1. ENBE FINAL PROJECT |
RIVER CITY PROPOSAL AND REPORT
ACQUOS 8
YONG MAN KIT - 0319778
FNBE AUG 2014
TUTOR: MS RENEE
CONTENT
Introduction--------------------------------------------------- 3
A City/Town
Definition------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Origin----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Composition--------------------------------------------------------------- 5
What makes a good city/town---------------------------------------- 6
What is Future City------------------------------------------------------- 7
Investigation
Past : Ancient Egypt---------------------------------------------------- 8-9
Present : Venice--------------------------------------------------------- 10
2. Present : Amsterdam--------------------------------------------------- 11-12
Future : Vancouver (2020 Plan)------------------------------------- 13-15
My Town--------------------------------------------------------------------- 16-21
Conclusion------------------------------------------------------------------ 22
References------------------------------------------------------------------ 23
INTRODUCTION
For this ENBE final project, we were told to be a mayor of town X. However, this town X
is currently overpopulated and we, the mayors need to propose a new town for the
citizen of town X. This project is divided into part A and B.
PART A -
As a group, we need to pick one of the setting for our future town, whether it be a town
with lake, along a river, on a island or next to sea. We chose a town along a river. We
were then asked to conduct our own investigation about city/town according to the
setting we chosen, and then make a report about it. We were also asked to produce a
design proposal of our own town using the guidelines provided by our lecturers, and
includes the proposal into our report. We were also required to make a short video
about the proposal to introduce our town design furthermore.
PART B -
After the submission of the report+proposal, the lecturers will select the best town
proposal. Then, we are required to make a miniature model of the selected town, using
recycle materials such as water bottle, paper box, straws and etc. Besides that, we also
3. need to make poster/infographic using A2 presentation boards. During the presentation,
we will be given 5 minutes to present our proposed town.
AND OBVIOUSLY… E-PORTFOLIO
THE AIM OF THIS PROJECT: To let us feel what it’s like to be a city planner, as well
as encouraging the future architects and QS to build eco-friendly buildings.
DEFINITION OF CITY
Dictionary:
City (/ˈsɪt i/): A built-up area with a name, defined boundaries, and local government
that is generally larger than a town. Also act as a center of population, commerce, and
culture.
My opinion:
A city is an area where human lives in permanently as a society. It contains facilities for
health, law and utilities as well as provides both job and education opportunities. It also
has a complex system for housing and transportation.
HISTORY / ORIGIN
Early humans carry a nomadic lifestyle, as they rely on hunting and gathering to get
their supply of food. However around 8000 to 10000 years ago, the humans discovered
how to cultivate crops and tame livestocks. This allowed them to live a more settled
down livestyle (a.k.a settlement). Around the fourth millenium B.C., the humans reach a
whole new level by achieving “Urban revolution”. They developed complex society,
4. writing system, produced a surplus amount of food which they can store and advanced
technology like wheels and plow. Soon, people began to move into the settlement, as
they provide many infrastructures and opportunity for occupation and education as well
as social life. Thus, a city is born.
COMPOSITION OF A CITY/TOWN
● A livable environment
● Residential areas
● Places for recreation purposes (Parks)
● Jobs and Educations
● Supply of electrical and water
● Supply of food (Restaurants and market)
● Roads and highway
● Basic public transport (bus and taxi)
● City zoning
● Administrative buildings
● Public infrastructure and facilities
CHARACTERISTIC OF GOOD CITY/TOWN
● Good transportation system
5. ● Good urban planning (grid system etc)
● Suitable population (Not overcrowded)
● Have plants all over the city/town
● Provide enough and wide range of jobs as well as education
● Provide facilities for health and safety
● Provide public infrastructures
● Encourage walking and cycling
● Uses clean, renewable energy
● Have farms within the vicinity of the city/town
● Efficient use of water
● Low carbon emission
● Practices 3R ( Reuse, Reduce and Recycle)
WHAT IS FUTURE CITY?
A future city in my opinion is not a city with only modern technology. In fact, it’s a city
that can feed itself. What does ‘’feed itself’’ mean you ask. Well, imagine that a city is an
obese american teen that craves for burgers every single minute, just like the cities
nowadays consume a ridiculous amount of resources. From the production of energy to
the transportation of food from farm to urban area, all of these take a high amount of
resources, like coal and petroleum. However, both of these resources will be finished
one day and by that time, the world might descend into anarchy due to the lack of food,
6. water and energy. Therefore, in order to prevent chaos from happening, we need to
develop a futuristic city that can pretty much sustain itself, by harvesting energy from
renewable resources like sunlight and wind, as well as having its own farm within the
city itself (vertical farming and hydroponic farming). In addition to that, a future city must
also use clean water more efficiently due to the high amount energy required to treat
water and transport them. Moreover, a future city must meet the requirements in my
previous page (Characteristic of good city/town).
