8th International Conference on Cities People and Places- 1st ICCPP E-Conference Colombo ,Sri Lanka. th 15 to 18th December 2020
FROM CITY ‘DYSTOPIA’ TO DESIGN ‘UTOPIA’? FLOATING ARCHITECTURE AS AN UTOPIA :
A STUDY OF UTOPIAN ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS IN FACING DYSTOPIA CREATED BY NATURAL CATASTROPHE.
Presented By SANDEEPA VITHANAGE
CITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, COLOMBO, SRI LANKA
SANDEEPA VITHANAGE, JEEWANTHI SENADHEERA
“It is good to remember that Utopia is nothing but the reality of tomorrow and that today’s reality is yesterday’s utopia” Le Corbusier, Modulor
8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
“Garden of Eden” in the bible
‘’Republic’’ by Plato
“Utopia” by Thomas More
The quest for an ideal society or the perfectly good place by the mankind is documented in concepts like the Garden of Eden in the bible, ‘’Republic’’ by Plato and Thomas More’s terminology used ‘’Utopia’’. In the subject of architecture, the built environment is often perceived as bound by practical and technical restrictions. In the context of utopian thinking, the built environment can also be perceived as an attempt to achieve the ‘’ Good place’’. The dystopia on the other hand is the ‘’ bad place ‘’. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY According to utopian theorists, ordinary people as members of society often engage in utopian thinking as a whole (Levitas,1990; Sargeant, 1994). Therefore, social change can be driven by such utopian thinking (Chomsky, 1999/1970; Levitas, 1990; Mannheim, 1991; Polak, 1961). Thus the potential of utopian thinking can be applied in the architectural thinking process to design for extreme scenarios; Dystopias.
An image depicting the dystopian society of "BladeRunner“ [Source:underthehollywoodsign.files.wordpress.com].
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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY “ideal will be forever up dating”
UTOPIA
The built environment that surrounds most people today can easily be described in terms of various Utopia and Dystopia,
By combining the necessities of both these extreme ends ,it is possible to find solutions even for an inferior( worst) situation.
IDEAL PLACES . AND BAD PLACES RESPECTIVELY
Any possible outcome of a particular situation falls between utopia and dystopia.
Therefore preparation and finding the perfect utopian solutions for the worst situations will eventually give answers for the complications in between.
Until the recent past, the concept of dystopia remained a fantasy, a fuel for imaginative visualization and an inspiration for technological advancement yet was often conceptualized based on the global predicaments at the time. But today, the current events of the world indicate a truth otherwise; that the dystopian future which once was only a fantasy is now more of a presumed possibility, almost a certainty. This observation drives the architect to a position of crucial responsibility in contributing to the health of the earth while consciously advocating by action against the adverse possibilities.
DYSTOPIA “ place with no hope of a better future ”
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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Architects have theorized their work imagining possibilities based on the political, social, cultural, environmental and technological changes one could observe. Such work has been published but never built at the time thus remained unrealized fantasies. Yet today, while the dystopian realities seem closer to the reality, such works become feasibility studies for the design solutions. The utopian ideals used in such thinking provide the base for contemporary thinking. While the architect is in a profession engaging with the construction and built version of his spatial solutions, the thinking process can be just as much a solution. This study aims to investigate the potential of conceptual utopian thinking which in an ideological aspect based on emotional utopian thinking and physical utopian thinking. Analyzing the prospects of dystopia, it was observed that the environmental dystopia is more relevant in the present context. Combined with climate change and extreme natural disasters, environmental catastrophe provides the scope of the study. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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KEY TERMS & DEFINITIONS BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY The etymological meaning of the term ou-topos derived from Greek expresses the idea of a “no
place’’ which was used by Sir More to signify the nonexistent society he described in his literary work. But the term “Eutopia’’ or eu-topos derived from Greek language expresses the idea of a
“Good
place’’. • •
Even though the term ‘’utopia’’ existed in the world before the existence of the term ‘dystopia’, the concept of dystopian futures lies closer to mankind While utopia remains a fantasy, a dream almost a nonexistent reality, mankind is more capable of imagining the dystopian future based on the realities of the contemporary world.
With numerous references depicted in literature, art and cinema dystopia is derived out of the extreme realities in existence today such as urban sprawl in South Asian cities, overpopulation, extreme weather conditions, nuclear wars, depleted resources and so on. It can be observed therefore that human existence today if to be positioned in a timeline with the two extremes at either end, stands closer to dystopia than utopia. The term “dystopia” according to the Meriam Webster dictionary is defined as a “very
bad or unfair society” in which there is a lot of suffering especially an imaginary society in the future after a terrible event. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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NEED OF THE STUDY
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NEED OF THE STUDY “Architecture of dystopia targets and magnifies current problems within the urban landscape and society such that people can recognize the severity of the problems; if the problems were to be left alone it “would result in a world we find abhorrent.” (Friedmann in MacLeod & Ward, 2002: 153)
When studying the dystopian theories and current events of the world it can be observed that the present-day context is closer to dystopia becoming a reality than utopia. An analytical view of present-day political, social, environmental and technological changes, it can be observed that the dystopian visuals become more and more similar to the reality. The dystopian thinking which was evolved as a political vision is conceptualized in a variety of modes. Art, cinema, literature and visualizations often envision dystopian futures based on contemporary events.
