Archipelagos of Coolth

Knowlton school of architecture

Spring 2020

Instructor: Mohamed Sharif, Anastasia Congdon

In Collaboration with: Thomas Mahoney climate. qualities. cool down and continue with their daily activities It is a place for entertainment at the heart of the city

In the near future, where climatological shifts threaten to endanger human existence, Mies Van der Rohe’s Federal Center, in Chicago, Serves as an epicenter for radical experimentation of Coolth technology.

Through a re-understanding of commonly utilized building systems, this federal plaza will act as a prototype for processing the conversation of climate change. The federal center is a backdrop to a cold and shady community space of the future. Using the Miesian grid we create a network of pipes going around the site in a loop creating 3 different temperature zones around 3 pools that distort the grid. The pipes work as a conduit of cold fluid with geothermal cooling system that heat up in the sun as they move away from the main center of coolth, the post office with its field of cooling nitrogen pipes, only to cool down again when going back in the loop.

The site is sheltered from the sun surrounded by the Federal center buildings. Digging into the ground for increased cooling.

Three pools added. Each pool will have a different climate. Steps and bridges connect spaces with different qualities.

The existing buildings establish the Miesian grid that extends throughout the site, the pools as external objects affect the grid and distort it.

Existing post office housing the Mechanical Equipment

Pools and pipes affect the surfaces they sit in, pushing the ground in to establish their presence in an existing site