ENBE Project 2

ENBE | FINAL PROJECT: CITIES FOR THE FUTURE | PART A

Foundation in Natural and Built Environment

Module: Elements of Natural and Built EnvironmentFinal Project: Better Cities of the Future

Part (A) – Proposal Report

TranquilitasCity of eternal Brightness.

Water. Health. Wealth. Contentment.

Nurin binti Abdullah | 0318596FNBE FEB 2014

ContentI. Introduction

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II. A City

III. Investigation & Data Collection: Ancient city of Rome

IV. Investigation & Data Collection: Present city of Dubai

V. Investigation & Data Collection: Future city of Tokyo

VI. The New “X” City: Tranquillitas

VII. The Conclusion

VIII. References list

Introduction

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For the final project of Elements and Built Environment (ENBE) subject, students are required to pretend as if they are the mayor of a city and propose a future city for people to live. Students are given five options of how the city going to look like, whether it is an Underground city, an Underwater city, a Floating on the Water city, a city in the Air or on land next to river or sea.

There are a lot of elements have to be considered by the students before they proceed on the city they are working on. Firstly, we have to understand the function of the city, and also have to make a research about it. Research made must cover ancient city, present city, future city and what makes a good sustainable city. Together with that, students are required to do a research about green and healthy environment. By then, the students are able to understand the requirement of the project.

This project will give an exposure and experience for the students to be an urban planner in the future. Not to be forgotten too, it gives the students a glimpse of how to propose a project in work industry.

A cityDefinition

City is actually an English word that comes from Latin as ‘civitas’, which describes as a highly organized community like. A city is relatively large and permanent human settlement.

Characteristics of city

City is the center of economic growth and technological advances. That means, cities have a particular administration legal

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or historical status based on local law. It is generally a complex system especially for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing and transportation. Other than that, city provides the necessary infrastructure and services to the citizens. Some of it may by private groups such as businesses or neighborhood organizations.

What makes a city?

What makes a city is created when there is a specific amount of population in an area and there is a center building where it takes care of the people that living in the area. In that area too, people can communicate each other and businesses take place. There is also a place where the people have the opportunity to learn and work.

What makes a good and sustainable city?

A good and sustainable city is when the city itself has already achieved maximum social, economy and environment benefits. Whereas, the city manage to bring the citizen to communicate each other through the modern technology provided. The technology provided must match to the traditional social so therefore the city has adaptable structure in the society. The city also must consider the environment issues and citizen’s health and safety. In short, a better city can be elaborate more into four sections:

a) The compact cityi. There are many small streets rather than few wide

streets to achieve vibrancy and intimacy. All this increases the exhchange of values, ideas , information and business.

ii. A mixed use neighbourhoods, density and walkable streets.

iii. Putting more people closely together and high internsity – by mixing residential, leisure and commercial functions especially on street level.

b) The network cityi. Make sure that all of the city’s common goods, streets,

parks, transport, clean energy and water are kept accessible and attractive to all

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ii. The opportunities and activities for learning

c) The Sensory Cityi. It encourages positive public behaviour by appealing to

people’s sense. Where we can run through its landscapes and eat its fruits so their mind and body feel better.

ii. Clean and attractive streetsiii. Provide long-term improvements to people’s health and

daily well-being

d) The shared cityi. A stable social and cultural atmosphereii. Sharing resources helps to build the shared service

economy and when coupled to open data then more effective governmance too

iii. Strike new relationship between technology, engineering and nature.

Investigation & Data Collection: Ancient

CityAncient city of Rome

The city of Rome was the capital city of the civilization of Ancient Rome. It was located near the west coast of central Italy. At one point, there were over 1 million people living in the city during ancient times. The center of Rome had many other famous and important buildings like the Temple of Jupiter, the Colloseum, Circus Maximus, the Pantheon and Pompey’s Theathre.

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The structure of the city back then in ancient city of Rome can be seen approximately into five factors, which is the roads, water, hills, forum and the buildings. Many major Roman roads led into the city of Rome. The Latin name for road was Via – the Via Appia, the Via Aurelia, the Cia Cassia and the Via Salaria. Inside the city itself

there were also many paved streets.

