Category Archives: RS1. Emergent Territories

The starting point is having a pedestrian movement, which is the most obvious decision about a 10 000 people city/neighborhood. That means I had to set up some distance rules between the different component and programs. Based on that distances, I had the plot for my city (how big it should be according my rules) and the next question was how to keep only good orientation for all of the buildings. For that reason, I had to thing for some structure which will give me only south and no north orientation, which is the worst possible orientation in my country and in whole Europe as well.

I decided working with the specific conditions in my hometown (Varna, Bulgaria), having a sea south of my plot, same temperatures and climate conditions, etc. I was thinking how to create buildings, which can be used as a landscape inside the city, and also which can remain private as they usually are, and at the same time public spaces. The decision I made was to use the roof of the buildings as a public green spaces, which will also add more area for farming and the city will be more self sufficient in terms of food. At the same time, the roofs can be reached by a slope which can be also used as a public spaces, farming, recreation zones, playgrounds etc. The slope itself can be a shield from the cold north winds during the winter, could have no shadows during big part of the day and also they can be used as recourse for heating or cooling the building by using the constant temperature of the soil. The only question was how many degrees the slope should be? So, I decided to try with slopes between 1 and 24 degrees (the minimum angle of the sun during the winter in Varna, Bulgaria) and see what happens with the density. I know how big the city should be as a maximum to keep it pedestrian, I know how many people I need to live in that city, so now I had to find what is the angle which will form buildings big enough for 3000 apartments. The slope I finally choose is 20 degrees and it gives me a little more than 3000 apartments.


Reasons to call the city self-sufficient:
Food and goods:
1-By these slopes I`m maximizing the area for farming.
2-Having less shadows between the buildings is making the land more productive by giving plants more light.
3-Producing goods out of recycled materials
Waste and Energy:
1-The buildings have less temperature losses because of the good orientation and for the same reason, they can produce electricity from PV panels installed on top of the handrails (see the detail).
2-Gaining energy for heating/cooling from the ground behind the building
3-PV panels can be installed on all of the slopes covering the industry (facing south slopes with area of 135625m2 can produce energy from PV panels enough for 4271 apartments). This is besides of the energy given by the home installed PV panels.
4-The organic waste tanks inside each block can give the inhabitants as a result water and natural gas-methane, which can be used for boilers.
5-Non-organic waste can be taken for recycling by the old fashion way
Water:
1-Using sea water by desalination plant (reverse osmosis process) and distribution system
2-grey water will be reused for farming
Transportation:
1-pedestrian city, which means healthy people and fresh air everywhere. The streets are not more borders.
2-Optimized underground transportation systems on 2 levels-public (ULTRA RTM) and private transport (also electrical) for long distance run. Private transport can reach every building but underground.
3-Separation between trucks and private transport inside the city.
Variety of functions, programs, components inside.