Inhabiting the Sea: Sea Level Rise and a New Urban Environment

Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki (AUTh)

Project idea

“Inhabiting the Sea: Sea Level Rise and a New Urban Environment” is a project about a building complex that could accommodate environmental migrants who lose their homes due to the sea level rise. Meanwhile, a new urban development model is introduced, that is characterized by vertical growth of the city, providence for autonomy, capability for augmentation and environmentally friendly strategies.
Indicative influences were the theories of Metabolism about organic development, Archigram’s vision of the futuristic city, the artificial climate conditions seen in the biomes of Eden Project and the layout of Linked Hybrid.

Project description

At the start of the design process some goals were set that help solve the issue of people who lose their homes and generally create new trends in life in a future community. We summarized them as follows:
- Create adequate housing areas that cover a significant percentage of ecological migrants and not only.
- Incorporate a range of functions and activities that meet the needs and wishes of citizens.
- To give autonomy to complex, in the sense of the existence of primary and secondary industry and energy production infrastructure
- Create a new model of transparency in production and actively involve the citizens in it.
- To create an elegant and safe environment that has the character of the city and maintain the concept of neighborhoods at the same time.
-Communication to and from the cluster, but also within it to be easy and fast.
-To enable potentials of expansion and continuity of the complex to keep pace with increasing needs and problems.

The original idea was that of ​​a megastructure, a "building" that could accommodate the creation or transfer of a city and that would create the concept of community for environmental refugees. It is placed in the sea since we seek to respond to the problem of habitation caused by the sea level rise and not to avoid the problem by a transfer to another part of the land. This megastructure, since it is the basis of a city, should carry all the individual functions that make up a city and be an autonomous unit.

The form of the structure is that of an ortho-canonical grid which resembles a conventional tower-skyscraper, but also has the possibility of further spreading vertically and horizontally, giving the possibility of extention to the tower itself. At the same time, unlike a conventional skyscraper, the compact elements (such as blocks of flats and other buildings)are placed on the structure as capsules that snap onto the beams and columns, eventually creating a perforated tower. Thus, on the one hand, the construction can start from a sparse placement of volumes (capsules), on the other hand it leaves free spaces to accommodate more volumes on the frame, but also extends the frame itself to accommodate even more, depending on the conditions or needs existing in each case (more or less refugees).

As we transfer the functions of a city to capsules on the structure, respectively, we want to transfer the sense of movement or even wandering into the city, on the vertical axis. This is done by placing vertically-mounted elevators for vertical communication, in conjunction with horizontal connections between all elements.

But in order for this complex to be a unity and not just a set of individual manipulations, we choose multi-level horizontal communication between them, both at sea level and at different altitudes.

In the first case the towers are connected with a floating plane. The large surfaces of the floating plane create a linear path from one tower to another. At the same time, the floating plane does not constitute a single surface, but a fragmented surface in many individual ones, in order to be able to adapt to the waves' motion. At the same time it can be completed with more pieces and expanded or placed in a different layout to adapt to the installation of the towers (which may be different depending on the subsoil, for example).

In the second case we place bridges to achieve the connection between the towers on many levels, facilitating the movement from one tower to another, attaching each tower to a single set and ultimately playing an important static role for the complex. Apart from that, the bridges offer enormous surfaces to facilitate additional functions.

Technical information

In this part we will focus separately on each of the elements that make up our complex.

Concerning the towers, the steel frame is the basis of all. It is a metallic grid of 100m x 100m spacing and is composed of 2m profile columns and beams and steel bracing of 1.5m profile at fixed points, which make a significant contribution to the tower's support. The columns are positioned axially every 20 meters, just like the beams, while the total height varies from tower to tower, and can reaches up to about 900 meters. This metallic grid can extend by adding more beams and columns when it is required.

The second important element of the towers are capsules that carry the various functions of the city that are attached to the steel frame. Each capsule hosts only one activity/use. Blocks include blocks of flats, schools, hospitals, shopping, services, sports facilities, cinemas, theaters, bars, restaurants, hotels, multi-media and religious sites. The distribution of different types of blocks is even across the height of each tower. We seek to avoid the use of zones in the tower, which can create highly defined traffic flows (such as those in an airport). In that case all residents would have a single habitation zone and would move in massive flows to their workplaces, educational or recreational areas and so on. Our goal is to create the background on which continuous live streams of motion can be developed in all directions that run through the tower (something that resembles the flow of movement of people on the streets of a city). At the same time the combination of different functions separates the tower into individual neighborhoods (e.g., some houses with a school and market) making the urban model more familiar and resemblant to a current city. Lastly depending on the needs in each situation, more capsules can be attached to the frame so that more people can be hosted and more functions can be included.

As far as the movement of citizens and products within each tower is concerned, elevators are used for vertical communication and platforms for horizontal. More specifically, in each skyscraper there are three elevator groups, as well as an equal number of emergency staircases. Altogether, in each skyscraper there are 10 elevators for citizens and a large elevator for large cargo transportation. For horizontal movement, planes with glass roofs and glass sides are used. These planes connect either volumes that are close to each other, or with volumes with elevators. This grid of motion strengthens the construction of the new urban fabric with sub-neighborhoods on different scales. Small neighborhoods (where people meet almost everyday) are formed between nearby blocks of flats (which have a small altitude difference of 15 meters and communicate with the same elevator) and wider neighborhoods (people meet less often) formed within the level defined by a group of elevators.

