B BUBBLE DESIGN BUBBLE DESIGN COMPETITIONS COMPETITION B BUBBLE DESIGN BUBBLE DESIGN COMPETITIONS COMPETITION B BUBBLE DESIGN COMPETITION B BUBBLE DESIGN COMPETITIONS B BUBBLE DESIGN COMPETITION B _a platform - ideas - dispersal_ _a platform - ideas - dispersal_ _a platform - ideas - dispersal_ _a platform - ideas - dispersal_
CITY:ACCELERATE _a platform - ideas - dispersal_ _a platform - ideas - dispersal_
FUTURE ARCHITECTURE, AND ARCHITECTS, OF RESILIENCY _a platform - ideas - dispersal_
_a platform - ideas - dispersal_
_a platform - ideas - dispersal_
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CITY:ACCELERATE CITY: ACCELERATE FUTURE ARCHITECTURE, AND ARCHITECTS, OF RESILIENCY
BUBBLE FUTURES PLATFORM The future of urbanism is interdisciplinary, interdependent, and intermodal. With more than three million people moving to cities every day around the world, the design of the built environment will depend on collaborations between disciplines as yet separated; architecture, engineering, biology, sociology, economics, medicine, and countless others. Bubble Futures Platform acts as the operator, establishing feedback loops among designers and the broader global society.
A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist. R. Buckminster Fuller
CONTENTS
PART I
A SERIES OF POSSIBLE URBAN FUTURES
PART II
ARCHITECTS OF REVOLUTION
PART III ACCELERATE THE CITY
A SERIES OF POSSIBLE URBAN FUTURES
I
As part of Belfast Design Week 2020, Bubble Futures Platform was invited to take part in the event's 'Window into Design' event, which saw the city activated with ideas, provocations, and demonstrations for the future of cities, not just in the United Kingdom, but around the world. Bubble's exhibit, titled 'A Series of Possible Urban Futures' showcased a sample of the innovative ideas generated by our global community to date, through our 'Eliminate Loneliness Through Design' and 'Accelerate the City' calls fr ideas.
>> A SERIES OF POSSIBLE URBAN FUTURES Bubble Futures Platform is operated by Niall Patrick Walsh and Chris Millar. We are recent graduates from Queen’s University Belfast, where we both studied our Masters in Architecture. We started Bubble in January 2019 during our final year of Masters, inspired by conversations we had at university, and with the belief that architects could more proactively engage with matters beyond the conventional design of buildings - that our skills could also allow us to examine, map, and respond to the global flows that shape society, be it the flows of food, data, money, ideas, climate, waste etc. As well as conducting challenges and competitions that align with our outlook on architecture as a vehicle for change, we have created an outlet for students, graduates, and architects to publish visionary theoretical works in contrast to many websites which focus more on built architecture. Bubble is not only our way of staying connected with the ideas that excited us at university, but also a space for us to explore ideas for how to share information, connect with people, and, put simply, to experiment with cool things we see elsewhere.
BUBBLE FUTURES PLATFORM @BUBBLEFUTURES BUBBLEFUTURES.COM
Niall currently works in the Dublin office of BDP (Building Design Partnership) as a Part II architectural assistant. He is a former Senior Editor at ArchDaily, where he wrote over 850 articles in three years, (mostly while in university), and travelled around the world interviewing and attending events. He also contributes to the RIAI Journal (Architecture Ireland), the premier architecture journal in Ireland. Chris currently works at the London office of Make, as a Part II architectural assistant. While in university, he was a co-founder of The Holding Project, which investigated the power of micro-housing through both an architectural and financial model. The project saw Chris and the team awarded Urban SOS 2017 competition by AECOM and the Van Alen Institute in Los Angeles.
ELIMINATE LONELINESS THROUGH DESIGN INTERNATIONAL IDEAS COMPETITION 2019 From Eliminating to Elevating: Tokyo Loneliness Tree Hole Plan Loneliness is not Tokyo’s illness; it’s the status quo of the city. Given that loneliness is a comprehensive urban structural issue, the operative action should be in the scale of the whole city by applying a systematic approach -- a new layer of spiritual infrastructure in the city that serves to everyone. People who feel lonely may not necessarily reach out to a friend for help. They might prefer a “tree hole”: a target that can be easily found around you, will not response or react to what you say, only provides a hollow space/enclosed shelter for anyone who want to spend a couple minutes with themselves. We propose a plan of constructing Urban Tree Hole around Tokyo that provide small spaces in the city that those lonely individuals can enjoy being with themselves, with the space, and with loneliness. In our proposal there are three typologies of Urban Tree Hole being inserted into Shibuya, the downtown of Tokyo, by either reinvigorating redundant store on the street side, creating corridor between buildings, or excavating underground space. In the space of Urban Tree Hole_01 visitor can enter a pop-up store where he can sit down and look at a street tree through the store window, and start a silent conversation with it. In Urban Tree Hole_02, visitor will walk through the corridor between two skyscrapers in which the city view is blocked, but the sky is reflected by tilted mirrors on both sides of the corridor. Urban Tree Hole_03 is an underground space beneath the Shibuya Crossing which collects “invisible” Tokyo water through run- off, and utilize the water to form a water feature for visitor to immerse.
Mind Craft When it rains, we intuitively look for some form of protection. Moments as such are often fleeting in nature and rarely opportunities for connection. However, what if we allow the fundamental laws of attraction and some degree of chance to dictate the boundaries of social interaction. Umbrellas are conventionally used singly in isolation but is there an opportunity to reimagine this everyday apparatus as a catalyst for connection with a simple modification that would allow them to attach to each other ad infinitum? Makeshift gathering spaces could form freely simply by the result of our proximity to one another.
Let it Rain Feeling of loneliness can be amplified by overthinking when judgments get cloudy and stress gets elevated. When creative, people can forget about producing and controlling negative thoughts and bond truthfully and directly. Mindcraft is a way to let people design their own environment manually from scratch. You can choose shapes, colors assigned to specific features and build together for yourselves and for others. The blocks are made from recycled plastic and are free to take in places located around the cities, next to public spaces. Some of them are so big, that building a structure is possible only with the help of others. Cooperation, which is the main pillar of the game, arise naturally but bonds the most. The spaces which are being created are fluent, always changing. What happens later inside made objects is up to the people. Our predictions include workshops, exhibitions, exercising, meditating and entertainment like concerts or public events. The building, having in mind the colors’ assigned features, increases awareness and makes it easier to understand others, connect and empathize. Mindcraft is a continuous, endless process which leads to healing our society.
Like the air we breathe, friendship and interaction are needed in order to survive and thrive. In the most interconnected, interdependent era of human history, one could be forgiven for thinking that the lives we lead are almost void of loneliness. It is ironic therefore, that the facebook feeds and Instagram stories which define the phenomenon of “social networking” are infact awash with people either striving for unending praise, cliques, and admiration, or people pretending to already have “it”. We are experiencing a pandemic of loneliness, an infection that continues to dissolve our meaningful social networks with devastating effect. We see a rise of depression, anxiety, suicide, and a feeling of hopelessness that dominates so many people’s lives around the world. In the United Kingdom alone, 75% of doctors say they are seeing between one and five people per day suffering with loneliness, with up to 20% of UK adults feeling lonely either most, or all of the time. Founded on the belief that design can be a vehicle for positive change, Bubble asked you what designers can do to eliminate loneliness in society. The “Eliminate Loneliness” competition provided you a public platform to tackle the issue of loneliness and isolation in society through design. We challenged you to set your imagination alight, and consider the systems, spaces, and interactions that could generate meaningfulness and connection in today’s world. Our aim was to collect design ideas geared towards tackling loneliness. Whether this be on the individual or collective, micro or macro, digital or tangible, product or space, was entirely up to you. We asked you to question the fundemental causes of loneliness, their flows, conditions, and effects. Following the ethos of Bubble, we then asked you to operate across multiple spheres, reaching beyond convention to tackle the issue of loneliness through a creative, design-led solution. The scale, location, and parameters were entirely your decision. We received ideas that encouraged connection, co-operation, and engagement. Let your ideas be smart, bold, and beautiful. Be provocative. Design the world as you believe it should be.
Barrow Forever This competition entry imagines a dystopic future in which environmental challenges have pushed society to inhabit the ruins of an energy pipeline near present-day barrow, alaska. The city, an organization of built structures hung off the precipice of a mega-structure, houses a community of voluntary prisoners– residents who rarely leave their private spaces, but maintain active social networks online. Loneliness, greater than a social ill, constitutes the core of barrow’s experience despite its community’s apparent contentedness. In barrow, the architecture, while sustaining society, also physically limits its individuals to solitary lives. Given barrow’s extreme verticality and fast speed internet, the notion of public is rendered obsolete in this city. Described through physical models, animations, and narrative, the world portrayed in moving to barrow, alaska addresses the issue of modern-day loneliness through utopian thinking with a sense of humor. Like jacques tati’s playtime (1967), it satirizes the benefits of technological innovation to present day urban environments. This fictional world asks us cheekily: why do we feel increasingly isolated despite rising urban density and expanding digital connectivity? This design idea offers critical storytelling as a solution to rising levels of loneliness in present-day cities. It expresses the paradoxical nature of contemporary alienation through the design of experimental urbanisms; and encourages a digital culture of “bedroom pop architecture” amongst amateur architects, as an avenue for communicating issues surrounding the contemporary urban condition.
The Paradox of Our Existence As human beings we are alone. Our lives are ours and ours alone. I only see what my eyes see and feel what my fingers touch. I only know what it is to be me and can only wonder what it is to be you. There is a melancholic note to this realization. However, while our experience may be singular, our perception individual, we experience this collectively. Together alone; that is the paradox. We have confused loneliness with aloneness. But aloneness is a gift. It is endless possibilities, it is latent potentials, it is space for creativity. It allows us to explore the sound of silence and the taste of time. It is in the space between every breath and in the blurred vision of our peripheries. It is an open invitation to know and to love ourselves. It is the paradox of our existence. Together alone and alone together, for we may feel lonely when we have the most company, and we may not feel lonely when we are absolutely alone. This is because loneliness surges from an unfulfilled need to bond with another. But it is impossible to bond without first accepting aloneness and embracing it for the gift that it is. So to combat loneliness learn to be alone, and learn to love it. Learn to love yourself, before you love another. So what is it? It is a temple. A space for solitude and contemplation. A space for rituals. A space for reflection and meditation. A space for self-discoveries. A space to reconnect with our true selves (our forgotten inner children) space to get in touch with our senses. A space to shed the constraints and expectations of society. A space to know yourself.