INVESTIGATION
ANCIENT
CIVILISATION -
7. ANCIENT EGYPT
Ancient Egypt was a civilisation in the desert of ancient Northeastern Africa, thought of
as an oasis along the lower reach of Nile River. The Nile River plays an important role in
the Ancient Egyptian civilisation, and because of that, Egypt and its civilization are the
considered as the gifts of the Nile. The ancient civilisation practices farming along the
river, as the soil are extremely fertile due the the silt collected on the muddy bank of
Nile. Furthermore, during every summer, the Nile river becomes enraged and starts
flooding the valley, which replenish the amount of silt along the bank, creating a piece of
land with endless fertility.
Besides that, the ancient egyptian also depends on Nile River as their main
transportation. They traded their crops such as wheat, flax and papyrus with other
countries along the river. This secured the economy of the civilisation as well as
introduced them camels, which is pretty much what comes to your mind when you think
of Egypt. These camels are then tamed to work as carrier of water from the river and
plowing the crops, or to be killed for their meat.
MY FINDINGS
8. From my investigation, I found that rivers can be very crucial for a civilisation, as shown
in Ancient Egypt. By having a settlement along a river, it be an agricultural town,
focusing on cultivating crops. Not only that, rivers usually provide plenty of nutrient to
the soil alongside it, fertilising the soil and saving the crops from chemical fertiliser.
Besides planting, rivers can be a main source of water, provided it is unpolluted. Having
a river nearby means you don’t need to transport water from faraway places, thus
saving petroleum from the transportation side.
Moreover, rivers can be a form of transportation themselves, as shown in Ancient
Egypt. By using river flow as transportation, we can save petroleum and man-powers. In
addition to that, a river can connect multiple places together, forming a trading route or
a relationship between the places.
INVESTIGATION
PRESENT CITY - VENICE, ITALY
Venice is an archipelago consists of 118 small islands separated by waterways and
connected by bridges. It is located in northeastern Italy known as the marshy Venetian
Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the
Piave Rivers. In Venice, no cars are allowed, instead they take the form of a boats, from
9. taxi and bus, to ambulance and garbage collectors. This significantly reduces the
amount of carbon dioxide into the gas, creating a clean environment for the citizen and
the tourist. Renowned for it’s architecture and arts, Venice quickly became one of the
most popular tourist destination in the world.
PRESENT CITY - AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
10. Amsterdam is the capital city of Netherlands. It has the highest population, with 813,562
within the city-proper, 1,112,165 in the urban region and 1,575,263 in the greater
metropolitan area. It covers a total surface area of 219 square kilometers. Similar
Venice, it is one of the city with the most waterways and bridges, at a whopping 165 and
1280 respectively. Besides that, Amsterdam gained its title as the most bicycle-friendly
city in the Copenhagenize Index in 2011. Amsterdam provides many facilities for the
cyclists like bicycle racks, guarded bicycle storage garage and the 400 kilometers
bicycle tracks! In addition to that, to keep the cyclist safe, a large amount of 30km/h
zone has been spread throughout the city, eliminating all the fears about getting hit by a
car.This allowed the cycling atmosphere to be as relaxed, enjoyable, and mainstream
as you can get. Moreover, due to the small size of Amsterdam as well as the flat terrain,
cycling is far better compared to driving. To further proven my point, there were about
1,200,000 bicycles in Amsterdam during 2013, outnumbering the amount of citizens in
the city.
MY FINDINGS
11. Both Venice and Amsterdam are pretty similar due to its waterways and the pratices of
alternative transportation. The banning of cars in Venice is certainly doing a great job as
it forces the people to use public transportation, alternative clean transportation and
their lazy legs. Amsterdam on the other hand, focuses more on cycling, as it provides
multiple facilities and infrastructure for the cyclists. It also creates a safer place for the
cyclist to cycle in, which further encourages cycling in the city.
By doing all these, lesser amount of cars will be used and thus decreasing the
consumption of petroleum. This in turn will reduce the emission of greenhouse gases
especially carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. This will not only create a cleaner
environment for the people to live in, but also help alleviate global warming.
