MICROCLIMATIC CONTROL

A system that allows a space to maintain climatic comfort throughout the year by using a responsive skin (solar radiation powered), to either open up during summer (and create shadow) or close for winter (establishing a microclimate).

The site is the Barcelona beach. A space with big amounts of undisturbed solar radiation. Urban-wise, it is a location with many patterns of activities and uses throughout the year. A democratic space that joins rich and poor, educated and not.

The aim is to understand these uses and allow them to grow and be carried on in harsher periods of the year. In part, a sort of “theatre” aimed at social sustainability of local community by fostering group activities and interactions.

In terms of technology, the process is really simple; in a closed environment, with only solar input, a liquid substance is heated and by that it expands. We use this phenomenon as a motor for our structure to change with seasons. We have constructed a series of prototypes that proved this phenomenon to work. The next steps involve creating a cell scaled system that would integrate two elements a battery and a skin.