Jamie Holmes - River Power

[JHolmes]

Hi all

This is my first time on this forum - this looks like a very interesting competition. Sustainability and green architecture is a passion of mine and I look forward to making a start on this competition.

I live in New Zealand and I am going to use Dart River or in the Native tongue Te Awa Wakatipu as reference for the back drop and location of my project. Te Awa Wakatipu is a rapid moving river and seems like a great place for Micro- Hydro Water Turbines. I'm pretty sure in reality one would not be able to do this on this river but I would still like to point out the great source of energy flowing water can be.

I am currently researching other alternative energy sources and methods of sustainability. Part of the reason I chose Te Awa Wakatipu as a location is because it flows through rich landscape and is a believable place to live off the grid without having to visit a town as such. I guess thats pretty extreme but thats the angle I am taking.

I have a few ideas about what I will do the "dwelling" provided. I don't plan to change it too much as I feel it works well with the New Zealand landscape already. I just want to make sure it does not look out of place. I hope to post some rough mock ups soon.

Good luck to everyone entered.

[AubreyM]

Welcome to the forums!
The scenery looks like it will be awesome in your scene.
Good luck!

[Russell L. Thomas]

Looks great for a concept. If you provide your real name I can rename your thread to meet the challenge guidelines. Good luck!

[JHolmes]

Thanks Russell

My real name is Jamie Holmes.

[jarrys]

nice to see you here Jamie

[Rod]

What an amazing location, I encourage all to do a google and check it out! Welcome to the forum. Good luck.

[rpadc2002]

welcome to the forum and good luck to your entry

[Russell L. Thomas]

Thanks Russell

My real name is Jamie Holmes.

Thanks Jamie, I renamed your thread. Good Luck!

[JHolmes]

I have managed to cobble together a rough idea of how I want the house to sit in the landscape. The house I have altered to be sitting on some rather chunky foundations. I imagine the water level in this area changes a lot and the water is moving fairly fast – In this situation anyway. So I want the house to look like it won’t get swept down the river! I have found some more info on the micro hydro turbines:

“Up to 2.4 Kilowatts per day from any 400mm deep fast flowing stream.When mounted in a stream that
flows at 15kph (slow jog), the Aquair UW produces up to 8 Amps maximum. This represents enough
power to supply a typical remote home, independent of the main supply. Even a stream flowing at 10 kph
will produce 1.5 Kilowatts per day and this output can be increased by using a 'venturi' to speed water
flow”

I imagine I will use a few to generate a decent amount of power. For the purposes of this render I will most likely have them a little out of the water so we can appreciate what they are and what they are doing. So the water level is seasonally low? I have also increased the scale but this could change for the purpose of the image.

I picture this location to be cut off from vehicle access – vehicles with wheels anyway so I lost the garage but I am currently thinking of other items to add to the mix.

Plenty to get on to!

[Russell L. Thomas]

Hey that is pretty cool, like the cartoonish quality of your preliminary.