2021 ART AND DESIGN AWARDs
As the earth’s population continues to grow, pressure on the earth’s resources increases, as does the demand for housing and accommodation in urban centres.
Given these factors, I believe there is a clear need for skyscrapers that do not use a lot of resources and are able to self-sustain. For my Year 12 Major Design Project, I undertook the design of a skyscraper that is almost entirely self-sustaining.
This type of building is known as an autonomous building, designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services. The building I will design for this project will be connected to public roads, sewage systems and water systems, but I wanted to solve issues related to self-power generation and food production. I believe these kinds of buildings would be very attractive to tenants as the self-powering features would offset power and food costs.
I reviewed many other buildings to gain inspiration and also to ensure that my design would be different from anything that had already been built.
To differentiate my building from others I decided to use redirected sunlight to collect power for the solar panel. The face of the building is a reflective surface that helps to collect sunlight. The solar panel is operated by an adjustable which allows light capture throughout the day from any angle.
I used OnShape and Floorplanner to design the floor plan and the 3D walkthrough of the apartment level/ground floor. I used Adobe Illustrator to create a design for the model that could be laser cut and glued together to create a clean finish. I used MakerCase to create the main box body for the building, including the finger joints.
I am proud of myself for undertaking a project like this, which could possibly have been seen as overly-ambitious and too much work, but I am very happy with the final result and I developed a lot of new skills that I will use throughout my life.