The Making of Common Air-rea
เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 years ago
Common Air-rea
CEA X Cloud Floor
“First and foremost, experience. The air inside the space is cleaner than the outside. So, it is confident that as soon as the visitors step their foot into the area, they will breathe better, easier, and deeper, filling their lungs with cleaner air, all the while feasting their senses of sight, taste, smell, and sound with an immersion into the relaxing greenery and witnessing a one-of-the-kind symbiosis between nature and technology, such as the use of solar panels to generate renewable energy for internal use. It’s not only a solution to alleviate the problem, but also a design prototype for the future.”
Could you please introduce the idea behind the project for Bangkok Design Week 2021?
Originally, a common area for disseminating information for the Bangkok Design Festival 2021 was designated to be located in front of the Grand Postal Building as a small kiosk, and it was until this year when there was no main pavilion that the area has been enlarged to what it is today. The name “Common Air-rea” refers to an enclosed common area and information point incorporating design, nature, and innovation for filtering air pollution from the outside, where visitors can rest breathing in cleaner air, which also serves as a prototype area for public space in the future. The project is subsidized by the Electricity Development Fund as a business under Section 97(5) of the Office Energy Regulatory Commission in 2019.
Where did you draw your inspiration from?
It is an ongoing project that we have been working on with the Creative Economy Agency (CEA) for a while before the Bangkok Design Week was conceived. Following last year when CEA joined hands with the Shma team to make the “Bangkok #Safezone Shelter,” a simulated bunker for local people to stay safe during the bad air quality days in January and February, a string of experiments has been carried out so that the model can be applied to a wider variety of areas, whether it be bus stops or waiting areas in various locations. And the reason why we chose to build a prototype pavilion at Bangkok Design Week because there will be a whole host of visitors using it throughout the event, which allows us to envisage what the design of the pavilion could look like and what the possible outcomes of the design would be, before further developing it to be used in real life in the future.
Could you please explain your workflow, from choosing the location and selecting materials to installing the finished artwork? What is special about the location and materials? What are the challenges in the installation of the work?
The knowledge derived from the making of Bangkok #Safezone Shelter last year, along with the advice from the many teachers, is the principles for the design of “Common Air-rea” as an area that can help relieve air pollution so that the visitors stay safer. Firstly, we have to create an enclosed area because, just like an air-conditioned room, it will be not cool if the area is open-aired. Likewise, if we want to incorporate air-purifying technology into the design, we have to have an enclosed area so that the purified air will not be too scattered, which makes it difficult to evaluate the efficiency of the design. Secondly, we have to make adjustments to the design to fit the area and how people use it, which means that, in doing so, we have to take into consideration not only the design principles but also the technologies to be incorporated into the design so that the design will not be contrary to human behavior in using common resting areas; For example, given that there must be an entrance and an exit, air curtains have been incorporated to close the area while allowing people to walk in and out without feeling that they are entering the door.
Given that “Common Air-rea” is a common area where visitors can rest breathing in cleaner air, which makes it necessary for it to look relaxing to the eyes, there was a process to select tree species with long, large leaves, which allow for better dust-trapping and air-purifying properties, to help not only in trapping dust and purifying the air but also in giving shade, as well as scenting and edible plants, so that there is a diversity of plants in the area. Besides, there is also an automatic watering system equipped to keep the plants watered throughout the day to help reduce tree damage.
As for materials, with “Common Air-rea” being a temporary construction, materials used must be lightweight yet still durable. Nevertheless, there still was a wide range of challenges to be taken into consideration when it comes to choosing materials, whether it be dust, rain, or heat — given that the climate in Thailand is sultry and dusty — all of which are quite difficult in their own ways. After a string of trial-and-error experiments, it was found that the properties of plastic sunscreen sheets met the requirements: filtering light while preventing dust from entering, so we chose it as the main material for the pavilion. Plastic sunscreen sheet could filter a variety of light up to 70-80%, but, given the budget allocated to the construction bearing in mind that it is a temporary pavilion, we chose one that could filter only about 60% as the better the filtering properties, the higher the price.
As for the pavilion, as the project is subsidized by the Electricity Development Fund and in collaboration with Solar Cell Synergy company, there will be solar panels installed on the roof, so there will be another additional system — that is, the electric system, so that part of the energy generated by the solar panels will be able to be used in the air purification and — when the sun is down — lighting system. Suffice it to say the pavilion is of a hybrid system.
There still were many more challenges the team took into consideration during the design of the pavilion. Some parts of the design might be useless if the weather is not that bad as expected, which might raise a question as to what we did this part for. However, after all, we developed the pavilion as a prototype to see how the quasi-public construction model can be applied to public areas and how it can be better managed, hence its still allowing for adding anything needed, removing anything not needed, and remodeling as appropriate. We can see the direction of the design to meet the most requirements, especially those concerning health safety during the COVID-19 pandemic; the pavilion is designed to be an enclosed yet open-aired space, with furniture pieces set up at corners to allow for more flexible area usage, to reduce the chances of sitting close to one another, not to mention that the visitors will be screened before entering.
Could you please summarize the specialty of this project?
The project is developed based on a concept that combines design with technology to see how we can alleviate air pollution and improve air quality in public spaces, whether it be flea markets, events, or bus stops, each of which serves as a case study that is meant to be subjected to criticism for us to see their suitability for use, and as the knowledge that will be passed on.
What do you expect audiences to take away from experiencing the work?
“First and foremost, experience. The air inside the space is cleaner than the outside. So, it is confident that as soon as the visitors step their foot into the area, they will breathe better, easier, and deeper, filling their lungs with cleaner air, all the while feasting their senses of sight, taste, smell, and sound with an immersion into the relaxing greenery and witnessing a one-of-the-kind symbiosis between nature and technology, such as the use of solar panels to generate renewable energy for internal use. It’s not only a solution to alleviate the problem, but also a design prototype for the future.”
