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Atmospheric Architectures
A collection of recordings, experiments, tests and proposals made at Kunstakadamiets Arkitekturskolen, Afd2, EK1, Architectures of Persistent Transform Christopher Paxton September 2012 - June 2013
Abstract ATMOSPHERIC ARCHITECTURES Air as Material In Le Saut Dans le Vide, 1960, Yves Klein explores air as an immersive and active medium. The photograph captures the artist leaping into the air from a high ledge. His body is surrounded by air. He attempts to experience it haptically and viscerally. He writes, “My walls of fire, my walls of water, like the roofs of air, are materials for the construction of a new architecture. With these three classical elements, fire, air, and water, the city of tomorrow will be constructed...” Like Klein, this project considers air as a material, with characteristics of directional force, temperature, humidity, charge, pressure, aroma. Movement between these particular air qualities may affect our experience of space through our somesthetic senses, while our perception of light and sound may be manipulated by weather phenomena - fog, mirage or shadow zones. Tempering Environments Another point of departure may be found in Reyner Banham’s ‘e Architecture of the Well-tempered Environment” written in 1969, in which Banham explores the impact of environmental engineering on the minds of architects and laments the disregard for energy concerns in architectural education, embarrassed by its omission. Banham considers the careful conditioning of atmospheres to be a fundamental purpose of architecture.
Compared to 1974, environmental concerns have a far greater significance in contemporary building practice, however in such a way that has only made buildings more hermetic, enclosed systems. In pursuit of passive or ‘green’ architecture, designers are constrained by U-Values, ensuring envelopes of increasing thickness and insulation, isolating buildings from dynamic external weather conditions, in order to conform to building regulations and attain commendable energy ratings. Today, there is a growing indifference to variance in atmospheric character as architects seek only to enclose air systems and maintain single optimal conditions.
Proposal This architectural project challenges the hermetic nature of many contemporary buildings. Instead, it proposes an open system of chaotic flux in which atmospheres affect each other in a single, dynamic and open system. The Recharacterisation of Schlossplatz The design proposal is an attempt to recharacterise Schlossplatz, a notable but currently redundant wasteland site in the heart of Berlin. The scheme may be seen as an alternative to the anticipated Humboldt-Forum, implementing a contrasting approach but with comparable ambition for global outreach and exchange of world cultures The recent plight of Schlossplatz is notorious in Germany. At the very heart of Berlin, the site has, for many years, been symbolic of the city’s dynamic transformations; The original heart of the city, residence of the 17th century Prussian King, place of
protest, political announcements, ruinous Allied bombings, location of the DDR’s Palast Der Republik during the years of divided Germany. Since 1994, the site has remained a vacant wasteland, though in 2008, the city announced plans for the Humboldt-Forum, a cultural museum and university institute, housed within the reconstructed facades of the old King’s palace. The plans are controversial. The proposal has been rejected by many locals and architectural critics who question the relevance of the reconstructed facades, the high cost of the project and the disregard for the successful social and cultural function of the previous DDR Palace. Anti-Place-Making Instead of reconstructing the facades of the 17th century Stadtschloss and memorialising a certain era of history, it may be more appropriate to introduce an unfamiliar context, in this way extracting the memory of place from Schlossplatz. The introduction of extreme climates in close proximity, will manifest the unexpected, the odd and sublime, instigating a new familiarity with the surrounding context. Distributive Atmospheres Alongside urban densification, there is a simultaneous dislocation of large cities in more developed countries. The fragmentation is driven by highly-developed distributive systems - electrical supply, rapid transportation and high-speed internet - that allow freedom of location: The ability to be everywhere and still be anywhere..
A distributive infrastructure of climates may subvert this pattern, with the ability to recreate specific atmospheric conditions at a large scale, independent of geography. An architecture that organises climatic proximities and possibilities: explore the rainforest for 20 minutes, ski for an hour, pass through the savanna for 5 minutes then return to Berlin’s temperate climate. Atmospheric Landscape The design orchestrates an atmospheric landscape of alpine tundra, savanna, tropical rainforest and hot desert climates across Schlossplatz and Marx-Engels Forum, in central Berlin. Through a mechanical process, a series of specific refrigerant towers direct the extraction and insertion of thermal energy and water vapour, modulating local climatic characters, while a lightweight, transparent buoyant canopy entraps rising hot air masses and controls the level of enclosure. The proposal situates unfamiliar climatic programmes in close proximity; a subterranean ski slope, a botanical garden, a zoo, a beach, an ethnological museum and a thermal spa. A promenade connects these interventions and curates a climatic route across abrupt and extended atmospheric thresholds, climbing through vapour clouds to the hottest air masses at high level and descending to the polar climate of the ski slope below ground.
