A new six-tower mixed-use project from Vincent Callebaut Architectures would incorporate community orchards, food gardens, and phytopurification lagoons in an attempt to build a sustainable and eco-friendly community. Named Hyperions after the world’s tallest tree (a Northern California Sequoia sempervirens that’s specific location is kept secret), the New Delhi-located project would be built out of cross-laminated timber (CLT) before being covered with food-producing gardens.
The wood required to build the towers would come from a sustainably managed Delhi forest. The buildings would be made from a superstructure of solid wood columns, beams, and walls and would be reinforced with steel blades where columns and beams meet. There would also be a steel and concrete substructure for earthquake resiliency. In total, Hyperions’ skeleton would be made of 25% inert materials and 75% bio-sourced materials.
The buildings will use solar facades with photovoltaic and thermal scales that follow the course of the sun throughout the day to generate the towers; electricity needs. In addition, wind lampposts would be incorporated to produce electricity via magnetic-levitation, vertical-axis wind turbines integrated on their pole.
Rendering courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures.
Each residential unit within the six towers would have vegetables and herbs such as carrots, tomatoes, spinach, saffron, and coriander growing on the balconies. There will also be an abundance of fruits and vegetables growing in hydroponic greenhouses. These plants will be irrigated with water from ponds housing several different species of fish. The waste from the fish, which is naturally rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, would help fertilize the plants. When accounting for plants in greenhouses, on balconies, and anywhere else they may be growing on the six towers (which is pretty much everywhere), the architects believe the buildings will be able to produce an annual output of four pounds of organic fruit and vegetables per square foot.
The roofs of each tower, joined together by skybridges, will be used as a large orchard space that doubles as a meeting space for the community. There will also be areas for sports, an organic pool, and playgrounds.
Heating and cooling is controlled via a natural climate control system articulated along the vertical circulation cores of wind chimneys. The system takes advantage of the earth’s thermal inertia under the foundations, which remains at a stable 64 degrees year round.
In addition to the residential spaces in each tower, business incubators, living labs, co-working spaces, and multipurpose rooms are all included. The project hopes to create more energy than it uses while also accomplishing its main objectives of energy decentralization and food deindustrialization.
Rendering courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures.
Rendering courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures.
Rendering courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures.
Rendering courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures.
Rendering courtesy of Vincent Callebaut Architectures.
Related Stories
Sponsored | | Sep 2, 2014
Judson University’s Harm A. Weber Academic Center resembles copper, but its sustainability efforts are pure gold
The building’s custom-fabricated wall panels look like copper, but are actually flat metal sheets coated with Valspar’s signature Fluropon Copper Penny coating.
| Aug 25, 2014
Glazing plays key role in reinventing stairway design
Within the architectural community, a movement called "active design" seeks to convert barren and unappealing stairwells originally conceived as emergency contingencies into well-designed architectural focal points. SPONSORED CONTENT
| Aug 12, 2014
Vietnam's 'dragonfly in the sky' will be covered in trees, vegetation
Designed by Vietnamese design firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects, the building will be made up of stacked concrete blocks placed slightly askew to create a soft, organic form that the architects say is reminiscent of a dragonfly in the sky.
| Jul 30, 2014
German students design rooftop solar panels that double as housing
Students at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences designed a solar panel that can double as living space for the Solar Decathlon Europe.
| Jul 24, 2014
MIT researchers explore how to make wood composite-like blocks of bamboo
The concept behind the research is to slice the stalk of bamboo grass into smaller pieces to bond together and form sturdy blocks, much like conventional wood composites.
| Jul 17, 2014
A harmful trade-off many U.S. green buildings make
The Urban Green Council addresses a concern that many "green" buildings in the U.S. have: poor insulation.
| Jul 17, 2014
A high-rise with outdoor, vertical community space? It's possible! [slideshow]
Danish design firm C.F. Møller has developed a novel way to increase community space without compromising privacy or indoor space.
| Jul 16, 2014
Check out this tree-like skyscraper concept for vertical farming
Aprilli Design Studio has stepped forward with a new idea for a vertical farm, which is intended to resemble a giant tree. It uses lightweight decks as outdoor growing space, adding up to about 25 acres of space.
| Jul 14, 2014
Meet the bamboo-tent hotel that can grow
Beijing-based design cooperative Penda designed a bamboo hotel that can easily expand vertically or horizontally.
| Jul 11, 2014
Are these LEGO-like blocks the future of construction?
Kite Bricks proposes a more efficient way of building with its newly developed Smart Bricks system.
