Individual Project One Statement..

Our Woodfordia has developed a resilience to combat the unsustainable ways of the world and the devastating effects they had. As climate change evolved it caused sea level rises and huge changes in weather patterns. Storms became more harsh with flash flooding seen regularly through SEQ, followed by droughts. By 2050 a 1m sea level rise had displaced over 60 million people.

These sea level rises caused millions of people to be displaced from their homes and Australia took them in as we have the space. In order to continue to survive communities had to learn to sustain themselves. Woodford trialled a new program of sustainable living, supporting themselves with only the resources near to them.

Models for living were developed, using permeable structures, providing all resources from their surrounding areas and using the land strategically. The community at Woodford was a success, and began to student new communities. The site became an educational place, with only few permanent residents and both climate refugees and Australian residents participating to learn how to live sustainably as it became vital to populate Australia's regional areas.

Their lives involve putting their skills to work, rotating through different areas from planning to building to agriculture to energy. The participants need to understand every aspect of sustainably living by the end of their period at Woodfordia. New communities are only as large as sustainable, if the area they're in can't feasibly support a large population there will be a cap.

The buildings are adaptable to accommodate for changing needs and function to serve the community as well as possible with the smallest possible impact on the site. The buildings have strength and protection for the greatest possibility to withstand storms. As well as this the permeable nature of paths and buildings helps to mitigate the flash flooding common in freak storms.

Telling the Story - Woodfordia 2062..

Our Narrative:
As the world continued to travel down an unsustainable path of resource depletion and harmful emissions, the effects of climate change had devastating consequences. From 2012 through to 2020 flash flooding became a regular occurrence, with weather patterns becoming more sporadic and severe with harsh droughts between monsoonal wet seasons. Still the ways of the world did not change, and the damage had already been done. As the climate changed, sea levels rose further and further until by 2030 saw 15million people displaced.

This need for survival sparked a global organisation, 'Change' to begin a quest for lifestyle change. Woodford, as advocates of sustainable living and prime geographic candidates to support a population, became one of the first areas to trial a self sustaining community.

This village succeeded in sustaining itself and a community of a couple hundred people using the surrounding areas. The community uses only the immediate area around it to support all its resource needs and uses the land appropriately. The architecture and the community develop over the years to understand the needs of temporary structures and permeability to mitigate the storms and help keep the land viable.

The Woodfordia 'Sustainable Village' becomes the education centre, teaching people for 6 months before sending them off to plant new villages following the same principles.

By 2062 we encounter the  village of Woodfordia and at this time sea levels have risen past 1m and over 40 million climate refugees are displaced. Woodfordia experiences sporadic droughts and flash floods. However the architecture has adapted and fewer, stronger, protected and multipurpose buildings exist throughout the site with other structures being temporary.

The Woodford Folk Festival still operates year after year, in recent times it has developed into a real celebration not only of musical talents but of the multiculturalism of regional south east Queensland and beyond. It celebrates the climate refugees and the impact they have had on the culture of Australia. It also educates those who attend of how the 'Sustainable Village' runs and how to live more sustainably.

Posters:

 

Nutting out presentation..

I had to begin to understand how the architecture would adapt to this new environment.

After seeing the photomontages in Phil's lecture I decided to play to my strengths and create some for Woodford as well to communicate the vision I have in my mind of the way the Village looks.

Woodford is a place of education, it teaches its inhabitants how to live sustainably so they can then pass the knowledge on, and from there sustainability spreads.

Narrowing down Woodfordia 2062

I was finding it a bit hard to get my head around everything, so for my own benefit and to make sure the team was all on the same page I made a timeline to understand how the world got to where it is and what Woodford has gone through.

Readings..

Erasing Architecture into the System - Arata Isozaki
Isozaki, A., 1999. Erasing architecture into the system. In H. U. Obrist, ed. Re: CP. Birkhäuser Architecture, pp. 24–47. 

 This article discusses Cedric Price and his ability to influence architecture with different techniques. The article talks of using "disposable components" (p26) and the way he tries to solve issues. Despite being another member of the Archigram community it is refreshing to hear that he doesn't relish in the same things they do.

