A Building That Looks Like a Set of Wings

Pictured above is a design submission for the Zayed National Museum in the United Arab Emirates. The project is named after Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918-2004), who was president of the UAE. In memory of the Sheik’s love of falconry, the main structures are shaped like wings. But they also serve a practical purpose:

The galleries are placed at the bases of five solar thermal towers. The towers heat up and act as thermal chimneys to draw cooling air currents naturally through the museum. Fresh air is captured at low level and drawn through buried ground-cooling pipes and then released into the museum’s lobby. The heat at the top of the towers works to draw the air up vertically through the galleries due to the thermal stack effect. Air vents open at the top of the wing-shaped towers taking advantage of the negative pressure on the lee of the wing profile to draw the hot air out.

Link, Via: DVICE | Photo: Foster + Partners | Via: Neatorama