WIND - SOFT MATERIAL - BODY Malene Husum
Wind is an invisble meteorological phenomenon. It is a movement in the air and can only be seen when it moves other visible things as the water, trees, leaves etc. It can although still affect and be felt by the body. It can make the temperature seem colder than it actually is and thereby make you freeze or cool you down on a hot summerday. It depends on the wind speed, the wind direction in proportion to your body and how the outdoor room you are located in is organized. Beside affecting the skin/ body temperature the wind also affects the hearing, your mouth and eyes it can dry up your mouth, it can be really noisy and it can makes your eyes water. As the affect of the wind on our body often has a “negative� influence you often cover yourself against the wind and this covering is often made by static materials to make lee whether it is a fence or it is a actual house. But what happens when you are covered by a soft materiale let say some kind of textile? Will it give you the same kind of lee as a static material does and how will it effect your experience of the environment outside the cover.
Wind Wind is a movement of air and an invisible meteorological phenomenon. Wind occurs when the sun is heating up the ground which creates hot air which has a lower density than cold air and that makes a low pressure area which is filled with new air from all directions(1). It can appear in diffent intensities and thereby it also effect the environment in many different ways depending on how intensive it is. It can be comfortable if it is like a breeze on a sunny day and be very uncomfortable if it has a high intensity in the winter which will make the temperature seems a lot lower than it actually is. Furhtermore the wind can also make things move as for example make waves in the water, make the flag flap, blow leaves around etc. and in that way actually be kind of visible even though the actual wind as a meteorological phenomenon is invisble, as mentioned.
Three principle of the wind is: - The wind velocity is slower near the ground than higher in the atmosphere - Wind tends to continue moving the same direction when it meets an obstruction - Wind flows from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure(2) You will primarily feel the wind when you are in an outside-room and then it can be felt in very different ways* depending on the intensity of the wind as mentioned and how the outside-room you are staying in is organized. Streets: If there is a high building and a small gap to the next building it will make low pressure wind and thereby lee. If there are low buildings with large gap between them it will make high pressure wind and thereby it will be more windy. Around buildings: - High pressure occurs on the windward side and low pressure on the leeward side - If you increase the height of the building the wind patterns shows very similar behaviour when it flows above the building but the length of the wind shadow(low-pressure eddy zones with decreased wind speeds) increases proportional. - If you increase the building widths the length of wind shadow increases to but not in direct proportion. It takes a large increase in the building width to create a small increase in wind shadow length. - Depending on how steep the roof is the larger wind shadow zone will occur. - Depending on the orientation of the building different and more or less eddy zones will occur
1) www.wikipedia.com 2+diagrams)“Sun, wind & light - architectural design strategies� by G.Z. Brown and Mark DeKay
Body temperature effected by the wind On the body wind feels almost always fresh and cold. The temperature of the body is often higher than the temperature around you unless you are staying at a very hot place. Thereby the difference between you body temperature and the temperature at the place you are retaining in decides whether you will be freezing or sweating but beside the actual temperature the wind also have a big impact. The key of why the wind have this big influence on how cold/hot you are feeling is that your body warms up the air around you but if it is windy the air which is in contact with your skin will constrantly be blown away and replaced with lower-temperature air. It is for the same reason that we wear clothes because it help trap the warm air around your body. (3) Furthermore is the feeling of the wind also determined by the direction of the wind in proportion to your body - tailwind or headwind - because you often never have your face protected which thereby make headwind feels a lot colder than tailwind where you in some kind of way cover yourself with your back. Eyes If you are facing the wind it can make your eyes water Mouth If you are facing the wind it can dry up your mouth. Hearing Wind have an impact on your hearing. It can make a lot of noise when it passes through your ears. The noise will increase and vary as the wind speed increases . Beside the wind velocity the intensity of the noise also depends on if you are facing the wind or not because when the wind has direction towards your face it will pass directly through the opening of your ear whereas when you have the wind in your back the wind passes through the back of your ear Forced movement by the wind If the intensity of the wind is very high it can affect the movement of the body physically since it makes is hard and even sometime almost impossible to move forward or force you to walk/bicycling etc. faster.
Wind created by the movement of the body Even though it is a windless day wind can still be felt by your body in that way that if you are fast-moving (for example running, bicycling etc.) you will create your own wind which only can be felt by you and the nearest surroundings.
3) http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/08/17/wind-and-temperature-why-doesn/
No wind
Strong wind
Tailwind
Headwind
Covering Materiality The fabric - polynilon: - Blank surface - Water-resistant - Partially transparent - which will give an experience of a fluid transition between the inside and the outside and allow natural light and sounds to get through the cover - White(in this example) - which reflects the light and thereby makes a better indoor climate. - Soft - flexible - can be outstreched in various scales and thereby give different forms and expressions Loose cover - wind - transformation
Open/closed Changed by the wind
Transparency
Water-resistant
When the wind sets the air around you in movement it affects the body temperature because it replaces the warm air around you -warmed by your body heat- with lower-temperature air. Therefore you want to be in lee of some kind of cover. When this cover is made by polynylon - a soft material - it will be manipulated by the wind more or less depending on how outstreched the material is. If it is loose it will flap and be formed by the wind which will affect the body since it will make noise and movement around you. But even though it is loose it will still cover the body for the wind from the other side of the cover as long as it is attached to enough points. However the movement of the material could affect air and thereby make new wind behind the cover which thereby would make you less protected. Whereas if the material is streched it will make totally lee. Loose or streched this kind of cover of this material has several effects on your experience of the environment; sounds is able to travel throgh the cover, natural ligtning is allowed to get inside because of the transparency of the material and at last you are able to see shadows of the things outside the cover which thereby also makes the transition between the inside and the outside more fluid.