Civilization 0.000 | Dimo Ivanov

Civilization 0.000 
Offshore wind, wave & tidal energy

What exactly is Civilization 0.000 and how does it function? Once Einstein said “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it”. So first of all we have to localize, define & measure all available earth resources – renewable & exhaustible. (They are no countries, borders, governments or any kind of unnatural division any more, the Earth is an organism). Second of all we have to create the technology that uses these resources to fulfill the whole spectrum of human needs. Civilization 0.000 proposes a network of connected high-tech structures (0.000 units) that use the local available earth resources. These 0.000 units will have basically 6 functional cores in a particular relation to each other – living space, education, resource management, (machine)production, energy storage & electricity generation. For instance a 0.000 unit in Sahara would specialize in generating energy and probably not in creating living space, because of the natural conditions there.

Courtesy of Dimo Ivanov

Cape Horn – The first 0.000 unit
The first ever designed 0.000 unit will be placed at Cape Horn, the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile. This unit will be specialized in generating electricity. If we take a look on the global energy maps, we’ll recognize the enormous amount of wind-, wave-, and tidal energy concentrated in this area. The choice to design the first 0.000 unit there is almost self-explanatory.

 Design
Form follows force – There are three main forces, that define the whole structure – wind, wave & tidal energy. Through a series of different experiments and optimizations according its aqua- and aerodynamic features, the building is composed of three main structural and functional areas – tower, platform & tidal power station.

Unit
The whole 0.000 unit is optimized to orient itself towards the best wind condition for generating a maximum amount of energy.

Tower
The tower contains 19 wind turbines, research units, living units, restaurants, sport facilities, social facilities, control center, educational units etc. The cross section of the tower is developed similar to a symmetric airfoil, concentrating the whole wind energy in the wind turbine areas, where about 40% of this amount converts itself to electricity. Even the smallest wind turbines produce an enormous amount of electricity because the wind speed increases drastically according the Bernoulli’s principle.

Platform
The platform contains a wave power station, 4 giant turbines, two harbor areas, a heliport, research units, living units, restaurants, sport facilities, social facilities, educational units, library etc. The wave power station works on a special technology called: Oscillating water column.

Courtesy of Dimo Ivanov

Tidal power station
The tidal power station consists of 7 elements – one connecting element, 6 combi elements (one element = ballast tank + vertical axis tidal turbine) and one heavy solid element to stabilize the whole building. The vertical axis tidal turbines work on a special technology called: the hunter turbine.

Platform Plan

Project Credits
Project Name:Civilization 0.000
Name: Dimo Ivanov
School: RWTH Aachen University, Faculty of Architecture
Supervisor: Univ. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dirk Henning Braun, Department of Building Technology & Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. M.Arch Peter Russell, Department of Computer Aided Architectural Design.

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