Peacock Ecocity
Sustainable Nature first Urban Planning Solution
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Urban development is explained through planning, architectural and critical theoretical perspectives. The concept of peacock model comes as the living being tries to extricate itself from today’s polluted environment, this model resolves the problem by merging the buildings, waste management systems, Green and Blue Infrastructure into a cohesive whole by bringing nature close to where humans live. Rather than distancing humans from natural environments the Peacock model integrates human life around forests. The symbiosis of humanity and nature via this novel architecture may solve some of the greatest problems facing mankind. As more human choose to live in dense yet green natural environments we predict massive increases in productivity, increased happiness and sustainability.
There has been attempts to create sustainable green cities1 in the past like the garden cities of the United Kingdom. Even though they have received much acclaim, they have also received criticism for encouraging urban sprawl2 and result in low population densities. European and American cities are tethered by extensive car based transportation networks. Population Density in metropolitan Indian cities3 exceeds 20000 people/sq.km. The Peacock model proposed takes inspiration from the city of Curitiba, Brazil4 where all public parks are interlinked by pedestrian, cycling paths and an extensive BRTS system that allow commuters to travel across the cities without impinging the vehicular traffic in a seamless manner. Manhattan island, New York City has large Central Park that anchors the city and function as the green lung5. The Peacock model of urban design is an attempt to combine all these concepts to make the sustainable cities at a population density of about 20000-40000 people / sq.km which is the present population density of many of the urban metropolis in India Mumbai.
PEACOCK MODEL FOR URBAN DESIGN
Peacock feathers describe the peacock Model for urban design, as the feather comprise the different colors merge together giving beauty to the environment. Similarly Peacock Model for urban design comprises the component giving the environment, community best sustainability solution increasing the beauty of Nature. The composition of blue, Green, brown, silver in the peacock feather states the component in the Urban model, blue as the water bodies, Green as forest area, Brown as the Open land and recreation areas and silver as the human Habitation. Model below exhibit the the different component in the Urban design Habitation in the model consists of a mix Building of 36m Height creating the boundary to the Urban model. The building will be 10 floors +2 stilt for parking. Parking will only be in the stilt area. The area in the center 120 m width and 266m length will be for trees, solid waste Composting unit and waste water treatment unit and the rain water harvesting pond. Between the building and the center area, there is a track constructed which will be used as a running or cycling path of 6m.
GREEN ZONES / MIYAWAKI FORESTS
Miyawaki Forests7 conceived by Dr Akira Miyawaki a celebrated botanist is an innovative concept in developing dense natural forests. The green zone integrates forest areas and Urban Permaculture8 is created around the waste recycling systems to allow utilization of the compost, treated wastewater and stormwater from the RWH system.
The Green zone will contribute to the societies for their day to day vegetables in permaculture areas and construction materials like bamboo or teak from the forest areas. Green Zone prevents the Erosion of soil, they also provide transpirational cooling to the human habitations surrounding them. The green zone encourages natural and Arboreal wildlife. Measures are taken to connect these green zones to green zones in other nodes.
HABITATIONS AND RECREATION
Infrastructure includes 36m tall buildings, interconnecting tunnels or skywalks, treatment units, joggers parks. The building includes 10 floors and 2 stilt floors. Stilt floor will be used as a parking, where a ramp from the ground will be provided. The Outside facing facade of the buildings could be business units and the inside facade would primarily be used for residential purposes. The design of the interiors of this mixed use facility would be to encourage shared common facilities.
A set of 4 apartments could be served by a common lounge, common kitchen. Such model of community living have been successfully implemented by cooperative housing projects in many universities in United States and Canada. The cooperative house Renaissance and OKeefe house together called the Escher House9 (a noted civil rights leader)10 where the author stayed during his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan provides inspiration for this concept. We propose to convert this to serve families rather than just students. The shared living area and connected suites of Escher have been replicated in the Peacock model. We believe that the interconnected living space will give rise to collaborations and social networks leading to massive increases in productivity. The building designed can be used for Schools, Business, Hospitals, Restaurants, Retail and Business in a flexible manner. The idea of this flexible design is to minimize the requirements of residents to commute long distance for daily needs. Escher house was designed so that residents could traverse the entire house via interlinked corridors at all levels. Common areas within such a design became locations for exchange of idea, thoughts and discussions. Escher House for example had common kitchens (9 of them) and 2 large kitchens which catered to community meals in the evening. This was very similar to the Sanjha Chulha concepts of community cooking in Rajasthan in India or Langars in Sikh Gurdwaras .
WASTEWATER RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY
Waste Water treatment is a critical infrastructure. In general the quality of life of communities with excellent waste water recycling facilities is far superior to nearby cities with inferior facilities. The treated waste water allows a higher levels of cleanliness. Many waste water technologies exist, however the quality of treatment is dependent greatly on the attention to detail and operations and maintenance of such plants. We propose that natural technologies capable of high quality of treatment meeting or exceeding NGT12 13, norms14 such as CAMUS-SBT15, Vermifilters16, should be used due to their lower operating costs and superior water quality. However using more conventional treatment processes like MBBR17, SBR18, ASP19 etc may be considered with proper contract conditions with WWTO vendor to ensure quality outcomes required for reuse.
NETWORK OF INFRASTRUCTURE
We recognize that the biggest benefits of such models of urban design are achieved when the master plan ensures that all infrastructure is properly networked. One critical design feature of the Peacock model naturally enforced separation of pedestrians/cyclists from arterial roads by creating separate rights of way (ROW) within the green zone. Road networks are all designed in essentially straight lines/continuous corridors to allow fast movement of cargo and traffic. is considered to be one of the keys to urban development of a region. Arterial streets, a continuous route carries heavy traffic. Most of the commutes for residents in Peacock cities will be within the node itself. However the interconnectedness of green zones of all nodes allows commuters to chose eco friendly non vehicular modes of transit such as cycling, electric carts, skates, running etc, in water rich cities/areas the pond networks can be connected by canals to promote boating as a method of transit. Huma powered transit will be supported by a shower/locker facility will be made available at every node that would allow commuters to choose to commute freely knowing that at the end of the commute they can take a shower, change, go to work and then in the evening get the exercise they need in their commute back home. Such facilities are commonly available in most American and European cities and allows residents of these cities to choose such alternatives for their commute.
Storm networks are also connected to each other, excess in one area overflows to other reservoirs downstream and the rain water harvesting structures will replenish the ground water for the entire city. The Green Zone are also connected via green corridors which allow small wildlife (squirrels, rabbits, hares, porcupines, beavers, peacocks, deer, foxes etc) to traverse the city. This concept was inspired by the author’s time at the IIT Bombay and University of Michigan campus where there was a significant yet safe interaction of wildlife and humans. Infact for added safety pedestrian corridors can be chain linked fenced to prevent wild life from harming humans if more dangerous animals such as foxes and wolves are envisaged in any node. Perhaps in some nodes the central green zone can be converted to public zoos with more extensive wildlife.
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