The Design Gesture

Author: Prisha Shinde

The Intriguing Psychology Behind Interior Design: Important Things To Know
Introduction
Interior design is used to make efficient, secure, and aesthetically pleasing spaces by reviewing the space requirements, selecting decorative items, and establishing optimal furniture arrangements whilst obeying the relevant blueprint, building code, and inspection obligations. Interior design is not only the art and science of enriching the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment but also a way to create a psychological impact on the people using the space.
Interior design benefits by giving a definite sensitivity and good flavor to the space. The interior design of space aids to induce tranquillity and safety to the space and mind, benefits by creating a positive and efficient working environment. The interior design of a space can have a great deal of impact on how we behave or feel. Hence, design and creative measures are considered according to the psychology of users.
Importance of Interior Designing
Interior design helps to create more spaces by enhancing space efficiency, developing the functional utilization of space, bettering the lighting effect, boosting the color effects, enriching the textures, patterns, scale, size, etc. Interior design is all about transforming people’s lives and making their life better physically and psychologically. Hence,Hence, interior design is far more important than it seems.
Interior design is a process that offers its customers aesthetically pleasing yet efficient solutions for improved use of the space. The interior design intends to enhance the user experience by better managing the space presented in the intervened environment.
The space we inhabit has a major responsibility in our psychological behavior of the people. Environmental psychology or space psychology is the interface between people and the spaces they live. Interior design psychology deeply depends on the lighting, colors, design, scale, proportions, acoustics, and materials to deliver different sensations related to the individual criteria and generate a variety of emotions and practices.
Psychology Behind Interior Design
How Color Psychology can create a greater impact
Color is a big part of how we experience the world. Color plays a way more important role than just an aesthetic choice, it can additionally affect the entire mood and feeling of a space. The various colors of the spectrum help feel varied emotions and auras.
The warmer the color is, the more compressed space becomes, the darker the colors, the more empowering effects are imparted to our thoughts. Colors have a big impact on mood, including the feeling to promote tranquillity to anxiety. Interior design psychology understands that shades like yellow, orange, and green promote communication and socialization. Further, different colors reveal various emotions.
Various colors play various roles like neutral colors, brown, and white, which can be versatile for many uses andand neutral colors can feel very grounding in accents. Whereas warmer colors offer a sense of vitality and passion and the shades of red or pink help energize and increase appetite. The colder colors, like the hues of blue and purple, affect our psychology differently with a contrast relaxing the mind and decreasing appetite.
Interiors Reflect Personality
The interior design style that is incorporated into home interior design reveals the owner’s personality. Humans lean across a unique internal factor and make them feel safer in an environment familiar to them. The interior design style is a way to represent our personality and define the owner’s traits, through which they can breathe with freedom and help regulate their emotions.
Interior design is the way to mold our life around it the most valuable things, are subdued to it, and form mysterious energy that draws people to it. Personality determines everything subtly, the chosen pattern, the color preference, and the texture considered. Our psychology deeply affects the way we surround ourselves with. The interior design lines described can be heavily tailored to match the intricacy and uniqueness of the inhabitant because it makes it much more beautiful and psychologically satisfying to be surrounded by matter that makes us unique is also an extension of our identity.
Lighting can do wonders
Lighting can play an integral aspect in interior design, whether its source is natural, man-made, or a combination of both. Choosing light for home interior design, many factors are involved, like the color of the light, the light intensity, and the dimmable light. The type of lighting incorporated also affects our psychology. A bright white light energizes us and dim or dull lighting, lowers our power.
Light entering and psychology. Aa building should be your first step identify the vibe of the space. Studies have showed that psychology, mood, and energy levels are related to how much natural light we receive daily. Adding windows with translucent curtains that allow that light to creep in with all its golden glory. Adopt some plants for the sunniest corners of your spaces. They will flourish and make you happy.
Nothing is compared to natural sunlight, but getting enough sunlight is just not achievable. Hence, the use of artificial light comes to play and can be intentionally placed to create a beautiful effect. While interior design warm lighting can give us a feeling of warmth, within also helps us feel calm and puts our minds at rest. LED lighting, in contrast, is cold and gives the energy to work.
A well-lit space and cozy lighting give a sense of positivity and ushers happiness. Lighting is an effortless way to make your interiors happier. Home interior design elements like lamps and chandeliers are effortless decorating items that you can include in your décor. Hence, adding maximum windows with proper daylight entering the building and pro interior lighting can make affect humans mentally, physically, and psychologically.
Creating a Good energy
Plants generate a positive aura, hence including plants in your home interior design offers dozens of benefits right from improving air quality to beautifying the space. Flowers and plants are instant mood boosters as they radiate harmonious energy.
The addition of plants in the interior design can have a comforting effect psychologically of being surrounded by a natural environment. Contact with plants is an intuitive and non-verbal activity that can deliver psychological stability and comfort by stimulating the senses in various ways by positivity, energy, freshness, and enthusiasm.
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Indoor plants not only help to create good energy but have various benefits, like enhancing job satisfaction in office workers, reducing psychological anxiety, improving mood fluctuation, and enhancing cerebral health. Including plants in the interior can positively resist diseases and chronic stress. Few studies have explored the physiological mechanism underlying the health benefits because of indoor plants in home interior design.
Home interior design can opt for easy-care plants like succulents or ferns which can be easily arranged around the house near sunny windows. There is also an opportunity to add enhance the visual appeal of the space by opting for plants that flowers, like lilies or orchids. Interior design can especially include fresh flowers or plants that carry aromatherapeutic properties with similar benefits to essential oils. Hence, has an applauding impact on the psychology of the one living in the space.
Establishing a Perception of Space
The interior design is a way of playing with their space to create an efficient impact. To evaluate space in a particular direction and select all the correct colors and elements, a space can be turned into a far more spacious as well as luxurious than its tangible square footage and change the perception of space. It is very important to plan the interiors don’t give a crowded appeal as it can have a psychological toll of being trapped within. Interior design should give room to think and breathe.
Cluttering in the interiors of the space can lead to a sense of clutter in the brain, heart, and life. The best interior design approach is a system of simplifying and organizing your home by getting rid of physical items that do not bring joy into your life. The system was created by Marie Kondo, an organizing consultant and author on this topic.
Similarly, wall art is like selecting colors for walls or furniture that suit a personality. It can help promote senses inside devoid of even realizing it. While home interior designs the artwork, whether it’s in a living room or an office it should exude positivity when we look at it. The choice of paintings or prints with comforting colors and avoiding hues of black and dark shades of red, purple, or blue gives a sense of closed in and anxiety unless necessary. Instead picking bright and warm colors may encourage happiness these also include hanging landscapes portraying summer, spring, or fall perhaps both can be visually appealing and motivating.
The Comfort of a Safe Space
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Carl Jung, a Swiss psychoanalyst, and the father of diagnostic psychology, believed that intuitive instincts, gut reactions, could be explained with an understanding of what he called archetypes. An archetype is an essential universal belief pattern that subconsciously affects our behaviors and actions. This also means that interior design has psychological effects on the residents.
A space should make the owners feel more comfortable, calming, and rejuvenating. Home interior design should be imperative to maintain the positivity inside the house, which plays a good role in the well-being of humankind. There is also another way to create a positive atmosphere, and that is to follow the guidelines of Vastu to enhance blissfulness and goodness inside the house. It provides the residents with a feeling of safety and a sense of resistance to bitter vibes.
