The Pyramid Project

Pyramid Design - The Platform (Level 1)

"The Plan"

Overview

In this following drawing you can see the whole of the first level.  This is a 38.39m squared base.  We'll look at each part of it below in detail.  The top of the drawing is due East

The Theatre

The pyramid will host conferences, concerts and theatre.  Iquitos is badly in need of a theatre and it is a goal to bring good quality pantomime to the children of Iquitos by Christmas 2010... Oh no it isn't, Oh yes it is...  In addition, having some experience of amateur theatricals in my life, I hope to bring a theatre school to Iquitos.  It is a goal that the pyramid will provide theatrical entertainment of such a high standard that it draws in audiences from all over Peru

Here you can see the 15m wide stage with a trap door in the centre for concealed entrance.  The squiggly lines are curtains and these will have the traditional Shipibo Artisan design embroidered into them.  The Shipibo people are strongly associated with Amazonian Shamanism and the use of Ayahuasca.  The band pit at the front gives 1.5m of sitting height (actually it had to be sunk right down into an area that is slightly underwater).  You can see the beginnings of the wooden benches that will house the audience below.  Note that there is a security room on the right

Apartment 1

Here is the North-East corner (Top-Left) blown up...

Here you can see a VIP apartment (The 3 rooms to the left).  This is a highly secure area of the pyramid designed to house any VIPs we have staying on board.  There are 2 VIP rooms on the pyramid, the other one is symmetrically opposite in the South-East corner.  The VIP rooms are the only Air-Conditioned rooms on the pyramid (until we find a clean energy supply capable of the demand for the other 40 rooms).  The pyramid will host concerts and conferences and with excellent VIP rooms who knows who we might attract?  I would love it if Madonna would come to the pyramid and sing a few songs from Evita one day

To the right of the plan you can see the beginnings of the stage area.  The Band Room, Makeup room and toilets are there to support whatever function may be going on

VIP Apartment 2

The VIP apartment to the right is for Sting - wouldn't that be something?  I hope that as  Iquitos becomes the new California '69 of 2009 we might attract some great people out to the Amazonian jungle.  What better way for them to support the "Back to Nature" message then from the centre of the most bio-diverse region of the planet?

The Outside

Because of the pyramid's shape, on each floor there is clearly a strip around the outside that never achieves the full height of 2.71m.  This area is considered to be "outside" like an outer walkway or, on the upper floors, a continuous balcony.  On the first level the area simply leads to the water's edge with no protective balcony.  However on the levels above, plant boxes have been placed around the edges along with benches (Spanish = "Banco").  The plants will be shamanically selected and will vary in colour between the 7 floors going from red below to indigo above.  The benches provide a great place to look out at the river and to meditate from.  

All benches are exactly 44.44cm high.  This is exactly 1/55th the height of the pyramid or 1/(11x5). 11 and 5 are important numbers in the pyramid and locking them into the height of the meditation benches is to support the mediator with powerful intensions

The outside walkway is 1.22m wide and upper leaves come down to shelter such that a head clearance of 2m is maintained whilst maximum rain is caught.  All windows and doors open inwards to avoid accidents.  The diagonal, perforated, blue lines show where beams of Remocaspi go with the outside edge being at their lowest point and the point where they touch the inside rooms being the highest point for them.  (These beams hide iron angle).  The outside floor boards are Masaranduba which survives well in the rain and are angled with a slight camber to help rain water to drain.  An architectural rule of the project is that nothing, (not even an open window or tilted solar panel), is allowed to protrude beyond the basic pyramid shape as seen from outside the building

The outside walkways have actually been modelled to full size to test their usability.  With all doors and windows opening inwards the walkways work very well

The Jungle Gym

"Jungle Jim" gives Iquitos an excellent gym that is unique in the respect that it is just 10 minutes from the city centre and yet it is completely in the fresh air.  All other city gyms in Iquitos are contaminated by traffic fumes.  I have worked out in one such gym whilst the owner has come around spraying toxic cleaning fluids - even gyms in the UK often have stale air - the jungle gym has 1000s of miles of oxygen rich air coming off the virgin jungle.  The workout machines will all be handmade using hard woods and if there is anyway we can charge batteries with all that human effort we will find it!

The internal layout of the gym is yet to be decided but it is expected that there will be several areas; Floor exercises and stretching, cardio vascular (running machines etc.), muscular machines and the free-weights area.  Hopefully we will be able to bring a good quality music channel into the gym such as MTV (The sound for this will be delivered thru head phones that can be obtained on entry).  The mosquito net windows will be removed during the day to allow breezes to move thru the gym space

The Gym Office and Gym Reception are to the West below.  The lockers for gym members are just inside the gym

The inside of the gym and in fact the Internet Café  will have a jungle theme - the photos below give a feel of how this will be achieved.  We are also considering growing many types of butterflies in the building.  These will fly around freely in all the inside spaces of the building.  Rather than preventing their escape perhaps we can keep the numbers up by simply growing much more so the pyramid is a giant butterfly factory!  I need to talk to my butterfly friend about this!

