Architecture Portfolio 2016 - Masters Degree - Julien Nolin

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JULIEN NOLIN PORTFOLIO V02 - 2016

SALINE SPARK +

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“The mandate was to design and build a working device with architectural potentials, able to perform in the field. The location: Longyearbyen, Norway, just about as far North the northernmost major settlement in the world.

The simple premise of the device goes as so: by placing road salt, common to freezing environments, over shovelled snow from the surroundings, the resulting solution would melt down through the skins, activating a battery-driven [...]”

CARBON GREENHOUSE +

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STAYING AFLOAT +

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AMAZONIA PIER +

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My proposal integrates a hydroponic greenhouse into the power plant itself, to design an architectural attachment, a quasi-parasite, which takes advantage of this waste heat, CO2 and water. The two industrial archetypes of the power plant and the greenhouse are merged as the former’s constant mechanical buzz and steam breaths and the ever-present flow of water and rushing of leaves of the latter, bring the building to [...]”

“The mandate was to design and build a working device with architectural potentials, able to perform in the field. The location: Manaus, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest.

The device itself, named ‘Palafittes Energia’, is a device which acts as an attachment to the palafittes (homes on stilts).

Connecting around their wooden pillars, it could provide the necessary buoyancy to lift [...]”

“Welcome to Amazonia Pier! My name is Two-Can, allow me to show you around.

You are now in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, wherein lies the bustling megalopolis of Manaus, our state of Amazonas’s capital, where over two million people live in this concrete jungle, in the jungle. The city of Manaus owes much of its survival to the development of a Free Trade Zone in 1967, after the city had fallen to sullen depths following [...]”

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S ALINE SPARK

Portable Arctic Power Station

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SALT WATER BATTERIES +

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The mandate was to design and build a working device with architectural potentials, able to perform in the field. The location: Longyearbyen, Norway, just about as far North the northernmost major settlement in the world.

The simple premise of the device goes as so: by placing road salt, common to freezing environments, over shoveled snow from the surroundings, the resulting solution would melt down through the skins, activating a battery-driven skin.

The water acting as the final cog in this simple power generation machine. Thus an arctic portable energy station is created, relying on simple electrochemical reactions to create power.

The question of sustainability in the Arctic is difficult one, mostly due to the lack of clear directionality which is highly dependent on who is benefiting from it. As far as environmental issues go, they are becoming increasingly evident and worrisome. Yet, another side of sustainability in the Arctic is human life, and urban development, but is it even necessary in remote areas of the Arctic, and who does it truly benefit?

At the heart of many of these current issues is the Norwegian Archipelago of Svalbard, the 60,000 square kilometer landmass governed by only twenty- eight people. With its landscape becoming increasingly taken over by large industries, Svalbard’s towns and communities have inevitably become definable as

being of a utilitarian nature. The ever- changing landscape of the Arctic, both on the environmental and urban fronts, haphazardly encourages temporary developments which practically have a predetermined lifespan, for as long as they can still be utilized profitably. And when the environmental and geographical volatility as well as the urban instability of such a place directly relates back to major industries, a change in the function of these isolated human settlements is unequivocally linked to the industries’ desires and needs, and to which nation those industries belong.

At its current state, the quasi-temporary, quasi-permanent communities of the Norwegian Archipelago of Svalbard, be it

Longyearbyen, the Russian mining community of Barrentsburg or the research station of Ny-Ă…lesundamongst or others, were developed as versions of boomtowns. The very nature of these settlements being of the temporary nature, are being sustained as permanent municipalities for the time being.

The unsettling trend with boomtowns, is their inevitable transformation into ghost towns. Their sole purpose relying on the natural resources that caused their creation, they quickly disappear along with resources.

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SKN01 Battery Orientation A Composed of 4 cells connected in series and joule thief.

Output: 2.2V (3.3V with JT)

Battery Orientation B Composed of 4 cells connected in series and a joule thief.

Output: 2.2 V (~3.3V with JT) Battery Orientation C Composed of 5 cells connected in series and a joule thief Output: 2.75 V (3.3V with JT)

Skin Output: Skin output: 12.5 V (17.3V with joule thief)

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SKN02 3.3V

3.33V

Exploded Axonometric: SKN-1 Battery

3.33V

4.4V

Skin Output: 21.6V

SKN03 1.6V (3.3V with JT)

Exploded Axonometric: SKN-2 Battery

Skin output: 33.75 V (80 V with joule thief)

Exploded Axonometric: SKN-3 Battery

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It is Longyearbyen’s long history with coal that first drew me to the issue of energy in Svalbard.

