The project takes place in Eilat, adjacent to a coral reef reserve in the red sea. Using computational tools, the ‘invisible forces’ acting on the site were analyzed in order to design a new sustainable living typology.
Searching for new possibilities how to inhabit and cultivate arid lands in a sustainable, self-sufficient way often pose a great challenge for society and designers.
This is a proposal of a residential typology that accounts for the long term life cycle of the building and aims to provide optimal comfort while using locally harvested resources available, this kind of typology will ensure the durability and independence of such a desert settlement from national grid resources such as electricity and water transported from far away, exposing the settlements to risk in a case of failure.
Here you can see a diagram depicting the design process of our project dealing with the problems such as the scarcity of water; high levels of solar radiation which induces high evaporation rate which affects crops and vegetation; extreme temperature variation between hot dry days and cold nights; excessive glare and visual discomfort in sunny days, and the solutions we propose with adequate orientation, excavation, using terrains natural slope to flow sea water through an interconnected desalination system embedded in the roofs combined with domestic greenhouses and solar panels. The excess humidity produced by the solar stills is used to revitalize and revegetate the arid land around the settlement.
