A futuristic hotel that can survive natural disasters and provide a healthy environment for its inhabitants is the idea behind Alexander Remizov’s “The Ark.” Remizov wrote,
“The Ark project was designed on the basis of international experience received from the UIA Work Program “Architecture for Disasters Relief” and according to the concept of a bioclimatic house with independent life support sources. In such buildings provision is made for an independent life support system including elements ensuring a closed functioning cycle.”
The important aspects that the building holds in case of an emergency are:
- It can be assembled quickly, 3-4 months
- It can be designed to withstand earthquakes
- It can float
- It is entirely self-sustainable
- It can be built to house between 50 – 10,000 people
Remizov’s schematic designs call for a hotel and site area to have a total area of 14,000 square meters. The building itself, in his conceptual plans, is to have a floor area of 2,900 square meters. It is built of timber arches and steel ropes, enclosed in a foil called Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE). ETFE is a self-cleaning and recyclable polymer used in place of glass and plastic in modern commercial architecture. Compared to glass, ETFE is:
- More economic, costing 40-70% less to install
- More transparent
- A better insulator
- Only 1/100 the weight of glass
The ETFE will be attached to the framework by metal profiles that will also act as solar panels, rainwater collectors and thermal heaters. Other sustainable attributes that “The Ark” will house are wind-powered generators, a central tornado generator, planted internal greenery and wastes that will be utilized inside by methods of explosion boiling and oxygen-free pyrolysis.
If global warming truly melts the ice caps, if 2012 brings about unrivaled natural disasters, or if the future just needs a fancy self-sustainable hotel-resort concept, Remizov’s “Ark” could very well be the answer to all of these predicted future occurrences.
Resources:
http://remistudio.ru/pages/66.htm
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/ark-by-alexander-remizov
http://cubeme.com/blog/2011/01/14/the-ark-by-alexander-remizov/
All photos from:
http://remistudio.ru/pages/66.htm
Article idea obtained from Dante Reyes.