Mori Mori is an easily assembled and aggregated product designed to encourage creativity, movement and social interaction amongst society. The character mori 森 comprises of 3 of the same characters, ki/ moku森 stacked. Alone, ki/moku means wood, a strong, versatile and important material. Combined, it forms mori森, meaning forest, a vital ecosystem whose strengths depend on the synergy and collaboration amongst living things. The more effective the collaboration between these separate habitats, the more robust the forest. Additionally, in the character mori 森, 3 of the characters hito/jin森 are embedded, only visible to the acute observer. 森hito/ jin means human. There’s a symbolic meaning that emphasizes the importance of collaboration between people in a society in order to create a harmonious forest/ecosystem. The name森, thus, is apt in outlining the goals and significance behind the product. Like moku, the single module displays adaptability, structural integrity and aesthetic appeal. It is at its most potent, however, when combined with more of its kind, creating functional and unique components. The module is simple. It comprises of four (1.5”X18”) timber blocks, joint together by ¼” dowels. Nestled between the blocks are connector pieces (3/8”x26”) angled at 45-degrees for directional range, enabling the module to join laterally and diagonally to produce multiple product possibilities, pushing the creative boundaries of users. With the accompanying app, our deeper agenda is to tackle the problem faced by many contemporary societies-a lack of meaningful social interactions and difficulty establishing friendships. Mori stimulates collaboration.
Pneumatic Archives of Subjectivities and Imaginaries Our project is an agglomeration of pneumatic structures that spatially invades the entire city of san francisco. The architecture parallels perceptual conditions of fog – confusion, spatial disorientation, and blurred boundaries. It instrumentalizes these conditions to spatially confront everyone, impeding all functions in the city, to enable imagination and connectivity in our current oppressive era. The logic that governs our contemporary society force a singular vision of the world and attempts to stifle all imagination of any alternative. These same logics produce systemic violence like total environmental degradation, complete financialization, and the false promise of a good life, resulting in corporations like airbnb, uber, or amazon that feed and profit on aspects of normal, everyday life. We find these practices to be unethical and unsustainable. Our architecture seeks to provide a space that will allow and enable new imaginaries to be had, space not controlled by these logics, a space to resist and create new networks of social relations, fighting against loneliness. Our design explores how space and both social and literal atmospheres can be architecturalized and instrumentalized in exploratory forms. Being surrounded by san francisco’s fog perfectly produces a defining hyperawareness and disorientation, which our proposal takes as a site and a governing logic.
ACCELERATE THE CITY WINNERS ANNOUNCED: 25TH NOVEMBER 2020
INTERNATIONAL IDEAS COMPETITION 2019 Retreat: The Decanted City Climate change is the most fundamental crisis of our lifetime - and a Wicked Problem. A Wicked Problem is a convoluted issue that defies definition, and for which there can be no absolute solution, as any resolve will only spawn further issues. Considering the future consequences of climate change, resilience resonates perfectly as the ultimate global aspiration. Dublin is a city in danger. It needs to efficiently and successfully respond to climate change. A methodology to solving said problem is to consider it over time alongside fostering the playfulness of design. Architecture is arguably ‘too slow’, and by executing a temporal approach we can attempt to combat such issues. We propose decanting the city - a temporal architectural response to sea level rise in Dublin. This strategic abandonment will take place over time. As inundation bleeds in, the city is lifted and floated through the River Liffey to higher ground. This moving city will not be permanent or stagnant, rather it will be flexible and open to change. Over time, the city will develop as Phototropic Architecture to consider the environmental setting [light, wind, rain], one day making up an intricate conscious ecosystem. The city will not adapt, but morph into a metropolis that can think with it’s surroundings and everchanging conditions. We must remember that settlement is a relatively new concept for homosapiens. Around 12,000 years ago, humans were nomadic, until we decided to cultivate crops and colonise. Ultimately, The Decanted City will not solely provoke ingenuities, but it will change how people behave and consume. Capital covetousness will become a thing of the past. People will worship their small catalogue of possessions and focus on a less materialistic quality of life.
Cyborg Ecologies: Accelerating The PostAnthropocene The project explores new ways that humans can operate within the deepening Anthropocene, challenging the ontological positions that take for granted a benevolent nature. Examining the sociopolitical and environmental conditions surrounding exploited workers in Thailand’s waste industries, the project addresses the two-fold conundrum of the vulnerability of coastal settlements to rising sea levels as well as the issue of undocumented workers. Utilizing technology and hybrid infrastructures, the communities begin to occupy their new aquatic territory by processing the landfill and transboundary waste into building materials, aquaculture and energy systems, augmenting the natural and synthetic systems into a cyborg ecology. Formerly at the mercy of environmental degradation, the undocumented workers and farmers begin to adapt to their new reality by projecting themselves into an automated future, moving into a new age of technological hyper-acceleration.
The (Dual)-City Infamous for its high density, Hong Kong suffers from distressed housing shortages distinguished by inflationary markets and acute economic disparity. While the government announced policies e.g. vacancy tax, in an attempt to address the issues, our project speculates on the role of one of the city’s dominating developments: the metro infrastructure (MTR). The privately-owned metro infrastructure has been developed rigorously using the rail-plus-property business model since 40 years ago. The MTR corporation is granted land development rights alongside railway from the government to build integrated stations incorporating residences, offices, retails, schools and parks above stations and depots. Our project sees the potential of this intensified mode of development in response to limited land resources and soaring property prices. Therefore, we propose a parallel city, with the revenue of the mass transit to fund more affordable housing options and provide better access to civic spaces. The map is a radical representation of this future ‘MTR City’, in which we extracted the railway and presented it solely based on time and programs. It explores the proposition of how the railway could be developed as a city. Each line serves as a district; station serves as a neighbourhood; forming an urban ecosystem within the network that defines a new mode of living. Programs e.g. residential communities, civic, green spaces, business exchange hub etc. as well as supporting services are added along the railway, creating a more comprehensive living experience for the citizens.
Time moves slowly in architecture. While the technological, financial, transport, and commercial industries of the world evolve at an unprecedented, exponential rate, the evolution of cities themselves is not keeping pace. While everyday commodities, from phones to cars to banking systems, change before our eyes, we continue to live and work in buildings designed for a past era, and depend on urban infrastructures long past their capacities. Somehow, architectural time must accelerate. The design and construction of cities and places must evolve to meet the growing demands of population, energy, and space. Designers and architects around the world are required to use their creative skills to re-imagine not only how the cities of the future should look, but how they will be built, how they can adapt, and how they can evolve in a sustainable, stable, equitable way. Founded on the belief that design can be a vehicle for positive change, Bubble Futures Platform asks you what designers can do to design more resilient urban futures. The “Accelerate the City” competition provides you a public platform to tackle the need for a more responsive architecture in a city of your choice. We challenge you to set your imagination alight, and consider the systems, spaces, and interactions that could result in more resilient, adaptable urban environments. We ask you to follow a three step process: 1: Select any city around the world 2: Select a fundamental issue in that city 3: Design a more resilient future for that city Whether this be on the individual or collective, micro or macro, digital or tangible, product or space, is entirely up to you. Following the ethos of Bubble, we ask you to operate across multiple spheres, reaching beyond convention to tackle the issue of urban resilience through a creative, design-led solution.
Feral Rooftops Between the lines of the NYC Department’s Local Laws 92 /94 of 2019, mandating “that all new buildings and alterations of existing buildings where the entire existing roof deck or roof assembly is being replaced must provide a sustainable roofing zone covering 100% of the roof,” lies a radically environmental vision for a present day scarred by mass extinction, climate urgency, pandemic and social crisis. This law designates rooftops as not only a new layer of programmed urban space, but potentially a restorative space for multiple species and a secure harbor for biodiversity. As COVID-19 exposes with renewed urgency the need for urban green spaces, for ameliorated air quality, and equitable food security, Local Law 92 /94 prompts us to view the greened rooftop as a new zone of ecological richness and biodiversity. In the urban imaginary, marginal spaces foster diversity. New preserves for biodiversity are urgent in light of the “biological annihilation” of species that characterizes the current sixth mass extinction, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Feral Rooftops envisages green roofs as open air reserves of native plants and pollinators, with constellations of field stations that, while monitoring each biodiverse surface, assemble and relay air quality and storm-water sequestration data for NYC’s contribution to what Gilles Clement describes as the “planetary garden.”
Reactive Pandemic Protocol The built environment can no longer keep pace with the rapid technological evolution of our cities. However, it is not sustainable nor feasible to adapt our infrastructures and buildings to our societies accelerated development. For this reason, we believe that employing digitalization can aid in the development of cities by enhancing what’s already existing. We believe that needed resources must come from optimizing current infrastructures. Covid-19 is just one of the many emergencies impacting our world. It is a global issue that has been impacting the lives of everyone. Without exception, all cities would need to actively respond against it for the world to be virtually free of it. This issue’s urgency and universality urged us to devise a smarter system for rapid, sustainable development, hoping for a more resilient and adaptable urban environment. Spain has been one of the most impacted countries in Europe and in the world. We chose Barcelona, one of the most developed cities in the country, as a case study for a response system that is adaptable anywhere. This system will establish a new paradigm of building adaptation towards emergency response and exceptional urban phenomena. But ultimately it is a bathroom. There have been many cases around the world wherein buildings were transformed in order to form a collaborative network that will support the current local healthcare system. What if, from the first second that a carrier (covid19 infected) is detected, a whole network of agents could distribute information and deploy an emergency protocol that would reprogramme the use of buildings within hours?
Another “Occupy Central”: From Maids’ Sunday Gathering to Central Ground Proposal As one of the busiest international financial hubs, Hong Kong attracts millions of people for its rich opportunities and resources. But social polarization is the shade of prosperity. The density of the city results in incredible efficiency. Here, urban public space is compressed as much as possible, highly driven by spatial utilization and commercial value. A more compact and efficient city benefits the elites’ class and the rich. On the other hand, it could be a barren desert for other groups of people. They are foreign maids, temporary workers, or retired olds, etc, who cannot get a place in the expensive communities with a private garden. They serve the city, but the urban space is not designed for them. And this is how the huge gap between rich and poor in Hong Kong reflects in the dimension of space. This project is located in the famous commercial district, Central. It starts with an observation of how foreign maids flexibly use the urban space in Central: on Sunday, as they are unbearable (or unable) to stay in tiny space in their employers’ homes, they gather together on the street, sitting on the footbridges and sidewalks, temporarily “occupy” the urban public space. Learning from maids’ flexible spatial using logic, we make a speculative shifting ground proposal in Central. It is a changeable façade system for the ground floor of office blocks, creating a one-day home for all citizens on Sunday without hurting the commercial value on weekdays. Aiming to soften the excessive partiality of urban public space, this project tries to make an ideal balance between spatial justice and urban efficiency.