My initial interest was then to create a device that addressed the issue but which was also a reaction to its environmental surroundings.

In many places with cold climates, salt is used to melt ice off roads and pathways, but what of the melted runoff, the salty solution that is left? What if you could place salt at strategic points on a building roof, in order to melt the snow, from which the liquid runoff could be used to flow through that same building and to power itself? Salt lowers the freezing point of water, thus melting the ice, which is the reason for using it. The second thing about salt is that when dissolved in water, it acts as an electrolyte between two metals, or electrodes, which creates a salt water battery.

This is physically appropriate because of the amount of snow and ice in the surroundings, but ideologically, the battery’s limited lifespan relates to the temporality of Svalbard’s towns. The beauty is in its auto-destruction; what gives it its power is as the metals react together through the salt water, they corrode and the battery gets destroyed. And as mining disappears, so do the towns.

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Assembling and using the device in context, outdoors in the Arctic, presented some unexpected challenges. Other than the constant wind, the low temperatures also presented difficulties. The device was tested with mixtures of coarse road salt, tap water and melted snow. Challenges aside, being on site, in Longyearbyen was an eye-opener to the conditions of its inhabitants and their daily lives on the Norwegian Archipelago.

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C ARBON GREEN HOUSE Agriculture in the Arctic

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ARCTIC HYDROPONICS +

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My proposal integrates a hydroponic greenhouse into the power plant itself, to design an architectural attachment, a quasi-parasite, which takes advantage of this waste heat, CO2 and water. The two industrial archetypes of the power plant and the greenhouse are merged as the former’s constant mechanical buzz and steam breaths and the ever-present flow of water and rushing of leaves of the latter, bring the building to life. A beacon of light and life in the cold polar climate is now the first major building you see when entering Longyearbyen, redefining the town’s character and identity.

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PROGRAM EVOLUTION STEPS

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+ Grow Pod A Testing Area

+ Central Pod Cafe

+ Grow Pod B Larger Fruit & Vegetables

+ South End Vine Crops & Personal Gardens

+ North End Vertical Growing & Offices

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+ Smoke Stack Spiral Market

+ Ceiling CO2 Capture Balloons

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INNER WORKINGS Going from left to right, this collage of two sections shows the inner workings of the 1. community grow spaces, 2. vine crops grow area, 3. the Spiral Market, 4. the existing parts of the power plant that make of the large coal burning kettles, 5. the CO2 capture bubbles above, then 6. the grazzy leisure zones over a 7. large vegetable grow pod over 8. a support box holding a rotary grower, and finally the 9. vertical gardens at the front.

+ The grow spaces merge with the plant’s main boiler room, symbiotically co existing , sharing the same heat, water and CO2. + The public have access to every part of the plant. + Spiraling down while the smoke rises in the tower at the center of the visitor’s descent through the spiral market, one has the option to break the downward motion every full turn where

platforms holding rarer items as well as the potential to sit, and indulge in the surrounding light and greenery.

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> From the cafe at the front, to the community garden spaces at the rear, the Carbon Greenhouse offers the opportunity for social interaction with lush green surroundings, in the middle of the polar night. > A key space is the spiral market, where you are brought to its peak via escalators, the slight declination of the ramp brings you down around the smoke stack while you shop for fruits and vegetables, picking up produce, fresh from the hydroponic tubes.

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FOOD CROPS With virtually no fertile soil or the place or conditions to grow crops, the greenhouse provides the town with new possibilities, both financial and cultural. The Carbon Greenhouse also becomes the town’s main meeting spot away from the cold.

It is equipped with different grow areas. The greens and root crops grow in the main tubes down the Spiral Market (top picture left), the vining plants grow at the back fences (top picture

right), the herbs grow up the grow towers at the spiral market’s interstices, and the larger crops grow in specialized pods hanging off the facade.

+ Greens: Lettuce, Chard, Spinach, Cabbage. + Vining Plants: Tomato, Cucumber, Peas, Peppers. + Root Crops: Potato, Carrots + Herbs: Basil, Chives, Coriander, Cilantro, Oregano, Rosemary, Mint, Watercress, Dill, Sweet Marjoram.

S TAYING AFLOAT Above Floods, Generating Power

WAVE POWER FLOOD RELIEF +

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The mandate was to design and build a working device with architectural potentials, able to perform in the field. The location: Manaus, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest.

The device itself, named ‘Palafittes Energia’, is a device which acts as an attachment to the palafittes (homes on stilts). Connecting around their wooden pillars, it could provide the necessary buoyancy to lift a home to safety in the event of a flood, additionally generating power from wave movement due to high naval activity on the river, transforming the traditional column into a power-generating pillar.

