PL A N B E R LIN : W INDS OF TEMPELHOF “The mother of all airports” - Norman Foster As now in London, Beijing, Bangkok or Abu Dhabi, the construction of new airports has long been seen as symbolic of a city’s – and often a country’s – status on the world stage, a promise of future prosperity, a sign of progress and power. For the Nazis, Tempelhof was just such a symbol, the terminal built between 1936 and 1941 as part of Albert Speer’s plan for the renewal of Berlin as ‘World Capital Germania’ – one of the few elements of that plan to be realised. Technically and formally innovative, it remains one of the world’s largest interconnected buildings. Since 2008, it has been fenced off from the park as a site for occasional large-scale expositions, not normally open to the public and largely omitted from master plans. A building long divided and developed without overall plan, different users and uses have left a discordant layering of styles, finishes and functions This project sees Tempelhof revive itself as a playscape; an extension of the recreational airfield where kitesurfers catch the breeze along the runway upon this naturally windy site. The proposal is an intervention within the passenger departure hall to enhance it as an architectural space. This intervention aims to revive the terminal as a connector and gateway from the city into the park.
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Starting point End point Direction to surfer Acceleration
The routes and physical movement of the kitesurfers on the runway are observed from video footage taken on site and recorded in a drawing.
KIT E SURFERS OF TEMP ELHOF Apart from a few artist exhibitions, and occasional events, Tempelhof is largely unoccupied; the airfield however, is a popular recreational green space for local Berliners. Following an entire day of walking, experiencing and engaging with the site and its users, the mesmerising kites flying high above symbolised soaring elements of freedom against the gargantuan backdrop of a failed fascist regime. Local Berliners explain that the site is frequently very windy, which attract many kitesurfers who are seen gliding along the runway. The thermal gradient between the cooler open field and the warmer and more dense urban surroundings drives this air exchange. The project asks to identify a fragment that is to be studied in detail which is interesting and is linked intrinsically to the site; this becomes a study into ‘air flows’.
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Wind contour Wind speed (m/s) Wind frequency (%) > 9.0 - 9.5째C > 9.5 - 10.0째C > 10.0 - 10.5째C
The Environmental Atlas classifies the open spaces of Tempelhof as a Cold Air Producing Area with high potential for air exchange.
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As an initial experiment, gust sensitive balanced wind-flags are placed in a grid within a wind-tunnel where air is blown steadily through scaled models of Tempelhof.
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The red tails of the spinning wind-flags visually indicate the air patterns in that space. Continuous spinning indicate a vortex and is prevalent directly behind objects.
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A WIND TUNNEL IN TEMPELHOF? The movement of the kitesurfers correlate to the airflows on the field. The success of the airfield as a public recreational playscape leads to focusing a design intervention within Tempelhof itself. The intervention is to expand the airflows around the windy airfield through the terminal; a monumental physical shell as a playful testing ground of air flows. This action aims to reconnect central Berlin to the airfield through the occasionally inhabited terminal. The central departure hall and main undercover air hangar, as significant spaces along the symmetrical plan axis, are considered places of potential intervention, and the intention is to transform these spaces into a wind tunnel to extend the air flows of Tempelhof through the building. As a make-shift wind tunnel in a testing chamber, sensitive wind-flags are placed in a regular grid with a controllable electric fan at one end. Scaled models of the departure hall and air hangar are placed in the wind tunnel with a grid of wind-flags within.
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Areas of high air disturbance in the departure hall are indicated from wind-flags
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02 Computational fluid dynamics software is utilised to map the air flows as a coloured arrow diagram
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CO MPU TATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS Computational fluid dynamics software can simulate airflow in a wind tunnel environment indicating both airspeed and direction; it is commonly used in aerodynamic design. The diagram illustrates more visual representations of air patterns and turbulence zones in the impeding presence of the different columns. CAD representations of the space are drawn and imported into the software. The green colour highlights zones of steady flows. The yellow colour highlights increased wind speed. The blue colour highlights slower wind speed but as distortion and as a vortex.
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The contours of the air patterns are digitally imprinted onto perspex to generate a three dimensional model of the air flow within a scaled model of the departure hall.
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MA PPING THE DEPARTURE HALL The air flows of the departure hall as a gigantic wind tunnel are analysed and mapped using computational fluid dynamics software. In locations of vortexes and air disturbance, an abstract column is placed to maximise the air disturbance around the column. This ‘forest’ of columns are suspended in the hall from floor to ceiling. They have the same dimensions as the existing stone columns on the flanks of the departure hall and are placed on the same grid, although they do not have any structural function.
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WIND IN S TRUMENTS
As the departure hall is an extension of the airflows at Tempelhof as a wind tunnel, an opportunity to actively stimulate the space is through sound generated by wind. Suspended columns located in areas of high air disturbance become resonating wind instruments that become audible indicators of the wind speed at Tempelhof for kite surfers. An open air metal tube can vibrate at an infinite spectrum of frequencies, but at certain frequencies, the phenomenon of resonance occurs. The metal tubes of predetermined lengths will gently resonate producing a low hum. A kinetic facade panel consisting of hundreds of aluminium flaps spin when an air current passes through and reveals the air flow as a visual pattern. When they strike against the adjacent hollow central pole that they rotate upon, they generate a light percussion sound to compliment the deeper resonating bass sound of the other instrument.
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As an intervention to reconnect the city with the airfield through the terminal, instruments powered by the air flows in the wind tunnel are suspended at points of air disturbance inside the passenger departure hall
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The resonating open tubes emit a slightly discordant and penetrating choral sound covering a range of several octaves, which generate an ephemeral sonic atmosphere above the oncoming pedestrians.
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Chiming percussion flaps combine with the deeper resonating hum. Inspired by the wind-flags during the fragment experimentation, the fins generate a rippling effect visually expressing the air flow.
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Section through departure hall
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Suspended platforms around the musical columns are public exhibition spaces whilst briefly offering the public a personal moment to sit and meditate in a self-reflective space.
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Like the instruments, the platforms are suspended from the ceiling where their form is ordered by air patterns generated by computational fluid dynamics software, and are accessed by spiral staircases.
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This transitional space revives the terminal as an entrance to the airfield by passing kite surfers through an immersive atmospheric space of sound in the breeze.
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By transforming the inert monumental into a radical reuse to reactivate the space, the intervention aims to find a new place for Tempelhof in Berlin.
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