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How Termites Taught a Building to Keep Cool (Eastgate Centre)
Description
Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, is one of biomimicry’s most famous buildings. Designed by architect Mick Pearce and inspired by termite mounds, its passive cooling system uses around 90% less energy for heating and cooling than comparable conventionally air-conditioned buildings.
Thirty years later, Feral went inside.
Our first roving correspondent, Jane, went into Eastgate to find out what this famous piece of termite-inspired architecture actually feels like today, how its passive cooling works, and whether the story we’ve been telling about Eastgate for 30 years still holds up.
She found cold air, 48 chimneys, cactus-inspired surfaces, a touch of The Matrix, some strangely empty upper floors... and a termite story that science has made considerably more interesting since Eastgate was built.
Eastgate engineering functionality still works as designed. But our understanding of the biology moved on.
A story about Eastgate Centre, termite-inspired architecture, passive cooling, biomimicry and a deceptively useful question: what’s already here that I could use instead of fight?
Next episode: Jane takes the Octopus Method into the wilds of Africa. Listen to S1E04, The Octopus Method, first if you can.
Sources
Mick Pearce — Eastgate Centre project page: https://www.mickpearce.com/Eastgate.html
Arup — The Arup Journal, 50th Anniversary Issue: https://www.arup.com/globalassets/downloads/arup-journal/the-arup-journal-50th-anniversary-issue.pdf
Hidden Architecture — Eastgate Centre: https://hiddenarchitecture.net/eastgate-centre/
Nautilus — "The Termite and the Architect": https://nautil.us/the-termite-and-the-architect-234706
ASME — "What Termites Can Teach Engineers" by Mark Wolverton: https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/what-termites-can-teach-engineers
King, H., Ocko, S. & Mahadevan, L. (2015), "Termite mounds harness diurnal temperature oscillations for ventilation," PNAS
Grist — cactus-inspired façade design (Jane C. Hu)
Knight Frank Zimbabwe — Harare CBD office vacancy data
S3E06
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Created and hosted by Pia Williams
Clever by Nature. Feral by Design.