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LAGI COMPETITION - SITE 1
1. Introduction
QUICKSAND is a proposal for Site 1 of LAGI competition a Land Art competition for creating sculptures across the UAE that generate clean energy and provide power to the UAE grid.
2. Program Analysis and Critique
Climate change only in the last decade was seriously acknowledged by the majority of countries as a reality. This resistance to accept the inconvenient truth is responsible for the delay in establishing the production of clean and renewable energy as a priority.
It is a problem caused by carbon producing air pollution, mostly due to oil combustion. Oil is what powered the development of the United Arab Emirates. The amazing skyline of Dubai was built in less than 20 years, with seemingly one goal in mind: to build a more ambitious and overwhelming architecture structure after another. These over-the-top expectations and unsustainable vision of development had the Occidental World compliance. International architects have been working for UAE in a spiral of delirious construction and ideas, such as islands in the shape of palm trees and underwater hotels. The economical crisis revealed the lack of financial sustainability of some of these projects.
UAE needs a new and more sustainable vision to mark its place in the world, and the LAGI competition is a huge challenge in this sense.
The goal to build a land art structure that generates clean renewable energy is a mind grabbing concept. Although it raises some questions and doubts. Is the production of energy the realm of art? Land art was an artistic movement of protest against the artificiality, plastic aesthetics and commercialization of art at the end of the 1960s in HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" \o "United States" America. The rejection of HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum" \o "Museum" museums and galleries as the setting of artistic activity led to the development of monumental landscape projects. The use of natural elements and the interest in nature processes is an important characteristic of land art works, but also is the critique and the affirmation of the artists right to freedom. Artists produce and promote ideas more than any other thing; and powerful ideas do raise energy, but of a different kind.
3. Site Analysis
Site 1 is a great intervention area, both in visual space and symbolism. Dubai skyline is the synthesis of the UAE development and folly and great to look at, too. The Ras Al-Khor Wildlife Sanctuary makes it all much more powerful: wildlife framed by such an artificial background. There is a light post-apocalyptic feel to the combination of these two features: nature will always overcome any man made ambitious construction. That particular nature is being protected at that place, but Nature will take over when Dubai skyline decays. It may be Dubai skyline that needs to be protected at this time in history.
4. Concept guidelines
We know we must move swiftly towards a world powered by clean and renewable energy, otherwise the consequences could be dramatic for Mankind. Still, we should ponder our ways before acting. Should we create massive areas for producing clean and renewable energy?
We have seen in the past the downsides of extensive occupation of land. Extensive agriculture, for instance, promotes the development of plagues, which as consequence, led to the use of pesticides, which in turn led to the pollution of groundwater. We do not know now the consequences of creating massive areas for producing renewable energy. We just know it is not natures way.
We believe we should learn from natures processes to develop our society. Organisms, from cells to mammal individuals, have the quality that defines life: the capacity to self-organize. Thats what we should be aiming at. All systems would be much more resilient if the energy required for a particular action would be produced in the same place. Each home should be powered by itself, like a living being.
5. Proposal
The Quicksand installation is composed by two elements: an artificial quicksand field, made by a sand layer over an underground tank filled with water with a dimension of 300mx300m, and a long path that ends inside of it.
Quicksand (or Sabkha, in Arabic) consists of salt water and stretches of wet silt in sand formations. It is a myth that one can totally drown in quicksand, which can be proved by buoyancy calculations (Archimedes force). It is a landscape natural formation that gained public impact mostly in cinema, associated with horror movies or nightmare events.
For enabling the dynamics of Quicksand to develop, water will be released in specific points (twenty one exits of water in an area of 90.000sqm) where the silt concentration will be higher. This will create twenty one quicksand areas of 25-30sqm, in which the sand will be darker due to moisture.
The long path that reaches the sand pool provides a unique viewing point over it. The goal is to connect the three features in the landscape as if staged: Quicksand Nature reserve Dubai skyline. The path will also enhance the existence of the Quicksand installation from a distance, as it blends quite well in the landscape.
The entire hydraulic system is activated by pumps, functioning with energy provided by solar panels, which are located over the path and have a special protection to allow people to walk on it. The path is covered by a thin layer of water (3 to 5 cm). This layer of water is connected to the water inside the tank, and regulates the temperature of the solar panels, increasing its efficiency. The layer of water will make people walk barefoot over the path, conditioning them to experience the site and the three feature composition from a humble point of view. Also, and paradoxically, walking on water is a symbol of power of individual man.
The energy produced will be spent in powering the water tank so water is released twice a day, one in the morning and one at night. It will also power the lighting of the path which will be a beautiful experience at night, with the layer of water diffusing it.
There is yet another system to power: we propose to locate a sensor in the end of the path for detecting the level of UV radiation with a wavelength between 100nm and 315 nm. When the level is higher than the international regulations establish as prohibited for exposure, it will trigger another system: a box filled with fluorescent pigment will be pushed by the pressure of water in an alternative pipe system, thus mixing with it when released to the sand. This system will only be triggered at night. The light released by the pigment lasts for four hours, and mixing with the sand will make it look almost magically ethereal.
When the light appears at night in the sand field it signals that in that day the sun exposure was extremely dangerous. Flying over the Quicksand installation in one of those days, you will see a path of light and an almost intangible light spreading around it. It will be beautiful in sight although carrying a worrying message.
Our goal is to create a meaningful installation and experience to be powered by renewable energy. In terms of energy production, our only goal is that it will be self-sufficient. Still, we are producing much more energy than we need for supplying the entire system. We estimate we will send to the energy grid no less than 5.700Kw per day in Summer. The financial compensation for the excess of energy feeding the external electricity grid will be enough for maintaining the entire system, as we would like it to be: a self-sustained organism.
5. Technical information
For powering the hydraulics system we will have a system divided in three groups. Four submersible small water pumps will power each of the two groups of eight water adduction points. The third group, with five water adduction points, will be powered by three submersible small water pumps. The pumps will be located next to the path, inside the area of the quicksand tank. The set of batteries will be located next to the path as well, but outside the tank. The energy calculations included the lighting of the path with RGB Leds, displaced in both sides each 5m.
The system for releasing the fluorescent pigment will not take much energy: we calculated that it will not exceed 100 Kw per day, and it will probably be activated no more than 60 days per year, at tops. The Photoluminescent pigment is an Alkaline Rare Earth Metal Silicate-Aluminate Oxide Europium Doped.
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