Elevate Structure @elevatestructure - Tumblr Blog

CITY APPLICATIONS FOR ELEVATE

Urbanization is in full effect. By 2050 the worlds population will increase by 2 billion yet the population in cities will increase by 3 billion. The bottom line is that cities will need to be better to accommodate this growth and here are some thoughts on where Elevate can play a crucial role.

ADDING DENSITY UNOBTRUSIVELY

We put structures where no other structure fit. This happens because Elevate has used nature as the inspiration and the guide - the tree guides the way. In a sense, we can hide a structure in plain sight - that's unique. It's similar to how they've hidden cell phone towers in plain sight by making them resemble trees.

HEIGHT FOR TRANSMISSION

The connectedness of everything, smart cities, could be enhanced with better abilities to transmit from higher points and in more points.

HEIGHT FOR SURVEILLANCE SECURITY

Terrorism and security are huge issues facing future cities. This is a way to add more sensors, even larger sensors, and hide them better.

HEIGHT FOR SECURITY IN GENERAL

One of the major issues in developing cities in countries is safety. This is a safer structure and could be beneficial in some situations in some cities.

ADDING DIVERSITY FOR PEOPLE

Full scale gentrification seems to be in effect in many cities around the world. These structures could be set aside only for small businesses who still need and want to be in the core of the city.

ADDING DIVERSITY FOR SPACE AND EXPERIENCE

People like to have different experiences, plain and simple.

VISUALLY ATTRACTIVE AND IN THE VIEW PLANE

Cities are generally planned out architecturally, there are exceptions of course, but due to the natural aspect of our structures we're able to add them without competing with what has already been done. In some cases, it's a replacement-in-kind, a real tree with ours. We're not competing with trees, and of course we love them, but in some applications this sort of thinking makes sense for the good of the city.

FILL IN FOR POORLY PLANNED CITIES

Some cities gave too much open area and were designed around the care exclusively and this concept could fill in those areas without killing the intent.

BIKE STORAGE

Some areas have so many bikers that the parking for them is an issue - this adds greater capacity and the lifting of a bike up and down by two individuals is entirely feasible.

SHADE IS MORE THAN JUST SHADE - IT CREATES WALKABLE AREAS

This structure can add needed shade to make areas more walkable - the movement is towards more walkable cities is growing and important.

DRONE LAUNCHING AND LANDING POINTS

Municipality or government related points for drone activity that does not interfere with people on the ground.

THE MASSIVE PARKING LOT OPPORTUNITY

Parking lots cover more than one-third of the metropolitan footprint, they are a key feature of almost every city and suburban area worldwide.

Parking lots, along with roads, are often the principal source of water pollution in urban areas.

They essentially act as massive thermal batteries that store the sun's energy and radiate it back at night - creating a heat island effect.

Most existing lots have limited or no facilities to control runoff.

Parking lots are ripe for transformation, their design and function has not been rethought since the 1950s, they can be: - Aesthetically pleasing - Environmentally responsible - Architecturally responsible - Used for something other than car storage.

An acre of parking lot produces 16 times the amount of runoff as an acre of grass.

The parking lot is one of those forms so visible that we no longer see it

Given that the bar is set so low to begin with, it doesn’t take much to make them better.

LET'S MAKE THEM BETTER

THE INFLUENCE OF WALDEN ON ELEVATE

“When a man is warmed by the several modes which I have described, what does he want next? Surely not more warmth of the same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses, finer and more abundant clothing, more numerous, incessant, and hotter fires, and the like. When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now, his vacation from humbler toil having commenced.”

Elevate take away: Design something which you feel comfortable leaving unattended so you can travel more with less worries, something that is safer, more compact, simpler.

“Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as horse, having an instinct for it. Who does not remember the interest with which, when young, he looked at shelving rocks, or any approach to a cave? It was the natural yearning of that portion, any portion of our most primitive ancestor which still survived in us.”

Elevate take away: design something that brings the kid in you back out to play.

“However, if one designs to construct a dwelling-house, it behooves him to exercise a little Yankee shrewdness, lest after all he find himself in a workhouse, a labyrinth without a clue, a museum, an almshouse, a prison, or a splendid mausoleum instead. Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary.”

Elevate take away: design something that is just of the right size but leave options open for future expansion or reduction.

“An average house in this neighborhood costs perhaps eight hundred dollars, and to lay up this sum will take from ten to fifteen years of the laborer's life, even if he is not encumbered with a family -- estimating the pecuniary value of every man's labor at one dollar a day, for if some receive more, others receive less; -- so that he must have spent more than half his life commonly before his wigwam will be earned.

