A semester-long group project that focused on harnessing urban data, and remapping these findings into an integrated and responsive architectural intervention. I worked alongside fellow third year students Ilya Anisimov and Aitalina Semenova.
The first stage was to create a portable sound sensing device that would gather acoustic data from bars and pubs on Cowgate street, a prominent nightlife district in Edinburgh. We were asked to respond to the urban conditions of our site based on the data we had collected.
The first stage was to create a portable sound sensing device that would gather acoustic data from bars and pubs on Cowgate street, a prominent nightlife district in Edinburgh. We were asked to respond to the urban conditions of our site based on the data we had collected.
Device Components
Our Final Device
Collecting Pub Data
The final protostructure acts as a boundary separating the street level of Cowgate and the residential areas above. It detects and responds to rising sound levels by activating a mechanism that inflates the structure to create an acoustic barrier. It is a transformative intervention – it re-envisions and re-interprets hedonism within Cowgate by defining the boundary that separates mass and void, noisy and noiseless, commercial and residential and uniting a common goal, pleasure.
Northern Elevation
Roof Plan
How It Works
The structure inflates by responding to its urban field. It expands and contracts like a living being rather than a static object. Many of the bars and pubs on Cowgate utilise a HVAC ventilation system, and the hot air expelled by these ventilators is harnessed to inflate the structure. The structure undulates and dips down to the street according to high sound intensity levels recorded by the sensing device. These ‘zones’ create better areas of acoustic insulation.
Inflation Mechanism
Hot air passes through the structure to inflate individual components.
Exploded Axonometric
Night Render of Northern Elevation
Visualisation
