Philippe Rahm. The Meteorological Architecture

CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 5/2013. Architecture for Human, Humanism for Architecture

Barbara Stec, Phillipe Rahm. The Meteorological Architecture

www.CyberEmpathy.com

Abstract:

Philippe Rahm was in Cracow in June 2003 with a lecture “Decosterd /

Rahm: electro-architecture, the matter of void" in the course "What is the

architecture?”. He seemed to be a man all the time continuing his

experiment. Particularly he valued his stay in a salt mine in Wieliczka,

where the exceptional climatic environment has made the clear, specific

reactions of the human body (confirmed by the medicinal properties of the

mine microclimate applications used in a sanatorium for people with

allergies).

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

BARBARA STEC

BARBARA STEC

Philippe Rahm. The Meteorological Architecture Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.




The architectural space

The space of architecture is often identified with the soul, a

volatile substance of air, in which the user’s life goes on. Among

the many components of architecture the space is the most

mysterious part of its essence, of the core itself. At the same time

it slips out of the mathematical, experimentally verified design

methods the most. One gets the impression that such an

important part is not designed by the architect to a greater

extent, than that of the design of the shape and nature of its

boundaries, or the walls. The architecture is seen as a vessel

filled with air, and the architect focuses his efforts on the

materials, technology and design of the vessel. The building logic is

subordinated in the vast majority to the logic of the weight and mass of

matter, the border point of this weight and mass is visibility of the matter.

The architect usually is aware that throughout the toil of building there is

all about the inner emptiness, which is usually not seen with the naked eye,

and where the life goes on, but in the design process it is resulted in the

matter of the architectural vessel.

During the discussion on the contemporary architecture the

primary role of the atmosphere of the architectural space is

increasingly emphasized, including its analysis and the

conscious design in the process of the architectural work.

The nature of the interior space is defined from the different points of view,

usually as a reservoir of many rich experiences of a man immersed in it. It is

a common experience that the life goes on in that inner "emptiness" of the

architecture, it absorbs the breath of the people; the words, the voices and

odors resound and get absorbed by it, it envelops us and even more than

just envelops, it penetrates us. Especially the breath reminds a human

about the constant air exchange inside the living body and in the

surrounding space. This exchange is at the source of the feeling of the so

much intimate and multi-level contact with the space. The experience of the

intimate relations of the human and every living organism with the space is

confirmed by the poetic intuitions and physical studies at the microscopic

scale. The expression of this experience is, for example, the feeling that the

space has a memory that captures and retains the past effects of life, and

even the unspoken thoughts. The space, therefore, seems not only full of the

particles of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and other elements, but firstly the

all energy, related to the work of brain and the whole body of the

organisms, immersed in it, according to the law of the conservation of




energy. We suspect that once arisen energy wave of thoughts cannot

disappear, but remains somewhere and keeps circling. This enigmatic

"somewhere" is a space related to a specific place.

The nature of the space used to be searched for with the closed eyes to give

it for testing the sense of hearing, touch and smell. The light, above all, and

sometimes the colors of the gas, which is a component of air, can be seen in

the space. One can also see the motion of the space, its current, which

entrains the particles of the visible matter, but in this case the sense of

touch appears to be more sensitive and reliable. In the Wim Wenders film If

Buildings Could Talk the heroes walk at the Rolex Learning Center in

Lausanne, stop and close their eyes. You may guess that they come in the

intimate contact with the space of the building beyond the sense of sight.

The properties of the space such as the heat of light, the vastness of space

and the time are better to be experienced by immersing the body in it,

listening to it and moving in it.

Gilles Deleuze in his classic book1 from the late 20th century develops the

baroque theory of Leibniz and draws the attention to the continuity of

matter and spirit in an uninterrupted continuation of the movements in the

visible and invisible world. The illustration of the continuity is current for

Deleuze the Leibniz model of the house, where the ground floor (the human

body) lets the outside world through the windows (the senses) inside, and

the floor (the human soul) is a closed box, connected to the ground floor

with the stimuli-responsive membrane. In a dark office space the matter

stimuli generate the world of consciousness. This model resembles a

musical instrument, in which the apparent motion of matter is the source of

the invisible sound. The Leibniz fold, set in the context of the modern

science, also shows the relationship between the senses of the mind

together belonging to the body, and reveals the limits conventionality of the

scientific fields that bypass the smooth transition from one state to another.

