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Issue 59 - The Life Outside Issue

Issue 59

The Life Outside Issue

Introducing the Life Outside issue of Habitus magazine. With life increasingly being absorbed into a digital space, there is never a more important moment to hold something tangible. In this context, the power of nature to have a physiological impact on our sense of wellbeing has never been more important. So how can we cultivate the benefits of the our natural environment in the most intimate of places – our homes? This was the question that helped to bring this issue of Habitus to life.

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Blowhouse Life Support Unit by Paul Morgan Architects

Australia

Blowhouse, a speculative residential proposition by Paul Morgan Architects, is a ‘life support unit’ located on Australia’s southern coastline.


 

Climate change has affected Australia’s environment so dramatically that the interior desert now meets the south east Australian coastline. Average temperatures have increased, the sea level has risen and rainfall has dropped. Many animal and plant species are now extinct. The island continent is in terminal drought. In this context, the challenge is how to survive the environment. Blowhouse, a speculative residential proposition by Paul Morgan Architects, is a ‘life support unit’ located on Australia’s southern coastline.

 

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The Blowhouse project is a kind of lung. Strong prevailing winds blow across its curved skin, raising and lowering it. In effect, the building is breathing. Solenoids attached on the underside of the roof transform the energy produced by the roof’s movement into static electricity. Streamlining also supplies air to linear wind turbines. Photovoltaic cells on the rear louvres generate energy from solar radiation.

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Conceived as a modular type, habitants could repeat the Blowhouse around coastal locations. The profile simulates the aerodynamic and phototropic growth patterns of indigenous scrub that nestles into crevices along the coast. The window ‘water bags’, inspired by succulent plants that survive in these conditions, thermally insulate the Blowhouse.

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Flutes on the shell harvest water, which then flows into an internal glass water tank located in the kitchen ‘bridge’. The water temperature remains at around 21 degrees, and ambiently assists in maintaining the internal air temperature at this level. A heating element sourced from the photovoltaic panels keeps the water temperature warm during the cooler months.

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The bioengineered Blowhouse is an energy neutral life support unit that utilises the environment’s kinetic potential.

surface-diagram-with-annotationPaul Morgan Architects

 


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Issue 59 - The Life Outside Issue

Issue 59

The Life Outside Issue

Introducing the Life Outside issue of Habitus magazine. With life increasingly being absorbed into a digital space, there is never a more important moment to hold something tangible. In this context, the power of nature to have a physiological impact on our sense of wellbeing has never been more important. So how can we cultivate the benefits of the our natural environment in the most intimate of places – our homes? This was the question that helped to bring this issue of Habitus to life.

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