Masterplan Gold Coast, AUS - Super Colossal

http://www.archdaily.com/44110/master-plan-ideas-competition-for-gold-coast-won-by-super-colossal/

Master Plan Ideas Competition for Gold Coast won by Super Colossal

18

DEC 2009

By Sebastian J — Filed under: Awarded Competitions , Australia, Gold Coast, Super Colossal

The Gold Coast is Australia’s sixth largest city and one of the fastest growing regions. 

It’s also home for one of the most popular spots in Australia’s East Coast. The Gold Coast’s population is around 500,000 and, if as forecast, it continues to grow by 13,000 to 16,000 annually, it will be home to 900,000 residents by 2030.

Gold Coast City Council, with endorsement of the Australian Institute of Architects, organized an open Master plan Ideas Competition for a proposed Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct. The 16.5 hectare site is bordered on three sides by rivers and canals. 
Formerly a simple rural cane farm, the site is now at the heart of a growing city with views across the skyline of Surfers Paradise, Main Beach and Broadbeach.

The purpose of the Master plan Ideas Competition was to generate creative new visions and ideas for the future of this key site and its facilities stimulate community discussion about the future of the Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct. The competition was won by Sydney-based office Super Colossal. You can see more images of the winning project and architect’s description after the break.

The form of the Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct provides an aerodynamic solution to climate protection providing wind and solar protection which is of great importance in this region. The civic square will be a shady, sheltered space, with a large undercover area. The large area of public parkland on the western edge of the site will act like a densely vegetated green lung for the city.

The roof areas may be used to house photovoltaic cells to contribute to power generation for the precinct. The large roof area will provide ample surface area for the collection of rainwater to be reused for flushing and for watering and maintaining the large area of parkland on the site.

The perimeter skin will provide opportunities for natural ventilation to the public areas around the performance spaces and galleries. The skin may act as an open screen where appropriate and be fully enclosed where required. Workspaces will incorporate best practice for sustainable design in commercial spaces utilising innovative techniques such as chilled beams, labyrinth cooling and reusing grey water for fl ushing.

Bridges connecting residential, commercial, light industrial and tourist districts will encourage widespread bicycle use in the city, reducing the dependancy on motor-vehicles and opening new opportunities for individual transport networks around the Gold Coast region.

Eco-Docks Designed to Float in NYC’s Nasty Rivers

http://cleantechnica.com/2009/07/30/eco-docks-designed-to-float-in-nycs-nasty-rivers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenOptions+%28Green+Options%29

or http://cleantechnica.com/2009/07/30/eco-docks-designed-to-float-in-nycs-nasty-rivers/

Written by Bryan Nelson

Published on July 30th, 2009

3 Comments

Posted in alternative energy, technology, wave energy

A professor and student team have designed a network of modular floating docks to harness clean energy for New York City.

The eco-docks would generate the energy by harnessing tidal power from the city’s rivers; they should also help to add much needed green space above the dirty waters.

The docking stations would plug into the piers already along New York’s riverside, though they would eventually be extended to help maximize energy generation. The expansion would also make room for more public green space and tidal pools for wildlife. Once completed, the docks’ designers hope that they will serve as an educational tool to encourage energy awareness, as well as remind the public of the connection between the water’s edge and the city’s interior.

In fact, the designers believe that the energy generated from the docks would be enough to light the streets of New York. Three vertical turbines would be fastened underneath each dock, which should generate up to 24 kilowatts of constant energy created by the bi-directional four mph current, supporting 350 LED streetlamps. And that’s just the energy generated for each dock module. Of course, the designers hope there would be plenty of room for more than just one.

The docks would also serve the functional purpose of expanding the public’s access to the rivers and create more recreational opportunities. And let’s face it, they’d also add some much needed aesthetic to a river system that’s awfully murky.

