The Tower of Life

The Tower of Life - Landmark as an Ecological Machine Tower of Life is a project proposal for an iconic tower in Dakar, SENEGAL. Speculating the active role Africa can play on a global level, leading a design agenda where ecology, biocomputation, material engineering, decentralized economy, and sustainable development triumph. It is an energy-positive construction wrapped with an onsite-printed earth membrane that operates as a living system, mobilizing an economy of resources, energy, water, air, culture, and robotics. The Tower of Life is the Architectural icon of the Ecological Era. It defines the metrics for what, why, and how architecture performs amidst a planetary-scale climate crisis. Being a precedent within the local - African - and global context, it stands as a landmark and catalyst for defusing its logics toward a new African Architecture. One that recruits local resources, economies, and ecosystems into an ‘Ecological Machine’. That is a building where materials, energy, information, biodiversity, economy, and knowledge are not only consumed but also generated. Setting the rules for an Ecological Architecture, Tower of Life understands economy and ecology as a single hybrid entity and is designed accordingly. All systems are studied and organized in harmony as a self-sustaining wholeness, creating a bioresponsive and bioreceptive module to be followed. As a context-specific landmark, the tower’s skin is constructed of 3D-printed locally sourced clay. Its cost is minimized by extraction and printing processes rather than transport and exported materials. The inner cladding system covers the tower and helps sustain a microclimate inside and around it with minimal emissions.