Maqôr

01 X INFO

02 X DESCRIPTION

Following the recent analysis of the United Nations, in the near future, two thirds of the world population, in steady increase, will leave in conurbations/urban areas.

What will be the future of the remaining one third of the global population? The countryside, once motionless and distant, nowadays is suffocated by a recurring barren of monocultures and it is crossed by goods, garbage, information and people flows in close contact with the Urbis/city.

The word agriculture is derived from the Latin word ‘ager’ means land or field and ‘culture’ means cultivation/honouring. Is it still possible to use technology and mechanization in order to recover the original value of agriculture, and the relation with Earth and her fertility? Which is the role of architecture to give shape to this future?

The Jewish word Maqôr means fount/source. Since the settlement will be on the spring line, calling this project Maqôr is a way to refer to Terapeuti’s tradition: the first Christians settled in the Aquileia’s territory. Terapeuti arrived from Alexandria, and they refused city life and preferred to leave in countryside in the proximity of rivers and springs.

The agricultural settlement of Maqôr is surrounded from the original friulano wood, “Silva Lupanica”. It’s connections with the outside and with the cities, are through an infrastructure on the springs line, that cuts horizontally the northern part of Italy. The infrastructure will host the electric and water supply systems, waste management system and the people transportation system.

Water will be directly extracted from the aquifer, then purified and injected in the water supply network.

Maqôr will use drones for crops and goods transport, instead of wheeled vehicles. The settlement itself is conceived not for the usual measures (meter and square meter), but travel times. Then the Maqor has not a diameter of 600 meters, but a distance of 25 minutes by walk, from the external border with the wood, to the centre, where the infrastructure and the settlement life are.

The spaces conceived for Maqor are suitable for hydroponic, and they take account of the physical and psychological health of the settlement inhabitants. Single/individual houses have a surface of 40 square meters. Consumptions of drinking water are reduced using rain water thanks to a compluvium that collects up to 30 liters of water per day.

The housing modules are electrically powered by a photovoltaic plant and geothermal source. The people sustenance, two people for each housing module with an individual demand of 1500 Kcal per day, is ensured by about the 7.24% of the annual production of an individual hydroponic greenhouse.

The tower are electrically powered by a photovoltaic plant and they are formed by flats with different surfaces, between 35 and 45 square meters, depending on the floor. Water supplies are ensured by tanks on the roofs.

Between the houses and the greenhouses of Maqor, there are itinerant characters. Ancient myths, legends of these territories and references to the agricultural past.   In this way, these icons of the agricultural past become itinerant totems, plug ins for the houses and the greenhouses, devices to restore rituals linked with the earth.

03 X ABOUT

Gianluca Calligaris, was born in Monfalcone, Italy, in 1990. Before graduating with a M.sc. in Architecture at University of Trieste (UniTS) in 2018, he attended Art School “Max Fabiani” in Gorizia. He focus on architectural rappresentation, taking inspiration from old masters but with an eye on pop culture and digital art. Playing music with the band  TACDMY, touring Italy during winter and summer of 2017.

Lorenzo Rigonat, born in 1980, he graduated with a M.sc in Architecture at University of Trieste, with the thesis “Maqôr, for an earlier future of the agricultural landscape, at the same time he works in the public administration.