Architecture is one of such creative subjects which can be used to realize utopian ideals. In the present day context, it can be observed that the need to predict extreme scenarios and envision dystopian futures is crucial. The field of science and technology is making advancements towards life in other planets and survival in extreme dystopias. An architect through his training is skilled at creative visualization and design as a problem-solving process. As the curator of the built environment, the architect carries the potential to derive utopian spatial solutions which allows resilience and self-organizing. These possibilities have become the needs of the world in the context of climate change and sustainable design. Architects' capacity to conceptualize solutions that can be adapted to dystopian scenarios becomes the need of the society in terms of the built environment in the future. The imaginative thinking capacity of the architect combined with utopian thinking to derive spatial solutions to dystopian scenarios create a thinking ground for problem-solving architecture in a futuristic vision. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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NEED OF THE STUDY
OVER 100 YEARS AGO, ARTISTS WERE ASKED TO DEPICT THE YEAR 2000, THESE WERE THE RESULTS
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OBJECTIVES The main aim of this approach is to examine the conceptual utopian thinking which has produced unrealized theoretical architectural solutions as response to a dystopian circumstance or a combination of circumstances.
1.
Investigation of the role of conceptual utopian thinking in assisting innovative futuristic design.
2.
Dissecting the basic underlying drivers of conceptual utopian thinking using existing discourse and case studies.
3.
To challenge our ‘Built Environment’, to arrive at new solutions to the 21st-century problems which we are currently facing and to redefine the limitations of the built environment to adjust novel and unpredicted circumstances.
4.
The topic demands lateral thinking, where the most imaginative design solutions should be realized at some point shortly as a solution to the upcoming problems in the ‘built environment’.
5.
Identifying the limitations of architectural design thinking which is produced by practical implications and conditions of the time which also contributes to the formation of the architectural utopian vision.
8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
SCOPES AND LIMITATIONS The scope is narrowed down to the possibility of environmental catastrophe as a dystopia. Analysis of the case studies, therefore, entails floating architecture as a response to water level rising in the effect of climate change.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES The target is to gain an insight into the stories of utopian traditions while trying to extract the ideology and vivid visionary out from the imagination to reality to formulate them into theories that can help to navigate the responses as designers to the wide-ranging issues of contemporary or futuristic urban settings. The potential of unrealized conceptual thinking as a feasibility study for contemporary design solutions which could be further evaluated.
BENEFITS Potential and application of Architectural solutions (floating architecture) based on utopian ideals (utopian ideals – emotional evaluation and physical evaluation) as a response to dystopian future; environmental catastrophe will be evaluated as a theoretical base for future studies.
Possibilities of gaining value within a bad place and using a bad place as a resource are analyzed as a means of sustainable architecture. The need for refined conceptual thinking capacity of the architect as a response to the future needs of a dystopia is emphasized and such thinking is evaluated to gain an understanding of the applicability of such work.
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LITERATURE REVIEW THE THEORETICAL DISCOURSE OF UTOPIA : DYSTOPIA The term “dystopia” according to the Meriam Webster dictionary is defined as a very bad or unfair society in which there is a lot of suffering especially an imaginary society in the future after a terrible event. Dystopia envisions an extremely negative event and is characterized by the dilapidation, overpopulation and essentially human suffering. The scope of the extreme event can be dependent on the characteristics and realities of contemporary society as well as unrealistic extreme predictions.
“The opposite of utopia, dystopia describes a nightmarish version of the society” (Porter, 2004). Even though the term ‘’utopia’’ existed in the world before the existence of the term ‘dystopia’, the concept of dystopian futures lies closer to mankind. While utopia remains a fantasy, a dream almost a nonexistent reality, mankind is more capable of imagining the dystopian future based on the realities of the contemporary world. With numerous references depicted in literature, art and cinema dystopia is derived out of the extreme realities in existence today such as urban sprawl in South Asian cities, overpopulation, extreme weather conditions, nuclear wars, depleted resources and so on. It can be observed therefore that human existence today if to be positioned in a timeline with the two extremes at either end, stands closer to dystopia than utopia. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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LITERATURE REVIEW THE THEORETICAL DISCOURSE OF UTOPIA : DYSTOPIA “utopia and anti-utopia are antithetical but yet interdependent. They are contrasting concepts getting their meaning and significance from their mutual differences. But the relationship is not symmetrical or equal. The anti-utopia is formed by utopia and feeds parasitically on it” (Kumar,1987) The quest for an ideal society or the perfectly good place by the mankind is documented in concepts like the Garden of Eden in the bible, ‘’Republic’’ by Plato and Thomas More’s terminology used ‘’Utopia’’. In the subject of architecture, the built environment is often perceived as bound by practical and technical restrictions. In the context of utopian
thinking, the built environment can also be perceived as an attempt to achieve the ‘’ Good place’’. The dystopia on the other hand is the ‘’ bad place ‘’. The extreme negative scenario of contemporary conflicts of the world are envisioned as dystopias.
While utopian thinking aims for a perfect place, dystopian thinking imagines the antiperfect place rather than the bad place. HIERONYMUS BOSCH, GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS, EST. 1490-1510
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LITERATURE REVIEW (UTOPIA: DYSTOPIA) THE THEORETICAL DISCOURSE OF DYSTOPIA DYSTOPIA IN THE CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL SCALE The masculine scale of development constantly taking an accelerated pace all over the world, the irrelevance of the human scale in comparison, urban growth, and overpopulation, the formation of slums and inadequacy of infrastructure, inequality of wealth distribution resulting in massive contrast and inequitable city formation are few of the extremes that can be observed in the present-day context. It should be noted beforehand that dystopia can only be predicted based on concerns and possibilities that can be observed today. The predictions therefore can lead to an endless amount of dystopian futures. To discern and distinguish those outcomes, the following scopes can be derived.
1. 2. 3. 4.
War and violence Pandemics The collapse of infrastructure/ Technological failure Environmental disaster/ Global catastrophe
The above mentioned are scopes that can be used to categorize the range of possible dystopian spectrum. In order to reinforce the categorization and predict based on current events, the following factors can be used.
1
2
3
4
The extent of which the world as a whole is affected The interaction between the humans The extent to which the infrastructure is affected Scarcity of resources The survival of the built environment The extent to which the ecology is affected Likelihood of the event becoming a reality 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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LITERATURE REVIEW (UTOPIA: DYSTOPIA) THE THEORETICAL DISCOURSE OF DYSTOPIA DYSTOPIA IN THE CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL SCALE When considering the global political dynamics, war and violence is not the least likely of events. With nuclear power and bioweapons on the rise, the extremes of war can wipe out millions of humans in a matter of seconds. The political conflicts and terrorism reigning over borders, policies, fossil fuel and trade, the world is constantly at risk of edging over the balance in battle.
The transmission of pandemics which can be defined as a spread of a deadly disease over a large geological region is one of the events the world has experienced several times in history. HIV AIDS and the Corona virus is one of the most recent pandemics to cause loss of human life all over the world. Pandemics mainly cause loss of human life and also can affect ecological systems. The future of pandemic concerns majorly includes resistance to antibiotics, severe acute respiratory diseases and viral hemorrhage diseases. Collapse on infrastructure and technological failure can be triggered with a simple incident like a worldwide power breakout. With the population growth and urban sprawl most cities in developing and underdeveloped countries are not facilitated with adequate infrastructure to accommodate the needs of their citizens.
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LITERATURE REVIEW (UTOPIA: DYSTOPIA) THE THEORETICAL DISCOURSE OF DYSTOPIA ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE AS THE IDENTIFIED DYSTOPIA FOR THE STUDY Environmental and global catastrophe can be considered as the most unpredictable scenario out of the mentioned. As the earth is its entity, the natural disasters and the scale of such events cannot be prepared for.
From small scale climate changes to large scale natural disasters, the mechanisms of earth can alter the human existence unpredictably and impact fully. With the events of climate change and the effects of human activities causing adverse effects on the planet, the likelihood of a dystopian future where resources have become scarce, human life and ecosystems degraded is very high. The rise of sea level is one of the most crucial effects of climate change which will be used as the selected pathway to dystopia. Analyzing the probabilities and likelihoods, sea level rising has been selected as the base for this study. The global mean sea level has risen in about 21 – 24 cm since 1880. The rise was noticeably accelerated during the period from 1980 onwards. The melting of glaciers and the thermal expansion of seawater has primarily caused the rise. In 2018 the highest global mean sea level was observed in the satellite record since 1993. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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LITERATURE REVIEW (UTOPIA: DYSTOPIA) UTOPIAN ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS FOR DYSTOPIAN FUTURE
EXTRACTION OF PARAMETERS BASED ON EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL ASPECT The thinking process of the architect in this context can be dissected into two aspects for further study; The emotional utopian thinking governed by the personal bias, philosophy, political and societal circumstances of the architect and physical materialization of the thinking process as architectural visuals.
EMOTIONAL THINKING CHANGE: instigating people to shift their present society to move towards the ideal (i.e., motivating people to move their current society closer to the ideal ),
CRITICISM reveals and allows the fallacies of the present society with the ideal (exposing the faults of the current society in comparison to the ideal), and
COMPENSATION allows an escape from the actual world via imaginative means (providing an imaginative escape from the real world)
PHYSICAL MATERIALIZATION •
the scale of the individual’s need for survival,
•
The systems required for physical shelter and the development of community,
•
finally the creation of the new dynamic city as a whole. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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LITERATURE REVIEW (UTOPIA: DYSTOPIA) UTOPIAN ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS FOR DYSTOPIAN FUTURE
EXTRACTION OF PARAMETERS BASED ON EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL ASPECT
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LITERATURE REVIEW (UTOPIA: DYSTOPIA) UTOPIAN ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS FOR DYSTOPIAN FUTURE FLOATING ARCHITECTURE AS A UTOPIAN SOLUTION “Designs of purely arbitrary nature cannot be expected to last long.” - Kenzo Tange As discussed above, the study is based on the dystopian future of environmental catastrophe. In the case of water level rising as the extreme effect of climate change, a utopian vision based on the extracted parameters will be analyzed. Floating architecture consisting of earth, water and airborne solutions will be evaluated. “The duality of water and architecture lies in the fact that it is necessary for the sustenance of urbanism but also is a threat to the very permanence of it. With sea-level rise becoming more prevalent it is important to find ways to mediate architecture and water. The mediation of these elements allows inhabitants to maintain the stability key building functions while benefiting from the amenity of the water that surrounds it.”(Asson,2018)
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LITERATURE REVIEW SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIE LITERATURE REVIEW seeks to establish a theoretical basis with critical insight to obtain the foundation of the study. By reviewing existing discourse on utopian and dystopian thinking in terms of architectural thinking, parameters are extracted to evaluate the case studies. It was observed that the evolution of utopian and dystopian ideas in architecture can be used as feasibility studies for predicted dystopian futures. Understanding the development and function of the substratum assists the study to determine the potential of utopian concepts in architectural theory.
