fnbe0214_enbe_final project_report


Introduction

In this final project, we are required to understand what is a “city”, its development

and history, components, elements and what makes a better city. The best way to understand

a city is to explore and investigate a city first hand. Every city is different yet the heart of

every city is the people and their activities. In this final project, we will also need to

investigate about a past, present and future city. With the information collected, we are

required to propose our own future city. The future city should focus on the needs of the

people, the facilities, infrastructures, and how it will sustain itself in the future.


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The City

A city is a relatively large and permanent human settlement. Although there is no

agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language

meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on

local law.

Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land

usage, housing, and transportation. The concentration of development greatly facilitates

interaction between people and businesses, benefiting both parties in the process. A big city

or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are usually associated

with metropolitan areas and urban areas, creating numerous business commuters travelling to

urban centers for employment. Once a city expands far enough to reach another city, this

region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis.


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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conurbation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter_town

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_administration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_settlement


Investigation & Data Collection

1. Ancient Cities

Jerash is one of the largest and well-preserved ancient Roman ruins outside of

Italy. It is located 48 km north of Amman and nestled in a quiet valley among the mountains

of Gilead. The excavation revealed a formal and sophisticated Roman city with elegant

colonnaded streets, spacious plaza, baths, fountains, grand theaters and impressive temples.

The main thing that surprised me the most about Jerash is the Cardo Maximus,

which is the main Roman road in Jerash. A vast array of shops and markets were here,

serving the local community. It was the main artery of the city and it was also lined with

many of the city's most important buildings. It also was a conduit for chariots, and if you look

closely enough at the rough stone surface, you can see the marks of where chariot wheels

have carved tracks into it. Besides, the Cardo has an underground sewage system which ran

the full length of it. The regular holes at the sides of the Cardo drained rainwater into the

sewers.

I would like to implement a rehabilitation of the wastewater treatment

infrastructure in Jerash with some process improvements could occur in my future city.


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2. Present Cities

Melbourne, one of the world’s most liveable cities, is the capital city of Victoria,

Australia. What is so great about Melbourne? A huge part of what makes this city great are

the atmospherics, how this city is laid out and the architecture which graces it.

In this era of being green and saving money, the ability to get around town

quickly and easily is a major point of consideration. Melbourne has done a mostly good job

of this through its extensive tram network. Melbourne’s cable tram network dates back to the

1870s and today is the largest urban tramway network in the world with more than 400 tram

cars and 150 miles of track. It is not the most popular form of public transportation in the city

though; more people actually use the equally extensive commuter railway network linking the

city with outlying neighbourhoods and suburbs.

In addition, Melbourne has an airport that is easy to get to and away from. It is

just as important to get out of a big city as it is to get to it. Slow transport to the major airport

can be a rip-off, a waste of time or cause you to miss your flight. Skybus operates between

the city and airport for $16, gets you there in 20 minutes and leaves every 10 minutes.

Moreover, a key component to any great city is the ability to escape to great

recreation areas easily and quickly. For Melbourne, there are plenty of amazing places to

visit. The Great Ocean Road, Healesville Sanctuary and Phillip Island are just a few of the

easy escapes for Melbournians. Philip Island in particular impressed people for offering a

fun, family-friendly getaway that serves as the perfect urban escape.

For more than fifteen years, the City of Melbourne has been working to become

one of the world’s most sustainable cities. The City of Melbourne has announced it will

reimburse half the cost of solar panels and LED lighting upgrades in common areas of


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http://landlopers.com/2011/11/21/penguins-phillip-island/

http://www.skybus.com.au/


apartment buildings, up to the value of $3000. The rebates are part of the Smart Blocks

program, a national initiative designed to help apartment owner’s work with owner’s

corporations and building managers to reduce and energy costs and carbon emissions.

I would like to implement these good qualities of Melbourne to create

environmentally healthy, vibrant and sustainable cities where people respect one another and

nature, to the benefit of all.


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3. Future Cities

Green Float City

Shimizu, a Japanese technology company has designed a Green Float city concept

where we all live like a single plant, blend into and living and growing harmoniously with

Nature as part of the ecosystem. A futuristic city that grows just like a lily floating on the

water where the sunlight is plentiful and the impact of typhoons is minimal. Green Float

concept involves a number of cells where each one is 1 kilometre wide. Each cell would be

free to float on the Pacific Ocean but also can be joined together to form larger towns or

cities.

1. Green innovation:


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• Recognize the limits of industrialized civilization and learn from natural systems

• Examples:

Beyond CO2 reduction towards carbon negative

Food self-sufficiency and zero waste

100% renewable energy

2. Float innovation:

• Create new possibilities for city locations (the ocean surface)

• Examples:

Save island nations from rising sea levels

Immune from the impact of earthquakes and tsunamis

Free from typhoons and hurricanes


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Lilypad: A Floating City

Belgian Architect Vincent Callebaut designed a special accommodation for

climate change refugees as experts feels that many island and cities will be lost and

completely submerged in the future due to rising tides, reports Mariya Rasheeda. Considering

the alarming forecast of the GIEC (Intergovernmental group on the evolution of the climate)

that the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st century with a status quo by

50 cm (versus 10 cm in the 20th century), an award winning Belgian architect Vincent

Callebaut designed floating cities that would house 50,000 people displaced from the effects

of global warming and other ecological disasters. The people would live and work inside

these floating cities itself, which will keep floating all the time.


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Case Study | Lilypad: A Floating City

Inspiring Design

The floating city is named as Lilypad as they are based on the design of a lilypad.

