Seven designers teamed up on a project to transform an ancient Egyptian pyramid into a green skyscraper that works to reverse desertification. Their Bio-Pyramid concept won an honorable mention in the 2015 eVolo Skyscraper Competition, an award that recognizes outstanding ideas that challenge the way architecture relates to both natural and built environments. Could up-cycling the Great Pyramid into a towering biosphere stop the Sahara Desert from advancing?
Oceans cover 71% of earth’s surface leaving less than a third of the planet above salty water. That real estate calculation is unsettling when you consider the resource demands of a world population expected to reach 11 billion by 2100. It’s more worrying still when you factor in constantly expanding deserts which now form over 33% of all landmass.
The Bio-Pyramid designers set their project in Egypt situated on the edge of the Sahara Desert, the largest non-polar desert on earth covering an area about 3.5 million square miles, about as big as the USA. Continual land degradation grows the Sahara by nearly 30 million acres annually, creating new desert that exceeds the size of Jordan!
Ancient Egyptians exploited the Nile River and its seasonal flooding, becoming one of the first ancient cultures to commercially farm on a large-scale. Prior to the Arab Spring, cultural heritage and tourism – not crop production – underpinned Egypt’s economy. The Bio-Pyramid team aimed to transform the traditional approach to historic preservation and sightseeing using a bit of architectural alchemy. They melded the Great Pyramid of Giza with a modern skyscraper and a closed ecosystem, or biosphere, converting the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World into a “living machine” with direct ties to its local community.
Original article by Laurie Balbo
Continue reading at Green Prophet:
Bio-Pyramid turns Egyptian pyramid into a desert-reversing skyscraper!
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