To any architect, designer, thinker or anyone aware of “green” trends, the Stillsuit in Dune is quite the artifact.
The idea of using an external, foreign, device to optimally use and reuse heat and fluids is intriguing. In Dune, the stillsuit allows humans to survive in the desert for over a week at a time without re-hydrating or eating.
If the stillsuit has the ability to reuse byproducts to sustain life, could a scaled up version do the same for buildings, cities and metropolises?
Could it be that LEED and the idea of sustainability are going about it all wrong? Does Dune have the answers? In Dune, there is a wonderful view of the stillsuit being sliced open, causing all of the “HVAC” lines to fray. At this point I had images of Hernan Diaz Alonso invading the Pompidou Centre stuck in my mind. This could be a practical use for digital/blog architecture!
Why aren’t architects working on “Architectural Stillsuits” to allowing buildings to sustain themselves? Current use of windmills and solar panels don’t even scratch the surface of how the building scale suits could be applied.
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2 Comments
Great post and I love that montage/image you put together. I could see this sort of thinking easily turning into a thesis (or studio) project. It would be fun to do.
Found your blog via link from post by Mammoth/Eating Bark guys.
This idea is brilliant. I love the idea of
One issue being that such an approach seems more infrastructural than architectural. Although i know the lines are continuing to blur.
Perhaps a literal suit for buildings that could be grafted on and process wastes cycles..
I am thinking things like greywater systems.. But on a larger scale.