Floating Pavilions:
Starting our trip in the center of Rotterdam, we came
across The Floating Pavilions in Rijnhaven. This building, of sort, is very
interesting as it can be moved and docked in any calm stretch of water. This is
especially innovative for The Netherlands as the country is mostly below sea
level. Thus, as the land use is reaching saturation, developers and architects
alike are seeking new ways to tap unused resources, in this case the large
areas of unused water. The Floating Pavilion has a height of twelve meters, and
was built to imaginatively use water and climate to be sustainable.
The developer of this project, Dura Vermeer is known
for their innovative work. Previously in 2005, they built a Floating Greenhouse
that is still in use at Flora Holland (Dutchwatersector.com). This can be seen
below:
As for the materials used for building the Pavilion,
the foundation was made with a 2.25-meter blocks of concrete-coated polystyrene
foam. This is how it permits the structure to remain afloat. One area that the
developers knew might be tricky with the use of this material is that they
needed to use the right amount of foam. This is due to the many reasons the
water level changes and might sink the Pavilion. A couple of the reasons stated
were the 2 meters tidal changes and melting ice water that raises the level.
The materials used to build the spheres were chosen specifically to not be a
heavy burden on the foam foundation.
These
spheres were made with tri-layered hexagonal ETFE plastic shapes supported by a
steel framework. These frameworks were filled with air to better insulation
thus limiting energy loss. Interestingly the spheres had a transparent material
that became less transparent at the top of the sphere as to block direct sunlight
where it is most harmful and warmest. As we visited during cold weather, the
sphere seemed well insulated and kept room temperatures, so we wondered what
about summer heat. 
One of the founders of DeltaSync,a
multidisciplinary design, research and consultancy firm and designer of the
Floating Pavillon, Rutger de Graaf explained that during summer, an automatic
cooling system that both opens hatches in the structure to let cool air flow
in, and a cooling mechanism from the floor that uses the water to cool the
structure from the bottom-up. He also explained that in addition, there are
heat collectors throughout the structure to help cool temperatures when needed.
The only drawback is it
creates a humid environment. DeltaSync innovatively tried to solve this by
putting plants to absorb the humidity, however, the direct sunlight killed off
the plants. As a chemist enthusiast, creating a dehumidifier is pretty simple,
instead of using the plants; one might use a water collector with either rock
salt or calcium chloride (Maslowski). This however, isn’t a fancy solution. But
on the other hand, it is sustainable and won’t need any energy use. The
drawback is that the rock salt (NaCl) or calcium chloride (CaCl2)
needs to be replaced at some point. Also to my knowledge, this works for a
room, a building as large as the sphere must need a more efficient solution.
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