Every interior design choice affects the essence of the home, including work, safety, as well as assurance, and each one of these preferences have a psychological impact. If we enter a space and do not feel welcomed or at peace, it immediately makes us anxious and takes a toll on us mentally. Hence, while interior planning, it is very important to understand we create a space that’s calming, inspiring, and harmonious for both the mind and body.
Understanding the psychological art of Feng Shui
The Chinese art of Feng Shui has existed in practice worldwide for over 3,000 years. It is considered the key ingredient of interior design. Practicing the principles of Feng Shui is assumed to appeal to success, good luck, love, and optimistic energy. Using Feng Shui practice alongside interior design can mean reading the energy levels of colors and using natural materials. Feng Shui practices keeping your space clean but colorful may help you achieve a positive flow of energy throughout the space regardless of the use of the area.
Feng shui is a philosophy of setting and placing buildings and elements in an environment where people can have psychological peace. It aims to realize physical environments that encourage well-being through the utilization of flowing energy. Environmental psychology is a scientific discipline that studies how to interior design environments that can satisfy the needs of the dwellers and facilitate their activities to promote their well-being. Increase natural sunlight in your home, as it helps bring in positive thoughts.
The principles of Feng Shui suggest
- Decluttering the home while the interior design will eliminate unnecessary distractions and improve your productivity.
- To improve the quality of air in house interior design and promote relaxation and focus, use plants in areas that you use the most.
- Balancing natural elements, like fire, earth, water, metal, etc., increases interest and depth of the space.
Conclusion
Home interior design has considered some principles of design comprising balance, proportion, symmetry, and rhythm can introduce a sense of harmony and peace in the space. Light depends greatly on the function as a dim light suggests a gloomy space while a bright light defines a bigger animated appearance. Natural light stimulates production and recovery.
The interior design process should consider space psychology which can lead to better productivity in commercial projects, larger sales in retail ventures, and accelerated recovery in healthcare developments. It will highly depend on the designer’s sensitivity, creativity, and understanding of the research.
While key factors during interior design need to pay attention to include safety, social connectedness, easy movement, and sensory stimulation; more tangible measures comprise light, colors, art, ventilation, etc. The materials you choose, the circulation, the massing and volume, the amount of airflow, white noise, colors, and patterns. These are not independent and separate interior design decisions but interdependent which also has a psychological effect on the residents.
October 29, 2024
Architecture in Motion: Innovation in Latest Building Design
Introduction
Architecture in motion is one of the leading factors of contemporary ways of expression in architecture. It will examine different examples of architectural motion, then hypothesize one of the possible reasons for expressing movement. Motion in architecture is a new concept in modern architecture to make the structure more dynamic and sometimes can even be used as a sustainable energy source.
Motion in architecture can also be used to increase curiosity and creativity in the structure and attract people. Motion in architecture is a dynamic way for architects to portray their structures and challenge themselves to experiment with different forms.
History of Architecture in Motion
Movement in architecture through various documents deals with relationships between space, form, and observer. Movement in architecture goes as far back as ancient Rome, when people considered rotating architecture very auspicious and a symbol of prominence and a way to show off our wealth. The structures were generally applied with a certain movement, either by kinetic energy or manual energy. The movement or the orientation of the designs could respond to the positioning of the sun, wind flow, weather, or type of activities.
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Ancient Roman Emperor Nero has been categorized by historians as one of the most dynamic and fascinating leaders in history, with his architecture reflecting his innovative personality. Nero ordered Roman architectural engineers Severus and Celer to build a glamourous palace named Domus Aurea, which is said to be one of the first few examples of architecture in motion that has been recorded. The revolving dining room design remains a creative example of engineering.
Various ways to apply architecture in motion
Revolving Restaurants
Revolving Restaurants are used to impress visitors, treat patients, and improve the green qualities of a structure by keeping rooms in or out of the sun. It is something different and provides a different view to the visitors of the restaurant.
Perlan, Reykjavik, Iceland
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Perlan is a futuristic revolving glass-domed of fine dining restaurant in a park setting, with a cocktail bar located in Reykjavik, Iceland. Perlan: Wonders of Iceland, sits on top of the Oskjuhio hill, which is the highest hill in the city. It is an exhibition and an experience of a 360-degree view of Reykjavik and its surroundings from the observation deck and a viewing terrace.
Al Dawaar, Dubai
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Al Dawaar is Dubai’s only rooftop, revolving restaurant. Watch 360-degree panoramic views of the city as you enjoy a lavish spread of international delicacies along with living kitchen dining. Revolving hotel restaurant offering stunning views and an international buffet in an elegant setting.
Om Revolving Restaurant, Jaipur, India
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The city of Jaipur is colors, traditions and of course food, one of the famous restaurants there is the Om Revolving Restaurant. One of the many heritage attractions of the Pink City, such as the Hawa Mahal, the Nahargarh Fort, and the Jal Mahal, is visible from the hotel. This rotating hotel is on the 14^th-floor serving North Indian and Rajasthani specialty dishes.
360 degrees restaurant, Pune, India
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360 Degree at Bhosale-Shinde Arcade on JM Road is an innovative restaurant in the city. 360 Degree spreads across four floors, 7-10^th floor, rotating at its core. It provides the customers with a different experience, giving a complete view of the Pune city skyline within 60 mins.
Dynamic Skyscrapers
Skyscrapers have been a very distinct part of modern architecture. But skyscrapers in recent years have become nothing but merely tall structures extending vertically. Skyscrapers needed change, advancement, and creativity as a part of their form. Movement in a skyscraper is not only a way to make them look exotic but considering their heights, movement in skyscrapers can also be used sustainably.
The Rotating Dubai Tower
Source: Hayri Atak
Rotating Tower in Motion is a 68-floor with a height of 313 meters, the skyscraper was designed by architect David Fisher. In the Rotating tower, all the 59 moving floors move 6meters per minute around a central service spine while wind turbines play a fundamental role by capturing the breeze to provide clean, green energy. The building will feature a designated parking area on every floor, with the owners’ vehicles being raised and lowered as required by special elevators.
Mexico’s Twin Towers
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Mexico celebrated 200 years of independence by building two skyscrapers shaped like an ellipse. The towers are designed by competition-winner architects, Vasquez and Wedeles Architects. Mexico’s Twin Towers mimic each other in shape and movement. One of the towers extends geometrically from a square at its foundation and is shaped by four extruding squares warped on their vertical axis, to a rectangular tower at the top. It is a way to express their heritage, the center of the building marks the direction of the sun.
Rotating Homes
Rotating structures have been employed to solve problems and create effects that stationary buildings can’t achieve. Rotating buildings offered ever-changing vistas and made interior spaces more flexible and adaptable.
Sunhouse 360
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Sun House Andalusian company from Marbella, Spain, the contemporary Sunhouse 360-degrees, is a rotating farmhouse. The Sunhouse 360 house is equipped with a rotation system that allows it to turn endlessly around its axis for absorbing maximum solar energy. This way, it can help homeowners decrease 70 percent electricity costs compared to a traditional house. Emissions of carbon dioxide are also reduced by up to 68 percent.
Domespace: Rotating Dome Home
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Rotating Dome Home was built by the French company Domespace, this 2,300-square-feet dome home is located on a wooden property in New Paltz, New York. Rotating Dome Home is a circular abode that spins a full 360° to offer gorgeous forest views at every possible angle. The rotation is so smooth and gradual as to be imperceptible from both inside and outside the house. The primary objective of the rotation is to make optimum use of the solar panels that line the roof of the Domespace and the passive solar properties of the house’s many windows.
