TOLVANERA
PROGRAM Architectural Absence STATUS Competition ★ Honorable Mention TYPOLOGY Urbanism LOCATION China
TEAM +Ken Sei Fong DATE 2013
Sandstorms have a negative impact on the city and on the lives of its citizens. We take this problem as an opportunity to develop an architecture that dematerializes, solely due to the presence of particles that are transported by these storms, an ephemeral architecture almost non-existent. From this infrastructural architecture, we solve a problem in different cities of the world. From an urban point of view, we seek to infiltrate the city with a series of dams placed with the central winds from the desert as a barrier, a coordinated wall that tries to prevent storms from reaching the city. This moving desert collects sand as latent raw material. An undervalued asset, where transport will be carried out naturally and free of charge by nature itself, this raw material will reduce construction costs and avoid the problems that storms generate in the city and people. This project is conceived as a cultural, tourist, and material attractor, like the eye of the storm, which captures particles suspended in the air as a transition element between nature and the city. These particles make up space. Underneath the accumulated sand, public spaces are created, defined by the interplay of light and sand, offering unique spatial experiences.