Today's archidose #292

Here's a couple of views of 290 Mulberry Street in New York City by SHoP Architects. Photographs are by occam.

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Seastead Design Competition

[Image: The basic platform; design your seastead atop this and win $1000].

The Seasteading Institute is sponsoring a design competition to see who can most interestingly visualize a permanent, microsovereign architectural state at sea.
"A seastead," they write in the competition brief, "is a floating platform that allows people to permanently settle the ocean as they do land. Professional naval engineers have already designed a bare platform – a structure about 400x400 feet, roughly the size of a city block. What you build on the platform is up to you. It may be a hospital, a casino, a residential community, a cricket stadium, or something entirely different."

[Image: The sample design].

There are some basic engineering constraints that participants will have to heed, as explained both in the call-for-entries and in this forum, and a sample design has been supplied (see images above and below).
But I think it'd be absolutely fascinating to annualize this, and launch a kind of eVolo competition for offshore platform design. The skyscraper designs that come out of eVolo might gravitate a bit too strongly toward the biomorphic/diagrid/arbitrary fractal tiling end of contemporary architectural design, but each year's results are always worth checking out.
So if architects were asked to rethink the spatial design of offshore libertarian self-rule, and to do so as part of a high-profile annual competition, what sorts of structures might we see?

[Image: An illustrated variation of the sample design, from Wired magazine].

For a little more background, Wired's Chris Baker covered the Seasteading Institute last month. Baker wrote that the Institute "doesn't just want to create huge floating platforms that people can live on," they are "also hoping to create a platform in the sense that Linux is a platform: a base upon which people can build their own innovative forms of governance. The ultimate goal is to create standards and blueprints that can be easily adapted, allowing small communities to rapidly incubate and test new models of self-rule with the same ease that a programmer in his garage can whip up a Facebook app."
Here, architectural design would actually help to catalyze new forms of political sovereignty.
The cultural possibilities for these offshore spaces are effectively without limit – and they would be self-policed, falling outside the bounds of international law. This opens up a number of legal (not to mention moral) quandaries.
Baker reports that Patri Friedman, the Institute's co-founder and executive director, speaking at a Bay Area conference held last fall, "notes that some enterprises – like euthanasia clinics – would incense local authorities, but almost all the ideas attendees [at that conference] come up with would capitalize on activities that skirt existing laws and regulations: Fish farming and aquaculture. Prisons. Med schools. Gold warehouses. Brothels. Cryonics intakes. Gene therapy, cloning, augmentation, and organ sales. Baby farms. Deafeningly loud concerts. Rehab/detox clinics. Zen retreats. Abortion clinics. Ultimate ultimate fighting tournaments."
So what might these platforms look like? Submissions are due by May 1.

Veg.itecture: VIVA Evolo Skyscrapers

Nothing elicits more interesting ideas and visuals than a futuristic and visionary design competition for the 21st Century Skyscraper. That has one word: eVolo. I featured a few of the entries from last years competition - so thought I would do the same for the more veg.itectural (and there are many, as pointed out in Pruned in the form of the vegetal zeitgeist) of this years entries. What better way to get a pulse on the trends in architecture, landscape and urbanism? Click the image links for the full boards, and check out the remaining entries from this and previous years at the eVolo site.

FIRST PLACE - NeoARC
by Kyu Ho Chun - Kenta Fukunishi - JaeYoung Lee

:: images via eVolo

SECOND PLACE - The Living Bridge

by Nicola Marchi - Adelaïde Marchi

:: images via eVolo

SPECIAL MENTIONS

BioCity

by Stefan Shaw - John Dent

:: images via eVolo

Nature of Nature
by Luis Longhi - Christian Bottger - Carla Tamariz

:: images via eVolo

Standing on the Ground

by Park Ju Sin - Lee Min Cheol

:: images via eVolo

Farm3
by Fabrice Henninger - Alexander Dabringhausen

:: images via eVolo

Urban Nebulizer
by Jae Kyu Han - Sang Mi Park - Ji Hyun KimWoo - Young Park - Kyoung Ho Lee

:: images via eVolo

ADDENDA

Finally, our friends at Urbanarbolismo garnered some acclaim as one of the 40 finalists to be published with their proposal for a cadre of tree-derived towers in the Mediterranean climate of the city of Benidorm. Read the full scoop at their site (translation here).

