■ Dynamic Thermal Wind Wall //
Wind Veil, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Arizona, USA and Technorama Façade, Winterthur, Switzerland
Wind apparati usually manifest single measurements of wind: presence, vector, or intensity, and simplify our perception of the force. Only rarely, across a meadow field or amidst a flurry of papers do we gain a greater vision of the dynamism and complexity of wind patterns; of their ripples and vortices; sublime and volatile phenomena that even modern physics and mechanics has difficulty explaining. Ned Kahn’s kinetic shade screens visually translate the beauty of this living force via a much more sensitive tool. This body of work employs compositions of simple elements to create an appropriate medium for natural forces to play their dynamic spectacle. Kahn considers his wind walls “detectors” analogous to detectors on telescopes and other devices that “reveal the effects of the invisible”. The Technorama façade is covered with 80,000 wind-animated panels. Each brushed aluminum panel is mounted on low-friction hinges so that the kinetic energy produced by wind easily animates these pixels. The dazzling patterns of this pixilated vision of the wind are further enhanced by the reflective quality of the panels. THE FAÇADE BECOMES A HYBRID OF SKY, LIGHT, AND WIND,
tion of the environment is layered over subtle patterns of sand dune. The second panel tries a different hybrid approach. Blue-anodized 3in (7.6cm) aluminum panels are meant to create an illusion of a building submerged into “vertical water”.
Ned Kahn
BOTH SCREENS WERE ALSO DESIGNED TO REDUCE SOLAR GAIN IN THE LOBBY OF THE BUILDING. THE SCREENS ARE PLACED 3FT (0.9M) FROM THE GLASS CURTAIN WALL TO ALLOW NATURAL AIR CURRENTS TO COOL THE BUILDING. AS THE SHINGLES WARM IN THE SUN, THEY CREATE CONVECTIVE AIR CURRENTS, WHICH DRAW COOLING AIR UP AGAINST THE GLASS. As a whole the screens are
lence caused by the building. It should be noted that photographs cannot capture the startling speed and sensitivity to wind of the panels (captured best on film). The kinetic wind walls at the Mesa Art Center differ from the Technorama in their aesthetic complexity and their operative potential in the desert climate. The smaller of the two screens further hybridizes wind with a vision of landscape by perforating the 9in (22.9cm) panels with a photographic pattern of sand dunes. The reflec-
50% open, allowing the transmission of air as well as light, lighting the lobby space with a phenomenological volatility of the wind and reducing cooling requirements by as much as 30% at some times of the year. Furthermore the fluttering of blue panels may also create a psychological effect of cooling. One can draw many parallels with these structures and other landscape strategies as sophisticated means of harnessing the phenomenological characteristics of natural processes. The visual system combines two complex forces, ambient reflected light and wind patterns, to create a new and glittering spectacle. The success of this hybrid begs the question of what other forces might be hybridized to great effect; what else can index the volatility of wind or other natural forces? As a hybrid of forces the system also excels operationally as an enhanced transparent cooling screen, operationally blurring the boundaries between landscape and architecture. As a vertical landscape, these screens explore a realm relatively uncontested compared to the ground, but increasingly valued in dense urban conditions.
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DISSOLVING THE BUILDING INTO THE LANDSCAPE, AND CONVERTING A SOLID BUILDING SKIN INTO AN AMORPHOUS AND LIQUIDLIKE SUBSTANCE. The façade also becomes a living exhibit of the wind turbu-
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13.03.2007 20:15:14 Uhr