Back then, water was brought into the city by the use of several adequate. Some of wealthy had running water in their houses while he rest of the people got their water from fountains places

around the city. There were also many public bath houses that were used to bathe and to socialize.

The city of Ancient Rome was built on seven hillds: Aventine Hill, Caelian Hill, Esquilne Hill, Capitoline Hill, Qurinal Hill, Viminal Hill. It is said that the original city was founded by Romulus on Palatine Hill.

The interesting part of the city, there is a forum at the center of the city and Roman. This was a rectangular plaza surrounded by public buildings such as temples of gods and basilicas where commerce and other public functions could take place. Many of the city’s major events took place in the forum such as elections, public speeches, trials and triumphal processions.

Many of the main government buildings and the homes of the rich were constructed of stone, concrete and marble. However, homes of the poor were made from wood. These homes caused a considerable fire danger and Rome had many terrible fires throughout its history

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Investigation & Data Collection: Present

CityPresent city means the city that we are all living in this area.

Dubai City

Dubai is an emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) federation. The main city of the emirate is also called Dubai. Dubai has the largest population in UAE with estimation 2, 106, 177 people. The city is of Dubai is located on the emirate’s northern coastline and heads up the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Dubai is positioned covers an area of 1, 588 sq mi (4, 110 km^2) which represents a significant expansion beyond its initial 1, 500 sq mi (3, 900 km^2) designation due to land reclamation from the sea.

Although Dubai’s economy was historically built on the oil industry, the emirates’ Western-style model of business drives ites economy with the main revenues now coming from tourism, aviation, real estate and financial services. Dubai has emerged as a cosmopolitan metropolis that has grown steadily to become a global city and a business and cultural hub of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region. It is also a major transport hub for passengers and cargo.

Other than being ranked as 22nd most expensive city in the world and the most expensive city in the Middle East, Dubai also rated as one of the best places to live in the Middle East.

What makes Dubai as a city are most probably because of these five factors – architecture geography, architecture buildings, transportation, waterways and the education.

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Dubai’s landscape is highlighted by sandy desert patterns, while gravel deserts dominate much of the southern region of the country. Dubai is situated on the Persian Gulf coast of the United Arab Emirates and is roughly level (16m or 52ft above).

The architecture applied on the buildings in Dubai’s city are mostly modern interpretation of Islamic architecture. By this, modern Islamic – the world – architecture has literally been taken to a whole new levels in skyscappers building design and technology. As an example, the Burj Khalifa.

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In Dubai city, other than normal vehicles on the road as source of transportation, there is also public transportation provided for the citizen. The monorail is called as “metro rail”. Metro rail currently consists of two lines (Red line and Green line) which run through the major financial and residential areas of the city.

In the city, there are two major commercial ports in Dubai, which is Port Rashid and Port Jebel Ali. Port Jebel Ali is the world’s largest man-made harbor, the biggest port in the Middle East and the 7th-busiesr port in the world. In the city itself, there is Dubai Water Bus System implemented. Water Bus is a fully air-conditined boat service across selected destinations across the creek. Latest addition to the water transport systems is Water Taxi.

Education provided in the city follows the system of United Arab Emirates. As of 2009, there are about 79 public schools run by the Ministry of Education that sere Emiratis and expatriate Arab people as well as 145 private schools.

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Investigation & Data Collection: Future City

Future city is the city that we’re going to live in the future with modern area, where it is the excellence on urban innovation. Future city is a place where cities, businesses and universities come together to develop solutions to the future needs of our citizens. Future city also assumed will be like those in sci-fi movie.

Tokyo City

Tokyo is the capital city of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area and the most populous metropolitan area in the world. The population of the special wards is over 9 million people, with the population of the prefecture exceeding 13 million. There are so many reasons why Tokyo is represent as one of the futuristic cities One of the reasons are the stability of the infrastructure: -

Despite the magnitude of this powerful 9.0 earthquake, no buildings in Tokyo fell. Witnesses say that skyscrapers in Tokyo swayed like palm trees in the wind in this fifth strongest earthquake ever recorded.

