2006 Brisbane
HYBRID INFRASTRUCTURES john sunwoo
Sometimes a small change is more appropriate than a complete reinvention. If the global trade of water resources in the form of agriculture is too entrenched to alter (or even address) with a single building, the posing of this problem as such can inform a series of interventions. These interventions can take advantage of unique contours in localized conditions. None seek to solve these problems wholesale but instead put the related forces in play towards a particular end. The Underwater Hotel uses adventure tourism to address some of the problems of water scarcity. The market for adventure tourism encourages audacity and extravagance. Following this vein, the hotel is a series of pods attached to the structure of an abandoned oil platform. Solar panels and wind turbines power both the hotel and a small desalinization plant to provide water for guests. This water then gets reused to grow specialized crops with high water content (e.g., cocoa and coffee). By growing these crops with “free� water, this hotel acts to alleviate water scarcity in other parts of the world. The Rural Trading Post provides infrastructure to farms in the Amazon rainforest. Because of a lack of roads and general infrastructure, farms in these regions produce low yields. Water-storage tanks and related facilities are built to support an ecohotel. This infrastructure is designed to capture rainfall for use by the hotel’s occupants, a system made necessary by the remote location of the hotel. During dry periods, this system is shared by farmers to ensure high-yield harvests. By collecting shared interests, a strong incentive is formed to care for the land and use it efficiently. The Farm Tower is a hotel, park, and farm located in a city. Residents of the city can rent space for personal gardening. Hotel rooms look onto flower gardens that are publicly accessible. Because it can tie directly into the municipal lines, it eliminates the difficulties of storage and transportation typically associated with gray water reuse. The farm tower reuses water. It produces water-free agricultural products and reduces the load on local water supplies. These three interventions are only related in their attempt to follow up on the analysis of agriculture and water scarcity. Taken together, they do not seek to solve these problems. Rather, they use this analysis to propose unique hybrids that somehow address the issues presented.
Nuclear Power Plant. Regional open space and smart-planning advocates have been active for some time and have achieved notable successes, yet they still lack the ability to assess the impact of specific development or infrastructure proposals on a regional level. The Hudson Regional Modeling Initiative aims to fill this gap. Critical to the success of the HRMI is the ongoing development of a digital urban model to enable city planners, policy makers, designers, and other stakeholders to make better use of scientific knowledge. The model is a multiscaled GIS database interlaced with real-time data about the region’s ecosystem that would provide accurate scientific data to support long-term decisions. This cross-cutting predictive tool represents a new generation of urban modeling and data gathering.
The model provides a unique opportunity to bridge the information gaps between scientists, community groups, and policy-makers. There already exists a wealth of data on landuse patterns and existing ecological conditions in the region that has been compiled by researchers. These data, however, are fragmented and can be difficult to interpret for nonscientists seeking to understand the actual implications of the documented patterns on proposed projects or policies. Partnerships within the various stakeholder communities will allow local groups and gov-
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The model involves analyses of how continuing development will affect regional energy use and distribution, incorporating carbonfootprint analyses into the model and evaluating carbon management policy scenarios. In this sense the project offers an opportunity to build on and expand existing tools to significantly enhance their capabilities, leading to their potential application for a wide range of problems and geographic regions. The UDL has researched and experimented with a number of existing development forecasting and impact-modeling software applications. The model will necessitate forging relationships between members of the scientific community who have access to the hard data required to make accurate projections and the municipalities and community groups that are engaged in difficult decisions involving sustainability, economic development, and quality of life issues. The synergy of this state-of-the-art technology and the detailed data-gathering and analysis capacity contributed by our partners could result in a rigorous and authoritative tool for determining the impacts of various regional-development scenarios. The Hudson River Estuary model will be able to assess the comparative impacts and benefits of several alternative development or policy scenarios in order to contribute to truly informed decision-making.