the caracatita proposal

ENBE | Final Project | Part A: Report | The Better Livable Town Representation

Fong Wen Ying Cynthia | 0320499 | Miss Renee | FNBE Aug 2014 | Taylor’s University 1

Better Livable Underwater Town

The Caraca t i ta

Name : Fong Wen Ying Cynthia (0320499)

Course : Foundation in Natural and Built Environment (Aug ’14)

Tutor : Miss Shazreene Nurjana



Context:

• Introduction

• A City: Investigation on Better Township (Guidelines & Issues)

• Investigation & Data Collection: Ancient cities

• Investigation & Data Collection: Present cities

• Investigation & Data Collection: Future cities

• The New ‘X’ Town: The Caracatita

• Conclusion

• References list



Introduction As a part of our final Element of Natural and Built Environment (ENBE) assignment, we

were asked to imagine ourselves as mayors of 30-‐kilometers-‐square wide city with

about 200,000 people and is required to propose the new improved city layout in

Malaysia that improves the people’s living environment and also a sustainable city for

the future. As a group, we agreed on a whole new setting for our city, which is an

underwater city.

In the process of this project, we learnt how and what makes a city as well as how other

famous existing cities such as Byblos, Gaziantep and Portland are sustained. Therefore,

we have to study about cities at different period of time (ancient cities, present cities

and the future cities) in order to plan and achieve a better city.

This project is to expose the elements of the natural and built environment in their basic

unit, form and function as well as to help students understand the impact between

natural and built environment.



City

A city is a center of population, culture or a relatively large and permanent human

settlement that have a specific administrative, structure and system based on local law.

It is a place where people live and work together.

The building of cities has a rather long and complex history. Although city planning as an

organized profession has existed for less than a century, all cities display various degrees of

forethought and conscious design in their layout and functioning. Early humans led a

nomadic existence, relying on hunting and gathering for daily needs. About 8000 and 10000

years ago, systematic cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals allowed for more

permanent settlements such as some of the earliest cities in the 7500BC and also in the

Neolithic times.



What makes a city, a city?

As mentioned above, a city is a place where people settle down permanently and

therefore, as the mayor of a city, one have to make sure that there are good circulation

and connectivity all round the city as well as complete and convenient facilities or

services provided. Having efficient power supply, water, food supplies and daily needs

also play an important role in maintaining the existence of a city.

But, what makes a good city?

But what really makes a city good and sustainable?

Among other things, great cities welcome ethnic

diversity, support and foster the arts, have access

to venture capital to spur entrepreneurship and

innovation and benefit from healthy environments

that provide clean air and water. A good city will

definitely last with government entity that has

powers delegated by the votes of the citizens in the city fairly.

What will future towns be like?

It is hard to make a statement of what is a future city and what makes it futuristic as

everyone has their point of views and opinions. For me, I would prefer a quieter place

and where tranquility and happiness exist. I understand that future cities do not

necessarily need shiny flying cars swooping around tall sophisticated skyscrapers,

everything goes back to square one. A future city is a city that is sustainable and healthy

in all aspects like living, working or studying environment, systems and such.



Investigation & Data Collection:

Ancient Cities 1. Petra, Jordan

Petra, in Jordan, was settled as early as 312 BCE, although the area around the city had

been settled around 7000 BCE. It is mentioned in accounts of Egyptian military

campaigns as well as in the Biblical book of Exodus, as the country of the Horites, with

the city itself referred to as Sela or ‘the cleft in the rock.’

Archaeologists believe that the city was originally settled as a means to control the

natural reservoirs that form beneath it or possibly as a burial site. Writers such as Pliny

the Elder recognized Petra as a major trade site between Gaza and Syria and then on

into Rome, which allowed the city to prosper. It was not until its conquest by Rome in

106 CE that the city began to enter a slow decline.



The site was forgotten, until 1812, when it was rediscovered by Swiss explorer

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. The site is now

on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural

Heritage List, and the agency declared

Petra to be ‘one of the most precious

cultural properties of man's cultural

heritage.’

Excavations have demonstrated that it was

the ability of the Nabataeans to control the

water supply that led to the rise of the

desert city, creating an artificial oasis. The

area is visited by flash floods and

archaeological evidence demonstrates the Nabataeans controlled these floods by the

use of dams, cisterns and water conduits. These innovations stored water for prolonged

periods of drought and enabled the city to prosper from its sale.

The combination of how the buildings are built to protect the people and the beauty and

design of the buildings impress me. It defends and look so inspiring at the same time;

for The Caracatita, I plan to do build a defense wall as well.



2. Derinkuyu Underground City

Approximately built during the 7th to 8th centuries B.C. at Nevşehir Province, Turkey in

the Dderinkuyu district, the Derinkuyu Underground City is considered as one of the

deepest underground city ever found today with an approximate depth of 85m.

The underground city at Derinkuyu could be closed from the inside with large stone

doors; each floor could be closed off separately. The underground city is built mainly to

escape during the attacks above ground due to religious conflicts.



With the accomodation capacity of an approximately 20,000 people, it also holds a

school complete with study rooms, storage rooms, refectories, churches, wineries and

so much more, One of its interesting feature is its 15,000 ventilation ducts with depth

reaching as deep as 55m; providing fresh air and ventilation deep within the

underground city. It was opened to visitors in 1969 and to date, about half of the

underground city is accessible to tourists.

After reading through articles regarding about the history of Derinkuyu Underground

City, it oroves that us humans will go beyond measure just for protectiom purposes, so

far where they created their own unerground city through simple tools of digging.

One of the key element that I would like to extract from this city is the uses of large

ventilation because it is one of the biggest problems faced when proposing an

underground as well as an underwater city.




Present City

City of Lancaster, UK

A relatively small city of 7 square miles and 60,000

residents that is located within driving distance of

Washington, DC. It is named after its largest settlement,

Lancaster, but covers a far larger area which includes the

towns of Morecambe, Heysham and Carnforth, as well as

outlying villages, farms and rural hinterland. In the Domesday Book, some of its lands

had been treated as part of Yorkshire. The area in between Mersey and Ribble formed

part of the returns for Cheshire. Although some have taken this to mean that at this time

south Lancaster was part of Cheshire, it is not clear that this was the case and more

recent research indicates that the boundary between Cheshire and what was to become

Lancashire remained the river Mersey.



At United Kingdom Census 2001,

the City of Lancaster had 97,365

residents aged 16 to 74. Of these

people, 4.0% are students with

jobs, 9.6% students without jobs,

5.1% looking after home or family,

6.0% permanently sick or disable

and 2.8% are economically inactive

for other reasons.

In 2001, of the 55,906 residents of the City of Lancaster in employment, the industry of

employment was:

• 16.7% retail and wholesale

• 4.2% health and social work

• 11.4% education

• 11.2% manufacturing

• 7.8% property and business services

• 6.7% for construction as well as hotels and restaurants

• 6.5% transport and communications

• 5.7% public administration and defence

• 2.5% finance

• 2.4% energy and water supply

• 2.2% agriculture

• 0.4% mining, and 5.3% other.

I hope that the employed and unemployed citizens in The Caracatita would be balance

and I also want to create sufficient job opportunities for all citizens in town.

Economy Percentage

2001 UK Census City of Lancaster

Working age 97,365

Full-‐time employment 33.5%

Part-‐time employment 12.7%

Self employed 7.8%

Unemployed 3.6%

Retired 14.9%




Future Cities

1. Copenhagen, Denmark

From my point of view, Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, is a promising future

city because it has the criteria of

being one. With an urban

population of 1.2 million and total

land area of 77.2 kilometer

square, the main focus of this

potential future city is how the

people travel: cycling. A rather

environment friendly method.



Cycling became a norm in Copenhagen back in the 20th century where the city’s

first bicycle path was established in 1892. Back then, there was only 2500

bicycles around the city but the number quickly increased after 17 years later

with 80,000 cyclists everyday. The tradition of riding a bike continues until this

day such that about 450,000 people treat cycling as their main transportation

everyday.

Copenhagen is well-‐known as being the most bicycle-‐friendly cities in the world.

The city offers free public bicycles and also with an extensive and well-‐designed

system of cycle tracks. About 36% of all citizens of Copenhagen cycle to work,

school and university; covering 1.2 million kilometers daily.

