With advances in technology not only are there talks of space flights but people everywhere could soon find themselves working, shopping and living in slinky like structures. The resemblance to the child’s toy was far from accidental for Alexander Remizov.
According to CNN a prototype designed by Alexander Remizov, a Russian architect, known as “the Ark” looks remarkably like the Slinky. The design is made to be built from steel, high strength ETFE plastic and timber and could be adapted for a number of uses. The uses include that of emergency housing and even hotels. The structure’s prefabrication should allow it to be built quickly; a variation of a floating honeycomb style hull has been suggested as well.
Remizoz’s decided to design a building that would be harmonious with the environment at his Remistudio architectural firm when he completed a Masters degree in settlements that were non-polluting. He worked with Lev Britvin, a colleague, to come up with energy solutions that followed a holistic approach when it came to keeping the powering of the Ark environmentally friendly.
This green Ark has a wind power generator running through the center of it to provide power; transparent solar panels cover the outer surface. According to Remizov the design would run off of thermal water energy if built on the water. Remizov sent an email to CNN stating that the shape of the structure strengthened the work performed by the generators by promoting turbulences formation in the air.
The top of the Ark promotes warm air accumulating which is then transformed into alternate forms of energy and collected in thermal accumulators. The Ark is still in developmental stages but the designer believes that it could be used for most of the purposes modern building are and scaled to hold as few as 50 to as many as 10,000 people.
Construction costs could be reduced since the model can be put together from pre-made structures. The cost is believed to be comparable to that of the buildings designed to be energy efficient. Cheaper construction costs can also be attributed to the lack of insulation because of a buffer zone, the foundation being light and coating film used in the design.
The environmentally friendly design, reduce construction costs and ability to change the capacity easily could make the green design of the Ark the future of habitation. While still in the developmental stages the possibilities appear to be endless at this point.