Pods, as they make their way to the public fishery center.
NARRATIVE
Warming is an existential threat to humanity and everything we value in the living systems that sustain us. The collapse of entire ecosystems and mass species extinction presents a perilous future. Our looming existential threat is not merely a technical challenge that we can react to and can solve through technological solutions. It is just as much a social and economic challenge. The way in which our current society is organized - revolving around endless growth, mass consumption, waste production, burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial monocrop agriculture - is a primary cause of planetary warming. This is intrinsically unsustainable, and continuing these practices presents a direct threat to organized human life.
Fortunately, there are other, more sustainable ways to organize our civilization. This presents an opportunity to reimagine our world through architecture that lives symbiotically with its surroundings. We must reverse the patterns of extraction, warming, extinction, and collapse with design that regenerates and repairs instead of destroys. And why is this not solely a technical challenge? Large infrastructural developments might indeed prevent Manhattan from flooding but preventing coastal cities from flooding will be meaningless if carbonic acid from CO2 continues to accumulate in our oceans, decimating almost all aquatic life. So, rather than assuming a continued reliance on extracting as many resources as possible and burning through all remaining fossil fuels to transport them around the globe, we propose that global cites adapt to a circular economic model like ones laid out by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Decarbonized Reef Cites is an architecture that facilitates the social, economic, and environmental changes necessary to prevent the worst effects of warming by developing a framework for global cites to become self-sufficient and decarbonized, existing in harmony with their native biospheres and resource sheds. Humans exist as part of nature, and as more of us live in urban environments, our cites should reflect and incorporate the natural biodiversity of where they are situated. Instead of ignoring and displacing local ecosystems, as has been practiced by city development for hundreds of years, we propose that our cites embrace and foster the thriving of local wildlife throughout. Our vision rewilds the urban fabric, incorporates sites for localized food production and localized manufacture, reutilizes material waste, captures and processes bio-waste for fuel, and embraces an aquatic future for our coastal cities. The city becomes a perpetual self-sufficient feedback loop that does not rely on the carbon-generating industrial practices that directly cause what we are trying to prevent. To this end, we no longer assume the neoliberal city as the default.
We achieve this by touching lightly, as opposed to brute-force geo-engineered solutions. Decarbonized Reef Cites blurs the boundaries between land, sea, and air by strategically allowing for the passage of water through existing infrastructure as sea levels rise. Pods float to not disturb their underwater ecosystems. They are equipped underneath with artificial reefs to house a variety of aquatic life that regenerates the watershed. Above, exist Air-Reefs that capture carbon and provide habitat for local plant and animal species. These Air Reefs act as a secondary skin that encapsulates pre-existing architectural structures in order to decarbonize and repurpose them for broader public facing use. This secondary skin acts as a heat sink for its building. Floating Aquatic Pods house a variety of programs, from permaculture food forests, housing, and parks to laboratory facilities and indoor/outdoor public community spaces. These pods facilitate the social practices embedded in a decarbonized city by providing creative spaces for upcycling previously mass-produced consumer goods – converting waste into resources. Biological waste from sewage systems is processed and converted into fuel for agriculture and production. Algae is grown, harvested, and utilized for energy to replace fossil fuel usage.
All of this hyper-localizes social and economic activity by looking at the city as a feedback loop. Waste is output from the urban core and is processed and reutilized rather than sent to the oceans as pollution. This fuel feeds local production and sustains natural ecosystems that are then fed back into the urban core. Decarbonized Reef Cites’ localized self-sufficient loop impacts the larger global environment by changing our relationship to how humanity exists in the natural world as stewards, rather than devourers. This framework is a model for all global coastal cites soon to be impacted by the existential threat planetary warming poses.