According to Mr. Callebaut, “The design of the city is inspired by the shape of the great

Amazonia Victoria Regia Lilypad and the goal behind this project is to create a harmonious

coexistence of human and nature. The project has double objectives not only to widen

sustainability in offshore territories of most developed countries, but also above all to grant

the housing of future climatic refugees of the next submerged ultra-marine territories". Major

cities including London, New York and Tokyo are seen as being at huge risk from oceans

that could rise by as much as three feet by the end of this century, says the futurist in a report.

Floating Ecopolis

Lilypad's creator describes the city as a floating ecopolis for climate refuges. The

project is a long-term solution to the problem of rising water. It is an amphibious city without

any roads and cars and the whole city is covered by plants housed in a suspended garden. A

lilypad will float around the world as an independent and fully self-sustainable home. It has a

lagoon at its center for soft water collection and purification of rainwater and this artificial

lagoon is also entirely immersed, thus ballasting the city. It enables to live in the heart of the

subaquatic depths. The multifunctional programming is based on three marinas and three

mountains dedicated respectively to work, shops and entertainment. The whole set is covered

by a stratum of planted housing in suspended gardens and crossed by a network of streets and

alleyways with an organic outline.


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Eco-friendly Structure

Entirely auto-sufficient, Lilypad takes up the four main challenges launched by

the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in March 2008 –

climate, biodiversity, water and health. It reached a positive energetic balance with zero

carbon emission by the integration of all the renewable energies (solar, thermal and

photovoltaic energies, wind energy, hydraulic, tidal power station, osmotic energies,

phytopurification, biomass) producing thus more energy than it consumes! A true biotope

entirely recyclable, this floating Ecopolis tends towards positive eco-accountancy in oceanic

ecosystems by producing and softening itself oxygen and electricity, by recycling the CO2

and waste, by purifying and softening biologically used water and by integrating ecological

niches, aquaculture fields and biotic corridors on and under its body to meet its own food

needs. This means that it will be eco-friendly and will run on renewable energy. It will only

float and move about with the currents and movement of the seas themselves. Neither the cost

of the building the city nor the cost of living there has been revealed.


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The lilypad joins on the mode of anticipation particular to Jules Verne’s

literature, the alternative possibility of a multicultural floating Ecopolis whose metabolism

would be in perfect symbiosis with the cycles of nature. It will be one of the major challenges

of the 21st Century to create an international convention inventing new means to

accommodate environmental migrants by recognizing their rights and obligations. Political

and social challenges apart urban sustainable development must, more than ever, enter in

resonance with human sustainable development!


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All in all, the technology behind Lilypad for CO2 reduction and energy

conservation is what I needed most! They are trying to achieve a carbon negative system by

adopting the newest next-generation technologies to eliminate fossil fuel. A range of natural

energy sources including space solar power satellites, ocean thermal energy conversion,

waves, wind and solar power will be considered for my future city.


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The ALIVE-ing City

Zoning of the ALIVE-ing City:


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Transport and Networking of the ALIVE-ing City:


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Energy of the ALIVE-ing City:


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A Futuristic Recycling Society:

The blessings of sunlight and the ocean permit 100% food self-sufficiency by cultivating the

riches of the sea and land. It is a city that recycles resources by converting waste into

energy. It is a city for the environmental era that is self-reliant and places no burden on the

environment.


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Residential Area of the ALIVE-ing City:


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Agriculture of the ALIVE-ing City:

Architectural Buildings in the ALIVE-ing City:


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The Water System in the ALIVE-ing City:

The Stadium in the ALIVE-ing City:

The Skyscrapers in the ALIVE-ing City:


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The Street in the ALIVE-ing City:


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Conclusion

In conclusion, I have learned that we should learn from history to achieve a better

future city. To achieve a great city, we need to consider many things such as the complexity

of road systems, transportation, building laws, markets, business centre, sports events, food

distribution, educational systems, sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing and etcetera.

Besides that, if we want to make a better city in the future, the best thing we can

do is positively address how we make decisions about the increasing population growth,

urban planning and social infrastructure. We should really learned from the past, present and

the future cities as having exceptional public transport, low levels of pollution, locally

produced renewable energy, ambitious energy and water conservation programs, a focus on

local food production and a vibrant community-based culture in the future city.

By tackling our reliance on non-renewable resources and rethinking how we

measure the quality of our lives, we can create healthy, low carbon cities free of social

disadvantage. We may never be able to create a perfect city, but we can certainly make

improvements. A great city is a city that is sustainable and liveable.


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Reference Links

1. http://www.nbmcw.com/articles/green-construction/647-lilypad-a-floating-city.html

2. http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/theme/dream/greenfloat.html

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City

4. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Y90iQauC3V0/TAN0lefeXXI/AAAAAAAAA6c/

De9Utcbmeok/s1600/Bike+share+fed+square+010s.jpg


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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Y90iQauC3V0/TAN0lefeXXI/AAAAAAAAA6c/De9Utcbmeok/s1600/Bike+share+fed+square+010s.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Y90iQauC3V0/TAN0lefeXXI/AAAAAAAAA6c/De9Utcbmeok/s1600/Bike+share+fed+square+010s.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City

http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/theme/dream/greenfloat.html

http://www.nbmcw.com/articles/green-construction/647-lilypad-a-floating-city.html

fnbe0214_enbe_final project_report

Education

city great

great city

big city

better city

city of melbourne ha

sophisticated roman

capital city of victoria

enbe final project