Prototypes of the 21st
Century
Since 2001, WOHA has designed and built a series of prototypes as part of a process of urban re-evaluation, adopting the Asian mega city as the ideal testing ground for new urban typologies and architectural strategies. Conceiving projects as prototypes offers a glimpse of the alternate urban future, from which planners can see new possibilities and city-wide potential. The strategies in each of WOHA’s prototypes are built upon one another, with the canvas to test ideas expanding as the scale of the projects increase. In order to drive more positive outcomes, WOHA has also devised a holistic rating system for new urban-scale projects to be assessed according to their contribution to social and environmental sustainability, as opposed to developer’s ratings based on net-to- gross areas and surface-to-volume ratios. The following projects focus on three of such WOHA prototypes to illustrate the positive impact that can be achieved by applying systems thinking to architecture.
BRAC UNIVERSITY, DHAKA, BANGLADESH BRAC University is a prototype of a sustainable tropical campus for 11,000 students in the dense inner-city of Dhaka, Bangladesh (under construction). WOHA’s starting point was to respond to the urban crisis of Dhaka, which is ravaged by rapid urbanisation and overcrowding that has resulted in a massive loss of its public space, green areas and water bodies. The challenge was to turn this vicious cycle of development into a virtuous cycle through regenerative design that not only mitigates harm, but does good, by restoring public, green and blue spaces back to the city.
Located around the campus is a developing lower middle-class neighbourhood undergoing a transition from low-rise light industrial and residential buildings to medium-rise mixed-use developments. Like most of Dhaka, the location has no public space or amenities. WOHA’s key design intervention is to transform the site, which is a toxic drainage pond, into a beautiful, inviting and inclusive privately-owned public park with shared amenities that both students and the wider community can enjoy. The polluted wasteland is remediated by lush bio-retention ponds and water gardens that surround and cool the public areas. Natural ecosystems such as native vegetation, cleansing biotopes and rain gardens remove pollutants and purify collected storm water before discharging treated clean water into the city’s municipal system.
WOHA conceived this Campus Park as the new community heart, setting off positive ripples as it improves the living conditions of the entire district with access to new public spaces/amenities, clean water, lush gardens, enriched biodiversity, reduced pollution and safer streets. This, in turn, uplifts the spirit and pride of the local community. The campus serves as a catalyst for regeneration with BRAC continuing to acquire and integrate more adjacent plots to support even greater civic contribution.
WOHA’s formal innovations are a strategic organisation of its urban and ecological systems to achieve desirable social, climatic and biophilic results. The design creates two distinct programmatic strata—a ‘floating’ Academia zone that shades and shelters the public Campus Park below from Dhaka’s hot sun and heavy monsoon rains. Multiple ground levels are created for different functions, including a large communal floor for student assembly, Sky Garden floors that serve as tropical outdoor study/social areas, and a recreational rooftop Sky Park with sports facilities shaded by an extensive photovoltaic canopy to harvest solar energy. The building’s form is characterised by a three-dimensional matrix of open, semi-enclosed and closed spaces,
with horizontal breezeways between linear one-unit-thick academic blocks designed to enhance air flow and daylighting. Its vertical green façades perform ecosystem services by cleansing rainwater run-off and creating a comfortable microclimate. The design also aims to minimise reliance on the national grid and mechanical systems. By developing an innovative climate concept based on adaptive comfort and hybrid ventilation, high thermal comfort and low energy consumption is achieved, at low cost. Through the combination of passive and active design strategies, BRAC’s total electrical energy demand is 40 per cent less than a conventional building in Dhaka. About 25 per cent of the energy demand is offset by the solar energy collected, thus reducing the reliance on non-sustainable energy sources even further.
WOHA’s design intervention demonstrates that virtuous cycles of development can be achieved, resulting in transformed ambitions and changed benchmarks. Out of a complete wasteland, WOHA gives back public/community space that is equivalent to 2.5 times, and green/blue space that is equivalent to 1.3 times, that of the site area. This regenerative design creates a high quality of life, remediates the environment and restores local ecosystems, positioning BRAC as a model of social and environmental sustainability for other cities and institutions.
5 Lush bio-retention ponds and water gardens that surround and cool the public areas 6 Breezeway at the atrium enhances air flow and daylighting 7 A space for interaction 8 Section along breezeways
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