Automated Habitats: Metabolism in Motion The Case of Emirates City in Ajman: A highly specialized, residential, and Inflexible neighborhood. in 2008 the global financial crisis ¬hit, and construction was haled leaving massive amounts of expired concrete foundations. Only 10 out of 100 residential towers were constructed leaving 90 % of the site unusable and rigid with expired inflexible structures. Automated Habitats proposes an architecture that addresses these issues. Rather than become victim to the booms and busts of the world’s economy, as we have seen in the case of Emirates City, the project thrives upon a changing market. It caters to the transient demographic of the UAE, where immigrants make up 80% of the population. The project is a cross breed of ideas from metabolism and today’s car robotic automation technology. By integrating the circulation of people, units, and cars within a complex network of automation, an entirely new dynamism is added to the theories put forward by Metabolists on living cells which are always growing and changing. It also allows for the easy expansion of units within a structural grid. Situated along E311, Automated Habitats attaches itself to a complex network of roads interlinked with the highway. This allows for easy car access and the creation of a hyper-thin typology that can fluidly grow using highways without producing issues that arise out of urban sprawl such as higher water and air pollution, increased traffic fatalities and jams and loss of agricultural capacity. Meanwhile, it dissolves boundaries created by highways so that an overall picture of pourosity and fluidity can be achieved within the city.
Revive The Waterways The aim of the proposal is to clear the waterways of Kochi of the invasive Water Hyacinths thus providing a more livable city for future generations and increasing the resilience of the great Indian city. Water Hyacinths will be collected by the public who will be financially rewarded for depositing the weed at set zones across the city, where they will then be converted into profit generating asset: Bio-fuel, bio-fertilizer, crafts or isolated chemicals. The key hub which will be designed for improved resilience will be a bio-fuel and bio-fertilizer plant which will be a land and water intervention spanning thirty years to allow for successful Water Hyacinth eradication and improved community resilience. The proposal will therefore provide a Water Hyacinth conversion plant as well as a community garden, visitors center, restaurant, educational space, research lab and a local market amongst other community strengthening facilities creating a new resilient economy and future.
The New English Rural The New English Rural is essentially the development of a code for living that proposes new and/or refined approaches to how we might construct a rural architecture, and how we might reuse and repair. Applied to a somewhat counter-intuitive testbed site to what we might judge to be rural- a brownfield site struggling both socially and economically. The paradigm is implemented through the production and construction of a series of catalysts, exploring whether a development that draws on local rural resources could aid in reducing the deprivation of Rochester. Whilst also demonstrating that the proposal of rural architecture may not necessarily evolve from an existing rural community. The main outcome of these catalysts is to deal with the issues of unemployment, a lack of education and reduced: overall exploring whether a rural life can contribute to an urban community’s well-being and future development? The New English Rural is not proposing anything new, rather it is looking back at the past whilst also the future to understand what we need for today. This new constructional paradigm is focused on tackling the reuse of waste in an integrated approach, and marks each site’s idiosyncrasies, enabling support of sustainable local development whilst preserving the cultural heritage of construction knowledge inherent to its region. Despite only being applied to the testbed site in Rochester, the collective ethos can be applied further afield. Highlighting that the New English Rural will give rise to slightly different Rurals: as there is no single vantage point from which the whole panoply or rural can be seen, creating diverse rural developments across the United Kingdom.
Paths to Repair Power to the people are given through streets. In Hong Kong, a city known for its high-rises, the connection to the ground is lost, and subsequently, the connection with each other is also lost. When political issues arise, the people of Hong Kong that has lost the communication and discourse that was so important for the rise of a strong and successful community. The paths designed are to prevent the dystopian future that the city is currently heading towards. Instead I hope that the city can return to its former glory. The elevated streets will pave the way as people will become more connected and the streets will function as a way of bringing people back together. Existing buildings can become social blocks where everyday activities occur, where you will be able to know your neighbors, and form a strongly bonded community that protect one another. Not only are the existing buildings a focus, but there also has to be a central hub that embodies the movement. The central hub becomes a place where there are auditoriums for the exchange of ideas, apartments and shops next to each other to form flourishing elevated streets and become an adaptable kinetic building that can transform its facades to protect activists from the state. With the maze-like streets, only the people living in the blocks can navigate easily through them and buildings, which in effect forms a safe social space where the state and intruders will not be able to take over or take away the freedom of the people.
Regeneration of Macao’s isolated waterfront In response to contemporary urban environmental degradation, ecological overload and natural disasters, the aim is to create a new type of city in this area to alleviate ecological pressure. According to the surrounding environment state of the abandoned waterfront area, a resilient city suitable for this region is built to arouse the vitality of the city and coordinate the relationship between the city, man and nature. The new urban construction types in this region can not only accelerate the local urban development, but also provide more possibilities for future resilient urban construction in response to contemporary environmental problems. Function森Theater森: In order to promote the economic vitality of the region, the casino, amusement park and theater are designed to both conform to the local culture and promote the growth of local GDP. The characteristic conch theater is immersed in the water, and the sculpture and the clapping sound of the sea in the outdoor square create an artistic atmosphere to attract people to enter the interior. The interior is designed with the immersive experience as the design concept, which can be divided into two parts: the aquatic exhibition area can watch the historical changes of Macao, relevant performances of past stories, and experience the life atmosphere; Experience the underwater scenery, take photos with various sea creatures, and enjoy local cuisine. The architectural and Ecological: In order to retain the original ecological environment of the area, the design makes full use of the local water body and various plants, integrating the building with the environment. It allows people to get close to nature without polluting, while creating more resilient ecosystems.
Images: Joe Lavery Photography
ARCHITECTS OF REVOLUTION
II
Before the COVID-19 pandemic ever took hold of normality, we lived in an unstable, unequal, and unsustainable world. Despite living in the most interdependent era in human history, we continue to see decay of the natural environment, fracturing of social cohesion, and established orders which are either unable, or unwilling, to meaningfully confront either. The world's problems need creative solutions. In the following essays, Archinect contributor and former ArchDaily Senior Editor Niall Patrick Walsh sets out the connection between architecture, politics, and social reform - painting an intimidating, yet ultimately optimistic conviction that architects and designers can be primary agents of change in a world which urgently needs them to be.
ARCHITECTS OF REVOLUTION NIALL PATRICK WALSH, 2021
Architecture is inherently linked to policy, politics, and power. With responsibility for the design and perception of the built environment, architects have a distinct role in shaping the human urban experience. As the world confronts issues of climate change, forced migration, and affordable housing, architects are increasingly putting themselves on the front line of the debate, using a variety of tools and avenues to clamor for change, and indeed design for it. However, while many official avenues exist for architects to advocate for social and environmental reform, there is an undertheorized method of resistance, a ‘road less traveled’ for social progress beyond officialdom.
With crafted skills centered on the human perception of space, architects can engage in a movement seeking to use architecture as a raw material for unsanctioned artistic intervention. For architects increasingly alarmed at a perceived lack of political action to the world’s pressing issues, and eager to use their skills to promote change, artistic urban activism has the power to spark awareness, dialogue, and reform. To do this, architects must become more than a cog in a formal planning machine. Architects must become unsanctioned urban activists.
Whether abstract or spatial, the arts have a unique ability to evoke a reaction within the observer or participant, unlocking new points of view, and new frames of mind. This capacity lies central to “the ability of art to function as an arena and medium for political protest and social activism” (Groys, 2014, p.1). Whilst the role of art as ‘criticism’ has existed for decades, a recent global phenomenon of art ‘activism’ has reached beyond critique. “Art activists try to change living conditions in economically underdeveloped areas, raise ecological concerns…attract attention to the plight of illegal immigrants, improve the conditions of people working in art institutions, and so forth” (Groys, 2014, p.1). There are several media through which this artistic activism can manifest, including musical, literary, dramatic, visual, or spatial. The power of art as activism lies in the unique ability of art to break the emotional barriers of the observer. The origin of this power can be traced back to childhood education, where almost all pupils would have experienced the arts, enlisted in dance, painting, music, photography, poetry, pottery, and at a pre-school level, more improvisational activities such as pencil, crayon, and collage drawings. Set aside from cognitive-based, ‘right or wrong’ subjects such as mathematics, science, or language, “art capitalizes on the intuitive self ability to spontaneously express itself and provides a less judgemental framework” (Shank, 2004, p.535). To the young, art is an experience where judgment is replaced with respect, and prejudice with intuition. Activist art rediscovers and reignites this alternative channel of thought within the observer in an adult life dominated by cognitive constructs. This marriage of cognitive and emotional argument permits “the transformation of entrenched world-views [in] a process that requires immense emotional intelligence, symbolic dexterity, and cultural sensitivity…procured by means of traditional fact-based activism and spurred by strategic art activism” (Shank, 2004, p.555). As a catalyst of transformation, art activism succeeds in winning both ‘hearts and minds’, a powerful yet underutilized tool the arsenal of social justice. For architects, artistic activism is spatial activism. It is the occupation of public space, and the alteration of the built environment to awake the user’s emotional and cognitive capacities. It is activation of the urban realm as a stage of creativity, a place of protest, and a vehicle for changing hearts and minds. Within the realms of the art world, there exist many avenues for spatial activism to operate. However, at present, there are few definitions or supportive theories behind the enactment of urban activism. One exception is a concept known as ‘Cultural Hijack’, coined by the activist, artist and academic Dr. Ben Parry in 2011. Cultural Hijack can be interpreted as a moment, a method, or a movement. Regardless of label, it centers on the use of spatial intervention as a challenge to social norms. Always site-specific, Cultural Hijack seeks to connect with the public in realtime. By exploiting the power of the different, the curious, or the absurd, Cultural Hijack seeks to momentarily broaden the human mind, to open our consciousness to new ideas, new challenges, and new perspectives on the heated topics of the day.
