Want to participate? Follow the instructions below!   

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Introduction:
Globally, water consumption has dramatically risen and access to clean drinkable water is becoming increasingly unstable due to climate change and agricultural demand. The capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta, is running into problems related to water service management. 

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The city government has not invested in water utilities that can service the needs of all the local neighborhoods. Local communities have started to drill their own wells to collect from the underground water supply beneath the city. As the underground water supply is drained, the land has started to sink up to 9 inches a year. Nearly 70% of Jakarta is now below sea level and the city floods frequently, as sea level continues to rise due to global warming.

The Indonesian government is now considering relocating the capital city near the city of Samarinda. This region is an ideal location on the island of Borneo, because it is absent of earthquake activity and volcanic mountains. The city is also located hundreds of miles inland and is projected to have less intense future flooding than coastal cities.

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We are going to explore the city of Samarinda and propose a project that redefines the city’s relationship with water. As a studio, we are going to design a system that showcases how individual communities can manage water responsibly. One group of students will explore how we can incorporate water collection in the architectural design of city housing. A second group will discover how water treatment systems can be designed into places of work and leisure. A third group will investigate how a public space and pavilion can be used as a communal location to fill personal water supplies.  It is the studio’s task to change the perception that drinkable water is unlimited and in bountiful amounts.

“Our relationship with water has become distant. It is very important to recover our historical consciousness with water.”– Arnoldo Matus Kramer, Chief Resilience Officer, Mexico City 

 

Project Objectives:
Each student will work in teams of two or three to develop one site that either collects water, cleans water, or provides drinkable water for the local community. Each team will work with their mentors on where to locate their project on the site, how to design it and how the project connection to the overall water shed. Each team will study the Samarinda packet to develop a better understanding of the local context and community. 

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Project Learning Outcomes: 

• Develop conceptual design processes 

• Greater understanding of the spatial relationship between form, function, and materials 

• Understand how to create and utilize an architectural parti diagram as a design tool 

• Understand how water infrastructure and water management strategies can be improved

• Ability to analyze a site’s context, design potential, and relationship to the larger built environment

 

Program and Design Guidelines: 
Students will be placed in groups of 2 or 3 according to their desire to work on the following types of projects within the system. The exercise is based on developing massings and envelope strategies that support; the site context, programmatic relationships, water systems on individual sites and adjacent sites, overall watershed and local community health and safety. 

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• Collect – Students will explore design solutions that capture rain fall and other sources of water on the exterior envelope of different sized residential buildings. The designs will demonstrate how water can be harnessed and directed according to need. Each team will design a strategy for the building typologies below:

  • ​Single-family – Single-story building, 800 sqft

  • Multi-family building – 3 units, each 1,000 sqft, each 2-3 stories tall

  • Office/retail building – 1,000 sqft, single- or multi-level 

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• Clean – Group of 3 students will locate and design a water reclamation and treatment plant within a dense urban environment. Each plant will have to incorporate:

  • ​Chemistry lab – 500 sqft

  • Pump station – 800 sqft

  • Electrical substation – 500 sqft

  • Three 10,000-gallon tanks

  • Office/retail building – 1,000 sqft, single- or multi-level

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• Celebrate – Water supplies will no longer flow invisibly to private taps. Students will design a water filling station that celebrates the value of water while offering equitable access for the local community. Each built structure should include an educational opportunity for those visiting the facility.

  • ​Filling station (indoor & outdoor) – 2,000 sqft

  • Rest and recover area (indoor & outdoor) – 1,500 sqft

  • Administration office – 500 sqft

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Deliverable Requirements: 
Graphic and verbal presentation slides, to include:

• One parti diagram drawn on site plan describing design or organization concept

• One ground-level floor plan

  • Additional floor plans as needed​

• Two section diagrams

  • Cross sectional

  • Longitudinal 

• Two 3-D views of project

• Describe how the project works and fits in the site

• Reference images or process sketches, including images of sketch models

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Recommended Materials:

• Mechanical pencil – for light lines

• Fine point felt tip - for thin dark lines

• Wider point felt tip - for bold lines

• Color pencils - for coloring to accent items in your sketch

• Sketch pad of paper

• Trace paper – you can use this over your sitemaps to see how your design will fit on the site

• Scale - for drawing thinks to the right size 

• Sketchbook - for sketching smaller thumbnail ideas and planning for your presentation  

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