Water Lily

The Water Lily is a student housing project that sits on the water, focusing on creating a high quality of life and a sense of community. Quality of life is an incredibly important aspect of the Water Lily. Creating a sense of community plays a huge role in the quality of life, but it also includes having the entire project easily accessible and making sure each unit has plenty of natural light and views out to the water. In order to make the project accessible, lifts were added to the project to get from the top floor to the bottom walkway and made sure that each petal of the hull was accessible through the central circulation. The project originally started out with each member of the group testing design ideas, has led to 9 massing models that no inspiration was taken from, originally having used aggregation as our basis for design. Eventually one design, that focused on repetition and was reproducible, was chosen to work off of, but the shipping containers were facing each other and not looking out. Through 5 iterations of arcing the massing model, it reached its current form, after which there were 6 iterations with only minor modifications. During this process, the size of the hull was considered heavily, and the footprint Water Lily would be creating. The original designs had a massive footprint, but with the Water Lily, the surface area of the hull is 6564 sq. ft, with only 260 sq. ft touching the water bed, due to the use of the hydraulic lifts. With the form decided some of the shipping containers placement needed to be reconsidered in order to ensure that all of the containers could look out the water unobstructed. 

To create a sense of community, green roofs and gardens, central circulation, community living space, and operable walls were all implemented into the project. The green roofs and gardens were meant to help both with runoff and to help offset the carbon footprint, on top of the solar panels, as well as creating a more welcoming environment to spend time. The central circulation, including the central pool, creates a place to interact, instead of creating direct lines of circulation to the apartments preventing interactions with other residents. Due to the nature of the shipping containers being small, there is not a massive amount of room inside, which is why the decision was made to create a community living space in one of the shipping containers. Furthermore, due to the limited space, operable walls were included in the design. The operable walls create a more open space inside the shipping containers but also opens up facing other operable walls, allowing for shared time and communication. 

    Once, the external design and communal aspects had been decided, the focus turned to the internal program. The goal was to create housing for as many students as possible, while still taking into consideration different student situations and necessities, which is why Water Lily contains four different floor plans, with varied sizes and room counts.  As part of making sure that everything that was necessary would fit, furniture that folds up to allow for more open space while not in use was designed specifically for this project. Each unit contains at least one bedroom, one kitchen, and a bathroom, as well as a table and seating area. While slightly cramped the operable walls open up each unit allowing for more freedom in movement, in addition to the folding furniture. 

    Throughout the design, process replicability was kept in mind for the Water Lily. As much of this project that is capable of being pre-fabricated, was designed to do so, including but not limited to: the modification of the shipping containers, each segment of the hull, the stairs, the hydraulic lifts, and the handrails and bridge. The materials used were chosen carefully to be able to fit into the project wherever it was placed, while still considering the weights, strength, and stability. Due to this, pumice-crete was the choice for the hull, as it is used in oil rigs, but also because in order to make the hull be able to float on its own the concrete had to be lighter than normal. All the materials have long lifespans, making them sustainable and requiring minimal maintenance over time. Additionally, with the ten hydraulic lifts, which allow for the project to lift out of the water to avoid storm damage and can withstand a category four hurricane, the Water Lily can fairly easily be relocated to any body of water in the world. Water Lily is just a basis and could be modified rather easily to blend in more in other parts of the world. In order to do that, the project could be painted to blend in, as well as on the green roofs native vegetation could be planted which would be more sustainable. Every aspect of this the Water Lily was thoroughly thought out to make the project more sustainable, more replicable, and more homely, leading to a design that with minor modifications, could be replicated and used all over the world.