01
September 2012
A Food Market
The Torvehallerne market building is an architectural device to prevent its produce from ‘spoiling’ - its fish from rotting, bread from going stale, cheese from moulding, ice cream from melting. Food must be kept under specific conditions and sold whilst it is in perfect condition, usually very quickly. However the building itself is also decaying - mildew is forming on the sills, metal flashing is rusting, its door handles are weathering. The decaying food market model, made solely of Torvehallerne produce, conceives food as building material - investigating ideas of material degredation, processing, fabrication and construction - be it rye bread or I-beams. The decaying food market | 1:50| pins, carrots, potatoes, cucumber, rye bread, danish blue cheese, spaghetti, apple, banana, melon.
nutrient cycle - Torvehallerne Food Market food model 1:200
Torvehallerne Food Market food model sections
Torvehallerne Food Market food model
02
September 2012
(Gaudi) Banana Peel Catenary
The project examines the potentials of banana peel as a dynamic material. As the peel dehydrates, its fibres squeeze together and twist irregularly. The peel gains a compressile capacity. The tetrahedron is constructed as a Gaudi banana peel catenary. Whilst hanging and drying, the banana skins ‘find their form’ - a shape that will be most structurally efficient when flipped. Tetrahedron | 35 banana skins, pins
dehydration casts - banana member design experimentation
hanging catenary - inverted (dehydrated) banana tetrahedron
hanging catenary - pinned joints
03
October 2012
BERLIN
Frozen Earth
The high groundwater level found in the Spree valley complicates the engineering of subterranean constructions in Berlin city centre. The current U5 U-bahn line extension is being completed using frozen ground engineering: refrigerating pipes are used to locally freeze earth and groundwater creating a structurally stable and dry envelope underground which can be excavated to form a tunnel. The proposal for a frozen ground tower is opportunistic; it utilises the current U5 extension project’s engineering infrastructure and offers a use for the excavated material from the tunnelling underneath Unter den Linden. With around 130m of excavated earth, the tower will reach approximately 40m in height. It would exist above the new Museum Insel station on Schlossplatz. After the cooling system is turned off, it would last as long as this year’s winter temperatures permit…
Berlin groundwater levels
frozen ground tunnelling process, U5 extension - bottled frozen earth
frozen ground tower proposal, Schlossplatz, Berlin
04
October 2012
Territories & Conditions
Analysis of the potential territories of study in Berlin. Consideration of groundwater level, groundwater movement, soil type, surface accessibility and temperature. And as a counterpoint to a temporal, fragile architecture, the investigation of two counterpoints: Schlossplatz | The proposed Humbolthain forum presents a reconstruction of an enduring memory - the new components are a facadectomy of the 17th century palace. Humboldthain Flakturm | An enduring material and form. A building to prevent change - to conserve its interior. Study of the original structure and what is left of it today after demilitarisation.
analysis and mapping of optimal surface conditions - identification of sites of study
Schlossplatz, Mitte
Humboldthain Flakturm, Volkspark, Wedding
05
October 2012
Frozen Ground Architecture Temperature Range
The temperature range in which a frozen ground construction might exist. Consideration of the temperature differences between body, air and construction. Construction + Deconstruction The process of constructing and deconstructing an architecture of frozen ground can be dynamic; it may last a few months or days and has the capacity to be constantly changing. It is an architecture that leaves no trace. Once the cooling system is turned off and the refrigerating pipes removed, the frozen earth will thaw and return to its original condition. Animation of layered drawing.
temperature relationships required for frozen ground construction - stills of animation showing the construction and deconstruction of frozen ground architecture
06
November 2012
Body, Architecture, Air
When considering frozen ground architecture, there exists an extreme temperature gradient between the ice construction, at -15’, to the human body at +38’. This difference is much greater than standard forms of building where the architecture is a device to modulate the gradient between outside and inside to achieve thermal comfort for the user. Rather the frozen ground construction lowers the temperature conditions of the ground from +11’ to -15’. A frozen architecture offers an unusual tension between body, architecture and the given external conditions, but it offers a potential programmatically. The building could operate at thermal extremes - a ski-run and a thermal baths. The ski slopes located below ground, using the ground’s ability to insulate, and the baths above ground, heated by the sun. The building could operate using a refrigeration system.
What if the architecture could act as a refrigerator?
frozen ground and conventional construction compared - temperature gradients through body, architecture, air
reciprocal climates - ski-run and thermal baths proposal, Schlossplatz
07
November 2012
A Hot Death?
