GIGANTIC IRRIDESCENCE

“Imagining how the large-scale warehouse typology can be reinvigorated through the introduction of human scale and aerial phenomena.”

The roofscape of the building undulates towards the ground, revealing moments of the roof and the iridescent panelization, pushing the roofscape from its usually hidden existence above the walls to acting as yet another facade. The cooling towers rise above the mass of the rest of the building not as simply concrete extrusions, but as light and airy, glass encased floating forms that invite light into their interior landscapes. Wrapping around the rest of the building is corrugated aluminum, one of the most readily available building materials in the area.

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The aim of the project was to rethink the large warehouse typology of typically massive data centers by creating an architecture that engages people on a human scale through the invention of a new architectural aesthetic using the implementation of static irridescence. These guiding design principles, dictated and shaped by the strange and unique landscapes and culture of Iceland, infer upon a new building typology for the the large warehouse typology that permeates many industries that have the need for buildings that supercede the human scale to to house massive machinery and storage.

Inside the cooling towers are recaptured areas of the Icelandic landscape, framing their irridescent qualities against the backdrop of the mechanical surroundings of the geothermal plant. Rather then becoming inhabitable masses, the cooling towers become mistified sanctuaries, with all the piping and exhaust pushed to the periphery to create a new architectural space caught within the marriage between nature and industry. Outside the periphery of this space are the more mechnaical areas that take on their own aesthetic, as well as more utilitarian areas and passageways.

The physical model, displayed below, represents a portion of the massive facility to illustrate the affect of the material choices as they pertain to the surrounding landscape. Effectively, the seemingly abnormal unnatural coloration renders itself natural to its context, as the landscapes of Iceland are so unique and otherworldly in their own regard.