The next key element of the complex are the elongated connections between the skyscrapers ( multilevel bridges), that also house functions associated with the new life model in this community. Their total height is 25m. and are suspended by the towers with cables, while both ends are supporting on the towers. This structure contributes to the static sufficiency of the whole complex as alla parts work as one body and no as single ones. All bridges are framed with beams and columns with a profile of 1m, while inside beams and columns of the same profile are placed every 40m in a vertical direction along the length of the bridge.

In each of the 3 bridges there are 3 zones/levels. From top to bottom:
- The roof is used for transportation from one tower to the other but also as a promenade. The floor is made of cast material and glass to show the levels beneath and there are some green spaces as well. For safety reasons there is a glass surrounding of 3m, as a cover from the strong winds at such a high altitude.
-The level of the natural environment:. At this level, we reconstruct (or even transfer) a natural environment, since most of the land is covered with grass, there are shallow streams and lakes, small hills, but also low plantations and shrubs. The net height reaches 11 meters, allowing trees to be planted. There are also several routes for the movement of citizens, but also spaces to have the opportunity to sit before continuing their walk. Our aim with this level is to allow eco-refugees moving to the complex keep their relation with nature and the access to it intact.
In order to achieve an aesthetic variety, there may be plants from different regions and climates in the world in different bridges, which can prosper supported by artificially created climate conditions. At this level, there is a mechanical walkway suspended from the roof, which effectively allows quick movement from tower to tower, but also offers a downward view to the natural environment. Lastly ramps and elevators are placed for level to level communication.
-Production level: This level houses primary and secondary production facilities. In particular, there are crops as well as different animal species. Similar areas of processing of the raw materials are placed at the two intersection points of each bridge with the towers. The choice of placement on the bridges was made with the thought of placing the production process at the center of the composition and spatially closer to the citizens. The purpose is for these sites to be accessible to the public so as to give them a transparent view of the production.

The last basic component of the complex is the floating plane connecting the bases of the towers. The surfaces constituting this level are floating to respond to the problem of rising sea levels. This elongated plane is "broken" into smaller pieces so that it can "absorb" the wave motion. There is an 8m wide walkway that runs through the floating plane, which starts from the first skyscraper and ends at the last. From this level people can enter the elevators leading to the towers, while in front of each elevator there is a booth as an introductory space.

There are jetties on several points serving smaller vessels and a normal port is formed at one part of the floating , for communication with land. There are also free surfaces so that even larger ships over 300m can be anchored. Each port has the necessary warehouses and buildings.

In addition to what is mentioned above, the floating level also functions as a recreational and service area. Therefore, it has green areas (plants and trees are selected to withstand the marine climate), squares, shelters and waiting areas, swimming pools in the form of a basin in the sea, water sports facilities, stadiums, heliports and aquaculture. Moreover this level gives a chance to the citizens of the complex to co-exist and get in contact with the element that originally caused them to evacuate cities, this element being water.

Lastly, to facilitate the transport of goods and products to the complex, an underwater tunnel is created where fixed-track vehicles will move in both directions. At this subterranean level there are stops at the points where the towers are located, as well as the appropriate facilities and warehouses for the storage of the products, which are then transported with the elevator. Also this level can also be used as a space for electrical and mechanical installations, energy storage, etc.

In order to strengthen the autonomy of the community, apart from production and functions, the complex must also be decommissioned in the energy sector. Therefore, care must be taken to ensure that energy sources do not pollute the environment. We refer to renewable energy sources, which, despite lower performance, can make a significant contribution to the functioning of the community:

- Wind power: Wind farms are installed with wind turbines at a distance from each complex to avoid noise pollution. Wind turbines are built in the sea and can be of different sizes, depending on the needs and climate of the area.

-Solar power: As far as solar energy is concerned, it is increasingly used for electricity generation and can greatly help as solar panels are placed on large surfaces of the composition, particularly on the outer sides of large elevators, and on the roofs of the bridges connecting the towers.

-Biomass: Biomass production facilities are located in the complex at the edges of the bridges connecting the towers. Plant carbohydrates and food waste from on the lower level of the bridges, are used to produce biomass. Urban waste and scrap from neighboring skyscrapers can also be used.

-Energy from the sea: Depending on the location of a complex, it is possible to exploit the sea for energy production. This can come from tides, waves or osmotic energy, which is produced by the mixture of fresh and saltwater.

One of the design goals was the possibility of expanding the complex in a way so that it the number of inhabitants can be increased, additional functions and activities can be added and generally serve the needs that may arise. This can be done in the following ways:
- Fusion of two or more complexes and multiplication of the individual elements.
- Adding individual skyscrapers together with their respective floating levels. In this case, additional bridges that connect them can also be added to the skyscrapers.
- Adding extra volumes to the frame of an existing skyscraper. Additional building volumes are placed in the gaps of existing ones depending on the needs they are asked to cover.
- Extending or stretching the steel frame to accommodate additional building volumes, increasing the total height and / or size of the tower base.

The problem of sea level rising is something that affects cities and countries globally. In order to respond to different situations and conditions that different locations may demand, each complex can be reshaped in different layouts and be placed anywhere it is needed around the globe.

Co-authors

Co-authors: Despotidis Iasonas, Tompoulidis Marios

Supervisors: Alexopoulou Aleka, Papakostas Georgios

Structural Supervisor: Papadopoulos Panikos