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Creating habitats for Koalas

Heard about literal 'Haven'? Result story of Haven

5 min read·1304 reads

UNI published Results under Architecture, Public Building on Oct 15, 2020

Background

Earth’s ecosystem besides resourcing human needs and habituating many culture ethos, is home to a variety of living beings. It is a ground for a complex network of interdependence between plants and animals. The mutually beneficial interactions between them have been paramount in the generation of the Earth’s ecosystem.

But what happens when the foundation of the structure is slowly being ripped off?

With economic and infrastructure needs taking precedence, land availability becomes a necessity. Despite the growing need to preserve our habitat, ecosystems are being sacrificed at an increasing rate. Over that the increasing change in temperature is igniting a series of forest fires all over the world. Slash and Burn agriculture, selective logging in some cultures also contribute to the same.

Australia is raging with its most unprecedented early fire season, which has reportedly destroyed an area of more than 3.21 hectares as of December 24, 2019. Bushfires raging up the country’s eastern coast have led to deaths and many properties getting incinerated. Amidst this, one of Australia’s most iconic animals has taken centre stage in headlines - Koala

Recent reports suggest that around 30% may have perished in the fire-devastated zones since November. Furthermore, rapid urbanization, agriculture has led to a sharp decline from the 8 million found in 1990 to fewer than 10,000 now remaining.

Brief

Our planet is a complex web of interdependent species, each uniquely contributing to the flourishing of others. But as climate change continues to impact the balance of life, modern-day ecosystems are in survival mode.

In Australia - rapid urbanization, agriculture and bushfires have led to a catastrophic impact on native species. Koala, a largely adored animal has seen a devastating impact. The Australian foundation estimates that fewer than 10,000 remain, a sharp decline from the 8 million found in 1990.

In a codependent hemisphere of plants and animals, humans should enact the role of a samaritan than that of a disruptor. An element that helps in the ecosystem’s rehabilitation. At a macro level, creating reservoirs that habitat plants and animals.

The challenge was here to design a Koala habitat - a rescue and rehabilitation centre that raises awareness regarding its ecological depletion and importance.

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows:

Gokhan Aksoy Mimarlik, Master Architect, Gökhan Aksoy Mimarlik, Turkey

Karolina Slawecka, Partner / Architect, Architecture Club, Basel, Switzerland

Pawel Krzeminski, Partner / Architect, Architecture Club, Basel, Switzerland

Jay Dertinger, Associate Principal, PJA Architects + Landscape Architects, United States

Team212020 10 15T12 37 55 470779

Some of the Best of competition projects are:

Winning Project: The Koala Pavilion

By: Aceson Han

Team212020 10 15T12 33 31 055639

Description: The Koala Pavilion explores a friendlier typology of animal rehabilitation centre by integrating the natural environment into the design. The Pavilion Is envisioned as a sanctuary for both koalas and humans, helping to promote a harmonious coexistence.

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Runner - Up: Wooden Wall

By: Maria Yurchenko & Maria bochkareva

Team212020 10 15T12 33 54 191780

Description: Wooden Wall is a shelter for koalas victims of the fire, located in Queensland, Australia. This place will become the second homes for small creatures and will help them not only to recover, but also to increase the population and draw attention to the problem of animal welfare.

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Honorable Mention: Give Me a Hug

By: Yunhao Lu, Junfu Cui & Yuyi Zhou

Team212020 10 15T12 34 40 110074

Description: A re-bonding sanctuary for human, koala and nature.

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People’s Choice: Koala Village

By: Maria Datculescu

Team212020 10 15T12 35 04 496758

Description: The project is built around the vital ecosystem for the majority of animals – the forest. It provides koalas with food, shelter and security, producing the foundation of their very existence.

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Editor’s Choice: #LET`S MAKE A HABITAT

By: Philip Skein & Keegan Maybery

Team212020 10 15T12 35 32 640503

Description: # LET`S MAKE AN HABITAT seeks to promote a paradigm shift in how we typically create buildings to heal animals out of the wild. This ideology seeks to create a more sustainable, bio-centric architecture that is founded on prevention/awareness and rehabilitation across different scales.

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Editor’s Choice: koala hEaven

By: Margarita Shchigoleva & Artem Petriakov

Team212020 10 15T12 36 08 860738

Description: The focus of the project is to create a building, which, by being harmonically integrated in the existing natural landscape, allows either visitors, staff or koalas to immerse in nature.

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Editor’s Choice: A Haven for Australia

By: Emily Newmarch & Ged Finch

Team212020 10 15T12 36 29 066144

Description: A state-of-the-art Koala rehabilitation and visitors center that can be completely removed from site and reestablished elsewhere in the space of a single day. A redeployable asset for the future of Australia.

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Editor’s Choice: Boundary of Forest

By: YuHan Gu

Team212020 10 15T12 36 46 828662

Description: Designing a Koala habitat with forest systems.

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Editor’s Choice: koala

By: Shuyu Zhang, Linlan ZENG & Xiaoxuan Hu

Team212020 10 15T12 37 02 731008

Description: The Koala Homeland consists of the environment where the koala lives, a tourist center, and an emergency rescue center.

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Editor’s Choice: Embdded into forest: Koala aid center

By: LIU RUICHUN

Team212020 10 15T12 37 15 029615

Description: Now we are going to set up a koala hospital at the border of the koala protection habitat.In order to facilitate the treatment of injured koala, but also to receive visitors, call on people to care for animals, care for nature.

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Organizer’s Choice: HuLa Village

By: Duc Chu, Ánh Maii & Kiên Tố Nguyễn

Team212020 10 15T12 37 30 935338

Description: - A Future for Human and Koala - By studying an eco-system for Koala's sustainable development and modular building systems that change in stages. Humans can be proactive in conserving Koala and they will learn to adapt to living conditions with humans. And this is also the profound human goal of Koala conservation.

Discover the design brief here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/haven/info/about

Discover the full results here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/haven/entries

Discover other design competitions to participate here: https://uni.xyz/competitions