28 January 2012
Underground Desert cities
© Magnus Larsson, Dune Arenaceous [taken from Magnus Larsson web page]
Magnus Larsson envisions to build a green wall across Africa, a Dune Arenaceous that irrigate the soil and prevent the environment from desertification to sustain an underground city.
Dune Arenaceous © Magnus Larsson [taken from Magnus Larsson web page]
Larsson uses the biological properties of a marshlands bacteria - the Bacillus Pasteurii - which he flushes onto the dunes to solidify sand into sandstone and build a city of sandstone structures underneath the Sahara, using the desert soil.
© Magnus Larsson
By building without machines or architects, he would leave the bacteria sculpt the landscape of the city. The biochemistry of sand solidification recalls the sedimentation of rocks like limestone, creating interesting cavernous shapes after years of aggregation.
© Magnus Larsson
Biological scientists will wonder about the long term effects of importing a non-native organism into a vast environment like the Sahara; the bacteria which could potentially solidify the whole desert - recalling the invasive nature of plants like Kudzu in America and Asia - can also save Africa from aridity.
Sietch Nevada © Matsys Design [taken from Matsys design we page]
Larsson's dune habitat echoes Sietch Nevada, an experiment of Matsys Design which re-thinks the way ancients civilizations - like the Nabataeans in Petra - used to control water and create artificial oasis in the desert.
The Sietch Nevada project brings to reality Frank Herbert's Dune novel. Here, underground communities master the art of guiding and storing water via a network of underground canals to answer water shortage in Southwest America and avoid water wars.
22 January 2012
Floating cities
What if New York city ... © Studio Lindfors/ Ostap Rudakevych
Ostap Rudakevych's emergency zeppelins that look like hybrids of an airship and an insect can be deployed other the rooftops of rescued communities while a team of workers fix the damage downstairs.
Cloud skippers © Gretchen Stump/ Studio Lindorfs
While post-disaster cities, like Cloud cities or Archigram's pods prevent chaos, the Cloud skippers already float beyond the skyscrapers territories : their self-sufficient communities live on green platforms suspended by cables.
Cloud skippers © Rael Sanfratello
Rael Sanfratello pushes the idea further by sending out Floating gardens, inflatable dirigables resembling giant jellyfishes, which transport growing gardens and migrate from one city to another following the seasons.
15 January 2012
Flooded cities
Flooded London © Anthony Lau
Facing the potential rise of sea levels, Anthony Lau and his idea of living on oil platforms on the London's Estuary concentrates on escapism, relates to space in the same way as Howl's moving castle's transformative home or Archigram's walking city.
Howl's moving castle © Miyazaki
© Archigram
Today in Lea valley, those who live on barges can harvest neetle or comfrey from nearby marshlands, cycle to work along river pathways, grow food on nearby allotments and plant nurseries, avoiding the city pavements.
Aqualta © Studio Lindfors
Tomorrow in Tokyo or New York, citizens could transport themselves via gondoles and suspended bridges, acclimatise their agro-system to a wet landscape, inhabit their territories alongside the wildlife and feed on the edible landscape.
Why not adapting to the sea rise rather than fear its consequences ?
Aqualta © Studio Lindfors
Decolonizing architecture
Decay, migrant birds, wild nature taking over urban architecture, reclaiming the site on behalf of the birds, spatial narratives of the conflict zones.
The Book of Migration © Alessandro Petti, Sandi Hilal, Eyal Weizman
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