aquatecture

Buildings and Cities Designed to Live and Work with Water

by Robert Barker and Richard Coutts

© Robert Barker and Richard Coutts, 2016

Published by RIBA Publishing, part of RIBA Enterprises Ltd, The Old Post Office, St Nicholas Street,
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Over our years of practice and research into
water-related design and masterplanning,
we have had the privilege of meeting some
of the world’s true pioneers, forward-thinking
individuals and experts in this field.
We begin by thanking the Royal Institute of
British Architects and RIBA Publishing for
producing this book. We would also like to
thank the RIBA for recognising the value of
our research work through the President’s
Award for Practice-based research, firstly for
the LifE project and later the CAN project.
These awards identify the importance of the
architect’s role in research and help to secure
further funding.
We would like to thank all of the LifE team for
their valuable contribution: The Building
Research Establishment (BRE), in particular
Dr Stephen Garvin and his team, who we have
continued to work with over the years and with
whom we are now working, alongside Aquobex
to deliver a prototype flood-resilient building
and test facility on their Innovation Park; Simon
Harris, director of Sweett Group who
consistently produces the cost assessments for
every off-the-wall research idea we have;
Fulcrum Consulting; Halcrow; and LDA-design.
We would like to thank some of our worthy
supporters over the years; without their time,
information and expertise we would not have
been able to write this book: Professor Chris
Zevenbergen (UNESCO-IHE and Duravermeer,
Netherlands); Associate Professor Elizabeth
English (University of Waterloo, Canada.
Formerly Associate Professor – Research at the
Hurricane Centre in the Department of Civil
Engineering at Louisiana State University);
Dr Jessica Lammond (University of West
England, Senior Research Fellow – Flood
risk management); Rachael Hill, Aaron Dixie
and Phil Rothwell (UK Environment Agency);
Martin Roberts and Robbie Craig (Defra,
Flood-risk Management Team); Julie Sharman
and Marcus Chaloner (Canal and Rivers Trust);
Belinda Littlewood (Executive Director, NSA
New Orleans Advisory Task Force); Richard
Ashcroft and John Blanksby (Pennine Group
and University of Sheffield); Koen Olthuis,
(Waterstudio, Netherlands); Marnix de Vriend
(Aquae, Netherlands); Anne Loes Nillesen
(Defacto, Netherlands); Paul Schaffer (Ciria);
David Balmforth (ICE); and Ripen Kalra
(sustainability and risk-management specialist).
Valuable contributions to the book have
been made by members of the practice, in
particular: Riccardo Pellizzon, Owen Lambert,
Robert Pattison, Edward Barsley, Amy Dron,
Roger Ashman, Radim Tkadlec, Philip Ryan,
Mariana Sousa and Ruth Deans.
Thanks also to friends and family who have
provided photographs for use in the book.
Thanks to Jesus of Tropart (Madrid) for his
input on the cover design and to 3 Fish
(London) for their contribution to the graphics
of the book.
Special thanks are due to the reviewers of
this book, whose expert knowledge and
comments on its structure were invaluable.
Bill Gething (Professor of Architecture at
the University of the West of England), Mike
Russum (Birds Portchmouth Russum Architects,
London) and Dr Jessica Lammond (University
of the West of England), our thanks and
admiration go out to you.
We send particular thanks to Dr Ken Yeang,
who provided the foreword to this book. His
continued friendship and support over the
years are deeply valued.
Thank you to Jessica Barker and Alejandra
Coutts-Lopez.
And finally thank you to our pioneering clients.
It is due to their faith in the research, and
investment in commissioning the pilot projects
we have designed for them, that the research
gains credibility, becomes a reality and offers a
new and practical solution for the future.
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iv
Robert Barker and Richard Coutts
BA Hons, MA Arch (RCA), RIBA BA Hons, Dip Arch, M Arch, RIBA
Robert Barker and Richard Coutts came
together to form an architectural company
in 2003. Their shared interest in sustainable
architecture and masterplanning motivated
them to improve the environmental standard
of buildings and reduce the impacts of climate
change, particularly flooding. The practice
has now become internationally recognised
for innovation in flood-resilient and adaptable
architecture and spatial planning. Their work
demonstrates the leading role that architecture
can play in addressing these crucial issues.
Barker and Coutts developed the idea of
using development to tackle flood risk and
reduce its environmental impact in 2004.
Initially known as the Concept City, this was the
foundation of the LifE (Long-term Initiatives for
Flood-risk Environments) project, which now
underpins much of their work. The research,
which was first presented at the Building
Research Establishment (UK), led to invitations
to present the ideas all over the world, from
the World Water Forum in Mexico City, to
the Netherlands, Paris, Jakarta and New
Orleans. This became a landmark research
project for the duo, when in 2007 they secured
UK Government funding through the Defra
Innovation Fund. They were subsequently able
to test the ideas in detail with three innovative built or approved, demonstrating the validity
masterplans and an expert team including the of their ideas. They continue to push the
BRE, Halcrow, Cyril Sweett, LDA-design and boundaries of innovation with further research
Fulcrum Consulting. and architectural projects on land and on
water.
The authors have both gained considerable
expertise over the years, cementing The partners deeply value the art of hand
their reputation as leaders in the field of drawing in communicating concepts and many
water-related architecture. They went on to win of the drawings in this book are by the authors
a competition for a flood-proof pilot project themselves.
in Dordrecht, the Netherlands; here they first
developed the ideas of building typologies
that respond to the level of flood risk and
amphibious housing set within the ground.
This became the precursor for their design of
the UK’s first amphibious house, which was
completed in 2014. They have subsequently
created a comprehensive Waterspace Strategy
for the Liverpool South Docks; designs for
entirely floating eco-villages in Glasgow and
London; plans for the Eiland Veur Lent in the
Netherlands; and a number of flood-resilient
properties. Their work has been recognised
with national and international awards and
many of the LifE concepts adopted into
guidance in countries around the world. Many
of the concepts that were developed in the
early years of the practice have now been
v
vi
CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
FOREWORD viii
INTRODUCTION x

