Succulent City
Succulent City: Urban Planning for a Self-Feeding and Resilient City
Humphrey Yang, Chia Ping Wang. Advisor: Kwang Tyng Wu
Role: Computational Design, Programming, Planning
Summary
The award-winning project targets at the precipitation discharge and agricultural problem of Taoyuan Airport City. The current (2013) development plan proposed by the government aims to replace farmlands with residential buildings, yet the area is already oversupplied with houses. Moreover, developing the city will eliminate the natural landscapes that are crucial to rainwater discharge, especially with the soil made of non-permeable red clay. We propose to develop a dynamic water infrastructure and integrate it into future development plans to create a “succulent city”. To advertise our values, an interactive simulator is developed to introduce and engage the crowd with our vision.
Background
Land Use 1.0 : Airport City
The redevelopment of Taoyuan Airport City was campaigned in 2010. The local government proposed to transform the farmlands into residential houses for 200,000 people. Yet the food self-sufficiency rate in Taiwan was already low at 32% and houses were being oversupplied. As designers, we ask this question: Can we redevelop the region while boosting food production?
Land Use 2.0: Succulent City
We propose to develop the area into a “succulent city” with alternative zoning methods and infrastructure. The floor area and type of districts roughly align with the original plan but we endow the blocks with additional attributes—water retaining, food production— that architects and developers have to follow.
Hydroponics
Clay & Ponds
The water surplus makes hydroponics an ideal farming method for this area, which can at the same time boost the food self-sufficiency in the city for its higher (5x with fertilized solution) production-per-area.
The earth of this region is composed majorly of non-permeable clay, causing frequent runoff and flood under heavy rain. However, local residents use these clay to build water-retaining ponds for irrigation.
Succulent City= Water Infrastructure+Urban Farming
In the Succulent City, the water infrastructure exist in three scales to create a literally saturated city. Ponds function as large scale reservoirs for dry seasons, and local medium- and small-sized ponds serve to retain local runoff for irrigation of hydroponic farms.
Blocks/Buildings
The blocks consist of two objects: Buildings and Landscape. The topography of blocks is carefully designed to maximize water retainability, making blocks succulent. Buildings, on the other hand, drains water from its foundation for irrigation.
Succulent City Planning Simulator
We designed an interactive planning simulator to introduce the concept of our “Succulent City” to the public and to raise awareness of spatial qualities of a super dense city. Good plannings are recorded to model the cityscape. We have a vision to use computational tools to involve the crowd into city-planning processes.
