Koen-Olthuis Archives - Page 38 of 40

Floating city apps for Olympic!

Floating city apps for durable Olympic games.

Floating buildings have a considerable number of advantages. They make it possible to bring extremely large and space-intensive events to the city, without having to reserve space for them years in advance. The Olympic Games,for instance, usually provide the city with a positive impulse,at least in theory. They bring economic advantages and provide an opportunity for initiating urban renewal projects. The Olympic Park in Barcelona, for example, restored the relationship with the waterfront. The current city dwellers are still reaping the benefits, almost 20 years on. But there is also one big disadvantage: afterwards,the city is left with overcapacity in sports facilities. For example, people visiting Beijing now can see that the impressive stadium designed by Herzog & De Meuron and the beautiful swimming hall designed by the Australian architect duo PTW have fallen into disuse. If those buildings had been implemented as floating structures, they could have been moved to locations with a real requirement. The same is true of London, where the Olympic Games will take place in 2012. The design bureau EDAW drew up the London 2012 Olympic Park Master Plan. The first designs date from 2003 and have been adapted a few times since then. Economic considerations were of overriding importance for these adjustments. For instance, the Olympic Park was reduced in size because it turned out to be too expensive to clear a valuable piece of land in the middle of the capital city years in advance, and then keep it clear. If the Olympic Delivery Authority had chosen to additionally make use of the water of the Thames, immediately adjacent to the park, then, taking the same useable surface area,not only the amount of space taken up and the level of investment would have been lower, but also the time taken up would have been less: it would not have been necessary to free up the land ten years in advance. Instead, floating stadiums and other facilities could have been moored a mere two years in advance. They could have been built in dry docks, far away from the Centre, so that the city dwellers would have been spared the nuisance caused by such large-scale building projects. And, directly after the Games, they could have been moved to locations with a requirement for such facilities. But it is never too late for good resolutions. In 2016,the Olympic Games will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Oscar Niemeyer’s city. There is plenty of water there, and because of the city’s situation up against mountain slopes, there are very few building locations available. Rio de Janeiro would be able to make world history as the location for the first floating Olympic Games. A strange idea? Not for people who dare to think outside the box. It is up to the climate change generation now.

source: FLOAT! author Koen Olthuis &David keuning

The 100 that will change the world in 2011

Future Fashion, Tanya Palta

Koen Olthuis one of the 18 green guardian angels who protect our environment

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Floating Islands Maldives

Floating islands project will diversify Maldivian fame

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Tadoa Ando and Koen Olthuis at Conference in China

Boao Hainan, China, 23 November 2010.
Tadao Ando and Koen Olthuis both giving a speech at the Water and Sustainability Conference in Boao Hainan, in China.

Koen Olthuis als Leonardo da Vinci van de 21e eeuw

Presentation, Casla Almere

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Floating future

TOPOS, Koen Olthuis

Given the ongoing trend of urbanisation and the unpredictable effects of climate change, architects and urban planners need to rethink the way they deal with water in the built environment’, says Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio.NL, an architectural firm based in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, that has taken up the challenge of developing solutions to the problems posed by urbanization and climate change. Waterstudio.NL thinks that large scale floating urbanism will provide a sustainable strategy that is able to deal flexibly with changing demands while being able to adapt to water level fluctuations. Between now and the future they envision four steps towards utilising the full potential of floating developments. Leading Waterstudio.NL is Koen Olthuis, who studied Architecture and Industrial design at the Delft University of Technology. In 2007, he was chosen as nr. 122 on the Time Magazine list of most influential people in the world. His vision is to change cities worldwide by using water as building ground.

The current generation of architects belongs to the ‘climate change generation’. It is up to young architects to think of solutions to the consequences of climate change in our urban environment and think about the cities of tomorrow. For the first time in history, more people worldwide are now living in urban areas than in the country. Migration to the city continues unabated. Prognoses are that by 2050 70% of the world’s population will live in urbanized areas. Given the fact that about 90% of the world’s largest cities are situated at the waterfront, we are forced to rethink the way we live with water in the built environment. Given the unpredictability of future developments we need to come up with flexible strategies – planning for change. Since infrastructural efficiency puts a limit on simple expansion, we need to find density within existing metropoles: this new density can be found by making use of the existing water in the urban landscape. Where urban planners run into problems by the limits of space and the rise of sea levels, the freedom of floating developments on water only takes off! Water is the next big thing. In our scenario for the future, we’ve distinguished four steps towards floating urbanism. The stepping stone for these developments is to close the gap between land and water houses, by making water houses equivalent to traditional houses on land, in all relevant aspects such as comfort, quality and price. 2010-2020: Trading Places Economic pressure and ground prices in city centres often demand that old functions are demolished. The coming 10 years the first step in water-based development is to relocate functions, which claim a large amount of space in economically valuable areas while generating low revenues, from the centre to the waterfront. This provides space for more economically feasible developments in expensive high-density areas while regenerating often dilapidated waterfronts. We call this ‘trading places’. 2020 – Future: expanding urban fabric A next step would be to expand the urban fabric beyond the waterfront: building normal urban configurations on water locations, with normal densities and all the usual typologies. Water-based neighbourhoods that look and feel just like traditional land-based areas, but only happen to have a floating foundation that allows them to cope with water fluctuations. Logical places to start expanding the urban fabric beyond the waterfront are the old harbours, where a lot of space can be found close to the centre and where square meter prices are lower than in the centre.

2040 – Future: dynamic cities The following step would be that buildings in the course of time could be relocated according to changing conditions. Cities will be made up of dynamic constellations, in which functions can be moved during their lifetime, responding to both social needs as well as economical considerations. By uncoupling the permanent connection between building and location, the building becomes a commodity – a product that can be used during its lifetime by different owners at different locations. This reduces the double costs of demolition and rebuilding, resulting in both economic as well as resource savings on an unprecedented scale. 2100 : Consumer urbanism In the long term, changes in urban conditions and demands happen not only within cities, but also on a global scale between different cities. Some metropoles may expand quicker than others, while their functional makeup may change. The identity of major cities, their character, resides in the centre that is least affected by growth and shrinkage. The suburbs represent more temporary functional additions that help the town as a whole to function. These suburbs are interchangeable between cities. Floating city parts allow a site to be used for different purposes in the course of time, by relocating functions without leaving a trace – the temporary use of space leaves no permanent damage to the location, making it a sustainable strategy. Floating city parts allow the emergence of what we call consumer urbanism: the scarless relocation of city parts to another city, able to respond to changing requirements in a global market for urban components. It is neither technology nor money that keeps floating developments from being realized yet on a large scale, but the lack of a change in perceptions. Climate effects, together with the pressure on space through urbanisation, will push our design targets beyond the waterfront. By introducing new innovative concepts and visions we can achieve sustainable architectural, urban, social and environmental results while dealing with water management problems at the same time. A sustainable future lies beyond the waterfront! It is up to the climate change generation now

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