Sophus Søbye, David Vega y Rojo, Salva Quiles Palanca, Francisco de Paula Mateu Puchades, Lotte Mattelaer

The forest industry is very important for the existence of this project, as well as for Finland’s economy. Wood is the most widely available raw material in Finland and it is part of everybody’s lives. People go out to the forest to take long walks, to relax, to play, to do sport. The relationship between people and the forest is very tight.

Inspired by this symbiosis the project idea is to mimic nature: a log lying on the forest ground, crossing a creek without effort because of its natural structural strength. We can see the wood grain on its sides and moss growing on its upper part, it is a perfect place to sit and take a break, to relax, enjoy the view, enjoy the forest.

The historical value of the existing Museum building required great care in defining the hierarchy of the volumes. The beautiful proportions of the building asked to be left alone, welcoming. The site provides a unique opportunity with the extensive land to the back and Taavetinsaari which is there waiting to be conquered, an opportunity to use this landscape and make art happen within.

Architecture

The entrance to the extension is towards its northern tip, next to the Joenniemi Manor. The north orientation allows for a large transparent entrance without many problems with sunlight. This transparency welcomes the visitor and clearly marks the new general entrance. The assembly hall is near the entrance beyond this glass wall. The assembly hall’s opening wall, that mimics a section of a log, allows it to grow towards the foyer and entry plaza if needed, or to use it as an extended foyer space when the exhibition so requires.

The reception desk, cloakroom, toilets and shop are located in the pivot of the composition, allowing easy control of the entrance and exit of both buildings. The reception has a view to the main corridor, elevator lobby and access to the restaurant, giving the person in the entrance desk full control of the building.

The Joenniemi Manor is accessed through a transparent corridor that connects to its east facade without disturbing its elements.

Near the main entrance we find the vertical connection of the complex, that gives access via stairs and elevators to the three levels of the building.

The galleries are organized in line with a service corridor towards the east that connects the art storage and all the technical rooms related to the galleries. The corridor is wide enough to serve as storage space as well. At one end we have a freight elevator to go to the basement to archive, maintenance and storage, at the other end we have the big storage room which is adjacent to both travelling exhibition spaces, allowing for quick access and the possibility of extending the exhibition area.

The large travelling exhibition space is located at the end of the building towards the south, making Taavetinsaari part of the exhibition and adding exhibition space, gently descending and disintegrating into the forest.

On the second floor we find the restaurant. It is floating above the foyer with a terasse to the south overlooking the garden and lake, it is open and has views to the gallery foyer and exterior entrance plaza, making it a great place to pause and look at the scenery. The kitchen is located on the same floor with access to the freight elevator for supplies.

The basement is a happening place, the offices are located on the perimeter which gives them access to the garden, the lounge is located towards the connection to the Joenniemi Manor to allow employees to move freely without disturbing the exhibition spaces.  On this same level there is a large space for storage, archives and maintenance. The civil defense shelter is located next to the connection to the Joenniemi Manor to have easy access from both buildings. All the mechanical rooms are located in this level.

On Taavetinsaari we find the sauna which is conveniently located right next to the water (for the brave), and under the building (for the shy). The sauna not only makes the structural pillar for the museum, but is also located in the most private part of the land, with fantastic views to the lake and the Manor. It can be accessed through Taavetinsaari after visiting the museum, or directly through the bridge.

The linear nature of the project makes it very clear and easy to organize and visit. The constant openness to the lake with the glimpse of Taavetinsaari at the end, which is waiting to be discovered, makes the walk through the building exciting in its own right. The galleries oriented towards the northeast, are well protected from the sun and have a potential to be naturally lit from late morning and afternoon hours.

The idea of combining the bridge with the building to cross to Taavetinsaari has many advantages: The footprint of the structures is shared so there is less impact to the landscape, the shared structure greatly reduces the materials to build them, the bridge creates a passage along the building that enhances the volume, it also works as a discreet service access to the whole building, allowing for service and deliveries without disturbing the visitors galleries. There can be controlled access to host outdoor exhibitions, becoming part of the museum itself.

Environment

The project is designed to minimize its impact on the landscape. The natural advantage of a bridge structure is that it minimizes contact with the ground and spans across to the next support, therefore leaving the landscape unscathed. It also respects the flow and continuity of the existing garden along the lake shore allowing the same freedom of movement we find today.

