An architectural testbed for urban cloud seeding operations.

Nestled on the eastern bank of Plänterwald Forest, the building sits at the crossroads of cultural deterioration and ecological imperilment.

Threatened by the water stress conditions of the city, the cloud seeding research centre arises as a curative proposition that experiments on urban weather modification methodologies with the hope of destigmatising contested scientific and political sentiments. Ultimately, it seeks to reinvigorate the city’s aspiration for urban water recreation.

Guised as a performative ecosystem, the building seeks to merge the ecological principles of the biotic pump with the marvels of hygroscopic cloud seeding technology to conceive an architecture that actively restores the climate and in turn constructs its own microclimate.

Leveraging the hygroscopic seeding of urban convective clouds, the building harvests salt crystals from the river and rainfall, which are then processed into finer grains of cloud condensation nuclei. These particles are released in the cloud chamber as steam rises from the thermal plant, forming anthropogenic clouds which eventually dissipate into the sky.