:: images via Urbanarbolismo

Today's archidose #291

Here's a couple of buildings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by Vann Molyvann. Photographs are by jiattison. See also New Khmer Architecture.


[Institute of Foreign Languages at the Royal University of Phnom Penh]


[Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium]

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

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Time for the weekend!

I hope everyone has a bright and sunny weekend!! Spring is on the way!
Image from the Elms in Newport, Rhode Island.

Veg.itecture: VIVA Vision City + Nessie

Two proposals for vertical greening from Asia push some of the buttons and boundaries of our continually uneasy relationship with representation over implementation (the subject of the ongoing VIVA series).


:: not dumb boxes - image via designboom

VISION CITY
First, via Designboom, the Vision City proposal from sparch architects envisions a gargantuan a retail mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.




:: images via Designboom

Via designboom: "...they cut the central portion of the new building to create a hybrid space—a voluminous garden naturally ventilated but sheltered from the elements—that is an extension of the urban fabric. with the originally planned hermetic air-conditioned box now drawing the streetscape into its carved out volume, vision city deviates from the mould of the ubiquitous modern mall, engaging more directly its immediate surroundings, physically as well as visually, to realize the urban rejuvenation that its developers and urban planners are envisioning for the neighbourhood."


:: image via Designboom

The sections tell the best story of the project process, including green roofs and interior atria for microclimatic effect.




:: image via Designboom

My favorite visual has to be the faceted green wall (below) - offering an enveloping bowl of greenery to the interior spaces, and some dynamic vistas from within.


:: image via Designboom

NESSIE
Second, a design from SEIWOOO's Alban Mannisi, along with Pierre Alex providing 3-D Rendering for Nessie: Vertical Territoriality, the Green Water City - Quingpu, Shanghai, China – 2009




:: images via SEIWOOO

From SEIWOOO: "The growth of cities, their influences and the mask which they define on the whole grounds must be reconsidered. Extending a city should be no longer at the expense of arable land. Economic concerns that guide the new urban issues must be able to coincide with the same concerns that have established practices for cultivation before the development of cities. NESSIE project newly supplies the territory with oxygen thanks to the built towers which take place at the heart of the history of the territory. The towers have an open-aired column in their centers which allow oxygenation to go to the lower layer. Oxygenation, development of bacteria in these old asphyxiated strata, it can regenerate a necessary ecosystem to the superficial layers where life and vegetation grow. Groundwater, regulations, redevelopment, their bacteriological regulations in an autonomous way. And it can provide a healthy home to human activities, flora and fauna to immersed areas around the extension of the new town."

:: images via

SEIWOOO

The visuals seem to speak for themselves... thoughts anyone on what they are saying?

Landscape on the Brain

Landscape is good. Landscape is healthy. Landscape is necessary. We all know this, innately, but a refresher is never a bad idea. This post made the rounds a few months back, quoting a study and article from the Boston Globe, 'How the city hurts your brain, and what you can do about it.' delves again into the idea, using a recent research study from Marc Berman, a psychologist at the University of Michigan.


:: image via Urbanarbolismo

From the article: "One of the main forces at work is a stark lack of nature, which is surprisingly beneficial for the brain. Studies have demonstrated, for instance, that hospital patients recover more quickly when they can see trees from their windows, and that women living in public housing are better able to focus when their apartment overlooks a grassy courtyard. Even these fleeting glimpses of nature improve brain performance, it seems, because they provide a mental break from the urban roil."


:: image via Filthy Mess

The article continues: "This research is also leading some scientists to dabble in urban design, as they look for ways to make the metropolis less damaging to the brain. The good news is that even slight alterations, such as planting more trees in the inner city or creating urban parks with a greater variety of plants, can significantly reduce the negative side effects of city life. The mind needs nature, and even a little bit can be a big help."

This has been evident since the days of pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who looked a parks in cities not as much from a ecological as from a social and public health standpoint. The urbanization and densification creates blight that isn't just unhealthy in a physical way, but also a psychological one. Subsequently, the work of Jay Appleton (Prospect-refuge theory), the Kaplans' study of environmental psychology, and the whole up and coming Biophilic Design crowd - shows there is no shortage of material to draw on. I'm currently reading a book that I picked up in a used bookstore in on a recent Mt. Shasta trip. Written by Charles A. Lewis, Green Nature, Urban Nature explores 'the meaning of plants in our lives', and concludes that culturally, evolutionarily, and spiritually - landscape and nature including plants, offers us a huge well of positive benefits.

