TERM 2 FINAL CRIT

INSPIRATION_FACADE_FRANCOIS ROCHE

I'm lost in Paris / R&Sie(n)

INSPIRATION_FACADE_KOL/MAC

INVERSAbrane

FIGURES

INSPIRATION_OPEN SPACE_THE TREE CANOPY AS BLUEPRINT

As the opportunities for new territories become more limited, the only way is up.

Mitchell Schwarzer explores the dizzying heights of the 'last biotic frontier' of arboreal architecture with its high platforms, walkways and canopy craft.

[Image: The human butterfly embracing the forest, lightly touching down on the forest's crown and walking on the leaves.]

[Image: Marks Barfield Architects, Treetop Walkway and Rhizotron, Kew Gardens, London, 2008]

[Image: SeARCH, Tower Power treetop observation platform, Schovenhorst Estate, Putten, the Netherlands, 2009]

As well as, there is some presentations on canopy research from Nalini Nadkarni: Exploring the "Last Biotic Frontier".

INSPIRATION_OPEN SPACE_SEAN LALLY OF WEATHERS

Sean highlights the potential of material systems, which are usually applied to conditioning the interiors of buildings, in the generation of new forms and activities; whether it is in the honing of the performance aspect of a building's function, as in the Water Cube at Beijing (2008), or in the seasonal planning that underpins the concept behind WEATHER's Wanderings project (2008-09).

[Image: Microclimatic zones are created with the aggregation of independent components that serve to manipulate (amplify or suppress) specific aspects of the climatic variables in their vicinity and introduce opportunities for augmented natures and environmental contexts.]


[Image: Microclimates can be implemented in a range of scenarios, from the humid summers of Houston as a mens for pulling the humidity from the air to create usable space outside, to colder climates in which the forms can be sealed with heating filaments that warm the trapped air. Through each element might seem quite minimal in its production of increased temperature, aggregated together the units have the potential to make significant changes to local microclimates.]

[Image: Though not always directly visible to the human eye, the physical boundaries associated with many 'material energies' are gradients of intensity (in this case, thermal intensities that radiate from the interiors of each of the Wanderings' nodes).]

[Image: The project consists of nesting components made of vacuum-formed PETG plastic, each acting as an armature for an array of mechanics that can be switched out and adapted to the specific climatic context of the site. The humid conditions of Houston, for example, would be addressed by copper coils that dehumidify the surrounding air; other locations might require heating filaments within one of the airtight units to provide tactile warmth.

The physical properties of the materials (thermal, spectrums of light, humid) are of intensities, fallouts and gradients. The physical boundaries seen in plan define spatial configurations and layouts as gradients that are as variable as the climatic context in which they are located, creating a feedback loop between the context and the design system itself.]

[Image: The height and shape of the units contour to the body for seating.]


[Image: Layout and distances between each of the units determined by site needs for circulation and gathering as well as the performance demands of the desired microclimate.]