Motion in Façade
The results of modeling and simulating the mechanics of the facade elements based on the sun position are the bases for the virtual motion as well as the reference. Interactive facades are dynamic in the translation of space in architecture, especially in the aspects of aesthetics, sustainability, adaptation to the environment, and data relay through the medium of light, motion, and embedded technology. The design of interactive facades is complicated, and it requires time and effort in the comprehension of the internal functions of the facade from the conceptual stage to occupancy.
The Hive, India
Source: Fabien Charuau
Hive is an intelligent, adaptable, and modern family home designed by Openideas Architects in the city of Surat in Gujarat, India. The modulating, ever-changing mechanical façade of the house was designed in synchronization with the conceptual form of the ‘honeycomb’. The opening and closing of the solar sensor-based facade lie at an exciting intersection of art and engineering.
The Bund Finance Center
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The Bund Finance Center is a building in The Bund, Shanghai, China designed by Foster + Partners + Heatherwick Studio. The Bund Finance Center is prominent for its three, overlapping, turning layers of vertical stainless-steel pipes. These layers, inspired by theatre curtains, slowly rotate around the building. The building is circled by a moving curtain, which alters the changing use of the building and reveals the stage on the balcony and views.
Al-Bahar Towers
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buildingAl-Bahar Towers is in the financial center of Abu Dhabi is designed by Aedas Architects and represents one of the most impressive examples of adaptive architecture and integrated design completed in recent contemporary architecture. The key design influences were to develop an energy-efficient and iconic building, drawn from the local vernacular Islamic architecture.
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The most iconic element of all buildings is the movable shading, which wraps most of the envelope and modifies its shape, appearance, and performance. The glazed facade building in the region was the best possible approach, leading to a series of advantages such as enhanced daylighting within the building, reduced use of artificial lights, and associated energy savings.
Rotating roofs
The Devon House, Rotating rooftop house, Devon, UK
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The rotating rooftop house is designed by D Haus, this two-story property in Devon was constructed with a rotating upper pavilion. The rotating rooftop house was inspired by the natural form of a bird in flight, the triangular-shaped pavilion offers access to a spacious outdoor terrace that contains a seating area and a beautifully landscaped rooftop garden. The rotating pavilion consists of the main bedroom and the living space which allows occupants to take advantage of panoramic views of the landscape.
Conclusion
Movement in architecture is an ancient concept that is slowly being applied to conventional structures, mainly to increase curiosity and ignite the sense of movement. The sense of movement belongs to one of the nine senses of the human body. Movement in architecture can give people a complete sensory experience. It can not only help the users of the building to view various external surroundings, but also the people outside the building to get a 360-degree view of the entire building without even moving an inch.
Movement in architecture is further being blended with creativity and technology to create sustainable structures. Motion in architecture can be combined with climate-responsive motion in façades, solar roofs, motion with kinetic energy and many more.
Motion in architecture could be the future of architecture or could be dismissed as pure folly. Motion in structures is fascinating, yet still needs to make an architectural impact with surprising relevance to issues in contemporary architectural design.
FAQs
Q. What is architecture in motion?
A. Architecture in motion refers to the concept of incorporating movement into architectural design. This can include physical movement, such as rotating or moving parts of a building, as well as the perception of movement created through design elements. Architect in motion architecture focuses more physical elements.
Q. How is motion used in architecture?
A. Motion in architecture can be used in various ways, such as rotating buildings, moving façade elements, or kinetic sculptures. It is often used to create dynamic and visually striking structures that interact with their environment. Latest Buildings were made by keeping movement architecture concept in mind.
Q. What are the benefits of incorporating motion into architecture?
A. Incorporating motion into architecture can have several benefits. It can make normal building a motion building by making it more dynamic and visually interesting, improve energy efficiency through passive design strategies, and create interactive experiences for users.
Q. How does motion architecture contribute to sustainable design?
A. Architecture of movement can contribute to sustainable design by incorporating features that respond to environmental conditions. For example, building in motion i.e., rotating buildings can adjust their orientation to maximize natural light and ventilation, reducing the need for artificial lighting and HVAC systems.
Q. What are some examples of motion architecture?
A. Examples of motion architecture include rotating buildings, moving façade elements, and kinetic sculptures. These structures often use innovative engineering and design techniques to achieve their dynamic effects. This can be explained in a better way by using motion diagram architecture.
October 29, 2024
Floating Architecture: A Futuristic Perspective for Cities
Introduction
Global warming and overpopulation are affecting the environment with many hazards, like an increase in water levels, and limited resources. A smart solution to the urgent situation is the floating architecture. The floating architecture can be made of temporary or permanent structures that float on the surface of the water using hydrophobic materials, making the structure buoyant. Archimedes’s law can also be used as a basic principle of floating architecture. The floating system of a ship can also be incorporated into floating structures, which can provide different experiences to the users.
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Floating Architecture can be a new way for engineers, architects, and urban planners have adapting to solve the severe problem of overpopulation. Floating Architecture helps to deal with the harm that has been caused to the environment and natural resources by providing additional space and energy resources for people. A futuristic perspective begins with reviewing the need for floating structures and their scope for the development & growth of cities.
History
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The development of floating structures is not a new concept for the world. It dates to antiquity, to the 480BC when King Xeres of Persia led his army across the Hellespont using two rows of floating bridges built on boats. The history of floating architecture is very dense and is widespread across almost all continents. The technique and architecture of these structures had the same influence but evolved all over the world depending on the climatic conditions, the cultural difference, and locally available raw materials.
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The most known history of floating architecture is in Asia, where people migrated from place to place and spent years in their vessels. Later, these developed into boathouses, which are now a tourist attraction in many Asian cultures. In India, these boathouses can be seen in Kerala, Goa, and many other coastal regions.
Few Examples of Floating Architecture
Watervilla / +31ARCHITECTS
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Watervilla is a floating multi-unit housing with an area of 25,000 sqft – 100,000 sqft in the Netherlands, designed and constructed by +31ARCHITECTS, inaugurated in 2015. Waterville was inspired by the design of the modern “Watervilla the Omval”, which was also their creation.
Two basic principles have been used for making Watervilla float. First is the pontoon principle, which is useful for shallow waters with a solid platform that is lighter than the water. The second principle is inspired by the design of a ship with a hollow concrete box that is open on the top and all the air flows in the open box, hence getting the buoyancy to float.
Water Villa Omval
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Watervilla Villa Omval is a floating residence with an area of 200sqm in the Netherlands, designed and constructed by +31ARCHITECTS, inaugurated in 2010. Water Villa Omval rigidly designed houseboat, which floats in the Amstel River of Amsterdam. The standard vessel appearance of the present houseboats was dropped and a very contemporary design with an eminent curved line on the façade was used.
Floating Architecture at Drijvend Paviljoen (Floating Pavilion)
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The Floating Pavilion was designed by the design team Deltasync/PublicDomain Architects designed a 12-meter tall, full option multimedia house and event space. The floating pavilion is a complex floating system consisting of three connected half-spheres. It was constructed by Dura Vermeer is remarkable not only because of the semi-circular spheres floating on the water, but also because of its climate-proof, innovative, sustainable, and flexible qualities.
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The Floating Pavilion’s facade is composed of modular hexagonal forms made from steel and covered with ETFE foil- a material a hundred times lighter than glass, which does not burden the foundation. The Pavilion is a way to symbolize ways to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions as the foil is double-layered and filled with air, acting as insulation in cold and warmer seasons. The pavilion is connected to a floating platform that is joined to the quayside by two bridges, construction method was developed and patented by Dura Vermeer and Unidek.
