BOASE

Future habits, new ways of living, how to rethink sustainability in a future urban situation – and how to meet basic human needs in a modern society. All concepts that need to be researched if a better world is to be achieved.

BOASE is a sustainable housing and city-planning project that is cleansing a contaminated site by turning it into a phyto-remediating urban oasis with cleansing trees. It offers a supplement to the existing ways of living that consists of a community oriented housing with a spacious indoor shared-space connecting the private dwellings. It tests a new building process that is based on industrial principles, as well as new building materials, combining knowledge from several known technologies to new solutions appropriate for housing.

Two clusters of 9. and 6. dwellings are realized on a contaminated site in central Copenhagen. As a strategy towards a sustainable way of living, the site is transformed into an accessible green area, by planting a dense forest of willow trees that are able to purify the soil. The dwellings are placed along the footbridges, 3. meters above the ground. Ready-made from the factory – they are lifted in and attached to pillars. The pillars work as probes for waste water that feeds the plants and accelerates the biological purification. Settlement and site forms a cycle. BOASE is a supplementary to existing housing – a new way of living – corresponding to new needs emerging from changing values and changes in family- and work-structures. The settlement is a housing-network, providing the possibility of social interaction and meetings between people.

The design is a direct result of – and answers to – the research. In this way e.g. the research on soil contamination, microbiological cleansing, flexible solar cells, energy accumulating materials and the insulating, pneumatic structure were crucial for the end-result and the design.

BOASE is a housing project rethinking the approach of design on all levels: by a new way of living, by rethinking sustainability, contamination and waste, production methods, by changing the cityscape and by combining new materials and technology in a new way.