Get Smart

Façade detail of the "Smartcity Barcelona" pavilion

A façade design in which photovoltaic panels end up casting shadows upon other photovoltaic panels does not seem to me to be the "smartest" design idea. "Form follows energy" is the catchy slogan of the "Smartcity Barcelona" pavilion's project statement (a research collaboration between Endesa and the IaaC), which attempts to explain an idea that actually makes perfect sense and that is indeed intelligent: why not use photovoltaic panels in conjunction with windows--as window awnings--so that solar heat gain into a building is minimized in summer and maximized in winter?

But because the windows of this façade are placed close together and staggered at different heights in a much more aesthetically dynamic checker pattern, some awnings end up casting shadows upon other ones at certain times of the day and year. If the windows and their awnings were simply lined up rather than checkered then this would not be a problem. But that would not look as sexy, would it?

All this becomes even more idiotic when we read in the statement that parametric design methods were applied here, presumably to optimize the placement of windows and the angles of their electricity-generating awnings. Looks like architectural form overshadowed, as it were, energy considerations. Are we before a new kind of façadism?

P.S. I'm getting really tired of the word "smart".

A Tour of the Monuments of Sant Adrià del Besòs and Badalona in the Province of Barcelona

Realized in an illustration workshop conducted by Miguel Gallardo and Karin du Croo of Club Talleres.

Energy Monument Crisis

Gemasolar concentrated solar power plant, near Fuentes de Andalucía

Nuclear power plant in Bavaria

The very brightly glowing tower of the upper photograph is situated in the agrarian countryside between Seville and Cordova. Visible from afar thanks to both its height and its mysterious brightness, it can easily be mistaken for a misplaced contemporary architectural monument of some sort.

But no, this is not yet another Spanish politician's architectural capricho. This tower is in fact useful and practical. Even s-u-s-t-a-i-n-a-b-l-e: it's a concentrated solar power plant. A large array of mirrors (heliostats) on the ground track the sun to reflect and concentrate its rays onto a 150 meter high tower containing salt that melts under the intense heat. This molten salt remains hot enough to produce steam to drive turbines for well over 12 hours, enabling this type of solar power facility to generate electricity at night.

The Gemasolar plant is one of a handful of CSP experiments in southern Spain. If this technology proves to be commercially viable and competitive, we could be seeing many more of these on other continents. 

Given the current energy crisis, though, this tower is nevertheless on its way to becoming a monument of sorts due to the hope it symbolizes. Could we finally have found a safe, reliable and economical alternative to carbon? Considering how this tower actually performs, it is interesting to compare it to the image of a nuclear power station, whose cooling tower is a retired symbol of progress if ever there was one.

The CSP tower is also beautifully illustrative (reflective?) of the expanding range of uses to which non-urban land is put these days. Knowing the lay of the land is quickly becoming as difficult as trying to make sense of a metropolis.