A project by Phillippe Rahm Architectes in which the climatic conditions of space, construction and body gradually merge.
08
November 2012
Temperature Potentials
Changing the temperature of our given climate allows opportunity. We have become expert in utilising the potential of temperature; increasing or decreasing the kinetic energy of the molecules in a given substance, creating a new material condition. Our lifestyle, technologies, infrastructures are now greatly reliant upon the forming of temperature gradients - 46% of global energy consumption is used for heating or cooling - for thermal comfort, fabrication, sanitation, preservation, agriculture, combustion. And it seems to be an eternal preoccupation, “…how cold is it outside? Will I need a coat?” It is intriguing to note the programmatic temperatures that exist beyond the range of room temperatures. In the extreme, we may desire saunas at temperatures of +110’, but also ski domes at -10’.
energy consumption - temperature scale
temperature scale
temperature scale
09
November 2012
Heat Death or Cold Death?
Regardless of whether or not the universe will continue to expand, it seems the naturally occurring temperature differences that exist in our universe may, at some point, disappear. A state of no thermodynamic free energy. Maximum entropy. Equilibrium. Comfortingly, this is probably won’t occur for at least another 10^11 solar masses, but does it affect the way we think about our use of heat energy? Of course, we must aim to harness waste heat wherever possible, but there are other considerations: Should we work at a smaller scale - closely around the given climatic temperature range, or work in extremes, at a larger scale? How can heat energy be stored? Can it be distributed as a commodity, like electricity or fuels?
How does architecture deal with inevitability?
10
November 2012
Thermal Building Programmes
What could the potential be in fabricating hot and cold climates? Can a subterranean ski slope do more? - offer new programmes, form new connections and become a valid piece of infrastructure? The heat extracted from the ground can be used at the surface - in a steam power plant, a hot air transit system and for leisure. How would this affect the city? Proposal for Schlossplatz, Berlin. Plans and sections, 1:2000. Thermal Infrastructures Then a larger scale. A linear infrastructure capable of providing the thermal potential, hot or cold, for areas of central Berlin. The large amount of energy required to create these distinct man-made climates is offset by their utility, effective capacity and efficiency at large scale. The city’s needs are provided for: Thermal comfort, sanitation, preservation, leisure, transportation, agriculture, burial in a single adaptive system. How can the ground be used as a natural insulant - modulating the changing climate above ground? How can heat be stored and distributed? Proposal stretching from Tiergarten to Alexanderplatz. Plans at 1:5000.
section, thermal building programmes, Schlossplatz
subterranean frozen zone, thermal building programmes, Schlossplatz
hot zone above ground, thermal building programmes, Schlossplatz
a central thermal infrastructure for Berlin, Tiergarten to Alexanderplatz
West cold zone (subterranean) - a central thermal infrastructure for Berlin, Tiergarten to Alexanderplatz
East cold zone (subterranean) - a central thermal infrastructure for Berlin, Tiergarten to Alexanderplatz
West hot zone (ground level) - a central thermal infrastructure for Berlin, Tiergarten to Alexanderplatz
East hot zone (ground level) - a central thermal infrastructure for Berlin, Tiergarten to Alexanderplatz
11
November 2012
A Hut or a Fire?
Banham, R (1979). The Architecture of the Well-tempered Environment May we build only to modify the given climatic conditions. Architecture solely as a device to modulate temperature, humidity, air flow - maintaining thermal comfort.
12
November 2012
Skiing whenever and wherever you like‌ Skidome, Randers, Denmark by CEBRA Arkitektur, 2012. 6 slopes, 32m wide and 740m long. 3km of skiing. 100,00sqm. Capacity 3000 skiers.
13
November 2012
Thermal Dwelling
Consider a thermal dwelling, where activities are categorised by temperature and spaces are assigned thermal properties. Spaces are arranged across a temperature gradient, from +200’ to -18’. How should this arrangement exist? Fixed, on the ground? Or as a collection of air bodies - an air scape? Or radially, in spheres with increasing levels of insulative enveloping? Perhaps it can pivot like a see-saw between its extremes, daily and seasonally, depending on the external climate.
a thermal dwelling - programmatic arrangement by thermal requirements
pivoting temperature house
house as a refrigerator
concentric insulative layers
a heat field ?
