#waïf

Berlin State Library

 Hans Scharoun and  Edgar Wisniewski | Berlin | 1967-1978

Trenton bath House 

Louis Khan  | New Jersey | 1955

Invented by John Pock Allen and designed by former Buckminster Fuller associate Peter Jon Pearce, Biosphere 2 was the first attemp to create a materially sealed life system. It was a man made system made to recreate the global ecology of Earth ecosystems.

http://archive.bio.ed.ac.uk/jdeacon/biosphere/biosph.htm

Biosphere 2 is a major sealed glasshouse complex near the small town of Oracle, north of Tucson in the desert of Arizona. It was completed in 1991, funded by a Texan oil billionaire, Edward P. Bass, whose vision was that it could be a step towards the colonisation of Mars by humans. With this in mind, the complex had to be large enough to support humans and to be self-sustaining, with recycling of all its components. It was designed to accommodate small teams of people who would live in it for periods of up to 2 years, obtaining all their food by growing crops or by eating domesticated animals, replenishing the oxygen by plant photosynthesis, and recycling of all their consumables.

University of Arizona:

The University of Arizona Biosphere 2 consists of a unique large-scale experimental apparatus housing seven model ecosystems, a team of multidisciplinary scientists, a broad science education and public outreach program, and a modern conference center. The seven model ecosystems are: 1) a mature rain forest with over 90 tropical tree species, 2) a 2600 m3 ocean, 3) forested swamps dominated by mangrove trees, 4) a tropical savanna grassland, 5) a 1400 m2coastal fog desert, 6) three desert hillslope grass-shrubland landscapes, and 7) Biosphere 2, its campus, and associated buildings and facilities serve as a 162,000 m2 model city and urban ecosystem. 

Wikipedia:

Biosphere 2 was originally constructed between 1987 and 1991 by Space Biosphere Ventures. The project cost US$200 million from 1985 to 2007.

It was named “Biosphere 2” because it was meant to be the second fully self-sufficient biosphere, after the Earth itself.

[…] During the day, the heat from the sun caused the air inside to expand and during the night it cooled and contracted. To avoid having to deal with the huge forces that maintaining a constant volume would create, the structure had large diaphragms kept in domes called “lungs”.Since opening a window was not an option, the structure also required huge air conditioners to control the temperature and avoid killing the plants within. For every unit of solar energy that entered the structure, the air conditioners would expend approximately three times as much energy to cool the habitat back down.

Pictures by: John Kittelsrud, Omar Bárcena, CGP Grey and Ryan Thomas

Further information:

Biosphere 2 Wikipedia

Biosphere 2 Fast Facts

Biosphere 2 Media Spotlight

Ten lessons from Biosphere 2 by WIRED

Tesla electric car manufacturer is building the largest building on earth (based on footprint): the Gigafactory 1

Tesla alone will require today’s entire worldwide production of lithium ion batteries. The Tesla Gigafactory was born of necessity and will supply enough batteries to support our projected vehicle demand.

Tesla broke ground on the Gigafactory in June 2014 outside Sparks, Nevada, and we expect to begin cell production in 2017. By 2020, the Gigafactory will reach full capacity and produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013.

The Gigafactory will produce batteries for significantly less cost using economies of scale, innovative manufacturing, reduction of waste, and the simple optimization of locating most manufacturing process under one roof. We expect to drive down the per kilowatt hour (kWh) cost of our battery pack by more than 30 percent. The Gigafactory will also be powered by renewable energy sources, with the goal of achieving net zero energy.

The name Gigafactory comes from the factory’s planned annual battery production capacity of 35 gigawatt-hours (GWh). “Giga” is a unit of measurement that represents “billions”. One GWh is the equivalent of generating (or consuming) one billion watts for one hour—one million times that of one kWh.

According to the author of the diagram, the final building footprint could be something close to 3535 ft (1077 m) x 1414 ft (431 m).

Elon Musk plans to expand the Gigafactory 1 from 10 million square feet [1 million square meters or 100ha] by 50 to 100 percent.“

Diagram source

WAÏF: Where a Gothic Cathedral meets a Stadium

Portland Memorial Coliseum. 

Portland. Oregon. 1960

Myron Goldsmith. SOM

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Portland Memorial Coliseum directly expresses SOM’s conviction that successful architecture depends on the balanced union of art and engineering. The design team, led by Myron Goldsmith, used a grid of reinforced concrete columns and cantilevered steel trusses to form a square building, 360 feet wide on each side. Unlike most arenas, SOM wrapped the building in modular 3.5-foot by 9-foot glass panels, flooding the interior with natural light.

WAÏF: Where architecture is an empty hill

Sexy Shell

Teshima Museum. 2011

Architect: Ryue Nishizawa

Kagawa prefecture. Japan

WAÏF: Where architecture is made out of paper.

Inland Empire N14

Thomas Demand is known for making photographs of three-dimensional models that look like real images of rooms and other spaces, often sites loaded with social and political meanings.

WAÏF: Where Architecture is a mollusk

Sexy Skeletons 

Yoyogi national Gymnasium