The importance of the invisible space in the architecture was strongly

emphasized during the 12th Biennale of Architecture in Venice in 2010,

which was curated by Kazuyo Sejima. The Yunyi Ishigami 2project,

presented in Arsenal, exhibited literally "the air architecture", suggesting

the participant of the exhibition to tune his perception to cross the border

of the visible mass density and, thanks to the work of the mind, to feel, in

some sense to "see", the invisible air mass

1 Gilles Deleuze, Le Pli. Leibniz et le baroque, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1988 Paris 2 Junya Ishigami, Architecture as air: study for château la coste, Arsenal, 12 Biennale of Architecture in Venice, 2010




The meteorological architecture

Crossing the borders of visible in the design of the architecture

can be taken as a scientific penetration of the physical and

chemical components of the architectural space and the human

body, immersed in it. The studies of the space are focused

directly on the internal air environment of the building, not on

the walls and the architectural matter vessels. They take for

workshop the architectural atmosphere itself, which can be

understood literally as the design of its air conditions.

This method tries to break away from the treatment of the atmosphere of

the architecture as simply resulting in the shape and type of the matter of

the architectural walls. However, it includes to the scope of the study of the

architectural atmosphere the environment of the human body, immersed in

the atmosphere. Thanks to the modern science and technology it is possible

here to obtain very precise levels of distinctions, flows, responses and

predictions. At the same time, such researches are increasingly available.

The interpretation of the architectural atmosphere features on a similar

principle as explanations of the climate and weather causes a common

understanding and rationalization of the methods that are objective,

subordinated to the laws of physics and chemistry, and thus freed from the

aesthetic and representative workloads.

The father of the meteorological architecture, the author of its

manifesto, theories, experimental experiences, architectural

designs and implementations was a Swiss architect Philippe

Rahm, who together with Jean-Gilles Décosterd founded a

design office in Lausanne in 1995. In the manifesto "The

Meteorological architecture" Rahm wrote:

"The tools of the architecture must become invisible and light,

creating this was places like free, open landscapes, new

geography, different types of meteorology renewing the idea of

form and use between sensation and phenomenon, between the

neurological and the meteorological, between the physiological

and the atmospheric. They become spaces without meaning,

without narration: letting to be interpreted spaces, in which the

margins disappear, the structures dissolve and the boundaries

disappear. The problem is no longer to build the images and

features, but to open the climates and interpretations; the work




on the space, the air and its movements, on the phenomena of

conduction, convection, perspiration as a transitive and variable

meteorological conditions, which become the new standards for

the contemporary architecture”.3

The novelty is not in the design of a specific atmosphere in the building, but

in an attempt to create such an atmosphere with a minimum participation

of the visible architecture. In this case it is dealt with maximization of the

process of building the specific climatic conditions that determine the

nature and limits of the architectural space. The novelty here is a

method of the design of the architecture as the environmental

with certain meteorological parameters. It is extremely the non-

aesthetic trend of the architecture, which can be seen as a sign of the

decadence of the late 20th century with the mannered implementation of

the idea to cross borders, the pursuit of lightness, speed, transparency,

accuracy4; aiming to free architecture of the weight and mass of the density

condensing the image. On the other hand, the meteorological architecture

uses the obvious, undeniable phenomena of the atmosphere and aspires to

the trend of environmental, economic and practical architecture, rationally

managing the laws of the nature. The idea of the Rahms works is the design

and building the space as given, expected climatic environment of the

precisely generated parameters that determine the "weather". It can be seen

that for Rahm the area of experimentation and radical solutions are the

systems where he tries his ideas and verifies their operation by the public.

In the design of housing and public space Rahm is more pragmatic and

limited by the reality of the optimal conditions of the human life. In any

case, the architectural spaces and the person staying in them form the only

physiological and energy system, in which the flows and changes occur.

The knowledge of the principles that control the environmental

climate on the precision levels and ability to manage them are

the basis of logic and economics of the Rahm climate projects.