As mentioned before, Copenhagen aimed to be the world’s first carbon neutral

capital by 2025, an adventurous goal and criteria of a great future city. As for my

town, The Caracatita, I plan to promote a similar transportation method that is

healthy, environment friendly, cheap and convenient.



2. Singapore

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign city-‐state and island

country in Southeast Asia. It lies off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and is 137

kilometers (85 mi) north of the equator. The country's territory consists of the lozenge-‐

shaped main island, commonly referred to as Singapore Island in English and Pulau

Ujong in Malay, and more than 60 significantly smaller islets. [Singapore is separated

from Peninsular Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to the north, and from Indonesia's Riau

Islands by the Singapore Strait to the south.

Water supply and sanitation was a problem for the densely populated island of

Singapore. With total land area of 710 kilometer square and population of 5.3 million.

Singapore goes beyond to provide the very basic but challenging element for the people

which is the efficiency supply of water.



The reason why Singapore is listed

under the Potential Future City

examples section is due to its

capability to supple enough water

for its people even with limited

land availability. Methods taken such as Local Catchment Water, where rainwater is

collected through drains, canals, rivers etc. and later for drinking water supply.

Desalinated of seawater where Singapore is one of Asia’s largest seawater reverse-‐

osmosis plant, which produces 30 million gallons of water a day.

Though Singapore still import water from Malaysia until 2061 agreement, Singapore is

still classified as a potential to be a fine future city example in my book because of its

initiative to overcome water supply obstacles and maintaining as a sustainable city. A

creditable research and information, which can be used in my proposed city’s water

management system.



The Caracatita A place where tranquility exist.

The design of The Caracatita city plan is proposed to overcome and extract the benefits

of the rising temperature, air pollution, noise pollution, land pollution etc. and the list

goes on caused by global warming, while simultaneously retaining the humane

experience for the citizens. The reason why our group decided to go underwater is

rather straightforward.

1. to shelter the citizens from the scorching heat and deadly ultraviolet rays due to

the thinning of ozone layer

2. to allow citizens to experience being underwater; as the tagline of this city is, ‘A

place where tranquility exist.’

3. reuse of seawater which can provide sufficient water supply to the city like

Singapore’s iconic desalination of seawater to supply the country’s water needs



The pink area in the middle is actually a three-‐storey high building designed like an

octopus head; only its top is exposed to sunlight and a little air that acts as an access or

port as well as a garden; the second floor is where this town’s attraction is located and

where people can enjoy and the last floor is the town hall where people gather, while

the other smaller circles that are located on the sea bed and have large area and consist

of residential, commercial blocks, government offices as well as educational buildings

and such.



Underwater subway is a

personal rapid transit

network based on

human-‐powered

monorail cars, it makes

people’s life very much

easier to move around

the town but it might

cause laziness as all citizens would only seat in the subway and not exercising at all. I

plan to build bicycle lanes so that people can at least exercise a little and also the

walkalator would help a lot as well.



Residential Zone

There are 3 different buildings in both the semi-‐sphere itself, which are:

1. High density residential, eg.: condominium, apartment etc.

2. medium density residential, eg.: semi detached houses

3. low density residential, eg.: bungalows

Shopping & Business Zone (Commerical)

This zone consists of retail shops, shopping malls and business buildings.

Government, Industrial & Educational Zone

Government buildings are located here (Caracatita Parlimen), water turbines to convert

kinetic energy from waves to electrical energy to supple the town. Caracatita’s College &

University and a few primary and secondary schools are here too.

Hospital, Religious & Services

Two big hospitals for about 200,000 people is just sufficient and with the two churches,

two mosques and temples, the town will be live in faith. As for services, police will do

frequent check on CCTV surveillance over the whole town and since the town is rather

small, it would be safe enough.

Port/Tourism/ Town Hall

Being an underwater town with a surface exposed in air and sunlight, it can be used as a

dock where people from other towns can stop here and therefore proceed with the next

floor as it is a tourist attraction and then the next, the town hall, where people gather

during festivals or such.



As mentioned before, the top floor of the

main building is an access and also a

garden where people can hang out to

enjoy the sunlight. The garden is part

indoor part outdoor and is inspired by

the Walkie Talkie Building’s highest

floor in London.