The main building material for the Museum is wood. The enormous industry output and the well managed forests in Finland provide us with the world’s best quality and environmentally conscious building material. The aim is to have different shades of wood applied in a variety of ways to define the nature of each piece of the building, introducing the visitor to the many different ways to use wood.

The majority of the roof space will be covered with plants from a local variety to provide habitat to the insects and birds that live in the region. In fact, if we subtract the removed planted area from the site to accommodate the building and add the new planted area on the roofs, we end up with more planted surface than before the extension.

The green roof is an important aspect of the project: It mimics the moss growing naturally on the fallen trees in the forest, but also works as insulation, it stores rainwater and promotes evaporation, absorbs the sun rays reducing the heat island effect, stores CO2 in the plants that grow and integrates into the landscape.

The skin of the building consists primarily of wood panels, glass and wood sunshades. These sunshades are distributed so as to mimic the natural randomness of wood grain, at the same time protect all the walls and interior from direct sunrays reducing the unwanted heating effect, reflecting light, giving an indirect even illumination to the interior spaces.

The heating system is based on hot water radiant floor heating. Radiant floors are an excellent alternative for high spaces because they heat upwards as opposed to ceiling mounted elements that push the heat down, they are silent, and easy to maintain. The floor should have a layer of concrete under the finish to use its thermal inertia to our advantage.

The building laid out as is, allows for natural cross ventilation and night purges in mid season.

The whole project is to be managed and carefully designed in all its elements and systems to obtain the highest scores in the reference environmental building assessment methods, BREEAM and LEED.

They will be published as soon as the Jury’s decision is reached for each one of them.

Fixing an old house with small budget and few help trying to make it a Zero energy house in the long run.

There is a Blog that details all the process of the remodeling.

check weekly: http://www.josecarlosdesilva.com/funkis1/

Design Submission for the 2010 Land Art Generator Initiative Design Competition

Artist’s descriptive text:
SUNFLOWER Concept
Flowers, as plants in general, capture sunlight during the day, they transform the sunlight energy into chemical energy and by consuming carbon dioxide and water, they generate biomass and oxygen. Many flowers also follow the sun in order to maximize their exposure to the light that sustains their life. In an attempt to mimic nature, we present a system that, like plants and flowers, transforms sunlight into another form of energy that is more suitable for our needs. A giant ‘flower’ stretches up to the sky with an intelligent body that adapts during the day in order to directly expose its petals to the solar rays. With its petals, consisting of tens of solar collectors, it transforms light into electrical energy. Part of this energy is given away to the electricity grid, while another part is stored in the form of hydrogen inside balloons that will inflate and, when hydrogen is consumed in order to produce electricity, deflate, giving the SUNFLOWER an ever-changing shape, like it was breathing. The mix of different kinds of ‘petals’ will give every SUNFLOWER a unique shape.

These SUNFLOWERS are placed within a network of paths (branches) that extend through the site, creating a park where visitors can safely come and enjoy the view, and the comfort given by the shadow projected by the SUNFLOWER. There will be no more noise than the air running through the landscape on the site.

How it works
The SUNFLOWER is a solar photovoltaic electric generator. It is composed by a series of solar balloons with a concave reflective surface that captures and concentrates light 400 fold and directing it to a photovoltaic panel. The group of spheres that compose the SUNFLOWER follow the sun by bending the ‘stem’ or supporting structure. The electricity generated is then partially sent to the grid and partially used to generate Hydrogen using fuel cells, devices that can transform hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity in an efficient, silent and reliable way to be stored and later used to generate electricity at night or during peak hours.

3- How much it generates:
The SUNFLOWERS in SITE 1 can generate up to 1 MW of continuous electricity 24 hours a day. This can be adapted depending on need; it could generate less Hydrogen for the night and send more electricity to the grid during the day.

Harvesting, Storing
The SUNFLOWER generates the electricity during the sun hours. Part of the electricity is sent to the grid and part is used to produce Hydrogen by water electrolysis which is then stored in low pressure hydrogen balloons. When in need of electricity between sun hours, for example at night, hydrogen is combined with the oxygen in the air to produce electricity and water using fuel cells. The water generated by the fuel cell is stored for future hydrogen production in a closed loop to avoid waste. In the process, oxygen is constantly being taken from and released into the atmosphere. Hydrogen can be stored for any period of time without any losses as opposed to expensive and complex batteries.

