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Categories: Conceptual

The 2020 Grand Prix Award for an Ocean Cleaning and Research facility conceptualised by Lenka Petrakova

The times from the past have made us witness the pollution that has occurred in the waters, resulting in loss of life systems in the gigantic marine surfaces across various oceans. The 8th Continent is one such part of the Pacific Ocean wherein the project tries to imagine a safer and cleaner system for the future.
The 2020 Grand Prix Award for Architecture and Innovation of the Sea was secured by Lenka Petrakova for the project titled ‘8th Continent- Ocean Cleaning and Research Facility’. The ignorant nature of humans that paved the way to massive destruction in the oceans became the thread around which the project was centred and developed further. The respective idea was started by Lenka as a thesis project at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna which later on succeeded to receive the much-lauded Grand Prix prize from the French Institute ‘Foundation Jacques Rougerie’, which hoped to foster sustainable collaborations between scientists and designers.

The understanding of the project idea to not limit itself as a technological interface (only) but also involve communities to engage in dialogues that could impact and transform the present relationships with the marine environment was the primary motive and architectural interface behind the project concept. Therefore, the proposed design of a floating station mainly comprised of five components:

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The Barrier: Floats on the water surface and moves waste towards the collector, in order to collect waste and power the turbines, to be able to harvest tidal energy.

The Collector: Uses optimally designed (waste) collection technology to facilitate sorting, biodegradation and storage of the collected waste. And after the wastewater extraction, the filtered clean water is pumped into the water tank and either desalinated or used for halophilic plants’ hydrophobic cultivation.
The Research & Education Centre: Enables learning of the various troubled states of marine environments and ecosystems, which is closely connected to the collector and greenhouse to further display the water processes that have to be studied.

Greenhouses: Consisting of plants along with a water desalination facility aims to optimise condensed water collection and resemble large sails to allow wind to navigate the station. Additionally, the greenhouses would be covered in solar panels to ensure sufficient power for the water reservoir’s heating (to allow the function of evaporation and desalination).

Living Quarters: Housing public spaces and support facilities that pass through the building’s centre and connect all parts, geometrically matching the ship’s keel.

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The ‘8th Continent’ therefore tries to clean up the ocean while also preserving and restoring the balance in the marine ecosystem by collecting plastic debris from the surface and breaking it down further into recyclable materials. The station not only physically improves the water but creates an interdisciplinary platform, to showcase the troubling side of the marine environment.

(Text by Nikitha Sunil, Contributor at A+D)

Nikitha Sunil

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