The Eco-power plant will be built on a coastal wetland habitat, currently home to hundreds of species of migratory birds and their related food sources and biodiversity. Our strategies will increase the viability of these species as well as resilience against inclement weather and long-term effects of climate change.
In order to integrate the trinity of wetlands, flood retention areas, and carbon capture zones with the entire site itself, the core zone is designed to allow for their natural incursion into its interstitial spaces. This is achieved by elevating all building elements from the ground and allowing all ecological pathways to occur uninterrupted from the carbon storage zone in the north, through the power generation zone and towards the wetland zone in the south. This unique intervention also becomes an attractive tourist and education destination. Tourists are channeled through elevated walkways so as not to interrupt the operations of the vehicles, workmen, and utility pipes, each of which have their respective infrastructures. Industrial water discharge will be naturally treated to ensure a balanced ecosystem before being released to the sea via a flood retention zone. Deep below the landscape, injection wells test new methods of carbon storage.
Exploring CO2 as a resource, the sun-drenched roof and facades of the Eco-power plant are laced with algae tubes, sequestering the carbon into a usable by-product.
This experimental algae farm offers an additional research and educational experience, where algae can then be extracted to make biofuel and the remaining biomass can be used as fertilizer at local farms. To minimize the visual impact of the core zone structures, we have devised a façade system that camouflages the immensity of the buildings from the wetlands’ vantage point, inspired by ‘dazzle’ camouflage paint on Allied navy ships during the Second World War. We have updated this design to use algae tubes instead to maximize their performance not only as devices for shading and power generation, but also for visual impact attenuation.
TEAM CREDITS:
MIIM
Min Ter Lim, Shih Da Tseng, Michelle M. Wu, Kaiting Chen, Sharyn Hsin-Yu Hwang
Sasaki Associates
Ming-Jen Hsueh, Poshan Chang, Anthony Fettes, Einat Rosenkrantz, Zicheng Xu
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