Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition
Qiu Song, Niu Zhiming, Yuan Chao, Man Kaice, Jiang Jingjing, Ren Qingliang, Liu Chenyang
China
Design Background
In recent decades, under the background of population expansion, accelerated industrialization, increasing influence of human activities on forests and increased risk of forest fires, hundreds of thousands of forest fires occur every year in the world. On January 31, 2020, the Australian Capital Territory entered a state of emergency due to forest fire risks. This is also the first time since 2003 that the region has entered a state of emergency. According to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report, 11.2 million hectares of forest were burned across Australia. However, the Amazon rainforest fire that shocked the world the year before last destroyed only about 1.8 million hectares of forest.
Defense and control of forest fires have received widespread attention from every country. As designers, we have the obligation to contribute our own strength to the world through architectural design.
Design Description
Australia’s own climate and natural environment make mountain fires frequent and difficult to control. Mountain fires cause serious damage to the ecosystem and threaten the safety of human life and property. The plan changes the original model and proposes a new solution and prevention system. Poseidon-Fire Tower is a rescue and prevention center for mountain fires. Like Poseidon, the fire tower magically controls the water resources of the forest. The main body of the building mainly includes the functions of fire fighting, scientific research, forest monitoring, air purification, atmospheric humidity balance, animal rescue, material transportation, and storage.
In terms of fire fighting, the fire tower mainly adopts two forms of high-altitude spraying of flame retardant and ground fire fighting. Laying Thiessen polygonal network water pipes on the ground can not only divide the area and form isolation belts to control the spread of the fire, but also put out the fire well. At the same time, it is possible to check which areas are easy to catch fire through the detection of parameters such as temperature and moderation, so human intervention can be carried out in advance. Network drain pipes can collect excess rainwater in rainy season through funnels and other water resources collection equipment assembled on their surfaces, which can be used for fire fighting and atmospheric humidity regulation in the future. The water tower is connected with the water tower through the water pipes of the network, which can be connected to the seaside and desalinated seawater is taken as the main water source. At ordinary times, water is stored in the building tower. When water is needed, it can be delivered to the water-using area by gravity and power generation can be carried out at the same time.
