Hello everyone.
I am here today to introduce you
to our architectural concept
called Archibiotic.
Indeed, biotic art is a new kind
of transdiciplinary Eco-concept
aiming to create new cities
and intelligent buildings,
that is, zero carbon emission buildings.
They are self-sufficient in energy
or even energy-positive
that is, they produce
more energy than they consume.
These buildings also recycle
all their waste
following nature's cycles.
Archibiotic wants to reinvent tomorrow's
lifestyle in a transdisciplinary way
by partly rejecting the anxiety-inducing
situation in which we live today
at the crossroads of major
ecological and economic crises.
Indeed, since childhood, I have always
been inspired by the forms of nature,
by ecosystems, when I walked
through my grandparents' gardens,
in agricultural fields or in forests,
analyzing the different life forms.
I incorporated this passion into my job,
developing new organic architectures
inspired particularly by biomorphism,
bionics, and biomimicry.
Indeed, thanks to biomorphism,
today we are able to analyze
life forms very accurately
and incorporate them
into our architecture.
For example, analyzing
the spiral shape of the nautilus,
in a project in Morocco, allows us
to build an aerodynamic architecture
that has natural ventilation.
In bionics, we no longer study the form,
but we study the structures
and materials of living things
to incorporate them into our architecture.
For example, we are inspired
by dragonfly wings or water lily leaves
that have significant
structural capacities
which can be transferred,
thanks to our engineers,
to some of our projects.
Then we study biomimicry,
which goes even further,
studying large scale ecosystems,
mature ecosystems,
that is, those organisms in our biosphere
that have learned to create
interactions between themselves
to transform waste and constraints
into natural resources and opportunities.
The city of tomorrow will be dense,
green, and connected.
Indeed, for a decade, I have been
in favour of building green cities,
fertile, sustaining cities,
which can bring back to the city
not only ecosystems and biodiversity
following nature's cycles
but also agriculture to reintegrate
modes of food production
in places of consumption.
I am also in favour of a dense city
because, as you know,
the denser a city is,
the less energy-intensive it is.
We are therefore campaigning to limit
horizontal sprawl as much as possible,
which can currently be seen
in most of our European cities.
I am also in favour
of ultra-connected cities,
using the efficiency of information
and communication technologies
to completely streamline
our modes of consumption,
by dematerialization,
and also by reducing land use,
reducing systematic recourse
to our means of transport,
public or private.
The first archibiotic I will present
to you is our Lilypad project,
which was initiated in 2008
due to the climate crisis,
which has been highlighted
by many international observers.
We wanted to create
a floating, mobile platform,
an amphibious city, in total harmony
with the marine environment.
The city moves on the oceans,
from the equator to the poles,
and offers a new way of housing
future climate refugees
who will appear during the 21st century.
Indeed, according to the scientific scene,
we now know that an increase
in global temperatures of one degree
will increase the level
of the oceans by one meter.
This increase in the level of the oceans
will make some areas disappear,
such as 1% of Egypt,
7% of the Netherlands, 17% of Bangladesh,
and up to 80% of the Maldives archipelago.
So we wanted to create
a possible alternative in advance
for the 50 million climate refugees
predicted for 2030.
This figure will increase
to 250 million by 2100.
We therefore wanted to suggest
to the municipality of Kiribati
the creation of a city
that is self-sufficient in energy,
which is submerged
as much above the water level
as below the water level.
We therefore suggested
an amphibious model,
integrating all renewable energies.
This city is inspired
by biomimicry of the structure
of the Amazon waterlily's
giant leaves Victoria regia,
which has exceptional plasticity with
its radial and concentric pattern of veins
and makes for the most stable platform
possible floating on the oceans.
Our engineers transcribed this structure
on to architectural and engineering plans
to explore how a structure can
withstand being driven by marine currents
stabilized by a central
ballast of fresh water,
which is actually the rainwater recovered
and phyto-purified by hanging gardens.
The town is organized around
three multi-functional mountains
given over to trade, leisure and work,
covered with hanging gardens
and a network of streets,
lanes, and passageways
leading to housing that is
completely covered with plants.
Each apartment's balcony
is a hanging orchard or kitchen garden
which makes each inhabitant
into an organic food farmer.
This city is completely amphibious.
We presented it especially
in many nursery and primary schools,
to educate the younger generation
and our children,
to increase awareness of urban ecology
and thus we present positive answers
saying that today it is possible
to build sustainable cities.
This project has also been suggested
to the European Community
to raise geopolitical and social awareness
about how future environmental
migrants can be housed
whilst also granting them
rights and obligations.
This project has also been
suggested to certain cities,
such as Monaco or Hong Kong
so they can extend
their limited territory offshore.