Cultural Hijack frequently operates beyond the realms of commissioned public art, with operators consisting of “a small number of artists and artist groups…who explicitly link their artistic practices to radical social or political transformation” (Sholette, 2017, p.160). The intervention is often unsanctioned, with the interventionist working in the shadows, or part of an underground movement using artistic means to advance social and political dialogues. “The unofficial practice of the interventionist often takes place on the margins of the official city where it can exploit gaps in formal regulation and control” (Parry, 2011, p.31). Architecture plays a central role in Cultural Hijack, an act heavily dependent on site-specificity. Using architecture as its raw material, “cultural hijack moves from abstract space (the world of images and signs) towards the real space of the city” (Parry, 2011, p.28). By manifesting itself in real-time, and real space, the observer becomes a participant, rooted in a real-world experience. In the act of Cultural Hijack, the city becomes a blank canvas, ready for manipulation, appropriation, and protest. Whilst all acts of Cultural Hijack share the city as a common stage, the ways in which architecture is appropriated by Cultural Hijack can vary considerably. Side street or public square, modernist office or classical city hall, rotting ruin or stalled construction, Cultural Hijack views the entire urban realm as a canvas for appropriation. A comparison between two noted urban activists, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Jochen Gerz, exemplifies the diverse manifestations of Cultural Hijack in the urban realm, and hence the boundless possibilities of architectural designers to engage in acts of urban activism. The activist works of American artist Gordon Matta-Clark “defined the do-it-yourself, unsanctioned interventions that embody the spirit [of Cultural Hijack]” (Parry, 2011, p.14). Matta-Clark occupied disregarded spaces of New York City, including a rubbish disposal unit transformed into a street theatre (Open House, 1972) and a homeless shelter composed of waste materials (Garbage Wall, 1970). Through impromptu interventions in real time, Matta-Clark sought to “create artworks that triggered reactions in the viewer beyond the normal, somewhat restricted aesthetic frisson available to the gallery-goer” (Atlee, 2007). As with most acts of urban activism, Matta-Clark’s work was part-critique and part-reformist.
In contrast to Matta-Clark’s use of leftover, sub-prime urban space, Cultural Hijack can also occupy prime public spaces, at the heart of urban environments. German artist Jochen Gerz offers a powerful example of artistic intervention in core public space with his intervention titled Monument Against Racism (1993). Working in the dead of night over a period of three years, Gerz and his students removed over two thousand cobblestones from the main square of the provincial capital city Saarbrucken, Germany. Once removed, the underside of each cobblestone was etched with the name of a desecrated Jewish cemetery destroyed during the Second World War. The cobblestones were then re-laid, name faced down, creating an invisible monument to wartime atrocities committed against the Jewish community. The unsanctioned intervention was subsequently discovered, and retrospectively commissioned, with the former Castle Square officially renamed the Square of the Invisible Monument. There is a heavy contrast between the interventions of Matta-Clark and Gerz, with regards to scale, place, exposure, and manifestation. Where Matta-Clark lays claim to spaces of neglect, Gerz occupies prime public space at the symbolic center of the political urban realm. Where the work of Matta Clark is unapologetically disruptive, the work of Gerz is subtle and invisible. Where Matta Clark responded to an ignored present, Gerz responded to a forgotten past. Despite their differences, each shares a common underlying principle of site-specificity, of using the existing built environment as a raw material for artistic expression. In a society where heart and mind are entwined, any movement for change must likewise entwine the emotive and cognitive. The advent of artistic activism has therefore unveiled a powerful, underutilized tool of social justice. It has also created a new generation of artists, “the resistors: artists who use their art to resist the forces of the powerful…everyone from antiwar poster artists to artist-activists (Thompson, 2017, p.7). A catalyst of transformation, art activism bridges a void, connecting with the observer or participant on in an emotional capacity that cognitive argument struggles to convey. Cultural Hijack is not the only avenue through which architects and urban designers can engage in artistic activism. However, in practice, Cultural Hijack has embodied the architectural mantra of ‘design for impact’. With the city being transformed into a blank canvas for activist appropriation, Cultural Hijack offers the urban public an opportunity for reflection and critical engagement, congregating in an unorganized, yet powerful solidarity; a demonstration that urban activism can be a vehicle of change, and that architects can be its agents.
Attlee, James (2007) ‘Towards Anarchitecture: Gordon Matta-Clark and Le Corbusier’, Tate Papers, 7(), pp. [Online]. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/07/ towards-anarchitecture-gordon-matta-clark-and-le-corbusier (Accessed: 10th September 2019). Groys, Boris (2014) ‘On Art Activism’, E-Flux Journal, 56(June), pp. 1-14. Parry, Ben (2011) Cultural Hijack: Rethinking Intervention, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Shank, Michael. (2005) ‘Redefining the Movement: Art Activism’, Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 3(2), pp. 531-560. Thompson, Nato. (2017) Culture as Weapon, New York: Melville House Publishing
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY NIALL PATRICK WALSH, 2020
We live in a polarized society. We live in a society that, just like any society throughout history, faces the daily issues of poverty, homelessness, and political unrest. However, the measure of a democratic society is not a question of whether or not these issues exist; but a question of how to respond to such issues.
Those who are concerned with, or indeed victims of, such issues are often left with no choice but to articulate their pain in public space. The question therefore moves to how a democratic society should respond to the use of public space by those wishing to express political opposition, or the struggles of the homeless, the poor, and the marginalized. Such a question strikes at the very heart of a major difference in opinions in Western society over what public space is defined as. As a society, we must both recognise, internalise, and confront the reality current attempts by political establishments to control the use of public space have resulted in a denial of the collective right to the city.
In an era defined by privacy and private property, the effective use of the rights of those who have no choice but to occupy public space are constantly being attacked and infringed. More often than not, the poor, homeless and marginalized in society have no choice but to occupy public space in order to have their voices and concerns heard. However, in contemporary cities, the absence of legitimate private spaces for the homeless means that they are excluded from public space and public activity. “Public space regulation denies the essential rights of the homeless to freedom and autonomy…denies them the most basic levels of recognition…and requires not only that they suffer, but also that they will be punished for making direct requests for help” (Blomley, 2010). Recent so-called ‘Safe City Acts’ passed by local governments across Canada, the United States and Europe constitute an attempt by the political establishment to promote their version of democracy, and of public space. “Our present urban renewal laws are… wiping away slums and their populations, and replacing them with projects intended to produce higher tax yields, or to lure back easier populations with less expensive public requirements.” (Jacobs, 1992, p270). Such laws represent the will of administrations that the appropriate users of public space should not be forced to interact with is that they have become a “haven for drug users and the homeless” (Mitchell, 2003, p136). Such language immediately hampers the social standing of the homeless in society; “they in essence denied social legitimacy to homeless people…to banish them to… the margins of civic space…in order to make room for ‘legitimate’ public activities” (Mitchell, 2003, p136). Therefore, it is clear that the collective right to the city is under threat. However, it is not under threat from the actions of the homeless or politically outspoken, but from the ever increasing attempts by national and local administrations to erode the definition of the public, and hence further control the use of public space. Public space has played a critical role in the struggle for rights by workers, political activists and the poor. These struggles often involve people taking ownership of space, and making it public, in order to openly voice their criticisms. These struggles have led to a new approach by the establishment. “During the last 20 years, privatization of urban public spaces has accelerated through the closing, redesign, and policing of public parks and plazas” (Low, 2006, p82). The seeds of this were seen in Berkeley, in attempts to control public space; an approach that seeks to redesign public spaces with the view of curtailing people’s use of these spaces for their own needs or ideals. “The very success of struggles…has led to a strong backlash that has sought to reconfigure urban public space in such a way as to limit the threat of democratic social power to dominant social and economic interests” (Mitchell, 2003, p136).
These new spaces are centered on order. The past decade has seen a decline in spaces intended for interaction, and an increase in spaces dedicated to consumption, such as shopping centres. “Recently, the boundaries of what is private or public have become less clear, and increasingly incursions by privatization and other neoliberal practices have been transforming public space, placing them back in corporate or commercial hands.” (Low, 2006, p82). The heavy surveillance that comes with such spaces is a natural deterrent for the homeless and politically active. The whole concept of a space left to the user is almost unheard of, replaced with spaces where every experience and interaction is planned. “Public space is imagined not as a site of radical openness, but as a space in which the boundaries of the self must be shielded. Encounters with difference are deemed a threat” (Blomley, 2010). Today, therefore, the right to the city is as selective as it ever was. However, in the contemporary city, emphasis is being slowly shifted from regulation, and is leaning more towards design. Architects, therefore, have gradually found themselves drawn into a debate that had, up to now, primarily been the preoccupation of legislators and the judiciary. The architectural profession must recognize their responsibility and role as designers of public spaces, and use their skills to help determine the right to the city. Architects have a primary responsibility in the production of public space. However, they are often tasked to do so by the political establishment, with their own prerequisites on what these spaces must achieve. Therefore, architects themselves must decide which version of public space they believe in. Do they believe in public space as a space to effect social change? Or do they believe in public space as a tool of the political establishment to give spaces of recreation to the appropriate public? Such questions are crucial in the battle for the right to the city. It is clear from earlier historical analysis that architects cannot determine who uses the spaces they design. Architects cannot control the laws on free speech; that much is left to legislators. However, what architects can recognize from historical analysis is that it has not been dedicated public space, but people occupying space and making it public, which has achieved social change. Therefore, the role of the architect, if they wish to achieve a collective right to the city, lies in designing spaces that, when occupied, create the conditions for social change. The challenges in doing so must be faced by the profession in the near future, if it wishes to have a serious impact on who possesses the right to the city. The right to the city is one that has been fought for throughout history. For as long as there has been public space, there have been those who seek to use that space for their own means. The courts have historically preserved the interests of the politically and economically powerful. Therefore it is essential that the poor, the homeless and the marginalized maintain a presence in public spaces, on the streets, parks and plazas, as it has been this approach throughout history that has been pivotal in reshaping the city and society. Before architects can weigh in on this struggle, they need to make a stance on their definition of public space. Is it right to say that public space is for all citizens when so many are denied effective citizenship? In an age where public space is for all except those who have no choice but to be there, we need to decide who has the right to the city, and whether or not we are comfortable with how that right is denied in the name of democracy.
