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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.
Nestled on the riverbank, the building strategises the two longitudinal axes which form the cloud seeding path and water treatment channel. The long section shows the predominant public axis amalgamating with the building’s ecological operations.
The film shows the path taken by visitors from the park to the cloud chamber and rain chamber thereafter. The essence of the building’s materiality is captured in the last scene as veneer shells react to a change in humidity levels.
Leveraging the hygroscopic attributes of wood, an experimental veneer shell is integrated with composite wood polylactic acid to form an absorptive and responsive material that augments changing humidity and temperature.
Sliding sectional model of the building revealing three key spaces: rain chamber, cloud chamber and bath chamber.
Situated in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the prototype takes the form of a biotic tree that exploits the biological principles of wood’s latent hygroscopicity as means of climate restoration by regulating local precipitation conditions.