Extreme Environments | Libya | London Metropolitan University | 2009-2010

LIBYA

LIBYA NO 01 JUN/JUL 10

-Extreme Enviroments-

DENISBALENT_GIANNIBOTSFORD_LUKEROYFFE_ALEXANDERGAZETAS_ROBERTKWOLEK_ SHOGOSAKIMURA_FACUNDOTABORDA_SARADABOUNI_PANAGIOTAMARAGKOUDAKI_MICHAELO’HANLON_ CINDYREYES_KATHARINAWALKOWSKI_KRISSZILGALVIS_CINDYREYES_EMMANOUILKAKLEIDAKIS _SUCHANPRASONG_GABRIELLALUCIANI_HEATHERTATTON_JEVGENIADMITRIJEVA_JORDANALYDEN-SWIFT_ LUISDE-OLIVEIRA_RICHARDHARDINGHAM_EMILYBROOM

STUDIO 6

“Every angle, every wall, every opening in the roofs over the alleyways, are part of the same organism.”

-Tore Kjeilen-1996

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LIBYA NO 01

|LUKE ROYFFE

M

ap of Libya

LIBYA NO 01

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|ALEXANDE GAZETAS

M

ap of Ghadames

ghadames city plan 1:20000

12

3

9

17

1

4

16

13 6

5

7

2

8

15

14

1. old city 2. new city 3. agricultural land 4. palm date fields 5. airport 6. cemetery 7. mosque 8. western entrance 9. eastern entrance 10. goat herding farms 11. southern entrance 12. perimeter road 13. museum 14. sports ground 15. youth hostel 16. market 17. oasis spring

10

11

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|Ghadames trip

_the oasis

_old town dwelling

_light quality of the old town

_Sahara desert sand dune

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|PROJECT BRIEF

E

xtreme nvironments

_old town dwelling/ interor light quality

Due to material and technological developments, environmental agendas, as well as political will, what would previously have been considered to be uninhabitable places on earth are now being considered for development. These extreme environments test the very nature of architecture.

The year began with a workshop capturing a specific moment, or series of moments, of sunlight or daylight which were then constructed as 1:1 ‘Light Clouds’. Following this students were asked to design and construct a device that could control sunlight or daylight, which were then taken to Ghadames, a desert Oasis town in Libya, to be tested in context.

Projects were then developed around a tourism Masterplan for the town and sought to reexamine the successes and failures of the passive design of the now abandoned old town, using the device as a starting point for the projects.

By asking students to understand solar geometry, which is predictable, they were able to determine the criteria for the conditions they wanted to create, with solutions that are both bottom up and top down. These needed to involve infrastructure and master planning, and at the same time create passive forms with the careful control of light conditions.

The aim was to explore ways to control these extreme environments and develop architecture that responds to these conditions by correctly applying both science and invention, driven by the organic qualities of these natural forces.

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LIBYA NO 01

|LUKE ROYFFE

T

he nomadic emporium

The spatial configuration of the building has a strong relationship to both programme and light. In its simplest sense the project is a series of light and dark framing moments that highlight different activities throughout the day. The programme examines the historic culture of Ghadames and the importance of the nomadic trading culture. The overall concept takes extracts from the Tuareg system of living, a series of layers control the light entering the internal spaces.

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|LUKE ROYFFE

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|LUKE ROYFFE

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|LUKE ROYFFE

2

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|ALEXANDER GAZETAS

T

he phantasm spa

0800hrs 1300hrs 1700hrs

The Phantasm Spa reveals itself through naturally occurring daylight patterns that besiege lofty palm trees in a Saharan paradise.

The building provides both sheltered and exposed areas that allow the extreme abundance of solar energy in the geographic location to create environments that heighten the sense of awareness, and destabilize a mood. This experience of extreme opposite temperatures is particularly therapeutic. Traversing thermal extremes with others has a positive social bonding effect allowing the building to become a key component for a place that is beginning to become more inhabited by foreign explorers.

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|ALEXANDER GAZETAS

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|ALEXANDER GAZETAS

B

2

A

4

B

1

3

A Roof plan 1:100 01 Coloured glass blocks with ventilation perforations 02 Thermal replicating wooden cage 03 Therapy room roof 04 Steam room/sauna roof stacks

|ALEXANDER GAZETAS LIBYA NO 01 |13

B

A

9

13

2

4000

6000

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12000

3

1

4000

10

4000

16000

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12

4000

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15

6000

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7

14

6000

15

8

12

15

A B

First floor plan 1:100 01 ‘Hot’ exposed path 02 Therapy rooms 03 Outdoor lounging roof terrace 04 Makkah aligned light wells 05 Wooden encompassed lounging area 06 Palm lounging platform 07 Thermal folleys 08 Light wells (replacing tree trunk)

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LIBYA NO 01

|ROBERT KWOLEK

T

he public archive

The old town of Ghadames features covered streets intermittingly lighted by tall light shafts. Early efforts sought solutions to the oppressive dark of much of the old town, with first semester yielding a lighting device reliant on a heliostat mirror to redirect light downward.The old town is often researched by visiting scholars, yet no suitable facilities exist in which these groups can fully engage with their studies. My programme proposes a conservation laboratory with storage capacity and a public archive space with changing exhibits, theatrically lighted by a heliostat mirror light tower.

