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Welcome to Archworkunlimited.net

In harmony with the universe, towards the purpose of abundance, in confluence with the planet earth and all its inhabitants, and towards a common wellbeing, Arch Work Unlimited (AWU) presents the Tree Hive.

We design eco-industrial inspired systems, including green resorts, hotels, living communities, commercial operations, and homes, balancing the needs of humans and nature.

Our architecture is designed to assemble volumes of light and mood, creating living and breathing spaces, in service of humankind.

Form follows function. Our company actively practices this basic principle, knowing there is nothing more important to architects than helping society and human beings evolve.

We show dedication to design masters Buckminster Fuller, Wucius Wong, Frank Lloyd Wright & Leonardo da Vinci. We consider the perfect proportions of the Vitruvian Man and the Golden Ratio to be the measure of all things beautiful.

Our design is based on the integration of two biodynamics in our ecosystem: the TREE and the HIVE, to integrate spaces consistent with biotechnology.

Building

Feasibility

Construction

Systems

Introduction

Development

Structural

Design

Materials

Building Feasibility

This tower will be designed based on the spatial intelligence and sacred systems developed through Sacred Geometry. By using the hexagonal structural base with five levels for stairs, and or 9 levels with stairs and elevators, these materials guarantee a lifespan over 100 years, and aesthetically simulate a giant tree.

The tower is designed with 6 exterior columns and one central column. The six columns will be used to install six electrical generators.

Lofts are 9’10’’ high, 58ft long with a space of 22.5ft between the central column and the exterior column. Inside the exterior column lies a catwalk/skybridge/skyway of approximately 8ft for the hallways supported by 6 beams.

In the central column we will install a wind turbine to pump water mechanically to a cistern tank that will be installed in the rooftop terrace that will be utilized as a greenhouse. This greenhouse requires a transparent roof that is very lightweight in order to reach this goal we must employ a structure with 36 steel cables that will be restrained by the weight of a system of gutters that wrap around the entire tower.

Construction Systems

Our proposal is based on an Eco-Industrial construction system containing a series of highly resistant elements that can possibly be used in numerous occasions, in a manner that their cost can be paid off through their own repeated use. For example all of the panels and framework are highly resistant steel that is easy to transport and capable of being reused in diverse occasions. It is inspired by post-war European construction systems that demonstrated their efficiency being fast, economical and long lasting enough to reconstruct an entire continent.

Introduction

Arch Work Unlimited (AWU) presents Tree Hive, a self-sustaining building designed to rise vertically from the ground or from atop a structure with an exterior lined with vegetation. Think vertical agricultural meets self-regulatory eco-tower. In the word of SME partner, Marco Martinez, “Trees grow up. Why shouldn’t we?” Lined with vegetation, the edible walls of a Tree Hive become both a source that takes in heat and cools down the plant rounded interior, but also provides food and a piece of socio-cultural heritage. This combined with a lofted foundation that invites airflow, provides the pressure necessary to pump cool air upward through a central shaft that turns a turbine at the top of the building generating power for electrical use. The degree to which this building empowers itself is subject to augmentation and evolution, currently it can support basic electrical needs at low wattage while also able if needed to tap into traditional city electrical outlets.

Development

Design fundamentals:

First and foremost and aligned with the previously mentioned postulate, we know that nature has selected over hundreds of millions of years the perfect template to construct a habitat. With respect to the development of a habitat, one method of emulation appears particularly relevant; this is the pattern of the bee. The oldest fossil of a bee known today dates back 100 million years, that is to say that nature has taken an incommensurable amount of time to come to the conclusion that the hexagon is the perfect figure to sustain the life of a hive. We have made our concept based on the fact that its base is an equilateral triangle. Both forms, the triangle and hexagon, are fundamental parts of what is known as sacred architecture. Sacred architecture is imbued with the intentions of abundance, prosperity and wellness.

Structural Design

Our idea of construction is literally building for the future, with what is possible to predict with today’s technology as an important factor. Keeping in mind the possibility of earthquakes, our buildings will be designed with the highest standards of Chilean engineering making them resistant to severe seismic movement.

These codes are based on a society that has resisted centuries of battering earthquakes and contains the upper echelon of anti-earthquake engineering. This was proven in the most recent earthquake that registered 8.8 on the Richter scale, and in spite of the intensity buildings and infrastructure were highly resistant, behaving as expected with exception only in isolated cases in which later investigations confirmed that proper design specifications had not been followed.

Engineers from the most prestigious Chilean technical university, the Universidad Técnica Federico de Santamaría, elaborated the structural design. Our consultant in this department has extensive professional anti-earthquake structural expertise.

Materials

Common thought is that the idea of building eco-sympathetically and ecologically sustainably depends on unstable rickety materials. Some believe that using reinforced concrete is not very ecological, and although we don’t discount this, nevertheless we believe it can be integrated as a reasonably inexpensive, long-lasting material. In addition to this model we implement solutions geared toward engaging more natural material. The materials selected to erect a structure can be altered in accordance with the interests and context of the designated location. However, the duration of concrete is why we propose it as an initial, and particularly urban suited, material. Furthermore, with respect to international development, most countries, regardless of their poverty, contain limestone and clay mines and eventually produce pozzolana (concrete). Besides being inexpensive to extract, almost all countries in the world have cement factories. This makes it both highly available and geographically relevant. In conjunction with its long lifespan concrete is an ideal material for low maintenance structures that can recuperate their investment over a long period of use. Modern cement was created in 1845; the concrete from that time still remains to be of good quality and in fact continues to strengthen, in only gross approximations do we know the expiration date.

Conclusions

Multidisciplinary study has not discovered anything new, on the contrary it recovers and applies basic concepts that evidently in many occasions we have not given the seriousness and importance they deserve. Our proposal is based in the correct use of modern elements and techniques in agreement with common sense.

Finally we believe that our true contribution in these designs is our humble intention to raise awareness in our societies in order to attain a world in which human beings can harmonize with the nature of all things and that architecture returns to its historically sacred and revered place. That is to say that humankind will return to seeing itself behind every design, moving into spatially motivated reasons for architectural creation: Such that the interests of human beings will be that which shall receive higher moral attention than any other factor.