Elevate take away: design something that you can afford, both in the short run and the long run.

HOW THE ELEVATE CONCEPT CAME ABOUT

In 2012 I was at a remote site on the North Shore of Oahu for a residential engineering project (it's the area shown in the lower middle area in the picture above). It was relatively boring engineering stuff (septic system design) so my mind naturally started wandering to something more creative - what sort of house would fit in here among the beautiful trees in a pristine site, located between the ocean and mountains, with the nearest water supply miles off, no nearby power, isolated from the rest of civilization and the site was affected by a large tsunami many years ago?

What came to mind was to mimic nature, mimic a tree. It turns out there was a term for it, biomimicry, using nature as a source of inspiration and going from there.

The concept was a tree like structure, but with a hollow "trunk" to store rainwater. The small contact area on the ground and weight of the water would strengthen it relative to tsunami’s and minimize the impact to the site. The elevation would maximize views and the architectural look would blend seamlessly with nature.

At same time I was beginning to specialize in foundation stabilization using micropiles which anchor deep into the earth – similar to tree roots. This system keeps the foundation work and materials down to a minimum and speeds up the installation time. I was also getting an MBA so the concept was created from the start with the goal of bringing this to the masses. I spent several years going through many revisions, talking with potential customers while working on residential engineering and inspections projects and simply contemplating everything in life relative to this concept along with the basic pain points experienced both here on Oahu and across the world.

The concept then evolved into what you now see. It's an ongoing process, trying to do something fundamentally different with a structure so please continue to check back as we progress on our journey and provide any feedback you would like to share.

A SIMPLE GIFT...

I know my 4th grade classmate didn’t wake up that morning and say to himself "I think Nathan is going to bring me a few packs of underwear today".

I remember where we picked him up on the school bus; it was at the bottom of a long gravel road that led up a hill to his trailer. My ride to school growing up in rural West Virginia was quite long along the narrow and winding country roads (take me home, to the place, I belong ....). On the way we'd come across so many houses that would, by most objective standards, be considered “tear down’s”. Some were quite bad but they housed some of my classmates.

However, my mom had the kindness in her heart to be concerned about the basic hygienic health of one of my classmates. She was actually a substitute teacher in the same school at times so I reckon she noticed that he was in need of one of the most basic necessities in life.

I remember handing him the packs of underwear as he left the bus that afternoon - he was grateful even though no words were exchanged.

While sometimes it seems like I'm from Mars and they're from Venus, standard Gen X vs. Baby Boomer Generation sort of differences, I realize the impact of their kindness has had on me from a very early age. I have many more examples but this is the one that really sticks out.

It's a great story to illustrate basic human kindness and how simple gifts are often times the ones that are most needed.

THE STORY OF CLYDE

In hindsight it's a bit of an odd story, but when I was in college my roommate and I let a homeless individual named Clyde live in our apartment for several months during our last semester at CU.

I met him while out one night on 'The Hill', the popular college hang out in Boulder. It was one of those chilly nights that turned into a very snowy night as it can quickly do in the early fall. I recall it start to really come down after we had a lengthy, and fascinating I'm sure, discussion regarding the meaning of life or something along those lines - it was college!

As the snow fell harder and harder, I remembered coming to the revelation that I had a warm and dry place to go back to but he didn't. So I offered that he could crash at our place for a night. My roommate wasn't with me at that time so I'm sure he was a bit shocked when I came in the door with a homeless guy!

The snow lasted a few days but eventually warmed up as it tends to do in Boulder. However we had gotten to know Clyde better so we decided to allow him to stay longer. My roommate was a very kind individual and went with him to help him pick his stuff up where he had it stashed down over a hillside in a gully. During the semester we had some more interesting chats but he would mainly just stay at night, sleep on the couch and leave notes of gratitude before he went out and about during the day. In general he didn't want to be a bother to us and made sure to always keeping his stuff clean and put away.

There were a few incidents along the way where we came to realize that Clyde suffered from some psychological issues as is not uncommon with the homeless - nothing extreme but a few funny stories that I'll possibly include in the future. As the semester came nearer to a conclusion it was time to part ways so we arranged to get him into a shelter in Denver.

It's definitely one of those experiences that tend to only happen in college and I learned a lot from it. It's an experience that I bring to the table when we're looking at how the Elevate concept can be used to help with the homeless situation.