The design exploration begins with a set of provocative questions pertaining to the climate control of buildings and the design implications of alternative approaches to cooling, ventilation, and lighting in construction. Can a building’s thermal mass be great enough to maintain a stable ambient temperature, while providing adequate ventilation, in a temperate northern climate? Can the flow of air be guided through a building with only architectural elements, and without ducts? Which materials can be used to improve a building’s comfort level? In order to answer the questions, a series of experiments were undertaken in a laboratory setting. Using airflow as a carving agent through the building’s mass, architectural propositions were tested, while avoiding ventilation ducts. A combination of concrete and rammed earth is furthermore used as a construction material to maintain constant ambient temperature levels and thus enhance the structure’s comfort provision for users. 

Though critical of the particular choice of the building’s function, the jury nonetheless valued the author’s aim to essentially rethink the role of mechanical systems in architecture, while taking recourse to traditional principles for cooling buildings. The jury particularly applauded the project’s critical stance concerning contemporary building practices and principally praised the bold exploration of alternative solutions using airflow as a generator for space- and form-making. Rather than perceiving technology as an autonomous domain, the projects merges technical with architectural exigencies, turning the logic of a quasi-neutral and anonymous system into one producing an architecture with specific properties – an approach that could be easily applied to a range of everyday uses and programs.