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|ROBERT KWOLEK

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|ROBERT KWOLEK

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|ROBERT KWOLEK

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|SHOGO SAKIMURA

T

he oasis of information

The Rubik’s cube device is a sun-dial with multiple entry points, calculated for Ghadames.

Travelling camel caravans once formed the basis of the Ghadames economy, with salt, gold, and ostrich feathers particularly important. My aim was to create a point of knowledge and information, a library of the Sahara trade route. Ghadames was once a heart of the trade route and an important stop at which to replenish supplies and provisions. This new oasis aims to do the same for the rich heritage of a now gone way of life, taking advantage of the sun to passively light its interior spaces.

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|SHOGO SAKIMURA

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|SHOGO SAKIMURA

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|SHOGO SAKIMURA

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|SHOGO SAKIMURA

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|SHOGO SAKIMURA

PLAN -2500 -3500

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9

8 6

7

1 5

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4

2

GHADAMES CULTURAL LIBRARY 1. ENTRANCE HALL_RECIPTION 2. ENTRANCE HALL_MAGAZINE+NEWSPAPER AREA 3. EXHIBITION SPACE_LIBYAN CULTURE 4. CHILDREN’S LIBRARY_PLAYGROUND 5. CHILDREN’S LIBRARY_BOOKS+TOYS STORAGE 6. READING AREA_CAFE 7. READING AREA_KITCHEN 8. ARCHIVE_DIGITAL BOOK CATALOGUE SPACE 9.ARCHIVE_BOOK LOANING DESK 10. SUNKEN GARDEN

S=1/200

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LIBYA NO 01

|FACUNDO GAUNA

T

he trading trilobite

From the land of the ancient dead rises earth to meet timber in an attempt to create a space to decipher the cultural ties between North and Central African nations, an action somewhat subversive to the watching eye of capital.

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|FACUNDO GAUNA

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|KATHARINA WALKOWSKI

T

ouristic spot

It is a place where it is possible to find helpful information about the old and new town of Ghadames, but also about the desert around. The people working there give advice - depending on the length of people’s stay - what is worth to do in Ghadames. But most importantly it is a cooling spot - where it is possible to ‘escape’ from the desert sun, looking at the Sahara desert in the background.

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LIBYA NO 01

|KATHARINA WALKOWSKI

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LIBYA NO 01

|MICHAEL O’HANLON

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rts and crafts exchange

The programme aims to provide spatial and social connectivity, whereby the spatial arrangement of activities are dictated to and arranged to the affects of the sites’ solar geometry and its functional built interactivity. This provides optimum thermal comfort and capabilities. Activities built for are to be synonymous with social connectivity, trade and exchange between both locals and tourists and aid the future growth of tourism in the city through the development of local arts.

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|MICHAEL O’HANLON

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|PANAGIOTA MARAGKOUDAKI

T

ea house and henna spa

My building proposal is a garden/park tea and henna place. The tea house is a public space and the henna house is a place especially designed for woman, where they can visit and have traditional henna tattoos. I designed the garden and the henna house in particular to introduce Libyan woman to the outside of the houses society. It is a place where woman can feel freer and socialize with the visitors.

As a place that woman would occupy it should be completely private but for the purpose of introducing them to the society of Ghadames I created some semi transparent walls that shadow of uers can be visualized.

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|PANAGIOTA MARAGKOUDAKI

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|KRISS ZILGALVIS

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pa

An underground thermal spa set within public gardens and which straddles the divide between the old and new town. Light pipes distribute light downwards, where it interacts with water to illuminate the space.

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|KRISS ZILGALVIS

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|EMILY BROOM

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he tea house

Firstly a device which controls lux levels through fabric layers was explored. The Tea House was designed to provide tourists with a space for refreshments and social interaction while protected from the harsh desert sun through the layering of fabric.

|EMILY BROOM

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A

kitchen below

entrance

tea pit

bathroom

open air courtyard

tea pit

tea pit

tea pit

A

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|SARA DABOUNI

G

210 290 370 450 530 610 690

hadames markets

1160

17

1080

27

990

37

910

47

820

57 67 77

740 650

My project aims to improve Ghadames’s water distribution and irrigate its existing agriculture plots. My proposal is to develop a market to sell the produce to residents and tourists. The market area will also include a cafe/restaurant and a park-like garden space that grows some of the products for the market. The main feature of my proposal will be water shades which will be created with water redirected before travelling to the agriculture plots. I will be working with water to create shading/cooling devices to generate a cool useable space.

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|SARA DABOUNI

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|RICHARD HARDINGHAM

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he cave/ tea house

The programme is a traditional teahouse. It is situated at the threshold between old and new town. It aims to introduce the tradition of Ghadames in a casual manner to the tourist through use of similar light condition to a dwelling in the old town. The space will provide tourists an extraordinary experience and also brings home like causal atmosphere to the locals and creates social environment that culture can be exchanged.

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LIBYA NO 01

|RICHARD HARDINGHAM