Experimental Organic Architectural Structure – A Concept Design

Concept: Szövetség’39
Text: Edit Pálinkás

A project launched by a group of creatives (Szövetség’39) named CALTROPe is an attempt to find solutions to the loss of land resulting from the rise of water level caused by global warming, focussing mainly on endangered river mouths. A complex approach of this issue is reflected in the fact that representatives of various fields cooperated in the elaboration of this material, including a biologist, an architect, a graphic artist, a designer and a painter. This concept was chosen as the winning one in the innovational architectural contest published by the Jacques Rougerie Foundation in the category of Architecture and Sea-Level Rise. This Foundation was established to encourage architectural and technical innovation and courage to find new talents – architects, engineers and designers – to offer them the chance to elaborate future lifestyles and habitats whilst assisting them to recognize the potentials of the universal space and the seas.
The module system of CALTROPe organically responds in an organic and nature-centered way to the challenges resulting from the loss of land owing to the rise of water-level. The gradual introduction of mixed concrete components including local materials imitates procedures in nature, and thus helps them to adapt by filling up the protected areas with silt step by step. The mangrove saplings are planted into this lace-like system of dams which will gradually integrate into their environment as they grow to create an efficient line of defence.