It’s been a while since we uploaded the last image of our
lab activities. We are planning on uploading a series of our recent projects
in the coming days.
Here is the first one; we entered a design competition, "Transforming Seattle's 520 Floating Bridge: 2012
International Design Ideas Competition". www.rethinkreuse.org
The competition called for an idea to reuse the
decommissioned floating bridge in Seattle, Washington.
Our proposal is as below:
Title:
STACK: the Floating Mountain
for Wildlife Habitats & Urban Farm
Project Description:
STACK is a relocatable floating island in the
Lake Washington, constructed from the recycled pontoons that were once part of
the world longest floating bridge. This floating mountain of pontoons is
designed as a protected wildlife sanctuary and a sustainable ecosystem for the
future urban farming where Seattleites could visit by a boat and participate in
outdoor activities.
The process of assembling this large structure
utilizes the principle of buoyancy as a primary method of construction. Instead
of lifting thirty-three of those large and heavy concrete pontoons and
positioning them by a crane, water from the lake will be injected into the
pontoon, which is hollow inside, to lower its position relative to the lake’s
water surface. The balance between the amount of air and water in the pontoon
allows it to move higher or lower during the construction process. A simple tug
boat tows the pontoons into a designated location and the process of injecting
water to be repeated. At the end of construction, water from all pontoons will
be emptied and then the submerged stacked pontoon mountain will be lifted into
the sky, except a few at the bottom and three of them which will be positioned
vertically to stabilize the entire structure.
Wildlife and biodiversity as an ideal model for a
sustainable agriculture, STACK is an ecological experimental project to create
an artificial ecosystem for the future urban farming where the diversity of
species, from small microbes and insects to plants and animals, coexist to
create a fertile, life-thriving environment for cultivating food without
heavily depending on fossil fuels that current practices of farming is based.
In order to maintain our advancing and growing society, we need to find
sustainable solutions to maximize our capacity and resources. STACK is a
small step but is heading in the right direction to provide food and spirit for
Seattleites.
