Koh Panyee FC's True Story

Today, I stumbled across a video of an ad campaign for TMB Bank in Thailand which tells the inspiring true story of Koh Panyee floating village in Thailand and how soccer became the number one pastime for the fishing villagers. 


The video tells a story about a group of boys who loved to watch soccer and wanted to play soccer. However, their circumstances were different than what we usually take for granted--they did not have land to play soccer. So the boys builds floating pitch with pieces of wood and pontoons. Because the pitch was small and floating on the water, the ball would often fall into water. The boys learned how to play soccer on wet and rough wooden platform that they have built. One day, they enter the tournament for youth soccer. Despite the rain, the team was able to play comfortably on wet field with barefoot as they usually practiced. Although they did not come first place, they won second and the tradition of playing soccer in the village continued in generations.


The story reveals a true team's adaptability and success despite their lack of sufficient land to make their dream come true. When people are under limited circumstances, they become more creative and successful. 


So get inspired!!

Venice’s Plan to Stay Above Water

[Acqua Alta in Venice, Italy by REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri]

   The seriousness of rising sea level is apparent today as we see many coastal cities are building new flood-defense systems and flood-resistant buildings. In March of 2010, the Maldives government and Dutch Docklands/Dutch Water-valleys signed an agreement to develop floating structures; and by 2015, five artificial floating islands will be completed. New York revised their building codes for new buildings to be watertight in flood-risk areas. St. Petersburg’s new flood barrier, which is capable of protecting the city from a “one-in-1,000-year flood,” will be completed next year. 

Venice in Italy, often called the “floating city,” is not an exception. Venice is one of the low-lying coastal cities which are most vulnerable to the effects of rising sea level.  According to this diagram (see figure 2), Venice will be completely underwater if sea level rises to 2 meters. A report says that Venice may be submerged completely in less than 100 years at the current rate of the rising water level in Venice lagoon. This means that although we may still be able to visit Venice in our life time, our offsprings may not be able to visit Venice.

Venice has always experienced occasional floods resulted from Acqua Alta (Italian word for “high water,” a phenomenon of exceptional tide peaks that flood part of Venice and occurs mainly between autumn and spring). This exceptional high tide can bring the water up to more than 140 cm; and it happens about 18 times February (detailed info). Acqua Alta causes damages to buildings and inhabitants. For many times, merchandises and products are damaged in retail stores on the first floor because of the flood; and “no Venetian lives on the ground floor any more.” As the sea level continues to rise even more, the city might become uninhabitable at all.

In the 20th century, Venetians drilled many artesian wells around the edges of the lagoon for the demand for waters. Draining out water from the wells caused the city to sink on its own land. Artesian wells were banned in 1960s as the government realized the depletion of the aquifer was causing the sinking. Although the sinking stopped after the ban, Venice sank 11 inches and the city is to submerge into water even faster because of it. 

Venice is currently under construction for building a flood barrier system called “MOSE,” a project consisting 79 floating barriers to block the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea when high tides are forecasted. This project underwent 30 years of debate and testing until it was finally inaugurated in May 2003. In 2006, the project was “under review” for budgetary reasons. The completion date is now extended to 2014 from 2011. The project costs 4.3-billion-euro (MSNBC).

[MOSE project - http://www.sharenator.com/Engineering_Feats/#/venice3-2.html]

However, this project has always been controversial as it inherits many problems that suggest it may not be the best solution for Venice. The project is irreversible and outdated. The project did not consider the predictions of rising sea levels over the next centuries into its equation. According to Sylvia Poggioli’s article, “MOSE engineers responded that the mobile gates are designed to last at least a century and to protect Venice from a difference in water level between the sea and lagoon of up to six and half feet.” But as the rate of rising of sea levels increases, the project’s life may become shorter and will eventually need another solution to replace it. Also, the barriers will close the lagoon too often as Acqua Alta occurs more frequently, which will stop the flow of water of the lagoon. This can damage the health of the ecosystem and make the lagoon more vulnerable to flood.  Although the project still undercurrent despite the controversy and flaws of it, Venice must seriously consider alternative solutions that can sustain Venice for more than a couple of decades. 