Fortunately, there are other, more sustainable ways to organize our civilization. This presents an opportunity to reimagine our world through architecture that lives symbiotically with its surroundings. We must reverse the patterns of extraction, warming, extinction, and collapse with design that regenerates and repairs instead of destroys. And why is this not solely a technical challenge? Large infrastructural developments might indeed prevent Manhattan from flooding but preventing coastal cities from flooding will be meaningless if carbonic acid from CO2 continues to accumulate in our oceans, decimating almost all aquatic life. So, rather than assuming a continued reliance on extracting as many resources as possible and burning through all remaining fossil fuels to transport them around the globe, we propose that global cites adapt to a circular economic model like ones laid out by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Decarbonized Reef Cites is an architecture that facilitates the social, economic, and environmental changes necessary to prevent the worst effects of warming by developing a framework for global cites to become self-sufficient and decarbonized, existing in harmony with their native biospheres and resource sheds. Humans exist as part of nature, and as more of us live in urban environments, our cites should reflect and incorporate the natural biodiversity of where they are situated. Instead of ignoring and displacing local ecosystems, as has been practiced by city development for hundreds of years, we propose that our cites embrace and foster the thriving of local wildlife throughout. Our vision rewilds the urban fabric, incorporates sites for localized food production and localized manufacture, reutilizes material waste, captures and processes bio-waste for fuel, and embraces an aquatic future for our coastal cities. The city becomes a perpetual self-sufficient feedback loop that does not rely on the carbon-generating industrial practices that directly cause what we are trying to prevent. To this end, we no longer assume the neoliberal city as the default.
We achieve this by touching lightly, as opposed to brute-force geo-engineered solutions. Decarbonized Reef Cites blurs the boundaries between land, sea, and air by strategically allowing for the passage of water through existing infrastructure as sea levels rise. Pods float to not disturb their underwater ecosystems. They are equipped underneath with artificial reefs to house a variety of aquatic life that regenerates the watershed. Above, exist Air-Reefs that capture carbon and provide habitat for local plant and animal species. These Air Reefs act as a secondary skin that encapsulates pre-existing architectural structures in order to decarbonize and repurpose them for broader public facing use. This secondary skin acts as a heat sink for its building. Floating Aquatic Pods house a variety of programs, from permaculture food forests, housing, and parks to laboratory facilities and indoor/outdoor public community spaces. These pods facilitate the social practices embedded in a decarbonized city by providing creative spaces for upcycling previously mass-produced consumer goods – converting waste into resources. Biological waste from sewage systems is processed and converted into fuel for agriculture and production. Algae is grown, harvested, and utilized for energy to replace fossil fuel usage.
All of this hyper-localizes social and economic activity by looking at the city as a feedback loop. Waste is output from the urban core and is processed and reutilized rather than sent to the oceans as pollution. This fuel feeds local production and sustains natural ecosystems that are then fed back into the urban core. Decarbonized Reef Cites’ localized self-sufficient loop impacts the larger global environment by changing our relationship to how humanity exists in the natural world as stewards, rather than devourers. This framework is a model for all global coastal cites soon to be impacted by the existential threat planetary warming poses.
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HIGH WATERS |
Arianne Pizem
Captions
1. Throughout the years, new structural reinforcements and wet flood-proofing techniques were used to preserve the Ca d’Oro (mechanical vents, push piers, and steel plates). In 2080, to convey a sense of attraction for tourists, the palazzo became the Museum of the Revived Past, where Mixed Reality can give a glimpse of what the Ca d’Oro once was.
2. As water entered the buildings, resin was poured on the mosaic floors and walls to prevent them from deteriorating. Facades from historical buildings were displaced, so they could be preserved, and replaced by a 3D printed composite façade to John Ruskin’s horror.
3. Every palazzo was transformed into accommodations, luxurious shops, or restaurants. Floating mobile docks and scaffoldings became the most widespread product in Venice. Flexible and easy to assemble, these accommodated every need, from advertising campaigns, subtle extensions that appear as renovations to collect funds, to stairs and passageways.
