![]() Getting the vibe just right was a challenge, he said, because nobody knew what the rain would sound like as it flowed through the columns. He also planned to conceal transducers in the floor to vibrate the lower part of the structure. “We hope we can activate the posts that way,” said Stallmann, who also directs the Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs at the Shepherd School. Photo by Brandon MartinĪt Post, hanging speakers feed the synthesized sound of rain into the columns. A module of the ceramic columns that supports Rice's installation at Post Houston. “He came to my office to look at the hollow columns we fabricated in Barcelona and said, ‘You know, this could be an instrument,’” Castellón said. That led to a conversation about the Post project. Stallmann and Castellón met when the latter became interested in his virtual reality installation at the Moody Center for the Arts. Though water will not flow at Post, visitors will sense it thanks to Stallmann, a composer and professor of composition and theory at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music. “We don’t have to deal with that for the first prototype, but it will be an additional challenge,” he said. He’s also in discussions with Rice’s Carbon Hub to test carbon nanotube fibers as part of a tensioning system to account for wind loads outdoors. “The water would be safe and you wouldn’t have to worry about maintenance of the storage and pipe system.”Ĭastellón said the columns themselves could eventually serve as a filtration device. “The original idea was to put this structure on a roof at Rice, and we thought this would be a good way to water the rooftop garden,” she said. ![]() “Then we can directly use it to irrigate landscape or for other purposes. “This overcomes the usual problems related to storing rainwater in a cistern by avoiding microbial growth and allowing for post-treatment of the water,” Li said. The membranes are treated with nanoparticles to destroy microbes that might otherwise foul water that flows through the columns to storage under the raised floor. The installation is open to the public through April 20. “Building Ecologies” at Post Houston, a prototype by Rice faculty members, demonstrates a “circular” strategy that incorporates environmental systems into architecture. When outdoors, the sloping membrane shade will collect and filter water for reuse as conceived by Li, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, materials science and nanoengineering and of chemical and biomolecular engineering and also co-director of NEWT. “The whole point of this project is to integrate architectural and structural questions with environmental questions,” said Castellón, an assistant professor of architecture. There’s no rain inside Post, but the installation is a local proof-of-concept for what the team hopes to build at Rice and elsewhere. The hollow columns that supported the structure, along with the roof’s metal frame and membrane covering, were fabricated in Barcelona, Spain, the best available source of the porous ceramics Castellón required.Ĭombining the prize-winning design with Li’s groundbreaking solar-powered desalination technology as part of Rice’s Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) was planned from the beginning. Ultimately, it was built thousands of miles away as he and his eight students presented their work at the 2021 Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in Seoul, South Korea. The project took root in Castellón’s fall 2020 studio at Rice Architecture. It is intended to not only revive the spirits of those who pause there but also make use of its environment by purifying and recycling rainwater to feed plants inside and away from the structure. The concept prototyped at Post is circular, though it’s not physically round. ![]() Rice’s contribution is part of a Post sustainability event, “ There is Only One Earth.” From left, Rice’s Kurt Stallmann, a professor of composition and theory, Juan José Castellón, an assistant professor of architecture, and Qilin Li, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, are collaborators on “Building Ecologies,” an installation at the former downtown Houston post office. Post Houston, a LEED Gold-certified building, is hosting the installation in a gallery near the main lobby until April 20, 2023. The trio - in order, Juan José Castellón, Qilin Li and Kurt Stallmann - have completed a prototype of their cool oasis, “Building Ecologies,” an installation at the former downtown Houston post office that itself was only recently reconfigured as a commercial, art and entertainment space. A Rice University architect, an engineer and a musician are bringing work that debuted on the other side of the world much closer to home at Post Houston.
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