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Architects: Daryan Knoblauch
- Area: 200 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:José Hevia
Text description provided by the architects. Free Air is a public gathering machine designed by architect Daryan Knoblauch. The pavilion is devoted to the element that connects cosmic dust with the lungs that we carry within our body: Air.
Designed as a performative infrastructure, Free Air contributes to Barcelona's environment through its reflective surface which harvests NO2 from the air. The installation focuses on the invisible qualities of air by helping us to see, contemplate, measure and understand a natural resource that, due to the amount of man-made pollution, is threatening the health condition of all citizens alike. Free Air, which due to its photocatalytic coated texture, purifies and improves the condition of the air wherever it is placed, creates a meeting place for our current generation, and the generations to come.
The pavilion is conceived as a research-by-design project and unfolds its means through various material strategies. Lightness, consistency and performativity are defined as the underlying design qualities for a new millennium and allude to the spatial manifestation of Free Air as a reversible, scalable and sustainable structure. The reflective, perforated surface is carried by a reusable structure that also supports several gadgets, like mirrors, solar panels and water collectors, that allow it to interact with its surroundings in visible and invisible ways. The installation's skin harvests particular matter such as nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides and carbon oxides since its coating allows the installation to produce photosynthesis when exposed to light and therefore cleans itself and its surroundings over time.
Air and its quality will be measured and communicated through several technical installments outside and within the installation, through LED ticker strips that count the amount and quantity of purified CO2 particles, screens within the pavilion that locate the pollution of air within Barcelona, and presentations that expose how the subject matter is addressed within other disciplines including photography, fashion, music and pop culture at large. Free Air was constructed as a temporal pavilion during the Architecture Festival Model run by The Fundació Mies van der Rohe directed by Eva Franch i Gilabert. Free Air hosted numerous events that discussed the future of architectural design including lectures by Mark Wigley, Marina Otero Verzier, Amical Dall and many others.