14
December 2012
Somesthetic Senses, Temperature, Air + Water Heat Energy - The total kinetic energy of all the particles within a substance. Energy that is transferred due to a difference in temperature. Somesthetic Senses - The somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system comprising the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception (body position), and nociception (pain). The perception of tactual or proprioceptive or gut sensations, “he relied on somesthesia to warn him of pressure changes” Mirage - Naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. A mirage is caused by the proximity of bodies of cold and warm air. With differing densities, cold and warm air have differing refractive effects. As light passes from colder air across a sharp boundary to significantly warmer air, the light rays bend away from the direction of the temperature gradient. When light rays pass from hotter to cooler, they bend toward the direction of the gradient. If the air near the ground is warmer than that higher up, the light ray bends in a concave, upward trajectory.
Fog - A collection of liquid water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth’s surface. It can occur when a cold body of air is above a warm body of water. Visibility is obscured due to the reflection and refraction of light. Fog has the capacity to make visible the three dimensional outline of a light beam from all sides by the reflection and refraction of water droplets. The same effect means that shadows are also cast through fog in three dimensions. Shadow Zones - Heat, like sound, is a form of kinetic energy. Since the molecules in warmer substances vibrate faster, sound waves can travel more quickly. At room temperature, sound travels through air at 346 m/s. At freezing temperatures, sound travels at 331 m/s. A shadow zone is defined as a region with no direct path of acoustic energy, and only scattered acoustic energy will enter this zone. These zones may occur because of the proximity of cool and warm bodies of air, sound waves are refracted through these differing mediums. Shadow zones may occur beside bodies of water or nearby mountainsides - cooler air at higher altitudes mean acoustic energy is ‘bent’ upwards.
fog - mirage - shadow zones
15
December 2012
NASA Vehicle Assembly Building, Florida By volume, the largest building in the world. Dimensions of 160m x 220m x 160m. The interior is so large it is able to create it’s own weather conditions; winds are caused by air movements, mist clouds collect, rain falls on particularly humid days.
16
December 2012
City as An Organised Thermal Energy Field The city exists as a field of thermal energy systems, organised by architecture and determined by programmatic processes and functional requirements. “The city is an overlaying of many complex energy systems physical and metaphysical� - Lebbeus Woods. These are open systems, between which matter and energy are transferred. Thermal energy is the kinetic energy of molecules within a given substance. It is stored as energy potential in reservoirs and transferred by convection, conduction and radiation. We use architecture as a device to modulate and control a given energy system to provide favourable climatic conditions for a specific task or process. In this way, we create localised climatic identity and character. Using boundaries, limits, reservoirs, valves and pumps, architecture must alter the given thermal conditions (natural) and also separate energy systems of conflicting character - it is an infrastructure of an organised thermal energy field. Insertion of an Energy System The properties of matter change as their thermal energy changes. In this way temperature offers a potential - programmatic, industrial, kinetic, material. Programmatically it may be necessary to create spaces of extreme thermal conditions. (cryogenics, saunas, furnaces). The insertion of an extreme energy system into an urban environment, such as the city of Berlin, offers a reservoir with the thermal potential to drive processes and functions throughout the city.
Berlin energy fields - ‘open system’
a network of inserted energy fields
17
December 2012
Atmospheric Architectures
A network of hybridised weather systems use artificially created thermal energy (from inserted extreme energy system) to harness the potentials of - given (natural) weather conditions - its seasonal and daily variations - the spatiality of the existing built environment - and the displacement of people and matter to create localised weather phenomena of specific character: fog, rain, storm, mirage‌ These phenomena have the ability to reveal, occlude, transform spaces - affecting our perception and behaviour, and shaping the urban ecology. This encourages an awareness of the tempering of our environment and the creative capacity of the weather. From Hermetic to Atmospheric Architecture.
network of hybridised weather systems - rain (Engelbeck), fog (Potsdamerplatz), mirage (Brandenburger Tor), thermal spa & ski run (Schlossplatz), storm (Alexanderplatz)
rain, Engelbeck
fog, Potsdamerplatz
mirage, Brandenburger Tor
storm, Alexanderplatz
18
December 2012
A Subterranean Ski Slope
At Schlossplatz, in the very centre of Berlin, groundwater is at an extremely high level, barely 1.5metres below the surface. The tunnelling of the new U-bahn line is made possible by the localised freezing of saturated soil, creating a stable armature that, when excavated, will form a dry void in which to cast a concrete tunnel in situ. For this project, the atmospheric conditions and dependencies are very interesting: The integrity of the construction relies on a very specific temperature range, which if, not retained, may lead to catastrophe. It is a fragile architecture. Consequently, the internal atmosphere is very cold and humid, which offer great thermal potential when placed within the seasonal climatic conditions of Berlin. The Ski-Run Proposal explores the opportunity offered by a frozen architecture. The subterranean ski-run is positioned alongside the new U5 extension, below Schlossplatz, and its construction occurs simultaneously - using a network of freeze pipes that transform the material capacity of the saturated soil. A refrigeration system extracts heat energy from the ground to ensure the frozen conditions necessary for the ski slope. At a depth of at least 8 metres the natural insulating capacity of the ground isolates this specific atmosphere from the contrasting, surrounding climates. It must be remembered that the proposal lies within an open system – matter and energy will inevitably be transferred continuously. In this way, the interfaces between climates become unusual places of characteristic weather phenomena – the meeting of air masses, the mixing of vapours and temperatures – these are
special moments. Architecture has the ability to modulate and direct the transfer of energy and matter.
