The main architectural feature is a combination of eight wind chimneys which provide natural ventilation and cooling and grow from the ground level to the top of the whole structure. These elements constitute the basic energy and circulation cores of the project and serve as outdoor assembly spaces. The big structural roof canopy provides natural shading, permits the daylight to get inside the block and incorporates photovoltaic and solar panels to generate energy. Its aerodynamic shape allows the air movement inside the block. Furthermore, on the project are implemented water conservation strategies. The rain water is collected through water tanks suited on the roof, stored and used to irrigate the various shaded roof garden.

The main idea of the project was to create an ‘umbrella’ which covers the whole block and protects the life inside that. The project accommodates commercial, retail, cultural, industrial, educational and residential uses as well as food production. The image of a forest is transmitted to the project, creating a big wood structure which reminds tree trunks. It is developed of three vertical layers; the roof structure, the residential uses and the public spaces. The three layers are separated creating free spaces in between but at the same time are connected by the big wood structure.

The project consists of an intervention at a block of the former industrial 22@ neighborhood where IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya) is located, in order to transform it in a self-sufficient block. The new building created includes different kinds of uses, such as student residences, offices, café-restaurants, IAAC auditorium and studios and science museum, but the most important ones are the algae laboratory and algae farm. Basic element of the project, that leads to its self-sufficiency is the algae and its cultivation, that consists a powerful source of energy, an effective water cleaning system and captures great amounts of CO2 (essential for its growth), emitting at the same time O2. The algae is cultivated in photobioreactors hanged from the steel structure that climbs to the roofs of the neighbor buildings, forming in that way a filter between the interior and the exterior space creating neighbor spaces with different conditions. Finally, principal circulation of the building are ramps and bicycle lines that follow the facades of the atrium and that lead up to the rooftop public space and the green roofs of a neighbor existing buildings.

- the molds

- molding

- the final mold

- painting the laser cutted wood pieces [slabs]

- assemble

… will be continued

Mid Term Presentation model.
-Structural concept
- Circulations
- Program relations

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

Perspective – Section