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Liquid Gold

Part 1 Project 2010
Christine Peters
 University of Westminster | UK
Many stories involving water shortages have been spoken about in recent months, the need for fresh water in order to live is becoming increasingly publicised in magazines and television. It is our most vital resource, and with an increasing global population is becoming more scarce.

The aim of the Academy of Hydrology is to educate people about our most precious resource, that our very existence depends upon. Through treating water on site in reed beds to the desalination area at the tip of the site, this education does not require a classroom but an experience. Through the reed beds the visitors to the Academy are taken on a journey, seeing the several states of water: solid, liquid and gas, though not necessarily in that order. The water is distilled in the Tower, sieved through the reed beds, heated by the combined heat and power system to change its state to steam, which uses the methane generated by the reed beds. The water is generated and used on site in the spa, with surplus being channeled back into the surrounding area.

Bathing has for hundreds of years been believed and rightly so, to cleanse and purify the body from ailments and disease. It is also associated with religion and the purification of the soul, a spiritual act. In the Academy, the aim is to celebrate these attributes of water, the ways in which it can be purified by natural means and evoke its spiritual qualities through the architecture; the effects of water on the materials encapsulating it and its environment.


LIQUID GOLD : ACADEMY OF HYDROLOGY


Oil has dominated global geopolitics for the past fifty years. In the next fifty, it will be water.

Of the planet’s water resources, 97% are salty and 2% are locked in snow and ice. Less than 1% are available for drinking, farming, bathing and cooling of power plants. In the Academy, urbanites are taught about the use and abuse of life’s most precious resource and instructed in the arts, sciences, philosophy and poetry of water in all its forms – acquisition, storage, filtration, purification and distribution. A series of stepped reed beds embrace a processional route to the Academy’s subterranean facilities, the totemic Tower of Distillation providing a retreat for reflection, both temporal and spiritual. At one and the same time, the project is a hive of activity and endeavour, and yet, a sanctuary and a place of beauty.



Tutor(s)
Dr Ian Murphy
Virginia Rammou
2010
Water is sieved through the Reed Bed landscape, overlooked by the Distillation Tower and Lecture Theatre which appears to float from above.
Section through the Academy, showing the journey of water down into the depths of the site.
Detailed section showing the four different types staged where the water must pass through.
Where is the water: Water based figure ground studies showing the water sources absorbed at the Academy.
The Academy from above, the paths spanning through the Reed Beds to the desalination area.
Model photos
Systemic Axonometric: Distillation Tower layers and joint details
Steam rises through the Tower whilst light floods the spa area submerged 6m into the site.
Tiny droplets of water collect on the roof of the Tower, which run off the surface and down into a tranquil pool inside of the lecture theatre where it will then be used for running the CHP below and stored in the Ice Room below the Reed Beds.
Steam rises through the spa, used as steam baths which are used to treat and purify the body.
Light floods the main bathing area, shadows highlighting the lattice structure that encompasses the Academy.
Light cascades down the walls through slits in the roof, highlighting the textures and varying hues of the cast concrete basin.
The relaxation area on the upper floor of the spa, surveying the main baths below.
Filtered water from the Reed Beds pools in the reservoir. Bridged cross it, linking the lower baths of the spa to the ice room and hydrotherapy rooms buried under the reed beds.
Glistening saline Thames water delivered via the train lines encompassing the site, is ready for its infinite cycle through the Academy.
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