NIMBY

Not in my backyard!

Abschlussarbeit - TuBerlin

CoLab Fachgebiet

WiSe 20/21

Vertical is sustainable!

Proposing a compact vertically densified solution for the city center of Berlin "The new Alexanderplatz", where the demand is rapidly growing as we are witnessing an unprecedented populational growth.

Through this masterplan, we aim to bring programs that might be seen by the dwellers as unattractive and problematic into the neighbourhoods. Such facilities are usually pushed into the outter skirts of cities due to the byproducts created by their activities. However, we see an opportunity in integrating such structure into the city. A win-win situation can be achieved if they were to be introduced properly into the urban context.

Building field A2

A server as a NIMBY in Berlin??

Meeting the demand

A server that would supply to all Berliners would ideally be, by today's technology and standards, 1000-cabinet big. Such mega infrastructure would consume 20 Megawatts of electricity and produce 68,240 British Thermal Units of heat, which would be sufficient to heat over 2000 living units.

Placing the Godzilla

A server this gigantic would not be done justice if it were to be called anything but Godzilla. Placing the server in the center vertically is common sense, considering the proortions and the requirements of the given plot. Following that, the program is divided into 3 zones based on the privacy hierarchy. The cores and vertical circulation elements are added afterwards. Mega slabs are introduced, serving as structural and technical elements in the building. Afterwards, the residential units are directly plugged into the server harvesting its heat. Once these residential units are distrubted around the core, other elements such as: greenhouses, parks and water features are added into the tower to enrich the user experience and give the sensation of living in a community / neighbourhood

Heating circulation diagram

This diagram shows the cycles through which the water travels the building. The water's journey starts from the mass damper at top of the building. Cooled water gets injected into the servers in order to control the temperature of the computers. This exchange of heat happens in the heat exchangers where this process efficiently takes place, this transaction happens as water drops due to gravitational force to the bottom of the building. Once the water reaches the bottom, it already has an adequate temperature for the Caldarium and the tropical beach. Water cools down as it climbs back up using the pumps. As it arrives to its final station at the residential units located in the continental slab. The last station would be the chiller where water is extremely cooled so that it can be re-utilized again.

Axonometry

An axonometric section displaying the synergies between the program and the NIMBY and the distribution of them around the server and how they are feeding on its byproducts.