International Competition Magurele LASER VALLEY – Land of Lights 2035 (2016)

Boulevard in the \”Laser Industry\” Business District in Măgurele 2035

The LASER VALLEY – Land of Lights international competition was organized in 2016 by the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research of Romania, together with the University of Architecture and Urbanism \”Ion Mincu\” Bucharest, the Bucharest Technical Construction University, and the Horia Hulubei Nuclear Physics and Engineering Institute.

Within the competition, we participated together with colleagues from the DUO STUDIO SRL architectural design office – architects Florin Cristache and Andrei Vlădescu – with the English-language proposal \”SHOWCASE MĂGURELE – enLightening Laser Valley 2035\” / “EXHIBITION MĂGURELE – Illuminating the Laser Valley 2035,” registered as number 30 in the participants’ register, according to the UAUIM printed competition album.

The team’s proposal, which I coordinated, focused on an urban and architectural expansion scenario that integrates innovations and technologies into urban and architectural interfaces.

The main image of the proposal, which exemplifies a possible appearance for the business area in 2035, was selected as the cover (in the images below) for the retrospective albums \”LASER VALLEY – Land of Lights – From Vision to Action\” (in Romanian) and \”From Vision to Action\” (in English) published in December 2016 with the aim of promoting the results of the competition and the realization and implementation of the Măgurele urban research pole.

The urban initiative is exceptional for post-1989 Romania: \”Laser Valley – Land of Lights aims at an entire territory stretching across several counties, with important implications on the development, transport, and mobility axis of Europe represented by the Danube, with expectations of association to the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region (ESDR) as a flagship project. […]” being, due to its uniqueness, scale, complexity, and potential socio-economic impact, one of the most challenging for Romania after 1989 – certainly the largest in terms of intelligent territorial development.” and aims at “developing the ecosystem of science, innovation, and entrepreneurship.”

CONTEXT OF COMPETITION and PROPOSAL:

This initiative is based on the success of the pan-European Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) project, funded by the European Commission and partner Member States, initiated in 2005, with the first three pillars in Prague (Czech Republic), Szeged (Hungary), and Măgurele (Ilfov, Romania), near the Horia Hulubei Institute, which involves several components, including an extremely intense and bright gamma radiation beam (1013γ/s) and, as part of the Romanian infrastructure, a high-power laser system with 10 PetaWatt (ten trillion watts). On March 13, 2019, at Măgurele, the achievement of this value was publicly announced and demonstratively tested, making ELI-NP the most powerful laser in the world and potentially available for the first scientific experiments.

Associated with the construction of this exceptionally important and complex research infrastructure, a proposal was made to use it for a growing community of over 1000 Romanian and foreign specialists, organized in current and future science campuses, but also, potentially, by companies interested in patenting discoveries, future business incubators, technology transfer centers, etc., territorial development of intelligent urban poles is expected to increase.

Among the materialized initiatives is the Laser Valley – Land of Lights (more details in the first publication in 2015) initiative, in which authors imagine, building on the opportunity and success of implementing the ELI-NP project as a catalyst, a scenario of profound transformation for Măgurele following a participatory process involving local and central authorities, academia, universities, experts, and researchers, including architects and urban planners, and which seeks to \”bring together people, innovation, and nature.” The working group’s activity continued in 2016 with the organization of an architecture and urbanism competition to which our proposal was also submitted.

The competition theme requested a vision for 2035: \”a dynamic and open research ecosystem that thrives in an excellent built environment, which is both interesting and efficient. A place to live, to have fun, to learn, a center for science, for research, and a nucleus for innovation, business, and mobility […] encompassing the entire area between Bucharest, in the north, and the Argeș river, in the south, including the municipality of Măgurele, Mihăilești Lake, and 1 Port December on the Argeș river,\” a vision that is grounded on three main principles of development: \”1. Research and technology become the main factors of local and regional development; 2. The research environment exerts its influence on local development, thus resolving the tension between the antiqued built environment and the new one; 3. The Laser Valley spatial concept integrates green open spaces and utilizes the privileged location that the city of Măgurele holds in relation to Bucharest.”

The three winning projects were \”Sun Valley\” (First Prize), with a concrete proposal for urban layout and an appreciated balance between place, residents, transport, future agriculture, and advanced technologies, respectively \”CO-existing City\” (Second Prize) and \”Full Spectrum\” (Third Prize).

The proposal coordinated by me focused not on layout, but primarily on the urban image – literally – of a neighborhood that implements the technologies discovered (including currently) on the research platform. Considering the flexibility induced by the competition theme, regarding the area and type of intervention, our team’s proposal was a trio consisting of a visual scenario of a business neighborhood in Măgurele in 2035, a suggestive image of a mixed scientific exhibition and congress complex, and regarding the urban layout – only a sketch with a set of urban equipment at a macro scale and a possible disciplinary development of an international university campus.