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METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH SELECTION OF CASE STUDIES According to the aforementioned criteria, the author will select six different floating utopian architectural scenarios. The case studies will be analyzed as per the derived parameters in literature review to evaluate the practical application of Utopian conceptual thinking as a response to Dystopian conditions. The selection of the scoop is narrowed down to the possibility that “environment catastrophe” will lead to dystopia. The main causes that will lead to dystopia being the crucial climatic changes as the rise of the sea level and flooding. The analysis of the studies, therefore, leads to floating architecture as a response to the rise in the water level of major climatic changes. The six case studies are categorized into two scenarios as water and airborne architectural concepts, which are compared and analyzed by the criteria extracted from the literature studies. In selecting the case studies, both built and unbuilt architectural projects were taken into consideration.
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METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH RESEARCH METHOD PHASE 01 - PRELIMINARY STUDY
PHASE 03 - DATA COLLECTION
Identification of the issues and the problems are important to in turn establishing the goals and objectives to be reached by the study. Understanding the benefits of the research to the field of architecture is essential while determining the boundary of the study. The guidelines for the study will be served by the research questions and objectives from a definitive document. The guidelines of the study will give importance to the utopian theories even outside the field of architecture and reach goals with a higher purpose than what’s related to this dissertation.
The required data is collected and extracted through library studies as the most relevant data to the research is available in the literature and the specially selected cases from foreign examples. The information required for this dissertation was extracted from various sources like books, journals, reports and documents. Different mediums of sources were also used in the gathering of data as the use of the internet to support theories and to find relevant precedent studies.
PHASE 02 - EVALUATING THEORETICAL BASE AND DEFINING A FRAMEWORK
PHASE 04 - ANALYSIS
Literature reviews are used to understand and form the theoretical framework to simplify the broad analysis of the case study. The required information is extracted from books, magazines, newspaper articles, previous research documents, conference proceedings (e.g. ted talks) and ebooks. The theoretical framework is based on the two aspects of utopian thinking as ‘emotional’ and ‘physical’. The case studies are evaluated based on the framework which is formulated.
The six scenarios explored in the case study are compared and critically analyzed by the evaluated criteria derived from the relevant scope of literature. The careful analysis of the supportive sources of literature and precedents carried within the boundary of the study will lead the research towards its conclusion in a progressive manner. The theoretical framework to the chosen dystopian catastrophe is established here, which helps to carve a path leading towards the concluded design proposals in the research.
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS To establish the theoretical framework developed in the preceding chapters on the dialect of utopian responses to dystopian conditions, this chapter dwells into six selected case studies. The case studies are selected in two categories; built and unbuilt. The analysis model for the case studies selected in the said categories is of two parts; function and process. Function of the utopian solution will be considered in terms of change, criticism, compensation, F P L R O O A J T E I C N T G S
F P L R O O A J T E I C N T G S
W A T E R
A I R B O R N E
Change: instigating people to shift their present society to move towards the ideal Criticism: reveals and allows the fallacies of the present society in relation to the ideal
Compensation: allows an escape from the actual world via imaginative means
The process here will be formulated according to the scale ascending from the need of survival for an individual, systematic requirement of a physical shelter for a community and formation of a new city. .
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING WATER PROJECTS CASE STUDY 01 - NOVANOAH I, PAOLO SOLERI Visionary architect Paolo Soleri proposed a new kind of architecture that was intertwined with
the ecology creating a seamless integration of both worlds as an architectural response to the
• • •
Project Name Designer Location
: : :
Novanoah I Arch.Paolo Soleri On The Ocean
dystopian realization of environmental disasters and global catastrophes. He envisioned a change in what was later termed Arcology; Architecture + Ecology as a way to improve the lives of the citizens whilst also reducing the human impact on nature. Novanoah I is one of his creations, essentially a city on water.
EMOTIONAL UTOPIAN THINKING Arcology if compared with a digestive system would consume the water, extract or take only what is necessary and excrete out the used water. This would be a cyclic process. The various materials be it animal, vegetable or chemical in nature once consumed, would be processed and/or stored, then in part consumed, exported as food, fertilizer, and so on, or used as material for the production of goods. The need for man to move to the sea can be partly due to the biological flood rising ‘within’ him as well as knowing the richness the sea contains within. This would suggest a floating civilization with nodular centers constructed within floating arcologies.
