Iranian wind tower

INTRODUCTION:

• Represents the ventilation as a sustainable cooling system in Iranian architecture.
• To counter the harshly variable climates of the country, Iranians invented wind towers which still stand in various desert towns.
• Important elements in Iranian architecture, providing air-conditioning in hot, dry and humid climates for thousands of years.
• Rise not only on ordinary houses but also on top of water cisterns and mosques.

PROPERTIES:

• To introduce cool outside air, driven by positive wind pressure.
• The internal partition allows the low pressure on the lee side of the tower to suck air from inside the building.
• In order to provide occupants with comfort, they were built with a four-directional orientation to catch wind from all directions and guide it into the house.

Wind towers consist of four parts:

1. The body containing shafts
2. Air shelves which catch hot air and prevent it from entering the structure,
3. Flaps which redirect wind circulation,
4. A roof covering.

MECHANISM:

• Wind travels through the shafts on top of the tower to reach the interior of the building.
• The air flow inside the structure travels in two directions, up and down.
• The temperature difference between the interior and exterior of a building causes pressure variations which results in the creation of air currents.
• In cities where the wind blows only from one single direction, only one of the shafts operates to receive the breeze.

There are three types of wind towers:

• The most elementary type of wind tower was built over cellars and underground water tanks known as ab-anbar.
•  These cellars kept food refrigerated and also served as sitting rooms where people could remain cool on hot summer days
• In hot climate cities, one to six wind towers were used to cool the water.
• They prevented stagnant air and the formation of dew or humidity inside, resulting in pure, clean and cold water all year round.
• The second type transferred the flow into the basement where it hit damp walls and its humidity increased while its temperature decreased. The flow could be directed into other rooms using valves.
• The third type of wind tower was taller and mainly used in multi-roomed one-story buildings. A dome-roofed hall under the tower helped ventilation.
• Wind towers display the compatibility of human-built architectural forms with the environment and the ingenuity of Iranian engineers.
• Following the introduction of western architecture,  structures such as wind towers gradually became part of the past though many still remain in use.
• Modern architecture can make use of traditional Iranian methods to utilize air currents and evaporation in cooling and air-conditioning living quarters.

Burj al-Taqa – The Energy Tower Dubai, United Arab Emirates:

• Order Year: 2006-07
• Estimated Investment: £200m
• Height: 322m (1,056ft)
• Construction Start: 2008
• Design: Gerber Architeckten international

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS:

• Dubai temperatures can reach 50°C, so the cylindrical shape of the building is designed to minimise exposure of the surface to the sun.
• All energy is generated from wind turbines and solar panels; the main 60m (197ft) roof-mounted turbine
•  The windows are protected from indirect sunlight elsewhere on the tower by a mineral coating, which also helps improve the effectiveness of the air conditioning.

 

DUBAI ENERGY TOWER CONSTRUCTION

• The tower is constructed from cutting-edge vacuum glazed glass, which will be mass- commercialized in 2008, to reduce heat absorption and maximize the available daylight.
• The central atrium and a five-perimeter atria contain transparent ducts that look like plastic cylinders running up through the ceiling on all levels of the building.
• A double-skin glass façade protects the Solar Shield and helps to clear stale air from the rooms.

Talking of air conditioning, the main system for cooling the air inside the tower uses a convection system which pulls in cold air at the ground level, and sucks it up out of the top of the tower. The air conditioning will use seawater, and underground cooling units lower the temperature inside to 18 degrees C / 64.4 degrees F. This building may be a technological beacon for environmentally friendly skyscrapers, but as a commenter on metaefficient points out, new building designs don’t do much to solve the inefficiency of older buildings in cities. Although that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine what it’d be like to work and live in a sea of glass and metal without feeling slightly bad about it.

“Such a building has to work like a thermos flask,“ says DS-Plan’s energy manager Peter Mösle

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The Rotating Tower,Dubai and Suite Vollard, Curitiba – David H. Fisher

 David Fisher

• Italian Architect based in Florence owning a design firm called “Infinity Design”
• Honors at Faculty of Architecture in Florence University
• Taught as faculty in the same and in structural engineering department
• Awarded PhD Honoris causa by the Prodeo Institute at Columbia University (NY)
• Not a traditional architect as he worked mainly in the field of construction redefining the technical and technological extremes of building
• Involved in restoration of ancient buildings
• Pioneer in the field of prefabrication and dynamic buildings

ARCHITECTURE IS TECHNOLOGY:

Since the beginning, with his involvement in “Binishells” technology, David Fisher’s design studio has developed a vision of architecture resulting from technological and economic considerations, with aesthetics being the natural output of the above.

ARCHITECTURE IS FEASIBILITY:

Since the first large project, “the Marriott Aruba” , Dr. Fisher has taken part in the complete process of construction, from the feasibility study, to financing, to construction management and the  final commissioning of the project.

ARCHITECTURE IS FUNCTIONALITY:

• For David Fisher Architecture is the space for living and the life of the people must not be conditioned by an architect’s extravagance.
• Infinity Design gives puts a strong focus on the flexibility of the space as life, architecture must change together with the needs of the people and the changes of the environmental conditions.

