Hello Everyone! Welcome to a weird week, where I give you three episodes in one week! So, in this week, I started talking about Underwater Designs, by providing the backstory and the history of the region I am going to be focusing on in part two. I was joined this week by my cat, who decided that the only thing better than eating the cord to the microphone was sitting on the laptop and screaming into the speakers. So, to pay the cat tax, here is a picture of my little creature.
But, without further ado, please enjoy my first episode!
TRANSCRIPT:
Flippers, snorkel, wetsuits? I think we are all set for Architecture, Coffee, & Ink.
30 second Intro song
Hello, this is Hollywood C. and you’re listening to Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. A podcast dedicated to introducing concepts, detailing out designs, and tackling the architecture you might not realize the meaning behind. I’m your hostess and I am here today to start introducing you to the designs that make you wonder why.
tag line: So I ask you to brew your coffee, grab your sketch book and pen, and let’s begin.
Welcome to the BONUS episode! This is actually a rather somber weekend for me, I am aware that the majority of my listeners will probably not be aware, but in my region of America, there was actually a bunch of tornadoes. While my family and I are all okay, that is not true for everyone who lives around us and really not true for people who live in Kentucky North of us. So, I just ask that today you send a kind thought, good karma, prayer, positive vibe, well wishes, whatever to those who are/were affected this weekend. I would also ask you to take a moment and make sure that you and your family are aware of the natural disasters that could happen in your region, and have a safe place, plan of action, etc. emergency kit, even if it’s just candles or a torch/flashlight available. Also, I would encourage you to make sure you perform seasonal checks on your plants-particularly your trees, or anything that is large enough to make an impact when it falls. While fungus or tree rot wasn’t what caused the trees to fall on houses where I am, making sure to visually inspect your garden yourself every season can help. For new gardeners, and even more experienced ones, I recommend keeping a log, and documenting any new bore holes, etc. If you also have children, it actually can be a great afternoon activity one day, to get them to help you explore and document. Give them an instant camera or disposable and let them help create a field guide. And when possible, please make sure you know about all resources available in your community-relief funds, volunteer crews, etc. and donate if possible and if you feel called to. After plenty of research-so you know exactly where your money is going and why. Now again to disclaimer, I am just a grad student, so please use any advice at your own discretion-I am not responsible for any children would become equally plant obsessed as I am.
This episode actually comes at Winter Break for me, so as I said last week, I was going to do a series of fun episodes, so this morning, you will have noticed that you are getting the BONUS episode I couldn’t get out this weekend due to…. Well, everything. But! This week there will actually be several episodes released. So, another two episodes will be coming out Saturday morning at 5:00 AM. But having a series of relaxing fun episodes to finish the year off sounds amazing! I will actually be asking people for ideas, see what they want to hear about! This episode, Underwater Designs, is actually one of my favorite topics.
So when I was super young, I thought I wanted to be a Marine Biologist-I totally had a huge ocean phase, although to be fair, my entire life can basically be summed up as a series of phases that all are just different aspects and facets of design. Or at least, it always ended up being the design and architecture part of it that I kept hyper focusing on.
Nevertheless, during this phase, I just absolutely fell in love with the ocean. Once I started exploring the topics of water and design, that was it for me. It is just like every single favorite holiday together, all wrapped up. I love both the possibilities, because some of the ideas produced by think tanks are almost alien and out of this world. And other ideas, well, they just make me laugh. Super hard. Like, Shark week on a budget with only a green screen. It 100% not possible and if it ever was, I am not sure I wouldn’t stop laughing hard enough to appreciate its beauty.
If you suffer from thalassophobia, I would encourage you to give this episode a skip. I am very serious and do not just throw out trigger warnings lightly. For anyone who maybe doesn’t know it by the formal name, I mean those who suffer from a fear of the open, deep body of waters may want to skip this episode as well as the second half of this BONUS episode that will come out Saturday Morning-don’t worry, I will have another fun episode come at the same time on Saturday, so you will still have something to list to this week!
So, before we discuss a few of the designs I want to talk about, let’s discuss some advancements in ocean exploration, and lay some foundations for the terminology we need to have a firm understanding of to truly understand what the designs are targeting and why.
