2011 Bio Divercity: A sustainable city for the green world of tomorrow

Cities built without planning often resemble chaos while those that are meticulously planned look artificial. There is a need for the city to be a model of harmonious co-existence of natural and man-made elements. And that is the inspiration for the design and development of the Bio Divercity concept for planning and construction of cities. The concept intends to create a biosphere out of the concrete jungles. The challenge in designing the city along the lines of the biosphere would be to retain the individuality of each structure and still make each of them work towards a collective identity and purpose.

2011 BIO DIVERCITY

The designers have proposed to build the whole city as aligned along two axes. Different activities will be grouped and aligned along the axes. This will help in ordering the city to ensure that there is no crowding on the streets. Most of the crowding on streets takes place because of the parked vehicles. Now, the space for cars will get limited to a lane and thus the clutter in the area is removed making it more attractive to pedestrians and cyclists. Next, a green belt will be created along the hitherto parking areas of the cars. The traffic circles which are often converted into oases of greenery will no longer be that way for they actually obstruct the view of the cyclists, pedestrians and traffic.

One axis will get aligned with green social spaces. These include areas for picnics, art exhibitions and playgrounds. Organic gardens also will be planted, which will become community centers where everyone, irrespective of age, will work and maintain. This will also promote learning about gardening methods and techniques. Open public courtyards will make the produce from these gardens available for sale. This boost to local gardening is a vital part of growing a green world.

A very unique feature of the Bio Divercity will be the alignment of facades and huge screens of glass that will shield the gardens and growing vegetation. These screens are aesthetic and they protect the spaces from noise, wind and dust. Most importantly, they also provide security, eliminating the need for fences. The palette of colors and textures of the screens will allow for consistency between the natural elements and built structures.

This means that instead of central outdoor spaces like the ones in Copenhagen, we have central indoor spaces. And these spaces act as a melting pot for people from all strata of society. During the summers, the mobile structures on the roof and wall can be opened up to allow for ventilation, while in winters, the area can be completely enclosed to make better use of the greenhouse effect! The design is such that there is reduced heat demand from the buildings.

The residential areas will be grouped together and be separated from the areas designated for commercial and business activities. While the former are clustered in the southern areas along with kindergartens and sports center, the latter are located in the northern areas. The overall design aims to eliminate any unnecessary traffic and movement of people.