Project:
The Pulse - Gasholder no.8, UK, July – August 2009
Competition proposal for public leisure space
Client:
Team:
Nick Hancock - Architect
Leonora Oppenheim - Designer
Anna Maria Orru - Architect
Luke Engleback - Landscape Architect
Roger Cooper - Landscape Architect
Jacek Grabowski - Architect
Chris Haughton - Illustrator
Fergus McCormick - Structural Engineer
Brief:
From Kings Cross Central developers: Our vision is to create an enchanting place, one of London’s gems. We want to establish a place that draws people, both locals and visitors, to relax, to have fun and to play. It will have a different feel from the surrounding environment but will make the most of its location next to the canal and the fantastic heritage structure of the gasholder.
Process:
Together with architect Nick Hancock we put together an exceptionally talented cross-disciplinary team that worked together on the following proposal:
King’s Cross Gasholder 8, with its cultural heritage of Victorian engineering ingenuity, provides a fascinating setting for The Pulse. The gasholder, which once stored the gas that provided light and heat to London, is a powerful starting point. The contemporary absence of the gasholder leaves a void to be filled with a new energy, one that draws on the stories that fuel our past while looking to the sustainability of our future.
The Pulse retells a historical narrative while also transforming itself throughout the day, week and year to create an adaptable, energetic
environment. Crucially, The Pulse sustains itself, environmentally through its advanced biomimetic systems, and financially, through a schedule of public and private events and its café franchise.
Result:
The Pulse is a memory, a beat, a synergy of past, present and future. It takes you on a journey through time and energy delivering you to a place of play, education, interaction, technology and nature. We invite you to join us at The Pulse of King’s Cross Central to discover a rich celebration of life’s creative force, perfectly suited to both community use and public commercial functions.
Once upon a time, the gasholder regulated the pulse of energy needed to fuel the city. Town gas, a volatile hydrocarbon, was released from coal by heating it. Coal was created by carboniferous plant life 'pumping down' atmospheric carbon by using solar energy to split and recombine water and carbon dioxide molecules. In plan, the gasholder is reminiscent of a cross- section of cells through the stem of an early vascular plant, which transports energy and water to sustain plant life.
The central roof structure of The Pulse not only acts like the xylem and phloem vessels of a plant’s stem, transporting water and sugar through the plant, but is also inspired by the form of ferns. The kinetic frond structures capture rainwater along their spines and collect solar power
through photovoltaic films on their flexible surface, mimicking photosynthesis.
With beautiful synchronicity the pattern of the PV film recalls the sori spores on fern leaves. The Pulse combines this biomimetic inspiration with the mystery of a primeval age and a celebration of technology that helped unlock energy buried for eons. This industrial technology propelled the UK to a pre-eminent position in the industrial age, yet sowed the seeds of our present environmental challenges.
