By Deirdre Robert
Posted on June 28, 2010. Listed in:
In Rio de Janeiro they’re getting ready for the 2016 Summer Olympics – with a twist. The organisers are seeking to make these games the first zero-carbon footprint games, and architecturally speaking, zero-carbon could be a site to behold.
Swiss architects RAFAA Architecture and Design have put forth quite the visual specter with their solar design proposal, The Solar City Tower.
According to the architects, the aim of the 105-meter tall tower is to ask how the classic concept of a landmark can be reconsidered.
“It is less about an expressive, iconic architectural form; rather, it is a return to content and actual, real challenges for the imminent post-oil-era. This project represents a message of a society facing the future; thus, it is the representation of an inner attitude.”
The project consists of a solar power plant that by day produces energy for the city and the Olympic village. Excess energy will be pumped as seawater into a tower. By night, the water can be released again and with the use of turbines, will generate electricity for the night. The electricity produced can be used for the lighting of the tower or the city.
The real feast for the eyes comes from the building’s urban waterfall that will symbolise the forces of nature by pumping water over the edges of the building, effectively turning the building into a “wonder of nature”.
The Candidature File submitted by Rio to the International Olympic Committee outlines “Green Games,” with the planting of more than three million trees in strategic parts of Tijuca Forest. As a legacy of the Rio 2016 Games, there will be Clean Development Mechanism projects in communities next to Games sites, reinforcing restoration projects in Pedra Branca National Park, Tijuca Forest, in the surroundings of sports venues and in the mangroves of Barra da Tijuca’s lagoons.