Figure Novanovah I – Plan View (Source: Online image, www. organism.earth.com)
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING WATER PROJECTS CASE STUDY 01 - NOVANOAH I, PAOLO SOLERI PHYSICAL MATERIALIZATION The floating portion would provide spaces for the processing of animal and vegetable food, water, and minerals and chemicals and this process could be automated. Better feeding will be instrumental to a wealth of uniquely fused with the ecologies of the seas. Wholeness or segregation, as always and ever, is the crucial test of lastingness or obsolescence. The sea arcologies are viewed as an integral system for the satisfaction of needs and purposefulness. In man’s quest through the seas for food and material he will in turn exploit this resource as he has done so on land when searching for the same. A possible criticism of society as a whole is the fear that he will not only exploit this newfound resource, he will work and live in it to try to humanize this element, that which he still does not know much of without adequate research and development to repeat the mistake of the past.
• • •
Project Name Designer Location
: : :
Novanoah I Arch.Paolo Soleri On The Ocean
Practical envisioning of this ambitious endeavor explored ideas that began with oceanographic labs which would also assist with the development of underwater life and would be located within. It further integrates vertical transport systems which would be in play connecting to the upper structure which would be used for living, learning, and working. These transportation systems would be as in Babel II. Novanoah would be truly unbound from a permanent location and have the ability to float with the waves or to be propelled slowly on journeys according to seasons or needs such as harvests, fishing opportunities, or vacation cruises. This arcology would inspire countries struggling with population control, and countries starved by the sun, etc. One such plan of the proposed Novanoah I would be formed by concentric rings beginning from the center whilst Novanoah II would be a water city with open-air, surface navigation. It would further utilize internalized waterways as it has internal gardens. a hollow tubular space frame would be the structural system used assisting with the transportation and transfer systems. The lower parts of the system would be for production and storage. One of the defining boundaries between imagination and reality is that the Novanoahs are still defined by the restricted concept of the power vested in the vertical dimension. The rules of buoyancy naturally have their part in this timidity.
Figure 4.3.2. Novanovah II – Plan View (Source: Online image, www. organism.earth.com)
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING WATER PROJECTS
Self-Sustainable, Floating Cities Proposed In Response To Rising Sea levels
CASE STUDY 03 - OCEANIX CITY, BIG ARCHITECTS Rising sea levels have evolved from a warning to a reality that we are faced with and ideals addressing this dystopian picture of nations retreating from the coasts in a desperate bid for higher ground is closer to reality.
Project Name: Oceanix City
Designer: BIG Architects
Location: On The Ocean
EMOTIONAL UTOPIAN THINKING The consequent lack of space and affordable housing has driven architects, urban planners and designers to explore the conceptualization of a floating city. Experts predict the increased likelihood of coastal flooding, storm-surges, and tsunami which can uproot entire coastal towns and cities. When the earth is consumed by water the solution becomes escaping to the water itself. “Nine out of 10 of the world’s largest cities will be exposed to rising seas by 2050,” Bjarke Ingels, founder of the architectural firm - ‘BIG’, said in a statement REF. “The sea is our fate—it may also be our future.” Figure 4.3.20. Conceptualized topi view - Oceanix city (Source: Online image, www. oceanix.org)
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING WATER PROJECTS CASE STUDY 03 - OCEANIX CITY, BIG ARCHITECTS PHYSICAL MATERIALIZATION
Figure 4.3.21 OCEANIX CITY is designed to grow, transform and adapt organically over time, evolving from neighborhoods, to village, to cities with the possibility of scaling. (Source: Online image, www. oceanix.org)
The floating city is made as a manmade habitat that is intended to evolve and expand with time and civilization. The floating city is built to adapt to changing sea levels, extreme changes in the temperature, and extreme weather conditions like hurricanes. The floating cities depend on six solutions to the self-sustaining lifestyle that is envisioned. Namely they are net-zero energy, freshwater autonomy, plant-based food, zero waste systems, shared mobility, and habitat regeneration. The six solutions revolve around the concept of cycles of sustainable production rather than mere consumption as in the current world 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS
SUMMARY Mankind has always had a deep-rooted relationship with the sea. More so, the communities that that grown along coastal borders to the islands that dot the oceans and they are inevitable the regions and nations that will suffer the brunt of the changing seas. Recalling the 2004 Tsunami, the devastating impact of a natural disaster of that magnitude and scale was a warning that despite the complacency and disregard that has blossomed towards the natural environment there is still an acute vulnerability that cannot be denied. While the seas and rivers pose great threats they have also proven to be invaluable resources. The oceans are one of the largest sources of food, power and some of the largest reserves of oil lie beneath the oceans. These oceans have borne the brunt of overfishing, acidification, global warming, pollution, toxic spills and several other man-made threats but further exploitation of this resource could soon turn the seas into an uninhabitable environment.
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING WATERBORNE PROJECTS
SUMMARY As surely as nations have taken to reclamation of land from the sea rising sea levels threaten to render these large low lying coastal areas into submerged landmasses. The utopian idea borne out of this threat is one of a floating cities, buoyant against the waves and current, anchored or detached from the shores. This idea has been explored by many nations in a plethora of ways and often some of the largest variation in conceptualized projects lies in the cost and technology that it requires to develop. In relation to floating architecture, expanding our cities into the seas seems a more feasible and practical solution than expansion into the skies. Today, it is not unusual to sea entire resorts, holiday villas and other forms of leisure housing extending out into the seas. At grass root level vernacular communities have been living nomad lives with house boats moored to docks along river banks that they have claimed as home. Indigenous island communities have survived as self-sustaining ecosystems for several decades and the conceptualization of cities as floating islands that are self-sustaining and self-regulating is not an unrealizable dream for the future.
