Flowers to Build

Liquid Building is designed by Mohsen Marizad, as part of the Emergent Territories Course at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. The three essential elements were considered during the design development of the project: parameters and contextual restrictions pertaining to Barcelona building standard, parameters introduced by the program itself and zero emissions and sustainability as an ultimate design goal.

The original design idea consisted of flower-like elements which interacted with a type of intelligent skin system. The flower elements are supposed to function as rainwater collectors and structural reinforcements, while the skin reacts to environmental circumstances. Openings within the roof skin are designed to adapt to seasonal changes. In order to resolve the natural light deficit of the building, a central courtyard is introduced. The high program density resulted in the site being able to house only one third of predicted functions. This issue influenced the vertical distribution of activities and their overall connectivity. The green spaces are delicately positioned to interact positively with the levels, structural units and public spaces. The dominant  principle of fluidity also relates to spatial distribution of habitable units; the liquid “bubbles” of similar functionality float towards each other and create units, from which all the structures are derived.