urban sprawl

We look into history, and we realise more often than not the face of cities are placed into our minds as mental maps, a graphic representation vide iconic structures, at the simplest level, or at the level of reading visible physical aspects of our urban fabric. On the ground plane however, we quietly engage in the parks, the hotel lobbies offered to us, as pedestrians, and then ofcourse we reach and enter our homes, the fruits of labour of our interior designers, or not, and sometimes, our hotel lobbies, and our shopping malls. These spaces begin to prime itself [responding and being shaped] to become specific to our needs. They attain global smilarities in design and at once become both regional or indigenous, yet they self-adjust, and are re-examined by their inhabitants, person by person, community upon community, until one fine day they meet all the same criteria, as they become more and more accepted as global standards and solutions, all over the world, non specific as it were to region or culture, even geographical features. The city could in fact become extremely uniform, homogeneous, and is only differentiated at the level of artistic preference, chanced upon by designs, of its more visible structures, namely larger buildings, or more easily, its taller iconic architectural exploits. At the ground plane, surprisingly they cannot be so well defined as being unique to any one region or place.

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aquacity

This image of an water-centric development, a concept to develop new communities over large bodies of water covered areas, in this case a major coastline along the North bounds of East Malaysian waters. The Project calls for a prototype container, structurally a circular rig with pneumatic features and aquarium-specifications glass sides permitting views into the ocean. Over a long stretch, we might see more of these connecting to each other, forming a network of floating "air bubbles", some serving to provide communication devices and facilities, public reception, and others shall merely provide food and storage items.

Technically a project using water as technology for support and structure, a concept to push modern developments forward using the potential of water environments and generating more awareness in our very limited appreciation of the vastly neglected resources that we have around our congested and polluted cities.

Aquacity is one project whereby the support structure and foundations of a building is provided through the application and understanding of fluid mechanics, the water itself assisting with reducing the cooling loads on the enclosed space with careful mechanical ventilation and design. The site is immediately constructible, devoid of any need to invest in high energy foundation systems commonly required for land bound development. Communication network is again free of charge, the water body permitting simple low-tech transportation systems which can be energy-saving and completely free of fixed, pre-defined or often limited permanent routes offered by traditional road networks.

www.zlgdesign.com