For many, the proposal has no real relevancy to contemporary Berlin.
The extracted geothermal energy is the force to characterise Schlossplatz, above ground. This energetic commodity is the currency of an atmospheric architecture.
It is perhaps happy coincidence that the Ski-Run proposal is placed underneath and amongst this prominent site which has so much symbolic and geographical significance to the city of Berlin.
The recent plight of Schlossplatz is notorious for many Germans. At the very heart of Berlin, the site has, for many years, been symbolic of the city’s dynamic transformations - a focal point which has recorded key historic events, changing attitudes, political and social developments and the arrival of new cultures.
Thus, it may be interesting to consider how a coincidental thermal reservoir and heat sink may be used to inform the redesign of Schlossplatz in 2013. It is an architecture that exerts its presence through the creation of certain atmospheric conditions.
The original heart of the city - site of the 17th century Prussian King, place of protest, political announcements, national events, bombed to ruins in World War 2, but transformed into the DDR’s State palace during the years of divided Germany.
This initial proposal situates warm climates - a thermal bath and a tropical rainforest above the frozen subterranean ski slope. The proposal starts to inhabit the Humboldt-Forum, of which only the exact reconstructed elements remain. The refrigeration system houses the East façade – a symbolic reference point.
Since 1994, the site has remained a vacant wasteland after the demolition of the Palatz Der Republik. In 2008 it was decided that the contemporary reincarnation will be the proposed Humboldt-Forum – a cultural museum and university institute, housed within the reconstructed facades of the old King’s palace. The project is controversial and divisive – the proposal has been rejected by many locals and architectural critics who question:
- The visual relevance of the reconstructed facades. - The funding and cost of the project. - The disregard of the social and cultural function of the previous DDR Palace. -The importance of the Royal Collection of artefacts which will be displayed.
The architecture challenges the hermetic nature of many contemporary buildings which, through multiple enveloping layers of high grade insulation, seek to isolate buildings from their surroundings in order to conform to building regulations. Instead, there is chaotic flux, in which atmospheres affect each other in a single dynamic system. The architecture directs and modulates the input or extraction of energy and vapour, modulating conditions. The series of microclimates have the capacity to inform the climate of the whole city.
subterranean ski slope proposal for Schlossplatz, looking West from Fernseheturm
subterranean ski slope proposal, level -1 plan
subterranean ski slope proposal, level 0 plan
subterranean ski slope proposal, longitudinal section looking North
subterranean ski slope proposal, longitudinal section looking North
19
February 2013
Dynamic Pressure Systems CITA Workshop
“Architectural practice is principally concerned with the making of a spatial proposition through the use of representations. For the architect, the making-of-information (representation) generally precedes the making-of-things (realisation) and the making-of-things is generally done by others.” In this workshop, this separation of representation and making was questioned. Design proposals were developed through a rapid iterative process of making prototypes and making representations. When overlaid, both play a role in informing the other; the development of templates and tools used for production is as significant as speculative visualisations of the structure at different scales and the final prototypes themselves. We developed a proposal for an inhabitable obstructive layer which modulates the amount of wind passing through it using a tessellated arrangement of funnels and pockets. The design borrows ideas used in the design of kites and sails – structures which are supported by the wind, a form of passive inflation. The prototypes were made from a layered plastic material which can be precisely welded together under local heat using an ultra-sonic welder. A tessellated geometry arranges three elements: pockets, funnels and tetrahedral control bodies. The pyramidal pockets catch oncoming air and ensure the structure faces the prevailing wind direction. When cut, these pockets become funnels – transmitting wind to varying extents. Finally, elongated tetrahedral control bodies
are inflated to transform the structure from a flat, concertinered shape into a 3D supportive structure, able to obstruct oncoming wind. The cutting of this armature modulates the amount of wind passing through – the deeper the cut, the wider the funnelled opening is. The digital design of the Boolean cut geometry can intelligently inform the wind transmittance and give the armature a spatial and architectural character. Once inhabited by people, the wind transmitting capacity of the structure is transformed again. It is a proposal that can exist at the scale of the body, as was our initial intent, but also at the scale of a full-size building façade element. Images describe our design process: paper modelling, prototyping, drafting, rhino, grasshopper, testing, exhibiting.