Source: ScienceDaily

Image Credit: Sarah Parsons, via ScienceDaily

Tags: architecture, clean energy, education, environment, green, new york city, renewable energy, rivers, tidal energy, tidal pools

Rising currents - New York

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=12790

MoMA and PS 1 seek solutions to sea level changes predicted for Manhattan shores

SPONGEcity - Niall Kirkwood

SPONGEcity - Niall Kirkwood (Harvard Graduate School of Design) - SAP Polymers

http://pruned.blogspot.com/2007/05/spongecity.html

Last month in the journal Nature Materials, Japanese scientists reported that they had developed a type of gel that can swell up to 500 times its dry size when it comes into contact with solvents.

Originally, we thought what great news this must be to mothers (and fathers), to the aged and to the simply incontinent, because this new material is classed in the same group of super absorbent polymers that also includes gels found in diapers. It turns out, however, that the substance was designed not for consumers but rather primarily for industrial applications, for instance, to suck up leftover waste chemicals in brownfields and absorb oil spills about to wipe out an entire ecosystem.


(SpongeCity by Niall Kirkwood et al.)

Having now brought up the subject of super absorbent polymers (SAP), we would now like to quote a rather generous portion of Deena DeNaro's report for Core77 on the 2nd Rotterdam International Architecture Biennale, curated by Adriaan Geuze ofWest 8.

It concerns a radical reconsideration of SAPs as a landscape application. Presently, they are used mostly to increase the water reserve of soils and to mitigate erosion.

In SPONGEcity, sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Transportation, Public Works and Water Management, and designed by Niall Kirkwood [and 15 landscape architecture graduate students from] the Harvard Graduate School of Design, floodwaters are captured by a dual sponge system both soft and structural. Elbows, or man-made oxbows, are built along the river Waal expanding the floodplain. Within each floodplain, canals are dug out to hold some of the floodwater. Cellular networks of Super Absorbent Polymers (SAP's) are placed in these elbows and when the dikes close to the river are breached a new absorbent sponge landscape is created along the entire river. The sponges create a dramatic new terrain as they swell to a height of up to 20 meters. This sponge matrix radically re-imagines the traditional Dutch city by proposing a hybrid structure that contains water and constructs space for urbanization. Capable of holding 100 times its own weight in water, the structural sponge is realized by adding a hardening agent to the SAP, which creates a shell on the surface for development. The soft sponge is a fluctuating system of undulating hills that rise and fall according to seasonal floods. As mean water levels rise, soft sponge is converted to structural sponge and a new band of soft sponge is established on the periphery. The overall sponge matrix allows development to exist within a floodplain. The urban conditions benefit from the framework of sponge elbows by structuring newfound ground within the floodplain.

This one paragraph seems to be the most extensive description of the project found online, with the possible exception of this terragram. In that Niall Kirkwood interview, we hear more about the project and learn that he was tasked to challenge the mentality of defense — of instinctively spending billions and billions of euros to build sea walls and dykes, to raise an entire country, and then subjecting the population to equally costly mass migration when the concrete crumbles — by speculating on ways to open up the landscape to disaster but not to catastrophe.

Did New Orleans and the Army Corps of Engineers receive this terragram? The relevant part starts at 46:12 and ends roughly around 54:30.

http://www.core77.com/reactor/08.05_biennale.asp

SPONGEcity (Niall Kirkwood)

In SPONGEcity, sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Transportation, Public Works and Water Management, and designed by Niall Kirkwood of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, floodwaters are captured by a dual sponge system both soft and structural. Elbows, or man-made oxbows, are built along the river Waal expanding the floodplain. Within each floodplain, canals are dug out to hold some of the floodwater. Cellular networks of Super Absorbent Polymers (SAP's) are placed in these elbows and when the dikes close to the river are breached a new absorbent sponge landscape is created along the entire river. The sponges create a dramatic new terrain as they swell to a height of up to 20 meters. This sponge matrix radically re-imagines the traditional Dutch city by proposing a hybrid structure that contains water and constructs space for urbanization. Capable of holding 100 times its own weight in water, the structural sponge is realized by adding a hardening agent to the SAP, which creates a shell on the surface for development. The soft sponge is a fluctuating system of undulating hills that rise and fall according to seasonal floods. As mean water levels rise, soft sponge is converted to structural sponge and a new band of soft sponge is established on the periphery. The overall sponge matrix allows development to exist within a floodplain. The urban conditions benefit from the framework of sponge elbows by structuring newfound ground within the floodplain.

