Highlights from the CITIES Performance Conference, London, 6-7 October
On the 6th of October I went to the CITIES Performance Conference organised by Buro Happold, EDGE Debate and the Italian, Dutch and Danish Embassies in London. The day was dedicated to some interesting and (sometimes) controversial presentations on cities and their future. Whether you agree or not with some of the stuff shown there is not for me to decide. However, the day made me thing that that architectural practice has come a long way in the 10 years I left the profession!
2011 Residential complex ALER (Milan) by Mario Cucinella Architects
This project aims to renovate and extend a social housing estate in Milan. It plans to upgrade the energy efficiency of the existing towers, provide new uses and district heating in the basement and built new student accommodation on the roofs. We have had ‘walkways in the sky’, we’ll have now ‘villages in the sky’! No flooding worries and, I am sure, those pioneers/ students will find innovative low carbon ways of transport ‘from’ and ‘to’ their flats.
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| Photos - Copyright Mario Cucinella Architects |
2008 The Rotating Tower (Dubai of course!) by David Ficher
This is world’s first ‘building in motion’, exclusively powered by renewable energy (solar and wind)!!! It has a highly engineered and computerised internal structure which allows each floor to move independently. The Dubai’s tower will reach 80 floors: the top 10 floors will be used for luxury ‘villa’ style apartments, below which a further 35 floors of accommodation, then the 15 floors below will comprise an extravagant hotel and the lowest 20 floors used as retail space – there is also a ‘Ferrari lift’ which allow each occupant to take his/her Ferrari to his door on the 70+ floor! The Rotating Tower design uses photovoltaic cells and wind turbine technology to collect enough energy to power itself. The cells which will be placed on the top surface of each floor will be 15% open to the sun’s rays on all 80 floors for the full day helping to power the building. Hmmm!
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| Photos - Copyright Dynamic Architecture/ David Fisher |
Catalina Turcu, UCL
07 October 2011
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