Urban Farmer

by 3RW

- These cows are eating the landscape, producing menure to fetilize it again, and then producing milk and meat. The only real input in the cycle is sunlight in theory. The complications come when society is trying to make the processes more predictable and efficient by introducing artificial components like synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and drugs.

Energy Towers in Venice

by Vilen Künnapu

The energy of the city is at the moment like the energy of the drowning city. For the stimulation of the tired energy we propose a tower into the Venice bay. It is located on the axis of the San Giorgio Maggiore church, and it symbolizes the erected phallus of Shiva. The energy tower is 18 m high and it is covered with the golden metal plates. The other marble stupa (height 4,5 m) is located on the Piazza Di San Marco. We also propose some smaller towers in the piazzas of Venice.

Made in Taiwan

The proposed TV-documentary is aiming to put Taiwan physically to the world map on the eyes of both Taiwanese and international viewers through an interesting, even absurd land journey by car from Taiwan to Venice Italy. The journey and the documentary is a modern day Marco Polo tale told by an outsider who has got the chance to enjoy the hospitality of a hidden and mysterious culture of the East. Fo the international audience it is interesting to watch Taiwan getting introduced by an outsider and being physically connected to the rest of the world by the journey. For the Taiwanese audience it is interesting to follow how Taiwan is introduced to the rest of the world by an outsider and how Taiwan is physically situated in connection to the rest of the Eurasia.

Instant Taipei

CITY MUST BE A COMPOST

The Instant Taipei proposal is an organic construction matrix celebrating the original nature of the Taiwanese citizens using the city as an open living room. The desing is inspired by the straight forward humanistic ad-hoc architectural interventions realized by the Taiwanese citizens as the human layer on top of the official city. The Instant Taipei aims to give a face for the independent Taiwanese will of light weight and nomadic structures that form the unofficial identity of Taipei.


The Instant Taipei is a three dimensional collage of Taiwan. The open form and easily modified structure will be given for the citizens as a three dimensional park or public space as a platform for their various public-private activities to take place. The proposed design is at the same time a construction site and a ruin trusting that the city must be a compost.


The construction site - ruin axis gives the Instant Taipei proposal the needed possibility to meet the socio - ecological state of the Taiwanese cities of today in their post industrial condition and to work as an urban laboratory in finding a new balance between the modern man and nature. New cultivated and wild urban nature is introduced backed up with localzed high environmental technology (Mechanical Biological Treatment).


Nothing has been removed from the competition area and nothing heavy has been introduced but instead a new layer has been added overlapping the existing urban context - a human layer. This can be viewed as urban acupuncture reacting on the hidden energy flows (Chi) of Taipei. The acupuncture point is the Wanhua 406 competition site and the acupuncture needle is the Instant Taipei -design. This is a light weight touch on the city organism of Taipei but will effect on a constructive and positive way on the total common subconscious Chi of the city.

Tamkang University Department of Architecture

Since 1964.

The undergraduate was established in 1964; the graduate was established in 1981. At present, tht graduate is divided into Architectural and Urban Design section, Architectural and Urban Theories section, and Architectural skill section. We integrate four teaching and research direction, including architectural theories and histories, area culture, green architecture, and computer media and new forms. We aim at the development of professional environment and cooperate teachers' research directions.

Department of Architecture Tamkang University
151 Ying-chuan Rd., Tamsui Taipei 25137 Taiwan, R.O.C.
TEL: (02)2621-5656#2610
FAX: (02)2623-5579

Can't Push a River

Tamkang University Department of Architecture student working with his CityZen Garden by the Danshui River of Taipei Taiwan.

International Workshop for Tamkang University, Taiwan

200 students and 20 professors designing and building CityZen Gardens by the Danshui River of Taipei commenting on the Taiwanese society. Workshop run by professors Marco Casagrande / C-LAB and Haakon Rasmussen-Wiesener / 3RW.

Zen Garden in an abandoned bathtub. The garden would change with every tide.

Taiwan is in many ways the wealthiest country on the Asia Pacific excluded Japan and is facing now the heritage of the last 50 years of hyper industrialization. The heavy industry is moving away and it is time to clean the island.

"One of these days these streets are goin to get organized." -Taxidriver

LINK

S.L.U.M.

C-Laboratory: S.L.U.M.

S.L.U.M. stands for Sustainable Living Urbanism Mumbai and is an urban planning strategy of Finland based architect team C-Laboratory to naturally restore the polluted Oshiwara River in Mumbai and its surrounding slum communities. The plan views the Oshiwara chain of slums vital energy-points of "urban acupuncture" treating the surrounding city by recycling its waste and producing in exchange organic (buffalo milk and dung, vegetables) and industrial goods. C-Laboratory proposes the developing of the slums into a chain of urban farming communities with heavy impact of modern environmental technology to deal with the growing environmental problems of the Mumbai City.
- Freebase

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Urban ecological rehabilitation plan for Mumbai City. Oshiwara river valley chain of slums as a case study for urban waste treatment based on the existing fact of the slums as garbage recycling platforms. Modern environmental technology units introduced to the slum communities to control environmental pollution and encouraging towards ecologically sustainable urban living including community farms and bio energy production.

Today the illegal slums treat the urban waste flow from the surrounding city. This may sound ecological but is in fact killing people in the slums due to the forced use of chemicals and inhuman working conditions in general . The slums are situated around river beds. Hazardous means of recycling, illegal factories and overdeveloping results damagingly to the river ecosystems and the rivers can no longer act a the monsoon flood water relief channels causing to annual floods in Mumbai with high death ratios.

The results of the Oshiwara case study are aimed to be multiplied to the other urban slum areas in Mumbai and other Indian cities. Today the slums are the end of the line of urban human exploitation.

Slums are ruining Mumbai. Ruin is when man-made has become part of nature. Slums are the hope of Mumbai. The Third Generation Mumbai will grow from the Slums. They are the compost of the city, the most fertile top-soil.
- Marco Casagrande

S.L.U.M.
Sustainable Living Urbanism Mumbai
Urban Flashes Mumbai - India 2006
Marco Casagrande & C-Laboratory in co-operation with Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture, Human Environment Group and Tamkang University Department of Architecture.