Architecture Australia Prize for Unbuilt Work (Shortlist: SuperFloater)

Prize

Description

Floating Offshore Wind Power is a key element of the shift to decarbonized energy production necessary to address the climate crisis. Key to achieving decarbonization of the energy sector is the cost-competitiveness of renewables measured via the Levelized Cost Of Energy [LCOE]. ‘Super Floater’ is both a design and a design process for Ultra-High Performance Concrete floating wind turbine platforms. ‘Super Floater’ lowers the LCOE of Floating Offshore Wind Power by enabling floating platforms that cost less to build and maintain; have longer service lives and reduce Capital Expenditure [CAPEX] and exposure to volatile steel markets. The approach may also open the possibility of larger floaters which have generally also resulted in lower LCOE. Additional societal benefits include local employment; reduced transport impacts and lower embodied and operational carbon.

The project’s innovation results from the combination of three main aspects:

01 - The use of Ultra-High Performance Concrete [UHPC] for Floating Offshore Wind Power in combination with 02 and 03 below.

02 - A multi-stage digitally-augmented design process that includes topological optimisation, structural and naval simulation, and fabrication-aware form-finding in tight feedback loops.

03 - A novel fabrication approach for complex doubly-curved branching nodes that in combination with conventionally constructed straight sections has the potential to unlock a commercially viable pathway to construct the forms developed by 02.

Texas Wind Towers, a startup-enterprise pioneering the development of floating wind tower technology, collaborated with supermanoeuvre and Altair, a software and consulting company, to develop an advanced workflow for the design, validation, and optimization of floating wind tower structures via computational design, topological and structural optimization technology and naval architecture software.

The AA Prize for Unbuilt Work seeks conceptually rigorous, inventive responses to contemporary architectural issues. Its purpose is to promote debate and to generate ideas about architecture by rewarding compelling work in its conceptual stages.
Degree of recognitionNational
Granting OrganisationsArchitecture Media