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS CASE STUDY 04 -‘THE CITY OF THE FUTURE’, GEORGII KRUTIKOV
Project Name: Flying City
Designer: Georgii Krutikov
Location: Russia
CLOUD NINE , BUCKMINISTER FULLER
A reinterpretation of this concept came in the form of Buckminister Fullers Cloud Nine. Close analysis of Cloud Nine reveals the environmentalist philosophy of a utopian society in harmony with the environment, however, they failed humanity to maintain it.
The Tensegrity sphere was a philosophy of the environmentalist movement of the 1960s which aimed to create a utopian society for human life in a hostile environment.
EMOTIONAL UTOPIAN THINKING Georgii Krutikov in 1928 as a budding architect proposed a utopian solution overpopulation on land. His vision is to utilize land to its optimum level while occupying the atmosphere for more expanding purposes. The land is presently used in a very unsustainable manner which is progressing into a dystopian situation where there is land scarcity for a growing population. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS CASE STUDY 04 -‘THE CITY OF THE FUTURE’, GEORGII KRUTIKOV PHYSICAL MATERIALIZATION
Georgy Krutikov conceived the idea where the residents are suspended in the air the public spaces and industrial activities related to them to give them better linkages and evading the possibility of being affected by catastrophes. The change to a direct vertical connection increases the efficiency and easiness of urban functions while parallelly the vertical expansion reduces the unsustainable horizontal expansion. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS CASE STUDY 05 - TOMÁS SARACENO & CONTEMPORARY WORKS Tomas Saraceno is an artist and an architect who is not limiting his work of architecture only to ground or in other words earth, but also reaches into outer space.
EMOTIONAL UTOPIAN THINKING Saraceno’s “In Orbit” is part of the artist’s continuing investigation regarding the project of the flying city, and is thereby oriented towards artistic and architectural concepts since the 1950s.Tomas Saraceno mentions in his art works the possibility of architectonic living spaces by proposing cell like flying cities with referring to Buckminster Fuller’s Cloud Nine (circa 1960). The fantastic architectural utopia Cloud Nine is a one-mile diameter sphere which is free floating and also offers plenty of living space to number of autonomous communities encompassing thousands of inhabitants each.
Tomás Saraceno's artwork “in orbit” (2013) against the backdrop of space architecture.
The cloud concept is very important and plays a major role in any artist’s work. Metaphorically cloud concept is purposefully used for artistic intentions which means that the territory and border in current (urban) society, and it doesn’t stop there, but also about the changing the human living environment by exploring different types of possibilities in sustainable development. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS CASE STUDY 05 - TOMÁS SARACENO & CONTEMPORARY WORKS Artistic experiments with the force of the solar can help us cultivate an elemental aesthetics. Through his work with what appear as deceptively simple devices, Saraceno’s experiments with solar energy show us how it possible to attune to the sensual propositions made by elemental matter-energy.
PHYSICAL MATERIALIZATION Tomas Saraceno is an artist and an architect who is not limiting his work of architecture only to ground or in other words earth, but also reaches into outer space. (Biomimetic Constructions- On the works of Tomás Saraceno by Katharina Schlüter) Saraceno is also interested in human factors and pay attention for experiments using his existing constructions as a base for analog environments for living on Mars and he proposed to carry out any number of workshops and experiments and solar balloon launches in early 2016 at a location called white sands dessert with the support of the curator Dr Rob La Frenais, the Rubin Center at The University of Texas at El Paso and various scientific partners.
Figure 4.4.5.Air-Port-City (2009)is the mural Saraceno created to imagine a floating city.Courtesy Tomas Saraceno
At the beginning of the design process—which included analog and digital methods—was the artist’s familiarity with different forms of (horizontal) spider webs. To generate processible data out of the natural structures, he cooperated with experts from different fields and succeeded in scanning spider webs for the first time.
Saraceno did not create a flying city. Neither are the spheres accessible nor does the construction fly. We cannot yet know in which ways “In Orbit” will contribute to the realization of flying cities in the future, but we can assume that it could.
Figure.4.4.6. Tomás Saraceno On the Roof: Cloud City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, 2012. Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. ( source https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/aenea4/video-in-the-studio-with-toms-saraceno)
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS CASE STUDY 06 - STUDIO LINDFORS PROPOSALS A COMMUNITY THAT LIVES IN THE AIR, CLOUD CITY
EMOTIONAL UTOPIAN THINKING The concept of Cloud Skippers by Gretchen Stump is a concept that imagines man untethered to the ground. The cities are intended to be self-sustaining by depending on renewable energies such as wind and solar energy and therefore its location is dictated by where best to optimize its sustenance. Therefore, it eliminates any bond or dependency living on the ground might consistently produce. The Cloud Skipper is not only a utopian solution for natural catastrophes but also a solution that responds to overpopulation as well.
PHYSICAL MATERIALIZATION
Figure.4.5.9. Conceptual view of the floating pods (Source: Online image,www.cargocollective.com)
The Cloud Skipper concept entirely mirrors the habitual concept on the ground to a constant mobile society that lives in machine-like dwellings. These houses glide, drift and sway with the wind and are self-sufficient with the help of huge wings and long cables painting the picture of huge kites kept adrift by jet streams blowing at speeds that exceed 100 miles per hour.
