Skill UP,
Design Better!

Learn new design skills with a 50% discount on Full Access membership at PAACADEMY! 🚀

Offer ends in:

Hours
Min.
Secd.

Endesa World Fab Condenser by MARGEN-LAB

📝 In this article:

Learn Advanced Design Tools

Endesa World Fab Condenser

Endesa World Fab Condenser designed by MARGEN-LAB is a thermodynamic prototype, a bioclimatic dome now installed in the currently changing Glorias Square (Barcelona) on the occasion of the BCN Fab10 congress (the tenth international conference on digital fabrication). The prototype explores connections between parametric design, passive climate strategies and local CNC manufacturing.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Endesa World Fab Condenser
Endesa World Fab Condenser

It was designed on a global scale (Margen-Lab in collaboration with IAAC and the Fab Lab Network), the materials are renewable and have an organic origin (wood and linen, materials grown with the sun) and manufactured locally (industries and fabrication laboratories from Barcelona and vicinity).

The prototype was designed (written in code) in 2 months, manufactured in 5 days and assembled in 4 arrived with the help of volunteers from Fab Labs (fabrication laboratories) worldwide.

Endesa World Fab Condenser
Endesa World Fab Condenser

DYMAXION WORLD MAP
distribution of the fab lab network

DYMAXION WORLD MAP
unfolded geometry of the pavilion
(icosahedron deformed under thermodynamic criteria)

Endesa World Fab Condenser
Endesa World Fab Condenser

GEOMETRIC ADAPTATION
environmental parametric process to create form
the original icosahedron is deformed to minimize solar radiation

the skin adapts to maximize natural-artificial ventilation
the north and south winds (mountain and sea) influence on alternate times of day

COMPONENT LOGIC
the entire pavilion is built with 20 components
digital fabrication and parametric design logic
simplify prefabrication and the assembly process.

Endesa World Fab Condenser
Endesa World Fab Condenser

01 DIGITAL PREFABRICATION:

Digital technologies are transforming the old ways of understanding prefabrication. They are changing the ways in which the industry manages its productive ways. And, most importantly, they are changing the interaction between designer, industry and raw material.

The Endesa World Fab Condenser pavilion consists of 20 triangular modules. The components are all different but share the same formal, constructive and material logic.

Parametric design allows us the possibility of working with geometric complexity and variability. At the same time, the mathematical logic that organizes such variability allows, with digital fabrication tools, to share prefabrication strategies and accelerate communication processes (machine design) and production and construction processes.

The algorithm (the entire pavilion is a script) was designed in 2 months, prefabricated in 5 days and assembled in 4.

Endesa World Fab Condenser

02 PASSIVE CLIMATE STRATEGIES:

The dome pursues to render the surrounding thermodynamic and climate processes. The initial geometry (a regular icosahedron) is first deformed and adapted seeking to minimize the incident solar radiation in the summer, and to maximize it in winter.

The skin bulges or balloons outward, more typical of sailing geometries, to accelerate wind speeds (vernoulli) and facilitate the use of cross ventilation. The orientations of the north-south openings follow the prevailing wind directions (mountain-sea) generating alternative patterns of ventilation (morning-evening).

The surrounding 200m2 wood stage acts as a reservoir of fresh air, naturally injected into the main space through the perforations on the stands every time the wind blows.

Endesa World Fab Condenser
Endesa World Fab Condenser

03 KM0 ARCHITECTURE:

Digital fabrication has the ability to bridge the gap between raw material, post-production, designer and end user. The project then becomes the design of the entire projected life cycle of the product. The project is the production chain.

The prototype was designed globally (with the collaboration of the Fab Lab Network) and manufactured locally (using local materials and products and fabrication laboratories and industries in and around Barcelona).

All materials used are of organic origin (linen and wood) and obtained locally. All industries and companies involved in the process are medium scale and located within an 80km radius.

Finally, the assembly process is fully reversible. Wood and fabrics are easily removable (in just one day) and easily reusable or recyclable.

Endesa World Fab Condenser

Architects : MARGEN-LAB
Location : Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, 08013 Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Project Architects : Daniel Ibáñez, Rodrigo Rubio
Collaborator : FAB LAB NETWORK
Client : IAAC, ENDESA
Project Year : 2014
Photographs : Adrià Goula
Manufacturers : Tallfusta

Subscribe to our newsletter

Via > Fab Lab Barcelona

Share with a friend:

Check upcoming workshops at the PAACADEMY:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Explore More

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter