Self Sufficient Buildings: Machine Room

Edoardo Lagrasta | Daksh Lakhani | Farah Ali | Victoria Castano

Master of Advanced Architecture 01 | Term 02 | 2023-2024

CONCEPT | Steamer

We began by deconstructing a common household appliance, a clothing steamer, to understand its mechanics and study the energy it produces.

CONCEPT | Preliminary Sketches

Our initial ideas began with the idea of condensation and rain, we wanted to create a closed loop cycle of rain.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT | Exploring the Human Scale and Reaction

FINAL PROTOTYPE | Orthographic Drawings

FINAL PROTOTYPE | Fabrication

Process images of the membrane evolution, which began with manipulating plastic with a heat gun and nails, to utilizing a vacuum press and CNC moulds in order to create an optimized geometry.

The final geometry was designed by observing the behavior of the steam, by creating a horse shoe shape the steam can travel to each dip to create condensation at each point equally, additionally the positive mould shaping upwards creates a place for the steam to be captured. Each dip creates an exact location for each droplet to fall from, which allowed us to have an idea of where exactly each water drop would fall.

FINAL PROTOTYPE | Video

Final Prototype | Images

Photographed by: Gabriel Wosiack Teixeira