The SUNFLOWER has two types of petals
1. The solar panel: inflated, balloon-shaped concentrators. Each 8-foot-diameter concentrator is made of plastic film—the same kind of plastic film used to bag potato chips, pretzels, and so on—with a transparent upper hemisphere and a reflective lower hemisphere. When inflated with air, the concentrator naturally forms a shape that focuses or concentrates sunlight onto a PV cell placed at the focal point. This means we need fewer cells to produce a lot more electricity. In fact, a single cell in our concentrator generates about 300 to 400 times the electricity of a cell without a concentrator (text via: Cool Earth Solar).

The inflated structure is naturally strong—strong enough to support a person’s weight—and aerodynamically stable, able to withstand winds of 125 miles per hour. Finally, the transparent upper surface protects the PV cell and mirrored surface from the environment, including rain and snow, as well as insects and dirt.
Each concentrator has additional structural components: a small steel strut and a harness. The steel strut, tethered in place, holds the cell at the focal point inside the concentrator and provides a conduit for a small water loop that cools the cell. A lightweight, flexible steel band forms a harness around the circumference of the concentrator and is used to hold and point the concentrator (text via: Cool Earth Solar).

2. The Hydrogen Balloons: Made of plastic materials in order for them to deflate and inflate as the pressure changes inside them. The pressure is kept low (under 10 bar) in order to make the balloons cheaper to manufacture and to save energy by storing hydrogen at the same pressure it is generated within the electrolysers. The balloons will be deflated in the morning when the Hydrogen stock has been depleted by the electricity consumption during the night and will re-inflate during the day as the sun provides the energy to produce new hydrogen. This inflation and deflation will give the SUNFLOWER an infinite shape change just like flowers that open for the sun in the morning and close at night.

The stem
The SUNFLOWER stem consists of a central flexible structure surrounded by cables that run up and down giving it stability. These cables will then control the SUNFLOWER orientation by pulling and letting go according to need, which will give the SUNFLOWER an infinite range of movement and allow it to follow the sun without the need of any other complex multilink system. The movement will be slow and silent, just like in a sunflower, without affecting the wildlife, site visitors or anything.

The base
The SUNFLOWER base is a concrete underground machine room that works as foundation. In this room we find the SUNFLOWER movement control equipment, the hydrogen generators and fuel cells, the electrical connection to the grid and a water tank for storing the water generated at night that will be used to produce hydrogen during the day. The water tank will empty and fill depending of the amount of hydrogen available in the SUNFLOWER.

Scalability of the design
Since the idea is made of beautiful, independent, fully functional elements (SUNFLOWER s), the scalability is infinite, it can be put all over the grid, on top of buildings in the middle of parks in fuel stations, along the road. It is entirely safe, very light and with no exposed moving parts.

Environmental Footprint

Construction: It requires the transportation of the steel cables and structure (prepared in a factory), the deflated balloons, some water and all to be assembled in place with no heavy equipment.

Life and maintenance: The SUNFLOWER will require minimal maintenance, the whole process is contained either in sealed balloons or in the machine room in the basement with no exposed moving parts, and there is minimal need of cleaning. The solar panels and hydrogen balloons are easily replaced whenever needed. The flexible stem can flex all the way to the floor level to allow maintenance to be done with just some ladders or small equipment to reach the upper parts of the SUNFLOWER. The balloons concentrate the light received into the photovoltaic cell; therefore no reflection of light will be emitted to the atmosphere distracting birds and airplanes.

End of life cycle recycling: All parts are made of entirely recyclable materials, steels and plastics. They could be restored or recycled to create new generators in a cradle-to- cradle fashion.

Safe: In case of a catastrophic event, the hydrogen stored in low pressure balloons will disperse immediately in the atmosphere (zero pollution or explosivity). In the extreme case of a SUNFLOWER falling down the solar balloons are so light that they will create minimal damage absorbing most of the impact and the electric generation will stop the moment the panels stop receiving sunlight.

Environmental Consulting for Iñaki Echeverria, project designer.

I worked with the design team to find ways to reduce the environmental impact of the project during its whole lifespan, I also looked ways to maximize the points to be obtained within the LEED rating system aiming for a Platinum certification.