B·o·A·T

Project

268756

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS : concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

B·o·A·T

Full concept/idea title

Description

Based on movement and migration as universal constants, BoAT responds as a mobile space, a shared device to promote inclusiveness by connecting people, communities, and cities to navigate towards a common horizon. A floating and sustainable building in symbiosis with water landscapes and port infrastructure while changing its shape according to each event. A tool for the conservation of the seas, where arts, technology, and science activate environmental commitment and educational experiences.

Where is your concept/idea being developed or intended to be implemented in the EU?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

One of the universal constants is movement or migration, nothing is fixed or static, and this concept, together with the fluidity of seas and water currents, founds the basis of BoAT, reconciling the role of architecture with the marine landscape and the interconnectivity of places beyond borders. A disruptive concept-space where care and affect foster an empathic relationship with nature and give voice to the complexity of seas. BoAT creates bridges between coastal regions, reconnecting communities and involving citizens to empower global communion. This floating architecture links nature with culture and stimulates environmental commitment, active communication, and aesthetic expression through art, technology, science, and expanded education. A three-dimensional interface to exhibit, research, and innovate and a moving lighthouse of digital experience that projects audiovisual contents. A European living laboratory of interdisciplinary and intersectional knowledge that contributes to creating a network of users. A barge in motion that facilitates the execution of Routes to cover different cities and promote the encounter and the interrelationships. A research platform. A shared device for climate action and for the conservation of seas. A buoy for ecology, culture, technology, and education. A shared and inclusive building for the exchange of knowledge and for critical thinking. A European tool for living together. An environmentally passive solution that is powered by solar energy and works as an intelligent buoy, gathering data on weather, water pollution, cartography, or marine ecosystems and wildlife. An active and mutable organism in symbiosis with its surroundings and its program, a volume that is built with modular components and has the capability to change, becoming an always different place and ready to release. A BoAT of common engagement to navigate towards the same horizon.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of sustainability and how these would be met

The environmentally passive nature of this idea starts from the beginning of its conception, with the purpose of creating a neutral device for the seas and the smart cities. This design invites us to leave our differences and think of the ocean as a fluid and living element that moves us together on our challenges to make a better co-living. There is an ecological commitment and a spirit of circularity in all the project’s phases. From digital dissemination sessions to start a co-creation dialogue to the use of recycled materials for scale models, or a temporary office empowered by renewable energies from where to develop the project in its first’s phases. The construction of BoAT will promote a low environmental impact using recycled components, reusing old ship parts from local points, and implementing new ecological materials. This floating architecture is equivalent to a buoy in terms of maritime regulations, a special feature that facilitates the permissions, rich content, and a big capacity crowd. A zero-emissions space empowered with solar energy to nurture its activities and main functions. This passivity is reinforced with a weather station that will gather data on climate, and with smart devices to recognize the marine environment, which can give us information about water pollution, water currents, acidification, cartographic maps, or species demography. The barge can be towed and relocated when needed by an eco-tugboat to reach other coastal cities and different audiences. BoAT aims to join the common effort to achieve the Green Deal and contribute by offering a program that connects us directly to the marine landscape and amplifies our knowledge of the seas while learning and stimulating new ecological practices.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met

Because everything is continuously moving and transforming, especially information and thoughts, this idea began as a utopia, a mobile space to foster environmental commitment that literally transports interdisciplinary knowledge, where contemporary arts, science, technology, and education have a pluggable place that connects people and cities with nature. The concept is inspired by Aldo Rossi’s Teatro del Mondo of 1979 and intends to update the architectural design to our current multiverse of contexts and our struggle to build a more inclusive and sustainable future. The aesthetics of the project blends in with industrial port and water landscapes, and like cargo ships that carry goods, in this project, these goods are environmental awareness, collective knowledge, and marine ecosystems care. Thoroughly reviewed by naval engineers, BoAT has three interconnected basic parts: the barge - below deck there are the lock systems, the bridge, a cargo hold, a multi-purpose hall, cabins, and toilets -, the main building – a porous simple structure over-deck made of columns and beams and with four small cranes -, and a scaffold structure – a removable covering that holds railways, solar panels, and emergency stairways. This aquatic architecture becomes a living organism in symbiosis with its content and its surroundings, being adapted to each event and easily transformed into multiple shapes by means of modular extra components like removable windows, screens, and curtains of different size, and shipping containers turned into exhibition spaces, laboratories, workshops, or lecture rooms. Container and content are reciprocal and symbiotic, its transformative, moving, and versatile nature is interdependent of its quality program. This project provides a motivating experience within a European shared place where the sea becomes a powerful agent to whom give the floor through contemporary art, projections, education, or scientific research.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion and how these would be been met

