Tiia Partanen - Portfolio 2022

cloud cooperative

the tiia partanen year 5 design thesis 12.05.2021 studio 02

We are on the verge of a Big Data Revolution: all facets of society are beginning to be shaped by data mining and behaviour products - constant mass surveillance, in the form of online tracking, is dangerously close to becoming the ‘new normal.’ Today, in the Web 2.0., private corporations and powerful governments hold a monopoly over all flows of information – by owning the infrastructure of the internet (the data centres, the broadband networks, the ISPs) they own the data. With our private information sold to the highest bidder and with one person’s yearly email correspondence costing 0.6 tonnes in carbon dioxide – the system, as we know it, requires an overhaul.

At its core, the commoditization of data has created a fundamental asymmetry in power between institutions and individuals: this project seeks to challenge the current data monopoly and to explore what it would mean to give people power over their own data. Envisioned through the actions of a future grass-roots movement, called the Cloud Cooperative, the project explores the phased decentralization of data infrastructure and the creation of a secure, ethical new internet. In this new system, Cooperative members can buy shares that give them access to secure cloud storage, anonymous internet browsing, and an encrypted connection. To take advantage of the Cloud Cooperative’s data farms and to

access user data, corporations must agree to a “transparency clause” in which private users must consent to having their data harvested, they must be paid for this transaction, and, finally, user data can only be processed within that specific server farm. This way, members can be secure in the knowledge that when they press “save to my Cloud,” their data is stored somewhere local, secure, and transparent.

The Cloud Cooperative also responds to the significant environmental impact of the exponentially growing data industry. Based on real technologies, such as deep-water server farms and 5D optical storage, the Cloud Cooperative proposes a three-phase process to achieving carbon-neutral data storage. The excess heat produced by traditional harddisk drives is used to heat nearby homes, server farms are submerged in deep, cold waters for passive cooling, and, in the final stage, data is engraved into near-permanent quartz glass blocks – all of this is powered by a tidal power plant, plugged into a new district heating scheme. The Cloud Cooperative has set out to prove that, if we act now, the internet can become both socially and environmentally sustainable.

site plan phased construction

location: cramond island tourist locale becomes an educational park

big data research centre

server-heated pools

submerged server farm floating maintenance rigs, repurposed oil platforms

kamina thermal baths year 4 8 week project

This fourth year project proposes the construction of a Neighbourhood Sauna complex on the bank of the picturesque River Kelvin, offering a meditative safe space in the heart of Glasgow. Based on the concept of heat schock therapy, the building’s pools and saunas are arranged as a progression from warm pools, to hot saunas, to ice baths. The design is composed of indoor pools and saunas, a cafe and restaurant, terrace spaces, and outdoor baths sunken into the foundations of the old North Woodside Flint Mill. This culturally important archaeological site has been conscientiously incorporated into the development: light-

weight timber walkways hover above its foundations, allowing visitors to dip into shallow outdoor baths carefully excavated in the places of old rooms, and the old flint furnace has been reconstructed to its original appearance and adapted for use as a sauna. Clad in charred Scottish Larch slats and constructed using a hybrid system of cross-laminated timber and glulam timber, the Kamina thermal bath complex blends into the greenery of the riverbank, ensuring that neighbour’s views remain unobstructed. The development’s envelope consists of eight massive timber “canopies” enclosing schedule-specific, smaller rooms - the purposefully massive spaces ensure that the building can later be adapted to a new use.

external visual kelvin walkway

internal visual main pool and furnace sauna

details and section through main facade section drawn 1:20, details 1:10

roof light detail

gutter detail

section through facade

co-living for millenials

year 3 8 week project

The concept of “co-housing” has been gainging traction with developers over the last few years: this social housing type has its tenants living in smaller, more affordable apartments while sharing communal areas. This project explores co-housing as a potential solution not only to the current housing crisis but also as a means to improve the mental health of lonely young professionals. With a rising need for single-unit family accomodation, co-living solutions can provide residents with affordable housing taht still provides luxurious communal spaces and a sense of community. The project aims to get residents out of their apartments to mingle within their blocks, helping combat loneliness and depression.

The plan includes single, two, and three bed apartments along with roof gardens, a small library, a coffee shop, a gym, and an internal courtyard. The project focused on creating comfortable and accessible circulation areas, well-designed common spaces in appropriate locations, enjoyable flats with a good quality of light and warm materiality, and providing greenery within flats and in common areas. The flexbrick ceramic screen shields the lower levels of the facade from the adjacent busy streets, with the screen becoming less dense as you travel up the building.

section through housing block and internal courtyard

flat type 1 visual and section through main facade

additional work

years 3 to

5

personal projects

Entry for the“Plastic Monument” student competition. Concept: focus on ocean pollution, creating an artificial wave

Personal project: hypothetical CLT family home in the South of Finland