MEGAPORT : architecture in infrastructural environments

Abstract

Site: Arabian Sea, major region for container shipping bulk breaking. World trade is growing at a rate twice the world's economy. The assembly and customization of traded goods are increasingly decentralized around the globe. The frequency of their transportation and exchange is increasing. The phenomenon is of container freights, specifically: transshipment. Trans-shipment ports are no portals to cities, but are increasingly becoming autonomous global entities. The ports are mere switchboards, an exchange mechanism between ships. Transshipment is the fastest growing shipping market. Ships are getting bigger. Ports are expanding and dredging deeper, as they struggle today with overcapacity. New terminals are built, as economies of scale reach saturation in existing ports. The form of the global infrastructure is changing. In response, a new infrastructural move is necessary: a Megaport for transshipment. The Megaport is a transshipment port solely for ultra large containerships. It affords an economy for such transoceanic ships to remain in sea, and for local ports to be served through feeder ships. The Megaport is self-sufficient, autonomous and off-shore. In this colony of globalization, an infrastructural architecture is absolutely necessary.