Intelligent Cities // The Future of Newark

Last Wednesday June 29th Willy Müller and Jordi Vivaldi selected nine students projects developed during Intelligent Cities Research Studio to be presented and reviewed by Coop Himmelb(l)au Founding Director Wolf D. Prix, Sci-Arc Director Hernan Diaz Alonso and New Jersey, RBH Group Real Estate Developer Ron Beit.

Wolf D. Prix, Hernan Diaz Alonso and Ron Beit

The aim of this meeting was to discuss possibilities for the future of Newark, New Jersey and bring students closer to today’s reality of architecture and urban development. The selected projects were the following:

The Life After Death Tower, by Michel Al Azzi: a vertical system for car dismantling, shredding and recycling. // Urban Transubstantiation, by Firas Aafieddine: a multi-layer mobility network for the future Newark, from the block to the city scale. // ReLab, by Stefan Fotev: a recycling complex taking waste as the base stock of a new economic model, using advanced recycling technologies. // Farmers’ Village, by James Nurtanio Njo: reactivates unused Newark’s parking lots and buildings by implementing urban farming in the city. // UrbanPixels, by Abdullah Ibrahim: a productive tower with an aquaponics system using local sources and involving users in food production. // The Wind Tower, by Nour Mezher: a data-generated structure, merging architecture and infrastructure to produce energy for Newark. // UrbanMegaSponge, by Maryan Ewais: a performative voronoi landscape engaging flood’s natural force to filter and retain water. // CybEco,  by Jonathan Irawan: an anemophilic pollinator and seed-bank performing as an education facility for the Newark urban area. // Hybritat, by Peter Geelmuyden Magnus: a system to improve bio-receptivity and species protection in Newark’s urban environment.

The Group Engages a Discussion after the Presentations

On the same evening Wolf D. Prix gave the 2016 closing lecture introduced by Areti Markopoulou and Hernan Diaz Alonso.