The Cloud of the Wisdom

The traditional Arab Architecture has found a new icon in Saudi Arabia ... a building inside another!

Hi, I was completely desperate, nervous and uneasy, I know that you are not used to seeing me in this permanent tension, but you should not be surprised, after all, you know not my hobby to architecture. My public image has never required to show this special sensitivity, until now, when I, Rodolfo, I decided to build the best building that you have ever known. My nervousness has already found a cure, but if you want to know what caused my condition you will have to continue reading (house brand).

I will tell you bluntly: I am not, and I pretend not to be a William Shakespeare, nor much less to write the famous tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, on the contrary, I would like that when you read me, you do not remember neither my surname (though is very popular), and I would like that you give value to the materials and construction systems that I expose here, like that of today, I was desperate and uneasy for a decade by him. I've spoken before rehabilitated libraries but I had never spoken of hidden library, that have brought me along the path of bitterness and which I call: The Cloud of the Wisdom.

King Fahd National Library

It was the year 2002 when the architecture firm Gerber Architekten won a competition in Saudi Arabia. It was a very special competition for several reasons, one of them that the petitioner chose by different architecture firms to compete for the project, another reason is the petitioner, the High Commission for the development of Riyadh, and the third (most attractive) was the nature of the project: the rehabilitation of the old National Library of King Fahd whose building (from the 1980s) was obsolete.

Located in the heart of the city's Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia has become in the new icon of the district, and it is no wonder that with its unique and eye-catching design has already received one of the most prestigious awards of the architecture: the international architectural design award. Basically the new building has encapsulated the old building, with cruciform shape and concrete dome, in the new exterior construction prioritize two materials: the glass and the textile. The traditional symbolism of Middle East which is designed the façade with the textile membrane, attached to the simplicity and effectiveness of its proposal, had won to the jury (to me too, I am not going to cheat).

The building is distributed over 68,000 square meters, boasts with 2.4 million of books, 620 parkings and a park next to him (also designed by our friends of Gerber) of 20,000 square meters, the construction cost 330 million of SAR (Saudi Arabian currency, are almost 79 million €). It has on the ground floor an exhibition hall, a library and a restaurant (not what you expect huh?); they have transformed the ancient cover in a reading room, and you can access, via several gateways, to the areas of open access that are located in the upper part of the new building.

The Cloud of the Wisdom

I had a tremendous desire to see the new building, it was completed in November of 2013, but by a promise that I made to a very good friendship, I couldn't do the first visit without her company and, since we not adapted our agenda, we delay a year. You would tell me that a year is not enough to experience so much discomfort, but it is I wanted to see the completed building from the same ruling of the contest: in 2002, the standby compass made than my nerves were put to the test (hence the desperation with which I began this article), fortunately I invested my time in finding out more about the porch in Russia, a market that must be taken into account.

The first time I saw the building, I couldn't help but do a double comparison, on the one hand I compared it with a cloud, by its white and almost airy form, that gives a touch ephemeral, and on the other hand I compared it with the cloud of a computer server, due to having so many books inside well could resemble a physical server, a comparison very intelligent, if you allow the observation.

The floor of the building has form of parallelepiped, and the textile network made up of rhomboids running in the four facades, unifying the views in any situation from which you can observe. These membranes act as umbrellas, intercepting the harmful action of the heat, which can reach 50 ° C in these latitudes (almost nothing), but the awnings are not set at whim: they were made complex computer calculations taking into account the solar incidence, so that its location would be the most effective.

The external network is made of cantilevers of metal between plants and it is joined by stainless steel tensioning cables. Following a definite form, the cables are intercepted on four corners by parallel lines front and rear. The horizontal bars are attached to the building in these interceptions perpendiculars, and are born of these the awnings that forming the solar protection, the existence of two lines of steel turnbuckles allow that the awnings may be distributed back and forward, even at a given time, could be another form. These bars have a dual mission: serve as support for the textile fabric and hide the next-generation of led lights that will delight during the nights, when their changing colors illuminate the environment. The steel turnbuckles only receiving tensile loads, this makes it of vitally important a periodic review of them and their connecting elements: a fissure will entail a dramatic break, without prior notice.