Consequently, there is formed the architectural proposal with

the intelligent and subtle or even weak affiliations, subordinated

to the natural laws physical laws of the environment of the

architecture and the human body.

In the native language of Rahm one word defines "weather" and "time."

French le temps, or Italian il tempo denoting both time and weather shows

3 P. Rahm "The Meteorological architecture", the manuscript of Ákos Moravánszky "In addition to signs, the atmosphere in the Swiss architecture," in Self-Portrait 3 [35], 2011, p.34, ed. MIK 4 Italo Calvino in "The American Lectures", written in 1985, mentions the lightness, speed, accuracy, transparency and diversity as the five characteristics of the contemporary literature at the time, which would like to recommend future (current) millennium. These features can refer more broadly to the field of the architecture; more, than used by Calvino, belong to the tradition of the architectural terminology.




a deep connection between these two phenomena, the weather at the same

time can be seen as a category of time. The weather, the derivative of time,

becomes, next to an extent, one of the most important features of the space.

Designing weather in the interior of the room is also designing time, the

characteristics of which produce a predetermined space, model and change

it.

Philippe Rahm Architectural atmospheres

During several years of the architectural practice Rahm explores with the

varied intensity the phenomena, shaping the atmosphere. The substance of

his atmospheric projects are:

- Radiation and electromagnetic spectrum

- Humidity, evaporation

- Air pressure

- conductivity

- convection

- digestion

Radiation and the spectrum of light (the electromagnetic phenomena, the wavelengths of light)

At the beginning of his creative work, in 1998-2005, Rahm was building the

climate of his spaces mainly by the phenomenon of radiation and the

spectrum of light (the electromagnetic spectrum), stimulating the

endocrine system, the state of mind and the body of man.

Hormonorium, the installation, the 8th Biennale of Architecture

in Venice, 2002

At the Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2002, Rahm (together with Jean-

Gilles Décosterd) in the Swiss pavilion showed

the Hormonorium installation, allowing the direct and immediate feeling of

the artificially generated climate. The rapidity of the weather changes was

so high that it required good health of the visitors. In front of the pavilion

the nurses checked the state of the heart and circulatory system of those




willing to enter. After crossing the border of the room the eye did not see its

edges, because of a bright, glowing white. The sight recorded the brightness

of the air more than the shape of the interior of the room. Slowly the other

receptors became more important than the sense of sight, particularly those

associated with breathing, sense of balance and orientation.

On the white, rectangular and soft benches one could sit or lie down, relax

and feel a direct connection of the body with the surrounding space. The

climate inside was physically present in every breath that became more and

more conscious and shallow.

Rahm and Décosterd generated in Hormonorium the atmosphere with a

reduced amount of oxygen from 21% to 14.5%, typical for the height of

3000 m above the sea level, or the level of the mountain glaciers. This

climate stimulates the human endocrine system in it, and therefore his state

of mind and behavior.

"Breathing the air with reduced oxygen causes the body state of hypoxia,

revealing firstly the confusion, disorientation, and then also euphoria,

because of the production of endorphins in the brain. After about 12

minutes of staying in the interior it can be measured the naturally elevated

level of erythropoietin (EPO), affecting the work of the circulatory and

respiratory systems. EPO is produced by the kidneys and it is the type of

protein, which is a hormone that stimulates the production of red blood

cells, increasing the supply of oxygen to the muscles. The oxygen reduction

has the effect of doping and it can improve the efficiency of the body up to

10%."5

The source of light locating in the floor simulated the sunlight, reflected off

the white snow and glacier. This effect was achieved by placing under the

floor of the Plexiglas the 528 fluorescent lamps emitting the light of the

spectrum of solar UV-A and UV-B rays with an intensity of between 5,000

to 10,000 lux. The floor source of the lighting directly affected the position

of the eyes, which were instinctively avoiding the contact with glaring

gleam, and the reactions of the eyelids and pupils.

It stimulated the eye retina and led to a reduction in the secretion of

melatonin in the body, which in turn eliminated the feeling of sleepiness

and fatigue and made the body more energized and the mood more stable.