His need to raise issues and solve them makes him seem very relevant to the project at hand here. This "connection between the complexities and potential of the question and the physical (or nonphysical) end product, is very close" (27). Thinking deep about the social engineering of solutions he goes beyond existing architecture.

I think that is something I've struggled with, understanding the social engineering of a new society in Woodford and truly being able to do some 'future planning'. Creating this 'architecture fiction' is one thing, but to truly understand the future that we're proposing is another. With a greater depth of knowledge of the social, this article suggests that Price is able to propose greater solutions. The far reaching concepts of proposing architecture that influences or is influenced by social fabric that may not exist yet.

Like with his idea of the 'Fun Palace' has the ability to take ideas and turn them into architectural possibilities. That is something that I'm struggling with as we head into the finalisation of this assignment. He thinks about the 'what-if' and talks about his ideas not needing to come to fruition as with the Fun Palace. This need for flexibility and future changes very much relates to what we're trying to achieve with Woodford and also what Woodford are trying to work towards with their future planning.

Lecture Week 5..

This week's lecture by Phil Crowther was really interesting, he explained different developments through New York including the High Line, but also the formation of the Island of Manhattan itself.

Looking as the future planning and foresight they had to create central park was really quite remarkable considering how many other cities have ended up. It made me think of the way we will master plan the Woodfordia site. Obviously we had already considered the pattern of building on infertile land and not in the valleys but this highlights the need to understand what will happen in the case of expansion.


Looking through the New York and Amsterdam examples of future planning their diagrams are clear and informative. Street sections, graphs, maps and simple diagrams all communicate the point clearly. As well as this beautiful photo montages give a better feeling of being in that city. These are all things we should translate into our presentation.

It was interesting how one of the future planning scenario's for Amsterdam was the sea levels rising and the ability for extended canals and boat transport through the city. It relates back really smoothly to our concept of sea level rise. Maybe this is how other cities would live around the world while some places adapt our Honeycomb Principle.

The creation of the Highline created a catalyst for sustainable change through New York City, new buildings were developed around it and that part of the city was revitalised. It's wonderful to see that strategic sustainable decisions can trigger wonderful long term changes. It gives me hope that we might, as a society, begin to change more.

The effects of climate change..

Climate change for QLD


"Rising sea-level, stronger tropical cyclones and increased intensity of oceanic storm surges are likely with climate change. A study has shown that tropical cyclone intensity around Cairns in northern Queensland could increase by up to 20% by about 2050. Stronger cyclones would increase the flood level associated with a 1-in-100 year flood in Cairns from the present height of 2.3 metres to 2.6 metres; a rise in sea-level of 0.1 to 0.4 metres would result in the flood level increasing further to 2.7 to 3.0 metres. This would result in flooding occurring over an area about twice that historically affected" (CSIRO)




Rising Sea Levels

Josh photoshopped images from http://flood.firetree.net to give us an idea of what the rising sea levels will do to the Asian countries as they won't affect very far into Australia. We envisaged that most of the climate refugees would come from Asian counties, like Bangkok.

While we're not predicting higher than a 1m sea level rise, it's easy to see the devastating impact sea level rises on their own are going to have.

 0m Sea Level Rise

 1m Sea Level Rise

 2m Sea Level Rise

 Storm Data 
Our second point of interest is the effect that climate change will have on the intensity and frequency of storms. 

There are so many articles that I have found that highlight the irrefutable evidence that we are changing the planet and the climate and so mach scary analysis of how bad things are going to get. These are the things we need to investigate for Woodfordia, how does the architecture withstand this, how do the communities function, how can we learn to rebuild quickly from horrendous storms?

References:
CSIRO. "Climate change impacts for Australia". Accessed 25/8/2012. http://www.csiro.au/files/files/p3ct.pdf .

Readings..

Politics and the Situationist International
Winters, E., 2007. Politics and the Situationist International. in. Aesthetics and architecture, London ; New York: Continuum. pp92-98.

Once again there is a look into this undeniable connection of architecture and the social. "Eyck sought to provide depth to the institution of architecture by relating its practise to an understanding of the social constitution of man" (92). Architecture can never be separated from the social aspects, otherwise it is simply a building and it will never reach deeper.

It's not really a new idea, but something good to be reminded of as we continue to work out our future plan and think about moving towards architectural solutions later.

