Outline of the ideas of the morphology group

I have spoken to Chris, chairman of the morphology group, and garnered some information about their project. This should in turn help us a little in our process of overlaying habitats onto and underneath the ideas of the other groups.

The big hand-like structures were their 300 year plan. They came up with this quite quickly after their original model had been criticised. Their 30 year plan isn't fully formulated yet and will only be resolved on Wednesday morning.

However, this is the concept they are thinking of for 300 years on:

The large many 'fingered' buildings are rather star trek/le corbusier...big structures to house many people and centralise the distribution of resources required and the treatment of waste products/water recycling etc. An interesting and very different approach from our decentralised residential system.

The buildings are near the river edge, the fingers are there to gather the cool air from the river and suck it into the building. The spaces between the 'fingers' are also effectively wind tunnels, allowing breezes to flow up and over the structure (I can't really call it a building as it is too massive!)

They are hoping to create these structures so they are very efficient in shape. They are also man-made hills that create areas of higher ground near the river (terrific if there is flooding/widening of the thames). We could easily green roof them or plant woodland on top or biomass plantations etc so they could be a really positive addition to our habitat plan.

The spaces between the 'fingers' could become cool shady parks, sheltered swimming bays, areas for silt collection and farming etc.

I think that although our green residential housing matrix is a great idea, it could benefit from us looking at this groups ideas ideas and perhaps making some changes?

Some questions to think about for Friday:
- Would we be better off creating man-made higher ground near the river?
- Would housing be better off on high-ground, or being nearer the mirror?
- Is decentralisation/ distribtion or intensity/centralisation the right solution for the future of ciies?
- Is centralisation sustainable?
- How might we create habitats on and around this mega-structure?

Well, I hope that helps a bit. Some things to add to our discussion tomorrow.
Jenny