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support// Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC)
photography// Adriá Goula
location// Barcelona, Spain
year// 2012
size// 50 m²
type// Architecture
Pavilion del Mar is a self-sufficient solar prototype installed at the Marina Dock, within the framework of the International BCN Smart City Congress. Over a period of one year it will be used as control room for monitoring and testing several projects related to intelligent power management. The pavillion is actually the prototype of a multi-scale construction system. A facade composed by modular components, like solar brick, that respond to photovoltaic gaining, solar protection, insulation, ventilation, lighting … The same parametric logic adapt façade geometries to the specific environmental requirements for each point of the building. It is is a single component that integrates all levels of intelligence that the building needs. From “form follows function” (classic XX century statement) to “form follows energy”. The facade opens reacting to the solar path, being active and becoming permeable towards south, while becoming closed and protective towards north. The behavior of this skin makes visible the environmental and climatic processes that surrounds the prototype.
role// Architect, Researcher
office// Margen Lab
team// Rodrigo Rubio, Daniel Ibanez
sponsor// Endesa
support// Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC)
photography// Adriá Goula
location// Barcelona, Spain
year// 2014
size// 55 m²
type// Architecture
Endesa Fab Condenser is a thermodynamic prototype, a bioclimatic dome, installed in the east city-center of Barcelona. The prototype explores connections between parametric design, passive climate strategies and local CNC manufacturing. The pavilion consists of 20 triangular modules. The components are all different but share the same formal, constructive and material logic. Parametric design allows us the possibility of working with geometric complexity and variability. At the same time, the mathematical logic that organizes such variability allows, with digital fabrication tools, to share prefabrication strategies and accelerate communication processes (machine design) and production and construction processes. The algorithm (the entire pavilion is a script) was designed in 2 months, prefabricated in 5 days and assembled in 4. The dome pursues to render the surrounding thermodynamic and climate processes. The initial geometry (a regular icosahedron) is first deformed and adapted seeking to minimize the incident solar radiation in the summer, and to maximize it in winter. The skin bulges or balloons outward, more typical of sailing geometries, to accelerate wind speeds (vernoulli) and facilitate the use of cross ventilation. The orientations of the north-south openings follow the prevailing wind directions (mountain-sea) generating alternative patterns of ventilation (morning-evening). The surrounding 200m2 wood stage acts as a reservoir of fresh air, naturally injected into the main space through the perforations on the stands every time the wind blows. Digital fabrication has the ability to bridge the gap between raw material, post-production, designer and end user. The project then becomes the design of the entire projected life cycle of the product. The project is the production chain. All materials used are of organic origin (linen and wood) and obtained locally. All industries and companies involved in the process are medium scale and located within an 80km radius. Finally, the assembly process is fully reversible. Wood and fabrics are easily removable (in just one day) and easily reusable or recyclable.
Floating Center is an architectural concept for a unique and innovative meditation center in Zurich, Switzerland. The architectural concept is the spatial transformation of water properties. The visitor „flows” through the building, starting at the entrance, finishing at the Floatation Rooms. The space narrows and expands, creating an organic shape, leading the eye towards the interior. The floor plan is swirling water, frozen at a special moment. The main attraction of the building is the facade. It is built up from hundreds of small wooden cubes, rotated around their own axis, generating a special pattern. This pattern, on the one hand symbolises a wave, on the other hand, it is a wall with different transparency values for every single cube, creating the typical „underwater” effect, which can be seen when the sun shines through moving water. The wooden cubes are rotated in a way that they create opaque surfaces where intimacy is needed. In other areas they let the light passes through the facade.