"It is with the politicization of existentialism that we can begin to see how the notion of freedom might influence artists and architects; and persuade them to connect their work to the project of insurgency or, at least, civil disobedience" (95). The idea of architecture and the freedom of human nature is something I'd never really thought of. But it makes a lot of sense, that architecture might pose as a societal rebellion.

Eyck created a fiction, not dissimilar to some of ours, about this derive and detournement. A different way that people should interact with the architecture. An interesting concept, as i find myself stuck in old patterns of architecture and the use of spaces, i find it hard to step outside the box and think how it might be used differently socially in this future Woodfordia.

Sustainable Communities..

The second question of this week was how people will live in Woodford in this future.


When thinking about sustainable communities i'm reminded of a community i'd done research on in the past Totnes in England. It is a 'Transition Town' that aims to act as a catalyst for change in a world where we rely heavily on unsustainable methods of living and production. Their intiative to create a new economy and a sustainable lifestyle have been a success

"Six years on, the Transition initiative, which attempts to provide a blueprint for communities to enable them to make the change from a life dependent on oil to one that functions without, seems to me one of the most viable and sensible plans we have for modern society. I write this on the day it is announced that the UK economy shrank by a "shock" 0.5% in the last quarter of 2010. Everyone is blaming the weather. Hopkins isn't. Neither is he particularly shocked." (Siegle 2011)

It is important to consider all aspects of the way we function in communities if I am to design a completely self contained community.

References

Siegle, L. 2011. "Totnes: Britain's town of the future". Accessed August 20, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/06/totnes-transition-towns-ethical-living.

Futures Research..

As I research into the rising sea levels I believe more and more in the 'Architecture Fiction' we're designing. There are endless documents on the looming sea level rises and climate change and their possible effects all over the world.



Sea level rise

The warming of our seas are another contributing factor to the rising sea level. As well as harming much marine life.

(CSIRO 2008)

Something that could have a significant impact on our Future Scenario is the people that will be displaced from the sea level rise. This is something that I needed to look into more and get some more facts.

"A 2007 World Bank study identified the relationships between sea level rise (SLR) and its impact on population, and geography. This study does not provide a timescale for SLR, but it does project the percentage of individuals who will be adversely affected by SLR. The effects of sea level rise (SLR), one result of climate change, differ across the globe.

Using 2008 population estimates, one can calculate that a one meter SLR could affect 3.3 million citizens in Latin America and the Caribbean while a five meter SLR potentially impacts 15.5 million people in the same region. In the Middle East & North Africa and East Asia, a SLR of one meter is projected to affect 31.7 million people while a five meter SLR could uproot up to 36 million residents. In South Asia, one of the most populous regions of the world, a one meter SLR could negatively affect 5.8 million people while a five meter SLR could harm as many as 39 million individuals." (CSIRO 2008)

Perpetuating cycle

Al Gore is famous for his investigations into climate change and the effects it might have on our planet, very well known for 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The warming of the earth is causing ice caps to melt, but this causes a further problem of methane being released into the air that was suppressed under the ice caps.

This highlighted for me the fact that one bad thing will lead to another as a possibly uncontrollable downward spiral will have a chain reaction of bad things.



Climate change effects

"The shifting of the Earth’s temperature increases vulnerability to natural disaster; food, air, and energy security; the ability to sustain livelihoods, and the establishment of permanent residences.  As a result of unmitigated climate change in the most vulnerable developing countries, agricultural production will likely decline.  Less reliable rainfall will impact planting seasons, crop growth and livestock health.  Flooding will further diminish the quality of already-marginal soil and cause outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.  Longer dry seasons will take a serious toll.  Ongoing population growth, with its increased demand for irrigation and industrial development, will continue to compound the crisis."(PRCDC 2009)

This quote sums up for me quite succinctly the idea that i had for our Woodford of 2050 and beyond. All the affects of climate change and the different impacts they will have. This basically outlines all the problems I should now aim to solve, or at least attempt to solve.

References:
CSIRO. 2008. "Why Does Sea Level Change?". Accessed August 19. 2012. http://www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/sl_drives_longer.html.

