Quiz+4



﻿   **1. What are the concepts of the Bionic Tower and Little Cities Projects? (1 pt) ** **“The Bionic Tower Vertical City”** is a project developed by Architects Eloy Celaya, Javier Gómez and Ma. Rosa Cervera. This project is very innovative since it is based on nature and bionic architecture, which is basically a new philosophy formed by the common principles of architecture, biology and engineering. The main concept of the project lies in abandoning the traditional and old architecture, which builds with beams and columns and trying to adopt new technology, based on nature, that is, with a constructive logic which takes into account the saving of energy, the adaptability and the flexibility of the masses, since as this new philosophy states: nature has all the answers. 

On the other hand **Steven Holl`s Little Cities** is based on three main projects, which try to replace the current situation in China, which is now a country full of buildings of great height with shopping malls, offices but no public open spaces. This type of architectural response turns its back on the pedestrian and repels everyone because of its scale. Steven Holl`s three new projects try to replace this response by applying a more friendly architecture with different arrangements of collaborative massing, horizontal circulation and urban porosity, which tries to invite pedestrians inside the buildings. These projects focus on creating micro cities with residences, offices, restaurants, shopping malls and public open spaces, that is, they are conceive to be little cities inside a another city. He calls this concept “micro-urbanism”. media type="file" key="Question 1.mp3" width="240" height="20"  ﻿  


 * 2. What are the architectural /urban planning principles of these projects? (1.5 pts) **

**The Bionic Tower** consists in a vertical structure of 1228 meters high. This vertical tower rests on a 1000 meters base. The entire project is called The Bionic Vertical City Tower, which is composed of two bio-ecological urban complexes. One of them, the tower is the main vertical structure and the base is the horizontal one. The tower is divided in twelve neighborhoods, of 80 meters high each, separated by safety areas. Each neighborhood has two groups of buildings: one interior and an exterior one. These buildings are situated around huge gardens and pools. The Base Island is mainly occupied by medium high buildings, expanded gardens, interior pools and communication infrastructures. The construction of this tower is based on biotechnology, which studies the structure of several organisms and tries to apply this in the structure of the buildings. Also, by building a vertical city, we could have more open areas for other purposes.

**Steven Holl´s little cities** consists of three projects: the Sliced Porosity Block, Linked Hybrid, and Vanke Center, they all try to replace the great scale buildings, which have no vinculation whatsoever with the rest of the city. These three projects try to integrate pedestrians by creating public spaces inside them and inviting the public life in by mixing uses and providing public areas. They are actually little cities inside another one.

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<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The Bionic Tower Project takes two examples: México DF and China. The architect Eloy Celaya takes China as a bad example of urban planning, because of its very high buildings and Mexico because of its horizontal occupation. These situations are both very extreme, so he states that The Bionic Tower is in the middle of these two conditions. It is a vertical city, that is, a city inside a building and Steven Holl`s Little Cities are little cities inside a bigger one. They both try to create mixed use buildings, but perhaps the main difference is that The Bionic Tower is a very complex and defying idea, because of its scale, on the other hand Steven Holl`s little cities are minor scale interventions. Moreover, Steven Holl gives us a solution inside of an existing city, but Celaya creates a whole new entire city, which main structure could be use by any culture. Both projects seem to pay attention to the concept of sustainability.
 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">1. How are these projects similar / different? (1.5 pts.) **

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<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The Bionic Tower is the first structure of that height and with that concept, so there are no actual examples of it. There is a model of this building and it is said that it resembles many living organisms like trees and shelves. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">On the other hand, two of the projects of Steven Holl were completed last year: The Linked Hybrid and The Vanke Center. The Sliced Porosity Block in Chengdu is still in construction but it is probably the best example of the way Holl has used volumetric richness in order to create a large project, which focuses on success at a smaller scale.
 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">4. Are there actual examples of these projects? If so, mention them. (1 pt.) **

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 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">5. Explain the vertical and horizontal circulation for one of these projects (1.5 pts.) **

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">In the Bionic Tower the primary structural communication system between each neighbourhood consists in three rings of 92 technological street-columns, which have the purpose of transporting its inhabitants, water and also energy. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The structure of the street-columns is concave, made by thin folded membranes encapsulated of high strength concrete. This allows a huge capacity of flexibility and resistance to the complex and moreover, a huge capacity to fit the different chaotic demands of wind pressure. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">In total the tower has 368 elevators with vertical and horizontal circulation.

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<span style="display: block; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">These two projects are very innovative. For example the Bionic Tower tries to explore a new territory of bio-technology and has a very futuristic point of view, which I think is great, since sustainability demands new types of responses. Also, Steven Holl´s little cities try to defy the present situation of China by creating buildings which could help integrate the inhabitants with the city. The concept of creating little cities inside bigger ones is very innovative, since it tries to create a close interaction between the pedestrians, the buildings and the sidewalks. All of this is done by building public spaces inside the structures. Finally, I believe that these two solutions both try to create mixed used buildings with open public spaces and eco-friendly technology in order to take one more step into our future, which main concept is sustainability. <span style="display: block; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">media type="file" key="Question 6.mp3"
 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">6. What do you think of these projects? (1.5 pts.) **