Rather than building barriers to enclose the city from the outside world (Adriatic Sea), Venice should consider building a new “floating” community. Although floating community may sound too radical, such utopia already exists in Netherlands. Maasbommel in Netherlands has neighborhoods built with floating housings.  Even worse than Venice, half of its land mass is only 1 meter above sea level. “Dutch Floating Homes,” designed by architecture firm DuraVermeer, rest on land but is built to rise when the water rises. The houses can float up to as much as five and a half meters, responding to the height of water level. Each of the houses are built on the hollow concrete cube base that contains air to allow floatation by its buoyancy. This allowed the Dutch to stay near and live with the water. Venetians should look into the Dutch floating housings to see how that can apply it to their city. 

In Graduate School of Design in Harvard University, a student thesis project was proposed for housing for Venice which used same base-technology of “Dutch Floating Housing.” The project proposed modular housing system that can configure to aggregate to build a community. Each housing unit is built on stilts and when the water rises, the air-tank below the floor slabs allows the building to rise with the water levels(see the image below). Although its complexity in form is intriguing, the project lacked contextual coherence with Venice. 

[Housing for Venice - GSD thesis project 2009]

This student project is rather more suitable for Maasbommel as Maasbommel is a suburban residential area. For Venice, the floating community must not only address the housing, but also the retail stores. The city of Venice is organized differently than Maasbommel. Unlike Maasbommel, Venice’s public zone exist in the same building as private zone. For example, ground floors are usually occupied as retail stores and public areas while upper floors are occupied as residential apartments and hotels. Venice has close relationship between the public and private zones. By including public zones in this new floating community, this new Venice will keep Venetians to live in Venice and continue supporting tourism. Therefore, each floating building units will consist more than one floor to keep the first floor for public use and upper floor for residential use. The community should continue to advocated pedestrian and boat transportation by creating canals and bridges. 

Besides the rising sea levels, the sewage conditions in Venice is another serious problem in Venice that has to be solved. For several hundred years, black-water was drained down directly to the lagoon mixed with chemicals which tremendously damaged the fragile ecosystems of the lagoon. Venice still has no sewage treatment facilities; and toxic components of untreated wastes are still dumped into the lagoon. To build a completely sustainable community, a new sewage treatment system must be factored into the design as well. By providing an efficient sewage system, the “new” Venice will be a big leap of its evolution finally after its several-hundred-years-old sewage systems.

Because the city has long been completely dependent upon boat transportation for bringing in goods into the city, all of their goods are transported by boat, which makes “everything” expensive in Venice. Several years ago, the tourists and locals had separate prices for products--the tourists paid taxes. However, now even the locals are required to pay the tourist prices. Thus, it is hard to Venetians to survive to live in Venice. Many Venetians moved out the city to live in other cities because of its expensiveness. If the new community can provide new urban farms to produce their own goods, it will help the products to be affordable to the locals. In terms of public transportation, Venice is a sustainable city as it advocates pedestrian and boat transportation. There is no vehicular transportation system. The new floating community should continue to advocate such sustainable transportation system as carbon emission is biggest issue of global warming. 

Such community will be more suffice to Venice than building barriers to block the city from its closest and oldest friend--the water. This is not an issue just for Venice. Many coastal cities needs changes of the way people live, the way buildings are designed and built to cope with our changing world and rising sea levels. By rethinking how we live and build communities, we can still continue to live closely with rising water and still benefit from it too. 

James Corner Visits USC

James Corner, the designer of New York's Highline Park, was here at USC this Wednesday to lecture about his recent works. His recent work includes the Planning of the Qianhai Region of Shenzen, which was awarded First Prize for its International Competition. His design envisions a new "Water City" for 1.5 million people in Shenzen. The design will manipulate the water (the most important resource of the area) to purify and revitalize its quality. The city will embrace the water as its strong identity. The five "water fingers" will create large public parks and water filtering infrastructures, including all of the storm-water runoffs. Through the levels of natural filtrations of rocks, marshlands, and plants, water will be purified in different stages from primary treatment to secondary treatment to tertiary treatment until it is discharged and reused for clean water for marine culture to grow. While treating the water, the city will be hosting gardens and large public parks for better living. The city will also have water park for tourists.