Similarly, due to the presence of UV-A rays, a sense of satisfaction rises in

people. However, UV-B rays affect the synthesis of vitamin D, which is

5 B.Stec "Architecture meteorological Philipe Rahm" in Selfport.3 [35] in 2011, senses / perception, ed. MIK, Cracow, 2011, p.40, 41




necessary for the maintenance of good health. The intense light was spread

on the white surfaces of the room uniformly at any point, affecting the

weakening of orientation in space.

Hormonorium constituted a climate that directly affected the physiology of

the body submerged in it regardless of the geography and context. In this

case, the meteorological architecture is de-geographical and de-contextual,

bringing to generate the artificial climate island. In Hormonorium one can

test the Deleuze principle of the continuity of the animate and inanimate

matter. One can see its activities in the continuation of impact of the

environmental substances on the physiology of the living body and the vital

processes of the human. The spatial environment of Hormonorium interior

and the human physiological environment form a system of the connected

vessels.

Despite the immediacy of impact on the human body the system was devoid

of the references of meaning and aesthetic, shaping the perception of the

architecture through the reflection and the intellect apparatus. However, it

effected in the strengthening of the social

welfare. Hormonoriumdemonstrated experimentally the impact of the

atmosphere and environmental climate on the relationships between

people, as it was the public space at the same time. The people stayed there

showed the behavior and the state of mind typical for the hammam and the

temple at the same time. A curiosity of another person while holding the

body by the action of harmony and balance, and a sense of the purification

of body and mind has become typical for that atmosphere.

The atmosphere in homonorium The Impact

The atmosphere was reduced amount The impact of the atmosphere and

of oxygen frim 21% to 14,5%- environmental climate

typical for height of 3000m.




The impact on the brain. The influence of external stimulus

A plan of all An interior- field of lamp

The Hormonorium "The Hormonorium creates a synthesis of

The Organic, of mood and space, by

Establishing a continuity between

architectyre and human metabolism,

between space, light and endocrine

and neurological systems.” P. Rahm

Jardin D'Hybert Winterhouse, Vendée, France, 2002

The project of a private house for Fabrice Hubert in Vendee in the southern

France proposes the subordination of the parent body to the functions of

light, heating and ventilation installations, which make the atmosphere

inside the house. Rahm interprets the space of the house as the climate

island with the humidity on the optimal level of 50% and a temperature of

20 degrees by Celsius throughout the year, regardless of the outside

temperature, eg. 5 degrees by Celsius in winter in Vendee. However, Rahm

does not stop the design of the atmosphere of the house on three




parameters and three installations, but he goes further in the process of

building of the many complex components of weather typical for the

climate zone, in which the temperature, humidity and brightness have been

identified, namely the tropical zone. The basis of generating such the

complicated atmosphere is the ground of a certain temperature, chemical

and biological composition, in which naturally the certain exotic plants

grow, in turn stimulating the appearance of the specific mineral substances

and microorganisms in the air. The light installation here is to simulate the

sunlight, typical of subtropical with its intensity and duration. In this way

Rahm has achieved in the project the architectural atmosphere of the house

close to the weather, typical for a completely different geographical location

and climatic zone.

The temperature diagram

An Interior plan The Section of the Winter house

The Winter house, view all The heating system




The heating system An exotic plants

Ghost Flat, Center of the Contemporary Art Kitakyushu, Japan,

2004

The Ghost Flat installation represents the living interior subordinated to

the climate and electromagnetic phenomena to the extent where they by

definition do not have the specific physical dimensions. This uncertainty is

obtained by shifting the viewer's perception from the typical size of

recorded vision and metrically measurable to the new dimensions,

simulated by light. Thus the obtained ambiguity, continuity and

interchangeability of the space synchronize the presence of spatial sizes in

an apartment beyond the metrically measurable sizes. The apartment

program, including a bedroom, living room and bathroom occupies the

same space by the weight and inches, but it changes its size in the spaces of

light, in the fractions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The bedroom

appears in the electromagnetic fraction in size between 400 and 500

nanometers, the living-room - between the wavelengths from 600 to 800

nanometers, the bathroom in the electromagnetic spectrum between 350

and 400 nanometers, which is in the ultraviolet.




