Accretion Towers

High-Rise Residential Neighborhood

2013 - Pearl River Delta - Guangzhou, China

The Pearl River Delta is one of the most densely urbanized regions in the world, carved out over millions of years by the turbulent waters of the eponymous river: a river in danger. The delta is notoriously polluted with waste and sewage disturbing the natural ecosystem, posing serious health-risks and even endangering certain animal species.

This destruction of the ecosystem is further advanced by the lack of true natural spaces along the river’s brutally hard edges. Accretion attempt to address these regional issues through three behaviors: One: acting as filters for contaminants and water purification infrastructure. Two: slowly regenerating a wild, natural zone to allow the ecosystem to thrive once again.

And last but not least: offer new high-density living possibilities. Through a slow, natural, non-brutal process, these new towers will attempt not only to protect, preserve and revive nature but to bring man closer to the endangered ecosystem.

The architecture of the towers themselves will endeavor to create a new vertical living experience inspired by landscape and topography and rejecting the vertical schism of conventional towers. Stepped apartments, sloping bridges and landscaped slabs all contribute to accentuating verticality and interaction between inhabitants on different levels. ACCRETION TOWERS are a new, skyward landscape, a different experience of living vertically.