TIA_Tianjin International Airport competition

Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city is the 2nd flagship Government-to-Government project between Singapore and China after Suzhou Industrial Park. The project was mooted by then Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April 2007, against the backdrop of rapid urbanisation and increasing global attention on the importance of sustainable development. On 18 November 2007, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signed a Framework Agreement for Singapore and China to jointly develop Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city.

The Tianjin Eco-city’s vision is to be “A thriving city which is socially harmonious, environmentally-friendly and resource-efficient – a model for sustainable development”. This vision is underpinned by the concepts of “Three Harmonies” and “Three Abilities”.

“Three Harmonies” refers to:

    People living in harmony with other people, i.e. social harmony

    People living in harmony with economic activities, i.e. economic vibrancy

    People living in harmony with the environment, i.e. environmental sustainability

“Three Abilities” refers to the Eco-city being:

Practicable : the technologies adopted in the Eco-city must be affordable and   commercially viable
Replicable : the principles and models of the Eco-city could be applied to other cities in China and even in other countries
Scalable : the principles and models could be adapted for another project or development of a different scale

The Terminal project should develop the above mentioned guidelines. We recommend to conceptualize the designs in the form of diagrams and sketches to illustrate different stages of the proposal from the concept to the final project.

The Eco-city site is situated 40 km from Tianjin city centre and 150 km from Beijing city centre. It is located within the Tianjin Binhai New Area – one of the fastest growing regions in China. Tianjin Binhai New Area is in turn located in the Bohai Bay region (which covers Beijing, Tianjin and part of Hebei Province), which has been identified as the next growth engine in China, after the Pearl River delta and Yangtze River delta.
Tianjin Eco-city has a total land area of 30 sq. km. When fully completed in around 2020, it will have a population of 350,000 residents. The start-up area is scheduled for completion by end-2013.

MOBILIciTY-Tirana Multimodal Station // THIRD PRIZE - CRETTO -Massimiliano Savino, Andrea Baresi, Davide Ravasio - ITALY

Design concept

CRETTO is the new Tirana station, a layered machine consisting of urban and natural paths, which defines new interstitial spaces, canyon, different size and altitude squares. The barycentre develops a huge space at the borderline between urbanized and natural from which two towers stands and on which the five teeth that

are CRETTO look.

A functional aggregation laboratory mixing receptive, commercial and directional functions together with a

fully-­‐developed mobility system: Mobilicity is linked to the center and the northern of Tirane, to the airport and Duress by railway lines, tram, road, bike and pedestrian lanes.

Mobilicity offers parkingareas, car and bike sharing and thus it plays in a contemporary way the role of a modern city central station.

Diagram analysis

Starting from the early twentieth century, Tirane has been affected by an increasingly urban rising. The so called urban sprawl condemned the city to green areas reduction and excessive country consumption creating a dependence on cars due to the higher distance from facilities,

work and public transportations. Overall, the urban sprawl was enhanced by the lack of infrastructures, alternative mobility as bike lanes, car sharing services, sidewalks or properly interconnected crosswalks.

This was leaving the city at the mercy of an uncontrolled settlement saturation.

Once aware of the emergency, the public administration hardly tried to face the problem patching the urban tissue: the attempt to deal with the different issues all over the city started in

primis from the northern area. Among all the consulted experts, the Grimshaw Architects studio won the first prize, thanks to the design of new interconnections between the urban center and the Pasqukan park together with the project of a deep green area east bounded with the newborn railway station.

This is the vision of the project. The park designed by Grimshaw Architects hardly creeps into  the project area breaking the station nucleus into five teeth, which represent the new urban station.

This is not a unique buildings living the rupture between the façade of the city center and the binaries one; it is a complex organism able to address the different flows coming from the outback and always interacting with the green ipogea square which takes inside the power to hold and spread different functions. Starting point of the project is the reorganization of both the infrastructure and the transport system.

Through a south-­‐east traffic roundabout, in which SH2 and E762 converge, the traffic from the
hinterland to the city center has been filtered. 

Functional Diagram
The project also provides two huge parks and ride areas underling the intermodal hub project vision: the idea is to avoid the access to the city center with its own car to stimulate the use of alternative mobility methods such as bike-­‐car sharing and tram. Concerning the railway line, the designed station is a terminus station that is turned into a pedestrian and tram path moving from the project area to the city center.

MOBILIciTY-Tirana Multimodal Station // SECOND PRIZE - FLUID LANSCAPES - MORFÈ_ARCHITETTURA, ITALY

FLUID LANSCAPES: TIRANA MULTIMODAL STATION

The Masterplan for Tirana new Multimodal station is not only a project of a railway station: it is a project about Tirana. The chaotic and informal feature of the city asks for the tracking of a simple and clear sign that would restore order and a hierarchy between the urban parts.

The  purpose of the Masterplan consists in giving back an identity to the area. The new station becomes a urban gesture: transport flows insinuate themselves into the ground and give rise to an earthquake, a landscape rises up and generates space and connections while supporting (conceptually and physically) new features.

The railway footprint becomes a urban axis, a canyon on which stood, at different levels, all functions of the Masterplan: a whole series of activities and public spaces follow one another serving the dual purpose of station and community services. The personality of this hybrid system is a celebration of complexity, diversity and variety of programs, a crucible of multiple interdependent activities.

The landscape determines the project: the pace of green stripes reinterprets agricultural practices and techniques, creating a system of green spaces and “thematic rooms” (squares, sports facilities, playgrounds) that answer to the spatial and ecological deficiency of the urban periphery.

The new inter-modal station is not conceived as a single building: functions, are distributed in big containers” along the fracture generated by the railway footprint. The train station itself, underground, takes the form of an hypogean element, although closely related to the external space through the continuous compenetration of light and green spots.

MOBILIciTY-Tirana Multimodal Station // FIRST PRIZE - Alda Çapi Black and Chris Masicampo, U.S.A.

Charged with establishing easier connections to the main activities and services in the heart of the city of Tirana, the proposal is a hybrid design that combines a transportation center with recreational facilities. It allows commuters to navigate fluidly among different modes of transportation - light rail, commuter rail, buses, cars and bicycles - and offers opportunities for people to shop, eat, work and play.

The site, at a distance from the city center, incorporates a hotel and office tower and many community amenities: event venues, park, soccer field, tennis courts, swimming pools, and cafes. A retail spine unifies the diverse program and creates transitional space between horizontal and vertical. Undulating bands modulate natural light, and the tower contributes density as well as iconography. In keeping with the scale of the city, the design creates a commuter and communal hub resonant with the future development of Tirana.

LIFE SAVING // THIRD PRIZE - The RESCUE NETWORK - MHD, France

The rescue network

The rescue network is a global way of thinking the reconstruction of cities or the adaptation of the spared ones. Because of the speed of the phenomenon and the lack of anticipation, rescue means proximity to the inhabitant. With this kind of wide territory disaster resilience is a strength of the system. The rescue network integrates these three key features.

“I ran away after I heard a tsunami was coming,” told Jiji Press. “But I turned back to fetch something from home and was swept away. I was rescued while hanging on to the roof of my house.”

Network city is based on distributed tall shelter that can only exist as part of the full master plan of the city. This new kind of urban vegetation settles on common urban objects: house, shops or street lights. The mesh of the grid is about 200 meters wide.

The rescue network brings a new visual identity to the coast cities, warning the people about the tsunami danger in the area.

Pictures are a sad proof of the devastating power of tsunami. But in these pictures lies the solution to protect the city of tomorrow. Where any human artifact seems to be able to resist to the wave, natural constructions often look much more resilient. Rescue network dives into trees roots to settle it solution.

Inspired by the trees roots, the basement of the pylon is wide rhizome made of steel. These roots divide the force of the wave and avoid the tree to be toppled.

Rhizomes connected together form a resilient network for energy, water and communication in the city.

Communication empowers the efficiency of the rescue organization. Fresh water is the fuel for life to settle again. Energy gives the first spark of hope after the darkness of disaster.

 www.awrcompetitions.com

SECOND PRIZE LIFE SAVING - First Step Against Disaster // SAKURA - Alec Singh, Germany

SAKURA is a design concept for living in coastal regions and how to face the huge desastrous impact of a tsunami for peoples life. The idea is based on accepting the power of nature and not to confront it with a larger „hight-tech seawall“. The main problem is our way of life and the limited ability to adapt to certain circumstances: If there were no settlements near the coast, a tsunami just wouldn‘t be a problem. In the same way the tsunami is little to no threat for e.g. a seagull. There must be an emergent solution for us if we recognize what the real desaster is.

The events in Japan one year ago brought up a lot of information and video footage about the disaster. The attached video (link: youtube-video1) captured by the japanese coastguard shows us two vital pieces of information:

1. The size of a tsunami wave depends on its distance to the coast.

2. A ship would intentionaly head towards the wave to minimize the risk of capsize.

So running away could be much morehazardous than looking for a safe way of confrontation.

With this information a simple design is possible. SAKURA suggest a settlement of houseboats near the coast. The houses are connected to an early warning system and are capable of navigating on the sea from their own power, at least for a short period of time (e.g. jetski-engines could be used). If an seaquake is recognized, the SAKURA-houses immediatly leave their moorings and try to bring as much distance to the coast as possible by heading towards the open sea. In this way, the can withstand both, earthquake and tsunami.

Descriptions

[ HOUSEBOAT ] - The SAKURA houseboat is a very compact designed place to live.

[ SAKURA-DOCK ] - Five houseboats are combined together to offer easier access. They are being held in place until a seaquake occurs.

[ SEAQUAKE ] - Docks can be combined to build larger settlements and structures. This way of organization makes it easier to recover the houseboats after the tsunami.

[ TSUNAMI ] - The early warning system detected the seaquake and gave a signal for launching the SAKURA houseboats. They are heading towards the wave.

www.awrcompetition.com

KEY PLATE by 2ndshiftstudio

Have you ever forgotten your keys?

www.2ndshiftstudio.com