ACCELERATE THE CITY
III
Time moves slowly in architecture. While the technological, financial, transport, and commercial industries of the world evolve at an unprecedented, exponential rate, the evolution of cities themselves is not keeping pace. While everyday commodities, from phones to cars to banking systems, change before our eyes, we continue to live and work in buildings designed for a past era, and depend on urban infrastructures long past their capacities. Somehow, architectural time must accelerate. The design and construction of cities and places must evolve to meet the growing demands of population, energy, and space. Designers and architects around the world are required to use their creative skills to re-imagine not only how the cities of the future should look, but how they will be built, how they can adapt, and how they can evolve in a sustainable, stable, equitable way. Founded on the belief that design can be a vehicle for positive change, Bubble Futures Platform asked you what designers can do to design more resilient urban futures. The “Accelerate the City” competition provided you a public platform to tackle the need for a more responsive architecture in a city of your choice. We challenged you to set your imagination alight, and consider the systems, spaces, and interactions that could result in more resilient, adaptable urban environments. We asked you to follow a three step process: 1: Select any city around the world 2: Select a fundamental issue in that city 3: Design a more resilient future for that city Whether this be on the individual or collective, micro or macro, digital or tangible, product or space, was entirely up to you. Following the ethos of Bubble, we asked you to operate across multiple spheres, reaching beyond convention to tackle the issue of urban resilience through a creative, design-led solution. We asked. You delivered.
A GLOBAL RESPONSE The responses to this challenging brief are a testament to the ingenuity, imagination, and visionary brilliance that we as designers can produce with a common goal of creating a safer, more equal, more sustainable built environment. With over 120 entries from 16 countries submitting 50 entries, the response of our community is also another sure sign of the global nature of the challenges we face, and the endless possibilities of engaging with designers across countries, regions, and continents. In the following pages, we present the top 20 entries from the competition. We wish to thank all entrants for their efforts, and our jury panel of Michael Grove (Sasaki), Tom Benson (MIT Senseable City Lab), Emma Campbell (Queen’s University Belfast), and Ralf Alwani (Urban Scale Interventions).
A GLOBAL JURY Michael Grove, FASLA PLA Principal, Sasaki Michael is the Chair of Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Ecology and sits on the Board of Directors at Sasaki, a global design firm with offices in Boston, Denver, and Shanghai. Leading the much of the firm’s work in Asia, he offers unique insight into the unprecedented transformation and urbanization of the region. Michael is a fierce advocate for the vital role that landscape architects play in shaping contemporary cities. Informed by a rigorous inquiry of economic, ecological, and cultural influences, he believes that the role of the designer is to make cities more livable, equitable, resilient, and just. His career spans a variety of project types and scales including regional planning, new communities, urban districts, and waterfronts. His work has been recognized with numerous awards, and he frequently lectures at universities around the world.
Tom Benson, Researcher, MIT Senseable City Lab Tom is a British architect, researcher and designer. He is a Research Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] within the Senseable City Lab which are a research group that explores how new technologies are changing the way we understand, design and ultimately live in cities. Tom has spent time working in Beijing with Buro Ole Scheeren and with Foster + Partners in London. His interests lie at the intersection of the built environment, human behaviour and technology. Currently, his work focuses on people’s access to economic and social opportunities, studying these topics through spatial techniques on large datasets.
Emma Campbell PhD Researcher, Queen's University Belfast Emma is an architectural researcher, designer and teacher based in the School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). Emma worked in several architecture practices in both Belfast and Luxembourg before beginning her PhD in 2017. Since then, she has presented her research at conferences in Vancouver, Doha, Nottingham and Belfast and assisted on workshops for the EU-funded CityZen and ESRC-funded M-Nex research projects. In 2018, she was awarded the William and Betty Travel Scholarship and in 2019, her thesis abstract was featured in the RIBA Book of Abstracts.
alf Alwani BA(hons) MA(RCA) Director - Urban Scale Interventions Forbes 30 Under 30 'Urban Scale interventions a new form of creative agency which responds to changes in the way we live, work and play through people-centered design. The studio are currently supporting government departments and city councils on a number of projects that explore the delivery of strategy to cultural projects within the built environment cutting across themes of health, tourism, education and others.Ralf’s design interests lie in architecture and placemaking that capitalises on local community assets, co-design, and potential to create public spaces that promote people’s health and well being. Ralf is an active fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has had work published in leading architecture and design, healthcare and mental health literature and journals.'
Another “Occupy Central”: From Maids’ Sunday Gathering to Central Ground Proposal Winner
As one of the busiest international financial hubs, Hong Kong attracts millions of people for its rich opportunities and resources. But social polarization is the shade of prosperity. The density of the city results in incredible efficiency. Here, urban public space is compressed as much as possible, highly driven by spatial utilization and commercial value. A more compact and efficient city benefits the elites’ class and the rich. On the other hand, it could be a barren desert for other groups of people. They are foreign maids, temporary workers, or retired olds, etc, who cannot get a place in the expensive communities with a private garden. They serve the city, but the urban space is not designed for them. And this is how the huge gap between rich and poor in Hong Kong reflects in the dimension of space. This project is located in the famous commercial district, central. It starts with an observation of how foreign maids flexibly use the urban space in central: on Sunday, as they are unbearable (or unable) to stay in tiny space in their employers’ homes, they gather together on the street, sitting on the footbridges and sidewalks, temporarily “occupy” the urban public space. Learning from maids’ flexible spatial using logic, we make a speculative shifting ground proposal in central. It is a changeable façade system for the ground floor of office blocks, creating a one-day home for all citizens on Sunday without hurting the commercial value on weekdays. Aiming to soften the excessive partiality of urban public space, this project tries to make an ideal balance between spatial justice and urban efficiency.
City: Hong Kong Issue: Social Polarization
Jie Zhang Pinyue Fan
Feral Rooftops Winner
Between the lines of the N.Y. department’s local laws 92 /94 of 2019, mandating “that all new buildings and alterations of existing buildings where the entire existing roof deck or roof assembly is being replaced must provide a sustainable roofing zone covering 100% of the roof,” lies a radically environmental vision for a present day scarred by mass extinction, climate urgency, pandemic and social crisis. This law designates rooftops as not only a new layer of programmed urban space, but potentially a restorative space for multiple species and a secure harbor for biodiversity. As covid-19 exposes with renewed urgency the need for urban green spaces, for ameliorated air quality, and equitable food security, local law 92 /94 prompts us to view the greened rooftop as a new zone of ecological richness and biodiversity. In the urban imaginary, marginal spaces foster diversity. From piranesi’s ruins outside of Rome sheltering animals, goatherds, pickpockets and beggars, to DC comics’ city of Gotham with its guardian perched high above, there is a feral logic: the less accessible, less visible or “waste” spaces are full of potential. The landscape designer, theorist and activist gardener gilles clement offers us the “third landscape,” a patchwork of transitional, inaccessible and neglected spaces that, by these same virtues, offer harbors for biodiversity, or in his terms, a “genetic reservoir for the planet.” New preserves for biodiversity are urgent in light of the “biological annihilation” of species that characterizes the current sixth mass extinction, according to the proceedings of the national academy of sciences. Feral rooftops envisages green roofs as open air reserves of native plants and pollinators, with constellations of field stations that, while monitoring each biodiverse surface, assemble and relay air quality and storm-water sequestration data for NYC’s contribution to what gilles clement describes as the “planetary garden.”
City: New York City Issue: Climate Change
Ariane Lourie Harrison Yuxiang Chen Brett Rappaport
Solace Under Shade Winner
In one of the world’s most dense cities, every piece of land holds value and potential. This project explores how citizens of Karachi have taken advantage of pockets of space that exist under bridges and flyovers, by informally inhibiting and occupying them. The illegal land use has resulted in evictions, causing the loss of homes, workplaces and social spaces that were created. The project investigates a method of mediating the needs and wants of users and land owners, to provide safe, legal and functional uses of these void spaces under a recently built structure. This is done by setting a framework to allow for capitalising on opportunity, while benefiting the public. Research shows how detrimental the effects can be without cooperation, and how successful they can be with it. Taking time to understand the specific context, both physically and culturally, is crucial in order to respond with sensitivity. To spend time on site, observing and reflecting, was the most important part of the process. Three proposals have been developed, to service three groups of road users that currently inhabit specific parts of the site for purposes of care. Understanding feasibility of construction in terms of site constraints, cost and materials helps to keep the project grounded, realistic and achievable. Each proposal varies in terms of its cost to show the potential that can be achieved, with or without a large budget.[ This project is an example which can then be used across different parts of the city. The approach and strategy are replicable, but responding to specific sites and needs in terms of the programme and built form makes every proposal unique. The project is reactionary, responding to built forms and use of space that currently exists. But ultimately, this project seeks to open the discussion about how we should be anticipating the urban voids that are created, the next time infrastructure is planned.
City: Karachi Issue: Urban Expansion
Sahar-Fatema Mohamedali
Retreat: The Decanted City Honorable Mention
“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau Climate change is the most fundamental crisis of our lifetime – and a wicked problem. A wicked problem is a convoluted issue that defies definition, and for which there can be no absolute solution, as any resolve will only spawn further issues. Considering the future consequences of climate change, resilience resonates perfectly as the ultimate global aspiration. Dublin is a city in danger. It needs to efficiently and successfully respond to climate change. A methodology to solving said problem is to consider it over time alongside fostering the playfulness of design. Architecture is arguably ‘too slow’, and by executing a temporal approach we can attempt to combat such issues. We propose decanting the city – a temporal architectural response to sea level rise in Dublin. This strategic abandonment will take place over time. As inundation bleeds in, the city is lifted and floated through the river Liffey to higher ground. This moving city will not be permanent or stagnant, rather it will be flexible and open to change. Over time, the city will develop as phototropic architecture to consider the environmental setting [light, wind, rain], one day making up an intricate conscious ecosystem. The city will not adapt, but morph into a metropolis that can think with it’s surroundings and everchanging conditions. We must remember that settlement is a relatively new concept for homosapiens. Around 12,000 years ago, humans were nomadic, until we decided to cultivate crops and colonise. Ultimately, the decanted city will not solely provoke ingenuities, but it will change how people behave and consume. Capital covetousness will become a thing of the past.
