Cactus City

7 September 2009 - 1:00pm

HOK is designing a brand-new, 8,000-acre city in India, and is taking design inspiration from a desert cactus.

"HOK’s team examined the existing ecosystem and determined that the now arid landscape was once a moist deciduous forest. “In its original state, trees would have maintained soil quality, stored water through the dry season, and provided a canopy to control evaporation.” Using trees as the design principle, HOK worked with Buro Happold, an engineering consultancy, to design a building foundation system that stores water, just like the trees that once existed on site did."

Full Story: Biomimetic Buildings
Source: ASLA's The Dirt blog, September 3, 2009
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Short of erasing existing political and jurisdictional boundaries, citizens and officials need to develop the capacity to work across boundaries according to the "problem-sheds" of the land and water issues we face in the 21st century.