ReSkin, facelift for 60s icons
Facelift for aging 60s icons
1960s icons around the world could receive a much-needed facelift thanks to an innovative plan called ‘reskinning’.
Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA), has developed a simple, cost effective, easily constructed skin that promises to transform tired 1960s icons into sustainable and stunning buildings.
‘Tower Skin’ is a speculative project that transforms the identity, sustainability and interior comfort of Broadway Tower at the University of Technology [UTS] in Sydney, Australia.
A transparent cocoon acts as a high performance ‘micro climate’. It generates energy with photo‐voltaic cells, collects rainwater, improves day lighting and uses available convective energy to power the towers’ ventilation requirements.
ANIMATION:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCnucy-Qwgk
The Tower is wrapped with three‐dimensional lightweight, high performance composite mesh textile. Surface tension allows the membrane to freely stretch around walls and roof elements achieving maximum visual impact with minimal material effort.
As day turns to night, Tower Skin becomes a dynamic sculpture on Sydney’s skyline, an intelligent media surface, communicating information such as performances and campus events in real time.
The reskinning technology could be easily applied to other buildings in need of a facelift and can quickly and cheaply enhance their performance and aesthetics through minimal intervention.
Sustainable features include:
• Existing solar energy to off set energy requirements.
• Water collected from the atmosphere.
• Energy peaks removed via ‘microclimate’ in tower envelope.
• Natural convection draws conditioned air through existing rooms, vent to the exterior, to generate energy.
• Localized user control of air and temperature.
• Cutting edge digital workflow and manufacture off site mean cost‐effective fabrication and installation time.
• A solar powered light and media strategy embedded into the fabric.
The re-skin concept continues LAVA’s commitment to sustainable architecture by combining lightweight contemporary materials with the latest digital fabrication technologies with the aim of achieving more with less.