Archipelago Cinema
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Archipelago Cinema is a collaboration between Ole Scheeren and the Film on the Rocks Yao Noi Foundation to create a Floating 120-seat Auditorium, Bar, and Sound Stage with an area of 255 m², Nai Pi Lae Lagoon, Kudu Island, Thailand. Archipelago Cinema is based on the techniques used by fishermen to construct floating lobster farms which are based on the principle of the raft system and are built out of recycled materials as a series of individual modules.
Pavilion of Reflection
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The Pavilion of Reflections designed by Studio Tom Emerson, floating on Lake Zürich, is a temporary timber structure equipped with a bar, LED screen, theatre setting, a sundeck, and much more. A floating pavilion of reflections was built by the students of Tom Emerson’s ETH for Manifesta 11. Manifesta 11, the 100-day event marking the 20th year of the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, displays the complex and rapidly changing identity of the city.
The Floating Kayak Club
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The Floating Kayak Club located in Vejle Fjord, Denmark, is a floating Kayak Club designed by a Force4 architectural firm. The Floating Kayak Club form is divided into two volumes, one dedicated to the users for recreational activities like community training, playing as well as social events and the other to the kayaks.
The Floating Kayak Club is connected to the mainland via a pontoon bridge or a floating bridge, which is generally used in shallow-draft boats to support a continuous deck for mostly pedestrian movement. A pontoon bridge is sometimes also used as buoyancy support to the structures.
Salmon Eye
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‘Salmon eye’ is a floating exhibition center devoted to aquaculture, about to be built in the city of Norway. The Salmon eye project will blend a pontoon principle and an unconventional elliptical upper structure that can merely be accessible via water. ‘Salmon eye’ building is designed with a shape that resembles a salmon’s eye with the exterior is to be clad in 9,500 high-grade stainless steel that was inspired by the ‘scales’, imitating the appearance and color of salmon skin.
The Exbury Egg
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Space Placemaking and Urban Design to work together with architects PAD Studio to develop a workspace in the Exbury Egg. The Exbury Egg is a home, workplace, and lab that is permanently moored on the Beaulieu River in Hampshire, England. The outer skin is formed from Western Red Cedar, which has been left untreated so that it will be weathered and eroded by nature, a symbol of many years. The Exbury Egg works on the floating mechanism boat rising and falling with the tide of the river.
Waterwoningen
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The Netherlands has had a recent trend of floating homes being eligible as a significant solution to Holland’s modern housing needs. Canals with houseboats are a very common sight in Dutch cities, with occasionally floating hotels, restaurants, or casual cafes. Waterwoningen is a water-based housing development that shares more characteristics with land-based housing.
8th Continent
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Lenka Petráková, a senior designer at Zaha Hadid Architects in London, has designed an ingenious floating research station that can clean the ocean’s waters which would help to restore the balance in the marine life. The 8th Continent was awarded the 2020 Grand Prix Award for Architecture and Innovation of the Sea from Foundation Jacques Rougerie.
Oceanix City
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Oceanic and BIG’s firm have an idea of creating a living environment on a man-made island floating islands for people to live sustainably on the ocean. Architecture firm BIG has designed a concept of a floating city of 10,000 people that could help with over-population and limited land resources. The idea is to initiate the use of a prototype, the hexagonal floating units, which would be secured about off the coast of major global cities.
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These floating cities would be self, sustainable with regenerative sources of energy like water, solar, and floating agricultural islands that may last for years. BIG’s concept of a floating city includes a water desalination plant on the underside of the individual island unit, which may also act as a source of energy to keep the island afloat.
Conclusion
The global increase in population and the increase in the demand for natural resources have shot up. Floating Architecture serves as an urgent solution to overpopulation and a Design strategy for floating buildings based on sustainable architecture and sea energy resources can not only improve sustainability goals in the areas of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and water but can also increase the attractiveness of floating buildings designs to avoid climate change and global warming. Floating architecture can be an interesting way to combine sea resources and buildings.
Floating architecture is not only a new way of architectural designing but also encourages the use of sea energy resources and integration into the design. Floating architecture can become a new way of architectural design with sustainable and regenerative architecture to deal with limited natural resources. Floating architecture encourages the construction of floating structures in terms of renewable sea energies and sustainable and environmentally friendly architecture. Utilizing environmentally friendly materials, reducing carbon prints, wastewater treatment methods, and using solar energy can be an added advantage to Floating architecture.
October 29, 2024
Utopian Architecture: An Ideal World of Imagination
Introduction
The existence of Utopian architecture is only imagined being a part of science fiction and contemporary fantasy. There is a large genre of books and movies that provides us with a perspective on extravagant architecture sparking a new lifestyle. The notion of utopian ways in the world of architecture was through the ideas and beliefs of a self-sufficient, independent, cohesive plan to create an environment that could manage the current global crisis.
The utopian architecture was mostly developed to manage issues of over, population, improve sustainable living, or simply incorporate discipline in planning. There is no one explanation of physical characteristics or common design aspects across the range of utopian architecture and designs. Utopian Architecture is experienced and is depended upon the experience of the user. Utopia is an idealization of real-life to escape from reality. Utopian architecture is a limitless world of imagination.
What is Utopian architecture?
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Utopia was a term devised by Thomas More in 1516, in his book with the same name. The word “utopia” comes from the Greek word ou-topos, which means no place or specifically “nowhere” but also implies eu-topos, meaning “a good place.” Utopian is used to define civil or religious views which claim that it is potentially possible to create a new and perfect world in which each person is satisfied and happy. The utopian vision of nature in its richest form and the interdependence and harmony of humans as well as nature.
Utopia offers people an illusion of perfection. Utopian architecture is a way to imagine a world where no difficulties exist, where the entirety is perfect. Utopian architecture is a way to work towards the improvement of society. Initially, utopian designers and theorists were known as futurists. They sought to form a society propelled by technological advancements through time. Few architects and theorists put aesthetics on the back burner, while practicality and services were given more importance.
Experimental examples of Utopian architecture
Progress City – Walt Disney Utopia
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In 1966, Disney declared his plan to build Epcot, an abbreviation for “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” Disney wanted to create “a living blueprint for the future” which was unlike anywhere else in the world and build an entire new city built from scratch.
Disney wanted to establish the entire set-up of his new community and build a place according to his plans, designs, and ideas, rather than drawing on a pre-existing town. His vision was a futuristic one with a circular city aesthetic based on a radical plan mostly proposed by Le Corbusier, in which the city would expand outward from EPCOT’s center, making it the focus, with each external layer having its theme. EPCOT was said to have an airport that would enable anyone to fly straight to Disney World, while a vacation land would offer resort lodgings for visitors. However, the idea was abandoned after his death and the only pieces of Epcot remain.
Charles Fourier’s Phalanstere
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Charles Fourier was a French social theorist who advocated a rebuilding of society based upon communal associations of creators known as Phalanges or the Phalanxes. A Phalanstère was a type of structure intended for a self-contained, self-sufficient, and self-reliant utopian community, preferably consisting of 500–2000 people working together for mutual benefit, progress, and development in the early 19th century.
Palmanova, Italy
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Palmanova is a town and community in northeast Italy. Palmanova town is an example of the main highlight of the late Renaissance, built up by the Venetian Republic in 1593. Palmanova was meant to be a utopia occupied by self-sustaining merchants, craftsmen, and farmers to create a mutually developing environment. The designers incorporate geometrical harmony into their design, believing that beauty strengthens the wellness of a society.
Ordos, China
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The Ordos is also known as the ghost city of China. Ordos Kangbashi was said to be a modern city of top-notch architecture, extravagant public plazas with international-scale stadiums, and an enormous spread of new housing established in the barren deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia in less than a decade. The Ordos Developers shortly scaled back the concept city to hold many people. The Ordos never reached its early idea of existence due to elevated property taxes and poor construction inhibiting people from settling in the Ordos.
Seaside, Florida
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The setting for the movie, The Truman Show, like Poertmeirion, Seaside, Florida, is a planned community built by Robert S. David. Davis had the intention of building a town based on a relaxed lifestyle and communal spirit. The emphasis of the community was to be directed towards the central square with its community and public facilities.
Seaside was developed with precision by a selection of architects and created eclectic streetscapes. Considered by some to be a ‘resort garden suburb. The city was designed to be too perfect, which lacked history and base while trying to be based upon authentic traditional architecture styles like Victorian, Neoclassical, Modern, Postmodern, and Deconstructivism.
Plan Voisin: Le Corbusier’s utopian idea to demolish Paris
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Plan Voisin was a planned redevelopment of Paris designed by French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier in 1925. Le Corbusier often recommended demolishing old towns and leaving only the most important monuments standings. Le Corbusier’s unfulfilled dream was to reorganize the soul of Paris. Le Corbusier planned to dismantle the city center in the north of the Seine River, where he planned to build a spacious estate. The idea of recreating Plan Voisin was drawn from his Radial City Theory.
Drop City, Colorado
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Drop City was intended to be an artists’ community that was established in southern Colorado in 1960. Drop City comprised of around 14-20 inhabitants whose major artistic yield took the form of the buildings. Drop City became known as the initial rural hippie community. Drop City’s founders ultimately sold the land. Drop City community no longer exists, but the spirit of Drop City’s old dome structures has endured. Drop City was formed with the concept to create a reasonable co-housing community. Richert, an award-winning artist, paints brightly colored acrylics with parallel lines, shadows, and multidimensional, rhombus-like shapes evocative of geodesic domes still draws inspiration from the Drop City.
Portmeirion, Wales
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Portmeirion is a tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. Portmeirion was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who acquired the land in the 1920s and maintained to create this imaginative wonderland up until the 1970s with an Italian influence in architecture. The colors used on the walls are a mix of vibrant Meditteranean-inspired hues with shades of pastel. It has a style somewhere between a model village and a theme park and although the tacky detail is unarguably it is blended with an attractive, organic layout.
Auroville, India
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Auroville was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa and designed by architect Roger Anger. Auroville was an experimental township in Viluppuram district, mostly in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Auroville was meant to be a universal town where people of all countries can live in peace and progressive harmony, all politics, and all nationalities. The objective of Auroville was to make everyone understand to live in unity and peace.
Conclusion
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Utopian architecture is a dream or sometimes even unrealistic way for people who want to create such a city to live in. It is sometimes a delusional concept to move society forward to find solutions to problems like overpopulation, resource use, and even urban planning. The developments of current technology could give us the way to generate a Utopian society. Utopian belief in architecture is more important, especially now, in socio-political and economic relations, whether it be whimsically polemical or philosophically plausible and implementable in today’s world. A utopian vision is more about dodging reality to deal with the current crises of the world.
Utopian architecture provides not just people but architects and designers to spread their wings to utilize new and out-the-box ideas to create a world of their whims. There have been many ideas, theories and concepts that have been developed by architects, designers, and theorists about urban and city development. Utopian architecture could include convincing accounts of potential outcomes and people’s desires rooted in stories prone to new challenges. But the conceptual and imaginative limit of these claims and narratives may not support a strong foundation for certainty. Utopian architecture can be very useful, but it is very difficult to implement it in today’s world where technology is limited and even people don’t seem to understand the need.
October 29, 2024
Colors in Architecture: 7 Architects Famous For The Use of Colors
Introduction
Colors have been a vital element in our world, both in nature and in man-made architectural structures. Color always played an important role in human evolution, to help in developing feelings and emotions. Color in architecture helps create a perception of the general environment of the space. Our brain has a way to process and judge the emotional purpose of the type of space that is being portrayed.
There are many renowned Architects and astonishing architectural structures all over the world known for their vivid and bold use of color, attracting people and triggering various emotions in them, and helping them experience and feel them.
Importance of Colors in Architecture
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Color is a sensory experience; hence, its influences are very emblematic, associatory, synesthetic, and emotional. The body and mind are a whole due to which neuropsychological aspects, psychosomatic effects, visual aspects, and color psychological effects are the factors of color in terms of design comfort.
Color is incorporated into the designed considerations that demand adherence to take care of human psychological and physiological well-being within their artificial environment or structures created by humans. Differing from the use of colors, a building environment also can become under-stimulated or over-stimulated. Using color is an important factor only for humans psychologically, but is a way to create a statement all over the world.
7 Architects who love using color in their designs
Antoni Gaudi
Casa Vicens
The Casa Vicens, on 24 Carolines Street, was the first house designed by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. In 1883, Manel Vicens commissioned Antoni Gaudí to build as his summer home. Then known as Gràcia, now a cosmopolitan neighborhood, was a separate town. Colors were mostly drawn from nature, mythology, religion, and the culture of Barcelona. Antoni Gaudí’s remarkable use of colors like blue, red, white, green, yellow, etc. is clear in the polychromatic tile, brick, and stonework in projects.
Casa Batlló
Casa Batlló is a structure in the center of Barcelona. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí and is believed to be one of his masterpieces. Antoni Gaudí explored fluid shapes, patterns, and colors in the Casa Batlló, designed for the wealthy cotton tycoon Josep Batlló as a jolting contradiction to the rigid forms around it. Gaudi redesigned a remodel of a formerly built house in 1904 by Gaudí and had been refurbished numerous times after that. Domènec Sugrañes, Josep Canaleta and Joan Rubió, Gaudí’s assistants who also helped with the renovation of Casa Batlló.
The concept was drawn from Antoni Gaudí’s blend of animal shapes, curves of the vines, traces of bone and skeleton, and his use of lustrous colored bits of glazed ceramic of warmer colors like white, yellow, orange, and red and glass to produce a masterpiece.
Theo van Doesburg
Café l’Aubette
Theo van Doesburg was a self-educated artist and architect who was one of the major proponents of De Stijl. Theo van Doesburg used his concepts about bold colors with dynamism in the spaces that were designed in collaboration. The De Stijl movement commenced by an association of painters, sculptors, artists, and architects in the Netherlands in 1917. The Beaux art school dominated Western design in the 19th century, rejecting the decorative and spatial belief, participants of the movement instead advocated for the relative purity of abstraction.
Using several surfaces and planes in the space helped Theo van Doesburg to work with distinct tones, contrasting faces, horizontal and vertical components, and geometry. Especially the use of bold primary colors that became a statement in terms of abstraction and purity.
Luis Barragán
Casa Gilardi
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This Casa Gilardi was designed just like a house, enhancing the facades, and adding natural elements like light and water. The dark, bold Mexican hues of red, blue, and yellow convey the cultural respect Luis Barragán has for his works. Casa Gilardi was constructed around an existing tree and was strongly influenced by painters; this was one of their most colorful works of his.
Luis Barragán has worked along a lot of contemporary concepts and kept in mind the environmental considerations. The colors, textures, compositional components are a result of Mexican culture. The inspiration of painters such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, but particularly in this house.
Peter Cook
Departments Of Law and Central Administration
Peter Cook of Robotham Architectural Bureau has won the inauguration Colour Prize at World Architecture Festival 2014 for its Departments of Law and Central Administration, Vienna University of Economics and Business project in Austria. The award then was first of its kind, the only criterion for the use of color as an essential part of the exterior of the design.
