Solar Blossom

SOLAR BLOSSOM Project Evolution Booklet Introductory Studio gC Group 1

INDEX INTRODUCTION

4

TREE OF EVOLUTION

6

WHAT?

What was the idea and how it evolved?

10

WHERE? 14

Searching for the perfect symbiosis of concept and location,

how one impacted the other?

SOLAR BLOSSOM IS.1 – Introductory Studio g.C (2016 - 2017) Group 1;

Marcel Dawid

Abraham Ninan

Francis Redman

Javier Montalvo Tutors;

Javier Peña Jonathan Minchin Oriol Carrasco Philip Serif

WHY?

Did the reason change?

18

FOR WHOM?

Who became the actor?

22

HOW?

How the tools, mechanisms and approach changed?

24

WHEN?

Minutes and days or hours and months?

30

USER MANUAL

32

INTRODUCTION General definition of assignment / challenge: The goal of the project is a passive, solar inspired solution with a meaningful social impact. A closed system that would be an example of metabolic design, with no system exchanges except of solar energy flow into and eventually out. A situation in which the object is driven by the sun, this means that the sun itself is an actor giving life and motion to the space and architecture.

General project description: A public space located by the sea, on the beach in Barcelona. As found via site analysis, a space very active in summer, however with rain and temperature drop become abandoned during cooler times of the year. The motivation is to give life to these spaces, to allow various sport, social and local activities that take place in summer, to take place in winter. And in summer, to provide a simple but important quality, shadow.

More precisely, the idea is a materialisation of a dome like structure that is a life umbrella, opening in warmer days, and closing when it comes cooler. This almost living object, varies in scale depending on requirements of precise functions (as a series of them would be installed) that are locally found.

With the evolution of architecture, the dome has been a symbol of meeting under a large roof, in a rather big space. This is present if looked at religious, public or other social building types. Maybe this design is not very strictly connected to this type, however a trace of similarity can be found; it is a democratic, open space for people.

The starting point: Before the project became a dome or even a shelter, first the assumption was a more technical or science related idea; a surface that reacting with the sun, changes the quality of space on its other side. From this general notion, the following project developed.

4

Solar Blossom

Introduction

5

PROTOTYPE EVOLUTION

The history of the evolution of the prototype, is the history of evolution of the project. Instead of treating the prototype as a “model” to test behaviour of the designed object, here it became a discovery tool that led us in new directions and allowed us to optimise the results we received.

The first prototype became a visualisation of a very vague idea. Creating isolation between spaces using a dynamic object, filtering out a aspect of the environment to create a new quality inside.

The conclusion at this point that to make this kind of system, we need to break the object into two elements; “solar battery” and a “muscle”. This led to explortions in soft robotics, simple solar collectors and exploring possibilities of water evaporation.

With the “Solar pillow” (or “tentacle”) we returned to joining both components in one body. Learning from previous experiments allowed to create an optimal situation. The big change came however with inclusion of carbon fiber rods into the object. These elements provided the up lift necessary to rise the structure. At this point it became clear, that with catching heat from the sun, the evaporating liquid redistributes the weight, evaporating it up, decreasing the moment force on the edge of the tentacle.

This combined with the force of carbon fiber rods moving up (force of shape relaxation) allows the “up movement”, and with maintaining of solar heat, this situation continues.

6

Prototype Evolution

7

8

Solar Blossom

Prototype Evolution

9

A SHELTER WHAT IT WAS AT THE BEGINING At the beginning of our journey the idea was a very simple situation; a surface that separates, creating a “smart” enclosure that like a filter interacts with a lite to create thermal comfort on one side.

WHAT? What was the idea and how it evolved?

EVOLUTION Searching for solutions to develop such a situation into reality, one of the first directions of WHAT it could become was a soft pillow like dome that could lift or close in relation to sun. This however proved to be very problematic, especially as a heavy and bulky element, requiring external “solar battery”.

The technological specification, and physical performance drove the social function also into a specific direction.

The dome shape, has slowly turned into a leaf like tentacle, as this proved to be much more effective, and working!

10

Solar Blossom

What?

