Soft Infra(structures)
Team
Name: Jade Tan
Nationality: Singaporean
Institution / Company: University of Melbourne
-FINALIST of Waterless World Competition
The design arises from an analysis of informal settlement growth and their pertinent lack of safe and potable water supply. The traditional hard approach of large-scale dams and centralized water infrastructures is ecologically damaging and often unable to meet the local needs of such settlements. Furthermore, the existing water resources for these settlements tend to be highly commodified and inaccessible.
The scaffold-grid system structurally supports a flexible, ad-hoc way of building informal dwellings. Much like scaffold netting, a double membrane envelope keeps the internal temperature cool and encourages condensation which flows through the grid system. Lifted above the ground, the stacked dwellings do not disrupt natural mangrove wetlands and vegetation below that filter greywater and stormwater. Filtered water is pumped back up through the dwellings as well as stored above ground.
Excess freshwater percolates through drainage channels to recharge the groundwater and become a resource for future generations. Rather than build against nature, informal settlements can become essential to maintaining this soft interstitial space as a self-sustaining and free source of water.
#infrastructure #resilience #freshwater cycle #soft water path #equity