The electromagnetic spectrum

The living room The bathroom The bedroom

The second Summer Temporal distortion Eybesfeld’s Island,

Austria, 2005

This project concerns the place of the creation of a climate of the nonstop

summer, lasting beyond the astronomy, climate and natural environment of

this Austrian corner. This is (according to Rahm) the design of time more

than the design of the space. The project assumes the creation of the

climate island in the area of 200 square meters. The warm ground is the

generator of the artificial summer here, it is held at 8-12 degrees by Celsius

throughout the year. This heat has to provide the ground with its interior

with the help of the ground-water pump fitted with a geothermal poll,

recessed in the ground at the level of 160 meters. This poll is connected to a

water circuit, recessed at 25 centimeters below the surface. Thanks to the

poll the water is 35 degrees by Celsius and warms the earth to the needed

temperature. "In the winter, a strange plant population will grow there (...),

stray in this incredible summer." 6– Rahm writes. The project of the island

6 Philippe Rahm "The Direct Architecture" in: What is the architecture? Edited by Adam Budak, vol.2, Manggha 2003, p 547.




of the nonstop summer in the Austrian environment assumes also the

creation of light, typical for the summer solstice on June 21, with its

duration and brightness. Thus, the day on the island will be throughout the

year equally long and last 15 hours and 53 minutes. The every day morning

will be at 5.03 and the night - at 23.51, even if in the winter outside the

island it will be the long dark night.

A swan- a memory of summer A plan of the island

The memory of summer The light of the summer solstice

The light of the summer solstice

Jour Noir, the installation shown in Gdansk in 2005

Jour Noir project, which is a provocative negative of the phenomenon Nuit




Blanche ("the white night" as a sleepless night) proposes the time shifting

in the area of Szopa ans Kamienna streets in Gdansk. Rahm wants to create

night in the middle of the day by his project in a specific location of the city

and to induce the conditions triggering the pedestrians. "It is the perverse

response to the continuous day created by modernity, internet and the

modern globalization" – Rahm says7. The effect can be achieved by placing

six special lamps emitting the cold and invisible electromagnetic radiation,

similar to the one that is sent by the night sky. The nocturnal light lamp has

the black emitter absorbing the light spectrum and the glycol water at a

temperature of about 0 degrees by Celsius. The place for the cooler is

predicted under a nearby bridge. The lamps produce so black and cold light

giving the effect of a mini-night during a bright day. An extension of the

project was to be the installation of city bed, allowing sleeping during the

day on the streets. "At the head of the bed two loudspeakers exude The

Nocturnes for piano by Frederic Chopin, as well as the pieces by other

composers and musicians such as Debussy, Glinka and John Field ..."8 –

Rahm writes.

The thermal phenomenon of balance The day sky / An artificial

electromagnetic radiation.

The night sky The thermal phenomenon of balance

An invisible and cold electromagnetic A Human body, with 37°C, will lose energy

radiation. by infrared radiation in direction of night

cold vault

7 The same, p 549 8 The same, p 551




The location The nightlight standard lamps

The Interior Weather installation, the Canadian Centre for the

Architecture in Montreal, the 2006 Biennale of Contemporary

Art Manifesta in Italy, 2008

This installation presented the researches on the possibility of applying the

set of the meteorological parameters in the living interior as the software

architecture elements. The interior is here formulated not as the

homogeneous and functional space, but such the atmosphere that is

constantly changing as the weather of the place. Instead of designing the

structure, materials and colors, the temperature, the relative humidity and

light are designed here. In the space, which seems apparently and "by eye"

homogeneous, there are the climatic zones with the different variations of

light, temperature, humidity, creating the richness of this area and

stimulating the program for its use.

"Interior weather"- first room "Interior weather"- first room

"An abstract reproduction of the earth's

movement around the sun, the room's

light source moves through space,

generating modifications of the other

climatic parameters via the appearance

of micro-lows". P.Rahm




The temperature variations The temperature variations

Temperature variations define what Temperature variations define what

degree of clothing is appropriate degree of clothing is appropriate

- naked at 28° C. - outdoor wear at 16° C.

