Juliane Maier
Exchange Systems
The project proposes a building that combines a research and educational centre as part of a larger campus setting to the south of Reykjavik, towards the coast. The building utilises transformative structural typologies, such as the transition from load bearing to non-load bearing wall, as a strategic way to implement shifts in programmatic and spatial relations. The result is a space for theatrical exchange and interaction between visitors and workers.
In effect the building stages a distribution of exchange points between research in clean energy technology and tourism. It engenders a layering and coupling of building programmes and makes a trope out of the serious and the funny, the thought provoking and the amusing.
The building is positioned towards the northern edge of the proposed campus in order to make us of the various flows of people and traffic and make a constructive social complex out of these. Visitors drift or are guided through the building and receive an insight into the planning and development processes for the future use of energy. Scientific research becomes transparent and is made public in spaces that undulate and furl around one another.
The structural configurations provide a range of different spatial situations, from areas of one-sided visibility to areas where both user groups can interact physically. The design strategy deploys the twisting or turning of ‘walls’ from horizontal to vertical elements as a means to regulate visibility and physical permeability between different spatial zones. The strategy dissolves a clear distinction between structure and envelope and posits a ‘solid’ volume on top of a transparent base volume. The volumes become interlaced to accommodate the two main programmes, education and entertainment, as these spiral through and between the shifting conditions of the walls.