Others details

The facade also combines the ventilation with the cooling by means of a system never used in Saudi Arabia, which increases the thermal comfort and reduces the consumption of electric power, is no joke cool a big space. The courtyards, intervening decisively, providing natural light and fresh air, have become spaces of orientation and distribution of the place.

A curious detail is that the gateway of the old library was in front of the main road and the new gateway is in front to new square, in the posterior region; this forced to break part of the old building and forced to a internal reorganization. As I explained before, there was a reinforced concrete Dome, it was also another victim of the new construction, since it was demolished to construct a new steel and glass. Finally, the Sefar Company was commissioned to cover the new roof with 15,000 square meters of fabric, covering the enormous surface in such a way that let the light through, for it had to rely on new metal pillars that help their support.

In the library I got my revenge of my companion for the caused delay: I won her several times at chess. Bye bye.

The Curtain of Terracotta

Hi, in middle of the Atlantic Ocean is a very peculiar island that could well be worth to build a great building, using materials and systems of construction that I have been describing in the past, but, I would have to spend much money in the transport of goods. The place is called Ascension Island, and is well known because it was reclaimed by the british when "Napoleón I" was exiled to St. Helena... away of a rescue!!

And speaking of the Lord Napoleón Bonaparte, better known as "Le Petit Caporal" (the small Cape), I must tell you something that few people know, in his youth he had an "affair" with an ancestor of my family... Would You have liked that my name were Rodolfo Bonaparte? I do not like the idea, certainly rarely the history shows us a character so controversial like this... Anyway, today I will show you a construction with the material cooked oldest placed in an exquisite and unique way. Do not you imagine it? Keep reading...

The twelfth stop: The Curtain of Terracotta

The main building was built in 1897 and was originally a primary school, clear that with time the building is adapted to different uses: offices of the City Hall, nursery or consultancy. The City Council of Nembro (city) was  who proposed a new change of use, and this was none other than the one of a library. The "lovers" of the books and the study were in luck with this decision, although the best was to come: the shape and the structure of the original building required the incorporation of a new nave. The ancient construction, in "U" shape, gives in the rear on to a courtyard, and in front of him the Archea Associati architecture team projected the construction that before us today.

The building connects through the basement to the main construction, which enables clearly the physical separation of the different styles, without sacrificing the historic nature of the first building by the innovation of the new construction. Very well thought! In the basement exist a large room for computer consultation, from the basement is accessed to the new building which contains a reading room, as if were a treasure (indeed it is) the books available for consultation are there ; the numerous tables of reading and study rooms are located at ground and first floor of the old building.  The cost of the intervention was 1.888.250 euros and the surface of action reached the 1,875 square meters.

The new nave has been made with a metallic structure and a enclosure outside transparent (12 mm of tempered glass, 15 mm of air chamber and a sheet of glass laminated 6 + 6), and as an element of sunscreen have opted for the traditional elements of a way atypical, but equally functional. They are terracotta bricks or pieces of ceramic formed by the cooking of treated clay, enamel of red carmine and introduced of randomly and pointing different directions in a tubular structure anchored to the main one, for me, this are a perfect curtain that distributed inside the light and the shadow in an effective way and nothing harmful.

Terracotta, Ceramic.

                                                      

The clay bricks are possibly the first constructive element made artificially. It is so simple that it is used by (almost) any civilization that is in any part of the world: If you have clay, water and a mould you can already put to work. Examples of brick buildings of clay are the great wall of China, Hagia Sophia or the dome of the Cathedral of Florence, separate, and clear, countless castles during the Middle Ages, their influence is such that even the native Americans knew of its existence and used them in the great pyramids of the Maya.

The quality that makes possible this massive use of the clay is the plasticity, property by which a material is deformable and adopts the new form irreversible and permanently once exceeded its characteristic elastic limit (each material has a different elastic limit). When this happens, once molded the material, it enter into the oven and the temperature rising between 700 and 1000 ° C, this makes a material undeformable, rigid and with a extreme durability. If we have vitrified this material we can obtain pieces of exquisite fracture and greater resistance to scratched.

