RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Dense’

Floating Blue: Bold Plan to Expand Dense Cities into Open Seas

23 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

floating ocean city ecosystem

Ocean cities are a longstanding Utopian dream, but many such schemes fail to address the immediate need of cramped urban centers, many of which around the world are bordered and constrained by large bodies of water.

floating city design strategy

Blue 21, a Dutch architecture and design group, aims to sustainably extend such cities into adjacent lakes and oceans, alleviating the stress on existing metropolitan areas and providing vital resources (like space to grow food) in close proximity to urban cores. The team has experience building floating homes in the Netherlands but wants to take their experience global and work at a larger scale.

floating city on the water

These modular buoyant extensions can be added to over time and used to grow algae, veggies, crops and seafood, producing food and biofuels to support existing populations on land.

floating city blue revolution

At the same time, they can serve to productively process and recycle city wastes and absorb emissions, becoming a productive rather than consumptive part of the regional ecosystem. “As an integrated concept it proposes floating development that can be ‘plugged in’ to existing cities and help them recycling waste nutrients and CO2 that often end up in the environment, polluting it.”

While Blue 21 may not be a solution on the immediate horizon as yet, it represents an approach that bridges the gap between fantastical floating cities and more realistic solutions that engage accessible stretches of ocean. “We are Blue21, starting a Blue Revolution. This is how: by building world’s first floating city with a positive impact on nature. Because we believe our future is on the water for seven reasons: 1. We are running out of land, 2. Cities on land are vulnerable, 3. Water will save us from our addiction to fossil fuels, 4. Water is the new oil, 5. Water is an innovation playground, 6. We can actually have a positive impact, 7. We can do this, now.”

Share on Facebook





[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Floating Blue: Bold Plan to Expand Dense Cities into Open Seas

Posted in Creativity

 

Dense City: Mixed-Use ‘Urban Alloy’ Transit Hub for New York

10 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

urban transit metal hub

Taking advantage of air rights above existing an transportation nexus, this design integrates elevated train lines, apartments, offices and shops to create a nodal point within NYC.

urban wrapping interior levels

urban amorphous architectural building

Chad Kellogg and Matt Bowles of AMLGM clad the building in a distinctive metal-and-glass skin, intended to be iconic as well as functionally flexible, adaptive and responsive.

urban lounge space level

urban green eco strategies

The connective steel structural elements morph according to an algorithm to allow for larger openings or shaded sections as needed.

urban entry sliced section

urban aerial satellite context

The vertical extrusions shoot upward using the same language as the horizontal connectors, entries and extensions that tie the building into the urban fabric.

urban skin concept models

urban site context city

The design is both oriented toward human occupation and contextually related to landscape of the surrounding city, operating effectively at multiple scales.

urban section diagram drawing

While similarly audacious large-scale, mixed-use projects have failed in the past, the density of NYC lends itself to such a compact, all-in-one approach.

urban detail

From the designers: “A wide range of living conditions are offered within the one development. The programmatic options are set within a blend of floor plate geometries, transitioning from cylindrical to triangular from the base to the top of each tower. A composite or alloy of multiple flexible systems optimizes the skin so that each point has unique exposure, and is deployed on a grid that follows the direction of the surface.”

Share on Facebook





[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Dense City: Mixed-Use ‘Urban Alloy’ Transit Hub for New York

Posted in Creativity

 

Dense City: Photos Show Tightly-Packed Hong Kong Towers

30 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

density in hong kong

Twice as dense as New York, and four times as crowded as London, Hong Kong is a fascinating mix of natural landscape edged by incredibly dense human construction.

dense urban city images

Michael Wolf, a German photographer, focuses on the latter, turning the vast structures of the city into strange stand-alone landscapes that show the enormity and relentless repetitiveness of this vertical urban environment.

dense city urban scaffolding

On the one hand, it is fascinating to see just how overwhelming the overarching rhythms of the buildings are when you take a broad view. At the same time, though, individuality begins to emerge as you zoom in and narrow the scope of your perspective.

