Gerald Griggs & Weimeng Lu / M.Arch. Intelligent Building Skins / Ulrich Dangel
The Athena Lighthouse Editors’ Note: The Athena Lighthouse was the third-place winning entry in the Piraeus Design Competition. By virtue of its height and proximity to the water, the Piraeus Tower has already become iconic – as the lighthouse of the ferry harbor and the gateway to Athens. This design proposes to make the building more elegant and less overpowering to better assume these roles. Original structure system
Marble Window Screen Pane
Add vertical ventilation shaft
Covering Translucent Skin
This design shows a respect for the vernacular architecture of Greece expressed in the buildings nestled in the hills rising above the harbor and seen in the villages – the white cubes which inspired the early 20th century Modernists. This proposal also pays homage to ancient Athens and the values that Athena represented: strength, wisdom and civilization. Also, this design maintains the regular orthogonal geometry seen in the architecture of the Parthenon. It also injects a certain amount of randomness into the arrangement of the planar and cubic elements to convey that wonderful aesthetic quality of the Greek villages. In summary, this project proposes a light shimmering tower of strength and elegance with a design which embraces the simple vernacular architecture of the Greek hill towns and the Classical geometry of ancient Greece. From an environmental viewpoint, the building skin promotes energy efficiency by helping to keep the interior cooler. The design prevents direct solar heat gain by the use of a slightly reflective translucent low thermal mass skin, deeply recessed windows, and sliding translucent exterior window shades. The double skin design enables the cooler harbor air to enter the cavity and vent the warm office air. An intake vent above each window allows on-shore harbor air to enter the interior, while a vent at the ceiling level in each room allows the warmer office air to flow out and up the shaft. In summary, the double skin uses the cooler summer on-shore breezes to cool and ventilate the building.
Course Work / Spring 2010 / 92-93