The Departments of Law and Central Administration has given a boost in the trend of using color, helping to add push for the recently launched Human Cities initiative, where color plays as one of its main design elements. Colour Futures emphasizes AkzoNobel’s wealth of color proficiency and profound understanding of the evolutionary power of color.
Ricardo Bofill
La Muralla Roja
La Muralla Roja, Spanish for ‘The Red Wall,’ is a housing project in La Manzanera in Spain’s Calpe. The project makes strong references to the famous architecture of the Arab Mediterranean Area because the architects inspire the Mediterranean tradition of the casbah. The striking red color that completely washes the outer and inner facades was selected to appreciate contrast with nature and balance its purity.
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Kafka Castle
El Castillo de Kafka is an iconic complex of 90 apartments in Sant Pere de Ribes, near Sitges in Catalonia, Spain. It was designed by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura and was completed in 1968. Ricardo Bofill, a Spanish Postmodern architect, was known for apartment buildings as memorable as well as thought-provoking. El Castillo de Kafka is a swelling mass of purple cubes and mind-baffling angles, boldness, and a refreshing break from any standard or global tradition.
Michael Graves
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St. Coletta was founded in 1959 by a couple with a child diagnosed with Down Syndrome. The couple had to deal with the struggle to find a proper educational system that worked for their child. Hence, they opted to establish the school as a special education environment that helped to service and educate children with severe or multiple disabilities. The use of bright colors and simple forms by Michael Graves makes it very comfortable and fitting for the children that are going to use the building, as it is exciting, lively, and appealing.
Few examples of a few colorful structures
Kuggen Building by Wingårdh Arkitektkontor
Kuggen building is owned by a real estate company, Chalmersfastigheter, for the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, designed by Wingårdh Arkitekt Kontor. Kuggen, in Swedish, means cogwheel similarly the building is cylindrical, a distinctive structure with rotating exteriors, in the middle of the town square is an urban planning pattern with roots in the Italian Renaissance.
A rotating screen shades the top floors are brocade of glazed terracotta panels of vivid colors, takes on different appearances differing for different viewing angles which also change according to daylight conditions. The red colors refer to the industrial paint that was strongly associated with the wharves and the harbor. There is also a contrasting green patch influenced by an autumn leaf. These details change the building’s aura from one side to another, and over the day.
BioMuseo by Frank Gehry
Biomuseo is a museum concentrating on the natural history of Panama, whose bridge was formed currently in geologic time, with the major influence being on the ecology of the Western Hemisphere. Biomuseo is on the Amador Causeway in Panama City, Panama, it was designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry.
The Biomuseo aimed to offer an impressive and informative experience regarding the biodiversity and emergence of the isthmus in Panama to encourage all Panamanians to learn and value this natural component of their identity. Hence, the vivid use of colors was incorporated into the design to attract international attention.
Santa Monica Civic Parking Garage by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners
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A Civic Gateway completed a Master Plan for the Civic Center in Santa Monica, where California defined a new civic gateway at Fourth Street and the new Olympic Drive to the latest district that comprises the renovated historic City Hall and Courthouse and the new Public Safety Building.
The Santa Monica Civic Parking structure is the first LEED® certified building in the United States. Monica Civic Parking has photovoltaic panels on the roof, east and west facades help provide for most of the building’s energy requirements. The design uses components such as canopies and photovoltaic panels to assist with self-shading panels to reduce heat spots.
Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision by Willem Jan Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk
The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision was devised as an ideal cube, where half of it seems to be buried underground. Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision residences broadcasting documents, offices, and a museum, creating it a cultural attraction for the city of Hilversum. The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision is a structure wrapped in a skin of colorful cast-glass panels with a mixture of bold and vibrant colors.
Conclusion
Color has always played an important role or is said to be one of the key elements of designing. Applying colors in design not only helps to make a statement but has various other benefits as it helps to define depths and meaning in structure. Use of color to mold a dynamic surrounding, especially in terms of urban planning and designing.
Using colors in architecture also displays its cultural significance in the geographical location. Colors, textures, materials help make architectural features more prominent and beautiful. Color used also helps to experiment with new materials as well as elements to create various textures, illusions, and emphasis in a structure. Architects and designers are now breaking the traditional norms and use of colors, making bolder choices to make an impact.
October 29, 2024
Regenerative Architecture: An Innovative Step Beyond Sustainability
Introduction
The expression “regenerative” defines the practice of restoring, renewing, or revitalizing their sources of energy and materials. A regenerative design utilizes the idea of the entire system to generate flexible and equitable systems that would understand the needs of society with absolute integrity towards nature. Regenerative architecture is the way of involving the natural world as the method for and creator of architecture. It reacts to the living and natural systems in a location that becomes the “building units” of the architecture.
It is a new way of developing structures that goes beyond just sustainability. It is different from sustainably designed buildings, which are based on the concept of only using the minimum resources you need. Regenerative buildings are designed and operated to reverse the damage and have a net-positive impact on the environment. As architects, designers, and planners, we have the unique opportunity to provide this mind shift.
History
The regenerative architecture was initially a way of reconstruction post-war in several areas of Europe’s devastated cities, which were then affected by the post-industrial era in the mid-1970s, which benefited regenerative projects. Regenerative Architecture first came to notice in 1976. When Wiley published Lyle’s book on “Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development”. John T. Lyle believed in innovative designs which broke the traditional norms of architecture, in a way that resources can be renewed without depleting natural resources.
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Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies is one of the earliest examples of Regenerative Architecture. William McDonough had a sincere dialogue with the client to understand exactly how they expected the building to develop in terms of regenerative design. Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies has green roofs and skins, storing rainwater, wastewater treatment, thermal efficient construction, and energy consumption & production.
Difference between Sustainable and Regenerative architecture
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The meaning of the sustainable design, as depicted in the above diagram, is based on the concept that it does not harm nature and without more than the required amount. Sustainable design is now considered an obsolete concept based on the notion that there is merely any need to sustain our existence, conveniences, routines, and environments. As humankind continues to use resources, it is guaranteed that those resources will ultimately be depleted or extinct.
Sustainable design is a way to reduce the negative impact on the environment by improvising the building efficiency, but the severity of damage caused to the environment in recent years has been catastrophic. Because of this reason, there is a need to think about designing in a way that it sustains not only for years, but restores itself to cause no loss.
The regenerative design, however, is a means of living that allowed us to use the resources we need and replenish those resources Regenerative practices identify how natural systems like our environment have been affected because of various forms of pollution, and the techniques applied helped to restore systems to improved productivity.
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Regenerative and sustainable actions overlap and essentially incorporate nearly the same practices. The regenerative design states more importance of conservation and biodiversity rather than preservation. Regenerative design helps realize humans are a part of the natural ecosystems. Hence, to exclude people is to create densely populated areas that destroy or exceed the limits of the pockets of existing ecosystems. Regenerative architecture is the way of preserving pockets of ecosystems without letting them deplete and replenish naturally.
Therefore, sustainably designed buildings are based on the concept of only using the minimum resources you need. Regenerative buildings are designed and operated to reverse the damage and have a net-positive impact on the environment.
Features of Regenerative Design
1. Generating And Storing Energy (Net-Zero Energy)
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One of the most important features of regenerative design is the application of zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions. Regenerative design is a way to reduce the consumption and depletion of resources from the environment, instead of storing, consume and regenerate energy, a self-sufficient design technique.