Forwarding Dallas, Texas US - MOOV & Atelier Data

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=12880

Portuguese architects to put their stamp on Dallas

Urban Revision, a San Francisco based group focused on creating a new model for urban living, has selected 'Forwarding Dallas' a design by Portugual based architecture firms Atelier Data and MOOV as the winner of an international competition dubbed Re: Vision- Dallas. The competition, which drew 126 entries from 26 countries, asked competitors to transform a neglected urban block in downtown Dallas into a self-sustaining community that will run off the grid.

The winning design proposes an 854-unit housing development modeled on a hill town. On the hills (the roofs of the buildings) solar thermal, photovoltaic and wind power will provide for 100% of the energy needs of the residents. In the valleys, trees and vegetation are proposed. Cascading down the sides of the buildings are public greenhouses. Also proposed are a spiritual space, gymnasium and exhibition space as well as a daycare center designed for both children and the elderly.

'Forwarding Dallas' was selected from among three finalist designs. “All three of the design teams impressed us, both with the quality of their designs and in the interviews,” said John Greenan, Executive Director for Central Dallas CDD, which worked with Urban Revision on the project. “But as we went further into our review, we began to see the deep logic of the MOOV-Atelier Data design, “Forwarding Dallas”. It seemed to us to do the best job of incorporating sustainability in to the foundation of the design.”

While the focus of the competition was a city block, Greenan hopes the project will extend to other blocks nearby and ultimately lead to the creation of a sustainable district.

Ground breaking for the project is scheduled for early 2011.

Related Books DESIGN MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABILITY EMMITT, STEPHEN Building on the special edition Aspects of Design Management (Volume 3:1, ........more DESIGN ECOLOGIES SUSTAINABLE POTENTIALS IN ARCHITECTURE BLOSTEIN,BETH TILDER,LISA Contemporary architects are under increasing pressure to offer a sustaina........more

The Watersquare, Rotterdam, Netherlands by De Urbanisten

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=12869

The Watersquare creates a sustainable solution to the flooding of cities

With their design for the Watersquare, Dutch company De Urbanisten offer a new solution to the flooding of cities due to heavy rainfall. As part of the Rotterdam Waterplan 2, an urban policy by the City of Rotterdam to look at ways to store and control water, De Urbanisten propose to collect rainwater from the neighbourhood into a Watersquare; an attractive space to meet, play and engage in sports.

Most of the year the Watersquare will remain dry. It is only during heavy rainfall that the square will be filled with water. Streams, brooklets and ponds will emerge. Children will be able to play in and around the water and, in the winter, even skate on the ice. The rainwater collected by the Watersquare will serve as a grey-water system for the surrounding houses. After the rain the water will slowly recede into either nearby bodies of water or into the soil. The present sewage system will not be burdened, avoiding contaminated sewage water to overflow into moats and canals, which is the case at this time.

In the years to come over 25 Watersquares are planned for the city of Rotterdam. A pilot project of the Watersquare is currently being prepared by De Urbanisten, in collaboration with Studio Marco Vermeulen.

+ De Urbanisten PORTFOLIO: WATERCITIES & FLOOD URBANISM

Related Books MORE URBAN WATER DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT OF DUTCH WATER CITIES HOOIMEIJER,FRANSJE VRIJTHOFF,WOUT TOORN Most urban water management systems were developed when precipitation was ........more RECENT WATERSCAPES DREISEITL,HERBERT GRAU,DIETER After decades of being banished from residential areas, water is now becom........more BASICS DESIGNING WITH WATER AXEL LOHRER Water is a special design element in open space planning and one that lend........more

Digital Architecture: Passages Through Hinterlands - Ruairi Glynn & Sara Shafiei

http://www.passagesthroughhinterlands.com/book/index.html

Book preview
book from Ruairi Glynn & Sara Shafiei