Is sustainability an added value or is it one of the most intrinsic and essential factors guiding the creation, progress and success of a project? Now, what does it mean?
Take the Lighthouse hotel project by Margot Krasojevic for one. It is an offshore hotel and a power plant, envisioned to be constructed in South Korea, near Jeju Island. This cross-disciplinary project consists of an offshore hotel, which makes use of water to produce renewable energy needed for sustaining the lighthouse installed on top of the hotel. The structure consists of three spaces for living and social engagement, and three aluminum clad elevations which surround the hotel. Included in these elevations are flipwing valve turbines, which once the elevations are lowered into the sea, generate electric current with the force of the water. This energy is needed for the lighthouse and some of it is stored for later use. While these three layered elevations are lowered, the light of the lighthouse installed above the building is emitted over the surface of the sea.
It is not so hard to find the materials used in the hotel or to replace them. The entire hotel is made of light, partly inflated and strong airlock sections which resist against wave. The structure is stabilised by caisson foundations and gravity anchors reaching for the seabed. Additionally, the movements of the platform are controlled with steel tension cables which are fastened at the seabed. Environmental issues rising in consequence of the hotel’s close proximity with the ocean are tapped with this sustainable method of producing renewable energy. In this project, sustainability is treated as an essential design component, offering not only a peaceful coexistence with its surroundings, but also a very unique hospitality experience which makes the construction and maintenance of hotels ever so competitive.
All images, courtesy of artists: Margot Krasojevic
