The Sky on the Ceiling

Are you tired of always looking the same? Want to see clouds, trees or aquariums on your ceiling? Welcome to the future...

Hi, if you follow the media you may have noticed that in my latest posted photo in them, I was posing with the gaze lost in the sky, well, it I had not an unbearable neck pain, nor had expanded my ego (you know that it is not a facet of my personality), I will devote this entire article to explain the reason why this photo was taken, if you have patience, your time will be rewarded, I assure you.

It all began in Texas, at Kingwood Medical Center, where I was amazed with lamps that simulating a splendid open sky. I left not my astonishment until several days later, but while I was in a trance I looked for information on how and who had perpetrated such joy to the eyes of workers, please allow me to continue with the intrigue a bit more before I tell them the name of the company that is dedicated to this task.

Kingwood Medical Center, Texas (Sky Factory)

My next step was to travel (my way of life) to the buildings where have already installed this type of luminaries, my first destination: station Austerlitz Railroad in Paris, where you read the newspaper and you can see perfectly the sheets of a non-existent tree... the same tree you can find at the headquarters of Basf in Lemförde, Germany (my second destination).

What is Biophilia?

One of the advantages of the creators of this lighting system is that they work closely with the animal part of people. There is what is called Biophilia, which is a theory by which humans keep inner links with nature. These links make us sensitive to primary stimuli and this would explain how we feel better in the presence of flora, fauna, mountains, rivers, etc.

Many architectural and engineering studies are focused to this particular form of thought, trying in their projects the air, the water, and the natural materials in general, those elements have one presence more than noticeable, in order to remind to our "me" where it comes (or where it goes). If I am sincere yet I don't have an opinion formed on this phenomenon, but one thing is clear: we are thrilled to look out the window, and if this window brings us images that we need or want to see... by me great!

But not we drift away from our journey, my third destination was the Xfit Fitnesss & Wellness Club in Genoa, which has a starry sky breathtaking, and made the hydromassage more palatable. My fourth stop was Mexico (how I like Mexico), in the largest railway company of the country, in particular in the cafeteria of its headquarters. As you are watching the company has tentacles in almost all of the terrestrial globe or as they want to call them: collaborators.

Optional Image (Sky Factory)

Sky Factory

Yes, Sky Factory is the name of the company, and the luminaries of which I have spoken are called SkyCeilings, but also have SkyV (ceilings with video images), Virtual Windows (images in windows) and Escape (windows with moving images). The company has the headquarters in Iowa, where he was born the famous Buffalo Bill, he liked to spend their time killing buffaloes, extending the railroad by the United States and fighting for the rights of Indians and women.

I'm going to stop now in one of its products, EcoSlim LED, which is a luminous ceiling in compact format with a unique system of lateral lighting, what makes that the luminarie reduced the thickness of 23 cm (the space of false ceiling that we would need to put in these lamps) to only 11.5 cm. It is also compatible with magnetic resonance equipment and any environment that should be free of radio-frequency. It has dimmer switch, contains no mercury or other toxic elements, it has excellent energy efficiency and a useful life of more than 40,000 hours. But the best is to produce a healthy light, or almost natural light.

The luminaries are composed of four elements: 1º- lighting system, which radiates the energy required for the production of natural light, 2º- Printed panels, acrylic with photographs of high-resolution printing, 3º- Elevators, patented parts that raise the panels and fasten the module of lighting and 4º - Suspension, which is the union of this with the false ceiling.

Optional Image (Sky Factory)

Picture

This brings us back to the beginning of the article, when I am in this photo looking towards the ceiling: You understand I was doing, I, Rodolfo, was admiring the Circular Luminous SkyCeiling of the Auditorium of the high school of Pouille, in France, where was attending an event of Education that, honestly, I don't remember too much.

The Bamboo Chapel

A construction beautiful of bamboo occupies our article of today, a construction challenge and environmental.