The second project
is the Dragonfly project,
a pioneering project focusing
on the agriculture of the future.
Indeed, in the near future,
there will be 9 billion of us on Earth,
and of these 9 billion human beings
more than two thirds will live in cities.
So today, it is essential to invent
a new way of thinking about
our modes of food production.
While the intention is for rural
agriculture to produce grain for food
in developing
and under-developed countries,
it will also aim to create
second generation bio-fuels,
that is bio-fuels that are not made
from the edible part of the plant,
but from the waste.
So local agriculture can be reinstated
directly in the heart of cities
in places of consumption:
vertical farms that would create
layers of agricultural fields.
This vertical farms project
is inspired by dragonflies' wings,
which are finely veined, mimicking nature,
because, in fact, nature always uses
the minimum amount of materials to build
the strongest possible structures.
We have also retransposed
this structure into our project,
our plans, and our sections,
to study bioclimatic organic
architecture with our engineers.
Actually, in summer we can naturally
ventilate and cool this vertical farm
and we can build up hot air from
the winter sun so there is a buffer
meaning the temperature is kept constant.
The city of New York has
large differences in temperature:
between minus 25° in winter
and 40° in summer.
This city is completely organic,
and so allows layering
of agricultural fields
with vertical farms
where dairy products, meat,
and eggs can be produced
for a closed-loop city.
Today's Western city is based on a loop
that always imports raw materials
and wealth, and which exports
pollution and waste.
We want to break this loop
by using intelligent buildings
that work in a closed environment
managing to be self-sufficient in energy
through the integration
of renewable energies.
This is the chance we have today:
having self-sufficient buildings
where, here, you see a vertical farm
that has a photovoltaic shield
producing 50% of the electrical energy
needed for running this urban farm.
The rest of the electricity is supplied
by axial and vertical wind turbines
integrated directly into the hull
in line with the prevailing winds.
With its architectural
and mixed composition,
we have suggested to investors building
an office tower and a housing tower
very close to large
bioclimatic greenhouses.
Using this multifunctional design,
energy production can be reduced by 50%
because in fact, for example, the heat
emitted in offices in the daytime
is retransmitted
in the evening into homes.
This greatly reduces energy consumption.
What we wanted to do
is create a veritable Central Park,
turned vertically,
which feeds the city's inhabitants.
Here are a few views
of the central marina,
which accommodates
bio-taxi moorings or floating markets,
or floating markets, the surplus food
produced by the vertical farm
in the city of Manhattan.
A few views of hanging
greenhouses, and of bio-lofts,
where, eventually, agriculture
has spread across different floors:
agricultural fields, community orchards,
or individual hydroponic balconies.
After considering floating cities
and vertical farms,
we wanted to explore a project
in partnership with a U.S. oil group
to produce third generation
clean transport,
which works in the same way
as nature recycles its wastes,
and transforms them
into natural resources,
we wanted to work using green algae
produced by our intensive agriculture,
which produces too many nitrates,
found especially in our groundwater
and near to beaches.
By putting these green algae
into cells in vitro,
we use biochemistry
to create accelerated photosynthesis,
which is capable of degrading
plastics found in the oceans
and in all petroleum derivatives.
So we wanted to create a marine farm
that is a great purifier of the seas
retrieving these plastics
and breaking them down to form biogas.
This biogas could be injected
into vertical zeppelins
that could serve areas
affected by natural disasters
or by health emergencies.
These vertical zeppelins
could also be used
to send food and agricultural produce
from Western countries
to developing countries.
We always wanted to create buildings
that are actually living ecosystems,
which interact with nature
and recycle waste
by transforming it into opportunities.
The fourth project
that I will present to you,
the Coral Reef project,
is a vertical ecovillage,
which is currently in the city
of Haiti's planning system.
It is based on the standardization
of a prefabricated module
brought on a cargo ship,
allowing construction within 6 months
of 1,000 passive houses
that do not need to be heated
in winter or cooled in summer.
It is a steel and wood construction
covered with hanging gardens,
in order to enhance
the lives of its inhabitants,
which is self-sufficient in energy.
Most of these projects
could seem utopian to you,
but they are currently
being explored in my agency,
and now we are succeeding in obtaining
international calls for tenders
from China and the United Arab Emirates,
and in South America,
to construct these intelligent buildings
that emit zero carbon,
are self-sufficient in energy,
and recycle their own waste.
I invite you to visit our website
www.Vincent.callebaut.org
where we present a new project
called Agora Garden,
a residential towers contest
we won in 2010,
which is currently under construction.
It has the peculiarity
of being a residential building
completely covered with hanging gardens,
orchards and vegetable gardens
in the heart of Taipei City
at the foot of the 101 Tower.
I thank you.
(Applause)