Archiprix International 2001
Oxford Brookes University, School of Architecture - Oxford, England
Jamie Bromley
Tutors: Dr Murray Fraser, Ben Stringer
The brief for the project was twofold: firstly, to explore the effect that scale and hierarchy have on our attitudes to architecture and the city; and secondly, to propose innovative new ways for people to live in the modern capitalist city. In the light of mankind's exponential technological development, continually pushing the boundaries of our knowledge, we are able to explore and analyse the furthest corners of the universe. What this study suggests is that the new frontier for mankind might be far closer to home. Seventy-one percent of our planet's surface is water. Continued successful existence on this planet will undoubtedly involve a far more intricate understanding of the potential of our oceans. Hence the project consists of a design for a floating city as a preliminary investigation of our ability to adapt to and successfully inhabit the oceans, with the view of maybe one day alleviating the pressure on land and the damage to its fragile ecosystems. The technology and experience for the creation of artificial islands are already well established. Far from being a monastic-style retreat into the past, this new type of city would have to embrace advanced technology in order to survive. Resources such as food, power and, above all, space are abundant in the oceans; however, they themselves are part of equally delicate ecosystems. The linear form of the city follows a natural fault line of divergent tectonic plates that are located above the so-called 'ring of fire' to the east of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean. The city is essentially a semi-submersed, buoyant, tethered megastructure that is anchored to the seabed and positioned above hydrothermal vents, which supply energy to the city in the form of super-heated water. The dynamic behaviour of the mega-structure is similar to an inverted multifilar pendulum, where excess buoyancy plays the roll of gravity and the megastructure is held level by the pantograph-like configuration of the tension legs. The air-deck accommodation (everything above sea level) is comprised of a grid system of high-density individual towers, 8 metres by 8 metres, with 5 metres of separation between them. Organized around central courtyards and market places, the intention is for the clustered towers to provide maximum three-dimensional permeability to pedestrians as well as cooling ocean breezes and light. In contrast to the scale, mass, and inertia of the megastructure below, the urban experience of the air-deck towers helps to create a smaller, more human scale. The towers are constructed from tensile, lightweight, self-assembly component systems, reflecting in their design a fusion of external and internal space, and an overlap of spatial definition made possible by the tropical location. For these tensile structures, certain solutions have been developed that would be unique to the floating city, including sea kelp cold-wall cladding systems and sea kelp particle boards. The result is a city that would be dramatically unlike any other. The streetscapes of myriad kelp cladding systems would glisten in the sunlight as the buildings were kept cool, drenched in nutrient-rich chilled sea water that has been retrieved from the depths of the ocean. Large one-off structures are dotted throughout the city grid, and a multi-level research institution plus university would form the economic hub for the development of marine-based technological studies. Sites for open-air markets, or for relaxing in parks and beaches, would be appended as demanded by the city's inhabitants. Food and sources of kelp for construction would be grown in floating fields located either to the side or underneath the main megastructure. What I want to ask through this project is quite direct. Dare we assume that our land resources will sustain us in the future? Dare we even imagine that all of our land will continue to exist, given potential climatic changes? The massive resources and opportunities that the oceans could furnish for our future are quite convincing. The proposal here suggests hundreds of thousands of people inhabiting 1.5 square kilometres of ocean; that is 1.5 square kilometres out of a possible 360,000,000 square kilometres that are available.