4. The city was maintained with care by the scuba divers, who would remove algae from the flood vents, look after the structural reinforcement and take care of the trash found in the canal, allowing the city to be consumed again and again. With little left beyond tourism, the city appears to have no other choice than to embrace its fate, the city’s death is postponed through mass tourism and globalized rebirth.
2. As water entered the buildings, resin was poured on the mosaic floors and walls to prevent them from deteriorating. Facades from historical buildings were displaced, so they could be preserved, and replaced by a 3D printed composite façade to John Ruskin’s horror.
3. Every palazzo was transformed into accommodations, luxurious shops, or restaurants. Floating mobile docks and scaffoldings became the most widespread product in Venice. Flexible and easy to assemble, these accommodated every need, from advertising campaigns, subtle extensions that appear as renovations to collect funds, to stairs and passageways.
4. The city was maintained with care by the scuba divers, who would remove algae from the flood vents, look after the structural reinforcement and take care of the trash found in the canal, allowing the city to be consumed again and again. With little left beyond tourism, the city appears to have no other choice than to embrace its fate, the city’s death is postponed through mass tourism and globalized rebirth.
NARRATIVE
We live in a century of climate anxiety, where bad weather, natural disasters, and human responsibility are enmeshed in intricate ways and politicized by conflicting interests. And yet, one thing appears increasingly clear: there is little “natural” about “natural disasters.” “Our population and our technologies,” writes the historian Rosalind Williams, “have reached such a scale that they have intertwined with natural systems. Nature may still be a force, but it is no longer an independent one. We human beings have not escaped from nature, but neither has it escaped from us. Is global warming a technical event or a natural one? We can no longer discern the difference.” In this regime, one cannot but ask where we should land?
This drawing is the story of a section through the Grand Canal and the sunk costs implied in all the interventions to keep the city alive. The drawing oscillates and negotiates between positive visions of adaptation, survival, care and maintenance, with critiques of resuscitation for consumption, global cultural capital, and the vanity of short-term techno-rational fixes. The intention is to present the metabolic rift of a precarious Venice through a satire. ‘High Waters: Negotiating the Future of Venice’ represents, in a moderate absurdity and excess, the value of capital to the detriment of the ecology and the environment. What would be a better example than Venice, the cradle of Western civilization, engraved forever in our memories? This drawing aims to question the long-term sustainability of technological solutions and show that perhaps the architect’s role today has more to do with adaptation to climate change – than the more common attempt to mitigate climate change.
Through this depiction of Venice, viewers are sensitized to the threats that the city is facing, as well as the countless interventions that have been made to salvage the historic city’s ethos. But one must ask, for who are we preserving Venice, and why? Through a series of hyper-rendered frames, which project the city of Venice in a not-so-distant future, the project aims to make visible the undue pressures that have been and will continue to be imposed on the city in an effort to uphold a marketable and global image of Venice.
This drawing is the story of a section through the Grand Canal and the sunk costs implied in all the interventions to keep the city alive. The drawing oscillates and negotiates between positive visions of adaptation, survival, care and maintenance, with critiques of resuscitation for consumption, global cultural capital, and the vanity of short-term techno-rational fixes. The intention is to present the metabolic rift of a precarious Venice through a satire. ‘High Waters: Negotiating the Future of Venice’ represents, in a moderate absurdity and excess, the value of capital to the detriment of the ecology and the environment. What would be a better example than Venice, the cradle of Western civilization, engraved forever in our memories? This drawing aims to question the long-term sustainability of technological solutions and show that perhaps the architect’s role today has more to do with adaptation to climate change – than the more common attempt to mitigate climate change.
Through this depiction of Venice, viewers are sensitized to the threats that the city is facing, as well as the countless interventions that have been made to salvage the historic city’s ethos. But one must ask, for who are we preserving Venice, and why? Through a series of hyper-rendered frames, which project the city of Venice in a not-so-distant future, the project aims to make visible the undue pressures that have been and will continue to be imposed on the city in an effort to uphold a marketable and global image of Venice.
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SUBSTRATA |
Vlad Kapustin