PREFABRICATION:

• 3,800 B.C. – Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids and buildings until now are based on gravity: stones/bricks/blocks are positioned one on top of the other.
• 1436 – Brunelleschi designed the dome of the Cathedral of Florence.The biggest dome ever built, challenging horizontal forces.
• 1889 – The first iron structure, the Eiffel Tower, was built in Paris . Many skyscrapers are built of bolted steel traces, based on the same technology.
• 1905 – Reinforced concrete was created by combining cement with iron bars; most structures until now are made of reinforced concrete.
• 2008 — Prefabrication when 90% of building (Dynamic Tower) was prefabricated including the preassembled cores

“Almost every product used today is the result of an industrial process and can be transported around the world, from cars and boats to computers and clothing. Factories are chosen for their ready access to materials, production technology, inexpensive labor, efficiency, and other conditions that result in high quality at a relatively low cost.

It is unbelievable that real estate and construction, which is the leading sector of the world economy, is also the most primitive. For example, most workers throughout the world still regularly use trowels, which were first used by the Egyptians and then by the Romans. Buildings should be no different from any other .product,. and from now on they will be manufactured in a production facility”– Dr David Fisher

“Doing buildings on site, as we do since the pyramids, is as if we were producing cars in the parking lot or an aircraft on the runway…

Our building in fact are made of preassembled units, that arrive to the site completed of all finishing, equipment, plumbing and air conditioning, ready for a fast and easy installation process.

So these buildings are feasible.

I mentioned functionality — well, also the interior partition will be flexible if they will ever exist… look how flexible is our digital part of life. . . why should we still live in a medieval castle where the wall do not let us any freedom and we can modify them when our way of life get changed.”–Dr. David Fisher

REDEFINING DYNAMIC ARCHITECTURE:

• Dynamic Architecture buildings keep modifying their shape
• Traditional architecture – Gravity
• Dynamic architecture – Motion dynamics
• A mechanical approach to civil construction – Transdisciplinary
• Buildings will no more remain the ‘fossilized imagination’ of the architect;
• They will change, constantly bringing new views and experiences to us with time
• Introducing the fourth dimension in architecture : TIME

Suite Vollard:

• The Suite Vollard is a futuristic residential building in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil.
• This Apartment Building was Designed by a team of Architects, headed by Bruno de Franco & David Fisher
• This building is the only one of its kind in the world, as each of the 11 apartments can rotate 360º.
• Each apartment can spin individually in any direction. One rotation takes a full hour.
• The apartment rings rotate around a static core used for building services, utilities, and all areas which require plumbing.
• Each apartment was sold for approximately R$ 400,000.00 ($US 300,000.00).

The Rotating Tower:

• 80 floors, 420 meters tall.
• First 20 floors will be Offices.
• Floors 21 to 35 will be a Luxury hotel,
• Floors 36 to 70 will be Apartments.
• While the top 10 floors will be luxury Villas.
• Apartment sizes range from 124 sq.m to villa of size 1200 sq.m
• It will be the first building in the World to be entirely constructed from factory made prefabricated parts.
• These parts are being manufactured in a factory in Altamura, Italy.
• It will require just 600 people in the assembly facility and 80 technicians on the site instead of min. 2000 workers for a similar building.•the consturction will complete by the end of this year.
• “The Rotating Tower Of Dubai will be the First Industrial Skyscraper ever constructed. 90% of the building will be prefabricated and assembled on a central core, the only part built with traditional reinforced concrete poured on the site.”
• “I call the non-moving buildings Tombstones……buildings should start being part of the universe, and therefore dynamic…..   How could one think that digital homes of future will be as immobile as our grandmother’s house.”

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Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) – Burj Dubai

Biography:

• Formed in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill
• SOM has completed over 10,000 projects around the nation and in more than 50 countries around the world and maintains offices in all over the world
• One of the largest architectural firms
• More than 800 awards for quality and innovation
• Expertise is in high-end commercial buildings
• SOM was one of the first major modern American architectural firms to promote a corporate face of Architecture

Major Projects:

• Freedom Tower
• Trump International Hotel and Tower
• Burj Dubai
• San Francisco International Terminal,
• Sears Tower
• First Wisconsin Plaza
• Haj Terminal, Jeddah
• Weyerhaeuser Headquarters
• John Hancock Center, Chicago
• Wells College Library, Aurora
• Air Force Academy Chapel
• Lever House

Burj Dubai , 2009 , Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Project Facts

• Completion Year: 2009
• Expected Height : 818 m
• Floors : Around 162
• Site Area: 1,121,707 ft2
• Project Area: 5,000,000 ft2

Salient Features:

• Its design is reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision for The Illinois, a mile high skyscraper designed for Chicago.
• “The tower goes up in steps in a spiraling way. In Islamic architecture, this symbolizes ascending towards the heavens.” – Architect Adrien Smith,
• The building resembles the bundled tube form of the Sears Tower, but is not a tube structure.
• Has 26 Terraces
• A Y-shaped floor plan is inspired from the geometrics of the desert flower and the patterning systems employed in Islamic architecture (Onion Dome).
• According to SOM Burj Dubai was designed based on the 73-floor Tower Palace Three, an all-residential building in Seoul, South Korea