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Media-ICT,
by Cloud 9
by Giacomo Pelizzari














UoM: 76091160 & MMU: 10983407
UoM: 76091160
Giacomo Pelizzari, BA (Hons) Architecture (Year 2, sem. 2) MMU: 10983407

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The Media-ICT building is situated in the experimental district called 22@ of
Barcelona, Spain. Cloud 9, the studio founded by architect Enric Ruiz-Geli,
was commisioned to design a home for the TIC (Information and
Communication Technologies) community. This new avant-garde facility was
intended to act as a point of contact between media companies and
institutions. Key design members of the project were Cloud 9 (both Lead
Architect and Environmental Engineer), David Tusset (PGI group, Installation
Engineer) and Agusti Obiol (BOMA, Structural Engineer). Overall budget for
this abandoned warehouse transformed in revolutionary building, was 28
million Euro. When completed, the building received highly positive response
by the press and beaten off competition from hundreds of buildings around
the globe to win the World Building of the Year 2011 award at the prestigious
World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards in Barcelona.
The building volume forms a cube of 44m x 44m x 37.82m high; the site is
3,572.45 m2 and in total, the Media-ICT has 16,000 m2 above ground and
two floors below ground (7100 m2) with capacity for 200 parking spaces. The
building is divided so that the upper floors (from eighth to fourth) are rented for
big companies, the second and third floor have small spaces for emergent
companies and the first floor, a public area, with the cibernarium and an
auditorium. Each faade of the Media-ICT is different, maximizing their
efficiency by taking into account their orientation with respect to the sun. The
envelope, made of inflatable Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (ETFE) cushions
oriented south, act as a variable sunscreen, opening in winter to gain solar
energy, and closing in summer to protect and shade. In the south west
facade, Nitrogen based fog is introduced in the cushions, that by increasing its
particles greater opacity is produced, thereby protecting users. The building is
equipped with multiple temperature sensors that collect exterior information to
adjust the interior conditions. The Media ICTs roof is covered with a garden
and flecked with photovoltaic cells for solar collection. To save on non-potable
water consumption, Cloud 9 has installed a rainwater collection system. A
giant cistern stores the water, which is then distributed into the buildings non-
potable plumbing system as well as into a district cooling system, which
helps air condition the building with cool water. At night, and without
consuming any electricity, the facade will glow since the metal components
have been coated with luminescent paint inspired by jellyfishes that
charges during the day to then give off light during the hours of
darkness.
The final CO2 reduction achieved by all of this is 95%, resolving in almost
a net zero building.

UoM: 76091160
Giacomo Pelizzari, BA (Hons) Architecture (Year 2, sem. 2) MMU: 10983407

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3


By trying to describe the sustainable thinking behind Media-ICT, through Guy
and Farmer s (2001) work, it s understandable that this project merge two
types of sustainable architecture, Eco-technic and Eco-social.
The design team understands the environmental problems and tries to solve
them through science and the use of new technologies.
This is our formula: Energy efficiency as a catalyst of innovation. (Ruiz-Geli,
2011)
With this affermation Enric Ruiz-Geli and his firm work is what Brand &
Karvonen (2007) define has Outreach Expertise. Meaning that the
sustainability expert, in this case the architect, creates not an iconic style of
architecture, but a performative one, that shares itself to the public as
exemplary sustainable project.
It is an expressive combination of creative endeavour, environmental
awareness and has the goal of being a vehicle for disseminating new
technologies that must be made available to the public.
What mentioned above explains the technology driven ecological approach of
Cloud 9, but to able to see the Eco-social logic implemented in the design
process of this intervention, an interpretation of its function is necessary. This
building is not a public or private building, or a corporate or company oriented
building, it is not an academic or businesslike, but a hybrid programme, based
on the idea of sharing, where all the green spaces are shared. This type of
model recalls to what expert refer as GGG- global green growth, the belief
that economic growth and environmental sustainability are not merely
compatible objectives; their integration is essential of human kind (GGGI
website).
The architecture of the Media-ICT is compared by the architect itself to
Gauds La Pedrera, as both works are inspired by nature. Yet for the Ruiz-Geli
nature can be transformed in a dynamic architecture, and not only used as
source of stimulation of forms. We have to make architecture as similar as
possible to these natural plant processes pursuing, and performing, what
activates its photosynthesis, its physics, its chemistry, its inner material.
(Ruiz-Geli, 2011).
And this why, this building can be appreciated. Thanks to the complex layers,
with intelligence, without lighting, this assemble show what can be achieved
with thoughtful design. The user will use it, to congregate and work, he will not
consume energy inefficiently because the building will provide with it cleverly
and sustainably. As Janda explains architecture as it is now its not a sufficient
solution to climate change, because building don t use energy, people do
(2009). Society do not understand that it is not being asked to reinvent itself,
society needs a change. Developed countries societies are just now starting
to be educated, such a change needs to be achieved in just the lifespan of a
generation, it is not perhaps something that simply cannot be achieved.
Perhaps the solution can be found in architects work, such as Enric Ruiz-Geli,
where is the technology of the buildings takes fully control of the energy
consumption, and the people using it can appreciate the results not doing a
UoM: 76091160
Giacomo Pelizzari, BA (Hons) Architecture (Year 2, sem. 2) MMU: 10983407

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thing.


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