Several key design principles for sustainable buildings and biologically-anthropic symbiotic urban systems were suggested in our team’s proposal, illustrated in the submission memorandum (pg.2):

• Integrating technologies developed on the local platform (through technology transfer from the research project to large-scale manufacturing)
• Integration of intelligent, contemporary, or developing technologies;
• Polarization of international research and innovative business communities;
• Architectural interfaces and urban interfaces that achieve energy self-sufficiency through innovative construction processes
• Flexibility of the project’s design addressing research facilities
• Easy access to the area for professionals and residents/citizens;
• Simpler or self-financing, through smarter design, according to research and grant requirements of the EU;
• Implementation of the international project PR/marketing/social impact;
• Holistic thinking and sustainable design, inclusive and ethical for future regions

Similarly, we focused on a series of subsystem components considered essential for defining the anthropogenic urban-architectural space in 2035 in a more balanced, congruent, rather than competitive relationship with the surrounding environment.

1. Multifunctional or green interfaces for architectural objects, utilities, and urban furniture.
2. Fluid, mixed, and interconnected mobility, including riverine.
3. Focusing on urban regulations, for the horizon of the 20 years, which restricts consumption in favor of sustainability and resilience, in the background of the transition to positive energy buildings.
4. Waterfronts and riverbanks: mobility, connectivity, leisure time, energy, purification
5. Towards energy independence – through clean energy.
6. Education to improve the environment and sustainability. Governance and partnership.

Several stages of the design process are illustrated, showing how the initial rough proposal evolved into the final version submitted for the competition.

The proposal also included several other considerations, such as an energy autonomy scenario, through energy production locally by a grid with points formed by the architectural interfaces, and a vision for the riverbank perimeters based on mobility, connectivity, leisure time, and clean energy.

The core concept was the continuation of development based on research, through the implementation of innovations and technologies studied and tested, even in the present, within the building envelopes and within rehabilitated buildings (retrofit): “We chose as our mission to highlight the Values, Inventions, and Achievements of high technology in Măgurele – Laser Valley – transferring them from international research teams, academic groups and universities, to industry, the private sector interested in further development, and, not least, providing access and knowledge to the general public (from Bucharest and beyond), involving and empowering the local population through services and activities, on a territorial canvas that INTEGRATES the developed technology.”

More than a high-tech cluster, Laser Valley 2035 could be an example of European-level cooperation and scientific cooperation. It should provide the local and international community with a visionary, enlightened future, an example of how learning and innovation environments can sustainably and resiliently lead civilization and society in a certain place.”

A series of key design principles for sustainable and symbiotic bio-anthropogenic building systems were suggested in our proposal, illustrated in the memorandum submitted for the competition :

• Integrating technology developed on the local platform (through technology transfer from the research project to large-scale manufacturing)
• Integration of intelligent, contemporary, or development technologies;
• Polarization of international research and innovative business communities;
• Achieving energy self-sufficiency through innovative construction interfaces
• Flexibility of the project’s design addressing research facilities
• Easy access to the area for professionals and residents/citizens;
• Simpler or self-financing, through smarter design, according to research and grant requirements of the EU;
• Implementation of the international project PR / marketing / social impact;
• Holistic thinking and sustainable design, inclusive and ethical for future regions.

Likewise, we focused on a series of subsystem components considered essential for defining the anthropogenic urban-architectural space in 2035 in a more balanced, congruent, rather than competitive relationship with the surrounding environment.

1. Multifunctional or green interfaces for architectural objects, utilities, and urban furniture.
2. Fluid, mixed, and interconnected mobility, including the river.
3. Focusing on urban regulations, for the horizon of the next 20 years, which restricts consumption in favor of sustainability and resilience, in the background of the transition to positive energy buildings.
4. Waterfronts and riverbanks: mobility, connectivity, leisure time, energy, purification
5. Towards energy independence – through clean energy.
6. Education to improve the environment and sustainability. Governance and partnership.

The same sequence of design stages, from a different angle of the business area boulevard, exemplifies the completely different profile that the voids, setbacks, and insertion of vegetation in the boulevard profile and the perspective point create, from a model of constructive mass and real estate development focused on maximizing square meters, to an example of mixed interfaces, focused on the comfort and increased or improved productivity of users through natural components, closer to the biomimetic building model of Michael Pawlyn or the intensely green urban character promoted by cities like Boston or Singapore.

In addition, other areas we focused on in our solution included an energy independence scenario, achieved through local energy production by a grid with points defined by the architectural interfaces, and a vision for the riverbank perimeters based on mobility, connectivity, leisure time, and clean energy.

\”Considering a 2035 horizon, such building interfaces and general infrastructure should become a machine for the environment, cleaning water, air, and soil through their interfaces, actively improving the lives of its residents, like a body that heals itself.\” (Memorandum Proposal, pg.8/9)

Furthermore, other considerations were incorporated, such as a scenario for energy autonomy through local energy production via a grid with points defined by the architectural interfaces, and a vision for the riverbank perimeters based on mobility, connectivity, leisure time, and clean energy.

\”This curtain contributes to controlling the interior environment, purifying the air during ventilation, and illuminating the building\’s exterior. The curtain will function as an interactive epidermal interface, exchanging information with the external environment. The envelope is intended to be a new type of curtain that will include perforated aluminum tubes mounted perpendicular to the glass facade. Each tube contains an intelligent decision system, produces and stores the energy necessary to perform the proposed functions, and also provides controlled air exchange between the two media. […] The purpose of the project is to advance environmental science by creating ecological devices capable of reducing a building\’s energy consumption by performing certain functions of the device/apparatus.\”