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Building Ecologies: Collective Urban Infrastructures

The project lends itself to operate as a prototypical flexible module with the potential to be deployed onto any pre-existing urban rooftop or public area. The modular system is comprised of hollow ceramic pieces acting as structural columns and water collectors, a modular ceramic floor elevated on pedestals, a lightweight space truss structure, and a waterproof membrane that captures and cleans rainwater through its expansive surface. Subsequently, the rainwater would be channeled through the hollow ceramic columns, from which it would be diverted to pipes below the elevated floor and collected into modular water tanks uniformly distributed within the elevated floor. The water management system as proposed would work to alleviate the effects of flooding and drought through storage as well as release and reduce runoff by capturing water and redirecting it into the tanks. Besides, the materiality of the modular ceramic columns, with their low thermal conductivity, could potentially provide energy-saving cooling benefits. The resulting prototype integrates structural and material strategies to optimize construction aspects related to transportation, assembly and disassembly of building components, as well as thermodynamic questions related to heat transfer and water cycles while helping to foster a sense of community and social interaction.

Video Summary



Conceptualization and Experimentation



Fabrication




Assembly




Details


Location

POST Houston, USA

Time

2023

Principal Investigator

Juan Jose Castellon
Dr.Qilin Li (Co-PI)

Team

Rae Atkinson
Christian Ayala-Lopez
Candela Ciccinelli
Van Pham
Michael Xu

Collaborators

Prof.Kurt Stallmann

Guillem Cumella

Lancelot Miserachs (BEC)

Ricardo Pittella (Arup)

Sponsors

Rice University
Rice School of Architecture
POST Houston
Rice Design Alliance
The Carbon Hub
Cosentino
Industrias BEC
Ceramica Cumella
Arup
xmade

Related Research

Building Ecosystems: Hybrid Materialities for Collective Urban Infrastructures

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