Chromatic Energy Landscape is a concept proposal currently meant for a public park in Dubai, UAE. Designed by Alexendra Barker from Barker Freeman Design Office, a firm that builds innovative and sustainable buildings and public facilities, the Chromatic Energy Landscape is different from others as the builders are trying to highlight the potential of natural resources for the purpose of producing energy and fuel, which in turn can minimize the harmful impact on the environment and at the same time refurbish the biodiversity of plants and animals.
The project aims to use local and renewable materials and native vegetation like algae, recycled glass and other low tech but environmentally sound methods of construction for renovating the existing landscape into a colorful public park. For using algae for power generation an algae farm will be constructed. For this, open salt water ponds will be created that will support the growth of algae for biofuel production. The algae will be used for biofuel and its oil will be extracted through photosynthesis. Algae grown on an acre of pond water can yield as much as 10,000 gallons of oil. Besides, the carbohydrate found in the algae can be used for fermenting gases like bio-ethanol and bio-butanol.
Besides, the north sided edges of the algae pond will be formed by constructing walls with niches for birds’ nests where as the south side will simply slope up to grade it. For exercising a better control on algae processing, sandbags will divide the pond into smaller subsections. This will also help in better maintenance and production of various varieties of algae. The pond is also supposed to attract various species of birds for supporting and nurturing the adjacent wild life sanctuary.
For the purpose of merging land and water seamlessly, the shoreline will be elongated and merged into the interiors of the landscape. Besides, for producing the phosphorescent effects after dark, algae with phosphorescent producing properties will be cultivated and water jets will be installed to spray the surface of the pond and make it more charming. The landscape will be capitalizing on algae as they are naturally occurring autotrophic organisms which are traditionally seen as harmful to plants and fish. The algae ponds in the landscape will be separated from the Dubai creek by an array of concrete retaining walls and glass filled sandbags that will in turn support the growth of native vegetation.
Via: Architizer