So, as of June 8, 2021-World Oceans Day, National Geographic has officially recognized that there is 5 Oceans: The Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Artic, and the newest, the Southern aka the Antarctic Ocean. Which is super important as it is now changing maps and the information included on them. Now, obliviously this ocean did not spring forth out of nowhere. The history of the Southern Ocean, is that it was originally just considered part of the others. While they-the academic and researchers of the world-acknowledged the existence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), there has been a rather intense debate on whether or not there was enough distinction from the rest of the oceans to be its own separate entity. Right now, the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) doesn’t recognize it according to the report from National Geographic. To put the IHO in perspective, you cannot be a landlocked state/country and be a member. From personal research and experience with the topic, I know that the idea of the Southern Ocean’s existence has been proposed multiple times in multiple reports starting around early 2000s to them. I am not currently sure not how many variations, but from my understanding, because not everyone is convinced that there is a large enough of a difference to justify the necessity of creating another individual ocean that’s basically what’s causing them not to recognize its existence. And of course, there is always the group of people who firmly believe that because they are all connected there is actually only 1, single, world ocean, with the currents just functioning together in the larger system, and should not be considered separate.
One comment I will add, that is admittedly a neutral controversial point, is that this is not the first time in history an organization has refused to acknowledge somethings existence while other another organization has. And I feel like it is a good time to point out that just because an organization or person fails to acknowledge something doesn’t negate its existence. In an extreme example, Christopher Columbus thought he was in India the whole time he was here, and it wasn’t until Amerigo Vespucci that anyone realized and acknowledged anything different. But as was also established this year, not only did Columbus, problematic person he was, not be the first westerner to land in America, but failing to acknowledge that didn’t change the fact that the Vikings were in America long before that, and the Bering Strait brought people over way before any of Vikings. There are also strains of potatoes and other produce in South America that prove that travel across the Pacific Ocean and cross cultural exchanges occurred sometime in-between the land bridge and Vikings. My favorite two things are truth and perspective. I love to challenge and change my perspective, and I love that the truth doesn’t need your validation to maintain its existence.
Weird rant aside, unlike seas, which are normally at least partially landlocked, oceans are considered through the vastness and open spaces. Which is what compounded the classification. The Southern Ocean is basically defined as being from Antarctica to the 60 degree. So, basically, take a global, turn it so that Antarctica is facing up towards you. You will notice the longitude and latitude marks, so the Southern Ocean, now includes the Ross Sea, which is touching the ice shelf closest to Australia and New Zealand, and the Weddell Sea which is around the ice shelf that is closest to the Americas. When I was in geography as a kid, and you had it label it on a map blank map, I remembered it as the Weddell Sea’s ice shelf Was Spread out. So, right next to the sea, there is a longer line along the coast that was also denoted as ice shelf, while the Ross Sea has a thicker and deeper ice shelf on a map. Just a quick trick for those in Geography. I noticed on some of the maps, they included an area by the Gerlache Strait, Drake’s Passage, Scotia Sea area, where the Atlantic Ocean actually dips into the 60 degree. For those who are curious, the importance of that particular degree, is it is also where the Antarctic Treaty region ends.
So, in addition to oceans, some buzzwords you need to drudge up in your memory of 3rd grade world geo is trench, trough, seamount, and rise. Now, the great thing about all those terms is that, all of them are the exact same landforms above water as below. So a trench is still a deep depression, regardless of whether or not water is present. A seamount, may confuse you, but it is literally just an underwater mountain. So, throw away the sea part, and you have a mountain. Okay? But what is so important, and unique is currents. And in the case of the Southern Sea, that current I mentioned before, is responsible for bringing nutrients, etc. According to google,
A Current is “a body of water or air moving in a definite direction, especially through a surrounding body of water or air in which there is less movement”
Now, in long past days, the discovery and mapping of currents allowed for better travel times. Moving too far away from currents and wind patterns, and any boats that relied on Sails and Masts, like Galleons, would often be trapped dead in the water. Now, I am not referring to ‘dead-water’, which is the phenomenon documented in1893, by the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen. The difference between the two terms is that dead-water is hyphenated and describes when the boat is stopped due to the water conditions, often times a pocket of fresh water in a bunch of salt, or vice versa. There has to be two conflicting types of water, which basically creates a pocket that causes the boat to get stuck. The other term, is like being stuck on the side of the road. You can see the water and cars rushing by you, but with your ‘vehicle’ or boat too far off of the shoulder, you can’t really drive. Undoubtably you have probably hear a multitude of horror stories and ghost tales of ships like this. When I was kid, I used to live around an area where I came into contact with a lot of sailors-whether by profession or by preference. So my teachers would tell us stories of sea going vessels that would either get stuck, or ones like the S.S. Baychimo, Octavia, and the Flying Dutchman, where after they were abandoned, caught in the current they continued to drift. Now obviously in the Flying Dutchman’s case, that’s a completely different story and depending on where you heard the original tale, it would dramatically change. One of the many versions I was told, it was ship that got stuck, tragic something occurred, and a deal was struck. The Flying Dutchman’s is Davy Jones ship. Ghost ship, and I feel like after the movie remakes, people are a lot more familiar with the Mary Celeste and the Philadelphia Experiment than ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ aka ‘The Albatross’.
