THE ISLET
CONSTRUCTION PROCESS
CONSTRUCTION PROCESS
The hexagon buoys’ casings. Inside of them, the floating chambers encircle the drum shells of the Flyers and Walkways telescopic supporting pillars.
The project makes use of existing shipyards and dry docks. Only the metal framework and body are manufactured in dry docks, then it is transported to the site using tugboats and shipping vessels. In this way jobs are created inside the city by contracting locally for the reminder of the construction process.
When completed and again in transit at some future point, the residential Flyer blocks are connected and resting on top of the macrostructure. Once relocated, the Flyer blocks extend their telescopic pillars to the sea bed, consequently disconnecting from the macrostructure once their weight has completely shifted to the supporting pillars. The Macrostructure floats, the Flyers stand on the sea bed, the Walkways stand on the sea bed as well, as they share the same foundations with the Flyers.
When completed and again in transit at some future point, the residential Flyer blocks are connected and resting on top of the macrostructure. Once relocated, the Flyer blocks extend their telescopic pillars to the sea bed, consequently disconnecting from the macrostructure once their weight has completely shifted to the supporting pillars. The Macrostructure floats, the Flyers stand on the sea bed, the Walkways stand on the sea bed as well, as they share the same foundations with the Flyers.
early concept depicting the employment of ballast tanks and locks, in the transport and anchoring of the Islet complex.
THE FLOATING MACROSTRUCTURE
nature parks and culture domes
nature parks and culture domes
Up top, a weave of footpaths and nature trails crisscross rolling hillsides, orchards, groves and sandy floodplains. Here and there a gargantuan mouth yawns in the free flowing grassland. Jutting all around it, tall crystal prisms channel sunlight to the culture dome below. Beyond numerous beaches and marinas, unbroken nature reaches out across and under the sea.
On the Islet, the park is no longer a morsel in a vast urban pattern, ever at the whim of the voracious concrete beast. It is the whole thing. Above this borderless green foundation the steel and glass city flutters.
On the Islet, the park is no longer a morsel in a vast urban pattern, ever at the whim of the voracious concrete beast. It is the whole thing. Above this borderless green foundation the steel and glass city flutters.
The Macrostructure is always afloat. But rather than just bobbing blissfully on the water mirror, its ballast tanks allow it a greater freedom of movement. Some sections may gradually sink to mid-water, thus dramatically altering the topography of the roof park landscape. Other sections, those that remain afloat during this entire process, suddenly find themselves singled out above the green and blue waves, their cavernous bellies now open on all sides to sunshine and the sea salt breeze. Above the waves and out in the open when the weather is fair, or back down into the belly of the fully risen Macrostructure in the off season- it is in these cultured domes that people gather to perform a play, to watch a movie projection, or to hold a public debate.
Most of the Macrostructure is essentially a fused mosaic of oversized flotation devices, simply serving to prop up a leafy leisure rooftop, as well as the still connected Flyer superstructures (while their telescopic pillars are not yet firmly rooted in the sea bed). In this mosaic, a few independent floating sections with the same continuous green roof, have accessible hollow structures, so that they may function as public cultural spaces.
Most of the Macrostructure is essentially a fused mosaic of oversized flotation devices, simply serving to prop up a leafy leisure rooftop, as well as the still connected Flyer superstructures (while their telescopic pillars are not yet firmly rooted in the sea bed). In this mosaic, a few independent floating sections with the same continuous green roof, have accessible hollow structures, so that they may function as public cultural spaces.
THE WALKWAYS LEVEL:
SEASONAL MARKET AVENUES
AND PLAZAS
SEASONAL MARKET AVENUES
AND PLAZAS
THE WALKWAYS MIDLEVEL AND THE STRUCTURAL
Halfway between the leisured Macrostructure and the private Superstructure, suspended in borderless empty space, are the businesslike Walkways and their sky markets.
Halfway between the leisured Macrostructure and the private Superstructure, suspended in borderless empty space, are the businesslike Walkways and their sky markets.
Concept of Cyclone Stairwell Towers
The fact that the Barrow Islet prototype is structured in such a way as to work out this design compromise of efficient density versus a rightful broad horizon, is perhaps best illustrated by the lack of virtually any pedestrian visual borders. This is ostensibly the case with the Walkway Level, as well as the Parks level. Somebody walking around this floating town can look out for miles in every direction, and if they can swim or fly, they can also move in a straight line in any direction.
