The most popular method of creating new land is by landfill of sand, silk or debris. The way that engineers use this method has been proved inappropriate many times, but they keep on proposing it. In addition to the example of Mumbai, that I have already written about, another example is the recent land expansion in Dubai known as Palm Island, where architects created a shape influenced by nature. This landfill prevents water flow, while causing problems in the city and the ecosystem. It is not the fill of sand in the water that causing the problem but the final shape of the new land that is created, a shape totally stranger to water currents that does not take into consideration the ecosystem and the physical environment. I believe architects should find solutions into the analysis of nature. It is the most successful paradigm. Living organisms and water have succeeded living together as an integrated hole many years before the human life appeared. In contrast, architecture has proven that is not able to deal with water or physical changes, mainly due to the unadaptability of its structure.
In this research I am proposing another way of designing the expansion of the city of Mumbai into the sea, by analyzing the coral reefs expansion and understanding what is the ‘magic’ that leads to this successful relationship between the water and the organisms. If someone traces coral reefs or small islands from Google Earth images, he could easily observe that due to their organic natural shape they allow water to move freely around them. This hydrodynamic shape is not something that they choose to have, but is the result of hundreds of years of friction between water and land. Moreover, water flow has created narrow passages in the islands that lead in a fast movement and a natural filtration. The static movement of the water is the main factor of pollution in the cities nowadays.
Looking closer to coral reefs morphology will benefit my design process. Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held together by calcium carbonate structures secreted by corals.[1] Corals and reefs are combining in one whole, which means that stony corals create the reefs and are attached with them. Corals are well known for their structure in architecture as many architects use it as an influence for the building design sometimes aesthetically and sometimes functionally or both. For example Norman Foster’s in the Gherkin Tower created a hexagonal skin inspired by the Venus Flower Basket Sponge. This sponge sits in an underwater environment with strong water currents and its lattice-like exoskeleton and round shape help disperse those stresses on the organism. Its hydrodynamic stability is something that inspired him in order to deal with the air movement and pressure. In this project he used biomimetic principle not only to maintain stability but also for aesthetic purposes. Specifically for my research, I am not examining corals as a unit that could provide inspiration for a building design, but I am trying to understand how the multiplicity of different coral-units leads in the expansion of coral reefs. Moreover I am trying to understand how unit coral and coral function together as a unit and how this system leads in maintaining the water currents.
The closer bio-analysis in the topography of coral reefs is very important for my proposed expansion in the sea of Mumbai. Coral reefs topography is changing continuously, depending on the size and shape of corals. Specifically the variability in the geomorphology occurs from the nature of the substance on which they rest and the history of sea level relative to that substance. This is similar to the physical geomorphology of the islands and the variability in their form that they develop as years goes by. The only difference is that they are independent of the structures that grow and habited their land, resulting in a complete confusion between physical and technical environment that does not function efficiently.
Another characterization of corals that concerns my research is their reproduction method. Coral reefs reproduction becomes mostly asexually, by cloning. There are two ways of creating corals with this method. The first is by splitting a smaller polyp from an adult while the second is by division where two polyps are produced but in the same size of the original. The cloning, in this reproduction method, supports rapid habitat exploitation. Moreover, it allows biomass to increase without a decrease in surface-to-volume ratio.[2] ‘Cloning’ is very popular in architectural design and is happening mostly unconsciously by the architects. The idea of cloning in architecture, of course, has nothing to do with the idea of cloning in natural reproduction. Their only similarity is the ‘benefit’ of fast production of land. In contrast, architectural cloning is not becoming in response to an environmental issue and does not benefit the environment, it does not even taking into consideration that issue. So, cloning in architecture is not becoming as a benefit of a larger scale system and has nothing to do with the connection of the environment. In my research cloning or better say multiplicity of the same unit in different scales, will produce a whole unit (land and building) that act together beneficially in response to the environment and especially to the water. My ultimate goal is to create a new land expansion that, influenced from coral reefs will cooperate with water successfully..
The physiology of corals and the way that they function as a unit is also important for my research as they obtain self sufficiency, something that each architect dream about. Corals obtain their energy from photosynthetic algae that live within their tissue. This is very important as they depend on the tides in order to flourish or not. Water levels arrange the amount of photosynthesis on plankton, therefor in flourishing. In a similar way my design will use the water and the plants in order to function efficiently and gain the appropriate energy. The unpredictability of water levels and the dependence on different tidal levels is also something that concerns my project. The new city of Mumbai should be able to work and function with flood or without flood.
In a smaller scale corals are the production of the connection of multiple same tiny polyps. These small animals interconnected by a complex and well-develop system that is responsible in the transport of nutrients. They are form by a layer of outer epithelium and inner jellylike tissue. Moreover they are radially symmetrical, with tentacles surrounding the central mouth, through which food is ingested and waste expelled. The outer layer of the polyps produces the exoskeleton. They also contain tentacles that protect the polyp in case of danger and a nervous system, which is responsible for their living. In architecture, polyps could be seemed as the smallest unit that creates the building –brick, stone, concrete, wood. These materials are mostly unadaptable to the environmental conditions. Nowadays, with the help of nanotechnology, researchers try to create new kind of materials, known as living materials that could create a totally different image of the city. The response of materials to the environment is something that will benefit my design. The constructions and the city expansion will gain energy from the appropriate use of these smaller units. In conclusion, the analysis of the structure of the corals benefits my research. The way that cities are designed, cannot contribute with water subsistence, but this is not a reason for architects or humans to turn their back to the water. I believe that we could live with water successfully, if we change the design of our future cities. Moreover, cities and people need the water in order to survive, so why not use the water for efficiently, as corals do? My ultimate goal is to create a whole (land-structure-material) that could correspond beneficially to the environmental conditions in order to gain the appropriate efficiency for its living.
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