Temperature variations define what "Temperature, light intensity, and

degree of clothing is appropriate – relative humidity are understood as

light clothing at 23° C. the three elements of a specific

equation which translates into an

atmospheric or climatic condition; the

combination and recombination of

these three parameters suggest an

infinite number of possible interior

weather situations". P.Rahm

The Split Time Cafe, Graz, Lebring, Austria, 2007

The installation of The Split Time Cafe on the FOC Eybesfeld is based on

the time-space relativity, in which, thanks to the electromagnetic stimuli, a

person can experience a sense of three different times, the natural one and

the two simulated. The yellow room stimulates the eternal night; the blue

one reduces the production of melatonin and creates the eternal day. In

addition to the yellow and blue rooms there is one, which is colorless,

neutral, letting inside the current climate from outside. The furniture

emphasizes the different times of the day; in the yellow interior it is similar

in character to the bed, the chairs in the blue one – to the night bar chairs.




Interior plan The section

A legend with materials Day and night cycle

The Time Split Café Day and night cycle

The night cycle The day cycle

The Humidity

In 2005-2008, Rahm built the spaces based primarily on the degree of

humidity and the evaporation phenomenon.

The National Museum of Estonia, the project




According to Rahm the designing museum is not to be a form of

representation of the idea or the aesthetics, or the incarnation of pure

usability and the functionality with the cultural importance. It is not also to

be the symbolic references, or a metaphor and the character. “The

architecture does not serve here really nothing more than a gradual

reduction in the value of the certain components of the ambient climate,

such as the level of humidity, the intensity of ultraviolet light or the light

intensity. The aim is to meet the needs of the museum for the protection of

the materials, of which are made the pieces of art stored here, by isolating

them from the certain natural chemical and physical conditions,

accelerating the destruction.

The protection of the works, due to their organic or mineral origin, requires

the specially defined microclimate. For example, the metal must be kept in

conditions of very low humidity, between 15 and 30%, not to be subjected to

rust by the oxidation. The organic materials, on the contrary, require higher

humidity to 60%, so not to be subjected to the excessive dryness. However,

its level cannot exceed 75%, otherwise mold can occur. In a similar way the

limits of the light intensity are adjusted for each material. The light causes

the changes in the materials at the molecular level destroying them both by

photochemical processes in the case of short wave, such as ultraviolet, as

well as by heating the materials in the case of the long-wave near-infrared

radiation”.9 Therefore, the paper must be stored under very low light, up to

20 lux. However, the wood and metals can withstand the greater intensity.

The museum is organized as a set of the different atmospheres changing on

the direction from outside to inside towards the interior as follows: from

the wettest to the driest, from the lightest to the darkest, from the most

illuminated by the UV light to the weakest. This reduction was achieved

thanks to the selective filters, eliminated the chemical and physical factors

destructive for the materials. The block of the museum is thus a series of

the concentric layers of the glass apertures, through which the visitor passes

from outside to inside, from the natural local environment to both most

artificial for the geographical climate and neutral for the specific materials.

Thus, the visitor of the museum stays in the five different climate zones, in

which the light intensity decreases from outside to the centre, from 5000 to

10 lux, and the humidity is in turn: 76%, 60%, 35%, 30%, and 20%.

Here's how Rahm analyzes the architecture of his project:

"The nature of the architecture materializes thanks to and

despite of that is invisible (...) The pieces of art are no longer

9 The same, s.553, 555




seen only by sight but also by the physiology of the space and the

body (...) There is invented a new way to visit the museum here,

through the physical phenomenon of the maintenance, the

perception of the climate, as if it removes the time, the climate,

in which the process of the chemical decomposition gradually

disappears, where the visitors begin to feel the architectural

form of surviving."10

The Mollier House, Limousin, France

This house establishes the close physical and chemical relationship with the

climate of the Vassiviere Lake in Limousin, France. The level of the

atmosphere humidity of the natural surrounding of the house is a starting

point for creating the program and areas of its use. Rahm tries to use the

naturally increased humidity of the environment in an appropriate set of

the house function and then to reduce it with the appropriately modeled

cross-section and the architectural barriers. He states that in the interior,

where the man lives, and where the hot water is used, always the water

vapor is produced “leading to the risk of condensation and thus to the

structural damage. While at present the only way to get rid of the excess of

the water vapor is a simple technical operation of the ventilation systems,

we form in our project the configuration of the space occurring to the water

vapor bringing the deep and complex relationships between the people,

their bodies and space, in accordance with the physical and chemical

nature”.11 The designed for living space grows according to the percentage

of the humidity in the air, from 10% to 100%. The humidity of each area

corresponds to the humidity of the human natural environment in a

particular activity.