(Edición en español)

Hi, if you are half adventurer as me, you will love to visit the Ilha do Corvo (Crow Island), the island smallest and most remote of the archipelago of the Azores. It has 17 kilometers from surface, a village called Vila do Corvo (of course) and four hundred inhabitants. They have told me that in the only prison on the island never have entered a prisoner... and I think is true because there are so few... Who will put in jail a relative? I have fallen them very well and they will leave me to make my beautiful construction provided that I use their famous stone of black basalt, they did not have to ask for it!

Today I have the restless mind and, after seeing the building that I bring, I liked to do as Miguel Ángel (best known for Michelángelo Buonarroti) who made the paintings of the Sistine Chapel (have you heard of it?), the idea is simple, and I think that will you give me reason, to me, Rodolfo, as soon as I explain to you (later). As I know that you liked the dome of glass, you will love this new prodigy of the construction, this time with a vegetal element: the bamboo.

Fourteenth Stop: The Bamboo Chapel

The chances of the construction lead us on this occasion to the Thu Dau Mot town, in Binh duong, Viet Nam, to a building in the middle of an artificial lake. The architectural firm that designed the project is Vo Trong Nghia, true specialists in constructions of bamboo as they already demonstrated with several works as, for example, the pavilion of Viet Nam for Expo China 2010. This beautiful structure of bamboo has already received some international architecture Awards: Green Good Design Award 2010, FuturArc 2011 or 2011 Arcasia Awards (I decided one of this awards!).

The Wind and Water Bar uses the energy of the wind and the cold water of the lake for natural ventilation of indoor air. On the roof there is a skylight of 1.5 meters in diameter which evacuates the hot air that focuses on building (hot air rises, cold air falls) and allows the partial lighting of the enclosure. The height of the dome is 10 meters, the width is 15 and its surface is 270 square meters. The construction lasted about 3 months and the structural system is based on a series of prefabricated porches that revolve around the central axis of the building, these porticos are made with several "reeds" of bamboo united each other.

To site can be accessed through a path of stones spanning the artificial lake, I do not I fell, of course, but my partner tested the coldness of the Vietnamese water! All construction has covered with a plant species that is introduced into the water, giving the impression of "birth" of the Lake, sublime. To finish with the description (I have hurry) I will say that the interior is completely done with bamboo: lamps, staircases, tables and chairs, pillars... all a waste of engineering with this vegetable.

Rods to build

The bamboo is a plant that needs a warm atmosphere so their natural habitat is the tropical climate.  There are many classes and subclasses of bamboo and are plants that reach from the meter in height up to (care) 30 meters, can grow up to half a meter daily, which is a great advantage if we are going to use it commercially. They can withstand temperatures up to - 20°C, although it is normal that they remain well between 30 and 42°C.

The bamboo has been used in the construction since the beginning of humanity in areas where exist, of course, has a great resistance to traction and to compression but, without rejecting this, the best quality that possesses is the flexibility:  the material is folded or cede to the pressures which are applied without they break it or deteriorate. Another important quality of the bamboo stems from its plant condition: you can carve it and can be divided it without losing its mechanical qualities.

The bamboo is attached by ropes, wires or mortising, are not typically used screws or studs because they may cause cracks, but if you use them will have to reinforce the indoor area with some rigid filler. There are many types of mortising: dovetail, form of male-female union, key, etc. The toughest area of the reeds is the knots, therefore, we will make sure that, in the structures, the knots will receive the loads. Of course if we use two types of joints we will give longer life to our building.

The Proposal

As I promised at the beginning of this article I have a very special proposal to the bamboo. If we based us on the genius of Miguel Ángel we can perform a bamboo Chapel and paint it a beautiful picture, do you like the idea? Please, please... We can act in two ways: make the dome and mount a scaffold (may also use bamboo) where professionals perform their work; or, on the other hand, we can make a design where you specify areas of reeds that will be painted in one or another color... At the time of construction (if we do well) we will obtain a precious engraving... without having to assemble scaffolding!!

This second option does not seem very difficult with the computer programs which have the practitioners today; I will show it to you with the time. Bye bye.