Furthermore, having a city will waterways running throughout it is pretty beautiful. It
creates a fine balance between the nature, and the superb architecture of both cities,
making them a hotspot for tourists. Being a tourist destination is very good for a city, as
it helps to further secure a city’s economy.
INVESTIGATION
FUTURE CITY - VANCOUVER, CANADA (GREENEST CITY PLAN 2020)
12. Vancouver is one of the most densed city in British Columbia, Canada. However, it is
the second smallest out of eight of the major Canadian cities, covering only 114 square
kilometers. Surrounded by natures, it is listed as one of the best city to live in the world.
In Vancouver, one can see highrise everywhere but they are all surrounded by trees
and parks, creating a perfect balance of technology as well as nature, further support its
title as one of the best city to live in. Moreover, Vancouver initiated the Greenest City
2020 action, planning to be the greenest city in the world by year 2020.
The plan is divided into 10 different task, each with specific targets focusing on the 3
key categories (carbon, waste and ecosystem).
Below are the tasks of the plan.
1. Green Economy: increase the number of green collar jobs and businesses with green
operations by 100%
13. 2. Climate Leadership: reduce carbon dioxide emission from buildings
3. Green buildings: require all buildings built in 2020 and onwards to have a zero carbon
footprint
4. Green transportation: increase foot, bicycle, and public transportation and decrease
driving
5. Zero waste: reduce trash going to incinerator and landfill
6. Access to nature: ensures everyone can access nature within a 5-minutes walk and
increase the total amount of trees by 150000 in the city
7. Lighter footprint: reduce consumption and ecological footprint
8. Clean water: reduce water consumption and increase water quality
9. Clean air: increase air quality
10. Local food: increase amount of locally harvest food
MY FINDINGS
Vancouver is pretty much a what a future city should be. The current Vancouver is
already a pretty good place to live in, due to it having natures everywhere around the
city. Although not having waterways and boats like Venice, or infrastructure for cyclist
like Amsterdam, Vancouver is trying to encourage public transportation like maglev and
metros, which is also a clean alternative transportation.
With its Greenest City Plan, Vancouver will soon be one of the first city in the world to
achieve a green city title. As the plan is already carrying out in the city, multiple tasks of
the plan have been accomplished. Here’s a infographic about the plan.
14. MY TOWN PROPOSAL - ACQUOS 8
Acquos 8 is a design based on a city in the Anime, One piece named Water 7.
However, multiple elements have been manipulated and added to make it feels more
realistic, and also to fulfill the requirement of the project brief.
This town takes form in a circular template, and therefore using the radial gridding
system. It consists of 9 lands, separated by artificial rivers and connected by bridges. It
15. also has an underground level, which is only for hydroponic farming. The main source of
energy for this town is solar power due to it being far smaller and efficient compared to
wind turbine. The secondary source of energy would be hydroelectric and the reason is
pretty obvious to be stated.
Acquos 8 is not an island, it is a town on a gigantic ship, therefore it is mobile. It has a
port and an airport to transport people in and out the town. It also banned the usage of
cars but has cyclist infrastructure like Amsterdam, and floating transportation like
Venice. Other than that, it provides pretty much every facilities, housing, education and
jobs for the citizen.
The industrial area are separated from the residential area via forest, so that it will
preserve the aesthetic of the view for the citizens.
PICTURES:
17. N SKETCHES
The Sun Tower/Sun Tree
The Sun Tree is a
building that looks like a
tree, with the leaves being solar panels. It can generate a high amount of energy at
once. By designing in like this, it saves a lot of space for my town, as well as acting as
the vista of the town. Vertical buildings are the future!
DESIGN SKETCHES
18. The ship design
The Underground level
CONCLUSION
I think it’s important for us to build a greener city in the future as it is quite clear that the
global warming is taking its effect on the earth. Unpredictable things are happening all
around the earth due to global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases.
19. Numerous construction projects have started to build greener cities in Malaysia, such as
EcoWorld at Subang Jaya. This is a huge step in for the construction industry, as well
as humanity. I hope our government only allows eco-friendly construction projects in our
country in the future.
That aside, I was quite happy with this project, as I get to learn the way of city planners.
I used to think of it as a easier job compared to architect due to it not having to draw any
buildings, but I was wrong. A job of city planner is so much more important as it is a
pretty large scale job and can determine our future.
All and all, I sincerely wish all the cities around the world will start revolutionise and
work their way towards a greener city, like Vancouver. I also wish that I could visit
Venice, Amsterdam and Vancouver to see more about their architecture and urban
plans one day.
REFERENCES
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt
