Subscription Living in Modular Architecture – Derelict London

In Brief01 proposal a series of WeBreathe working pods acted as a scalable product under WeWork either on a subscription basis or one-off time. In Brief02 I looked at the new subscription economy and how it can help some of the issues we face in London, other than air pollution, such as the housing crisis, changing labour markets and the need to create a professional network/ecosystem for young professionals.

Subscription and pay-as-you-go businesses are undermining an idea that has been entrenched in our collective psyche since the foundation of capitalism: that you have to own something to use it and enjoy it. As noted in a report by The Economist, “80% of customers are demanding new consumption models including subscribing, sharing and leasing – anything except buying a product outright.”

The Subscription Model

Relevant examples leading to the subscription model include ROAM which is a worldwide community of co-living and co-working and PodShare with multiple locations in Los Angeles.

The motivations of building a subscription community are:

  • Build a community situated amongst contemporary models of subscription living
  • Fostering knowledge and skill exchange between different age and social groups to encourage mutually beneficial relationships within an urban setting

Ecopod – A.I. Meets Architecture

To explore the intersection of artificial
intelligence and architecture, I’m using tools
such as Midjourney to generate A.I. powered
architectural prototypes. These prototypes
are expanded into parametric models using
Grasshopper3D, allowing me to create novel
and inhabited spaces that integrate living
elements such as plants, trees, and soils. Our
focus this year is on using A.I. in the design process and
linking it to specific industrial manufacturing
techniques such as CNC.

Imagine Airbnb and WeWork combined. You get
to own or rent an existing private pod as a space
to work in. This structure is fully off-grid, sustainably
heated and cooled using heat pumps which
extract water from the canal. Ecopods are located near canals as
their primary source of energy production uses
the canal water. It also comes with a good view.

BIOCITY

A number of 6.6 million tonnes of food waste is recorded in the UK every year, which equals to 3 quarters of the total food consumption. The current food waste collection system is inadequate and limited. Therefore, my design is serving as a solution to London’s food waste problem. The project BioCity, involves the use of biogas technology in a residential community, collecting food waste and manure from the residents, converting them into energy such as cooking and vehicle fuels that are sufficient to supply the whole housing and benefit nearby communities as well. The self contained residential hub is proposed over the high speed 2 train tracks at the Old Oak Common railway station, to cope with the increasing housing needs in the area. The cocoon-shaped housing units are arranged in a hexagonal grid, then array in relation to different sets of grid line identified in the railway tracks, creating a continuous pathway that circulates around the site. As a modern residential hub, BioCity proposes live-work housing units in various sizes to cope with the lasting impact of the pandemic on working styles. The flexibility of glulam timber is explored in the proposal, along with the use of rubber sheets, bringing in the nature of biogas into the dynamic façade system. The use of rubber pillow façade units can provide shading and insulation by filling air in between the rubber layers.

Carbonquest

My project seeks to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with a novel direct air capture technology which captures the carbon dioxide with hydroxides. The carbonates are then heated with renewable solar concentrated power to release pure carbon dioxide which is pumped into greenhouses of crops or beds of azolla fern (one of the world’s fastest biomass-producing plants which absorbs huge amounts of carbon dioxide). The azolla is used on this city farm as biofertilizer, a feedstock for animals and as a human superfood. The produce grown in the greenhouses will be sold at the local food market on-site or used in stalls preparing fresh healthy meals to be consumed in the community food hall.

In terms of geometry, this project explores biomimicry by taking the rhombic dodecahedron lattice from the efficient honeycomb structure to aggregate the hexagonal structure. As the project site is utilising the space above the railway tracks, the design is parametrically driven so that the lattice can flow along the railway lines and the geometry can be adapted to any tracks in London.

1:5 physical model

The lattice design and carbon sequestration come together to create Carbonquest which is a carbon negative city farm with food halls and markets.

Terra – 3D Printed Eco Village

TERRA gets it’s name from the raw earth that is used as the
main building material to 3D print the housing modules. As the brief was about archologies, I set out to bring the self-sufficient, countryside lifestyle into East London. The eco village consists of four 10-storey high communities which each are centred around a digester which reuses the waste to create the power on site as well as bio-gas for fuel. Each housing unit has it’s own greenhouse made from 3d printed bioplastic surrounding their home to grown their own food and there are also external allotments and composting facilities on site.

The ground floor is designed for commercial use favouring sustainable businesses and vegan cafes for example.
The proposal is situated in East London at Marian Place where there are 4 disused gas holders currently. Terra is replacing the outdated, unsustainable forms of supplying London with gas with a new, green alternative energy.
The benefits of the 3D printing construction process is that buildings can be built in days rather than months. Printing on site reduces transportation costs and emissions as well as there being 30% less construction waste produced.
Another benefit of 3D printing is that the furniture can be built-in, and free-from geometries can be achieved. Openings such as windows and doors are designed to suit the 3D printing overhang limits.

Terra – Reef

Located directly North of Kings Cross Station, this project follows a set of design principles aiming to tackle global warning and greenhouse gas emissions namely carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.

Terra – Reef aims to focus on the intrinsic relationships between communities and architecture by introducing a sustainable bio-receptive terracotta system to improve the local pollution and quality of health of the community.

The bio-receptive qualities of terracotta allow Moss and Lichen to proliferate on the surface of the material, supporting their growth over time. The moss inhabited structure will passively absorb PM2.5 from the adjacent trains and capture CO2 from the atmosphere.

In order to tackle rising UK and global fertiliser prices the programmes within this project actively remove Nitrous Oxide from the atmosphere and convert it into ammonia fertiliser to support the vertical farming harvest and boost the socio-economic output of the architecture and the local community.

SCOBY FAB-TORY

In order to tackle the use of single use plastics in the UK this project will use waste consumables to produce bio-degradable alternatives to single use plastics.

SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) is a bio-fabric and by-product of Kombucha Tea. SCOBY Fab-tory manufactures this bio-fabric, using it to creates food packaging, SCOBY based insulation and rolls of raw membranes using food waste.

The project is situated in York Way, making use of wasted space above the train tracks just north of Kings Cross, St. Pancras Stations.