The Titanium Armour

(Edición en español)

Hi, a great friend reproached me than, reading my articles, he was waiting with joy that I visited his island ("his" because it is your property, not because he live there). I had not forgotten the Oak Island, which is on the South coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, and has been busy since they found what appeared to be signs of a pirate treasure in 1795. The island is pretty flat (the highest point has only 11 meters) I can build a true work of art!

Even the same Franklin Delano Roosebelt was linked to this curious Island, before becoming President of the United States of America, and long before declaring the war on Germany in 1941, but let the historical quotations and we go to the our: the construction of a future building has led me by several countries of the world, finding materials and construction systems worthy of seeing, and this time, as it could not be less, I bring you a wonderful material: the Titanium.

Thirteenth stop: using titanium alloy

We're going to go to California but we are not going to enjoy the summer or to investigate failures, we are going to go for see in action the titanium, we're going to go from culture to the Cerritos library (You know how I like libraries) which is located in the Civic Centre of the city. This library was built in the year 2002 given that the original building of 1985 was staying obsolete, as the Californians are very clever, they took advantage of the circumstances to build this modern architectural landmark designed by Charles Walton Associates, also was the first building of USA on be protected with titanium, this building is a pioneer!

The library is at the forefront of the technology, and it has his credit a space highly thematic, also is a experimental library (the experts call it thus). It includes an area for children with a large Aquarium of 14,000 gallons (53,000 liters of nothing) with saltwater, has the skeleton of a T-Rex (dinosaur) and a space shuttle, children are delighted. For the older, they have more than 200 workstations (computers), a few interior finishes of high level and an extensive art collection that is the (healthy) envy of the community. The building is divided into three floors and everything inside it is described previously but, in addition, exist a conference room, a technology laboratory and a kitchen. This project was made by the Building Information Management (BIM), this system creates virtually the building and all of its components, resolving possible conflicts in the construction before placing the first stone, of course, today the most studies of architecture and engineering use the BIM system.

Properties of Titanium

The titanium is a metal very prolific in the nature, with a very light weight compared to other metals, a great resistance and an immunity without equal to atmospheric agents, resists very well the pollutants agents, the marine environments, the atmospheres with sulphide of industrial areas and other harsh environments.

The colour of the titanium is silver clear, bright and reflective, and keeps its shine with the passage of the years. When this metal oxidizes creates a protective surface that plays with the light, so that it changes of colour depending on the point of view of the viewer. This material has a durability so good that, if you're a manufacturer, you can offer a warranty of centuries of antiquity without having to worry about (if there are mortgages with centuries of antiquity ... Why no guarantees?).

Another significant feature is its low expansion, this is almost comparable with the concrete, which makes that we can perform large sheets with this material and thus saving us a lot of work of placement and we can design with greater freedom. As its weight is very low, about of 4,500 kilograms per cubic meter (the steel weighs 7,800 kg/m3) eases us quite the placement as a coating material, in fact, in construction, due to all the features that we have described, the mass use is on facades, roofs, walls and columns. Needless to say that the titanium is also known outside the construction: medicine, automobile, shipbuilding and aeronautics, jewellery and, of course, in the watch industry.

Titanium Crystal

El titanio empleado en la biblioteca de Cerritos tiene también otra particularidad: está patentado. La empresa Architectural Titanium ha logrado crear el cristal de titanio, y, como no podía ser de otra forma, lo patentó para poder fabricarlo en exclusiva. Se crea moliendo el titanio en finas partículas e introduciéndolas en hornos capaces de crear el vacío absoluto (como si estuvieran en el espacio exterior); el horno se calienta de forma gradual hasta el punto de fusión haciendo que la estructura cristalina cambie (de cristales hexagonales a cúbicos alineados) y creando un nuevo material que no tiene igual entre los metales, con una impresionante estética que no deja indiferente a nadie.

