Output details

Agropolis

RESEARCH CONTENT AND PROCESS

--Description--

Agropolis is a design research project for a self-sufficient city in Khataba (Al Jadida), Egypt, that responds to an invited competition by Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya. It examines the rapid increase in peripheral and unsustainable satellite developments of the Nile Delta and aims to redirect the uncontrolled urban sprawl into new agro-urban settlements that grow in accordance with local farming activity.

The Agropolis has self-sufficient transport infrastructures and sustainable use of resources, food and energy production. Its morphology is developed out of pivot irrigation technology, and has a zero carbon footprint. Waste products, including sewage, household garbage and energy are recycled. Liquid waste is processed and used to support local irrigation. Electricity produced by solar panels is integrated into the buildings’ skins, lining roofs and walls, and the irrigation system.

--Questions--

1. How can an alternative high-tech, large-scale design approach generate sustainable urban development and agriculture in the Nile Delta?

2. How can centre pivot irrigation technology change the way future cities are theorised, planned and inhabited, when used as urban morphological blueprints?

3. How can an exploratory design respond to population growth forecasts and offer sustainable development in an environmentally vulnerable region?

--Methods--

1. Analysis of Nile Delta urbanism and its historical and geographical contexts to understand its infrastructure, environmental, agricultural and nutritional contexts.

2. Comparative studies of agricultural landscape traditions in the Middle East and North America, especially centre pivot and aquifer irrigation techniques.

3. Design conceptualization and iterations of research into urban water morphologies, food and energy production, and urban infrastructures.

--Dissemination--

The work has been discussed in AD Exuberance and Futuristic; reviewed in Designboom; and presented internationally in lectures in Syracuse, Madrid, Bogotá, Évora, Toledo, Nottingham, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Cork and San José, Costa Rica.