Work submitted for the competition
"Best Diploma Architecture".
The pavilion is intended as a space where the most significant human achievements will be presented in a way that would be understandable to an alien civilization that would colonize our planet after humans disappear.
The facility has been placed in Wroclaw next to the old Bernardine monastery, between four important buildings - the Market Hall, the Dominican Church, the Ovo building and the Raclawice Panorama.
bird's eye view
© Jakub Szczepański
The task of the designed building is to create a complex space that will outline humanity in the distant future in an unconventional way, both against the background of social evolution and explaining basic human issues, such as our perception of space, the basics of anatomy or methods of communication.
In order to facilitate the process of learning about subsequent achievements, the building has been designed according to an assumption based on a system of three axes (categories, cognition and time) presenting at the same time the limitation of human perception to three dimensions - width, height and depth.
orientation, axes and cross-section A-A
© Jakub Szczepański
The main problem in designing the Sense was the search for an alternative form of communication provided for contact with representatives of civilizations that have no information about the human species. The answer turned out to be the most primitive form - communication through the senses.
All achievements were presented by means of so-called Information Modules - prefabricated components, the basic form of which consists of three parts: a ramp, a module platform and a wall facing the inner atrium, on which the achievement is presented and explained. These modules have been shaped to affect the various senses - for example, by suddenly changing the height of the ceiling, generating echoes, disturbing the angles of light, or moving the user not only to the right, left, forward and backward, but also up and down in the area of a single floor.
function diagram
© Jakub Szczepanski
The pavilion building provides for a maximum of 190 concurrent users; it has been adapted for people with disabilities. The ground floor is planned to include administrative rooms, a cafeteria, a presentation room that can also serve as a cinema, and an exhibition area. In warm months, the first floor of the designed building can be almost completely open from the north and south sides, thanks to a system of sliding glass walls with integrated entrance doors.
visualizations of the pavilion
© Jakub Szczepański
The underground, first and second floors, meanwhile, present an exhibition of human achievements consisting of eighteen Information Modules. The user begins the tour by descending the ramp on the south side to the underground, where all the achievements from before our era are located. Then moving to the upper floors, he can admire later achievements in chronological order.
underground projection and cross section B-B
© Jakub Szczepański
The Pavilion of Humanity, as a sustainable building, was made of materials with the smallest possible carbon footprint. The designed building will be expandable by adding more floors between the roof zone and the last usable floor when new human-important solutions appear. Thus, the building has a post-and-beam structure with an enclosure of curtain walls. In the underground part, the structural elements of the building are made of ecological reinforced concrete, while on the floors above ground level the structure is a glulam column and beam system.
E-E cross section
© Jakub Szczepański
The building's façade is a translucent system of vertical panels that also act as structural hangers for the corridor's exterior ceilings. The main purpose of such a solution is to create a space that is intended to affect the user's perception, not providing thermal comfort, refracting sound or light and blurring the boundary between the interior and exterior of the building, which allows to strain the user's senses even before entering the individual Information Modules.
interior atrium
© Jakub Szczepański
In order to be sure that the facility will be able to perform its function even after humans disappear from the planet, it has to be fully self-sufficient - that's why it is equipped with a system of photovoltaic panels located on the roof, a catchment system for rainwater stored in underground tanks and a natural ventilation system.
Jakub SZCZEPAŃSKI
Illustrations: © Author
