Lotus Flower Floating Villas
Dubai
For this project's sustainable development, we had to make sure that the design was resilient and environmentally friendly. To achieve these goals, we had to design each specific villa with several characteristics that would reduce net energy consumption and adapt to native conditions.
To limit energy consumption, we had to make use of the most significant energy source that is available to the earth, the sun. Designing each villa to have daily amounts of natural light is vital to minimize energy consumptions. After acquiring natural light, another key point that should be brought up is: that the increase of uninterrupted sunlight is directly proportional to temperature. So in order to keep each villa cool, we designed them to incorporate a pressure and heat discharge flap on the top of the structure(each villa). As you know, hot air is less dense; therefore, each hot air particle is prone to be pushed sideways and upwards by the cooler, more dense air particles that are being pulled downwards by gravity. Notice how all the petal-like structures are all pointed to one positive point with respect to the y-axis.
Additionally, in order to reduce the heat in each villa, installing treated windows that reject up to 80% percent of solar heat and simultaneously block nearly all harmful U.V. rays is key. The install of these types of windows helps reduce heat and help protect the appliances,(making the materials longer-lasting), and as well as maintaining the residents' well-being (skin health). Another aspect that we considered while designing each villa is to have natural air circulation that would allow for a sustainable cooling system. Between each petal-like structure are grills that will enable air particles to pass through and exist from the opposite side to allow airflow.
Each villas' underplan has the capacity and ability to have underwater turbines that harness the tidal energy to power home appliances. Finally, in order to make that the builds are more resilient and safe from sea level rise and natural sea damages, every villa is tied down by several hydraulic pistons that adapt to the tidal height.