3 June 2021 12:02 am Views - 167
The building design aims to communicate the significance of urban farming in this spatially consolidated world as a landmark on how food production can be achieved in cities. The envelope becomes a living bio-skin: the old structure replaces the existing facade with a new transparent one made in ETFE (Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene), a fluorine-based plastic, integrating a system of micro-algae production within the cushions. As ivy grows on old abandoned buildings without affecting their structure, our new facade symbolically gets “eaten up” by nature, like green plants growing on ruins. The bio-skin winds like a climbing plant and hugs both sides of the tower, as if to symbolize the branches of a tree. The façade system arises from a geometrization of ivy leaves, associated with the elementary shape of the triangle.
As a pilot project, a system of tubes in the transparent façade is included, which leads a nutrient fluid through the envelope allowing algae to grow within the structure. The system can be combined with a waste water treatment system and aquaponic system, recycling nutrients, supporting the development of a sustainable water management.
The project will develop a solid concept that could put together the advantages of a kinetic facade with the vast opportunities that the algae cultivation could offer. The idea is to set basic criteria for the design of a productive building for the circular city of the future.
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Antonella Trombadore