Design Against The Elements (DATE) - 'Green Design Award' Entry

Multistoreyed Tsunami and Earthquake resistant community, Philippines

Design Against the Elements is a global architectural design competition meant to find a solution to the problems presented by climate change. The challenge is to develop a master plan and detailed design for a socialized housing community - considering the effect of the development towards the community, environment and its biodiversity, develop a high performance structure (energy efficient and optimization of resources) with an extended life cycle and a design that is appropriate to the changing climate to withstand the rigors of the Philippines' typhoons and consequent flooding, made worse by the increasingly alarming effects of climate change. The extended life cycle of the residential dwelling resulting from an excellent physical structure and the social support system offered by a well-planned neighborhood development will not only provide shelter from the elements, ensuring the safety of its residents; it will also give them a sense of security and hope that life can proceed unhindered by the onslaught of natural calamities.

The intention: Links in Regeneration

Sustainability through conservation, use and reuse while being parameters of the design, it is a futuristic survival through re-generation that forms the basic premise of the iteration. The design was sensitised by the naturally sloping terrain and instead of linear standing wall the housing was introverted to promote local communal and social practices. The services and flow of water, due to storm and rain were directed to drain dictating the planning and site of the building. Set along and connected to a swale the design recycles both water and then cultivates both the agri-land and water through fisheries combining socio-eco sensibilities with the demands of economy of life. The resulting physical pattern is a rendering of cultural continuity and humanistic values that are imperative for not merely the survival of life but for the links needed for a present to arrive into the future.

The housing protocol

In its ascent the building is designed as a hybrid structure that goes along the natural forces and not against it. The stilted prototype permits the flow of water amongst its columns breaking the power of ocean through perforated absorptions rather than the creations of barriers. Housing here is seen as shelter and sanctuary. Akin to a tree the roots are nurtured not by technology but by local content. The bamboo, christened as the new steel takes on a new avataar as the material of choice for the innovative design and tectonics for its light weight tensile strength and local idiom. However the core designed defies the flexibility of bamboo and stands steadfast and resolute as the services pivot. Here practicality prevails as it acts both as the refuge and rescue core in the face of disaster.


"After a thorough evaluation and deliberation undertaken by seven international judges last January 13, 2011, the design has been awarded GREEN DESIGN for the Professional/Graduates Category." - DATE secretariat  


competition website : http://www.designagainsttheelements.org/

Design team

Arch. Komal Gupta

Arch. Sakshi Kumar

Arch. Siripurapu Monish Kumar

Arch. Vasanth Packirisamy

Arch. Vikas Sharma