Climate Change project | Architect School

Design a architecture project concept that relates to an issue of climate change.

Consider a site to design a project.

For this example project I picked a site in Chad, Africa.

Consider an architecture project that can respond to climate change.

This example project focus is about observing the effects of climate change on animals in Africa.

Consider a project design brief.

This example project designed by Marc is based on pre fabricated architecture for a waterhole site in the Zakouma National Park, Chad, Africa. It is for scientists to use AI technology to study the effects of climate change on the animals in their natural environment and for tourists to experience the wild animals of the park.

Project name.

The name of this example project is Snake Tower.

This page takes you thru a step by step process I took to design Snake Tower.

You can follow this process for designing any architecture project concept.

Design your own climate change architecture project by following these stages;

Project brief
Design brief key words
Project research
Research drawing
Project site
Site investigation
Culture
Architecture inspiration
Design era
Refined design brief
Design board
Key design features
Design drawings
Physical model
Colour studies
Concept design images
Feedback by others
Develop design
Final concept design images

A concept project that relates to climate change based on pre fabricated architecture design for a waterhole site in the Zakouma National Park, Chad, Africa. It is for scientists to use AI technology to study the effects of climate change on the animals in their natural environment and for tourists to experience the wild animals of the park.

Design a architecture project that relates to the observation and effects of climate change on animals.

Key words:

Pre fabricated structure
Designed to be relocatable to any site
Unique design inspired by an animal
Architecture designed to observe climate change effects on animals
Artificial Intelligence technology

I did some research about the earth's ecology, the study of relationships between living organisms including humans, the physical environment and the effects of climate change. These 5 icons link to climate change research relating to animals.

The United Nations says that ”Climate Change is the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment.
From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope & unprecedented in scale.
Without drastic action today, adapting to these impacts in the future will be more difficult and costly”.

nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/artificial-intelligence-counts-wild-animals

Watch this fascinating 40 minute long video about earth's ecology that relates to how animals are being affected by climate change. Learn about how technology research of global weather patterns relates to animals.

There are more than 8 million species of animals in the world.

I picked African Snakes to inspire this design project.

I did some single line research drawings of a snake to get into a snake vibe.

I picked the site location of this project, a water hole in the Zakouma National Park, Chad, Africa.
The park is located South of the Sahara Desert & is the primary safe haven for Central & West African wildlife.

Google Earth link. The water hole pics below are not the actual Zakouma waterhole but for the purposes of this concept project they represent the vibe of animals at a water hole.

To do a site analysis, you should actually go to the site in person. In this instance I couldn't so I used Google Earth to examine the park and found this water hole site and made some assumptions. These are images of the water hole site with yellow annotated notes.

I did these drawings of the site on A4 paper. Scaled site plan with dimensions & North point. Main site features. Approximate site contours. Sun diagram.

Design for culture. Consider historical or present use of the site and the culture of the town, city or country.

An example of 'design for culture' is this case study of the CRL Auckland City Rail Link.
Read how Maori principles shaped the City Rail Link's award winning design.

These are my 3 main observations of culture at Zakouma National Park.

#1 culture How lots of different animals hang out together around the water hole.
These photos show how animals co-habitat with each other & stay together in groups for safety in numbers.

#2 culture The animals are considered valuable so armed guards help protect the animals from poachers.

#3 culture Tourists can visit & holiday at 2 different camps to observe & experience the animals.

Culture key words: animals co-habitat, safety, valuable, protect, tourists

Tourists can stay at the park at Tinga Camp or Camp Salamat

These 4 architecture projects are design inspirations for Snake Tower.

Warka Water towers warkawater.org

Sendai Mediatheque in Japan by Toyo Ito

Orbit Tower in England by Anish Kapor

Pompidou Centre in France by Shigeru Ban

I decided to base the design of Snake Tower on the Deconstructivist design era.

1 sentence project design statement

Design a tower for climate change researchers, park rangers and tourists to observe the animals at Zakouma National Park, Chad.

Design specification

Custom made pre-fabricated modular building materials, easy to build/unbuild/move, be able to change structure shape of tower, design like an ornate snake sculpture that captures your attention, water collection based on Warka Water towers technology.

Key design features

A multi purpose design for the needs of animals & humans, the 4 key design features are...
#1 Artificial Intelligence animal sensor technology fixed to the tower
#2 An observation tower for the Zakouma Park armed security guards to spot & stop animal poachers.
#3 A tower for scientists & tourists to observe animals for scientific research & animal experiences.
#4 The rainwater collection technology enables plants to grow at various heights of the tower so Giraffes don’t have to bend down to eat & birds can rest or nest on the tower.

A design board gives an overall appreciation of a project during the design phase. The design of architecture is based on Shape, Form, Geometry, Space, Proportion, Texture, Colour, Material. This design board for Snake Tower features examples of the main design considerations of the project

Snake Tower structure is built from a single size structural steel pipe material, screwed at one end & multi-directional fitting at the other end to enable different tower shapes. Key benefits of this pipe design feature are:
- pipes are pre-fabricated so are cost effective, quick & easy to make & transport anywhere
- build by hand without special tools or the need for specialist builders
- tower can be built in different forms & unbuilt & moved to different site locations
- pipes are hard wearing & long lasting, individual pieces can be replaced easy

- pipes connect in a triangle shape, the strongest geometric shape in architecture, good for structural integrity

- design is flexible enough for any site, even very steep sites

Snake Tower drawings based on triangles, the strongest of geometric shapes eg; space frame triangle structure.

Drawings exploring Snake Tower pipe structure

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3D paper physical models made from a A4 sheet of paper with a random triangle pattern drawing that I drew then scrunched up to test various forms of Snake Tower.

Snake Tower match stick physical model stuck together with a hot glue gun

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Drawings scanned into Photoshop for creating colour design studies

Drawings scanned into Photoshop for creating concept design images.

Suspended flexible mesh design idea.

Drawings of multi shape Snake Tower designs exploring rainwater collection ideas to enable plants to grow at various heights of the tower so Giraffes don’t have to bend down to eat

Design idea images of Snake Tower at site.

Get regular feedback from other people about your design ideas. This will help improve your design. After I did these design drawings and concept design images I asked for feedback by others by explaining the project concept, brief and design ideas.

The 3 main feedback points were:

1- Add more snake curves to the design

2- What other options are there instead of mesh net flooring

3- How do you get up the tower if you cant climb, how can people access the tower easier?

I took this feedback into consideration and explored the following design ideas.

#1 Add more snake curves to the design

I did some curved snake form drawings to get design inspiration.

#2 What other options are there instead of mesh net flooring

Instead of mesh net flooring this refined design idea uses single size custom-made light weight triangle shaped carbon fibre panels that interlock together to create a free form floor platform that people can sit on. Carbon fibre has a excellent strength-to-weight ratio.

I used Sketchup to 3D modelled an undulating triangle platform inspired by the head of a cobra snake to replace the mesh net flooring, incorporated a snake and considered some stairs to get to various platform levels.