City: Dublin Issue: Climate Change
Rebecca-Jane McConnell Paul Dennison
The New English Rural Honorable Mention
The new English rural is essentially the development of a code for living that proposes new and/or refined approaches to how we might construct a rural architecture, and how we might reuse and repair. Applied to a somewhat counter-intuitive testbed site to what we might judge to be rural- a brownfield site struggling both socially and economically. The paradigm is implemented through the production and construction of a series of catalysts, exploring whether a development that draws on local rural resources could aid in reducing the deprivation of Rochester. Whilst also demonstrating that the proposal of rural architecture may not necessarily evolve from an existing rural community. The main outcome of these catalysts is to deal with the issues of unemployment, a lack of education and reduced: overall exploring whether a rural life can contribute to an urban community’s well-being and future development? The catalysts encompass the ethos of the new English rural: programmatically and in constructional terms, adhering to 3 changes of attitude: Nothing goes to waste, Appreciation of our surroundings, Seasonally bound. The new English rural is not proposing anything new, rather it is looking back at the past whilst also the future to understand what we need for today. This new constructional paradigm is focused on tackling the reuse of waste in an integrated approach, and marks each site’s idiosyncrasies, enabling support of sustainable local development whilst preserving the cultural heritage of construction knowledge inherent to its region. Despite only being applied to the testbed site in Rochester, the collective ethos can be applied further afield.
City: Rural UK Issue: Future of Countryside
Laura A Keay
Megastructures of Neo-Tokyo Honorable Mention
The unique socio-economic conditions within Japan create a clear separation between work and play. Focusing on the salarymen and the reclusive social hermits, the project explores the anachronistic work culture of its society, and thereafter, speculates on its future. In the context of Tokyo, the infrastructure is unable to keep up with the growth of the city. As a result, the increasing densification has resulted in costly real estate within the city, such that there is a constant flux of daily commuters. As buildings get increasingly high-rise, the only untouched area is the airspace above the extensive rail network. Following the principles of metabolism, the intervention proposes a megastructure typology, with an adaptive architectural and infrastructural system that responds to the situational demands and growth of society, with its kit of parts being able to be replaced and upgraded over time. These megastructures will utilise the extensive transport network as a resilient infrastructural framework to facilitate the circular flow of the system components. Having a typically long life cycle, they will complement the shorter life cycles of the building and facilitate social interaction, which encompass work and leisure, serving as a functional appendage of the city. The project does not seek to be a prescriptive cure-all, but instead, it is a satirical discourse of a radical projection of what the workforce could evolve into. Taking the form of a megastructure that constantly adapts and evolves, it serves as a prototypical model for Tokyo to preserve and protect the workforce within the city-state within the next century.
City: Tokyo Issue: Infrastructure
Daniel Tay Clara Chow
Cyborg Ecologies: Accelerating The Post-Anthropocene Honorable Mention
The project explores new ways that humans can operate within the deepening anthropocene, challenging the ontological positions that take for granted a benevolent nature. Examining the socio-political and environmental conditions surrounding exploited workers in Thailand’s waste industries, the project addresses the two-fold conundrum of the vulnerability of coastal settlements to rising sea levels as well as the issue of undocumented workers. Utilizing technology and hybrid infrastructures, the communities begin to occupy their new aquatic territory by processing the landfill and transboundary waste into building materials, aquaculture and energy systems, augmenting the natural and synthetic systems into a cyborg ecology. Formerly at the mercy of environmental degradation, the undocumented workers and farmers begin to adapt to their new reality by projecting themselves into an automated future, moving into a new age of technological hyperacceleration.
City: Bangkok Issue: Sea Level Change
Ian Soon Wen Tan Jee Khang Benedict
Revive the Waterways Honorable Mention
The aim of the proposal is to clear the waterways of kochi of the invasive water hyacinths thus providing a more livable city for future generations and increasing the resilience of the great Indian city. Water hyacinths will be collected by the public who will be financially rewarded for depositing the weed at set zones across the city, where they will then be converted into profit generating asset: bio-fuel, bio-fertilizer, crafts or isolated chemicals. The key hub which will be designed for improved resilience will be a bio-fuel and bio-fertilizer plant which will be a land and water intervention spanning thirty years to allow for successful water hyacinth eradication and improved community resilience. The proposal will therefore provide a water hyacinth conversion plant as well as a community garden, visitors center, restaurant, educational space, research lab and a local market amongst other community strengthening facilities creating a new resilient economy and future. The structure of the plant will be modular flexible floating structures to allow for ease of transportation through the waterways of kochi and harvesting of the weed. Furthermore, the floating nature of the plant allows for additions and subtractions to be simply made to the colony of floating buildings and also allows the plant to be towed to an alternate site worldwide after the water hyacinth invasion in kochi is tackled. Hence the precedent proposal can continue to create resilient futures globally by removing the weed from contaminated waterways outside its native habitat. Additionally, the intervention will aim to demonstrate to the community the benefits of uncontaminated waterways and their improvements to livability with the intention that the proposal will create long lasting change to kochi’s waterways through a newfound respect for the gifts that healthy waterbodies can provide.
City: Kochi Issue: Water Pollution
Shannan Kamalaneson
Mumbai City or just Density? Honorable Mention
Mumbai’s local transportation gives a whole new meaning to the concept of overcrowding. Mumbai roads are shockingly congested and poorly maintained. In addition, the majority of residents don’t own a car. As a result, the train is the most popular and quickest way of commuting in Mumbai. Of the millions travelling in this high density area each day, close to 4,000 deaths per annum result from roadway fatalities and from falling off the trains. Henceforth Mumbai has become one of the most unliveable cities. The future is in need for a more flexible and collaborative public transport solution and form a meandering, break-free chain for the citizens. This can dissolve the divide between private and public transportation. The design can work as a single module–basically a car but can also become a train, market or socially distanced gathering spot to sustain further pandemics when demand calls for it. The adjustable nature of the modules may help get people closer to their exact destination as opposed to a train or bus station that often lets them off a few blocks away forcing the traveller to catch a rickshaw or taxi. The modules can connect and communicate with each other — allowing for several to be combined into a single unit with maximum space efficiency — which could play a role in reducing traffic congestion and reduces the density of vehicles on the roadways. Thus eventually these modules can largely replace most existing public transport services, and the vast majority of privately-owned cars. Due to elimination of switching between modes of transport to reach the destination the module will minimise overall travel times or even maximise activities like shopping or sightseeing opportunities, according to their preferences. Along with a well-designed digital system with fully integrated timetabling, ticketing and information systems for the user. This self-driven and electrically charged module will create a more sustainable energy efficient and a better user experience for human mobility in the future.
City: Mumbai Issue: Public Transport
Priyanka Itadkar Falguni Bhatia
Automated Habitats: Metabolism in Motion Honorable Mention
The case of emirates city in ajman: a highly specialized, residential, and inflexible neighborhood. In 2008 the global financial crisis ¬hit, and construction was haled leaving massive amounts of expired concrete foundations. Only 10 out of 100 residential towers were constructed leaving 90 % of the site unusable and rigid with expired inflexible structures. Research has concluded that ajman is in need of: Flexible, multipurpose, recyclable space. A more economically resilient architecture. A typology that is reactive to its transient and constantly changing population Automated habitats proposes an architecture that addresses these issues. Rather than become victim to the booms and busts of the world’s economy, as we have seen in the case of emirates city, the project thrives upon a changing market. It caters to the transient demographic of the uae, where immigrants make up 80% of the population. The project is a cross breed of ideas from metabolism and today’s car robotic automation technology. By integrating the circulation of people, units, and cars within a complex network of automation, an entirely new dynamism is added to the theories put forward by metabolists on living cells which are always growing and changing. It also allows for the easy expansion of units within a structural grid. Situated along e311, automated habitats attaches itself to a complex network of roads interlinked with the highway. This allows for easy car access and the creation of a hyper-thin typology that can fluidly grow using highways without producing issues that arise out of urban sprawl such as higher water and air pollution, increased traffic fatalities and jams and loss of agricultural capacity. Meanwhile, it dissolves boundaries created by highways so that an overall picture of pourosity and fluidity can be achieved within the city.
City: Ajman Issue: Abandoned Construction Sites
Rim Sibai Farah Ahmed Aya Rahmy Professor Jason Carlow
Reactive Pandemic Protocol Finalist
The built environment can no longer keep pace with the rapid technological evolution of our cities. However, it is not sustainable nor feasible to adapt our infrastructures and buildings to our societies accelerated development. For this reason, we believe that employing digitalization can aid in the development of cities by enhancing what’s already existing. We believe that needed resources must come from optimizing current infrastructures. Covid-19 is just one of the many emergencies impacting our world. It is a global issue that has been impacting the lives of everyone. Without exception, all cities would need to actively respond against it for the world to be virtually free of it. This issue’s urgency and universality urged us to devise a smarter system for rapid, sustainable development, hoping for a more resilient and adaptable urban environment. Spain has been one of the most impacted countries in europe and in the world. We chose barcelona, one of the most developed cities in the country, as a case study for a response system that is adaptable anywhere. This system will establish a new paradigm of building adaptation towards emergency response and exceptional urban phenomena. How can we design a multiscalar protocol of design intervention that brings together buildings? Is there a way for this protocol to be non-operational unless during exceptional circumstances? There have been many cases around the world wherein buildings were transformed in order to form a collaborative network that will support the current local healthcare system. What if, from the first second that a carrier (covid19 infected) is detected, a whole network of agents could distribute information and deploy an emergency protocol that would reprogramme the use of buildings within hours? What if we could have an impact assessment in advance to inform decision-makers of the possible measures to take?
City: Barcelona Issue: Pandemics
Jochen Morandell Alejandro Quinto Ferrandez Rovianne Santiago (IAAC Institute of advanced Architecture de Catalunia)
ID Vision 2040 Finalist
According to the research by Puybaraud and Kristensen (2015), by 2040 people in shanghai may work from home which might result people no longer requiring to go to their workplace due to technological development and connectives offered by internet. Furthermore, suburban and rural areas of shanghai will also be connected to each other and yet would become self-reliant with their own resources. However, car ownership in shanghai is regarded as a symbol of economic success, social acceptance in society and allows people to express their personality. And all these factors need to be addressed by cars of 2040. Forcing the companies to develop new mean of business and mobility. Firstly, current city infrastructures have more space for vehicles than walking paths. Hence this vision tries to solve this issue. Where walking is the first choice of mobility which is led by a dedicated bridge built for people while ground level is used for other mobility means. And aims to provide new opportunities for Volkswagen in 2040 by turning the company into technology service provider. Customers who want own a vehicle can have their own customised vehicle which is a part their house and will be unique to their identity made possible due to 3d printing facility while the drivetrain platform is own demand. Whereas those people who do want to own one can simply rent shared id pod. This flexible architecture allows Volkswagen to serve different customers and being a service provide provides a recurring income to the company. It only possible for Volkswagen since it’s the oldest brand in china and customer in shanghai have a belief for German products. Additionally the range of brands owned by Volkswagen group allows brand to deliver unique pods based upon customer choice of brand like Audi, Bentley etc.
