Bobbing for Love

BOBBING FOR LOVE:
The pursuit of living in poetry

"Unable to perceive the shape of you,
I find you all around me.
Your presence fills my eyes with your love.
It humbles my heart,
For you are everywhere."
-Rūmī

This project started with Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas”.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CONCERNING THE HERMIT

It’s a story about the hermit Captain Nemo and his high-tech submarine ‘The Nautilus’. In the original, the submarine was dubbed an “archangel of hatred” leading to Nemo’s decent into madness.

On the left is the Nautilus reimagined, but this time built from love. It celebrates our society rather than exiling it by introducing coral reefs on its outer shell. The reefs create a small community of wildlife that is currently endangered and needs to be looked after by the captain, thus introducing social responsibility and love to the submarine.

LOVE AS CREATION

Frankenstein and Pygmalion are both stories of creators falling in love with their creations until they lead to their ruin.
Each drawing and model made has a part of your unique point of view, a little part of your soul and is, in a way, a self-portrait.
To have the physical embodiment of a inner part of yourself, something you’ve birthed from your mind and nurtured to maturity, falling in love with it, is entirely human.

NAUTILUS TABLE BORNE FROM LOVE

LOVE AS A GENERATOR

Using latest technology to create an electrotonic generator
purely from plant photosynthesis.
The main technology is protected inside a living
shell. Then plant pots containing the cyborg
plants can connect to the “heart” releasing its
stored energy from the daily photosynthesis.
The plant’s naturally occurring xylem water system
carries electrolytes. Feeding the plant a “cyber
fertiliser” of graphite allows the plant to carry a charge
generated from photosynthesis.

The cable is designed to allow the charge from the
plant to the flow into a traditional wire.

The design of the “Heart” means the inhabitants must carry the plant pots to the surface each morning and return them to the Heart at night. Care and attention is a built into the design, it forces people to take time every day to look after something other than themselves.

SECTION OF HEART GENERATOR

THE ARCHITECTURE OF INFLUENCING LOVE

Hans Rucker co- Mind Expander
A chair that forces it’s two occupants into “a compromising
position”. The helmet is then pulled down to give the two
some privacy.

THE VOCAL CORDS

Oxygen produced from electrolyis is
stored here.
When foot pedal is pressed the oxygen is released and flows into the pipe organ
The pipe organ can only be played
properly by two people, creating moments of love within the building.
The pipe organ encased in an air tight plastic sack
The air and a tune is pumped into the nautilus’s air vents.

The oxygen is stored in a high-pressure tank. When the organ is played, bursts of oxygen are released into the organ
pipes to make sound. This sound. and fresh air, is then carried around the
nautilus.

Experiencing love and music are as important as air, this design places them on the same level of importance.

THE LUNGS

Water is forced into the lungs
Thin water-cast stainless steel
electrodes cause hydrolysis
Electricity from the heart is used to
power the electrodes
Hydrogen gas is produced on the anode
Oxygen is produced on the cathode

The water flows past the electrodes causing
electrolysis, releasing oxygen and hydrogen
gases.
2H2O →2H2 + O2

Using casting of natural structures such as lungs we can create electrodes that have the maximum surface area to volume ratio, thus producing a more efficient system. The oxygen is then stored for when the nautilus goes under the sea, and the hydrogen for fertiliser and energy production.

THE MOUTH

Water enters the nautilus through
a valve
Wire for valves
Specialised catalysists attract
the salts in the water
Small membrane to catch debris
Bone structure walls

Water enters the mouth in short automated bursts.
It is distilled by catalysts to extract the salts in the ocean water.
The water passes through a semi
permeable membrane to ensure its
purity.

The salts in the Pacific Ocean consist of
Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Magnesium Sulphate, and Sodium Chloride.
Using specific metal catalysts these salts
can be extracted from the water through
exothermic reactions that produce solid
salt as crystals.

