Prototypes I-III: Tracery Glass, Thermo-Strut, Lizard Panel

http://www.emergentarchitecture.com/projects.php?id=28
These three prototypes are a family. They are combinatorial in nature, fusions of diverse systems and services which generate emergent architectural behaviors and features. They are part of recent research in the office concerned with unpacking the spatial and ornamental potentials of airflow, fluid flow, and glow, often considered to be ‘minor’ forces in architecture. Based on chunk logic rather than layer logic, these prototypes are intended to manufactured and delivered as fully integrated three-dimensional assemblies embedded with all internal infrastructural systems. They are to be constructed of formed fiber composite and polycarbonate materials assembled with socket connections and structural adhesive, as well as more common materials such as plate steel and acrylic pipe. They feature integrated thermal solar systems, PV systems, algae photo-bioreactor coils, radiant cooling systems, and grey water capture systems.

PROTOTYPE I: Tracery Glass Tracery Glass reconsiders glass and transparency in architecture. In contrast to modern dreams of dematerializing glass and framing perfect views, this glass is not only not glass (it’s polycarbonate), it is highly characterized by embedded technology which is simultaneously operative and ornamental. It allows views, but through layers of light, cooling coils and fins, solar surfaces, and gradient color patterns. Ultimately, this is an exploration the contemporary relevancy of stained glass and other types of figural transparency from centuries past, and possible crossovers with contemporary energy technologies.




PROTOTYPE II: Thermo-Strut This prototype intertwines low-res steel plate beams with a fiber composite shell embedded with solar thermal technology. The solar thermal system is a continuous loop which weaves around through the steel sections, forcing structural adaptations at intersections. In armature conditions, the solar thermal system receives sun exposure through transparent apertures, while in surface conditions, it changes behavior and spreads out as patterns of relief. The result is a prototype which organizes structural forces, fluid flows, and material properties into a tectonically coherent, yet ornamental assembly. This prototype is intended to take ‘surface-to-strand’ geometries to the next level, where disciplinary forces temper abstract formal sensibilities.




PROTOTYPE III: Lizard Panel Lizard Panel is a unitized system with puzzle-piece components and socketed structural and mechanical members for continuity. It is characterized by a lacy, meandering pattern of algae bioreactor pipes for energy generation as well as deep channels which reclaim grey water from rainfall for use inside the building. This prototype is the most overtly biomimetic: it capitalizes on characteristics of the Agamid Lizard, which siphons moisture from its back to its mouth via deep channels in its skin. Algae and grey water systems are not simply adjacent, but rather interwoven in such a way that structural behavior arises-- grey water channels become the bottom ‘flange’ to the upper ‘flange’ of the algae channels, while interstitial webbing connects the two into a hybrid beam morphology.

Prototypes I-III: Tracery Glass, Thermo-Strut, Lizard Panel
Prototype, 2009
Building Type:Building systems hybrid
Office: EMERGENT
Principal: Tom Wiscombe
Project Team: David Stamatis, Bin Lu, Chris Eskew, Ryan Macyauski, Cody Derra, Katsuya Arai, Eugene Park
All pictures Copyright © 2009 EMERGENT

GARAK FISH MARKET

The Garak Fish Market is the largest wholesale market in Korea. It covers 54 hectares or 540,000 square meters of land and is one kilometer long. This project, undertaken with Chang-jo Architects, was an invited competition intended to explore the future of the development of the market and in particular, how it could become more integrated with the city and the surrounding neighborhoods. Of particular concern was the visual chaos and smell associated with the market, and whether or not some type of enclosure was warranted.

Our point of departure was to split the site into two zones, one ‘natural’ and one ‘urban’. The West area, adjacent to the Tan Stream, is to be developed into wetland preserve and leisure area. The displaced market program is stacked onto the Eastern side of the market creating a hyper-dense, two-level organization. The intention is to urbanize the market by stemming its organic sprawl and creating sectional properties.

