December 9, 2010
The Ecopolis is a proposal in answer to the question of climate refugee housing by Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut. His research suggests the need for inhabitable space for the millions of refugees to come with the onslaught of global warming, and the melting of the above-sea-level ice reservoirs in the Antartic and Greenland.
Callbaut goes on to suggest that every rise in degree celcius will correspond with the rise of sea level by 1 meter. This increase "would bring ground losses emerged of approximately 0.05% in Uruguay, 1% in Egypt, 6% in the Netherlands, 17.5% in Bangladesh and up to 80% approximately in the atoll Majuro in Oceania". In many countries, fertile lands will be flooded with salt water, rendering them useless to their inhabitants.
The prototype design, called the Ecopolis, Callebaut has developed are based on the structural makeup of Amazonian great lilypads, which absorb atmospheric pollution. The Ecopolis integrates various efficient methods to produce more energy than it consumes. Its biotype is recyclable, and it integrates ecology in order to provide its own food source.
Ecopolis can accomodate 50,000 refugees. The city's centre is composed of an articifical lagoon surrounded by three mountain-like marinas which act as the city centres for work, entertainment and shopping. The mountains are covered with a vegetative 'stratum' of inhabitable space with a network of pedestrian walkways.
"The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of the couple Human / Nature and to explore new modes of living the sea by building with fluidity collective spaces in proximity, overwhelming spaces of social inclusion suitable to the meeting of all the inhabitants – denizen or foreign-born, recent or old, young or aged people." - Vincent Callebaut.
Callebaut, Vincent. "Vincent Callebaut Architecte LILYPAD ." VINCENT CALLEBAUT ARCHITECTE C.V. . http://vincent.callebaut.org/page1-img-lilypad.html (accessed December 9, 2010).
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