I am looking into architectural scenarios to reclaim ghost cities. The recycling and upgrade of concrete structures from these cities will alter the city's skeleton to suggest a new material based approach. The project will communicate speculatively how future biological concrete has potential in reclaiming cities and thus preventing the mass demolition and decaying of under-valued typologies. These victimized spaces can be intervened and revised for typological change.

The project commenced with a critical analysis of Nemestudio's Middle Earth, where they speculate on climate related issues using theatrical sets. The project visually represented their work on the global consequences of material overuse.

The project endeavored to understand the complexities of moving material from extraction through to construction. Driving an investigation into the global displacement of timber, steel and concrete. Further scrutiny will demonstrate the repercussions of abandoning a city.

Globally, sand mining, tree felling and ore mining are major components to produce urban structural materials. Material travel is standardized in the construction industry and to reduce impacts of needless intercontinental material displacement the localisation of raw material extraction and construction needs to be promoted.

The project theorized the appearance of a city that uses raw material from the local vicinity. In the case of timber it is commonly used due carbon related reasons. However, in steel and concrete, large construction typologies and speed to rapidly grow a city are the focus.

The selected material of interest for this project is concrete due to its continuous use.

In the scenario of altering the skeleton of a nondescript city through a material based approach, it was vital to develop an understanding of concrete trade globally.

The project argues for intercontinentally imported material to be eradicated and use the potentially more expensive localized alternative.

The removal of this standardized idea of importing concrete intercontinentally will lead to sustainable benefits as the project not only wants to demonstrate the ability to transform an abandoned city through the use of material, but wants to reinforce the potential for a more sustainable approach when using the material.

Scene 1:

My video starts with showing a speculative non-descript city breaking down over a number of years. Debris falls to the floor as these spaces become dilapidated and the material that once was strong decays. People still reside in the city but at a far lower level than before. These small moments amongst the rubble are a juxtaposition against the silence of the fallen city. But, it will be the starting point of reconstructing the city. The city needs a solution to its abandonment. 

Scene 2:

As the city requires a solution, it requires a starting point. My video highlights all the moments within a nondescript city that I would like to shift typologically. These are residential, office, car park and metro spaces.

Scene 3:

My video proceeds to fly through a timeline of altering, boreing, carving and intersecting these moments by using post-future technologies such as drones to construct and place large additions to the existing moments. The bio concrete is moved with ease and placed strategically to demonstrate a city in development and that can grow further. The fly through camera demonstrates a movement to another moment whereas the panning highlights a timeline where the moment has been altered and constructed on. The moments are retained to a certain degree with the maintenance of existing structure, however, are altered through additions that can add to height, width or variety of shape on the facade. All this demonstrates what my future city could look like as it is being constructed to eventually house reimagined city life.

Scene 4:

Ultimately, this final scene of my video demonstrates the culmination of what would be years of development and construction. The life that has been reimagined in the city shows lights coming alive, sounds of drones flying around and further construction as the city not only survives but begins to prosper. The function of the spaces are what the city requires and as the city breathes and lives it celebrates the cross-over of typologies to develop the quality public space as a new intervention.

The main purpose of my research is to question concrete in the context of a speculative project on an urban transition from an economically beneficial megaproject to a composite ghost city. The project will analyze an abandoned ghost city through cinematic scenarios and propose an alternative future where utilizing modern technologies will allow for an biological post-future material to impact an architectural insertion that will shift typologies within moments in the city. It is vital the project reflects the potential for ghost city sites to be adapted for future use. The project has focused on symptomatic precedents of these cities in Eastern Asia.

Ordos is a derelict city that was created to shift the economy of China from agricultural to urbanized through a boost in the housing market. The government relocated a top school in China, thus, people had to move to Ordos. The displacement of people was a political decision striving for economic growth. However, there is still an emptiness which needs to be filled. The project will generate a speculative urban scenario in a non-descript city using locations such as Ordos as a framework. Furthermore, forming a solution to a problem which appears through investment for economic growth. Ultimately, it was in need of future adaptation with moments in the city having an alternative typology.

In 50 years population growth is predicted to increase by 2.4 billion. It is paramount for future rapid growth cities to have a typological balance in urban dynamics between mass residential districts and alternative sets of programs from reusing decaying sites and to use a sustainable, durable material.

The project questions the potential for using a speculative biological post-future concrete in structures in the future city. Is concrete a failing material? Or, can the reuse of concrete building sites be the focal point of re-urbanization. When implemented in the city, what spaces should it be applied to? These questions will allow the project to argue for itself as a contributing source to alter material use and design alternative spaces in the city.

I have formed three levels of speculation, which are on a material level, a typological level and on a city scale. The development of a cross-typological space is an ambition to drive the habitation of the projects nondescript city

My film allowed me to balance the chaos of the city in a hierarchical order to investigate emerging typologies. This exploration allowed the project to identify space that is inhabitable in the juxtaposition of the Planet City and its reverse with abandonment as its highlighted issue. These cities accommodate dense living conditions, however, are problematic with their application to and reusing empty spaces. The project focused on the planet city as a framework to develop an identification for extra low density and what emptiness and abandonment can potentially offer for architecture in a nondescript ghost city future scenario.

The project focuses on the adaptation of moments within a nondescript city. The nature of the placement of the space, in a site that needs recycling and repair will advocate for the extension of our knowledge regarding the malleability and potential for multiple speculative biological concrete interventions that intersect, bore and carve new space into existing buildings.

This drawing demonstrates the project as an overall speculative proposal. It demonstrates at the base a derelict city enveloped in debris and waste, unrecognizable to what it once was. The drawing progresses to target the city's infrastructure that supports the residential, office and other moments most common in a city. The drawing moves on to identifying transportation as a key element in the city and to fulfill all these moments and this infrastructure it is vital to understand the material being used to construct this. The map is a vital part to the drawing as it identifies the vast masses of land material has to travel to reach a destination. In this speculative project’s case, the post-future concrete is devised in a scheme to use existing structures as the basis of reiterating moments in the city. The moments will be intersected, bored, or carved as new space creates a revisioned typology that ultimately contributes to a living and developing reiterated city.

This concluding drawing shows a speculation of my city. Of course we can’t make it happen right now, however this provides an insight into the moments that would lead to its development. The stages move from foreground to background with the formation of a graveyard of architectural material which my city stands on. It feasts on this debris and develops into stages of development. My city's development does not depend on reaching a certain population nor having a stylistic representation. It more looks to celebrate unoccupied space and attempts to reimagine it as an attractive exciting space through carving, boreing or intersecting with the existing.