The gym will be complementary to pyramid guests whilst competitive memberships will be offered to the people of Iquitos (S. 50/month).  The gym will employ a manager, a receptionist and 2 or 3 gym instructors.  The financial objective of the gym is to pay for the gym staff and machine maintenance such that the hotel guests go free.  Other objectives are to offer an excellent service to Iquitos and bring more people to the pyramid on a daily basis.  I invite local business people in Iquitos to get to the pyramid early for the yoga Sunrise Salute, have a juice, have a workout in the gym whilst dancing on the machines to MTV, go for a swim in the river swimming pool, take a shower, head up to the restaurant for the healthiest breakfast you could find in South America and then cross back over the river to start your day in the city.  We'll make all of this cost the minimum amount because profit here is not the objective

The Internet Café

As discussed above the internet café will have a very jungle feel to it by packing in lots of jungle plants.  The computers will be arranged randomly and hopefully a system will be employed where WIFI supports clients with their own laptops on site.  The technicalities of achieving high-speed internet on the other side of the river from Iquitos is not yet known but if it comes to it we will bury a 2000m fibre optic cable under the river Itaya.  Brining people into the pyramid to connect with the great world wide web is an important aspect of the project

The internet café will be faster than all existing internet cafés in Iquitos and unlike them there is a strict non smoking policy.  The financial objective is to pay for itself, maintain good clean keyboards, update equipment and to pay for the café's receptionist and I.T. person.  (The I.T. person will help maintain this website and maintain the pyramid's office computers and network)

In the bottom of the drawing you can see the main bathrooms.  The women's is bigger than the men's because of the spatial efficiency of the men's urinals.  Incidentally, rain water is used as the main water supply in the pyramid and the sewage is collected in a tank in the most North-East part of the pyramid.  The tank will be collected regularly by a waste company - this was a requirement to ensure the project has zero environmental impact.  The room in the bottom right of the drawing is a cleaners storage room

The swimming pool and theatre seating

The swimming pool is a pentagram of 7.5m sides that opens directly into the river.  Unlike swimming pools that are full of chemicals the Pyramid's swimming pool is natural and supports life.  (A few Water Lilies will be grown in there to prove this).  It is hoped that one day a dolphin may visit.  The pool has a 2m wide canal on the West side that links the pool to the outside - this is so non-gasoline boats can come right inside the pyramid.  The pool will also have two wide underwater pipes connecting the East side to the river and thus a East-West flow can be established right thru the pyramid so that the water does not stagnate

The design of the pyramid is such that if one swims out to the middle of the pyramid and looks up, the apex of the pyramid can be seen.  with a glass top (painted with depictions of the four elements) the light entering from above should light up the centre of the pyramid.  One idea being considered is hanging crystal prisms of varying heights and down the central 3m wide hole.  If these crystals some how were cut to different prism shapes or had varying refractive indexes at different heights it might be possible to control the wave length (colour) of the light entering the 7 levels.  i.e. red for the Platform, orange for Queens, yellow for Kings, green for Lions, blue for Orion, indigo for Casa de Julio and Violet in the Meditation Room

The 7.522m side marked in white below is the side of the pool.  (The outer pentagram marks where the Massaranduba floor boarding ends - this wood does not rot when subjected to water all the time)

The inner pentagram is a projection 5.431m down from the King's pentagram above

When the pyramid lands in times of low water (August - November) the swimming pool area will be cultivated into a garden with meditation benches making a perfect spot to drink a fruit juice

When maximum seating capacity is required the swimming pool will be covered over so audience benches can be added above.  The maximum seating capacity on the ground floor is 424.  (With balcony seating on the floor above the total theatre capacity is 500).  The benches will be stored under the stage when not in use

The North-West Corner

In the bottom left corner of the plan we see the male and female changing rooms equipped with showers and toilets.  The lockers are outside the changing room and in view of the gym office.  Users of the gym will probably use the lockers just inside the gym.  Note that the windows are green indicating that they are higher up then the standard yellow windows

The juice bar will provide exciting mixtures of fruit and vegetable juices (all sugar free unlike the rest of Iquitos!).  We will grow wheat grass and in time buy land and experiment with growing our own produce which will be toxin free and blessed.  There are two juice bars on the pyramid with the other one in the restaurant on the Orion level (5).  (No alcohol or fizzy drinks will ever be served in the pyramid).  The financial objective of the juice bars is to pay for their staff and pay for the fruit and vegetables used.  By keeping the profits minimal and prices down it is hoped that the juice bars alone will draw more people across the river to the pyramid

The Western stairwell bridges the boat entrance providing a nice view to ascending users.  The plants surrounding the boat entrance and reception area will welcome the guests into the pyramid.  Drawbridges provide walkway across the boat entrance

The Entrance Canal

Small boats less than 2m wide and 2.5m above water level may enter the pyramid providing that their engine is switched off and out of the water.  (Boats approaching the pyramid will turn off their engines within 100m radius to avoid noise and air pollution).  Archways above the canal will be decorated with Red flowers.  The platform level of the pyramid represents the Root Chakra.  The pyramid is considered feminine

The South-West Corner

In the bottom right hand side of the plan we see the shop which will sell genuine jungle Artisan and various other things that are associated with the pyramid's personal development course such as eco-friendly towels etc.  An area for storing shop stock is provided

The reception has a long counter which will be a highly polished hard wood with an exotic pattern.  The office provides work stations for 3 people, the hotel manager, the accountant and an assistant.  The sales operation which requires six people will probably be conducted out of an office on the mainland.  Bag storage is also provided so that we can look after guests bags if they go off exploring the jungle.  The lobby contains easy chairs and sofas

Animals

It is hoped we will have some birds, such as talking parrots around the place and perhaps 3 or 4 pet monkeys.  There will also be a guard dog or two - all animals will be unleashed and toilet trained

This completes the ground floor