gippsland water factory vortex centre

image by DesignInc

all information from http://www.designinc.com.au/projects/gippsland-water-factory-vortex-centre

                           http://openbuildings.com/buildings/gippsland-water-factory-vortex-centre-profile-40347

Description

The Gippsland Water Factory’s Vortex Centre houses office and laboratory functions and an interpretive experience for a major new water recycling plant which was recently completed near Morwell in Gippsland. The vortex form of the building strongly expresses the dynamic movement of fluids down a pipe, at the same time providing a unique internal environment.

image by DesignInc

Combining cost performance, aesthetics, water education and ecological intelligence, the 650m2 facility is a beacon of exemplary sustainable design. Inherent in the design and interpretive message is the celebration and conservation of water – the essence of the Gippsland Water Factory. The centre was designed as a building that teaches.

image by DesignInc

The inspiration for the Vortex Centre is the notion of a giant oculus shaped structure that hangs off the side of the massive membrane bioreactor tank that forms part of the Water Factory. The Vortex’s shell is made up of seven barrels that fit into one another as they decrease in size, thereby resembling a vortex.

image by DesignInc

The structure is built over an artificial lake that delivers cooling to the building together with other passive environmental measures, including natural ventilation and thermal convection. Due to the stable temperature of the lake, the building delivers a very low energy summer outcome. Cool water from the bottom of the lake is passed through heat exchangers, delivering cool air into the interior. At night, the lake water is pumped over the roof to be cooled for use during the day. In winter, waste heat from a biogas powered cogeneration system will be used to heat the interior. The combination of these design principles ensures the Vortex is a low user of natural gas and power from the electricity grid.

image by DesignInc

At the entry to the Vortex, transparent pneumatic ETFE cushions incorporate variable skins allowing the façade to be ‘tuned’, admitting or excluding sunlight for different seasons and daily conditions.

image by DesignInc

The Vortex will impress first time visitors and looks to provide regular return visitation by school groups and the public alike – one of the best measure’s of the facility’s success.

image by DesignInc

Facts

Year: 2010

Location: Victoria

Client: Gippsland Water Factory Alliance

Value: $5M

Awards: United Nations Association of Australia

               World Environment Day Awards 2011

               Green Building Award

image by DesignInc

ARPA new headquarters for the regional agency of prevention and environment

image by Mario Cucinella

all the information from http://www.mcarchitects.it/project/arpa-agenzia-regionale-per-l-ambiente

Description

The project is the winner in the international competition for design of a new building complex for offices and research laboratories. It covers an area of 5,000 square meters. The customer required a property to be alocated to its offices that would meet the highest standards of architectural and environmental quality, and was characterized by a maximum level of environmental sustainability.

image by Mario Cucinella

The new building sourounds a central courtyard, that's the hub of the complex. The roof of the building, the so-called fifth facade, is the strongest design feature of the project. A series of chimneys give to the building a strong architectural identity while satisfying the technological requirements of the brief. The chimneys are skylights that filter natural light, promote natural ventilation and reduce the need of mechanical cooling. 

image by Mario Cucinella

Overall, the entire building works proactively with the local microclimate meeting the technological needs manifested in the brief. All the workspaces are open to the outside by the inclusion of green courtyards creating an alteration of soid void - indoor-outdoor micro-environment that break up and define the building volumes.

image by Mario Cucinella

image by Mario Cucinella

electricité de france regional headquarters

image by Foster + Partners

all information from http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/electricite-de-france-regional-headquarters/

Description

When the leading French utility company, Electricité de France (EDF), commissioned a new regional headquarters, it aimed to bring together managerial and technical staff previously scattered over a number of locations around Bordeaux. Appropriately, as an energy provider, it was also persuaded to embrace the efficient use of electricity for all its energy needs. The resulting building both exemplifies the practice’s long-standing philosophy of encouraging social integration and amenity in the workplace and makes a compelling case for adopting more sustainable development strategies.

image by Foster + Partners

The building has a thermally efficient building envelope that capitalises on a tradition of excellence in concrete construction in France. In this respect, it draws on the lessons of earlier French projects, notably the Lycée Albert Camus in Fréjus, which employs passive climate control techniques dating back to traditional Arabic architecture.

image by Foster + Partners

Like the Fréjus Lycée, the EDF building’s reinforced concrete frame and ceiling vaults - designed for good acoustic performance - have a high thermal mass, which helps to maintain constant internal temperatures. Natural ventilation and daylight are exploited as much as possible, both to reduce energy consumption and to create enjoyable working conditions. In the summer, high-level vents open automatically to cool the building fabric overnight. Daytime cooling is provided by chilled floors, which can alternatively be heated in the winter. The windows incorporate mirrors, or ‘light shelves’, to reflect light into the office interiors, while cedar louvres prevent solar gain. Following the strategy of relying on ‘geometries, not mechanisms’, the louvres are fixed and aligned to respond to very different light conditions on the east and west facades.

image by Foster + Partners

Additionally, the building reuses its own waste energy, the heating and cooling system being run by an electric pump powered by the central exhaust stack.

image by Foster + Partners

A model for efficient energy management, the building is also rooted in the landscape traditions of the region. From the covered entrance plaza, which forms the visual focus of the scheme, the long entrance axis continues in an avenue of trees, the pleached limes and gravel recalling the scale and geometry of the nearby Château Raba as well as the great Place des Quinconxes in the centre of Bordeaux.

image by Foster + Partners

image by Foster + Partners

Facts

Appointment: 1992

Construction start: 1995

Completion: 1996

Capacity: 270

Client: Electricité de France

Collaborating Architect: Berguedieu-Brochet

Structural Engineer: Ove Arup and Partners

Quantity Surveyor: MDA France

M+E Engineer: Kaiser Bautechnik / SERETE Regions

image by Foster + Partners

ARPT Headquarters in Algiers

image by Mario Cucinella

all information from http://www.mcarchitects.it/project/arpt

Description

The project is inspired by the Algerian desert landscape where the dunes of seem natural buildings, manufactured by wind and sand. Analysing the urban fabric, the location of the lot along a highway of great importance and especially the proximity to the new urban park Bab Ezzouar, offer the possibility to create a building highly visible and representative. An institutional building as the new ARPT headquarters should be the reference point within a neighborhood and a city where tradition and modernity merge each other to create new symbolic and cultural scenarios. For this reason the project proposal draws a highly iconic building far from the predominant aesthetics of the area and which exploits the direct contact with the new park.

image by Mario Cucinella

The desire to create a building that would work according to the principles of bioclimatic architecture and in particular by the natural cooling techniques of the past, such as the tu'rat, suggested an aerodynamic shape, convex on the North side to divert the hot winds, and concave on the South side to capture the cool breezes during the night, and thus to promote the natural ventilation of the building.

image by Mario Cucinella

Project Details

Place: Algiers, Algeria

Year: 2013

Type: International competition – winning project

Author: Mario Cucinella Architects  

Team: Mario Cucinella, Luca Sandri, Alberto Casarotto, Alberto Bruno, Giulia Mariotti, Rossana Romano, Michele Olivieri, Giuseppe Perrone, Yuri Costantini (model maker)

Rendering: MIR, Engram Studio   

image by Mario Cucinella