MVP & Problem Statement - 2050

Journal Entry For
Project 3 - MVP Definition

Problem Statement

Based off our assumptions (World Outlook - 2050), at a high-level, by 2050 we expect the following, concurrent and somewhat opposing trends and problems:

  1. Renewable energy capacity, efficiency and availability greatly increase
  2. Overall consumption per capita soars (not Peak Consumption yet)
  3. Available and useable land shrinks working at odds against increasing agricultural land needs to feed an ever hungry and expanding world population.
  4. Managing housing, agricultural land, energy sustainability and human well-being become ever more interlinked, ultimately needing a rethinking of human civilization on Earth

For mankind to continue to thrive for centuries on, we need housing structures that are least energy intensive, capture carbon from the atmosphere, utilize underground real-estate, and efficiently built and designed and are positive energy producers, whilst providing the highest level of well-being, comfort, utility and safety to each user.

Core Idea

We propose a next-generation building structure, apartment-style, that’s worldwide in adoption and presence, primarily for urban and occasionally for suburban communities to be the future living. Some key features:

  1. Captures carbon more than it generates
  2. Is self-sufficient to almost 100% for its users and tenants
  3. Positive energy producer
  4. 65%+ net recycled non-virgin materials (metallic and non-metallic)

Our core idea is an apartment (single or dual occupancy) design in a futuristic but realizable next-gen building structure that’s interconnected with other building structures and public spaces through an underground network of roads, walkways, bike paths, and railroads

MVP

The MVP is broken down by sections based off our problem statement above MVP & Problem Statement - 2050

General

  1. Apartment must be a maximum of 500 sq.ft and no more than 17 ft tall
  2. Apartment must host one or two users permanently, able to host upto 6 temporarily (for a party or a short stay)
  3. Apartment must be one of atleast 500 in a building structure of atleast 50 levels above ground and 10 levels below ground
  4. Building structure accounts for parking, gym, salons, a food court, some shopping, a pharmacy, and other businesses to be as self-sufficient as possible
  5. All units are externally facing and have direct window access. The building structure will replicate a ‘+’ or ‘plus’ sign so that most apartments have direct sunlight visibility
  6. Use of any virgin materials (except in the building structure, HVAC and water system) is prohibited. All other material must have recycled content of varying degrees.

Apartment

  1. Apartment must have basic features such as a kitchen, kitchen appliances, living room, bedroom, bathrooms, a patio balcony
  2. Each apartment must cover, through solar panels at the patio balcony, atleast 35% of it’s independent energy usage
  3. All external facing glass in the building (and the apartment) must be solar panel transparent glass which should account for 25% of the apartment’s energy use
  4. Apartment must make use of foldable mechanisms so that the bed, the dining table, the office table and some kitchen features can be stowed vertically along the wall surface.
  5. These ‘wall-stowable’ features must be automated and actuated, not manual
  6. Elevators in the building structure shuttle residents up and down as needed
  7. Each apartment must have 100 sq ft of outside window visibility as an aggregate from all parts of the apartment

Building Structure

  1. The remaining energy deficit of 40% must be covered by the building structure itself through solar glass, rooftop solar, and porch/ patio overhead solar
  2. The building structure may also host mini-windmills (rooftop mounted) to provide added energy buffer
  3. Maximum virgin-water draw by the building structure from public utilities should be 20% of daily consumption i.e. the remaining 80% of water needs should be locally stored, filtered, cleaned and recirculated for consumption.
  4. The clubhouse, gym, all parking, community rooms, other administrative offices and other general facilities must be located below ground with only residential apartments and one outdoor pool being above ground for maximum utility of underground land
  5. The building structure must be connected to other public spaces (malls, parks, shopping centers, hospitals, other building structures etc) by a network of underground linkages (walk-ways, roads, bike paths etc) to minimize above-ground urban traffic and congestion