Living Tower
The Living Tower is a proposal for a new kind of living in the Melbourne CBD, one which proactively engages inhabitants to imagine and change for a better future. Embracing a concept where ‘sustainable’ is not enough, architecture becomes a catalyst for giving back to the urban and natural environments. Wind, water, solar, and geothermal resources are harvested not only to create better living environments, but to generate algae production, generating energy for the building and back into the power grid.
Jury Comment
The project demonstrates the possibilities of a current predilection for new digital technologies in architectural design that rely heavily on the appropriation of biology. The jury was impressed by the adventurous nature of the project to illustrate the relationship between structural resolution and parametric design in the first stage of the competition. Ironically, further work for the second stage weakened the scheme owing to a literal and simplistic adoption of biological references. The project would benefit from a better integrated program for sustainability rather than a collection of techniques and technologies to promote a futuristic image.