Whereas the second floor, the tourist

attraction, a chance for people to

experience being in a see-‐through cage

in water with sharks and other fishes.

People can interact with less dangerous

fishes as well as this floor provides

snorkeling and scuba diving.

The Caracatita’s town hall is located in the main building’s third floor, a place where

people gather during festivals or any meetings and such. It is just a typical big empty

hall with chairs and tables to be used when needed.



Elements in The Caracatita

1. Fixed transit routes

Fixed transit routes are planned for

subways, a walkalator and bicycle routes

throughout the town. Fixed transit helps

to guide development and keep the

streets busy. When development happens

around fixed-‐transit, it is easy to get

around on foot because everything is closer together.

2. Bicycle friendly town

Multistory automatic bicycle parking stations are located almost everywhere in

the town for working citizens as well as students to ride to everywhere they

want to go. Special carriages on subways are planned for cycliests to board with

their bicycles. Bicycle lanes are paved and are closed from other mobile vehicles

to ensure the safety of cyclists.



3. Road System

Specialized subway lane, properly divided walkalators and bicycle lane for a

better disciplined and systematic traffic.

4. Wave technology

Unlike fossil-‐fules power plants, wave and tidal energy facilities generate

electricity wihtout producing any

pollution emissions or greenhouse

gases. Since the first wave and tidal

energy facilities are currently being

deployed, the full environmental

impacts of wave and tidal power

remain uncertain but are projected to

be small. The tidal wave technology is the use of kinetic energy produced from

the movement of the waves to spin the turbine that is then converted to

electrical energy that will provide electricity to the entire town.

Wave energy à Kinetic energy à Electrical energy



5. Thick transparent protection glass dome

The town is covered by a special thick transparent glass that gives out a kind of

sound and vibration in water about few feet away from each zones to keep the

aquatic animals away. It will not harm the animals unless it brings harm to us,

the thick outer glass will give a little electric shock to any animals when it brings

danger.

6. Fulfill the needs of citizens.

All facilities and demand that are needed by citizens are proved in The Caracatita

such as settlement, healthcare, security etc. It gives the citizens a feeling of

security.



With the inspiration from City of Lancaster, the citizens of this city will have a rather

wide opportunity for jobs so that all family in The Caracatita would have a comfortable

and happy lifestyle. I am really inspired with the air ventilation from the Derinkuyu

Underground city. As well as underwater city, it needs ventilated and a not suffocating

ventilation air way.

Being underwater, we would never know what is coming and what we will be facing;

strong currents, wild animals and many more. I have studied and plan to build a thick

special glass that gives out a kind of sound and vibration in water about few feet away

from each zones to keep the aquatic animals away. It will not harm the animals unless it

brings harm to us, the thick outer glass will give a little electric shock to any animals

when it brings danger.



Important elements of town:

1. Resident – houses, apartment etc.

2. Water and electricity – dam that converts kinetic energy into electrical and

imitated the way Singapore reuse seawater (reverse-‐osmosis)

3. Health services – hospitals, clicnics etc.

4. Educational – At least two universities, three secondary schools and four

primary schools to balance up the economy.

5. Transportation – only bicycles, walkalators, electric scooters and subways

6. Security – police play a very important role in protecting the city in order to

bring a feeling of security

7. Government – government buildings are as important as landmarks

8. Business – to create job opportunities

9. Religious – churches, mosques, temples and so on should exist in towns in order

to make sure the people live in faith and happiness as well

10. Recreational areas – are for when citizens want to release stress



Conclusion

The design process of new towns is not as east as it seems. From the structure of the

town to the town planning strategies and the features to make if sustainable, every

slightest detail needs to be taken into account to create an organized town.

The idea generation of the town structure started as hard as they are to fulfill other

aspects such as zonings of the town needs to be considered. I have to admit that I had

changed the structure of The Caracatita countless times in order to meet the criteria.

Through all the research about the cities above, I had learnt the priority of citizens is

place before everything. Secondly, to achieve a future town, green town planning is

mandatory. I have known more about sustainability and ways to make a town

sustainable.

To put in a nutshell, we need to be smart when come to planning a town. We cannot just

simply plan the way we want it but to think far and see the future.