The titanium used in the Cerritos library also has another peculiarity: is patented. The Architectural Titanium Company has managed to create the Crystal of titanium, and, as it could not be otherwise, patented it to manufacture it exclusively. It creates milling the titanium on fine particles and introducing them in furnaces capable of creating the absolute vacuum (as if they were in the outer space); the furnace is heated gradually to the melting point changing the crystalline structure (of hexagonal crystal to cubic aligned) and creating a new material that has no equal among the metals, with an impressive look that leaves no one indifferent.

As that my name is Rodolfo that I will have titanium in any location of my new building, provided that does not emerge a better titanium, clear. 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 Tower of Krion

Hi, I confess that on this trip I did not go looking for a place in particular to construct my future building (that will be amazing, clear) and, however, I found with one of the most appropriate. It is in the island of San Patrick, which is reached by the Island of Man, an Odyssey. The best of the island is the Castle Peel reconstructed recently, which it does not happen with the Cathedral of Saint Germain, which gives worth to see her, but when I have situated in front of she, I thought: "here you have an interesting challenge Rodolfo: restore the elegance to these ruins".

I have always thought that by many technological developments achieved, the human beings they should behave like the famous character of Tarzan of the monkeys, you know, from the novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, he is best known for the films directed by Woody Strong Van Dyke and starring by Johnny Weissmüller, in other words: we took advantage of the nature and she takes advantage also of us. I believe that the promoters want this for the future building that I present today.

Eleventh Stop: The Tower of Krion®

It has begun the construction in april of the Tower Yung Ding Guo Ji, in Qingdao, Shandong, China. It's an office building designed by the architecture studies of Ruiz-Larrea & Associates (RLA) and OSA, the authors themselves propose to address the deficit of nature existing in the cities with the incorporating the nature in buildings, beautiful task. So I've decided that no I will remove the eyes to this construction, in addition, they use a material very interesting in its facade.

But let's go by parts, the idea that prevails is the environmental adaptation and the respect for the existing built environment, therefore the main body is of average height, with a scale similar to the buildings nearby, the great tower is the milestone of the project. The future building adopts strategies of energy efficiency based on the thermal insulation, the shading (leveraging the shadows of external volumes to avoid overheating), the acoustic insulation, and, the icing on the cake, the conditioning of central spaces by a geothermal system that will cool the air inside the building, thus making act as a refrigerator. The inclusion of skylights to be opened to allow the hot air to escape and take lighting and ventilation natural that allows contact with the outside.

The building will also incorporate numerous vegetation in different parts of the construction, as in the different green roofs that have been projected, apart from the natural zones included in areas of the interior and the exterior. Before I have spoken of the material that I interest me, good, it is none other than the Krion ® that will be placed in the facade, this facade is inspired in nature and is equipped with solar installations.

The facade is made up of a network formed by the krion® (solid surface) of the Spanish company Porcelanosa, actually this material belongs to one of its subsidiaries, Systempool S.A. the network of krion®  serves as the sunscreen by the shading in the glazed areas, of course, they have taken into account the different use of the Interior rooms to establish the separation between the large vertical "panels".

Krion® the solid surface of Porcelanosa

This material has the advantages of a material of laboratory, created through the merger of natural minerals (two-thirds) and resins of high resistance. These advantages are: lack of pores, antibacterial, hardness, resistance, ease of repair, low maintenance and easy to clean. It working in sheets of regular format (different dimensions and thicknesses) and joined by hot melt, allowing the creation of elements without joints, you does not believe that anyone person can use this material: only installers certified by the company Systempool S.A., which is beneficial to the buyer.

The specific quality to be able to use this material in one facade must be: the inalterability under adverse weather condicions, as well, from the parent company inform us that it is a covering with a perfect performance against the sudden changes in temperature, forehead to situations of high humidity or in areas with arid climates. The restraint system to the main structure of the building is very important, in this regard, the company works with Butech Bliss Co. and ensure us a proper fixing.

Finally, two details juicy: the artificial nature of the Krion®  assures us a wide range of colors, and this same nature, makes a recyclable material 100%, and reprocessed again and reintroduced into the production cycle.

It is early to visit this building finished, but I will inform me of how it evolves, I love "supervise", you know it. Bye bye.