prototype development
making
exhibition
20
February 2013
Air as Material
Le Saut dans le Vide, 1960, Yves Klein Klein explores an immersive and active medium. His body is surrounded by it. He attempts to experience it haptically and viscerally. Air as an Architectural Material - Air is often considered something immaterial. It is ‘nothing’ - a neutral void. Actually it has characteristics, its own materiality, and it is the interface between us and the world. Between Body and Architecture - I am most interested in the atmospheric effects of the induced thermal energy gradient. It is in the air that thermal energy is transferred, affecting climatic systems and producing weather phenomena. Architecture has the function of tempering the environment in which we live. It must modulate an atmosphere of appropriate humidity, temperature and pressure between the natural, external (given) conditions and the optimum bodily conditions - eg 38’.
- It is this relationship that we interpret haptically through our somesthetic senses, invoking an emotional response.
- It is this relationship which may allow programmatic potential - eg a ski slope, a thermal baths, a smokehouse.
- It is these properties of the atmosphere that affect materials - the materials we use to construct the building, the materials we use as surfaces (how we design our surfaces).
- But it is the material properties of the atmosphere itself, which may affect other areas of sensory perception - visibility, audibility.
A building is an envelope for air – we are capturing a mass of it and hoping to manipulate its qualities (warmth, humidity, aroma) so that it stays this way – with optimum qualities.
Is it possible to design the atmosphere? An atmospheric architecture?
Airtube - Enclose a body of air and design it. What are the valves, surfaces, boundaries and conditions needed to create specific phenomena at 1:1.
Le Saut Dabs Le Vide, Yves Klein, 1960 - materialities of air
sources, sinks, boundaries, layers, envelopes, thresholds
air tube
21
March 2013
20’C, 50% humidity Filmic Constructions Workshop. Palmhuset, Botanical Gardens, Copenhagen The climatic conditions of the tropical greenhouse are maintained at 50% humidity and 15-20’C. On the left, the camera lense starts at 7’C, while on the right, the lense starts at room temperature. The condensing of water molecules on the camera’s lense reveals these relative temperatures. The scenes are almost static - there is no movement, no wind – save for the dripping of condensed water droplets falling onto leaves from North-side glazing. Running time 2:02
22
April 2013
Anti-Place-Making - The Re-characterisation of Schlossplatz The introduction of the unfamiliar, the unexpected, the odd, the sublime may instigate a new familiarity with the existing. At Schlossplatz, in the heart of Berlin, there is a new void. How far should a particular history be reconstructed and memorialised? Or can the void be filled by the unfamiliar? Distributive Atmospheres Alongside urban densification, there is a simultaneous dislocation of large cities in more developed countries. The fragmentation is driven by highly-developed distributive systems that allow freedom of location. Electrical supply, rapid transportation and most significantly efficient high-speed internet connection make it possible to be everywhere and still be anywhere. A distributive infrastructure of climates may subvert this pattern, with the ability to recreate specific atmospheric conditions at a large scale, independent of geography. An architecture that organises climatic proximities and possibilities: explore the rainforest for 20 minutes, ski for an hour, pass through the savannah for 5 minutes then return to Berlin’s temperate climate.
anti-place-making - distributive atmospheres
23
April 2013
Climatic Copy Paste
Considering the implications of distributive atmospheres: architectural systems which allow climatic conditions of associated specific geographies to be recreated in any one place. The atmospheres of Manuas, Innsbruck, Coober Pedy and Nairobi are recreated in close proximity at Schlossplatz, Berlin. Annual climate characteristics can be accelerated, decelerated or shifted. Their cycles may affect the characteristics of others, producing a new hyper microclimates.
Innsbruck, Manuas, Nairobi, Berlin - forming a new climatic chart for Schlossplatz
overlays mapping temperature and humidity differences - shifted, accelerated, decelerated climates
24
April 2013
Refrigerant Tower - Mechanical Climatic Systems In a refrigerant tower, a series of mechanical systems affect a temperature gradient, modulating and controlling surrounding atmospheres - creating climates of various characters. Registry - Ambient climatic conditions are monitored and recorded at a high level weather station. Temperature, humidity, air pressure and relative movement may be changing continuously. This shifting behaviour directly affects the level of refrigeration or heating of the mechanical systems. The process is monitored in a manned control room. Refrigeration - The mechanical processes of expansion and compression cause refrigerant liquid/gas to rise and fall in temperature. Heat exchangers allow heat to be extracted or inserted into separate applications. Fabricated Climates - The mechanical refrigeration cycle cools freeze pipes which control the subterranean polar climate, while heat pumps warm either tropical or savannah climates. Humidity is controlled by a separate compressor, which sprays moisture into the atmosphere. Heat Storage - The excess heat from the refrigeration is stored in large heat storage tanks until its use is required. This heat storage may be used to overcome the seasonal or daily variation of the ambient climate, but it also affords a certain creativity: The fabricated atmospheric conditions may be continuously maintained between optimum limits, allowed to vary according to the ambient seasonal patterns, or there is possibility for seasonal changes may be accelerated, decelerated or reversed.