Tokyo’s strict government building codes, extensive citizen education, warning mechanisms and emergency drills, let us acknowledge Tokyo’s endurance, standing as one of the world’s great cities of the future.

The city is filled with 40 to 50 story towers, as space is limited and the city grows upwards. The towers and buildings are also a successful blending of old and new.

Tokyo has many districts of skyscrapers, not condensed into just one neighborhood in vary manners of design and shape, such as waves of glass or capsules, rather than rectangular boxes. They are ever-multiplying in number and in diversity.

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Now let’s move on to the structure of Tokyo’s city. What makes Tokyo as a city is mostly because of the architecture building, environment with both nature and the people and the transportation.

Tokyo’s urban landscape consists mainly modern and contemporary architecture. Even though old buildings are mostly ruined and not much left anymore due to the earthquake and extensive bombing in WWII but Tokyo managed to rebuilt and build more impressive buildings. As examples, Tokyo Tower and the new Tokyo Skytree which also claimed as the tallest tower in Japan.

Tokyo Tower | Tokyo Sky Tree

Next, Tokyo has enacted a measure to cut greenhouse gases. The governor, Shintaro Ishihara, created Japan’s first emissions cap system – aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emission by a total of 25% by 2020 from the 2000 level. Tokyo proved as an example of an urban heat island and the phenomenon is getting serious in its special wards.

As for transportation in Tokyo city, Tokyo is actually the largest domestic and internation hub for rail, ground and air transportation. Public transportation within Tokyo is dominated by an extensive network of clean and efficient trails and subways, which run by a variety of operators, with buses, monorails and trams playing a secondary feeder role. Rail is primary mode of transportation in Tokyo, which has the most extensive urban railway network in the world and an equally extensive network if surface lines.

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The New City

Tranquillitas

The History

Tranquillitas got its name by Latin word which means, “calm”,“peace”and “brightness”. Tranquillitas motto is “City of eternal brightness”. By that, it means that the citizens can live happily and do not have to worry anymore the darkness they had face due to natural phenomenon that results them to be living in here. The city is floating on the water with 40km square which can be populated approximately for 20, 0000 people.

The slogan of the city is “Water. Health. Wealth. Contentment.” Water represents as the city is floating, health is because the city put citizen’s health as priority and wealth as the people can make money even on the water. All of this will create a satisfaction and contentment to everyone.

The reason why Tranquillitas city is floating is due to excessive amount of human activities, which causes earthquake, land shaking, fire, flooding and liquefaction to be happened. All of these natural phenomenon have washed away all the land and people has no longer land or place to live, to shelter and to feel safe.

To overcome this issue, this is why Tranquillitas are created for. As the mayor of the city, Tranquillitas is made for creating and inviting people to this unimaginable place.

The shape of Tranquillitas city is actually inspired by the aquatic species called betta splenders. The city is actually fixed and moveable where but that is only where there is emergency purposes.

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From top to bottom: The plan view | The side view | The bottom view

Every edges of the city is covered and designated with seawalls to protect and withstand additional forces and extreme water level.

Tranquillitas also can be covered with a special protection and that is only for emergency cases like thunderstorm.

Back to ancient city of Rome, their roads are named as “via”. However, from that inspiration of that, Tranquillitas is divided into 3 zones. The

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most left is called felicitas zona, the middle is necessitas zona and the right one is pietas zona.

Felicitas zona –Productivity, blessedness or happiness zoneNecessitas zona –Destiny and fate zone

Pietas zona –Duty zone

Now here’s the best part of the city – the zoning.

Green: The Green Area

The green areas is basically a public park. The parks are located in the middle of the city so people can congregate. The green areas are fully covered by a solar umbrella. It used to charge batteries so that solar power devices can be used at night and lighten the city. The city at the night is really beautiful where all LED lights are used.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights are used because it is a very sustainable item where it is energy-effective , cost-effective, long-lasting, mercury-free and available in various colours, shape and sizes. It compasses environmental, social and ethical dimensions

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that brings benefits to the environment and both local and global communities.