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Commercial or administrative structures are one of the highest energy consumers, requiring energy for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and lighting systems. In such cases, the use of the powerful solar radiation received in equatorial regions such as India can always be provided with solar panels in buildings. The energy here can be stored via microgrids which later can be used in the building during night hours, hence achieving the goal of achieving the storing, consuming, and regenerating energy.
Renewable technologies, such as solar panels and wind turbines, are becoming more commonplace in projects such as energy generators. Net-zero energy is an important principle that can help the depleting situation of the environment and create a healthier living space.
1. Water Storage and Treatment
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Water is one of the most valued resources necessary for the survival and maintenance of balance in nature. Water over the years of over usage, pollution, and wastage has become a scarce resource.
The regenerative design aims to accomplish the objective of net-zero water use. Structures must lower their dependence on municipal water systems and store rainwater through various rainwater harvesting systems, cisterns, and closed-loop water systems. Naturally storing rainwater can play as a useful tool to replenish the underground water, for future use.
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As much as using stored water is essential, it is very important to understand how used water can be reused. The regenerative design aims to not only conserve water but also reuse water through various treatment processes. Treated water can be used in various ways, such as in toilet flushes, landscaping, on-site water requirement, and sometimes even in the cooling system.
1. Climate Adaptation
Climate has a drastic effect on the structure. A mild climate can also reduce the durability of building materials and affect the indoor climate of buildings. Hence, with a slight temperature drop or increase, there is an instant need to use HVAC systems to maintain human comfort.
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Regenerative designing of structures is thought of in terms of climate change as it contributes to nil effect on the structure because of its ability to adapt to natural hazards. These include high winds to decrease damage to the structure façade and the covering, guard the dwellers, reduce heat gain, heat loss, natural ventilation system, and moisture infiltration without having to redesign, or use any additional or external energy to do so.
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Climate adaption strategies include passive cooling techniques, flood-resistant materials, properly planned drainage layout, agricultural landscaping, planting for shade, technologically enhanced foundation systems, no obstruction to biodiversity corridors, and context-based material selection.
“Climate Responsive Facades” where the structure’s exterior can adjust according to its surrounding environment and optimizes its performance within the structure. There are many climate adaption technologies such as “Electrochromic Windows” which control light and heat movement by the voltage applied to the window automatically senses and lightens or darkens windows tint. “Green skins” can be used in the building design industry to help clean the ambient air, sequester carbon and help to maintain the internal temperature of the structure.
1. Agriculture and Assisting Biodiversity
In recent years, many plants and animals have gone extinct either because of human interference or extreme climate change. Regenerative design is about the restoration and rejuvenation of flora and fauna. Designers can understand the context of the site, structure, and environment and promote the importance of the species by incorporating them into the structure. The regenerative design would help maintain and sustain the biodiversity of the species in the place.
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Including agriculture with regenerative architecture helps to maintain the demand for agricultural systems to produce food that can be beneficial to the ecology of the environment. It also makes the structure self-sufficient with nil or zero wastage. Organic food is grown using regenerative and permaculture designs to surge biodiversity.
Regenerative Architecture can help to contribute to encouraging biodiversity by developing a necessity of adapting to different opportunities for new improvements, protecting habitats of the surrounding environment, and linking them with new technologies and development to enhance their growth.
1. Interdependency
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Humans are directly or indirectly dependent on the environment. Humans need water to quench their thirst, air to breathe, a comfortable atmosphere to live and food to obtain and sustain energy as well as coal or water or wind to generate electricity, hence nothing is possible unless the natural environment is involved. Whereas many organisms in nature need to interact with other organisms in their environment, they may require other organisms to stay alive.
Regenerative design is developed upon the idea that humans and the built environment exist within natural systems and the built environment ought to be designed to co-evolve with the neighboring natural environment. The purpose of the project does not end with the completion of construction and certificate of occupancy. Rather, the building helps to enhance the relationships between humans, the surrounding built environment, and the adjacent natural systems over a period.
1. LBC (Living Building Challenges)
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The Living Building Challenge is an international sustainable building certification system introduced in 2006 by the non-profit International Living Future Institute. The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is the greatest green building standard that can be achieved by any building type globally. The aim is to produce Living Buildings that essentially include regenerative design solutions that enhance the local environment rather than just simply diminishing harm to the surrounding nature.
The Living Building Challenge emphasizes the concepts of social equality and democracy, as well as human sustainability, flexibility, and resiliency. These elements resonate with a strong sense of place and user emphasis on incorporating variety, mutual regard, and aesthetic charm.
Examples of Regenerative Architecture
Bosco Vertical Forest
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‘Vertical Forest’ or Bosco Verticale was inaugurated in October 2014 in Milan in the Porta Nuova Isola area. Bosco Verticale is considered a part of a wider renovation project led by Hines Italia. Milan’s Vertical Forest comprises two towers of 80 and 112 meters, hosting 480 large and medium trees, 300 small trees, 11,000 perennials, covering plants, and 5,000 shrubs. The equivalent – over an urban surface of 1,500 m2–of 20,000 m2 of forest and undergrowth.
The vertical forest is one of the prime examples of Regenerative Architecture. Deriving from the name Bosco Verticale, or “Vertical Forest”, are towers comprising 800 trees, 5,000 shrubs, and 1.5000 perennial plants, which assist in diminishing smog and generate oxygen. Bosco Verticale is a tree-filled tower that helps cities construct for the mass population, including more residential and commercial infrastructure, whilst improving the air quality.
Eco-Sense Residence Victoria
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Residence Victoria is a successful creation of Eco-Sense, a regenerative home for Ann and Gord Baird and their family of six. Residence of Victoria’s residence was designed in a way that functions as a part of the ecosystem and nature surrounding it.
Residence Victoria comprises many regenerative features like solar design, solar PV with grid-tie, solar thermal, net-zero electricity, energy, and water conservation, composting toilets, rainwater storage, reuse of treated water, green roof, mud floors help with temperature regulation, and natural finishes as an aesthetic element, as an affordable version of earthen architecture.
The Museum of the West
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Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona, on the former site of the Loloma Transit Station and launched in January 2015. The Museum of the West comprises a two-story, 43,000-square-foot museum that features the art, culture, and history of 19 states in the American West, Western Canada, and Mexico. Museum of the West comprises LEED Gold Standard certified interior and exterior spaces for conserving and regenerating natural resources, including the surfaces, materials, colors, shapes, and building techniques.
The regenerative technique used in the Museum of the West through the “weeping wall” which is in the courtyard. It used the water recycling techniques where it collects rainwater and recycles most of the condensed water from the air conditioning system is used for landscaping, toilet, and other miscellaneous use. The exterior façade of the Museum of the West acts as woven baskets with metal-clad strips that seem to be woven self-shaded board. Textured concrete wall panels tilt up to make up the envelope, to create a microclimate within the structure.
Omega Center for Sustainable Living
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The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York is a wastewater filtration facility that uses the treated water for garden irrigation and in a grey water recovery system, Omega uses the system as an educational tool in its educational program designed around the ecological impact of its campus.
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The Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL) comprises many regenerative design techniques such as habitat exchange imperative, net positive water, and energy imperative, reduced carbon footprint, solar-tracking systems, green roofs, and most of the building materials were recycled when used for construction.
The Hive, India
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The Hive is in Vesu, an upcoming part of Surat. The development area has apartment complexes on the east and west plots. The HIVE is part of four plots taken for the extended Mistry family. The HIVE is based on form, function, and system, its sculpted on the bases of structural strength, transformability, and biomimicry.