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COMPONENT ASSEMBLY

Jigs made for equal cuts to be made into the aluminum tubes, made for receiving 3mm plates.

Tubes are marked and cut with a jigsaw. The resulting pieces are filled down to remove any sharp edges.

Openings cut into the acrylic tubes half way from receiving aluminium plates.

Tubes are drilled into, making the holes that will receive the bolts necessary for attaching springs to.

Aluminium tubes drilled into, cut, and sanded down. They will make up the primary arm pieces.

Tubes then marked and cut to accommodate interior moving parts.

Acrylic tubes are fitted with acrylic rings that will hold the coils into place.

Final pieces come together to form one of the main assemblages of the device.

The flexible protection for the acrylic tubes is cast with latex in vacuum formed plastic molds.

The coils are hand-wrapped around the acrylic tubes and set into place with a few drops of glue.

Final tubes are placed within their larger assemblage and held in place with acrylic glue.

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COMPONENT ASSEMBLY

A base piece is assembled out of laser cut HDF and a 5L plastic bucket, which is then vacuum formed out of 2mm plastic.

Steel piece cut and ground down by hand, and are then welded together.

Aluminum tubes are cut and drilled into to house the steel pieces, then assembled to make up final assemblage.

Aluminum tubes cut with a jigsaw, drilled into and filled with cork stoppers for the springs.

The secondary pieces and cut and ground down manually, which are the welded into place.

Door stoppers are fitted onto the assemblages as wheels that will make up the final piece.

Laser-cut acrylic pieces are fitted onto the buoys while foam structure is added to their interior.

The buoys are designed to be composed of two halves, for ease of transport due to their stackability.

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The issues associated with the ‘palafittes’ resonated in an especially strong way with me when I stumbled upon the floating village of Catalão. Bringing my device to Catalão and talking to the village’s inhabitants, brought up some interesting discussions about where the dependence of the Manaus’s inhabitants lies, whether it be on the city, the environment or technology, and where a potential shift towards more independence could be imagined.

Here, just a few kilometers off the shore of Manaus, floating structures are the inhabitants’ adaptive solution to greatly shifting water levels. A small community of 58 families live together away from the bustling of the city, distancing themselves away from what is seen as a violent city center. Here, the houses float on the giant trunks of Assacú, one of the typical trees used for this purpose due to its high buoyancy.

While they do not pay any property taxes, access to electricity is sporadic and access to clean water can be an issue, especially at low water levels, which causes a dirtier river. Yet, they seem relatively unaffected by the low water level.

With the multiplicity of economic, ecological and urban forces at play, Manaus finds itself at the center of many of the questions raised in respect to the relationship between the built environment and ecology. As a major city located in the heart of the Amazon jungle, it has a deeply intimate relationship with the forces of nature that surround it. Two different ways of dealing with the increasingly extreme shifts in the global environment, specifically the dangerously fluctuating water levels of the Rio Negro, are prevalent. The palafittes lack of engagement with shifting waters is contradicted by the direct contact the floating village utilizes.

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A more introspective look at my experience in Manaus, contrasting it with the two typologies, revealed the issues surrounding a design process with scientific assumptions and predictability at its heart. Significant questions about the temporal aspect of a design were raised, requiring a critical look at the role of predictability and adaptability in the built environment, and the role of the architect and the built product during and after it is finished.

As intrinsically alien to a natural site, architecture negotiates with an unpredictable environmental set of factors. An exclusive design supported by the objectivity of assumptions of scientific truths and expectations will most often fall short of the more in-

clusive one.

Even with the perceived failures of my device experience, I deem my time in Manaus a great success, inasmuch as the discoveries made due to the necessity to adapt to the environmental factors present. Questions of adaptability, sustainability and independence were raised and remain somewhat unresolved in the city of Manaus, raising the question: what role can floating architecture have in the sustainable future of our cities?

A MAZONIA PIER Manufacturing an Architecture of Pleasure

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MANUFACTURED PLEASURE +

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Welcome to Amazonia Pier! My name is Two-Can, allow me to show you around.

You are now in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, wherein lies the bustling megalopolis of Manaus, our state of Amazonas’s capital, where over two million people live in this concrete jungle, in the jungle. The city of Manaus owes much of its survival to the development of a Free Trade Zone in 1967, after the city had fallen to sullen depths following the great Rubber Boom crash of the late 19th century. Yet, the city has bounced back and is doing wonderful!* This, of course, is in no small amount due to our Free Trade Zone and the conglomerate of over the 600 companies — many being international corporations — which we have managed to attract.

