NOMADS at the SALTON SEA a WAY-STATION at RED HILL
CALIFORNIA QANAT a project by HANA MEIHAN DAVIS
NOMADS at the SALTON SEA a WAY-STATION at RED HILL
CALIFORNIA QANAT a project by
HANA MEIHAN DAVIS
YALE SCHOOL of ARCHITECTURE : SENIOR STUDIO : 2020
CALIFORNIA QANAT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CATALYST
Reflections from the Salton Sea : ‘Library on wheels’ nomad van : Tectonic and material precedent : Water systems, canals, tunnels, aqueducts and cisterns
METHOD
Investigations into solar-power desalination systems informed how I might make feasible decisions for the siting and infrastructure of my way-station.
RESOURCES
Ancient Iranian qanat’s were my biggest source of structural and functional inspiration. This Persian technology was first invented sometime in the 1st millenium BCE, and made flourishing oases possible in the arid desert-scape. From here, I designed an excavated wall and tunnelling system.
INTEGRATIONS
By laying down a series of control factors, including an adherance to the grid, material type, and my vision of nomad life, I designed my layered infrastructure and created plan for how this might integrate into the Red Hill/Salton Sea landscape.
OUTCOME
Using the site plan, sections and collaged renderings, I not only imagine how my NOMAD SOLAR QANAT looks now, but also speculate on its future: What happens when it moves from transient way-station to permanent settlement? What happens when uncontrollable environmental factors (changing sea levels, dust storms, agricultural conditions) come into play? How can I predict the future of my campsite?
PROJECT STATEMENT POINTS on NOMAD LIFE
What struck me most about our trip to the Salton Sea was the feeling of agency. Whether it was in the experimentation of East Jesus, or the way campsites expanded organically beyond the confines of parked vehicles in Slab City, or in the meticulously designed homes on wheels at the Rubber Tramp Rendevous — the poetics of place and lifestyle was in the freedom of its inhabitants. I noticed a minimalism of day-to-day requirements, and a simplicity of fundamental structure, and hoped to replicate that in my own designs and in my vision of what the way-station might one day be. Drawing from my nomad van project, I envision a community of exaggerated mutualism: “Hyperlenders” who barter, trust, and share in their trades and experiences. Someone brings the library, someone brings the restaurant, the greenhouse, the school... all on wheels. This way, not only the formal structures, but the vehicles themselves, serve to frame social interaction and make room for a future where this campsite turns into a permanent community. I found the origins of Slab City really inspiring: A settlement that exploded into colourful life upon the foundations left behind. This is how I sought to speculate on the plausibility of permanence. By creating the base infrastructure and very simplistic occupiable spaces, I am designing the canvas to be built upon. The space is customisable to the needs of each vehicle and its inhabitants. The structures are not prescriptive, they allow for authorship, and with that, the suggestion of a more stationary state of being that is to be filled in over time.
CALIFORNIA QANAT THREE LEVELS (that mutually reinforce) the GRID : the QANAT : the OCCUPIABLE ROOFSCAPE
Water follows its own rules and logic. Like the agency nomads seek when leaving urban life, the Salton Sea is not subject to the rules of the land, it sets its own horizon and its own coast line. Central to my design is the idea that the ground is not my principle canvas. Rather, a system of underground water canals, inspired by ancient Iranian qanat’s, unify the campsite. The placement occupiable ground-level walls and columns, a roofscape of sorts, are directly informed by structural elements in the buried vaults below. Through the existence of pools, or ‘watering holes’, we get a peak at this hydraulic world. Underlying all of this, however, is the Jeffersonian grid which imprints onto the landscape of this country. The adjacent agricultural lands are subdivided at large blocks, 2,700 feet in width. My infrastructure is therefore united by this large grid, which in turn is subdivided into smaller 300x300 foot blocks that inform the placement of canals and campsites. Their parallel layout is a rearrangement of the Jeffersonian grid, rather than a submission to it.
a SOLAR-POWERED DESALINATION SYSTEM
To create a self-sustaining community that remains united with the landscape beyond, I designed a solar-powered desalination system. Each canal/encampment has its own infrastructure, and can therefore be “plugged-in” incrementally, and “charged” in the sweltering summer months when the desert is minimally inhabited. This, coupled with the pools, walls and shade, creates a massive climate transformer and dust moderator — making for a more hospitable environment.
... a citroen hy van, converted ...
california qanat: A L I B R A RY O N W H E E L S
Vehicles are a blank canvas, redesigned to fit whatever needs or wants of their inhabitants. Each van and campsite we saw in California was wholly unique, even though they were grounded in a standardised ‘kit of parts’ (i.e. the automotive itself). Drawing from my van, a library on wheels, my vision of nomad life is about individuality and customisation created from a standardisation of parts — some permanent, and some transient. In the library this manifested as sliding shelves and surfaces that revealed utility/function beyond the mere housing of books. For the site, I imagine an infrastructure of planes and columns that are the framework for further construction: Architecture in its most fundamental form.
C ATA LYS T
T E C TO N I C A N D AESTHETIC PRECEDENT
... inspiration from the Salton Sea and desert architecture ...
UNDERGROUND W AT E R S Y S T E M S
... roman aqueducts istanbul basilica cistern the salt works at ston ...
... the ancient qanat ...
A qanat, or a karez, is an underground system of canals, carved at a gentle inclination to facilitate the transportation of water across the desert. Vertical access shafts bring water to the surface, making a pattern that stretches across the arid landscape. Qanat’s allowed for a sustainable and equitable distribution of cold, drinkable water, supporting both transient and permanent human settlements even in the heart of a desert scorch. Today, these systems are found across what was the Persian empire and in the Turpan Depression in Xinjiang. Dug out by hand, this engineering marvel dates back to as early as the first millenium BCE.
courtesy of elemental water makers
... powered by reverse osmosis, fewer solar panels are needed ...
california qanat:
METHODS
S O L A R - P OW E R E D D E S A L I N AT I O N S Y S T E M
Using this system, 205 square feet of solar panels desalinate 1,320 gallons of water a day, with an equipment footprint of 54 square feet. Aggregating this to a larger scale, 2,050 square feet of solar panels creates 13,200 gallons of drinking water every 24 hours. Having multiple ‘bundles’ of solar panels spread across the length of the canal makes for a sprawling desalination system that can be plugged into at any point and continues collecting energy from the sun even while its inhabitants are away.
california qanat:
RESOURCES
E X C AV AT E D R A M M E D E A RT H
... the occupiable roofscape ... Rammed earth structures, constructed out of the dirt taken from underground when digging the qanat system. This way, everything is buildable by the inhabitants themselves, and all base materials are borrowed from the existing ecosystem.
california qanat:
I N T E G R AT I O N S
T H E L AY E R S : G R I D + Q A N AT + O C C U P I A B L E R O O F S C A P E
... the qanat system applied to the salton sea ...
california qanat: OUTCOME I M AG I N I N G T H E W AY- S TAT I O N
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS bob wells ryan kelley matt dessert REVIEWERS deborah bereke alec purves andrew berman & jessica bruder
YALE SCHOOL of ARCHITECTURE arch 494 senior studio spring 2020