Final Booklets 2016-17

 

Desert Cloud City

Kristen Barrett, Olumurewa Oguntade, and Ernesto Zuniga

Located in Northern Nigeria, the Desert Cloud city is conceived as a sustainable vertical city for the year 2050. It is elevated to a region with optimum conditions for human comfort, rainwater and energy collection, as well as plant growth. Techniques to achieve this include a self-shading form, a 4,000m-tall water condensing tower, structural mega columns, and solar collection devices. The Desert Cloud city also addresses its social context through the application of traditional patterns and the accommodation of the region's rapid urbanization and worsening climatic conditions.

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Detroit: A Sky-Farm City

Arham Siddiqui and Zahida Khan

This design proposal has been taken forth considering this issue as a challenge. Grasslands, as a biome, provides a high potential in food production. Many cities lying in this biome and having continental climate have flourished well in this industry. Detroit, with a glorified industrial past and the current decaying conditions, provides an example of a city in need of revival. Our design vision seeks to revive Detroit by allowing it to produce its own food, while processing waste and harnessing green energy. This concept has been celebrated in this design by bringing it to the forefront and creating awareness amongst its residents.

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Mountain Refuge in Skkim City

Andrew Armetta and Jared Davis

Anticipating the effects of rising seas on Bangladesh, Sikkim City proposes a migration to the southern Himalayas. This city works to preserve and enhance the existing mountain ecosystem and focuses clusters of towers along the steep topography of the mountain ridge. The building creates an artificial snow pack at the crown of the skyscraper to collect snow, solar, and wind energy to support the population below. A 3D printed living shear wall envelope provides shelter from the harsh climate along the ridge. Prefabricated units, imitating existing settlements in the region, plug into the living facade.

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Palus Urbem Highrises

Rachita Malhotra and Jeremy Scott

Exploring the Mekong Delta region, a city was developed as an adaptable flood defense mechanism which would utilize flood waters from monsoon season to the city’s advantage. Utilizing a terraced form, the buildings carry the marsh into the sky both vertically and horizontally, bringing the environment into the sky. Achieving drastic height with a diagrid made from vernacular materials the buildings are arranged in clusters to create a hierarchy in city transport. The buildings which create Palus Urbem are self-sustain-ing structures which relate to both the land and environment.

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Rainforest City - 2050

Sheree Emmanuel, Haoyu Zhang, and Shantanu Utsav Shukla

Rainforest City-2050 is a sustainable future city in Brazil, where the urban population is steadily increasing and the deforestation rate is high. Housing 25 million the main concept involves utilization of a deforested piece of land and intensifying the rainforest that once was. Drawing inspiration from the rainforest, there are 6 layers of connections throughout the city designated for the rainforest, farming, transportation and public activities. The city aims to become vertical eco-corridors through continuous cracks for the rainforest, and be home to a balance of humans and local species of plants and animals. 

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