mechanical climatic systems map
transverse section through refrigerant tower
plan of distributive atmospheres, Schlossplatz
25
May 2013
Considering the Humboldt-Forum
The proposed Humboldt-Forum will be accommodated within three reconstructed facades of the 17th century Stadtschloss, memorialising a certain period of German history. Significant interior spaces - the inner court, mall and dome are also retaine, amongst an additional programme of auditoria, shops, cafés, library, meeting rooms, offices and a top floor Ethnological Museum. It seems the Ethnological Museum is the most important addition, in line with the global outreach of the building and its new cultural significance, the other programme feels a little redundant, the usual cultural filler. Until the completion of the Humboldt-Forum in 2019, the Humboldt-Box will stand temporarily to promote the cause of the project. The actual cultural and programmatic value of the Humboldt-Box is unclear, it too is redundant and its ultimate fate is unfortunate – for as long as the Box stands the Forum will not exist. In fact, its permanence may suggest a rejection of the Humboldt-Forum proposal. As a building providing adequate shelter and useful functional spaces – café, shop, meeting space – it might be a considered relevant to repurpose this building as part of an alternative proposal to the Humboldt-Forum. The Box may act as a point of orientation to investigate the inserted distributive atmospheres. The addition of open exhibition wings positions ethnological galleries into their original climates accordingly – Arctic, Africa, Americas, Oceania. These wings would act as conductors, open to climatic conditions and transferring atmospheres back to the Box nexus.
programmatic analysis - Franco Stella’s Humbolt-Forum - Humboldt-Box by Krßger Schuberth Vandreike Architects
Humboldt-Box with additions of open wings, housing ethnological exhibition
26
May 2013
Buoyant Canopy
Physical investigations develop a series of prototypes for the design of a buoyant canopy, supported on rising hot air thermals and tethered to hot air chimneys. The canopy is designed to modulate the level of enclosure surrounding the inserted atmospheres and reduces heat loss in an upward direction. In this way the microclimates remain in balance but it is still an open energy system. The canopy layers may be developed to be double layered, inflated or baffled to direct air movement at high level. The canopy would act symbolically as a city scale thermometer, rising in warmer temperatures and falling at night to envelope and retain warmer air.
buoyant canopy simulation - candles, polythene, tape, string
buoyant canopy enclosed condition - buoyant canopy open condition
27
May 2013
Distributive Atmospheres, Schlossplatz - Iterations Mappings of temperature and humidity describe atmospheric conditions in this iteration of the distributive atmospheres proposal for Schlossplatz. Climatic types are located in well defined areas.
humidity mapping, atmospheric landscape, Schlossplatz
temperature mapping, atmospheric landscape, Schlossplatz
28
May 2013
WIP Model
The physical model describes the sectional relationship from the ski slope, below ground, to the tropical atmosphere above ground. Hot air chimneys surround refrigerant systems and heat storage and dispel conditioned air at different heights, including the very top, which controls the lowering and raising of a buoyant canopy above, modulating the enclosure of the atmospheres. It is an open system; there is an atmospheric landscape in which thresholds are soft, save for the transition between towers, which collides rising cool air from the ski slope below. This is an important crossing point.
wip model
wip model - ski slope
29
June 2013
Vertical Ground - Ethnological Museum Proposal I & II In many ways, the project can be seen as an alternative to the anticipated HumboldtForum, incorporating the similar programmes and with comparable ambition for the exchange of world cultures. In this way, the proposal now explores the addition of an exhibition of ethnological artefacts - an important function of the Franco Stella’s Humboldt-Forum scheme for Schlossplatz. The new Ethnological Museum will display Germany’s colonial collection of artefacts from around the world. Stella’s design curates the objects according to their continental geographies – Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Arctic, Antarctic - inside a series of white galleries arranged horizontally. In contrast, this design project explores an exhibition of artefacts arranged within their according atmospheres – be it the high temperatures and aridity of hot desert, freezing temperatures of polar climate or the humidity and heat of tropical rainforest. Tectonically, it is the intention that artefacts are exposed to the weather conditions for which they were crafted for, and experientially it is desired that visitors can view the world objects in their relevant atmospheres. Thus, the ethnological exhibition is now arranged across a vertical temperature gradient – vertical ground plane - from the subterranean polar climate to the hot desert climate, 40 metres above ground level. The museum is positioned across a threshold of atmospheric types, between refrigerant towers, connecting to the ski slope below.
