Submission: February 22, 2022
Registration: February 21, 2022
Language: English
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Prizes: 24000$
Type: Open Competition

The challenge is to design a seed bank to collect and preserve local seeds and plant species. The facility must include storage space, a conservatory to grow and research the plants, and a visitors centre. The design must be permeable and transparent to a certain extent, to allow visitors to learn more about the local flora. The ambience must be suitable for plants and visitors.

Biodiversity in danger

Plant lives going extinct is not news that one hears often, at least not as much as animal endangerment and extinction. But since the 1750s, around 600 plant species have gone extinct or been pushed to endangerment, due to human interventions and activities. These plants include species that populated a small proportion of a native place. Hence, their loss remains undiscovered or insignificant.

But this rate can cause, the most common plant species as well, to go out of existence, creating an imbalance in nature. Humans will be affected by this, in ways that might go undetected until it’s too late. Without drastic measures and changes have taken immediately, we are bound to a path that will ultimately destroy ecosystems and habitats.

With the steep curve of deterioration of nature around us, it is important for us to take stock of everything we have and what we are losing. According to statistics, 75% of land and 66% of ocean systems have already changed significantly, acting as an alarm.

Challange

The aim here is to inventories various and if possible, all local plant species of the area, in order to keep track of and restore the green in the event of a disaster. The spatial organisation must focus primarily on holding a repository of seeds and plants, then research and public spaces, in order.

This facility will help generate awareness of the deteriorating condition of plants and encourage work towards being a sustainable stakeholder, to preserve the integrity of the future. The form of the structure will be as important as it will become a landmark, representative of the green movement and promotion of conservation habits.

Design Objectives

Layout – the storage, research spaces along visitation spots must be planned in a way that the centre is easy to access and navigate for both the operators and the visitors.

Balance – the two occupants, plants and humans, are to be brought together under a single roof and so a balance must be achieved between both objectives of preservation and promotion

Technology – seeds are to be stored at a fixed temperature and thermal comfort for visitors both must be achieved at the bank

Structure – the storage section of the bank must be built to be resilient, in the case of any disaster, in the near or distant future

Sustainable – implement low impact strategies that will not harm the environment, with proper resource management and avoiding wastage.

Context – a thorough investigation must be done about the site context and its conditions, so the centre is sensitive to the location culture and plant species