Now, everyone wants to save the turtles, and you have probably heard a multitude of people talking about the dangers of plastic straws, and the need to recycle. Which is true, but I want to make sure someone, somewhere in your life has actually bothered to tell you why you need to care. Or basically, I am just going to spit out a ton of facts. By the year
2050, there will be more plastic weight then fish. You have probably heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is actually one of five floating islands of debris and garbage. Currently, it is twice the size of Texas. I used to regularly drive 5-6 hour long trips. Which is really short in America, I would often do this trip for weekends, so 10-12 hours round trip depending on traffic. It takes over that time if you didn’t stop at all, and sped the whole way to cross Texas once from the further two points away. To say that we really misunderstand the vastness of the ocean, and the amount of damage we have done, is an incredible understatement.
Right now, more than 80% of the ocean is completely unknown to us, sure, we name parts of it, we talk about during movies, and we include references like in the Micheal Bay Transformers where Megatron is dumped into the Laurentian Abyss, or the Mariana Abyss which is the deepest in the world, and according to a SciFi movie I watched one night the secret home of Megalodons. So, needless to say, one of the primary focus of revolutionizing exploration has not just been in submarines and diving equipment, but also in AUVs and ROVs. So AUV are Autonomous Underwater Vehicles while ROVs are Remotely Operated Vehicles. As you all probably guessed from the names, AUVs can programed and let go, while ROVs are often attached to either the controls directly or to the ship and then the controls. ROVs requires activate participation, with an operator, and the major limitation of the amount of cables. AUVs, require a lot of trust to be totally frank. Many times, when both are being used, it’s because it is either too deep or not safe enough for humans to reach, whether due to a temporary or permanent condition of the environment. AUVs are great for surveying, BUT the data can often times only be accessed after the machine is collected. So if the conditions become so bad you lose the machine, then the whole mission has to be scrapped. Now, many of you will probably be asking yourself right now, okay Hollywood, we put a robot on Mars and still communicated with it, and you are telling me you can’t always retrieve info from a machine in the ocean? Well yes, because unfortunately money is still an issues, and not everyone has the funds necessary or access to the technology to do that. There is also a lot of other issues, radiation, animals/sea life, creatures that use echolocation that factor in and if I sat here and spoke about the entire history of the sea exploration and mapping starting with the H.M.S. Challenger Expedition (1872-1876) that is first credited with the modern field of sea mapping, I would be here hours. Especially once I started on the People of the Sea Mystery alone, much less how I think that the H.M.S. Challenger as the starting point really fails to capture a lot of background history and study that was really important to Non-Western Society Sea Faring. On the blog, I have included two articles for ROVs and AUVs, and more importantly, if you read them, they are super short, you should really check out the references lists included in each article. One article, by Elvander and Hawkes, talks about the “Marine Renewable Sector” and mentions how the whole category can be summed up in three topics, which I am going to read directly from the paper:
“1. Offshore Wind Turbines, 2. Marine hydrokinetic (MHK) devices 3. Offshore Thermal Energy Converters (OTEC)”, OTEC’s actually occur at the sea wall, which is around the 1,000m mark, whereas the offshore Wind Turbines, and the MHKs will normally be much closer inland. Now as a field, we designers have slowly been moving into the direction of renewable sectors as a whole. Both due to in part social pressures and interests and as the realization of the finite amount of resources available. So, while many look to the stars to meet that demand, some have started to move their focus a lot closer to home, and begun to focus on the pretty much unknown oceans next to us. Now, I have no doubt, any of you could name a firm that is working on erosion control, and the most commonly taught projects in schools, or at least my school, is often the Seattle Sea wall, the work of the firm SCAPE, etc. And I absolutely love all of those projects, please sign me up. But there are also projects that are working on rebuilding and redesigning underwater tourism, Coral Reefs, and project designs. But I am afraid you guys are going to have to wait until part two comes out this Saturday at 5:00AM my time to learn all about those! As due to the length I rambled on, I decided to break up this episode into two parts! One thing I am going to do that I usually don’t is I am going to go ahead and post all of the sources on the blog tomorrow afternoon together as they stand for both episodes, normally, I separate them out, however, I will just continue to update them on both posts, as I genuinely feel having the information all together is more important. And while I may have separated the topic into 2 not just because of the length, but also because I feel the best way to handle this topic is to give yourself a few days to think it through, and digest the information.
