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Zenarcader
Joined: 01 Jun 2008
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 1:29 pm Post subject: Cohabitation: Low income housing for Dubai |
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I want to invite you to watch this video in regards to Dubai.
Cohabitation: Low income housing for Dubai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ew7pou6v9k
It is an urban proposal for low income housing in Dubai, which aims to create a humane conditions for lower middle class guest workers.
I welcome your comments and thoughts in regards to my proposal
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As a globalized corporate state Dubai is dependent on a foreign workforce to sustain itself. In 2008, 85% of the population in Dubai were expatriates, and this figure is predicted to rise in the future. Of this population, approximately 35% could be considered low-income. These are the construction workers building the new city and the service workers who will replace them as the city is completed.
To house the 6.5 million people who will be living in Dubai by the year 2015, hordes of luxury residential projects are currently under construction, but no provisions are being made for the lower income workers who will service and maintain that luxury. Conservative estimates identify a looming need for one million low income guest worker units, yet within a market defined by luxury and speculative development there is no incentive for private industry to address this need. Typically the government would be expected to step in at such point, but as the Capital of Capitalism Dubai is not likely to indulge in such social housing practices. Further, since it is obsessed with projecting an image of luxury and exclusiveness, the mere presence of all this low-income housing would be…awkward. It is hard to imagine inserting 1 million units of low-cost housing into Dubai without creating an overwhelming visual effect. The present solution, in which large camps are built “outside” the city, works only until those areas become absorbed by continuing growth. And while the construction workers who are housed there may be able to be bussed to their jobs en masse, the future service workers will find employment scattered throughout the emirate so such isolation would make their necessarily more individual commutes impossible—not to mention adding to the already extreme traffic burden. Finally, by concentrating the lower-income residents in the conventional way, their visibility is unavoidable and slums are almost guaranteed, however impressive the original construction.
Instead of a conventional, governmentally sponsored low-income housing strategy, KDG’s proposes a scheme based on an idea of integrated separation—1000 ultra-inexpensive highrise buildings of 1000 units each, tactically dispersed throughout the emirate to provide the residents with efficient proximity to their work and/or public transport, with each tower discreetly integrated into the urban fabric in such a way that it offers privacy and security for both the residents and the surrounding neighbors. To achieve this state of invisible omni-presence, KDG will rely on a form of visual and programmatic camouflage.
A core of inward-facing low-rent units surrounding a full height light- and air-well will be completely hidden from the adjacent context by a sheath of outward-facing, high rent mixed-use occupancy. A complementary system of cross ventilation, dessicant systems and chilled walls will maintain livable conditions at low environmental cost within the relatively isolated interior setting. The outer shielding, or camouflaging, layer of program will generate the profits for the development to offset the costs of the less profitable guest worker units at the core. While this development is clearly not intended as social housing or a worker’s paradise, it is committed to serving the worker’s actual needs and aspires to ennoble their humble station. It could even be said that the scheme dramatizes the workers true position at the center of this emerging nomadic society.
The exterior of the building exhibits no sign of the worker’s presence within; sheathed in its market-rate camouflage, the building will fit into any of the high-rent sections of the city without comment. The program of this exterior “cladding” will consequently differ from building to building with the variation in context. By such measures the scheme avoids banishing the workers to the outskirts of the city and at the same time prevents them from being on display for the patronizing pity of the more fortunate expats. In fact, the design ensures that the two worlds remain ignorant of each other by providing separate circulation systems and entries on opposite sides of each building. |
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ArchiMotion
Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 315
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| Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject: On Dubai Low Income Housing Tower Design |
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I like your scheme very much but had a few questions.
Are you guys architects? Are you wanting to promote this to the Dubai businessmen to get it built? How was the project developed and who developed this? Designers, architects, engineers ? How do you plan to get exposure to your idea ? Do you plan to use this exposure to gain support for the development and thus attempt to convince the businessmen on the idea? How will you guarantee the exclusive nature of your design, without forfeiting the design or having it assumed by third parties? These are issues typically faced by such conceptual schemes, which are independently developed and not based on contracted design fees.
In regards to your building design - you have done a fantastic job and the design is forward looking, well engineered, provides for economy of scale, economy of compactness and simplicity, economy of materials, the latest in environmental controls optimization, by the use of natural light, cross ventilation, heat sinks (or is that cool air sinks), and employs adequate zoning of the building, separation of spaces, and an ingenious scheme of urban integration and camouflage. It's implementation of high end units on the exterior, marketable to high end clients, to cover the cost of the development and in turn house in the core the low income housing is an excellent scheme, and could be well replicated in US as well as European cities, which also frequently by law require percentages of the urban fabric to be dedicated to low income housing. The structure is well designed and the circular ring shape provides ultimate structural integrity. The economy of light and mechanical systems is a very positive feature of the design as well.
The adequate distribution of vertical towers, service areas and low income community amenities is well laid out and planned. The interior low income units are modern and small, but at the same time lack nothing in basic amenities for low income workers, in fact providing them with an affordable compact high end unit winthin a low end so to speak "subsidized" housing scheme.
I would thus love to see this done in other locations as well to solve low income housing needs in urban areas, to avoid segregation and problems so much a part of large cities around the world, where separation of slums into segregated neighborhoods generates slums, violence, problems of policing slum area, and urban problems. These problems would be solved by this subsidized actually "high-tech" building of mixed used high end and low-income housing into a unified proposal.
It resolves many urban sprawl issues, city density and land occupation problems, set-back issues (where light quality is actually equivalent to the minimun set-back requirement with a fraction of normal land use) and issues of transporting workers long distances, city issues of traffic, of not having to transport millions of workers large distances to work sites over a long support period of building construction, post maintainance, post service support for those areas and related issues.
The pre-fabrication of the low income housing units will thus reduce their cost, allow for mass implementation, and could be produced in such a way as to reduce and control structural weight along those segments, as the same is partitioned, pre-defined and controlled to pre-set standards and desired levels of weight concentration, density and user occupancy density, which can also more reasonably be controlled, allowing for more precise margins of structural assumed loads in the calculations of needed structure, thus reducing redundancy, over-designing of structures and related issues.
Such a mega project however should be carefully exposed to the public and only once a contract is guaranteed or the design can be simply stolen or used without giving credit to it's creators. This is the reason why I ask how non-architects could develop this, without an actual contract, but rather as a visionary project.
I doubt simple endorsement by a design community as this would grant more weight to the validity of the project, but am readily available to join with you in endorsing this project and helping it to become a reality. Let me know if any further comments or help is needed in any way in evaluating further aspects of the design, in helping to develop the design, in joining an architectural force to help realize it's implementation. I will be happy as well to join with you in promoting it in other global locations at the proper time and moment that this should become an opportunity.
Architect
ArchiMotion
(Not related to any other company with similar name or similar user tag).
Contact:
nbeleza(at)pop.com.br
-Architects, New Technology advocates, new systems promoters. I am a company head, planner, leading technology designer and marker leader in new technologies for communications, architecture and the build environment.
-We provide leading solutions in 3D design, 3D virtualization of projects, (Architectural as well as business systems), global mapping of 3D projects, 3D project conversions, placing our projects and client projects into the 3D world for virtual browsing, virtual exploration and virtual integration into a global 3D map.
-As proponents as well of virtual business environments, from virtual servers to virtual avatars, we are engaged in the latest of technology developments, latest of project planning for present and future projects. We provide many other services as well to the community of architects and designers, (architectural design, conceptual design, interior design, 3d modeling, illustration, residential and building design...), too many to enumerate here. For those interested contact us for details.
Good luck with your ideas and cheers ! |
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ArchiMotion
Joined: 31 May 2008
Posts: 315
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:57 am Post subject: |
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The simple fact that the originator of this post has not responded yet, clearly demonstrates why other commentaries have not been made up to this point.
This, most likely as other members are awaiting the original poster to respond.
Now, after one watches the video, one gets the feeling that some involved in designing the structure are not architects, but this seems to contradict the fact that the design maintains a sensitive understanding of architectural issues, at least from an initial analysis.
So this leads me to think that an actual development company has developed the project, and is using a third party team to conduct an experiment on it's viability.
With this in mind, they are in other words seeking for an evaluation on the part of the design community of a project they are developing, if this is the case. It would then become a means to obtain relevant data, architectural evaluation, a type of viability study. If this is the case I would like to know, and I imagine other designers would like to know as well, since we all as designers want to know who is requesting our evaluation and for what reason.
When it is the case of a private individual, many readily respond. When it is a case of corporate interest, others are slower and more hesitant to responds, since it becomes a case of vested interest.
For this reason, it would be good to hear again soon from the original poster of this thread, with some type of reaction to my initial comments, so as to assure the community of the viability of participation in this thread.
In addition, upon further analysis of the design, a few issues came to mind -->>
1. Light quality being reduced in the downward direction, from top to bottom of the light-well.
2. Vertical exterior shafts - how much light they will actually orient to the interior. In these forums, there are various topics on modern light control systems, which employ the latest in technology and various methods of actually increasing interior ambient light. In none of them have I seen this method suggested.
3. Fire escape and actual fire susceptibility of such a design.
4. I wonder if the image of the building may be tarnished in the mind of some, once they discover that on the other side of the wall, in their own building, there are low income groups of people being subsidized in the same building. This may or not be a relevant issue. It would be good to see what others think in this regard.
I can think of better ways and architectural means to resolve some of these technical issues, but then again, would like to hear back from the originator of this post, and his reactions to my initial comments. |
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Zenarcader
Joined: 01 Jun 2008
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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I apologize for the delay in response. I am conferring with my team on how to go about giving the larger scope of the proposal.
However, to quickly answer your inquiry: we are not a corporation seeking judgment as to the economic feasibility by the design community.
We are interested in architects operating in the scope of a developer. This is in hopes of freeing architecture from being solver of program briefs or simply taking on the tasks of aesthetic consultants. We hope to create opportunities to make radical changes without resorting to unfeasible -heroic- schemes.
A short and protracted answer to the last post; the light well in the center is a way of creating upward air ventilation, while providing diffused light. We have consulted with Arup for the feasibility. Obviously this is still at a conceptual level of development.
By this weekend, we will post a better response - so please feel free to comment. We appreciate both positive and critical responses in regards to our proposal. |
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