Envelope design competition The Sun tower at the thermo-solar powerstation Ashalim
​

in collaboration with lighting planner and designer Benny Tevet and Architect Gil Halamish-G.p.M. visual systems. ​

The starting point in the design of the envelope was the sun and its life cycle throughout day and night. The first raw materials we chose to use were light and shadow. The elementary tower with its functional structure forms the basis for the design, while the purpose of the proposed envelope is to enrich the appearance of the building and create a drama using simple means of light and shadow.

The tower, with its life cycle throughout day and night, has a different appearance cycle: At night, with its enormous height, it would be visible to great distances and constitute some sort of a beacon in the open desert space.

During the day we chose to refine it, while enriching its plastic structure, highlighting its vertical lines,

and selecting materials that would not blind or burden their environment.

We chose to use its existing technical systems, highlight them with color and lighting and thus also reflect toward the outside the energetic processes taking place in it.

In light of the technological orientation of the building, we chose to base the structure of the envelope on a modular structure of a vase cube that draws its shape from the Lego gaming world.

 The basic idea is not to wrap the entire structure, but use a minimal partial envelope, as a mean for strengthening and maximizing the present potential. In fact, we suggest to wrap less than a quarter of the planned envelope, yet to do so wisely in a way that emphasizes the drama of he vertical lines and enriches the plasticity of the building.

The use of the gaming analogy also grants us with a whole world of design possibilities for all the present accessories, stairs, balconies, in a richness of form and color while playing with scales and even using humor. The modular technique and the use of simple materials allow us planning and execution flexibility.

Design principles:

1.Flexibility - The proposed envelope relies on and exits from the concrete walls of the existing building in a set of concrete shelves and sides made of fiber-cement panels such as hardy or SA. The concrete shelves are casted as ledges that exit the concrete construction on modular molds.

The location of the shelves, the quantity and the rate of extrusion of the ledges are flexible and can be altered.

2. Construction cost and simplicity - The materials we chose to use are concrete and fiber-cement panels, which are inexpensive and are highly available. For the ledge floors we use concrete casted over modular molds and for the sides we use panels with a set of profiles that form a sealed wall. The panels are attached to the set of profiles using either hidden or visible screws.

3. Scate the use of a base cube that draws its shape from the Lego gaming world, and the unbelievable size of the tower lead us to play with the scale while using the present systems as a design element in the building.

4.   Maintenance  - using exposed concrete for the floors and Exotec Panel paneling - thin panels - used for external walls of buildings of up to 100 floors, paint finishing.  The panels are resistant to moisture, rot, termites and fire. They have high mechanical resistance, and they are resistant to extreme weather conditions.

5.  Lighting- since the tower is wrapped with three-dimensional elements the lighting seeks to enhance and dramatize trough playing with the lights and shadows resulting from the three dimensional ledges.

Using randomly changing color will increase the drama and give a sense of movement to the silent tower.

For this purpose we will place submerged bodies with RGB LED lighting of variable power at the base of the grooves, cubbyholes and hanging shelves. Each light will flood the tower upward and create an interesting game of light focuses that continually disperse across the three-dimensional surface. The lighting can be assigned with a number of different scenarios for certain hours during the night, special days and so on.