But thank you, for tuning in, Once again a big thank you to all my listeners! A quick call to action: Please rate and review, share with your friends, neighbors, and family, your professor-whomever you think needs some architecture in their life. We again have a Facebook page and private group, both of which are under the same name: Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. The answer to the question-who is the host-is Hollywood, like the city. And second question is just your opinion, and I might just use it as a recommendation for a show with a little shout out. If you want to either be featured, or have a case study suggestion or perhaps just want to share a story of your favorite design or experience, you can either find me at Architecture, Coffee, & Ink the website is: https://architectureink.design.blog/ .
Insta is now architecturecoffeeandink! Just like the email address! Everything will be linked in the show notes. You can also email me at architecturecoffeeandink@gmail.com all spelt out without the ampersands or commas. And as always,
May your coffee mugs be full, and your ink wells never run dry.
60 secs end song re-looped.
SOURCES:
Elvander, Josh, and Graham Hawkes. “ROVs and AUVs in support of marine renewable technologies.” In 2012 Oceans, pp. 1-6. IEEE, 2012.
Negahdaripour, Shahriar, Xun Xu, and Ali Khamene. “A vision system for real-time positioning, navigation, and video mosaicing of sea floor imagery in the application of ROVs/AUVs.” In Proceedings Fourth IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision. WACV’98 (Cat. No. 98EX201), pp. 248-249. IEEE, 1998.
“About the Observatory, under the Sea Ice in Antarctica – Moo – Antarctica.” MOO. Accessed December 18, 2021. https://moo-antarctica.net/about.
“Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (Auvs) Solutions.” ECA Group. Accessed December 18, 2021. https://www.ecagroup.com/en/autonomous-underwater-vehicle-auvs-solutions?gclid=CjwKCAiA-9uNBhBTEiwAN3IlNCs-Tia-LCbTwQckCZGiHqQWaJStRi0kg-Nwy0D0koh6wErJp0_x2hoCLhsQAvD_BwE.
Betts), Ship Modeler (Matthew. “What’s the Difference: Franklin’s Ships Compared.” WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE: FRANKLIN’S SHIPS COMPARED, January 1, 1970. http://buildingterror.blogspot.com/2014/10/whats-difference-franklins-ships.html.
“Discovering Hydrothermal Vents.” Exploring Hydrothermal Vents : Vent Technology. Accessed December 18, 2021. https://www.whoi.edu/feature/history-hydrothermal-vents/explore/technology.html.
Gendall, John. “The Coolest Architecture on Earth Is in Antarctica.” The New York Times. The New York Times, January 6, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/science/antarctica-architecture.html.
Gibbens, Sarah. “There’s a New Ocean Now-Can You Name All 5?” Environment. National Geographic, September 23, 2021. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/theres-a-new-ocean-now-can-you-name-all-five-southern-ocean?loggedin=true.
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Lizzie Crook | 4 March 2021 Leave a comment. “Jason Decaires Taylor Creates Underwater Museum of Cannes ‘to Draw More People Underwater.’” Dezeen, March 5, 2021. https://www.dezeen.com/2021/03/04/underwater-museum-of-cannes-jason-decaires-taylor/.
Lizzie Crook | 5 March 2021 Leave a comment. “Man-Made Rock Pools at San Diego Bay Waterfront Double as Coastal Defences.” Dezeen, March 8, 2021. https://www.dezeen.com/2021/03/05/coastalock-rock-pools-san-diego-bay-econcrete/.
Luntz, Stephen. “After More than a Century, Physicists Explain Why Ships Get Stuck in ‘Dead-Water.’” IFLScience. IFLScience, May 12, 2021. https://www.iflscience.com/physics/after-more-than-a-century-physicists-explain-why-ships-get-stuck-in-dead-water/.
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Stamp, Elizabeth. “Why Are We Turning to Underwater Design?” Architectural Digest. Architectural Digest, April 9, 2019. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/turning-to-underwater-design.
Trieu, Rosa, Rosa Trieu is a technical writer and journalist in San Francisco, Mark de Wolf, Taz Khatri, and Jeff Link. “7 Ways Underwater Architecture Is Reaching New Depths.” Redshift EN, April 24, 2019. https://redshift.autodesk.com/underwater-architecture/.
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