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS CASE STUDY 06 - STUDIO LINDFORS PROPOSALS TEMPORARY AIRBORNE SHELTER
EMOTIONAL UTOPIAN THINKING While often utopian ideas focus upon a greater scheme of societal shift an overlooked niche in this method of thinking is how it may also apply to the formulation of temporary solutions. In a world that is often seeing strife, conflict and unrooting of communities due to natural disasters it is equally important that we visualize solutions that cater to the immediate problem. The significance of the Cloud City concept is that it allows the reconstruction to carry on uninterrupted from the recovery process for the people. A provision of housing with requirements will be air born to provide temporary shelter for the victims of the catastrophe. This minimizes further dislocation, disorientation and trauma for the people that have faced the catastrophe.
Figure. Conceptualized view of the Floating Pods – ( source -www. dezeen.com)
PHYSICAL MATERIALIZATION The Cloud City is an aspiration of living among the clouds. Even though the dwelling will float and glide among the clouds the city will still have its connection with the land below. This concept allows the people to be rehabilitated without losing the sense of belonging and security while the reconstruction is carried out simultaneously on the ground. The fluting home can be deployed with minimum effort in the least amount of time. The basic connection to the existing services will provide a working house that can be anchored to the location. 8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS
SUMMARY The utopian ideal of expanding mankind’s horizons to the sky is a metamorphosis of a childhood fascination with helium balloons and string kites encompassing in one fell sweep both tethered and untethered architecture in its purest conceptualization. One may argue that these childlike fantasies of a utopian world in the clouds may not be far from reality.
Over time humanity as a whole has reached great heights in technological innovation while challenging material limitations and discovering new ones. It is a subtle evolution from the thought process that led to vertical infrastructure as opposed to horizontal sprawl. Literature coined the phrase “the sky is
the limit” as an acknowledgment that the sky has a boundless avenue for growth and so the utopian image of castles in the sky is hardly an unjustified progression of creative thought.
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CASE STUDIES – FLOATING ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS FLOATING AIRBORNE PROJECTS
SUMMARY Parallelly, it becomes easier to envision a dystopian world where mankind is reduced to coffin houses and slum-like dwellings as the scarcity of land becomes an undeniable aspect of life pressured by both overpopulation and rising sea levels. Smog and pollution that plague some of the largest cities in the world forms a constraint of man’s own creation. If blue sky becomes the exception rather than the norm can we as a society continue to imagine a life in the clouds; be it tethered or untethered? Fullers Dome was a fanatical piece of imaginative thinking that sparked great intellectual debate but led to very few practical realizations in its time. Resources, technology, and social attitudes mocked these ambitious proposals before they took root. Nonetheless, the concept was not forgotten over time but reexamined in arguably more practical endeavors. The temporary shelters as discussed above are some of the more easily palatable translations of the grand schemes envisioned after the war and serve to solve immediate problems faced by vast communities even today. The achieving of the utopian vision of an airborne city may be determined to be an attainable or unattainable goal objectively. However, it inspires small scale physical manifestations within existing limitations and capabilities that take human society up the initial steps aware of the dystopian visions that threaten to become reality.
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COVID 19 PANDEMIC AS A CATASTROPHE CREATING A DYSTOPIA “Health concerns have always steered urban planning and the design of cities.” - Moritz Maria Karl, architect and researcher at Berlin’s Technical University
An emergency hospital in Kansas during the 1918 influenza epidemic. (Source - National Museum of Health and Medicine )
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COVID 19 PANDEMIC AS A CATASTROPHE CREATING A DYSTOPIA
Paramedics transporting a man believed to be Hong Kong’s first coronavirus patient to a hospital in January. ( source -Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times )
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COVID 19 PANDEMIC AS A CATASTROPHE CREATING A DYSTOPIA
The pandemic as a dystopian enabler can be discussed in the following aspects. •The Covid 19 pandemic which is transmitted through air, creates a high degree of disaster considering the fact that the only way to avoid exposure is physical isolation. This nature of the pandemic caused the global culture to adapt and change their lifestyle. And the time it has taken to adapt and recover enough to continue with economic and social requirements caused an irreversible loss and long term damage. In addition, human suffering and loss, these factors contribute to the degree of disaster. •The infrastructure of cities, physical and soft both, are in dire need of reevaluation and adaptation to suit pandemic guidelines. If the statistics and management tactics all over the world are to be evaluated in terms of infrastructural capacity to strike against a pandemic, it would be clear that even the developed countries were not equipped as required.
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COVID 19 PANDEMIC AS A CATASTROPHE CREATING A DYSTOPIA When the above conditions are laid out assessing the realities of living in an era of a global pandemic, the following phases can be derived in a utopian approach. 1. 2.
Pre pandemic preparation Post pandemic application
The utopian concept of creating a good place within the bad place, as well as adapting to unprecedented conditions brought about by a pandemic, can be used in preparation based design approaches as well as applicationbased approaches. The evaluation and research on the Covid 19 pandemic reflects the future urbanism and built environment shaped by the new norms of a post-pandemic era. Implementation of experimental design and conceptual design based on future predictions paves the way for utopian solutions. Utopian thinking conceptualizes these possibilities from ahead of time, reducing the time it takes to adapt, minimizing wastage ultimately enabling design solutions that can thrive in the dystopian world, persisting the survival of mankind.
