Milling the desert

Geometry

As the city is located in an arid climate, conditions in the surface can be really strong. In order to avoit that, the city is created underground, so that a fresh microclimate can be created. Desalinating sea water and filtrating solar exposure, food production can be guaranteed.

The geometry of the city is created from a rectangle. There is a public attraction point in each one of the vertices:
V1: Industry / Water purification / Waste management
V2: Primary + secundary education / Leisure
V3: Administration / University / Cultural
V4: Market / Sports centre / Hospital

There is an external conection that reaches the exterior from each vertice, working as public space as well as conection.
C1: Sea: Desalinization plat / Auditorium
C2: Car parking / Solar-eolic tower
C3: Train station / Solar eolic tower
C4: Pedestrian access

Housing and tertiary working (offices & shops) are located near and in between these nodes. Meanwhile, fields for food production are located around the city, creating a green ring that also works as a big park.

By general law, housing and offices will be always profit two opposite orientations (north-south, east-west) in order to have good ventilation. In addition, facades work as shadow devices and the fact of being underground avoids direct sun exposure and high temperatures.

Energy production

Sun radiation heatens the air below the glass-skin, which acts as a big hot air colector. Hot air is lighter than cold air, so it goes up the chimney. After reaching the turbines, kinetic energy is created, which will be transformed into electric energy thanks to an alternator. After this use, clean air is expelled again to the atmosphere.

These two towers also act like transport conections, because they work as a train station and a car-parking. People will change scale in this nodes, to get down and enter in the city scale.

Secondary energy will be produced using waves energy, biomass energy and from burning the waste that canot be neither reused or recycled.

Transport

The aim of the transportation system is to have some external conections in the edges of the city, that will act as main scale-changing nodes. This avoids private transportation issues, as the compacity allows easy movement walking or by bicycle. However, a radial transportation ring is conceived to make goods, food or people transportation easier.

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¨My India¨ IAAC Research Trip EXPO

IaaC’s work in Mumbai explored current conditions and dynamics of the territory. Changing coastal conditions, learning from slums as the largest housing type, critiquing the unjustified escalation of land value and the various actors that work within this mechanism were part of the study as well.
Rapid growth in the population of cities and hurried development in second tier and third tier cities of India which ape their metropolitan contemporaries, were also part of the exploration.
“My India” Exhibition Presented by the IAAC MAA is a sum of all these experiences caught on movie and photograph. It started with students Films presented at the IaaC conference hall, and continued with the photographic exhibition at Corretger5 Gallery Barcelona

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MORPHotels

RSII: Selfsufficient building

This project intends to develop a new luxury hotel concept where the user has the opportunity to live an experience in a floating system moving around the world. The MORPHotels, thanks to their linear structure, developed around the vertebral spine, are able to adapt the shape according with the weather conditions and the site morphology.
The MORPHotels concept is based on four main strategies: SPACE IN BETWEEN: using the sea not only as a medium to move tourist from one point to another (like cruise ships) but take advantage from this “space in between” in order to discover unknown places; PLUG-IN CITY-ARBOUR: this artificial organism, during its continuous journey around the oceans and the seas, will stop for short or long periods in cities met throughout its trip becoming a temporary extension of them; ADAPTIVE SHAPE and FLOATING MOVEMENT.
SPACE IN BETWEEN: avoiding the classical logic of the cruise ship (with average cruise speed around 20 nodes the fuel consumption is 470 Liters/Km) this system would change the rules about the sea trips; the MORPHotels is always in movement with slow speed around the world and the tourist has to catch up it wherever it will be. The user won’t use it like a cruise ship that start from point A, reach the end point (B) and go back; here the segment A-B is only a small part of the entire-endless way of the MORPHotel.

weaverbird’s plug-in

GH makes possible to change the position of the main services inside the structure and to connect to this to the dimension of the vertebra. At the same time is possible to deformate the shape of the spine obtaining the deformation of the entire system.
Also, using weaverbird’s plug-in, is possible to tranform geometric boundingbox shape in a more organic one according with the logic of the artificial organism.

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The Future of Suburbs – analysis (2)

This project asks to design a system for a city for 10,000 people in 30 hectares. Even though we are not dealing with a specific site, there is a relationship that is established between the proposed site, the existing Downtown and the country. The goal of 10,000 people will be met within the specified area, but the project will unequivocally address questions that deal with relationships that happen outside of the specified area of the site.

Horizontal relationships:

Vertical relationships:

- All buildings will be on pilotis in order to lift the new construction above the existing houses so that they can become stores, museums, offices and government buildings.

- Public gardens will be sandwiched between the new residences and will be of two kids: open and closed to the environment (depending on the specific climate conditions). In both cases they will act as interior courtyards, letting in Sun light throughout the year. They will extend vertically becoming green walls.

- The new residences will be located on top of the pilotis. Each apartment will have a view to an interior garden.

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RSIII. Digital Tectonics (FAB)BOTS

Student groups were researching on how to work on their Robots, their applications and how to
improve them through out the Easter break. They presented their development to Faculty Marta
Malé-Alemany, Victor Viña, Luis Fraguada and Assistant Cesar Cruz Cazares. This is a start of a
workshop which will continue through out the weekend giving students a good outline on how to
compute the machines and get working accordingly to their applications.

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RSII. Self Sufficient Buildings

Students had been researching on their site and master plan for their Self-sufficient hotel capsules.They were discussing this development with Faculty Willy Muller and assistant Maite Bravo who helped them decide on where to put their buildings and how they would relate to the chosen site.

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ASSIGNMENT 2

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