Dark Green: The Agricultural Area

The dark green area in Pietas Zona might be small but the plants are mostly grown vertically in the agriculture buildings. This is because limited space provided. Wind turbines are also located at this area. Wind turbines converted kinetic energy from wind to electricity and mostly to allow water (from below) to enter and

water the plants. Meanwhile, the remaining energy will be stored at the government area. For the wind turbines, vertical-axis wind turbine (or VAWTs) are used. The advantage of using VWATs is the turbine does not need to be pointed into the wind to be effective.

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Peach: The Residential Area

Moving on to the residential area. The buildings in residential area are mostly grows upwards due to limited space and inspired by future city of Tokyo. For common citizen, they are placed in the apartments meanwhile for rich citizen in the single house. Other than putting trees to on every residential roads, the citizen also must create and take care of the green gardens on the rooftop of their residential buildings. The green roofs reduce air pollution and increase water quality which can decrease demands for health care.

Brown: The Religious and Cultural Area

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Pink: The Services Area

Police, fire station and post office and etc are located here.

The dark peach: Commercial and Business Area

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Next, the commercial and business area. This area is located in the center of the city so it is convenience for the city to shop and work. The location of the commercial and business area is extracted by the information from ancient city of Rome, such as forum. The buildings in this area are fully covered by solar windows. The solar energy will be transferred into electrical appliances in the buildings. Similar to wind turbines, the remaining energy will be collected and stored in government area.

Purple I: Educational Area

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Purple II: The Government Area

Now, the government area. Other than enforces the laws in the city, government is also the place where electrical supplies will be stored. Due to equality system applied in the city, the usage of energy supplies used by the citizen will also be monitored here. Even though electrical supplies can get from the wind, solar and water but it still have to be controlled for future uses.

Purple III: The Army and Security Area

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Purple IV: The Health Area

The dark pink: Commercial & Sports Area

The recreation and sports area in Tranquillitas city is inspired from colloseum in ancient city of Rome and National Stadium in Tokyo. In this area, the citizens are able to communicate and enjoy at the same time. In Tranquillitas city, health of the citizen is the main priority. Therefore, citizens are encouraged to do sports or exercise in this area. The stadium and parks in that area are all provided for the citizen uses.

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The grey lines: Monorail lanes

Other than that, transportation is also one of the important thing that should be considered when it comes to city. Tranquillitas is a car-fee city. It might sounds hard for citizen to walk from one end to another end (eg:- from Felicitas Zona to Pietas Zona), which is estimation for about 8km, so I as the mayor would like to take this opportunity to put a monorail system as public transportation. This idea is extracted from present city of Dubai and future city of Tokyo. The electrical monorail get its electricity through water generator that is implanted on the bottom of the city.

Apart from that, all the citizens are encourage to walk and cycle in the city. This is to put citizen’s health as priority and it also reduce petroleum dependency and air pollution.

Now let’s move on to the infrastructure of the Tranquillitas and sustainable initiative.

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The wave generator

However, the city itself cannot only depend on solar energy and wind. This is because solar energy can only be harnessed when it’s day time and sunny. There are also days and times where sky has less wind than we ever thought. Therefore, wave generator is applied and implanted below of the city – on the left and right. The wave generator will convert kinetic energy of the water into electricity.

The desalination processor

At the same time, desalination processor is also implanted below of the city. Desalination is a process to remove the amount of salt and other minerals from saline water. The water is basically desalinated to produce fresh water which is suitable specially for Tranquillitas

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citizen’s consumption and irrigation. Then, they citizen can enjoy the clean water freely!

The waste management

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ConclusionAfter an extensive research on this project, I admit that it is

not easy to be an architect or urban planner. We have to consider a lot of things such as the people, the buildings, the infrastructure system, electricity and a lot more. I have also come into a conclusion that citizen’s heath and safety have to come first and our priority. Secondly, the citizen must be surrounded with green and healthy environment. Preferences and contentment only comes after.

Our earth has reach to the peak where pollutions are the major problem. Therefore, sustainable initiative should have been conducted from now on and keep continuous and improving for the future generation. Especially for our children’s children.

Other than that too, this project had taught me that sustainable city is suits with people’s need. This is because people can enjoy with a high-quality lifestyle with minimum inputs of energy and money. Results to that, people can live happily with healthy environment with a better infrastructure and services.

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