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MEGAblog

A blog dedicated to the biggest, the largest, the most expansive, and superlatives as they shape the built environment.

PANDEMIC/antiPANDEMICNovember 13

What if healthcare was flexible? What if it were made up of tiny parts - cells - that could go virtually anywhere and contained what is needed to combat a global threat such as AIDS? Can architecture exist as a counter-infection to a pandemic?

PANDEMIC

The vastness universe is built upon microscopic particles. Life on Earth is little more than a series of perfect combinations of these particles, and death on Earth is a result of the destruction or incapacitation of the most vital of these particles.

Often, disease and death grow from the inside outward and go from microscopic to MEGA. The focus of this proposal is the MEGA effect of something that is entirely microscopic. It is a storm that arises from inside of people, from a cellular level, and overtakes their bodies and eventually claims their lives, and on the cellular level it spreads throughout the population, claiming lives in masses. Can architecture take the place of dead white blood cells to help fight the AIDS pandemic?

What is the nature of the problem?
A problem can't be addressed before it is defined.

pan·dem·ic (păn-dĕm'ĭk) n. Epidemic over a wide geographic area.
Geographically, the spread of AIDS over the past 50 years
occurred this

the internet archipelagoNovember 13

the internet is one of the most powerful global and globalizing forces whose existence has revolutionized the way in which many people live and many corporations do business. in fact, its existence has fostered the creation of vast stores of data, not unlike this blog, and has made possible the experiment that is arch451 beyond mega. despite all its acclaim, the internet is still largely confined to developed countries and will forever be bound by infrastructure and language. (see also a brief history of the internet). this project seeks to explore and document these boundaries and proposes the creation of internet archipelagos to surmount these boundaries and globalize the internet.

below, the project is presented in two parts. the first part focuses on the creation of a global map of the internet and the second elaborates on the proposed internet archipelago.

1.0 global mapimation

in his essay entitled the agency of mapping, james corner outlines several techniques for mapping that goes beyond a literal tracing of a condition to discover its latent potential. although this essay served as a point of departure for this project, its techniques had to be reconsidered and adapted to a new medium: an animated three-dimensional map, or mapimation.

a mapimation of the internet was created,

TIME/TUBE WORLDNovember 13

TIME/TUBE WORLD is a hybrid of a physical proposal and a theoretical study. The project consists of a physical proposal and a mapping of this proposal in a virtual world.


IMG. 1.1

As seen on MEGABLOG, studies of a trans-global highway and pipelines began to lead the project towards a speculative global transportation network.

IMG. 1.2

In the mapping phase of this studio, the idea of world travel was developed through a series of travel time mappings. A new world was drawn with location based on time distance rather than geographic distance from one of three "hubs"--NYC, Tokyo, and London. (The mappings may be seen here.)

Continuing with these three global cities as sites for a physical proposal, the project then moved towards a physical proposal that streamlined travel between NYC, Tokyo, and London: Tubes passing through the earth as opposed to following the curvature of the earth that would provide trans-national direct train travel.


IMG. 1.3.1 The Channel Tunnel

This idea brought up many questions as to (obviously) the feasibility of such an idea, but also as to the politics of joining nations by underground tunnels. Research of the Chunnel which joins the UK and France may be seen here. This brought further questions as to the politics of tunneling through the earth--who owns the underworld?




IMG. 1.3.2 "The Gravity Train"

As to the feasibility of tubes passing through the earth, a knowledge of the physics of traveling in these tubes was necessary. Robert Hooke studied the motion of a body passing through the earth in his theoretical Gravity Train, (diagram above) in which a body accelerated as it fell into a frictionless hole through the earth and then decelerated upon passing the center of the earth until in came to a stop on the other side of the earth.


IMG. 1.3.3 Trans-Atlantic Mag-Lev Tube

To reduce friction, magnetic levitation trains in a vacuum tube would be ideal. A trans-atlantic mag-lev train tube is currently being researched that would be submerged in the atlantic to allow supersonic train travel.




IMG. 2.1 Comparison of travel distance through tubes versus over land by plane.





IMG. 2.2 A cross section of Earth with the tubes in place.

Using the same methods in the 2D travel time maps above, a 3D map of the new world was produced that is a visualization of the effects of the tubes on travel efficiency. With NYC selected as a hub, the globe was modeled with the areas around London and Tokyo sunken in to create massive holes. The diagrams below are sections of this theoretical globe where you can see the shrunken space between the cities as a result of the reduced travel time.

IMG. 2.3


IMG 2.4 3D mapping/model.

Proposal: the McCattle Island.November 13

The McDonald's franchise has infiltrated the world at a phenomenal rate, creating complex relationships as a multinational corporation. These complex relationships bring global consequences, understood best through cultural, social, economic, and political lenses. Mappings revealing the influence of McDonald's as a global force within ideas such as purchasing power and refugee origin can be found here.

One of the major global consequences formed through the McDonald's franchise, and other multinational fast food operations, becomes a high demand for beef. The beef supply for these franchise operations becomes hard to meet due to the large amount of beef required, but also because the beef must be homogenized so that the Big Mac may taste the same with disregard to geographic location.

MegaDams: Fighting Against Global WarmingNovember 13

GLOBAL WARMING
Over the last 100 years, sea level has risen 10 to 25 cm and will continue to rise 1 meter each century. A serious problem facing global regions around the world, global warming is slowly deteriorating our planet, warming the seas, and causing dangerous increases in the overall sea level. Several regions are already experiencing the dangerous effects. Carbon dioxide pollution is one of the most significant causes leading to an increase in air temperature. A datascape was constructed by mapping the level of carbon dioxide emissions per country and the level of increase in air temperature. Through analyzing the causes contributing to global warming, targeted areas were found to be killing themselves: regions that are facing immediate dangers of lost land to the sea as well as one of the leading producers of carbon dioxide emissions. The regions must combat the process or face extinction. A newly released movie, An Inconvenient Truth, looks at the approaching outcome.



SITE ANALYSIS
Several of the regions face greater risks to the effects of global warming due to their increasingly large population and industrial centers. After the East coast of the United States was identified as one of these regions, the Chesapeake Bay area was found to be one of the largest ports, housing the Virginia Port Authority, and centers of international trade and economics, as well as known to be experiencing twice the normal rise in sea level. With the location of important ports and other coastal regions at a relatively low elevation, Norfolk, Virginia was chosen as the site of further analysis. A number of problems were identified as a direct result of global warming and potential flooding.

PROBLEMS [In addition to flooding]
Infrastructure & Need to maintain Port Access
Displacement of People & Industry
Need to expand Green Space for absorption of CO2

Site Elevation: determines the land lost

Site Analysis: Orange shows the Housing concentrations and the Green shows the current Green Space

PROPOSAL
Based on the research and analysis, a system of dams were developed as a means of creating manmade wetlands to allowing for CO2 absorption and a means of controlling the rising water. The master plan over time through a series of phases, incorporating new construction as well as accommodating for the continued increase in water. The number one problem was water control which led to the development of linear dams. One of the first effects of global warming will be the initial flooding of the ports and infrastructure and presents the challenge to maintain them. The dam system is designed to permanently connect the current ports and channels to mainland at a safe elevation as show in the image below. By incorporating existing highways as shown, the plan maintains of existing infrastructure and minimizes disturbance. An affordable solution for areas at risk of land loss, typically coastal regions, could utilize surplus shipping containers as a prefabricated building material. The phases are described in more detail below.

The video belows shows the rate of water increase over time in relation to the MegaDam system.