Unintentionally perhaps, a new world order is somehow articulated. With local temperate conditions roughly at ground level, there is an ascent towards the exotic, tropics and desert, and descent to the alpine, tundra and polar climates. What does this new non-geographical positioning of Berlin mean for its people’s relation to the world? Proposal II considers a narrow open structure, conductive of the surrounding atmospheres. Light, metallic fins shield from oncoming wind and support vertical heat transfer, encouraging the stratification of temperature levels. Structure is minimal – ramps are supported across tension cables spanning between heavy, masonry piers. The masonry piers surround a neutral circulation zone – maintained at 18’ C and 75% relative humidity – in which visitors can quickly oscillate between atmospheres via lifts and stairways.
ethnological museum proposal I axonometric
ethnological museum proposal II axonometric
ethnological museum proposal II axonometric sequence - ramped exhibition - atmospheric landings (alpine, temperate, savanna, tropical rainforest, hot desert) - conductive wind break
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June 2013
Dynamic Climatic Landscape
This iteration considers Schlossplatz as a dynamic climatic landscape in which heat sources are able to move transversely and rotate to create changing atmospheric conditions. This would allow a modulation of climates, responding to the city’s potential seasonal or annual requirements – frequently or infrequently over many years. In this representation, a safari park emerges in Lustgarten, a beach is created in the Eastern banks of the Spree, Marx Engels Forum becomes a desert and a rainforest grows on the Southern edge of Schlossplatz.
dynamic climatic mechanical systems, general arrangement plan, Schlossplatz
climatic zones, April - October 2015, Schlossplatz
visualised bird’s eye plan, Schlossplatz
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June 2013
Refrigerant Towers Iterations
Refrigerant towers act individually. Each is different, shaped according to the relative amount of heat they are extracting from the soil below and their immediate material and formal context. Positioned just below ground level, a mechanical refrigerant cycle of compressors and expanders extract heat from the earth through freeze pipes. Heat exchangers transfer hot air upwards, where it is dispelled to the surrounding atmosphere through louvers between 0–15m. Excess hot air is stored then inside an upper chamber (15-40m) until it is either required once more for additional heating of the atmosphere, or it exits at 60m, through the chimney, to control the height and inflation of the buoyant canopy enclosure above.
refrigerant tower iterations, plans, section
sliding, rotating refrigerant towers - sections, rear elevation
sliding, rotating refrigerant towers - plans, elevational variation between types
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June 2013
Inhabiting an Atmospheric Landscape - Ethnological Museum Proposal III The new, fabricated atmospheric landscape extending across Schlossplatz and Marx Engels Forum may allow new building typologies to develop. Structures that encourage air transfer and the augmentation of atmospheric conditions. A third proposal for an Ethnological Museum makes use of the fabricated climatic conditions of the surrounding context. It may be seen as just one of many programmes, which are now able to inhabit the atmospheric landscape - botanical gardens, thermal spas, zoos, ski resorts‌ Regrettably, this separate element sits awkwardly alongside the rest of the proposal. Why build upwards when the towers are already there as very necessary vertical elements? How do the various programmes combine to form a composed whole?
Berlin Ethnological Museum as a separate entity inhabiting the conditioned landscape
Berlin Ethnological Museum - vertical exhibition, atmospheric conditions, mechanical systems, wind break, structure
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June 2013
Climatic Promenade - Victorian Seaside Pier Perhaps, it is the sequential exploration of various climatic types that offers the most heightened experience of atmospheric qualities and encourages bizarre and unfamiliar relationships to occur. An orchestrated pathway must pass through blurred boundaries, cross abrupt climatic thresholds, climb to all levels, offer broad orientation and reveal unusual visual connections. It must not only curate the atmospheric landscape but offer a valid infrastructural route, connecting into Berlin’s existing transport network – in this way attracting many types of visitors: leisurely pleasure seekers, interested tourists, curious passers-by, local residents or hurried commuters. Precedence may be found in Victorian seaside piers. These directional promontories escort holidaymakers above the waves, out to sea.. They position the bizarre alongside the typical – housing a vibrant mix of colourful, strange entertainments, but allowing expansive views back towards the everyday.