Dan Slavinsky In Arcadia at the End of Time
Jan Isvarphornchai The Making of a ‘Good Twin’ Twin City
Barry Cho Urban Blanket: Creating a New Macro Climate for London
This thesis explores the notion of Living Technology. Fundamentally, this term is used to describe any technology whose behaviour is life-like and whose properties ‘include [its] abilities to autonomously act in [its] own interests, proliferate exponentially, and evolve and adapt on [its] own’ (M. A. Bedau, ‘Living Technology Today and Tomorrow’ 2009).
Rüdersdorf Quarry, one of the largest active limestone quarries in Europe, has been feeding Berlin with building materials since as early as the 13th Century. Famous Berliner buildings and landmarks were built from the stones excavated from its manmade pits and cliff faces, and so, in a sense, the twin cities – Berlin and Rüdersdorf – are poetically connected. They are twin cities since one is the negative of the other.
Today’s cities are becoming increasingly polluted and uncomfortable places to be in. Dense urban activities and vehicular transport result in air pollution and increased energy consumption, which in turn has negative impacts on the climate in the urban and natural environments. Climate-poor areas are resorting to increased summer air-conditioning and winter heating as well as the requirement for more artificial lighting. By looking into London’s current condition, results will show how hugely inefficient energy is being used and food is sourced. As a historic city, London’s building stock is rarely renewed and many buildings are not sufficiently energy-insulated for the current climate. These energy-wasteful operations exacerbate the heat-island effect from which London already suffers.
As a science, Living Technology has not yet had the opportunity to be formalised with its own language, and I propose the site of Arcadia as a tableau to discuss this. The series of drawings are tools with which to explore this, and to define the Ornament of Living Technology. Alongside their creation, I look closely at 20th century European Art Nouveau through the lens of ornament, thus combining these architectural movements that celebrate decoration and the façade with the characteristic natural aesthetics found in biology. The goal is to categorise this new-age hybrid style and to create a lexicon of ‘soft’ ornament that can be re-interpreted and re-claimed when working with Living Technologies in the future.
The thesis technically examines how the open-faced limestone quarry would be turned into arable agricultural landscape by specifically looking at water as a defining and landscaping element, as well as an energy source. Since the quarry has been dug down to 60m under the natural water table, dewatering the landscape concerns the appropriate selection of specific techniques to drain groundwater out of the site, for further excavations of the site to be viable. Thorough analysis of this technique directly affects the outcome of the landscape design in an arrangement that achieves the necessary draw down. The research is carried out through desk-based methods: qualitative analysis through reading and researching about the available technologies and techniques, and quantitative analysis through calculations.
The thesis examines the role of urban agriculture in climate augmentation and the possibility that a levitating ‘Urban Blanket’ may temper the problem.