01 WATER: Friend or Foe? 1

02 LifE: Integrating Design with Water 47

03 Waterfront Planning 107

04 Hydroscapes 131

05 Water and Energy Infrastructure 165

06 Aquatecture: Flood-proof buildings 197

07 CASE STUDY: Building > Amphibious House 219

08 CASE STUDY: Neighbourhood > Seine Gare Vitry 235

09 CASE STUDY: City > Shanghai, Future City 251

10 CASE STUDY: Regional > Nijmegen and Lent 263

CONCLUSIONS 278
GLOSSARY 280
REFERENCES 284
IMAGE CREDITS 302

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FOREWORD
This book is about how water is an important
and vital factor influencing architectural
design, particularly sustainable design.
Water is about life. Without water no
organism survives. Astrophysicists, when
they look at the planets in the sky searching
for extra-terrestrial life, look for signs of
water because where there is water, there is
organic life.
This instructive book informs the architect
on designing with water and for water. For
instance, designing with water involves
ensuring sustainable drainage to enable the
rainfall that falls on the land to stay on the land
instead of the runoff flowing across impervious
surfaces to the drains, then to the rivers and to
the sea whereupon it is ‘lost’ forever for use by
human life.
This book reminds us that we need to regard
water as a precious resource not to be wasted.
Even if we have abundant potable water when
viii
we turn on the tap at our homes, it is crucial
for a sustainable future to manage our water
cycle carefully to close the loop as much as
possible. For instance, by treating and reusing
grey water (albeit in a down-graded use) by
harvesting rainfall, and by sustainably returning
surplus surface water and treated wastewater
back into the land to recharge the aquifers
by means such as bioswales, rain gardens or
detention ponds.
Besides the grey water, the black water
from our sanitary systems should be
treated by natural (non-mechanical) means
such as through ‘constructed wetlands’
where the black water passes through a
series of polishing ponds before it can be
safely returned to the groundwater in an
acceptable state.
My own work on ecological design involves
developing an indeterminate framework
for ecomasterplanning, which involves the
biointegration into a whole of four strands of
ecoinfrastructures. One of these four strands is
water, requiring effective water management
seeking to close the water cycle.
The second strand includes the ‘green
ecoinfrastucture’ being the ecology of the
locality to create an ecological nexus as a
continuously-linked green infrastructure
from the built forms across the landscape
to the natural hinterland if possible. The
aim is to enhance biodiversity and to rectify
earlier human-caused fragmentation of
existing ecosystems and landscapes. This
needs to be integrated closely with the water
ecoinfrastructure.
The third strand is our ecoengineering
ecoinfrastructure, necessary for our
contemporary life and economies, that must
now be ‘cleantech’. We need to achieve a
zero energy, zero waste and carbon neutral
built environment without using excessive
technologies, thereby reducing the
embodied energy in the engineering system
itself. Integral to this process are the water
reticulation systems in our built environment
and cities.
The fourth and final strand to be biointegrated
is our human society and its activities, which
calls for significant changes in our lifestyles.
Industrial and economic systems need to be
sustainable, which demands a less profligate
and wasteful way of life, and this includes
reducing wastage of water as well as closing
the loop for all emissions. This involves a
reduced use of non-renewable energy and
material resources, which necessitates changes
to the way we move by private vehicles, to the
food that we eat, and our industrial production
and distribution systems. We need to radically
change our economies into ones that are not
based on constantly increasing consumption
where a basis means of existence has been
achieved.
Briefly stated, we need to biointegrate all
these four strands of ecoinfrastructures,
including water, into a whole in a benign and
seamless way with the natural environment.
Water’s ‘blue ecoinfrastructure’ in our
framework dovetails with Aquatecture’s
approach. Discussed here is a modus operandi
for design whereupon water is regarded as
a crucial and vital factor equal with all other
aspects of design. This book articulates
the design of the built environment’s water
ecoinfrastructure and brings together the
technical and the inspirational. It provides
an invaluable resource for architects, urban
designers, planners, sustainability experts and
all whose work impacts on the environment
and water conservation.
Ken Yeang, London, 2014
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