:: image via Univ. of Illinois Press

Thus nature = good. Cities = density. Nature in Cities = good density. This goes for the incorporation of the vegetation in buildings as well, as I posit, and as Lewis points out in the opening chapter of his book: "Severed from their roothold in native soil and transplanted to the city, plants stubbornly push new roots into earth substitutes. They unfurl their banners outside of buildings, clinging to walls, festooning windows and balconies, and transforming rooftops into verdant outposts. Within buildings they proclaim their message in flowerpots on windowsills and desks, along corridors, and at elevators. Echoes of larger landscapes are found in specially constructed atria in offices, hotels, restaurants, stores, shopping malls, and hospitals, where they provide protective habitats for lush displays of vegetation." (p.3)


:: Chicago City Hall - image via Treehugger

Another interesting observation that I didn't think about was the direct biological connection we have to plants. "Our ties to the green world are often subtle and unexpected. It is not merely that hemoglobin and chlorophyll bear a striking similarity in structure, or that plants provide the pleasure of food and flowers." The major difference between the building blocks of human and plant is the use of a foundation of iron versus magnesium... a subtle difference for sure.


:: Cholorphyll / Hemoglobin - images via Scientific Psychic

Stockholm

In the middle of Stockholm (city of many islands) is a small island called Beckholmen which houses the royal navy and also a few houses up the middle as you can see above. I've highlighted it here in pink on the map. The city center is just to the left.Because of it's location, it's surprisingly quiet for being right in the city. Also it's the best places to watch the boats go by, especially during the regatta and many sail races that happen in the city.This sculpture stands on the side of the ship yards as a memorial, isn't it great? You can see the house we stayed in when I was a little boy in the background.

From the Archives: Urban Habitat

One of the more interesting urban legends (which happens to be true) is the story of the coyote that decided to hitch a ride on Portland's MAX light rail - recently reemerged on the Seattle Transit Blog.


:: image via Seattle Transit Blog

Some more info via the strange Dogs In the News - from February, 2002 : "Authorities reported on Wednesday that a wild coyote was chased off the tarmac at Portland International Airport. The traveling prairie pooch, realizing that it wasn't welcome to fly the friendly skies, proceeded to the Tri-Met Airport Terminal Station where it boarded the light-rail train bound for downtown. ... Closely related to the domestic pooch (Canis familiaris), the coyote (Canis latrans) shares many of a dog's behavioral traits, such as a remarkable intelligence and capacity to learn. However, coyotes generally fear people and will avoid human contact. The "Commuter Coyote" described in this article (Canis latransit) is currently being researched by Scoop biologists. Stay tuned for further scientific developments."

The most interesting byproduct of this encounter, the human/wildlife interaction aside, was one of my favorite songs, "Light Rail Coyote," by the now retired Sleater-Kinney. From the Portland Mercury: "The song is a wonderful portrait of Portland as both an urban and rural landscape that houses punks, strippers, bookstores, and even the occasional public transport riding coyote.

Out at the edge of town
Where airfield runs water down
Coyote crosses old tracks
And hops on the Light-Rail Max"

Check out the link for some more info and listen to the tune. While it is perhaps a stretch to connect the demise of one of the grrrl punk superstars with declining habitat values - it is telling that a band of intelligent women - took note of a very urban issue, and a very Portland one at that, to make some art. Their last album, 'The Woods' came out in 2006. Much like the coyote, we will never see them again.


:: image via MySpace - Sleater-Kinney

Be Careful What you Wish For...

Just kidding... I can't think of anything better in the world to do. Plus we are multi-talented:


Via Topophila: I Want to be a Landscape Architect

"Landscape architecture combines environment and design, art and science. It is about everything outside the front door, both urban and rural, at the interface between people and natural systems. The range of ways in which landscape architects work is staggering. From masterplanning Olympic sites to planning and managing landscapes like national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty to designing the public squares and parks that we all use, landscape architecture nurtures communities and makes their environment human and liveable.

Landscape architects are broad thinkers who thrive on the big picture. They are playing an increasingly important role in addressing the great issues of our day: climate change, sustainable communities, water, housing and the prevention of hunger.

Landscape architects are often natural leaders, able to communicate with many professions and leading multidisciplinary projects. Landscape architecture is not just the profession of the future – but the profession for a better future."