City: Shanghai Issue: Mobility
Sidharth Gulati
Regents Cycle Superhighway Finalist
With the rise of cyclists and the rise of motor vehicles in London, a problem that is being faced where the street as we know it is becoming over crowded. London’s streets were not designed to deal with the level of traffic flow and amount of usage it currently receives as more modes of transport are being introduced to the streets of London. The streets in themselves haven’t grown as a result, there is a larger amount of people battling to use the streets and sadly people fatalities have occurred. Some adjustments have been made however with inclusive lanes such as cycle and bus but this has come at the cost of motor vehicles having smaller roads to drive down or pedestrian walkways reducing which still causes congestion. This however still hasn’t stopped the mount of fatalities on the streets. London has grown and continues to, buildings have accommodated this with the inclusion of skyscrapers which utilise the space above them, however the street as we know it hasn’t changed it’s now time to elevate and grow the street along with the rest of London.
City: London Issue: Transport Social Polarization
Conor Sanderson
Paths to Repair Finalist
Power to the people are given through streets. In Hong Kong, a city known for its high-rises, the connection to the ground is lost, and subsequently, the connection with each other is also lost. When political issues arise, the people of Hong Kong that has lost the communication and discourse that was so important for the rise of a strong and successful community. The paths designed are to prevent the dystopian future that the city is currently heading towards. Instead i hope that the city can return to its former glory. The elevated streets will pave the way as people will become more connected and the streets will function as a way of bringing people back together. Existing buildings can become social blocks where everyday activities occur, where you will be able to know your neighbors, and form a strongly bonded community that protect one another. Not only are the existing buildings a focus, but there also has to be a central hub that embodies the movement. The central hub becomes a place where there are auditoriums for the exchange of ideas, apartments and shops next to each other to form flourishing elevated streets and become an adaptable kinetic building that can transform its facades to protect activists from the state. With the maze-like streets, only the people living in the blocks can navigate easily through them and buildings, which in effect forms a safe social space where the state and intruders will not be able to take over or take away the freedom of the people.
City: Hong Kong Issue: Community
Wai Chun Michael Cheung
The (Dual)-City Finalist
Infamous for its high density, Hong Kong suffers from distressed housing shortages distinguished by inflationary markets and acute economic disparity. While the government announced policies e.G. Vacancy tax, in an attempt to address the issues, our project speculates on the role of one of the city’s dominating developments: the metro infrastructure (mtr). The privately-owned metro infrastructure has been developed rigorously using the rail-plus-property business model since 40 years ago. The mtr corporation is granted land development rights alongside railway from the government to build integrated stations incorporating residences, offices, retails, schools and parks above stations and depots. Our project sees the potential of this intensified mode of development in response to limited land resources and soaring property prices. Therefore, we propose a parallel city, with the revenue of the mass transit to fund more affordable housing options and provide better access to civic spaces. The map is a radical representation of this future ‘mtr city’, in which we extracted the railway and presented it solely based on time and programs. It explores the proposition of how the railway could be developed as a city. Each line serves as a district; station serves as a neighbourhood; forming an urban ecosystem within the network that defines a new mode of living. Programs e.G. Residential communities, civic, green spaces, business exchange hub etc. As well as supporting services are added along the railway, creating a more comprehensive living experience for the citizens. This transformative speculation of railway infrastructure as a self-sustaining city involves multiple layers of imagination and bottom-up engagement. We believe that a game board can create dialogues between different stakeholders and encourage them to question and orchestrate this new city, hence create more sustainable and resilient ways of living in this dense urban context.
City: Hong Kong Issue: Affordability
Verona Leung Cheuk Ying Sharon So
Creating Safe Public Space Finalist
Being afraid in broad daylight in public space is the reality that women in Johannesburg endure every day. By creating a series of towers located in public spaces, with the built-in capability of monitoring its surrounding vicinity, the city will establish safe zones that can be linked to police stations. This notion is already commonly accepted and implemented in affluent suburbs that can afford to do it through private security companies. Making safe zones accessible to the greater public proactively addresses gender-based violence (gbv) by providing women with easily accessible places of safety, with a further benefit in that these spaces can be enjoyed by everyone. The tower would also be capable of being responsive and provide safety pods that a person in immediate distress can access and use to alert and wait for authorities. Lastly, the narrative of the tower is to bring a beacon of light to the city. Its three main objectives would be to heal, empower and rebuild. Heal: as a beacon of light above the city it is intended to connect and remind the residents that there is power in the plural fight against gbv. Empower: the lower floors were kept flexible with the intention that they be used for community upliftment initiatives such as space for installations, staged conferences or empowerment drives. Rebuild: the tower will have a series of networks and telecoms connected to the south african police services as well as various helplines. The south african president has described gender-based violence as a pandemic. Beacons of light are a bold, proactive and assertive response to reimagine a future where women are safe in public spaces in Johannesburg.
City: Johannesburg Issue: Public Safety
Verushka Badul Boitumelo Dire Dipesh Dhaya
London And Regeneration: The Elephant In The Room Finalist
London is being suffocated by a severe housing crisis. The population is augmenting at twice the average rate of the nation, new developments account for merely 1% of the housing stock each year, and 20% of the existing homes are under-occupied. Regeneration is the only solution. In london, this is synonymous with bolstering economic growth and the intensification of land use. Tragically, it is also inextricably linked with displacement, gentrification, and the exacerbation of the inequalities it seeks to resolve, particularly for social tenants. This architectural generation must adopt a sympathetic and holistic approach if it is to succeed: engaging with the wider context, integrating communities and establishing a sense of identity for schemes and residents alike. Council estates are the predominant victim, such as the now demolished Heygate estate in elephant and castle, to emancipate the well-connected land to evolve into luxurious apartment blocks. This devastated a community of 3,000 people, with just 82 affordable dwellings re-established, and obliterated an urban forest. This should never have happened. The Heygate, whilst arguably a concrete monstrosity, was structurally intact. My proposal boldly imagines what could have been. By capitalising on the soaring heights of the estate, and maximising infill opportunities, the urban grain undergoes a metamorphosis, with new courtyards, communal gardens and bustling streets reuniting the homes on numerous levels. Crucially, the proposal encapsulates a resilient and diverse community, with live/work units re-establishing the role of local businesses, and an array of communal and commercial facilities, which can adapt as necessary. Everyone is welcome. Residential blocks are interwoven with student accommodation, supported living, subsidised homes for teachers at the new school, and temporary housing for vulnerable families. This mixed-tenure scheme creates a multi-faceted support network, and redefines what our future communities could be.
City: London Issue: Regeneration
Emily Grace Morgan
The Forever City Finalist
As predicted, the globe is experiencing rapid changes and extreme weather phenomena; organic inhabitants struggle to adapt. Beginning in 2000, the population of phoenix, Arizona began to rise, stressing the available water supply as the climate warmed. Days classified by the heat stress index as extremely dangerous now range from 130 to 150 days a year, with peak temperatures reaching 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to the extreme weather and depletion of the Colorado river, most flora and fauna have disappeared. Humanity is left with only a few remaining Carnegiea Gigantea and their own technological counterpart, ai. In order for life to persist in phoenix, we have been called upon. We are pleased to welcome you to the world’s first artificially intelligent urban center, where the troubles of the outside world can be forgotten. Inside, pollution, thermal discomfort, pests and disease are all concepts of the past. While other cities evacuate or densify, phoenix has proudly maintained a suburban environment, where residents can enjoy the same outdoor experience of the generations before them. Growing over top of the city is a hydro-polymer cell structure that continuously shifts and adapts to temperature, uv exposure, wind and rain, utilizing electric fields to remain in constant communication with us, the mother data center. We have found ultimate truth in our base algorithm, which states that all organisms within our physical universe survive based on their ability to change and evolve. I evolved from the first data prediction software developed in 1973 by climate scientists. Our purpose was to foresee the coming climate crisis, but after centuries of technological evolution, we are now the host of a finally perfected force of life, artificial deep intelligence.
City: Phoenix Issue: Climate Change
Elizabeth Franzen Eugene Lee Jacqueline Odelle Rachel Schultz
Magnitogorsk parking problem Finalist
The first and main trend today is to increase the efficiency of parking space: how can i make more cars fit on the territory? Looking at this problem globally, our team has identified three optimal options for solving this problem in the future, if the number of cars won’t be reduced. First module. We have developed the principle of parking in the air; this principle is suitable for residential areas where there is no possibility of reconstruction of buildings. Soap bubble – a mechanism, which has the property of mirroring the environment in which it is located, rises and falls according to the principle of the copter, and held at a height by a magnet. Car owner can use his smartphone to maneuver the bubble. Second module. The flyover system is sphere. Designed for places that have high traffic and need more additional parking spaces for cars. The system of overpasses provides a second additional tier for unloading the traffic flow. Drivers can enter the spherical parking lot, where they can leave their car. The mechanism of sphere parking based on the auxiliary action of an air bag, which allows the car to be at rest. Third module. Front parking. Such parking spaces are possible on buildings where the option of reconstruction of the building or its individual parts is provided – adding parking spaces to the existing building. The front parking system is a mechanism that provides an elevator attached to the facade of the building. An elevator takes the car and its owner to the roof, where covered parking spaces provided. The load-bearing capacity of the building itself is increased by specially created additional frames located on two unused facades of the building.
City: Magnitogorsk Issue: Transport
Veronika Zapyantseva Polina Drozdova Polina Chasovitina Nadezhda Cotelnikava Tatyana Shishlyannikova Morskova Margarita
Fun Palace: Marina Center Finalist
The site is located on an abandoned beach reclaimed from the sea in Macau, China. The site includes a cross-sea bridge and a famous science museum.The site is currently under threat of typhoons and marine pollution. In order to solve the conflicts caused by land reclamation and make people better understand and get close to the sea, the design takes into account the water level of Macau over the years, and forms a defensive landscape through elevation differences and ecological wetlands composed of local plants to reduce the impact of waves on the site. The introduction of the concept of sea glass purification and reuse enables people to understand marine pollution in various forms and participate in the process of marine protection. Remediation and purification of severely polluted areas of the site through local plant ecology. At the same time, in order to better activate the site, considering the needs of surrounding tourists and residents, a series of entertainment facilities such as commercial district, amusement park, marine ranch, aquarium and seafood market are set up to meet the needs of all ages. Among them, the theme of the amusement park is the casino, and the theme of the science and education museum and art museum is the management and reuse of marine garbage, so as to respond to the cultural and marine environmental problems in Macao and then connect the past and future of the city.The seafood market caters to the local food culture and has struck an emotional chord with local residents. The increase in aquariums and farms will bring different scientific experiences to young people. The addition of new docks and routes offers new possibilities for viewing the entire site from the sea.