THE GREEN RAY

A natural phenomenon described in Verne’s novel of the same name. When the last rays of daylight disappear a green flash can be seen.
Legend says if you see the ray you’ll know if your love is true, however it’s quite rare as it lasts only a couple seconds and needs a perfectly calm ocean and sky.

In the book the nautilus travelled around the globe. A major
part of this is at the equator. The equator has special
qualities of being the calmest part of the ocean as there
are no air currents here. These are the required conditions
for seeing the green ray.
The Nautilus will bob from the Maluku Utara, Indonesia to
the Galápagos islands, chasing the sunset, traveling along
this short course of the equator, picking and dropping off
lovers as it eternally searches for Love.

WHAT IS A LIVING BUILDING?

Love is the key in any dystopian novel. In Orwell’s “1984” love is
turned to hate and in Huxley’s “Brave New World” it is corrupted into lust and impulses.
To protect the public from these futures we need to design with love.
Love needs to be incorporated into our architecture, lives and morals
otherwise we will be designing our own ruin.

While a building can be organic and alive, there is the social aspect of
“the living” described below.

“Was (the ornament) done with enjoyment? -was the carver happy while
he was about it? It may be the hardest work possible, and harder because so much pleasure was taken in it; but it must have been happy too, or it will
not be living.” -John Ruskin

To make a building alive it must be loved, not only by the users, but by the builders.

To grow coral one must be attentive, care and love it, and in
the act of caring you give a part of your “living” to it. Through this
dedication, like Frankenstein, you bring the building alive.

CORAL AS A BAROMETER

Coral can only survive in clean water between 20-30C. If these conditions change then the coral will begin the bleaching process in which the photosynthetic algae that live in the coral polyps (that are necessary for its health) are ejected and the coral begins to fade white and die.
The bleaching effect allows us to use the nautilus as a barometer to determine the pollution levels and monitor the effects of global warming on the ocean temperatures.
Eventually, if we don’t fix these global problems then the Nautilus, along with love, will die.

GROWING THE LIVING WALL

Coral is formed by coral larvae attaching themselves to submerged rocks or other hard surfaces.
The coral polyps then secrete skeletons from the underside of their skin. These skeletons, made
from calcium carbonate, protect the coral animals from predators and also offer a substrate on
which new coral polyps can attach themselves. Above is an example of lab grown coral.

The stainless steel pipe scaffolding has become a cathode by the
neighboring electric field produced by the anode.
Periodically small pieces of strong reef building coral are strapped to
the steel.
The electric field will cause calcium carbonate to form on the steel. Coral is then very attracted to the scaffolding as a new growth site.
Each coral triples in size every 6 months. Eventually the coral will form a solid “living” wall, in which wildlife can inhabit. After the walls are formed the internal spaces can be built.

Pneumatic Living Unit: Prototype

Designed by Coop Himmelblau as architecture that is as variable as a cloud. Through Pneumatic construction the volume of the space can be varied, using air as a building material.

The pneumatic prototype is composed of three spaces:
1. The pulsating space with the revolving bed, projections, and sound programs. Appropriate fragrances to accompany the changing audiovisual program are blown in through the ventilation system.
2. The pneumatic, transformable space: eight inflatable balloons vary the size of the unit’s space from minimum to maximum volumes.
3. The space in the suitcase – the mobile space. From a helmet-shaped suitcase, one can inflate an air-conditioned shell, complete with bed.

Carlo Mollino’s Casa Devalle (left) and chair (top right) are designed for sex and fulfil a key aspect of our lives that is often (purposefully?) forgotten about in architecture. Playboy (bottom right) was the first major architecture magazine to actually talk about it.

Development of the Nautilus

The nautilus bobs along the equator picking up lovers, chasing the sunset. Throughout their stay the lovers must learn to love, not just each other but the strange world they’ve found themselves in. Together they care and maintain the structure to keep themselves afloat but also the natural world. The coral walls with their own ecosystems must be cared for, the internal systems must be attended to every day. In learning to care for the nautilus they learn how to truly love. Once they’re able, the green ray will confirm their love and they can return to shore.