The data on the humidity emissions by humans in the different behavior are

useful in the design of such a house atmosphere. For example, the sleeping

person emits 40 grams of the water vapor per hour (data needed to design

the optimum humidity level in the bedroom), while during the daily activity

he produces 150 grams per hour (the characteristics of the living room). In

the bathroom during its use it is produced 800 grams per 20 minutes, and

in the kitchen - 1500 grams per hour. The spaces of The Mollier House are

designed from the driest to the most humid, from the best ventilated to

those of dead air, that is in a line from the bedroom climate to the bathroom

climate.

10 The same, s.557 11 The same, s.559




The plan of The Molier House The section of The Molier House

An ideogram of operation of the House An exterior view of group houses

Route of the air ventilation and repartition of the vapor

An exterior view

An interior view




The convection

In 2008 and 2009, Rahm used primarily the phenomenon and the "shape"

of the convection, the atmospheric and marine currents and the air

pressure.

The Archimedes House, Vassiviere en Limousin, France, 2005

It is the project of a house, which living function is distributed according to

the natural changes in the air properties, its density, temperature and flow

in the vertical cross-section of the entire space of the house. The natural

phenomenon of the convection is resulted in the "verticality" of the project,

which enables the use of the natural air layers for the certain residential

features and the human activity. The project resembles a kind of air

chimney, which includes the entire height of the house and takes the shape

according to the function associated with the certain parameters, mainly

the air temperature. In the natural arrangement of the temperatures there

is 16 degrees by Celsius on the ground floor, 18 degrees - on the first floor,

20 - on the second floor and 22 degrees on the top floor. Thus, the functions

are arranged according to the vertical axis of cold at the bottom and warm

at the top. They carry out the prescribed temperatures in the Swiss building

standard SIA 3842, by which the Swiss tend to the economical use of the

energy. The standard provides the following: the optimal temperatures for

the human health in the Celsius degrees:

living rooms 20

bedrooms 16-18

bathrooms 22

kitchens 18-20

hallways, restrooms 15-18

stairwells, laundries, drying rooms 12

In the Archimedes House there is the bathroom and laundry on the bottom,

the bedroom on the first floor, the living room and kitchen on the second

floor and the bathroom on the top floor. It is worth to note the large

difference of the indicated temperatures for the toilet and bathroom, which

functions in Polish building standards are often combined in one room.




Thermal draught heating system

The section of all views

An interior view

The Digestible Gulf Stream Architecture Biennale in Venice,

2008




In 2008, at the Venice Biennale Rahm presented the installation The

Digestible Gulf Stream, in which the architectural space was built on the

principle of convection. It was part of the curator exhibition of Aaron

Betsky, who invited Philippe Rahm to formulate the one of 25 architectural

manifestos of our time. The architectural topic beyond the building got to

the heart of the Rahm searches.

The presented at the Arsenal installation was heralded already from a

distance by the pleasant and inviting sounds of musical instruments and

singing girls. When the visitor stood at the edge of the installation, he could

get the feeling of contact with the stretched along the Arsenal room

populated "landscape". The eye wandered along the white platform similar

to the narrow and long footbridge at the different levels, bathed in light. A

bridge space formed a kind of a bubble that was filled with the warm light

and a life of the few naked people. Their free motions introduced the visible

movement throughout the construction of the installation and strengthened

the feeling of the landscape genre scene. The naked figures with a natural

behavior and an expression of satisfaction define the installation space as

an environment with a pleasant temperature, humidity and brightness,

maintaining the persistent state of the body in harmony with the

environment and in the state of active vitality. The visitor could enter this

space with the artificially fashioned "weather" and felt its impact on his

body. Rahm has created a specific environment, different in relation to the

entire interior of the building and clear in perception, but visually

minimally limited only by the expression of the plastic platform and clear

lines of the climate generator installation.

