The Weight of Culture
Along via Alessandro Volta in Chiasso we find a proposal that combines two buildings into one. It is both an energy storage facility and a library. A building on the street front, facing the city, contains the public program, while the book collection is stored in a mobile storage structure that stores and releases energy by raising and lowering the books.
Motors lift the box to its upper position, storing a quantity of potential energy proportional to the height the box is lifted to. Later, when the energy is sold, the motors function as generators, converting the mechanical energy released into electricity as the box is lowered.
The public interior of the library consists of long spaces that provide intimacy while allowing vertical separation of different public functions. This means, for example, that the reading room can remain a quiet space. The building blends industrial architecture with typical library furnishings. This combination highlights the dual nature of a proposal that is both culture and industry.
The structure of the box is always in tension, and this tension minimizes the necessary structural dimensions. This ensures that the majority of the box’s weight consists of the books. This turns the books into actual batteries of this energy accumulator. The production and distribution of solar energy is made tangible for the inhabitants of Chiasso. The daily rise and fall of the book collection gives tangible form to something abstract: it provides a concrete representation of the dynamics of the energy market.
Solar energy is produced during the daytime hours when the sun shines. But energy prices rise and fall depending on demand throughout the day, and the electricity itself is sold immediately when produced. This means that much of the solar energy produced at home is sold at a non-optimal price. Instead, by storing the energy and selling it at the peak price each day, the storage facility incentivizes Swiss citizens to invest in a technology the country wants to promote.
Energy demand varies seasonally, which means we find the box in its lowest position at different times of the day depending on the season. This has consequences for the space beneath the box. With its brick plaza, this space is used as a public reading room in summer.
The space below the box is given a degree of privacy thanks to a curtain surrounding the structure. In summer, all the energy is sold around lunchtime, bringing the box to its lowest position and covering the plaza in darkness. But this is a positive darkness because it makes it possible to work on a computer outdoors, something usually impossible in the summer.
