initiated by Transsolar with ANCB - submit your sustainable design ideas!
The CLOUDSCAP.ES AWARD is looking for innovative developments with regard to
a building skin which might have an impact on:
- energy efficiency
- indoor environmental quality (thermal-, acoustical- or visual comfort,
air quality)
- outdoor environmental quality (heat island effect caused by structures,
fresh air supply into the city, local environmental conditions, etc.)
- embedded energy / resources required for construction
Transsolar also has a blog called “green + sexy”. The blog more and more becomes an open source platform of discussion for ideas in the context of design and environmental footprint.
visual and virtual cloudscapes
Transsolar KlimaEngineering will present „Cloudscapes“ at the 12th Architecture
Biennale in Venice (August 29 – November 21, 2010) in
cooperation with Tetsuo Kondo Architects.
Clouds are natural phenomena of our climate. Creating them indoors is only
possible through climate engineering and is a visualization of our
practice which normally goes unseen, hidden in buildings. “Cloudscapes” is an
abstraction of a climate phenomena which unveils our techniques in
the air around us.
the evolution of the building skin
The building skin’s appearance has changed a lot during the last 150 years.
Beginning with the curtain wall constructions in Chicago in 1870, by
separating the facade from the load bearing structure the facade becomes a
driving force for architects and engineers. The Bauhaus style, with its
fully glazed industrial buildings, led to problems with user comfort. The
invention of the insulating glass is for sure the next step to be mentioned.
The oil crisis of the 1970s created the awareness of the need for a more
sustainable building envelope and for saving energy. The double facade
developments in the 80s seemed to be the solution for bringing back the natural
ventilation, but was also criticized for comfort issues and
overheating problems.
Now we have gained the knowledge to build these buildings without problems, we can simulate the design in an early stage of its development and forecast the building’s performance. We are able to install decentralized
mechanical service units into our highly developed unitized facades to fulfill
the user’s comfort, we are able to choose from a wide array of solutions to
create the best possible solution. But now we have to face a new problem: climate change. The building industry has to find answers and the facade will play a big role in this challenge.
It’s time to change our mind; maybe the fully glazed, highly equipped facade isn’t the answer. How will the facade look like in the future? We think glass will still be a major part of it, but well chosen and positioned in areas in which it could serve its potentials. The facade will get new surfaces that create added value like energy production, sun harvesting or light redirecting. The huge field of new materials will lead into new solutions to fulfill the requirements of the future. The decoration of the future will be a function, not materials that just look cool. The conclusion: we have to create buildings that are able to sail, instead of motoring on full throttle.
the challenge
The CLOUDSCAP.ES AWARD will be launched on September 15th and will run until
December 30th, 2010, winners to be announced in January
2011. All participants are invited to post their work on the website during this
time. On the 15th of each month 6 finalists - the projects with the
most votes for that month - will be selected and placed into a separate gallery,
not participating in the voting process anymore. The monthly
winners will have the possibility to work on their project until the final
submission date on December 30th. The jury will select the 1st place award
and two 2nd place awards from the 18 finalists.
The first participants will have less time to elaborate on the idea before
posting it to the website, but more time to receive votes, and after the
monthly selection, more time to develop it. The participants who decide to work
more on their ideas and post them later will get less feedback and
have less time for improvements. It is important for each participant to choose
the strategy that fits best for them.
eligibility
This is an international competition open to everyone, not only architects and
engineers, but also artists, students, dreamers, inventors are
encouraged to participate. There is no age limit; the projects may be carried
out individually or in groups. However, each team project must have a
primary contact person. Individuals may submit entries as individuals and/or as
part of a team.
registration
A small registration fee of $ 50 is required to participate.
submissions
The submission of the ideas is in 2 parts: sketch idea - for each entry uploaded
to the web-gallery, and idea proposal - for the finalists. The sketch idea will
be uploaded to the website and will participate in the voting. The following
pieces should be submitted:
- title: The title of the project should be appropriate
for the idea, catchy and preferably concise.
- visualization: Up to 4 jpg/jpeg/png/gif images are
required to describe and visualize the idea. One of them will be chosen by
the participant to be the “main image” which will appear on the web platform
as the representative image of the project.
- statement: A short text of up to 300 words in English.
The idea proposal will be submitted by the finalists until the final
submission date. For this second part of the submission the finalists will
upload to the web gallery one of the following:
- visualization: 3 additional jpg/jpeg/png/gif images to the ones
submitted in the 1st part, or 6 reworked images in addition to the “main
image”
which will not be changed during the whole duration of the competition. The
size and resolution of the images will be the same as for the 1st part.
OR
video: 1 embedded video from a vimeo account to explain and illustrate the
idea, the process etc. This should not be longer than 3 minutes in
length.
timeline
CLOUDSCAP.ES AWARD launched: September 15, 2010
Registration and submission (1st part): September 15 - December 15, 2010
Monthly selections - on the 15th of every month:
October 15, 2010
November 15, 2010
December 15, 2010
Final submission for all finalists (2nd part): December 30, 2010 (22:00 CET)
Winners announced: mid January, 2011
prizes
The jury will award $ 16 000 in prizes. One possible option is the following:
1st prize: $10 000, 2nd prize: $3 000, 3rd prize: $3 000. The jury may
decide on a different split if it is seen as more appropriate.
All entries will be uploaded to the online platform
WWW.CLOUDSCAP.ES that
will be widely publicized in a broad campaign to encourage online
voting. Thereby they become part of the virtual cloudscapes.
Source and further information:
CLOUDSCAP.ES AWARD
web:
www.cloudscap.es/content/cloudscapes-award
