Saharan Sustainability, Seriously?

Thoughts and musings

Saharan Sustainability, Seriously?

Lewis | July 23, 2015 | 0 Comments

Any of you recall a recent blog post from us here at Oakleigh Manor about the possibility of London becoming a National Park? If not, you can click here jog the brain. Whether you do this or you do in fact remember, either way I do not think the thoughts of ‘audacious yet plausible’ you may have conjured up may match up to similar thoughts you may think after read this…

A recent article from Reuters enlightened their readership with the news that OXO, an architecture based in the French capital of Paris, plan to construct what they call a ‘sustainable vertical city’ in the Sahara Desert. As I’m sure you all know, the Sahara Desert, the largest hot desert in the world and as a result, is quite sparsely populated due to the challenging – to say the least – climate. Therefore, the news that this planned building could house people within 600 units and provide work and leisure space is eye-opening.

Despite only being at the concept stage – something our Landscape Architect Rupert Davis talks about on a daily basis – OXO are confident for the idea, with commencement of work envisaged for 2025 with the construction planned for 50 years. How is that for an expected project duration?! But yet again, I digress. The architect behind the idea, French-Moroccan architect Manal Rachdi, called the building an “eco-system”; with the ideas within the concept, I think I agree.

OXO plan for the tower to incorporate shades and natural ventilation to help control temperature and to utilise rainwater harvesting systems, which will combine with geothermal technology to produce steam to in turn generate energy. Collected water will also go towards the irrigation of a planned vertical garden growing around the central inner tower of the proposed structure.

This is really is quite incredible news, even in the day in age we are living where technological advances are being found and broadcast each and every day. However, with the idea that the tower is planned to house an entire city, the brain does wonder. Yet, Rachdi champions the idea of self-sufficiency and believes it entirely possible. Read his thoughts for yourself in the original article from Reuters, by clicking here.

We hope you enjoyed this article; we certainly enjoyed writing it! Blogging is always easier with engaging material; it’s a good thing there’s a lot of it in our industry…

 

 

Photo credit: <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonker/4300437105/”>wonker</a> / <a href=”http://foter.com/”>Foter</a> / <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>CC BY</a>