The design is characterized by a large roof which operates as a semi-enclosure, and interior space, and a community garden landscape on top. The structure of the roof begins as a regimented grid-like pattern to the East due to the strict column pattern required by the market functions, and it dissolves into a series of loose spiraling patterns as it nears the wetlands. The roof features double-pleats which are both structural and programmatic, forming embedded figural hollows. These hollows house restaurants and commercial activities, and feature views over the buzzing market below.

The roof gardens are a gift back to the local community of 55,000 residents around the site. They are broken down into a network of variously-sized plots driven by the structural patterning of the roof. Exotic color gradients of flower and vegetable fields will be planted, over time forming a kind of organic/synthetic jungle architecture.
http://www.emergentarchitecture.com/projects.php?id=25

GARAK FISH MARKET
Seoul, Korea, 2009
Building Type: Wholesale fish and vegetable market
Office: EMERGENT
Principal: Tom Wiscombe
Project Team: Chris Eskew, Bin Lu, Ryan Macyauski, Cody Derra
All pictures Copyright © 2009 EMERGENT

Flower Street BioReactor/Public Art Installation for DCA

http://www.emergentarchitecture.com/projects.php?id=27
Tom Wiscombe: our point of departure for this project was to engage the nascent cultural paradigm shift from thinking about energy as something which comes magically from distant sources to something which can be generated locally in a variety of ways. our goal was not, however, to undertake an engineering experiment, or to simply express material processes, although this is certainly one dimension of the project. our primary goal was to create a sense of delight and exotic beauty around new technologies by decontextualizing them and amplifying their potential atmospheric and spatial effects.

The project is an aquarium-like bioreactor inserted into the facade of the building (our given site), which contains green algae colonies that produce oil through photosynthesis. The aquarium is made of thick transparent acrylic, molded to create the intricate relief on the front. This relief tracks along with and supports an internal lighting armature which is based on the Bio-feedback Algae Controller, invented by Origin Oil in Los Angeles in July of 2009. This new type of bioreactor uses tuned LED lights which vary in color and intensity to support algae growth at different stages of development, maximizing output. According to Origin Oil, “this is a true bio-feedback system… the algae lets the LED controller know what it needs as it needs it, creating a self-adjusting growth system.” At night, when this system intensifies, it generates a simultaneously urban and jungle affect: glittery reflections on acrylic combine with an eerie élan vital of glowing algae.

A solar array, used to collect energy during the day, is spirals and winds up into the branches of an adjacent tree, jungle-style. This energy will be stored in a battery and used during the night to run the various systems.
http://www.originoil.com/company-news/originoil-announces-breakthrough-dynamic-lighting-process.html

Flower Street Bioreactor/Public Art Installation for DCA
Los Angeles, California, 2009
Client: Dept. of Culture and the Arts, LA (DCA)
Building Type: Public Art Installation/ Bioreactor
Office: EMERGENT
Principal: Tom Wiscombe
Project Team: Bin Lu, Chris Eskew, Ryan Macyauski
All pictures Copyright © 2009 EMERGENT

ENERGY FLOWERS/Helix BioReactor

Rather than responding to the brief with a monumental artwork “representing the heritage of Perth”, our design consists of an outcropping of human-scale Helix Bioreactors which relate to the city in a more nuanced way. These devices are intended to operate ontologically at both conceptual and visceral levels, in terms of space, color, luminosity, but also infrastructure and engineering. There are seven elements, tied together by a pleated, color-variegated groundscape which tracks a network of biofuel lines leading across the street to the Perth train station.

http://www.emergentarchitecture.com/projects.php?id=26

Helix BioReactor

Forrest Place Public Artwork, Perth, Australia, 2009

Building Type: Public Art Installation/ Bioreactor
Office: EMERGENT
Principal: Tom Wiscombe
Project Team: Bin Lu, Chris Eskew, Gabriel Huerta, LJ Roxas, Ryan Macyauski

All pictures Copyright © 2009 EMERGENT