ARCH 436

Activate, Illuminate, Charge, Shade, Perforate

I have decided to do a series of interventions to the Des Moines Airport focused on two specific spaces.  Using curvilinear forms and architectural lighting, I designed interventions to the entryway and street view of the airport.  I am proposing an illuminated façade for the parking garage which will give the structure more presence from the street, and an integrated lighting and shading system for vehicular traffic to the main concourse entrance.

Grasshopper and Rhino are being used in this project in two ways.  The street façade treatment will be an illuminated image, rendered by parametrically modeling images onto a backlit panel.  The images will be displayed through varying-sized apertures in the panel’s surface.  The second intervention on the vehicular passageways will be an all-encompassing system.  The system consists of a solar-powered street light which is self supported that replaces the current shading system.   The self-sustaining system will illuminate LED’s at night and shade from the sun during the day.  I am using Grasshopper to find the most efficient, but aesthetically pleasing structure for this self-sustaining system using Karamba calculations.