Architecture

Solar City Tower with ‘urban waterfall’ proposed for 2016 Rio Olympics

Solar City Tower with ‘urban waterfall’ proposed for 2016 Rio Olympics
View 12 Images
1/12
2/12
3/12
4/12
5/12
6/12
7/12
8/12
9/12
10/12
11/12
12/12
View gallery - 12 images

Aside from the events that take place as part of the Olympics, it seems the competition is also on for each Games to become “greener” than those that have gone before. This year’s Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver boasted a variety of green initiatives, including Canada's biggest "living roof." London looks set to outdo Vancouver in 2012, but Rio is looking to up the ante again and be the first zero-carbon footprint games when it hosts the Summer Olympics in 2016. To help the city achieve this goal Swiss-based RAFAA Architecture and Design has proposed a Solar City Tower which features an eye-catching energy-generating waterfall.

The Solar City Tower is RAFAA’s entry in the International Architecture Competition for the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. The tower is adorned with solar panels that produce energy for the Olympic village by day, with surplus energy used to pump seawater into a tower. Then the water can be released to drive turbines and generate electricity at night. On special occasions the water can also be pumped over the edges of the building to create what the architects call an “urban waterfall”. This would be a symbol of the forces of nature, while at the same time acting as “the representation of a collective awareness of the city towards its great surrounding landscape”.

Access to the building is via an urban plaza located 60 meters above sea level, which can serve as a place for social gatherings and events, while a cafeteria and shop are situated beneath the waterfall (presumably under cover). A public elevator takes visitors to the observation decks on level 98 and the urban balcony situated at the top of the tower, 105 meters above sea level. Here visitors have a 360-degree view of the surrounding landscape and can walk over the waterfall on a glass skywalk platform. There would also be a retractable platform for bungee jumping on level 90.5.

RAFAA propose locating the Solar City Tower on the Cotunduba Island that sits at the entrance to Guanabara Bay. There it would act as an instantly recognizable landmark for visitors arriving in Rio by air or sea.

Via World Architecture News.

View gallery - 12 images
9 comments
9 comments
bio-power jeff
will it be able to keep upright in strong wind conditions?
Ed
This is sick...coming from a country where over 30% of the country\'s population lives below the poverty line! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty To put this in perspective, Cambodia has 35% living below the poverty level...and Ghana has 28% living below the poverty level... How can a country like that justify the extreme cost of such a pointless and trivial venture as what they are proposing?
stimpy77
Beautiful, but stupid. It won\'t hold up in a hurricane, and would be hella expensive lost.
Jerome @ Jasmax
Imagine all that solar PV and water infrastructure actually put onto peoples houses in the favelas, their lives would improve.
The fact that \'It generates power\' from a hydro unit using falling water pumped up high in the first place, by thousands of dollars of PVs shows there is no end to the pointless and stupid ingenuity of humans.
BoilingOil
Looks nice. But why not spend some energy on feeding, housing and educating the less fortunate citizens of the world, in stead of this - in my opinion - useless display of creative energy consumption (or waste)? This thing belongs in Dubai!
Stuart Saunders
Will kill all the vegetation on the island and cause bad erosion. And it won\'t work. In 20 years, just another eyesore.
A pretty, bad idea.
Stuart Saunders
- just one more architects \'wet dream\' -
Ruth Butler
I think this is amazing.
Kwazai
bad location- that's where the bikini clad go...
Solar steam pumping should be a lower carbon impact. might be cheaper.