Food imports dried up twenty years ago, when oil peaked at $1,000 a barrel. A new self-reliance has necessitated the development of dense enclaves of self-subsistence and self-sustenance; each enclave provides the optimum population density with the exact amount of required energy and food.  There is a shift from car-centric urbanism here. Suburbia is no more.

The Thames has been redirected through the West India Docks, releasing arable land in the loop of the river encircling the Isle of Dogs. The roof tops are planted, negating our reliance on imports for our food, hinterland interdependent. Self-subsistence accounts for the entire food requirements of the new community of 66,000 people. The implementation of a tidal barrage exploits the twice daily ebb and flow for energy production: enough for 150,000 homes. Medium altitude rotational balloons provide wind power. Dwelling units are quick, economic and environmentally sound: recycled ply and a stressed skin, with natural ventilation, solar gain, thermal mass and Nanogel/recycled newspaper insulated.

The exemplary community consists of a radically new live/work typology: a stratified mega-building of live, play and production.  A verdant roofscape of automated cultivation weaves in with recreation. Below is flexible ‘hot living’, where adaptability is taken literally with swelled/atrophied living spaces, shifting to time and tide, and where seasonal variations dictate space and energy usage. Super-efficient, the community is carbon positive, a new black gold emerges…

Ian Douglas-Jones
07736 449242
ian@i-n-d-j.com
www.i-n-d-j.com