dense dark city photos

In his book Architecture of Density Wolf explores the patterns and scales of his new home city, testing different angles and distances while remaining focused on the sometimes-bleak yet awe-inspiring man-made side of this incredibly packed island.

hong kong street level

As his main series of photographs show (versus the scout shots directly above), attempts to distinguish scales through details and color seem almost hopeless against the large-scale monotony of it all. To be fair to its inhabitants, however, those upper-level images tell only one half of the story – visiting Hong Kong has many more dimensions than can be seen looking only from on high.

Share on Facebook



[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Dense City: Photos Show Tightly-Packed Hong Kong Towers

Posted in Creativity

 

Car-Free City: China Builds Dense Metropolis from Scratch

19 Feb

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

China Carless City 1

Altering most of today’s cities to eliminate cars altogether would be a daunting, if not impossible, proposition – which is why China is starting from scratch. Great City will be built around a high-rise core housing 80,000 people, entirely walkable, and surrounded by green space.

China Carless City 2

Planned for a rural area outside Chengdu, the high-density Great City will give residents access to a ‘buffer area’ of gardens and greenery making up 60% of the total area of the city. Walking from the center of the city to the green spaces takes just ten minutes, and other nearby urban centers will be accessible by a mass transit system.

China Carless City 3

Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture say the city will use 48% less energy and 58% less water than a more conventional city of the same size; it will also produce 89% less landfill waste and generate 60% less carbon dioxide.

China Carless City 4

The development addresses the problem of overpopulation, pollution and urban sprawl by compacting a lot of residents into vertical housing, growing food nearby. “The design is attempting to address some of the most pressing urban issues of our time, including the need for sustainable, dense urban living at a cost people can afford,” says Gill.

Carless City China 5

“Accordingly, we’ve designed this project as a dense vertical city that acknowledges and in fact embraces the surrounding landscape—a city whose residents will live in harmony with nature rather than in opposition to it. Great City will demonstrate that high-density living doesn’t have to be polluted and alienated from nature. Everything within the built environment of Great City is considered to enhance the quality of life of its residents. Quite simply, it offers a great place to live, work and raise a family.”

Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Car-Free City: China Builds Dense Metropolis from Scratch

Posted in Creativity

 

Car-Free City: China Builds Dense Metropolis from Scratch

12 Feb

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

China Carless City 1

Altering most of today’s cities to eliminate cars altogether would be a daunting, if not impossible, proposition – which is why China is starting from scratch. Great City will be built around a high-rise core housing 80,000 people, entirely walkable, and surrounded by green space.

China Carless City 2

Planned for a rural area outside Chengdu, the high-density Great City will give residents access to a ‘buffer area’ of gardens and greenery making up 60% of the total area of the city. Walking from the center of the city to the green spaces takes just ten minutes, and other nearby urban centers will be accessible by a mass transit system.

China Carless City 3

Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture say the city will use 48% less energy and 58% less water than a more conventional city of the same size; it will also produce 89% less landfill waste and generate 60% less carbon dioxide.

China Carless City 4

The development addresses the problem of overpopulation, pollution and urban sprawl by compacting a lot of residents into vertical housing, growing food nearby. “The design is attempting to address some of the most pressing urban issues of our time, including the need for sustainable, dense urban living at a cost people can afford,” says Gill.

Carless City China 5

“Accordingly, we’ve designed this project as a dense vertical city that acknowledges and in fact embraces the surrounding landscape—a city whose residents will live in harmony with nature rather than in opposition to it. Great City will demonstrate that high-density living doesn’t have to be polluted and alienated from nature. Everything within the built environment of Great City is considered to enhance the quality of life of its residents. Quite simply, it offers a great place to live, work and raise a family.”

Share on Facebook





[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Car-Free City: China Builds Dense Metropolis from Scratch

Posted in Creativity