Perth-based design practice Neil Cownie Architect was named the winner of an international competition for tertiary students and graduates to design an urban area suitable for future extreme climate conditions.
Organised by the non-profit Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) and the University of Western Australia (UWA), the “Future Climate Future Home – Adapt Me” competition called upon entrants to design or adapt a small area of a selected town or city to make it responsive to climate conditions in the year 2099, as projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The competition received over 100 submissions from around the world, with second place awarded to Chinese team Kailin Zheng and Yuxing Zhang, and third place nabbed by Vietnamese entrant Nguyễn Hoàng Quân.
Winning first place, the scheme from Neil Cownie Architect examined an area on Perth’s Swan Coastal Plain, where the IPCC forecasted a 4-degree average temperature increase and an 18 to 35 percent reduction in annual rainfall.
Inspired by and named after the Tim Winton novel “Juice,” the proposal considers human experience within an integrated ecosystem of climate adaption, wastewater treatment and recycling, stormwater management, aquifer recharging, heat island mitigation, and habitat creation.
In the proposal, each of the dwellings within the 40,000-square-metre urban area is within 20-minute walking distance from high-frequency, electric-powered transport, green corridors, constructed vegetated wetlands, community recreation and local micro-business opportunities.
According to a communique from the architect, research into the work of local hydrologist Dr Don McFarlane informed the preservation of local wetlands as a vital component in the scheme. The proposal was also reviewed with Noongar knowledge holder Jack Collard and Water Corporation Manager Engineering Advisory Peter Spencer.
The jury commented, “This compelling entry … takes climate responsive lessons from the past to adapt for the projected future. Such retrospective innovation includes Moorish central courtyards, stepped water wells, flooded communal caverns and mashrabiya window boxes all for passive cooling.”
“Rather than a purely technical exercise, the entry demonstrates creative engagement with increasing temperatures as a springboard to designing delightful, socio-ecologically enriching, innovative urbanism,” they said.
Reflecting on the practice’s motivation for entering the competition, director Neil Cownie commented, “Our federal and state governments along with the general public’s call for more housing has become a daily occurrence, but we can’t continue to simply roll out more of the dysfunctional same.”
“My entry weaves together a diverse range of urban design current best practice concepts, intended to highlight an aspirational living environment that would be achievable even now with state government investment in sustainable water strategies and waste-water recycling solutions, and investment in local community public transport electric tram services,” he said.
Cownie observed that, with state government funding, the scheme’s concept to transform waste, sewerage and storm water into a valuable resource was transferrable to many other areas around the state, where it would have similar benefits for local communities.
The competition’s jurors included chair Dr Julian Bolleter, director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre at UWA; Dr Silvia Tavares, founder and co-lead of the Bioclimatic and Sociotechnical Cities Lab at the University of the Sunshine Coast; emerita professor Billie Giles-Corti, vice chancellor’s professional research fellow and director of the Healthy Liveable Cities Lab at RMIT; professor Maria Ignatieva, professor of landscape architecture at UWA and president of the Urban Biodiversity and Design International Network; Andrew Lilleyman, director of ARM Architecture; and Dr Robert Cameron, associate lecturer at the AUDRC and UWA.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
