The HYBRID[GE] project has won the inaugural Cambodia 2015 architecture competition. The project proposed a sustainable model for the floating village and wildlife biosphere of Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, where a growing population and various disease epidemics are threatening the livelihood of the community.
The competition was organised by Eleven, a company that advocates for design-led solutions by arranging competitions that target worldwide problems. Its brief for Cambodia 2015 was to come up with a sustainable model that considered the medical, ecological and environmental factors that needed to be addressed in order to revitalise the embattled floating village.
The HYBRID[GE] project, submitted by a group from Thailand, addresses the matter of polluted water with a simple water treatment process that produces 100 watts of clean water for one hour per day.
The floating bamboo housing model is designed to accommodate four adults and three children and is supported by a green energy system that is powered by waste. All human and kitchen waste will be processed through a communal anaerobic digester system, which is able to cater to ten households. The system turns waste into biogas, a renewable fuel that can be used as an energy source. The material that remains when the process is complete can be used as fertiliser for community farms, which will serve as a base for healthcare and education units.
