Vincent Callebaut
Vincent Callebaut (b. May 27, 1977 - ) is a Belgian ecological architect. He designs futuristic-like ecodistrict projects which take account of several aspects of sustainability (renewable energies, biodiversity, urban agriculture). Biography. Vincent Callebaut was born in 1977 in Belgium. He graduated in 2000 from the Institute Victor Horta, he moved to Paris to intern with architects Odile Decq and Massimiliano Fuksas and then founded his own company, « "Vincent Callebaut Architectures" ». Virtual projects. Dragonfly. The project consists on implementing "vertical farms" in Manhattan along the East River at the South edge of the Roosevelt Island. In a way to  rethink the city's food production and encourage each inhabitant to participate to the gardens, one of the visions of the Dragonfly project was defined as: 'Eating an apple just picked out of a collective orchard in the fourth floor while looking at New York through the window and then go back to your office just in the upper floor.' This project was inspired by the Japanese movie "Laputa : Castle in the sky". The Dragonfly building is high, shaped as firefly wings. It is composed of two towers related to a 'bio-climatic' glasshouse. It deploys itself between two crystalline  wings made out of glass and steel. The structure in the honeycomb stitch allows the sunlight to pass through the building. This concept is seen as a feeder farm and reconnects the consumers with producers. This prototype of the urban farm would have superimposed 132 floors and extending vertically with garden vegetables, fields, production of meat, milk, poultry, and eggs where people could grow their own food. The Dragonfly can accommodate 28 different agricultural fields for production. It is self-sufficient in energy, water, and bio-fertilizing, powered by sun shield and eolian systems. These combine solar and wind power , which would make the Dragonfly self-sufficient. Everything is recyclable in a continuous auto-feeding so that nothing is lost. The spaces between the wings are designed to take advantage of solar energy by accumulating warm air in the structure during winter. During the summer it is cooling which is facilitated through natural ventilation and "evapo-perspiration" from the plants. The objectives of the Dragonfly project were defined as: Lilypad. The Lilypad or Floating ecopolis project is based on the idea of creating a place for future refugees of Current sea level rise caused by Global warming. Built or under  construction. Tao Zhu Yin Yuan. Formerly called "Agora Garden", Vincent Callebaut designed a tower for Taipei, promoting vertical construction in an overpopulated city. It is a concept of eco-construction to reduce the carbon footprint of its inhabitants. Vincent Callebaut Architectures SARL replied to an invitation to tender in November 2010. As of 2014, the project is under construction, and it was completed in 2018. The shape of the building looks like a molecule of DNA with its double helix (but in the opposite chirality of most common (known) B-form DNA). This was designed to represent a symbol of  life and dynamism. The surface area is about . The aim of the project is to represent a perfect symbiosis between humans and nature. Vincent Callebaut aims to develop an avant-gardist architecture and tries to institute a new lifestyle in harmony with nature. The building is intended to guarantee environmental norms in order to obtain the Green Building Label delivered by the Home Affairs Ministry of Taipei. The project addresses four ecologic objectives of the Copenhagen Accord: The Agora Garden concept embraces the Cradle to Cradle philosophy: "nothing is lost and everything transforms itself" (Antoine Lavoisier). All materials are recycled  or recyclable in order to imitate the processes of natural ecosystems. For example, at the top, there is a huge free access garden covered by photovoltaic panels that produce electricity for the building. The tower is surrounding by trees which increase the biodiversity in the city. Agora Garden was planned as twenty levels in a double helix formation, with a total twist from bottom to the top of ninety degrees. The twist satisfies four major objectives. Firstly, thanks to this architecture, the morphology of the building change according to its orientation: On the East/West side we can see a  rhomboidal pyramid, when on the North/Southside we can see a reverse pyramid. Then, all flats have their own balconies looking like a hanging garden. Thirdly, there is no vis-à-vis so inhabitants have privacy and a panoramic view of Taipei. The six main components of the project are : The Gate. The Gate Heliopolis is under construction in Cairo (Egypt). It is a multi-use complex of 450 000 m2 with housing, workspaces, and facilities like sports. The rooftop is a garden where you can swim or run and hide.