China is developing its urban areas with sustainable solutions, and it will be interesting to see how it will look like in 20-30 years. In 20-30 years, I wonder how our urban cities like London, Paris and New York would look like compared to cities in China like Shenzen, Shanghai, and Beijing which are in many ways already far ahead (or striving to be much more advanced in the next couple of years).

View this 10 min video explaining the Planning of the Qianhai Region of Shenzen.

Shellfish Save Polluted Waters

Did you know that shellfish can clean water by filter feeding?

A single oyster can clear over 30 gallons a day, retaining particles as small as 2 microns. As they feed, shellfish is able to remove microscopic plants. Recent studies reveal that shellfish aquaculture can improve species abundance and diversity. Oysters are a keystone species, meaning they control the environment in which they live by cleaning the water, while the spaces between their shells provide habitat for juvenile fish, crabs, and the organisms on which they feed. When hundreds and thousands of shellfish grow, they have the power to clean our polluted rivers. 

There was a report back in 2008 stating that in Charles River, oysters are used for cleaning the river. 150,000 of oysters were installed in the river for their sole purpose: "to eat sewage." The Massachusetts Oyster Project installed these oysters in the river as a solution for water pollution project. These "shellfish potentially stand to process 3 million gallons of sewage-tainted liquid every 24-hours, slowly purifying the Charles," says James, who wrote about this news in 2008. Oysters that filter sewage have been found to contain salmonella and other harmful bacteria, which makes them dangerous to eat. There will be signs posted to ban people from attempting to harvest these shellfish. They are solely sowed for the purpose of purifying the river to help revitalize the ecosystem. 

Another report stated that oysters cleaned the oil spill at an unprecedented rate. The oysters can filter out toxins in the water. The oil spill triggered four conservation organizations (the Alabama Coastal Foundation, Mobile Baykeeper, the Nature Conservancy, and the Ocean Foundation) to propose a restoration idea that is to "create 100 miles of oyster reef in the region, and 1000 miles of replanted marshlands." The report stated that "the cleaner water leads to more seagrass growth, creating new habitats for fish."

In the past, people spent so much money and time to develop technologies to treat sewage waters when nature can do it better and cheaper. As these projects take nature as solutions, other regions with polluted waters should invest their time and money to resolve water pollution naturally like oysters rather than trying to build big and expensive water treatment plants that cleans water expensively.

For more info on sewage treatment 

Paris to Become a Global Warming Utopia!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Paris--a global warming utopia!

A French architecture firm Collectif Et Alors proposes Paris Utopia after global warming effect on the city. Yannick Gourvil and Cecile Leroux, the imaginative architects from the firm, shares their imagination of Paris in 2100 through their creative and beautiful images. The images reveal that the city will confront the global warming  with realistic solutions like community gardens providing citizens fruits and vegetables while giving cool natural shades from the hot sun. The images portray Paris lush with green like a paradise. What is most fascinating about these images is that they are realistic solutions that are feasible, yet they are "fantastic and fun."

The project imagines a climate fiction of hotter climate of Paris and unveils an opportunity “to reinvent our urban lifestyles.” The Seine is transformed into occupiable spaces and medium for transportation. Seine will be used for public transportation via water-taxis and for transporting construction materials like wood or harvests of local farmers. The river will accommodate recreational spaces like swimming pools and will be used for tidal energy resource. The floating market on the Seine will be hosted by local gardeners to sell their produce directly in the heart of Paris. The means of transportation is developed in a more-sustainable way--cable cars and blimps are utilized as public transportation. Amazing, right?

Although these utopian drawings are merely imagination of two architects, I think that these images give us an insight of optimistic future of global warming when different disciplinary work together. I appreciate the architects’ optimistic take on the global warming compared to usual negative connotation which global warming is addressed as. The images show us that if we are willing to change and to take actions, the warm earth might be actually a better place to live than the one we have right now—if we follow these images as our guidelines.

4 Futuristic Inhabitable Bridges

Few days ago, I encountered two blogs written about inhabitable bridges. Jeremy and Lloyd talked mostly about existing inhabitable bridges, so I would like to talk more about conceptual and futuristic bridges that are worthy of acknowledgement.  

As Jeremy writes, “a bridge connects one place to another, and thus seems to promise transition and adventure.” Although this is true, futuristic bridges these days seems to offer so many more than transition and adventure. In a time of fast-paced changing world, the bridges are adapting more functions that just retails and apartments as the two bloggers lists. 

