Three districts of plus-energy homes posed by Vincent Callebaut Architectures for The City of Eternal Spring in Yunnan Province
Vincent
Callebaut Architectures’ inventive and varied concepts for vertical
farms, foliage-rich residential towers and reflective cultural buildings
are a regular hit with media publications worldwide. The team’s designs
are undeniably ambitious and their latest offering does not disappoint.
Flavours Orchard is a
residential scheme near the Dianchi Lake in Kunming, China comprising of
45 plus-energy villas in a 90,000 sq m plot. Plans are for the
development to encourage a neighbourly attitude through communal
facilities such as a community vegetable plot and fenceless gardens, as
well as generating enough energy to meet the residents’ demands.
Environmentally-friendly
measures posed by the architects include: electric bicycles or
driverless electric cars that can be recharged from the photovoltaic
roofs on residential properties; recycling organic waste in compost
wells to produce natural fertiliser; sending waste water to bio-reactor
facades for anaerobic digestion; recycling grey water for agricultural
irrigation; and introducing community-led organic agriculture onsite.
The team estimates that the
average consumption for one year would be less than 50 kWh/sq m/year at a
development where average production can reach 100 kWh/sq m/year. At
1,894m above sea level and with a year-round climate that has earned it
the name ‘The City of Eternal Spring’, the site is due to be transformed
from industrial wasteland into a buzzing eco-development.
In line with the sustainability
aspects of this scheme, Vincent Callebaut Architectures has devised
three styles of home for construction in Kunming, dividing the community
into three separate districts with their own intrinsic identity.
Certain elements remain the same however, such as the integration of
solar photovoltaics, LED lighting and A+++ class domestic appliances.
Fifteen units for each of the
three styles of home are planned for the development: The Mobius Villa,
The Mountain Villa and The Shell Villa.
The Mountain Villa takes the
form of an enormous Chinese fan, constructed east to west in light of
the sun’s path during the day. At the core of the building is a spiral
staircase which provides access to the amenities within, the living
rooms and reception spaces angled towards the green landscape. The south
façade is glazed while the north façade incorporates more wood in light
of the different intensities of sunlight. Solarised photovoltaic glass
panels are implemented throughout as are panels filled with algae to
produce bio-hydrogen.
The Mobius Villa encircles a
pair of open-air patios, one planted, the other aquatic. A ribbon of
steel with a secondary wood frame, this design is constructed using a
trapezoidal module repeated 24 times with a sloping pedestrian path.
Inside the residents can enjoy bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, libraries
and games rooms lit naturally through expansive glass windows. Louvered
shutters provide shade and pivot automatically in response to the
intensity of the sun.
The third and final style of
home in the Flavours Orchard development is The Shell Villa. This bold
design is separated from the ground by six steel pillars in order to
raise the wind turbines atop the residences above the tree line. The
style of these homes references the traditional conical Asian hat with
their ‘plaited’ forms created by glued laminated timber carpentry. The
load of this is taken by a circular deck. |