As it sits halfway up there, the Walkways concentrate all heavy and utilitarian pedestrian traffic. On foot (or Segway for the disabled), one pushes along in-between home and work, in the rugged infrastructure of the elevated walkways, so that they may later casually stroll around in the endless pristine park environment underneath. The Midlevel is a place for business and efficiency.
As it sits halfway up there, the Walkways concentrate all heavy and utilitarian pedestrian traffic. On foot (or Segway for the disabled), one pushes along in-between home and work, in the rugged infrastructure of the elevated walkways, so that they may later casually stroll around in the endless pristine park environment underneath. The Midlevel is a place for business and efficiency.
Hybrid tensegrity structural proposal of a Cyclone Stairwell Tower
Mechanistic building structure: Kinetic Buildings
The FLYERS, the winged apartment blocks, are the highlight of my Diploma project. Their structure and functionality serve the detachable apartments in the wings. These apartments are amphibious nomads. I have designed them to be lowered into the sea. A boat engine at their back and they are perfectly capable of floating off anywhere. I believe this design feature probably best underlines the spirit of living on the sea.
The FLYERS, the winged apartment blocks, are the highlight of my Diploma project. Their structure and functionality serve the detachable apartments in the wings. These apartments are amphibious nomads. I have designed them to be lowered into the sea. A boat engine at their back and they are perfectly capable of floating off anywhere. I believe this design feature probably best underlines the spirit of living on the sea.
I hope that one future day, this lesson will be translated to landlocked cities as well. Then, colossal waving apparitions with paragmagnetic radiating skins will levitate their thousand residents along endless guidelines, from nature preserve to congregation grounds, aethereal airliners streaming back and forth from one drifting leviathan to another.
The FLYER Superstructures: residential and semi-public spaces
SHAPE
The classical apartment block is almost universally a dusty slab of concrete and metal wiring, hopelessly immovable and irremovable. People suffer them because of the complex and entertaining city life outside of their apartments, and this mostly only while they’re very young. In time, the claustrophobia and the tightness of the residential matchboxes push the more courageous into actively searching out vacation or replacement homes out in the airy countryside. Many more will choose the best-of-both-worlds/ lesser-of-two-evils (the second being the perceived isolation of the countryside), which is suburbia. A bit of green, more privacy and legroom are significant and valid necessities. Yet while the countryside life is frugal, the Islet city life is prosperous, and where suburbia is confined and even paranoid, the Islets are diverse and effervescent. The Flyer Apartment Blocks address these two synergistic issues: how to bring some of the airy, healthy countryside life right into the cosmopolitan downtown, and how to break up the matchbox slabs residencies while we’re at it.
The classical apartment block is almost universally a dusty slab of concrete and metal wiring, hopelessly immovable and irremovable. People suffer them because of the complex and entertaining city life outside of their apartments, and this mostly only while they’re very young. In time, the claustrophobia and the tightness of the residential matchboxes push the more courageous into actively searching out vacation or replacement homes out in the airy countryside. Many more will choose the best-of-both-worlds/ lesser-of-two-evils (the second being the perceived isolation of the countryside), which is suburbia. A bit of green, more privacy and legroom are significant and valid necessities. Yet while the countryside life is frugal, the Islet city life is prosperous, and where suburbia is confined and even paranoid, the Islets are diverse and effervescent. The Flyer Apartment Blocks address these two synergistic issues: how to bring some of the airy, healthy countryside life right into the cosmopolitan downtown, and how to break up the matchbox slabs residencies while we’re at it.
PSYCHOLOGY
“HIGH ABOVE GROUND AND ALL WAVES, SLEEP PEACEFULLY, OUT OF REACH FROM ANY WORRIES”
The floating Mirror City is not meant for the forerunners, the brave, the few. It is meant to make wanting a place there come naturally to anybody and everybody. Actually, of all the things that come to mind when considering moving in on one of the Islets, “safe” should be as absent as “dangerous”. What would the subconscious retort, should we ask ourselves: “would I buy my apartment in that floating block of flats?”. It would whisper back many things at the same time and surely one of the louder ones will be: not sitting firmly on the ground but floating? give it enough time and one night, years from now, it will sink while you and your family are asleep and helpless.