CURA proposes to transform shipping containers into emergency COVID-19 hospitals ( Source -www.designboom.com )
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CONCLUSIONS IT CAN BE CONCLUDED THAT THE DYSTOPIAN SCENARIO, WHERE IT IS THE ‘ULTIMATE BAD PLACE/SITUATION’, BECOMES
THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE FOR THE ARCHITECT TO CREATE A UTOPIAN SOLUTION. THE CONCEPT OF ‘VALUE WITHIN A
BAD PLACE’ CAN BE APPLIED IN THIS FORMULATION OF AN ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTION. •
When concluding overall, it was observed that the utopian conceptual solutions by the architects did not respond to one particular catastrophe even though the study was done based on the selected scope of natural catastrophe.
• It was also noted that the physical formation of the solution was governed by the personal design philosophy and the socio-political
context of the architect as well the solution carried the potential to be adapted to dissimilar scenarios at the hands of the architect.
•
The implementation of such utopian visions were considered only theoretical few decades back. But it can be concluded that the technology of the current context is advanced enough to cater to the realization of such visions.
• The gap between such theoretical conceptual work and practical physical formation of an architectural solution is attempted to be bridged using the study and formulating a theoretical framework. The derived theoretical framework comprises the potential to pave the way to the derivation of a design framework which ultimately guides the formation of the architectural solution.
•
The importance of such conceptual thinking even unrealized plays a significant role here as the documentation and existence of such discourse guide the contemporary architect to develop wholesome solutions that can address the issues of the
global context.
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LIST OF REFERENCES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Barris, R. (1999) The Constructivist Engaged Spectator: A Politics of Reception. Design Issues. 15 (1), pp. 31. Boldero, J. & Francis, J. (2002) Goals, standards, and the self: Reference values serving different functions. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 232241. Bruchansky, Christophe July 5, 2009. (Accessed February 18, 2013). http://bruchansky.name/2009/07/05/philosophical-notions-of-utopia-and-progres Carr, E. (1939) The twenty years' crisis, 1919-1939. London: Macmillan Press.Yuhas, Daisy. (2012). "Psychology Reveals The Comfort Of The Apocalypse." Scientific American.: Doxiadēs, K. (1966) Between Dystopia and utopia. London: Faber & Faber. Doxiadēs, K. (1966) Between Dystopia and utopia. London: Faber & Faber. Fenuta.E.V. Amphibious Architectures: The Buoyant Foundation Project in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Fernando, J., Burden, N., Ferguson, A., O’Brien, L., Judge, M. & Kashima, Y. (2018) Functions of Utopia: How Utopian Thinking Motivates Societal Engagement. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 44 (5), pp. 779-792. Fernando, J.W., O’Brien, L.V., Burden, N., Judge, M. & Kashima, Y. (2017) Everyday utopias: The content of utopian visions and associations with motivation for social change. Unpublished manuscript. Fuller.B, Shadao.R., S. 1960, Project for Floating Cloud Structures Krutikov .G, a Study of Moving Form. 1928, Table 1: Visual Deformation of a Dynamic Form. Diploma project, VKhUTEIN, Courtesy of A. V. Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow. https://strelkamag.com/en/article/from-the-flying-city-to-the-smart-city Kumar, K. (1987) Utopia and anti-utopia in modern times. Oxford: Blackwell. Larson, M. (1993) Behind the postmodern facade. Berkeley: University of California Press. Lesser, A. (1974) Utopian and critical thinking, by Martin G. Plattel. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology. 5 (1), pp. 96-96. Levitas, R. (1990) The Concept of Utopia. London: Philip Allan. Manfredo Tafuri, (1969) ‘Toward a Critique of Architectural Ideology’,Contropiano,January-April . Mannheim, K. (1991) Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge (L. Wirth & E.Shils trans.) London: Routledge. Markus, H. & Nurius, P. (1986) Possible selves. American Psychologist. 41 (9), pp. 954-969. Moore. T. (1516) A Fruitful and Pleasant Work of the Best State of a Public Weal, and of the New Isle Called Utopia Mumford, L. (1923) The Story of Utopias: Ideal Commonwealths and Social Myths. London: Harrap.. Parker, M. (ed) (2002b) Utopia and Organization. Oxford: Blackwell. Porter, T., (2004), ‘Archispeak: An illustrated guide to architectural terms’, Spon Press, London Portugali, J. (2000) Self-Organization, and the City. Prosun.P(2010). the LIFT House: An amphibious strategy for sustainable and affordable housing for the urban poor in flood-prone, Bangladesh Rüsen, J. (2005) Rethinking utopia; a plea for a culture of inspiration. In J. Rüsen et al (Eds) Thinking Utopia: Steps into Other Worlds (New York, Berghahn Books), 276281 Saraceno.T. (2013) Solo exhibition at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf, Germany. Curated by Marion Ackermann and Susanne Meyer-Büser. Sargent, L. T. (2010). Utopianism: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press Toepfer, B. (2014) Utopia In The Apocalypse: Creating A Framework Of Survival Systems
8th International Conference on Cities People and Places. Colombo ,Sri Lanka. 15th to 18th December 2020
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