Perpetual Climate Architecture

Inspired by perpetual motion, the installation presents three conceptual models of square glass buildings, each traversed by a central ventilation column.

The stack-driven updraft within each column creates the suction that draws outside air in at roof level and down through the ground, where it is cooled, before pulling it through the glass enclosure to remove heat. Although their geometries differ, all three columns are intended to maximise useful exchange between interior and exterior air by increasing heat-transfer surface area and reinforcing natural airflow.

One column is assembled from aluminium pipes; the other two were generated through computational fluid dynamics and developed for additive manufacturing. Presented inside terrariums, the models draw on vernacular cooling towers found across the Middle East to propose a passive architecture that is simultaneously non-mechanical and high-tech.

The installation was first shown in Visible, Invisible, presented by the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles at the Petite Écurie for BAP!2 — the second Biennale d’architecture et de paysage d’Île-de-France, at the invitation of curators Nicolas Dorval-Bory and Guillaume Ramillien.

The work was later presented in The Energy Show — Sun, Solar and Human Power at Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, at the invitation of curator Matylda Krzykowski. The exhibition formed part of the first Solar Biennale, initiated by solar designers Marjan van Aubel and Pauline van Dongen.

TYPE

INSTALLATION / 3 CONCEPTUAL MODELS

YEAR

2022

EXHIBITIONS

VISIBLE, INVISIBLE / THE ENERGY SHOW

PHOTOGRAPHY

SALEM MOSTEFAOUI & PETRA VAN DER REE