The HIVE is one of the best examples of Regenerative architecture where a solar sensor-based façade has been used to maintain the micro-climate of the structure. The opening and closing mechanism fill the room with ample natural light and maintain thermal comfort levels.
Conclusion
The larger picture of Regenerative Architecture and the responsibility of biology and biomimicry in architecture are all components of a worldwide effort toward exploring and developing techniques to develop buildings that pursue to integrate and re-establish the natural environment. Most of the new strategies related to Regenerative Architecture are only in the prototype phase or the initial development phase. Armstrong’s study, for example, intends to incorporate microbes to build living buildings or live structures that “grow, metabolize and defend us like an immune system.”
Regenerative Architecture also changes the approach toward community development concerns, with a need to plan in a direction that encourages hazardous or marginalized populations, promotes achievable priced accommodation, and takes issues of social equity to the forefront of design considerations. Regenerative design in architecture is about taking accountability and action to diminish the harmful effects of the carbon emissions produced by the structures before, during, and even after construction. Regenerative Architecture is designed through the lens that evolves a more holistic, data-driven, and renewal-focused approach.
October 29, 2024
Growth due to Conceptual Urban Planning Theories in the Year 2022
Introduction
The built environment has long inspired social responsibility and the need to enhance society. Theories are ideas, thoughts and contemplations thought meticulously with the application of science and current or future technologies. Many conceptual urban planning theories have been developed over a period to further think about their application. There are many urban planning architects and urban designers who have projected their ideas to streamline a theory based on their observations, including a few which stuck and a few which faded away and some got success and attention to apply them. The theories of urban planning have progressed over time, with the traditional theories as a guide further influenced by postmodern thoughts.
What is Conceptual Urban Planning?
Urban planning is the regional planning, civic planning, city planning, and rural planning, a technical and diplomatic process aimed toward the development and design of land use and the built environment including the planning of using resources like water, air, and local materials. Urban planning impacts our transportation system, infrastructure, layout, and prescribed densities of residential, commercial, and industrial areas. Urban planning is a management and communication device, the popular documentation.
History
There is also evidence of urban planning and designing of communities dating back to the Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Minoan, and Egyptian civilizations within the third millennium BCE. Archaeologists researching and analyzing the remains of cities have discovered paved streets that were well planned and laid out at right angles within a grid pattern.
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The earliest known example of Urban planning is Mohenjo-Daro and Harappan civilizations located in present-day Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces. The civilization was said to have sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident with the proper drainage system, city layout, well-planned and placed houses, market area, gathering spaces, etc. Few excavated cities of this urban plan comprise the world’s first known urban sanitation systems with the use of hydraulic engineering to form the Indus Valley civilization. The Indus Valley civilization made them the first urban center in the region.
The concept of a planned urban area has evolved and continued as various civilizations implemented it. At the birth of the 8th century BCE, Greek city-states were mainly centered within orthogonal plans. Further, the ancient Romans were influenced by the Greek’s urban planning methods and incorporated orthogonal plans for their cities.
Conceptual Urban Planning Theories
Garden City Concept
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The garden city concept, the idea of a planned residential community, was developed by the English urban planner namely Ebenezer Howard. Howard’s concept for garden cities was a way of developing a solution to the urgent need to improve the quality of urban life. According to him, a garden city would be a place that behaves as a community where people from different backgrounds of life can live as well as work in coherence and harmony.
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The garden city concept was based on the creation of a succession of small cities that would blend the advantages of both environments. The five main features of Howard’s scheme were to initially purchase a large agricultural land, the further layout of a compact town surrounded by a widespread rural belt, the accommodation space for the residents, industry, and agriculture for the people residing in the town, the provision of restriction of the extent of the town and prevention of encroachment with the town and finally would lead to a natural rise in land values to be used for the town’s general welfare.
Towers in park
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Le Corbusier pioneered the “tower in a park” morphology in his unrealized 1923 Ville Contemporaine he came up with the concept after he couldn’t unsee the squalid conditions of cities in the 1920s. In the park is a morphology of modernist high multi-story apartment buildings branded by an even taller high-rise building surrounded by a wrapping of lush landscape. Towers in the Park was an idea for a style of housing planning that accentuates a separation of different kinds of uses of space and access to public green space and amenities. According to Le Corbusier, people would instead prefer to live in the suburbs than settle in a city.
Neighbourhood Unit Concept
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The neighborhood unit concept was developed by Clarence A. Perry. The idea was that all cultures, even in different shapes and under different definitions like a sub-public area where the most concrete and original form of neighborliness takes place and social cooperation and organization are possible. The neighborhood unit theory was a proposal to bring everything into a single unit.
Geddian trio Concept
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Geddes was thinking about the relation between people and the places and their impacts on each other, creating a certain interdependency. Geddian trio concept was aimed towards contributing to the adaptation of material of the people as well as their way of living towards the certain chances, and the effects on the changes of culture through education. Geddian trio Concept challenged the basic norms in the form of the design material but was also employed through culture design.
Sector Model
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Sector Model was developed by Homer Hoyt, who was a renowned academic and consultant of real estate market analysis during the mid-20th century. Homer Hoyt’s sector model tweaked the concentration zone concept to make it more realistic. Hoyt maintained the sectoring factor of the concentric zone model instead deviated from the geometric patterns. Hoyt proposed that cities do not develop in the form of simple rings, instead, they have “sectors”. It was mainly based on residential rent patterns and the effects of transportation development.
Concentric Zone model
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The Concentric zone model concept is also known as the Burgess model, which is one of the first few theoretical models used to illustrate urban social patterns. The Concentric zone model was designed by sociologist Ernest Burgess and proposes a vivid framework in which both characteristics of human ecology in terms of physical land-use patterns and human relationships are interdepended.
The concentric model is based on a process of invasion and succession. Invasion is a process that necessitates the continual expansion of inner zones into outer zones because of the natural ‘aggression’ of the migrant into the city. According to the conceptual model, it has five main zones: i.e., the Central Commercial Center, Zone of transition, Working class residence, Middle-class residence, and Commuter zone.
Multiple Nuclei Model
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Harris and Ullman claimed cities don’t just grow around a single unit nucleus, but instead numerous unit nuclei. Multiple nuclei are suggested as the former settlements, while the others evolved from urbanization and outer economies. Characteristic land use zones expand since some activities might repulse each other. There is also an issue where not all land users can afford the expensive land at the most desirable locations, and some also require easy access to the location.
An evolution of single nuclei theory, where two legends Harris and Ullman proved a city doesn’t grow around a single nucleus but has multi foci, and each point acts as a growing point. Further, Harris and Ullman argued that a city might start with a single central business district (CBD), but over time, the activities scatter and gets modified.
Conclusion
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Urban development has been a constant phenomenon since we can even remember, but with the increase in this development and the population. There is a rapid use of limited resources like water, fuel, and especially land. Resources being in such a finite amount, there is an urgent need to adapt various planning techniques to inculcate disciple and management within our society. Many theorists have developed such concepts as mentioned above to fulfill the urgency to conserve the environment. These concepts have helped to provide an idea of how urban planners can manage the settlement of people, to create further civilized patterns, systems, and layouts for urban development.
The principal question of planning theory is the analysis of the probability of attaining an improved quality of human life contained in the context of a global capitalist economy. Exploring the different theories has helped many planners understand no planner acts in a value-free vacuum. The technical-rational planner represents their views of how the world works through their choice of planning methods. There have been many planning theory concepts developed over a period, some of which have faded into oblivion because of their disadvantages, but some have provided other designers with an idea that there are several alternative concepts to adopt from.
October 29, 2024