The climate Technology of The Digestible Gulf Stream was based on the

polarization of the space by the combination of production of two radiators

with the different level of the temperatures: one, which generates 28

degrees by Celsius, the second - 12 degrees by Celsius. This resulted in a

continuous movement of the air by the phenomenon of convection, the

natural drift of warm air up and cold air down, and with the chosen

temperatures made the effect of the miniature Gulf Stream Ocean current.

In addition to the generation of the homogeneous and certain climate the

particular importance here was to obtain the dynamic air landscape with a

help of voltage and space polarity, in which the musicians of the AIR Syd

Matters group moved. This has led to the metrological construction as the

landscape extending between 12 and 28 degrees by Celsius, in which the

resident could freely move and choose a place with a climate suitable for his

clothes (or lack of it), food, activity, or social needs. Physically the




architecture here was the air structure, based on the design of the

atmospheric current.

A temperature diagrams

The sections of The Digestible Gulf Stream




An interior views

The Digestion

The current Rahm searches concern the urban form as a physiological need

and feed as a source of heat or cold, as a form of the edible architecture.

According to the Philippe Rahm concept the architecture is organic,

mineral and biological.

The Lung Space, the installation in the exhibition 'The Radical

Nature' at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK, 2009

Explaining "The Lung space" Rahm recalls the opinion of Hegel, who

considered the music as the highest of the arts, but the architecture as the

lowest. The nineteenth-century philosopher recognized as a measure of the

value the degree of dependence of the arts from the matter, or rather the

degree of the art release from the matter. Today, this division cannot be

maintained if only because of the knowledge of the matter. We suspect that

Hegel has had in mind the matter so heavy and dense that it is visible to the

human eye. Today it is commonly known that the air is material, although it

is mostly invisible. The matter is also a word spoken with the warm breath

by the speaker, the physics of the voice wave and the chemistry of the

exhausted air content. This approach is an extreme shift of attention from

the meaning of the word to its physical, chemical, biological materiality and

from the beauty of the music to its physical, chemical and biological nature.

Rahm is provocative in this experiment trying to unmask the physiological

side of the ephemeral, fleeting arts. He exaggerates the digestive, metabolic

side of the sounds production to make noticed what you do not usually




recognize by sense or mind. Rahm as usually in the installations uses the

artistic intensified measures to increase the awareness and, even more, to

let multisensual feeling the invisible matter, being able to expand with the

mind the possibilities of the sensual penetration and the limits of the

ordinary experience. As in the previous researches he considers the

environment and the human immersed in it as the one physiological

system.

Inflatable of the material-gradually Inflatable of the material-gradually

Inflated material

The final reflection

Philippe Rahm was in Cracow in June 2003 with a lecture “Decosterd /

Rahm: electro-architecture, the matter of void" in the course "What is the

architecture?”. He seemed to be a man all the time continuing his

experiment. Particularly he valued his stay in a salt mine in Wieliczka,

where the exceptional climatic environment has made the clear, specific

reactions of the human body (confirmed by the medicinal properties of the

mine microclimate applications used in a sanatorium for people with




allergies). The Rahm installation projects for Gdansk and the Wroclaw's

museum can be an expression of the good agreement of the architect with

the environment of the Polish artists and the potency existing in the Polish

reality of the architectural changes and the freshness of the first decades

after the political thaw. The avant-garde nature of the Rahms experiment

requires from the recipient the respective mental independence and open

mindedness. The independence of the architectural proposals built on the

principle of the climate design makes it free from a variety of the social

codes including related with the representation. One can see the

meteorological architecture as the fundamentally anti-bourgeois and anti-

political. Thanks to it one penetrates the popular consciousness valuation of

the architecture in terms of its atmosphere and climatic environment equal

with the traditional aspects of design. The climatic architecture can be seen

as a turning point for the contemporary architecture, enveloped with the

formal exaggeration, the excessive hypertrophy aestheticism and the

semantic effects growth. The meteorological architecture moves the

attention of the user directly into the interior space of the architecture

allowing to experience its rich nature and to consciously draw the life-

giving resources from it.

Philippe Rahm. The Meteorological Architecture

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Transcript of Philippe Rahm. The Meteorological Architecture