Designing outdoors: Ephemeral and adaptive book shelters in Thessaloniki, Greece
February 17th, 2010
Guest author: Kalliopi Limpou
Most outdoors design applications devoid any sustainable and environmental quality. They are either characterless structures driven by low budgets or fancy installations intending to solely excite the pleasure of the senses, undermining in both cases the parameter of human comfort. As nowadays more and more eminent architects are being engaged to relevant projects, that exceptionally every so often result to masterpieces of contemporary design, it is a real challenge to exploit whether this kind of installations in the future can be additionally enriched by the notion of sustainability, in order for society to reappraise public spaces and eventuate to a whole new perspective of perceiving outdoors living standards. In this paper environmentally-conscious design strategies are highlighted in the hypothetical reformation scenario of an ephemeral exhibition, Thessaloniki’s annual Book festival, and later on tested to validate their importance and effectiveness.
Methodology adopted in order to reach the final proposal is a set of seriate steps mainly consisting of climate data analysis and fieldwork carried out at the site during 2009 Book fair. More specifically, the latter thorough examination indicates problematic areas and key constraints that should be encountered throughout the design process, as well as design strategies that should be encompassed in the revitalizing scheme.
The most predominant provision measures of them, which mainly refer to sufficient shading, inducement of air movement within book shelters, correct choice of materiality and use of passive evaporating cooling means, are being evaluated via software programs such as Ecotect and Tas that assess their efficiency and strengthen the necessitation of their implementation. The research is driven by key points such as: meeting human comfort standards, caring for the psychological and physiological adaptation of all user groups and providing the “adaptive opportunity” to occupants to control their built environment and adjust easier to unwanted weather phenomena.Via graphs, sketches and drawings the whole design procedure is presented, from the primary calculated sun angles and the simulation results of the tested book shelters’ materiality to the final render.
Tags: architectural association, greece, mediterranean climate, outdoor comfort, research, sustainble environmental design
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on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 11:46 PM.
Category: Research Initiatives.
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It is true that sustainability issues should be taken under consideration more seriously.
Being a person living in Thessaloniki I find the subject even more interesting, as I am excited to see architects trying to improve things that will help the city evolve. The annual book festival is one of the best known events of the city and it is really important to keep it in a high level if not improve it.
A mixture of good architecture and sustainable thinking is the winning combination.