We listened to your growing demands for more transparency within the Zona — as we call it — so we have created this state of the art park, a hybrid of your favorite amusement rides with the powerful mechanical machines of manufacturing. Created from the synthesis of the largest international corporations, the Pier features the products of your favorite brands such as Nicrosoft, Gelette, Coca-Loca, Bepsi, Hardly Davidson, Nevamed, Oral-C, Sumsung, and many more.

Here, at Amazonia Pier, our patrons have the extraordinary opportunity to participate in, and be an active part of every step of the product’s making process from production, to assembly, to testing, with the various rides at the park relying on human strength and body weight to function. We literally couldn’t do it without you!

Enjoy your stay at Amazonia Pier!

*We are legally obliged to mention some quick statistics: Only 1/5 of our population have no access to sewage. A tiny 1/4 live in extreme poverty, and a minuscule 1/3 live without access to clean drinking water!

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+ Map of Brazil - Manaus Located

+ Map of Manaus - Industiral Zones 1 & 2

+ Map of Industrial Zone 1

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“Amazonia Pier’s main layout and circulation operate similarly to commodity flows through Manaus. In most cases, the parts essential to each product are imported from around the world, and are assembled here in the city, wherein the final products are then exported to the rest of the country and parts of South America.

Feel free to move around as you please but we do recommend you follow the path of which ever product you choose. Here, at Amazonia Pier, we believe our patrons shouldn’t have venture past the park limits to experience the real Amazon, so we’ve laid out our park in such a way that you can leave just as easily as the came in!

During your time here at Amazonia Pier, you should feel free to engage with commodity production on any and every level you feel comfortable with. We have outlined three main levels of engagement,

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The park itself is divided into three islands for each of the main steps of the products’ making process.

The Island of Testing, the Island of Production and the Island of Assembly. The park stretches its reach right into the city where at its end you have the opportunity to embark on a gondola ride to see the Pier and the city from the point I see it from, high in the sky!

each with their own degree of effort involved, to be thoroughly enjoyed at each of our wonderful rides.

The first level is a passive or visual one, requiring little effort but also providing little pleasure. The second is our personal favourite, the active or producing one. and the last one is the active testing one, where our products are tested on you for your enjoyment.

All in all, we sincerely hope you find the right balance of whatever level of engagement suits your individual needs, and which will surely have you grinning ear to ear by the end of your stay.

Here, at the Pier, our patrons have the extraordinary opportunity to participate in, and play an active role of every step of the product’s making process from production, to assembly, to test-

ing, with the various rides at the park relying on human strength and body weight to function. We literally couldn’t do it without you!

We have simplified each process so everyone can understand and will love to be a part of. With crisscrossing rides and carts zooming overhead, the endless fun will make you forget you’re even doing work at all!”

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TOWER OF POWER

TOWER OF BY-THE-HOUR

This is where it all begins, the starting point for most of our products you’ll be making. The tower which powers the park is itself powered by the Ferris Flywheel, and any additional power we may need is provided by you!

Here the products you just helped create are put together before they can be sent off the last Island. Parts move continuously around the island and stop at various stations from motorcycle tires to toothbrushes, to electronics and pharmaceuticals.

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TOWER OF EXPOSURE Here, at the third and final destination for most of the products, the assembled ones are ready to be tested on you. You can now finally reap the benefits of your hard labor! Make sure you test everything as many times as you can before leaving!

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Much like the goods that flow through the Free Trade Zone, you find yourself being apart of a process, a cycle.

very real people behind it all, that keep the machine churning.

With a dramatically different relationship to the goods produced.

Patrons may leave the park with a slightly sour taste in their mouth, left wondering if they haven’t been tricked into something more than they signed up for. For what were they really accomplishing. And why were they participating in it? Though they were having so much fun, where was the real pleasure found?

Amazonia Pier challenges the consumer’s relationship to the goods he or she consumes, and this is done through the use of technology. On the one hand through the intimate experience with the production processes by engaging in a visceral way, and on the other through its larger role within its context, here being the Amazon Rainforest.

Taking a closer look at the rides, through their section, we can see a second level, which intertwines itself in the park, a layer closed off from the general public. Below the wooden planks of the pier is the second reality of the park, and the city and its Free Trade Zone. If consumers are on one side of the coin, the other side is the

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The pier loves to give back, that’s why all excess goods are generously given back to the good city of Manaus.

Make sure to grab one of the many goods as a souvenir. On behalf of everyone here at the park, we wish you a happy trip home and hope you will return, because after all, we only exist for as long as you keep coming back!

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C URRICULUM VITAE

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THANK YOU MERCI For more visit: juliennolin.com