Site: Rocinha, Brazil
The theme of this competition is “Housing For Better Urban Environments”. As a competitor, I have to choose a site. As an alternative aspect of the urban environment, I think of the slums of many merging cities. The people who are left out of the system create themselves a community that reflects the shadow of the urbanization, which we might call slum.
I pick the most famous slum in Brazil, Rocinha, as my site to represent slums spreading throughout South America. People just keep building on the steep hills from the existing slum. Their lives were in deeper jeopardy as they expend, because the weak treatment of the land. Aside from crime and economy, they are suffering from lack of sanitation and many basic needs to maintain lives. These places need the immediate attention more than those cities that spend time on bureaucracy.
In recent years, Brazil has been cutting down rainforest to farm the crops for export to compromise with “Free Trade”. The price is the damaged and threatened lives of the many natural inhabitants of rainforest. Why is this one of the most fruitful land of sun, rain, and fertile soil becoming a land of the starving and the poor?
Intent of Proposal
I took the inspiration from the jungle, the resourceful and harmonious aspect of it. The food chain system that sustains the jungle can be relevant to the urban environment.
I create a term called “junglification” which stands for the optimism of the green urbanism. Jungle is also referring the organic infrastructure of Brazil.
After all, Brazil is a nation of Amazon. It should be proud of its root, especially in this modernized era.
Systems
This project involves the science about light, air, water and earth.
1. Solar power amplifier
For the solar energy, I tried to find the method and material that can refract a huge surface of sun light into a small solar panel to maximize the efficiency, and to reduce the cost of solar power installation. That would be some thing like magnifying glass, but thin. Eventually, I found Fresnel Lens.
This building integrates Fresnel Lens to concentrate the entire sun glaze to a focal zone in order to multiply the efficiency. The solar panel will be shifting to track the focal zone to maximize the solar gain.
Since the sun glaze is redirected to the solar panel, the heat will not culminate in the atrium space, at same time, there will still be the gentle natural light instead of overwhelming glaze.
In order to create an automatic shifting system to track the focal zone, I present the pendulum clock system as the alternative of the computer. It can speed up the shifting movement as the summer approaches, just by raising the pendulum. It can reverse the movement as the sun altitude reverse at noon, just by adding more counter weight.
2. Stack Ventilation
Since sun glaze will not fully convert into electricity, the rest of the energy will become heat. While the gain is mainly generated on the top of atrium space as a heat zone, the effect of stack ventilation will take place. Hot air escapes from the top openings, and the cool air is drawn into the space from the rare. In the daytime, air flows with or without the wind. The plan and section in this building shows that the indoor courtyard will allow generous flow of air into the units and travel to the top of atrium, then escape.
3. Rainwater Collection Pool
For the water collecting system, I presented the strategies that utilize the roof spaces to efficiently store the rainwater.
On the waterproof roof space, the water will travel to the ditch, and be directed to the rainwater collecting pool as canopy and pitch roof.
The method might be simple and conventional, but such notion can significantly reduce the landslide issue, and turn the issue into good use.
4. Waterless Composting Toilet System
During the research phrase, I looked into the existing technology of composting toilet. I found the inconvenience and limitation of this system. After I explore the solution of the installation of waterless composting toilet in the high-rise, my design creates the condition to allow the typical composting toilet system to work.
Before the use, users spread the leaves on the bottom before use. After the use, they can push the switch to let the waste drop to the pipe. The diagonal design will allow the waste to travel to the central shaft, and then the composting container. After the composting period, farmers can collect and use it direct to the farm.
5. Adaptability
After all, architecture is about adaptability. This project is suggesting the framework that can adopt in different topographical or contextual differences to improve the quality of environment and lives. Its facade less design is to allow its inhabitants to customize their individual space.
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