11

WHAT IT BECAME The Project is a thermal reactive structure using the energy of the sun to change its shape. The structure is proposed on the beach in Barcelona. It is designed to change shape as per change in temperature. The system is completely passive requiring no human intervention once erected on site. The Structure changes shape by the principle of change of state from liquid to gas and vice versa using the energy from the Sun. It has 2 states ; the summer state and the winter state: Summer State The structure opens up. The elements are inflated and expanded due to change of state from liquid to gas. This causes the structure to open up and thus providing shade and shelter from the harsh sun during summer.

Winter State The structure closes. The elements are deflated and contracted, due to the change of state from gas to liquid. This causes the structure to close and thus providing a shelter from the cold outside.

The aim project from Inception was to create a structure which could change its state due to temperature change. Initially the structure was designed as a shelter for the gym in Barceloneta Beach. The scope of the project further evolved to activating the spaces on the beach which otherwise would not be accessed due to the extreme weather conditions. During the development of this prototype we looked into various systems to make the structure work the way we desired. We first experimented with water vapor to see if it could be used to lift up a scaled down element of the structure. The success of the experiment led us to research about the application soft robotics and the idea of using pneumatics to power the system. We concluded from the porotype that we needed to generate a lot of air pressure to lift the entire structure and hence went about looking at a way to build that extra pressure .We furthered this idea by the development of solar concentrators to turn the water into steam and to provide immense pressure to lift up the structure. The system though successful would require solar trackers and excessive structures to be erected on the beach which went against our core design philosophy which is to keep the design simple, unconstructive and passive. We went back to the basic idea of evaporation and change of state of matter from liquid to gas and vice versa and incorporated that idea directly into the structure.

12

Solar Blossom

What?

13

WHERE? Searching for the perfect symbiosis of concept and location, how one impacted the other?

ASSUMPTIONS AT START The beach became an interesting option from beginning. Physically it is a wide open space, it has high levels of insolation and large amounts of indirect solar radiation (reflected from the sand). It had a good potential of becoming a “solar laboratory” for the project.

The beach is a border line between the city and nature (sea). However this space on its own is quite dead (no vegetation or animal life). This became an interesting aspect for the project. This space works as a border, meaning that it is activated as a service space for the sea. The question was how it would be possible to give it other function.

The beach of Barcelona was a part of the grand urban project for the 92’ Olympic games, shifting the axis of the city towards water. It was interesting to build on this.

It is a democratic space, accepting all and not excluding. Good design should not exclude.

The beach is a space that liberates, where people act as they wish, even businessmen in suits. They Sit on the ground, lay in the sand. Even if surrounded by other people!

Most of all, the beach is a location of countless happenings, both planned and spontaneous. Understanding these patterns allows to create something meaningful for these groups that would be socially sustainable. This became the core drive of the design. The relation between the behaviours in public space of the beach and what could be made to help it exist and grow.

14

Solar Blossom

Where?

15

Dominant paths Accve areas Site locaaon

NEXT STEPS Working with an active public space, the next two major aspects to investigate were; movement patterns, active areas and behaviour patterns.

Understanding the communication patterns on the beach allowed to place the object in an accessible location , therefore allowing a greater group of people to use it.

To understand where people carry out activities, it was crucial to identify areas with human activities. Crossing these two sets of information allowed to propose a optimal location.

16

Solar Blossom

To understand how to work with specific activities carried out by the users, it was an obvious next step to understand what quantity and quality of different activities take place at the location. This study was mapped on a 24 hour clock. Based on this we know that the prime users are sports people and friends who enjoy each other’s company and often come around to see the sunrise, or even stay up late sitting by the beach. Also slow commuters may be seen who wonder around end up sitting somewhere for a short moment, later wondering of. Other individuals have been also seen, for instance having lunch, tourists in bigger groups, coming to the sea for 5 -10 minutes and leaving.

Basing on frequency and quality of these happenings, a clear location was settled, the part of the beach joining the Porto Olimpico.

Where?

17

WHY?

AT THE BEGINNING At the beginning the social cause was not a clear aspect for this project. Should it produce something? Physical? Maybe immaterial? Why do we want to do it?

The first thoughts led in the direction of creating some sort of “special space”, but what does that even mean?

Did the reasons change?