The Glass Dome

Hi, I know that you believe to know everything about me, it is not in vain, my face is well known in the communications media, my family has been in magazines since the creation of the printing and our friends are everywhere. I created one of these friendships while I lived in one of the family mansions, it located in the glorious and powerful city of Rome.

By then (as a poet would say) I, Rodolfo, was obsessed with the second reading of a book very peculiar and known: Moby Dick. One afternoon, I said a stranger in a fit of anger all what really I thought about the Captain Ahab and the crew of the Pequod, the stranger turned out to be a wonderful architect, the peerless Massimiliano Fuksas, the designer of the project that converge with other material worthy of praise and, therefore, worthy of being part of my constructive travelogue.

The Fifth Stop: The Glass Dome.

All starts when Benetton acquired the former Palace of the military Union in Rome and my friend Massimiliano is hired for reform and rehabilitation of the building. The name have given to the intervention is "The flashlight" since the rehabilitation has been carried out with a structure of steel and glass that it runs through the four floors of the building, from the ground floor up to the terrace, with panoramic view of the dome of the Basilica of San Ambrosio and Carlo al Corso, reason why I have decided to rename it and I call it "The Glass dome", do you like most?

The restoration of the building exterior has been very respectful and has focused on the rescue of the original elements, this give a contemporary touch to construction through the placement of outdoor lighting, this improvement the façade and the aesthetic characteristics. Fuksas has used the white (a bright white as few) as a main color in the interior and which serves as the enhancement of the decoration based on "bubbles" of different sizes and colors from violet to the reddish tones. There is a display of imagination and talent on tables, desks, puf, exhibitors, inside mirrors ovals... You don't miss the "furnitures" for the clothes! I particularly loved the staircase rungs of glass with LED lighting (because you know that I am a lover of the original stairs).

But in this work, there is not doubt that the star intervention is the flashlight that it connects visually the four floors and consists of a steel structure that it twists through combination of its triangular crystals. Inside you can buy the last novelty of H & M and you can scrutinize the windows trying to discover if there are two equal triangles. On the first floor or terrace you can enjoy of 300 square metres of panoramic restaurant. And from the outside you can admire the brilliance of glass that leaves no one indifferent.

Glass.

To such an extent reaches the beauty and the exquisiteness of "The flashlight" that the supplier of glass, Tvitec, has been awarded with the prize for the glass more representative of 2013 in the use of Isolar products, granted by Isolar Glas, the largest Association of independent manufacturers of glass insulating in Europe.

The Tvitec company has supplied for this work 1,800 square meters of laminate glass and of double glazing. In total, the structure account with extra complexity for the manufacturing, it can be seen with the naked eye, the parts used are of different sizes and of triangular forms (more than 1,500 units), which makes the process of cutting and sorting have caracteristics of craftsmanship. The maximum height of the dome is 7,50 meters, although in the original project had 3.00 meters, but the Roman authorities did not allow and I do not know why...

The glass is, without doubt, the material that has most influenced our way of understanding the building during the history of mankind. Thanks to it we can make metal towers or give the light to stone buildings, we can lighten loads and even distribute with elegance. It is a material which isolates us from the outside and, at the same time, it allows us to contemplation of what happens outside the walls. It is translucent or transparent, is deformable, it is paintable. The glass is synonym of edification and comfort.

Laminated glass and double glazing.

Laminated glass is composed of several sheets of glass linked by an intermediate layer created with polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and resins ethyl-vinyl-acetate (EVA). These glasses are used for their high safety due to its greater resistance, to the filtration of UV radiation, its durability and its wonderful acoustic protection.

The double glazing is consists of two glass separated by a chamber of air or argon with the resulting advantages: savings in costs of energy, reduction of the condensation, the sound insulation and the anti-rupture safety.

For any curious like me, to have many crystals in its construction is, rather than a requirement, an obligation. I have to see it all. Good bye.