PRCDC. 2009. "People Move: Rising Seas and Climate Displacement". Accessed August 19, 2012. http://prcdc.org/blog/index.php?/archives/92-People-Move-Rising-Seas-and-Climate-Displacement.html.

Designing Woodfordia's Future..

This week it was time to narrow down what our 'Architecture Fiction' actually was. Not just the characters but the future visions for Woodford. We decided that 50 years was a good time frame.

First we discussed the technology that might be available to us;

•  Intelligent robots
• Clean machinery
• Clean energy
• Vertical Farming

Eventually we all narrowd down to the path of climate change and rising sea levels which also plays on the increase in severe weather patterns.

In this imagined future, the residents of Woodford are very multicultural as these 'Climate Refugees'. Going on the principles of the 'Honecomb Pattern' from last week's tute we talked about these climate refugees setting up in these small sustainable hubs through regional Australia.


Things to work on and consider:

• How does the Folk Festival Run
• How does that land sustain large communities - investigate the land usage

Lecture Week 4..

Today's lecture really cleared up this assignment, albeit a bit to far along for my liking, but I understand what we have to do a lot better now. It's not just far off 'Blade Runner' or 'The Fifth Element' futures that all the archigram nonsense had convinced me we were thinking of, it's proper, short term future, conceivable futures.

It is essentially a story with;

• Create Characters - people who live in this future, understand how they live
• Create Scenes - the places the characters live in, what does it look like
• (Assignment 2) Set - places in which they function

So we have to be able to tell this story. I'm beginning to get my head around what we need to do.

It is a 'fiction' but it needs to be grounded in facts and realities.

fic·tion

 [fik-shuhn]

noun

1. the class of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, especially in prose form.

2. works of this class, as novels or short stories: detective fiction.

3. something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story: We've all heard the fiction of her being in delicate health.

4. the act of feigning, inventing, or imagining.

5. an imaginary thing or event, postulated for the purposes of argument or explanation.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fiction 

 I hadn't considered this design at the scale of a 'character' yet. The need to understand their motivations, their movements, how are all their needs provided.

Yasu then went on to talk about the way that people can change architecture, and the unpredictable nature of users. It's fascinating to think that a group of people can completely change the building you design and create.

     

The Hong Kong Shanghai Bank by Norman Foster, as well as being a wonderful Norman Foster building has this almost symbiotic relationship with the locals who use it as a shelter to eat lunch under. It's like an unexpected multifunctional space.

I liked this diagram, it made me think of architecture as more of an organism. I can create something unchangeable on the outside but that doesn't stop it from adapting and changing on the inside.

This is something to consider for the next assignment, especially in terms of sustainability, a high level of adaptability and flexibility is necessary.

But the final idea of the 'factory home' hit a nerve somehow. I understand the sustainability of this multifunctional and adaptable building but I feel like it would really cage us in. It's also more sustainable to be able to reduce travel and have all your needs in the one building, similar to the concept of a decentralised city. Yet I don't think I'd be comfortable with a future like this and therefore I find it hard to envisage a future like this whether plausible or not.

I don't know how people live in this sutainable village of Woodfordia but I need to understand how the big picture works before I can think about the smaller scale issues.

Woodfordia/Regional Futures..

Trying to think about what kind of a future to design I decided to start with TED talks to try and explore the possibilities of our future and was not left empty handed.  

Larry Brilliant looks at the direction our civilisation is heading towards, with increasing globalisation and the disparity between the rich and the poor and their ability to survive in the changing world.

There are possibilities for viruses and pandemics of unknown proportions. Every day there are riots and fights, over resources, over religion. We are a population that is slowly destroying everything around us. There are so many directions that our future could head in, and therefore so many directions for an 'Architecture Fiction'.

His case study of Bangladesh looked into sea level rises, the idea that because of our emissions and global warming 20-30 inches of sea level rises (50-76cm) is inevitable even if we cease emissions. This has devastating possibilities, wide spread, from the environment not being able to function anymore, and 100 000 000 people displaced.

He then outlines possibilities of new viruses we're creating and finding from the globalised world we live in. Communicable diseases from animals that have jumped species, and infected humans.

He reminded me that we have known about the problems of our actions for 50 years and still we continue to destroy the environment has made me think, that real change will not occur without a huge wake-up call.