One of the main purposes of BoAT is to be an open, shared, and inclusive tool that fosters co-design, understanding, and collaborative processes and creates a strong community through active participation, communication, and crossing disciplines. A space that sets up a network of diverse users, involving citizens and promoting the dialogue between countries and coastal regions, universities, schools, creators, and professionals of any field. An open device to bring knowledge and environmental actions closer to everyone, where the audience becomes a recognized committed agent stimulating a sense of belonging. It breaks the language barrier by offering empathic communication keys and providing its content in multiple languages, thus it can have a wide-ranging impact. An architecture that is accessible, inviting, and exciting. A place to learn, innovate and take action, that uses up-to-date technology to maximize participation with connectivity systems and develops open digital content and on-site public programs across cities, a flexible content co-created by its users, responsive to their needs. Global communication and digitalization are important objectives of this idea, as well as its openness and consideration of new ideas by having a program of open calls which can include everyone. BoAT considers seas, oceans, rivers, and their wildlife as equal agents which interact within this space, promoting the entanglement and the interrelationship on a more than human world through expanded education and participatory technology. A common building that is shared by different people, cities, and countries. A European embassy that bridges the gap between them and nature. A floor for all that gives voice to the seas and the marine flora and fauna. A tool where emotion and togetherness create an atmosphere of community, connectivity, and empathy.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

It is in creativity and innovation where the purposeful humanism allied with technology and the responsibility of the environment wellness converge in a three-dimensional interface of creation, educational experiences, and research. BoAT stands out and breaks schemes because it is R+D+I in motion, a floating and sustainable architecture that acts as an external hard disk drive since it is a connectable device and carries collective information, thoughts, and knowledge. Linking water landscapes with the thought that flows in our multiverse of contexts, BoAT is an intelligent building that gathers data on weather and seas (water and air pollution, plastic, marine wildlife, mapping and cartography or forecast) and proposes active solutions by means of a collaborative program of research, expeditions, residencies, laboratories, lectures, exhibitions, academia, or film projections, among others. BoAT’s presence is forceful and given its high impact, it generates immediate attraction that drives the audience and impulses the dissemination of each event. It engages everyone towards environmental commitment, stimulating human talent and making possible physical links between users, seas, and city-ports with the benefits provided by the methodology “Routes”. These facilitate the development of multidirectional projects and deliver smart events with convergent communication and positioning channels that obtain data while it is functioning. Its capability to metamorphose makes possible the combination of multiple volume shapes that are specially designed for each event. This transformative feature gives the users the task to reinvent and adjust the space to their needs. An ecological, cultural, scientific, and educational cargo boat for the growth of our democratic society, that creates new ways of observing and understanding, an agora for critical thinking and common engagement to navigate together.

Please detail the plans you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea, with a particular attention to the initiatives to be taken before May 2022

The ambitious nature of BoAT resides in the dialogue and the force of will of the public institutions, a common agreement to develop a project together without borders. Therefore, the first step is with our strategic allies, the dissemination, and promotion of the idea to find the support and the patronage from the European Commission, the European Sea Ports Organisation, the European Science Hub (JRC), the IEEP, or the Climate Action Network. The promotion process will be boosted by establishing collaborations with the project’s future users like universities, foundations, institutes, and independent professionals of art, culture, science, education, and technology. These interrelationships can stimulate the co-design aspect and the network of collaborators that will activate BoAT. In order to begin the implementation, good structuring of the development and human resources mechanisms together with the promotion and presentation of the idea are vital. In the beginning, the project’s custom-made plan is determined with a consultant system that will operate with the specificity of BoAT and involves a quality and sustainability diagnosis. The use of early adopters’ tactics, employing design thinking and innovation techniques, allows for adjusting the project’s development and securing its success. It will be necessary to create a company or foundational organ and the settlement of an office from where to operate with a salaried professional team in charge of the main tasks to further develop all the parts of the draft. These actions consist of digital promotion - website, landing pages, social media, public presentations, or lectures -, design and technical aspects – 3D models, infographics, panels, blueprints with naval engineers, and graphic design -, and PR and management - business administration, business plan, viability analysis, budgets, funding, certifications, marketing, and corporate compliance.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars Awards more than once in the same category.