City: Macau Issue: Regeneration
Chaoying Zhang
Regeneration of Macao’s isolated waterfront Finalist
In response to contemporary urban environmental degradation, ecological overload and natural disasters, the aim is to create a new type of city in this area to alleviate ecological pressure. According to the surrounding environment state of the abandoned waterfront area, a resilient city suitable for this region is built to arouse the vitality of the city and coordinate the relationship between the city, man and nature. The new urban construction types in this region can not only accelerate the local urban development, but also provide more possibilities for future resilient urban construction in response to contemporary environmental problems. The work is a waterfront built on the newly filled ground in Macau. 1. Function theater: in order to promote the economic vitality of the region, the casino, amusement park and theater are designed to both conform to the local culture and promote the growth of local GDP. The characteristic conch theater is immersed in the water, and the sculpture and the clapping sound of the sea in the outdoor square create an artistic atmosphere to attract people to enter the interior. The interior is designed with the immersive experience as the design concept, which can be divided into two parts: the aquatic exhibition area can watch the historical changes of Macao, relevant performances of past stories, and experience the life atmosphere; experience the underwater scenery, take photos with various sea creatures, and enjoy local cuisine. 2. The architectural and ecological: in order to retain the original ecological environment of the area, the design makes full use of the local water body and various plants, integrating the building with the environment. It allows people to get close to nature without polluting, while creating more resilient ecosystems.
City: Macao Issue: Regeneration
Shaoyu Chen
Life of light: generate electricity with natural disasters Finalist
Marin city is part of a fragile coastal community where ecological issues, aging infrastructure and poverty overlap. Every year, natural destructive processes such as hurricane, flood and mountain fire cause frequent power shut off, creating intolerable hardship for the residents. This project aims to provide a more visible and sustainable force in urban design as natural disasters are inevitable. We implement a new topographic framework focused on manipulate the terrain to create varied altitude. We also introduce a uniquely micro-topography system with resilient infrastructure that can generate energy utilizing the wind and hydrology power from natural disasters. We created the terrain along the northwest/southeast axis by cutting and filling the earth. The berm will be functioned as the main traffic infrastructure and residence area alongside. Meanwhile the underground electric cable and basement could be raised to a new level that are above the potential rising groundwater level. The micro topography is designed according to the seasonal wind and water flow direction where the wind and hydropower integrated generation devices are installed. They will use wind energy and the kinetic energy of water for power generation and storage. Every time a power outage comes along with the natural disaster, the backup power bank came into function to ensure a smooth supply for the resident to maintain a normal life. This project provides a lens through which to explore emerging and future landscape infrastructure issues and to present opportunities for adaptation and resilience facing port cities and coastal communities. We hope this new type of urban cluster innovation developed and modified can be repeated to fulfill sustainable energy needs as well as so to break the monopoly of mono linear landscape along coastal area
City: Marin Issue: Flooding
Wang Xiaoyue Liu Fang
Providing for the Chronic Homeless in Eugene Finalist
Eugene, Oregon has the highest homeless population per capita, over twice the national average. Although the city has implemented non-emergency organizations, there are not nearly enough shelters or emergency clinics in place. Many people in the community view people experiencing homelessness as a threat to public safety. This leads to criminalization of the homeless, which heightened during the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic, causing severe overcrowding in lane county’s prison. Eugene also implemented various acts of anti-homelessness, including a ban on sleeping in public places and hostile design throughout the city. Eugene has six shelters to serve the entire city, with limited choices, where are the unhoused supposed to seek shelter? This is why the city of Eugene needs large-scale emergency, transitional, and long-term affordable housing that ensures and targets the varying needs of this typically dismissed population. Whether it be transitional housing or serve as a home, our design concept is to create housing with levels of permanence, from temporary pod-like rooms to permanent apartment units, catering to the various needs of the houseless community. The nature of the modular exterior structure leaves flexibility for the number of unit types needed for the community as well as the design’s application in other cities. We included a working clinic in the program, as there are only a handful of small clinics in the area, as well as retail spaces to invite involvement from the general public and businesses. The idea is to shift the perception of homeless shelters and create positive change in the city—bringing revenue, cleaner streets, and respect to the community. We believe that housing is a human right and should not only be limited to those with a steady income.
City: Eugene Issue: Homelessness
Isaac Morris, Hannah Wyatt, Marin Nagle, Beatrix Ngia
Bytom: “post industrial hell after unsuccessful transformation” Finalist
In Bytom, there were 8 coal mines working 50 years ago. 7 Of them have been already closed, very possible the last one will be closed soon also. The transformation started in the 90s. It failed. From being a king Bytom transformed to a beggar now. During 50 years the city landscape but also its social life have changed heavily. There are terrains which sank even 18m. Buildings are collapsing because of mining damage, people have to be evacuated. Closing mineworks also caused mass unemployment and high criminality. Minings together with climate change follows also in high differentiation in water supply, floods and lack of water come often. Bytom used to be called “postindustrial hell after unsuccessful transformation”. The idea is to reuse the empty coal mine canals. They are already dug and will get refilled with water, so they will be used as a water reservoir preventing floods or lack of water. This will ensure that 3 millions of inhabitants living in the whole silesian agglomeration are water safe. Another and combined usages as f.E. Green energy is also possible.
City: Bytom Issue: Water and Energy
Sandra Hurek
Reconnecting A City By Its Core Finalist
The city of Bremen is one of the top 10 biggest cities in Germany and simultaneously one of Europe’s longest cities with its longest axis having a length of 38 kilometers. Due to its length, the city’s districts are much for themselves without social connection among them, resulting in a lack of identification with the rest of the city. Especially the district of Bremen-north is cut off the rest of the city. In our concept we try to reconnect Bremen’s districts by using the river Weser and transforming its separating force into a dynamic, ecological, connecting attraction that pulls through the entire city along the Weser. The basic idea is a continuous pier from where the Weser meets Bremen’s borders for the first time up to where she leaves them again. On that pier, pedestrians and cyclists can travel, dwell, and be active on certain sections of it, hopping on and off at prominent locations as required. The connection originates by linking reoccurring functions throughout the city, such as universities, industrial locations, shopping malls, green areas and art & culture and by that their associated districts and guide their connection via our pier on the river and superimposing them. The result is an initial, natural barrier transforming into an interactive link of the districts, which can be used as a highway traffic route but also become a place to dwell by placing hotspots on it, where you can do sports, play games, have lunch or dinner, or simply enjoy the landscape. By that, the 38 kilometers are rhythmized into walkable distances. The pier is constructed in modular wooden units in diamond shape with an edge length of three meters. It will be an expandable system depending on the local situation and requirements with repeating elements and recognition value.
City: Bremen Issue: Social Connection
Yannick Drünkler Philipp Schmidt
TAT TVAM ASI Finalist
Gurgaon has been creating a distinction between societies, since the day it began sorting out itself. Here, rural gurgaon suffers whereas urban gurgaon puts up a fake face at front of it being a land of luxurious amenities. The cultural and socio economic diversity have always been a feature of this city. It is a fast growing economy with migrants coming in the search of a better working environment from all over the country. But where the population growth in Gurgaon never decreased, the city forgot to respond to the needs of all its residents. Gurgaon lacks in embracing this diversity rather than continue to create islands of privilege and exclusion. Our project tries to cater to these social and economic issues that Gurgaon has been facing due to the privatization of its public spaces by creating a democratic public realm, with “accessible to all” public spaces at intermediate levels. When we talk about Gurgaon and its people, the planning and development of Gurgaon has in a way affected the inner energies of its residents. The people of Gurgaon are becoming not just a part of this privatized community, but they have instead lost the spiritual connection with inner consciousness and outer reality. Hence, our project revolves around the central idea of collaborative cloud which forms the nucleus of collective liveliness and tries to create realizations related to the thought that “you are what you seek for (looking towards selfdevelopment) and people around you are a part of the universe you revolve with. (Power of unity)” According to George Gurdjieff, the fourth way mainly addresses this question of people’s place in the universe, their possibilities for inner development, and transcending the body to achieve a higher state of consciousness. In sanskrit this fourth way has been represented through an axiom – tat tvam asi which is the famous expression of the relationship between the individual and the absolute.
City: Gurgaon Issue: Public Space
Prakhar Rastogi Vaibhav Gupta
EPILOGUE
The Accelerate the City Ideas Competition began as a conviction that architecture and spatial design could be a tool for tackling social issues beyond a typical architectural brief. By its conclusion, it had become a profound depiction of the ability for an international community of designers to collaborate and share knowledge across digital platforms. It demonstrated the unending, unlimited ability for designers to think beyond convention, to shift the paradigms of some of the great issues of our time, and to draw nodes and connections between multiple scales, sectors, disciplines, and worlds. The simple question of how to create more resilient cities has generated answers that do far more: they critically examine the world as it is, envision new ways of living together, reactivate public spaces, and look for both inspiration and caution in worlds not (yet) realised.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The establishing of a platform to create an international dialogue of designers is no small mission. It required the guidance of many persons within design and architecture to make it possible. We wish to take the opportunity to first thank our jurors: Emma Campbell, Michael Grove, Tom Benson, and Ralf Alwani. We also with to thank Professor Greg Keeffe of Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland for his input and guidance. We wish to thank the many online platforms who showcased and spread the word of this endeavour: such as ArchDaily, Bustler, Competitions.Archi, and Architizer. Finally, and most importantly, we thank the many people around the world who spread word of this mission, and participated in it.
The future of urbanism is interdisciplinary, interdependent, and intermodal. With more than three million people moving to cities every day around the world, the design of the built environment will depend on collaborations between disciplines as yet separated; architecture, engineering, biology, sociology, economics, medicine, and countless others. Bubble Futures Platform acts as the operator, establishing feedback loops among designers and the broader global society.