Bhola Tower + Floating Rice Field for 500 people in 2050

Idea

Rising sea level by global warmingis one of the most imminent& influential environmental crisiswhich will inevitably force usto reshapeour life on earth.It has been mainly causedby us human-being, especiallywho are living in developedcountries with more economicpower & technologies to adaptthose changes systemically than the world's other poor countries, which are relatively less responsible for this ongoingclimate changes.(According to research, Unites states produced more than 20%, while Bangladesh did 0.2% of global carbon footprints.)Bangladesh is one of these poor countries which are highly vulnerable to sea level rise, because it’s located in the world’slargest deltas of Ganges River. Due to this geological location, 80% of Bangladesh is flatlands, and 20% of them are located1 meter or less above the sea level.



According to research from UNEP, whose expected rise number is the most extreme case,there will be 17 million environmental refugees until 2030 by 1.5 meter sea level rises, while there might be 0.3 meter risetill 2030 per World Bank’s analysis. As a result of this various range of possible scenarios, this project is assuming 1 metersea level rise in 2050 as a possible future scenario. The shrinkage of habitable land is inevitable result of the sea level rise.




Nonetheless, this is not the only problem by that.First of all, Salinity intrusion is expanding the affected area by salted water and it directly affects their agriculturalproduction(mainly Rice), which is almost the only way for Bangladesh people make their ends meet.  In addition to those,monsoonal heavy rain & frequent cyclones keep causing flooding, and it accelerate the Erosion speed of land, which people ofBangladesh can live & grow crops on.



The loss of fertile croplands by erosion and salinity intrusion, deteriorated exponentiallyby sea level rise, directly means the food security of Bangladesh can be totally collapsed. Migration to other areas or othercountries might be one option for them to survive; however, high population density of Bangladesh and very strict border controlsby India due to severe historical conflicts between two countries are making the possibility of migration very weak.

SITE

The site, Bhola Island, is one of the largest islands of Bangladesh. This island is experiencing most of the environmental difficulties,which were mentioned above. By land erosion, half of the island had been washed away since 1960 and sea level rise in the Bayof Bengal is accelerating those aspects with expansion of saline land & water, while the population is getting larger.



As one of possible future solution for those environmental innocent people in Bhola Island, I suggest a self sustainable floating habitat,which is consisted of 30-story Tower, 70 ft radius Wind Turbine, 700 ft radius Floating Rice Field, Desalination Facility &35 ft deep Central Fresh Water Reservoir below the tower, Constructed Wetland for Phyto-remediation to reclaim gray wateron each floor of residential unit of the tower, Fog-Net to collect water from the air and small harbors.

ksharch studio