ويكي: Tensegrity Supports A Fan In A Tree House

السبت، 9 أكتوبر 2010

Tensegrity Supports A Fan In A Tree House

In Shanghai, Madrid's Air Tree has

a tensegrity at its top, the cherry on a sundae of innovative architectural concepts. The structure is largely tensile in construction. It hosts a small arboretum--that means a tree garden--enabling urban dwellers to stumble acrosss a small forest in their concrete jungle. The trees create a micro-environment that includes lower ambient temperature.

The Air Tree is to be a main fixture of EcoBoulevard of Vallecas, Madrid, and was first installed at the Madrid's pavillion at the Shanghai World's Fair 2010. Inhabitat wrote,

‘Ecoboulevard’ for industrial revitalization won the AR Awards for Spanish Architecture group Urban Ecosystems. Aside from their aesthetic appeal, the trees have a very interesting benefit for the local residents who have to suffer through hot Spanish summers. The surrounding environment near the air tree will be naturally conditioned, reducing the heat island effect found in most city centers. The air trees will be implemented city wide in the coming years.

Some of the texts claim

that the fan at the top is suspended by a tensegrity structure. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but their are certainly a lot of cables up there.

Ventilation inside the Air Tree is provided through a big fan of 7.3m diameter, suspended by a tensegrity
structure in the centre of the space, at a height of 11.5m. Through a telescopic system the fan can be lowered several meters to be located closer to the visitors. The exact position and speed at each moment is determined according to the climatic conditions of the env
ironment that are monitored continuously in the surroundings of the structure.

Eco Sistema Urbano designed the project. They wrote,

The proposal for the Eco-boulevard of Vallecas can be defined as an operation of urban recycling that consists of the following actuations: the installation of three social revitalizing air-trees placed along the existing urbanization, the densification of trees within their existing concourse, the reduction and asymmetric disposition of the traffic routes, and superficial interventions within the existing urbanization (perforations, backfill, paint, etc.) that achieve reconfiguration of the executed urban development. Three pavilions or air trees function like open structures to multiply resident-selected activities. Installed in the non-city as temporary prostheses, they will be used only until air-conditioned spaces are no longer needed, when the area becomes 'fixed'. When a sufficient amount of time has passed, these devices should be dismantled, leaving remaining spaces that resemble forest clearings. The air tree is a light structure, easily dismantled and energetically self-sufficient, that only consumes what it is capable of producing by means of systems designed to capture and use solar photovoltaic energy... The bio climatic trees are an initiative to create a public habitable space to encourage relations between citizens. It also serves to generate a structure of neighborhood management. The climatization system of evaporate transpiration used in the tree and the immediate surroundings decrease in temperature up to 8-10º C.

The Air tree is also interesting due to its connection with Second Life. Curator Cristina García-

Lasuén selected it for the pavillion. Cristina planned the exhibit as her virtual alter-ego Aino Baa, a resident of Second Life very active in the machinima movement.