Abstract:
Climate change is increasingly being realized as an unavoidable issue for humanity. A primary driver of this crisis is the excess accumulation of greenhouse gases that is spewed out of our dependency on burning fossil fuels for energy. This growing blanket of chemical waste is smothering the atmospheres capacity to mediate the radioactive balance between the Earth and the Sun, trapping extra heat energy within the planets lower atmosphere. This warming has led to the rise in frequency and intensity of various climatic phenomena, such as flooding, gale force winds, and tornadoes. These events typically result in the destruction of buildings, urban infrastructure, and death. Consequently, pressure and fear surrounds the possibility for a sudden upsurge of climate change refugees that will undoubtedly migrate and seek assistance from existing urban regions. This thesis explores a highly conceptual scenario devised for the mitigation of global warming’s impact on urban environments. Through Buckminster Fuller’s motif, “don’t fight forces, use them”, I speculate that the warming of our planet could be viewed as a prolific opportunity for the abundant production of renewable carbon-free energy. This will be achieved by utilizing the Atmospheric Vortex Engine, invented by engineer, Louis Michaud, which transforms the latent heat energy trapped in our oceans into electricity by artificially producing tornadolike vortices - effectively capitalising from the threatening climate crisis and advancing human civilisation towards an environmentally sustainable future. There is a unique opportunity for architecture to engage with new modes of wind adaptation for the establishment of controlled wind energy cities. Exploring the possibilities was carried out by a review of urban climates and analysing a wide variety of airflow behaviour through computational fluid dynamic simulators. The implications of this speculative scenario will enable the exploration of architectures potential to facilitate humankind’s energy production through renewable energy sources. The integration of the seemingly unrelated science of aerodynamics, coupled with the rising consciousness of environmental concerns will serve to inspire exciting ideas on the organisational composition of architecture, and the city.