The reality of a natural fear of drowning is a good enough reason to acknowledge it, dissect it and to placate it ahead of time. Much of the reluctance of migrating en masse to waterborne dwellings has its roots in the fact that at sea there’s still always plenty of room to go down. And while nowadays only very few individuals painstakingly avoid setting foot on ships and anything else that floats, that number increases dramatically when people are supposed to sleep as well for a number of nights, on water. Cruise ships are popular and accepted because their kind has been tried and tested over centuries, and proven to be sufficiently safe. No cruise ship guest believes that an accident will happen to them during the few days and nights that they are at sea (although plenty of them still secretly fear it), in the same way that they are mostly confortable with flying: Statistically it’s safe and it cannot happen “precisely” to them.
“Probability” is at fault for where the mind goes when it multiplies that one flight every second month, or those ten nights on the Allure of the Seas, to 365 times per year, times 50 years left to living, times 600.000 wanted inhabitants to the floating Mirror City. Furthermore, while Cruises and now Flying are established, living on the sea, even if it’s close to shore, is a lifestyle only just emerging. The selling point “HIGH ABOVE GROUND AND ALL WAVES, SLEEP PEACEFULLY, OUT OF REACH FROM ANY WORRIES”, dispels the fear before you realize it’s there. The structure follows.
Top floor open restaurant
Residential apartment wing
Vertical farms
• 61 m long • 56 m tall backbone tower • 9 m stairwell base • 60 m wings • 20 m tall under the wings • 22.5 m at its widest •
• Suspended platforms for subsistence container gardening, with common room cooking and dining functionality on each platform, on 1600 square meters
• Macrostructure caverns under the nature roof, with diverse public functionality
• Telescopic pillars, supporting the Flyer superstructure and the Walkways level and serving as lateral movent anchors for the floating Macrostructure
• On the sockets of the space frame structure of the Flyer, numerous rooms may be docked, with such diverse fuctions as: administrative offices on the front Public Access pillar and decentralized hotel / guest rooms on the back Residential Access Pillar.
Residential apartment wing
Vertical farms
• 61 m long • 56 m tall backbone tower • 9 m stairwell base • 60 m wings • 20 m tall under the wings • 22.5 m at its widest •
• Suspended platforms for subsistence container gardening, with common room cooking and dining functionality on each platform, on 1600 square meters
• Macrostructure caverns under the nature roof, with diverse public functionality
• Telescopic pillars, supporting the Flyer superstructure and the Walkways level and serving as lateral movent anchors for the floating Macrostructure
• On the sockets of the space frame structure of the Flyer, numerous rooms may be docked, with such diverse fuctions as: administrative offices on the front Public Access pillar and decentralized hotel / guest rooms on the back Residential Access Pillar.
• The Flyer Residential Block – TOP VIEW
• The Flyer Residential Block – FRONT VIEW
• The Flyer Residential Block – BACK VIEW
• The Flyer Residential Block – SIDE VIEW
• The Flyer Residential Block – SIDE VIEW, floating Macrostructure and anchor pillars
• The Flyer Residential Block – BACK VIEW, floating Macrostructure and anchor pillars
THE AMPHIBIOUS APARTMENT UNIT - The two-part amphibious prototype apartment for a maximum of four. The two bedroom second floor stays permanently docked, but may be upgraded with a roomier alternative. The ground floor living room + 2 functions (bathroom + 1 more), comfortably accommodate a lifestyle at sea, where the residents can be gone with their entire household for months at a time, hopping along the Mediterranean coast. Or they may be simply living close-by, directly on the water for a while. In this way they would not have to invest in an yacht and, considering the floor space and the living conditions that the ground floor alone has to offer, that yacht would have to be quite expensive to come close.
• 25 m2 of photovoltaic panels.
• 25 m2 of photovoltaic panels.
• Ground Floor: 50 sq.m. The concept of the presented Flyer block is that the apartments’ kitchens are removed from their usual place inside of the apartments, and relocated on the suspended Flyer terraces, along with container gardening spaces. Cooking and eating together strengthens the community.
• First Floor: 26.4 sq.m, easily extendible to 37 sq.m, with the increase of the two bedrooms. The swallow tail volume offers a view in either direction, from inside of the living room.
• First Floor: 26.4 sq.m, easily extendible to 37 sq.m, with the increase of the two bedrooms. The swallow tail volume offers a view in either direction, from inside of the living room.
• The wing movements counter vertigo by creating terraces where before there were only vertical drops to the facades.