Over the Rainbow
STRATEGY
The new proposal for the main Rumbula district is conceived as a bar code, with an aditional z-axis elevation. The plan organization as a whole is made of different width stripes that fold and unfold and lead from the border of the district to the riverline.
Each one of the stripes folds in a different way depending on the necessities, each folding can host a collective housing unit or facilities and sports buildings.
Most of the buildings or folding stripes are destined for dwellings. When the stripes get to ground level they become public zones with green free space, pedestrian streets, paths and boulevards.
Smaller size foldings are meant to host facilities and public buildings as schools or sports grounds.
Green belts divide residential areas from the busy centre and stretch along the main streets in north-south axis, adjoining the river promenade.
SUSTAINABILITY
It is essential that the notion of sustainability permeates the whole design process, from physical contruction to harnessing identity and enhancing local economy.
Our aim is to regenerate through colonization, by creating new dynamics and bringing diversity where nowadays uniformity prevails. By introducing a system of productive landscapes to the site, we are building a basis from which this regeneration system stems.
Residents can make part of their garden available to a local farming co-op who will manage the space in exchange for part of the crops. Excess in the crops is sold in local shops and markets and in the wider Rumbula area.
The co-op also provides help and advice for residents who want to start growing their own food, as well as creating jobs for the local comunity.
Productive surfaces can be created in private gardens and managed afterwards by business cropping enterprises that provides benefits to the residents.
ENERGY SAVING:
Little energy is required for heating because of the strong thermal inertial of the plants surrounding the house.
LIGHT AND AIR:
Stairs leading to the productive roofs are used to bring daylight to the back of the house. Light shafts and the landscaped front gardens help to channel light to the lower floors.
The glass boxes that crest the light shafts and stairs enable natural ventilation creating natural air flow that passes trought the whole house.
WATER:
A rainwater tank is included in each green roof filling with rainwater an soil drainage from the green roofs. The tank is desinged to provide at least one entire month of water supply.
ARCHITECTURE
The average density of the project is 500 dwellings per hectare, increasing the overall population and the flexibility of new services and transport links.
The landscape is generated by the force lines of the topography and the existing urban grid.
In adition to the existing community centre, on southern avenue is created in the landmark buildings at the northern end of the same street. This building also hosts a local resource centre for urban agriculture, a covered makret and a few shops. It is the gateway to the new neighbourhood.
A new medical center is constructed on the south area.
The project features the construction of around 20.000 new dwelings. All are terraced houses of different sizes spanning from 5 to 20 stories. All properties have a private garden along the street, and have an additional productive roof garden for crop cultivation. Within and around the new development, communal land is used for growing food, in the form of allotments or greenhouses.