Here is a list of futuristic and “unbuilt” bridge designs that are innovative and appropriate to our changing environment.

1. Maribor Pedestrian Bridge by Ja Architecture Studio

A winning entry of the competition for 130 meters long pedestrian bridge on the Drava River in Maribor, Slovenia is designed with undulating surface of the bridge to provide the structural stability and closer access to water for pedestrians. The pedestrians can now sit on the sloping stairs to overlook on the river and enjoy fishing closer to the water. Although it is skeptical how boats will pass through the low-lying bridge, I think the project is successful in providing more public space on the bridge. 

2. London Bridge Vertical Farm by Laurie Chetwood Architect

Another competition was held in 2009 in London calling for new ideas for London Bridge. The winning entry proposes a vertical farm in the bridge which is completely supported by solar power energy. According to Chetwood, “the project uses EFTE over core to provide lightweight PV skin, harvest rainwater to supply non-potable for hydroponic landscape and WCs, and recycle grey water. As population grows in urban cities, the demand for food will increase up to the point that farmers in suburban will be not enough to support these cities. Providing its own food resources within its city is a great solution and this bridge is successful in that way. 

3. Carbon T.A.P.// Tunnel Algae Park by The PORT Architects

This rotating bridge connects Brooklyn and Manhattan by constantly rotating on the surface of the water. The bridge utilizes high-technology to farm algae, which will convert carbon emissions from New York City into bio-fuel. The bridge also provides high-speed bike lanes to advocate carbon-zero transportation. The project will offer a large park floating on the water to the New Yorkers. 

4. High Tide Street by James Gardener

James Gardener, an architecture student at University of Westminster in UK, designed a conceptual bridge for the Thames River in London, which will be moving with the tide. The design consists a series of floating elements that are linked to freely move with the tide. High Tide Street connects the two sides of the river’s edge when the high tide occurs. When the bridge is connected, the public can fully enjoy the programs in the bridge, such as a concert hall, library, fish market, and oyster bar. Moving with the ebb and the flow of the tide, the bridge provides unusual spatial moments that is created by the nature. 

Personally, this project is my favorite among the four bridges listed here not only because it is the only project which responds to the movement of the river but even more, this project makes me wonder how it would be like to be in this bridge. Also, high tides comes in different time of the day in different time of the year. So it is interesting to think that people will adjust to the schedule of the Moon to access this bridge. Perhaps different programs will be activated according to when the high tide occurs? I would love to visit London just for this bridge if it ever gets built. 

[Image sources from referenced websites]

Earthquake: Next Target Is California

'Earthquake Prediction 2011 Jim Berkland - A Major Earthquake in North America Imminen'in Fox News on March 15, 2011 (Watch the video below).

 

Even before we settle our grief on Japan's tragedy from earthquake and tsunami last week, a geologist predicts a major earthquake will occur anytime this month, and possibly this week (between today to March 26, 2011).

Jim Berkland, a geologist who predicted the 1989 San Fransisco Earthquake, argues that weird animal behavior and phenomena such as massive fish kills near California show "changes in the magnetic field that often precede large earthquakes". Although there is no guarantee that such signs are consistent prediction of imminent earthquake, Berkland's credibility of prediction is hard to neglect. His predictions are accurate 75% of the times, which, I guess, means that there is 75% chance that his prediction is right for this one, too. If he is right about this prediction like the San Fransisco Earthquake in 1989, most of California, including the nation's important cities--San Fransisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles will be destroyed, not to mention the suburbs, too.

Many news have informed us about the impact of the 'next earthquake' in California will be the greatest in the history, which will be a 10 pointer, 30 times bigger than the earthquake in Japan last week. Although the earthquake's imminence in this month can be still skeptical, everyone agrees that the earthquake will come eventually. (See Next big earthquake...)

Some people believe a different sign of imminent earthquake-- a rainbow cloud.

Supposedly, there were 'rainbow clouds' on clear skies in China, Chile, and Japan before the quakes happened. Californians... watch out for a rainbow cloud!

A rainbow cloud seen 10 minutes before the earthquake in China 2008

What do you think?