EVOLUTION Becoming more aware with the potential users and the site, allowed to be more specific with the function, and with each attempt to defend and rationalise this decision, it became more and more obvious.

TO PROVIDE SHELTER The phenomenon of the beach is a wide open space, but this means it leaves no protection for the users. Either from the sun in summer, or from rain, wind or cold temperature in winter. This was one of the core purposes, of the core WHY’s.

SOCIAL EQUALITY Even if the beach by itself is a democratic space open to all, the places around it to sit down in cooler moments (or in summer to hide from the sun) are not. All café’s around are using the fact that they are by the sea to have higher prices, which is excluding for other users! The project would offer a open, free space.

SPECIAL SOCIAL PLACE The beach in an interesting locations where friends and people who don’t know each other, spend time in close proximity. According to Jan Gehl, even if people don’t know one another, if the spend time in the same location, they feel better. This is related to core human needs connected to feeling of being a group.

18

Solar Blossom

Why?

19

FINALLY We are doing this mainly to activate the beach during all times of the day and all year long.

We observed the different activities happening at the beach throughout the year.

We logged the periods of activity and inactivity and concluded that inactive times coincided with extreme temerature conditions of either heat or cold.

With this project we aim to provide pockets of comfortable and habitable spaces at all times of the day. There are activities like Yoga, Calesthenics etc which people engage in on the beach. This project will provide a comfortable space for these activities to take place at all times irrespective of change in weather.

This project will also promote awareness on simple but advanced technologies and can have a local impact on the communty.

20

Solar Blossom

Why?

21

FOR WHOM?

AT THE BEGINNING At start the users were rather groups of people we imagined to just be at the site.

Who are they, and so from further analysis we understand more and more who are the potential users.

Who became the actors?

EVOLUTION Learining it became clear that the potential users, are the current location users. With deepening this understanding. From the site analysis we learned that these are more local users than inhabitants of other Barcelona areas. They are also tourists, since these groups wonder around.

FINALY This project is aimed at the Local Community and others who use the beach on a daily basis for their various activities. The beach special place for everyone and we want to provide spaces for everyone to experience it.

22

Solar Blossom

For whom?

23

HOW? How the tools, mechanisms and approach changed?

The system works on the Anatomic theory of heat i.e When materials are heated, they tend to expand. the higher Temperature makes its atoms of material move faster. When liquids are heated they expand and turn its state to vapour. This vapour condenses back to liquid when cooled below its vapour point.

The structure is balanced by the weight of the lquid at the bottom. When the vapour point is reached due to high temperature, the liquid evaporates and moves towards the top of the elements. This shift in weight causes the elements to open up. The vapour condenses back to liquid upon cooling and thus closes the strcuture during cooler days.

C°+ GAS

LIQUID

C°-

24

Solar Blossom

How?

25

C VAP OR

SATION DEN ON

LIQUID

EVA PO R

ION AT

The process not only runs in cycle, in the prototype, the design slows down the water going to the tip of the wing.

As the liquid evaporates, not only it redistributes the weight, it allows the carbon fiber rods to lift the skin of the structure.

The correct amount of liquid necessry for evaporation has been found in respect to weight of skin materials and force provided by the internal rods.

Early efforts of joining the two materials have been conducted with sealing using a hot iron, this proved to be very risky but also of lower than necessary precision. The solution was editing a thermal sealer to allow continuous lines.

26

Solar Blossom

How?

27

28 Solar Blossom How? 29

1) Translucent polyethylene 2) Black polyethylene 3) Acetone vapor 4) Carbon ďŹ ber rod (3mm) 5) Black polyethylene 6) Structure

1

2

4

3

6

5

The system works on a seasonal basis. during the summer it opens up and spreads out. During winter it closes. It happens on an hourly basis rising up to the top when heated by the sun. during night it closes.

WHEN? Minutes and days or hours and months?

30

Solar Blossom

When?

31

BARCELONA BEACH

USER MANUAL

EVAPORATION!

Here is a simple way to use the SOLAR BLOSSOM, please have a look!

C°

SUNNY SUMMER DAY...

CONDENSATION! C°

32

Solar Blossom

33 GLOOMY WINTER DAY...