Babylon Blue

Armor Gutierrez Rivas & Rosa Rogina

As part of the academic year 2020-2021, Lecturers

Armor Gutierrez Rivas and Rosa Rogina, in collaboration with the Sustainability Research Institute and students from Masters of Architecture Unit 8, engaged in a knowledge exchange collaboration with Babylon Blue, a leading company in Sustainable Water Living Communities. The collaboration included a joint project for the vision, design and execution of a sustainable floating community in the Royal Docks.

The knowledge exchange was developed through a number of workshop sessions where design improvements to the initial vessel design were discussed, including the analysis and potential improvement of the carbon footprint for the vessel. Following these initial sessions Ana Paula Gomes Kouzak, Unit 8 Student, engaged in a paid internship to develop a detailed 3D model of the vessel to be used for quantifying materials and identifying the carbon footprint for each component.

The collaboration included an event as part of the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) on future visions for the Royal Docks, titled ‘A Vibrant Civic Waterfront: A collaborative vision for the future of the Royal Docks’. The session was organised as a series of short presentations followed by a round table with Q&A and the audience was able to engage in an open discussion about the future of the Royal Docks waterfront.

The team involved in the project included the following UEL and Babylon Blue staff:

Armor Gutierrez Rivas, UEL Unit 8 Lead Tutor and Senior Lecturer

Rosa Rogina, UEL Unit 8 Lead Tutor, Director of LFA

Daniel Bridge, Royal Docks Programme Director

Darryl Newport, UEL / SRI Environmental Support

Alexander Host, Founder of Babylon Blue

Ana Paula Gomes Kouzak, UEL Unit 8 student

Alexander Host, Founder of Babylon Blue

Maryam Zonouzi, Co-Founder Lemon Leopard