A French architectural firm called Vincent Callebaut Architectures has proposed a range of green towers for Paris, including variations on skyfarms and other well-known, much appreciated new designs and functional ecological ideas.
This firm isn’t exactly backward in its ideas. They have a strict “Thou shalt not reproduce our graphics” policy, but in this case it’s just as well — they have a huge range of green building ideas. A Google search of Vincent Callebaut Architectures images winds up with a whole page of designs that make Dubai look like medieval England.
This isn’t just theory. It’s the new architecture, borne on the massive capacity of CAD and new structural materials, combined with much more advanced design theories. This is the future as it could be, and one look at these designs can tell you a lot.
To start with — none of these designs are “whimsy.” No cutesy crap or mindless retrogression to safe architectural styles here. They’re major aspirations in design, using natural shapes and some pretty fascinating geometric ideas, too. You’ll see some evolved familiar shapes. That said — I can tell you as a paleo fan that you’d need to look in some very strange places, like the Cambrian period, to find some of these shapes.
The theory of practical, ecologically balanced cities is stampeding along way ahead of actual building, and it’s nowhere near a finished argument. These designs are a good running commentary on the current state of theory.
These designs aren’t merely “visionary.” They’re perspectives on themselves, as much as an epic of innovation. Vincent Callebaut Architectures isn’t just playing with the building blocks. They’re creating new design elements. That’s what’s so hard about this process.
As little as 10 years ago, many of these structures would have been considered unbuildable products of the far distant future. 20 years ago, even drawing the plans would have been a major epic, a marathon of organization. Architecture is one of the few sciences which persists in dreaming big, then underestimating itself. Costs are usually hernias for good architecture, too. It’s only comparatively recently that these fabulous ideas have been able to breathe in this rather stodgy, expensive business environment.
Now the good news:
These designs are now necessary, not just new décor for the world’s ultra-boring, stupefyingly unsustainable cities. Old style cities are incredibly inefficient, expensive, and let’s face it, building quality and quality of life leaves so much to be desired.
Old architecture includes some great things — and about 80 percent of its dilapidated remains could be torn down tomorrow and nobody would care. The new architecture is a sort of “practical evangelism” of form, style, and functionality.
The vision is of a range of lifeboats and practical solutions, not cosmetic designs. It has to be said that Callebaut has hit a lot of important targets with these ideas. You can enjoy the art in these designs, like the Swallows Nest, or bask in the exotic shapes, but at the heart of the designs is meeting real needs.
These buildings provide good use of space, vertical and cubic, to manage populations and functional densities. The new cities will be based on a very different set of dynamics to the car/horse/buggy/commute mechanics of the past. These buildings are clearly self insulating, productive, and can even help to mitigate manage the notorious thermal patterns of existing cities.
It’s no surprise Paris is the city to be considering such drastic innovation. Paris is built on a river in a virtual wash basin, with a few swamps and marshes and not a lot in the way of geographical advantages. Paris is a sort of artificial hilly zone in the environment, standing in for rocky outcrops and the usual dichotomy of low river zone and higher surrounding terrain. The city needs to create its own environmental advantages, and these designs are good pointers to some real options.
The history of Paris has been one of necessity, adapting to Vikings, revolutions, Prussians, arts, science, Parisians, and other hazards. Fast food was invented in Paris in the early 1800s. The point being that Paris has always adapted to take on the more productive innovations available at any time in its history. Paris is a comparatively small city, only 2 million people, and it’s a city which ferociously resists any impositions on itself – Unless it likes them.
Where else would you start a successful architectural revolution? Consider the possibilities, consider a Paris remodelled like a sort of Green Renoir Girl. Now consider how long it would take for every architect on Earth to get on the bandwagon.
Shanghai would be galloping along, as would many other cities which desperately need to get themselves out of the 19th century before rigor mortis sets in, like New York. Tokyo could do it, and so could London. In Australia, we have the space for big buildings of this kind, and plenty of old rubbish which needs redeveloping anyway. Frank Gehrig did a building in Sydney recently, and even the builders were loving every second of creating it. These buildings will really let the creative skills of the new architecture and construction industries cut loose.
So here it is, folks, the future, as it very probably will be, in some form. This is only the beginning. New materials like foam which can provide more support than structural steel will allow even more fascinating designs. Stick around, this will be fun.
