Margot Krasojevic has submitted her latest project, Thermodynamic Wind Turbine Chapel and Club. Let’s hear from her own words: The brief requested a Cliffside chapel reflecting the Montenegrin environment. I decided to use the Bora prevailing wind and the vertiginous nature of the area to inspire the design. Renewable energy is always a prevalent condition to the building program which in this case fused worship and dance, chapel and club congregating within the same building on a Cliffside to generate electricity by using temperature changes within chapel and club as well as wind turbines and kinetic movement energy to generate electricity.
The technology used defines the zoning and building’s design. I implemented a series of tunnels containing Archimedes wind turbines along the cliff face, these staggered turbines are propelled by the Bora wind, directing the air towards the generator. The established electrical energy produced is 3KW. Both chapel and club use thermos-kinetic materials that harness any temperature changes within both areas and generate an electrical current. The architecture uses thermoelectric materials like conducting polymers to convert thermal energy into electrical energy when exposed to temperature increase. The polymer is more adaptable and geometrically flexible, which, is necessary for the building’s intricate geometry. The chapel and rave club’s congregation generate enough heat energy to produce electricity. The thermoelectric effect is often associated with the piezoelectric effect and exploited for pyroelectric infrared temperature detectors. Gallium nitride, a semiconductor, is most commonly used as a pyroelectric crystal, similar to piezoelectric cells that can be applied to building materials and cladding to enable the semiconductors to detect temperature and pressure changes, which produces a voltage to generate an electrical charge stored like a capacitor when needed. The club’s circular walkway dance floor utilizes piezoelectric cells to generate an electrical charge.
The building unfurls from the cliffside, similar to the Bora wind. The chapel is connected to the music venue by a cliff walkway along the spiral wind turbine channels. The chapel uses hollow steel pipes wrapped around the vestibule containing the wind generator. The entire section is sculpted, folding out from the wind turbine walls. The rave club is composed of looped steel sections mimicking the soaring mountains of Montenegro; cross sections dive and rise out of the cliffside, breaking through the mountain like a beacon of light, showing drivers the way to the sea. The building, coastal roads, and mountain region light up when the chapel and club congregate.
The building’s plan comprises three design areas: the chapel, the wind turbine wall, and the club/generator using the principles of a wind organ and fluid dynamics to choreograph the prevailing Bora wind throughout the scheme. The building geometrically looks like it has captured wind movement, crystallizing it mid-shift to reveal what is unseen yet felt.
More images of Thermodynamic Wind Turbine Chapel and Club:
Designer: Margot Krasojevic
Tuvie has received “Thermodynamic Wind Turbine Chapel and Club” project from our ‘Submit A Design‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their design/concept for publication.
