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Self.Urb
FINALIST in the 2nd Advanced Architecture Contest 
WINNER in the World Architecture Community Awards 2009
Organisation: IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture Catalonia
Year: 2007
Tags: Self-Fab House, IAAC, Sustainability, Flexibility, Floating urbanism, Scripted

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Self.Urb focus on the possibility of building extensively over water, tackling the current issue of the raising sea level, in an environmental manner. It creates a ‘floating city’. 
Self.Urb defines a system that intertwines the urban context with self-sustainable, prefab dwellings. 
Self.Urb uses computer algorithms to define a global strategy that goes from predicting the development of the urban planning, to maximizing the sustainability of the plan, to designing, assembling and placing the dwellings.   .

Computergenerated pier landscape, 6 generations.
Urban Flexibility; This proposal aims to explore the potential of water surfaces for flexible urban development. The project consists of a pier landscape connected to the main land,  accessible both by car and by boat. The pier network is the support for prefabricated housing modules, which are plugged into its connection points. The pier network is generated by a computer script, assuring the circulation of floating traffic in the present and the future, which is important in order to place and remove the prefabricated units. 
Because of this parametric approach, which defines the basic rules of development, urban growth becomes flexible: it can occur in different times and places. This adaptability makes the floating-city more sustainable then average sedentary cities since it can in/decrease as well as recycle its program..
Sustainability; The sustainability of this plan is based on two interrelated systems: it combines self-sufficient housing and a decentralized network of service towers. These towers backup the vital functions of the dwellings, in case of a shortage they provide energy or drinking water, in case the dwellings produce to much, they take the overflow.
Dwelling units; Each floating house consists of two main elements: the concrete basin and the housing unit.  The concrete basin is prefabricated as a whole and most of the technical needs are located in here.
The housing unit is composed of prefabricated elements that help maximizing the production, and minimizing the consumption, of energy. These elements are: solar, ventilation, glass and wood panels.  The layout of the facades are generated by a computer algorithm that defines the percentage and the location of each of these elements, in accordance to the expected performance and orientation of each facade.
 
 
Top: symbiose between tower and dwellings
Bottom: network of service towers
Top: view from a pier.
Bottom:
different sustainable aspects of the individual dwelling.

More information on the competition:
Finalist 2nd Advanced Architecture Contest
Advanced Architecture Contest

Panels
Submission code: a376fe
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Panel 2
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