2 Barnacle removal plant The process of unfouling 5
Step1 : Removal of shells / Water chamber The boats are pulled up and high-pressure cleaned with water to remove the outer-shells of the barnacles. In the chamber beneath, which serves as a water recycling chamber, a membrane delays the running water, creating a moist environment where the spatial condition is slowly changed by mud, algae and other processes of fouling. The shells are subsequently transported onto a conveyor belt and stored in chambers at ground level. The slow process of storing and filling up the chambers with barnacle shells takes years. The calc of the shells will be dissolved when exposed to rain, which will lead to a new process; an allogenic succession - where the vegetation is increased over time, radically changing the character of the industrial landscape. Through the dry ground and between the concrete structures, a great diversity of plants will grow.
As a testing ground for developing architecture as conditions a restoration plant removing barnacles from boats is implemented in this dynamic landscape. The process of removing barnacles can be seen as a negentropic operation, where energy is added to maintain the boats in an ideal condition. This activity is not a complicated operation and can be carried out using simple tools, but it is an extremely frequent and laborious kind of work. Also, there is a lot of biological and chemical waste involved, where the contaminated remnants from anti-fouling paint need to be stored and recycled in a proper way. The unfouling-plant is characterised by a contradictory and dialectical relationship between the negentropic process and the increasing entropic effect . This demonstrates the concept of entropy; it is impossible to preserve something in a fixed position. The barnacles need to be removed on a constant basis – a repetitive, cyclic process. When energy is added in one place to keep the entropic effect away, the disorder is relocated to some other place in the system. The architectural scheme is based upon two layers: an active ground floor where all the mechanical processes are performed - and a series of sub-terrain chambers, serving both rational and phenomenological purposes. The steps of the operation are:
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5 Fouling, noun : – the accumulation of unwanted material on solid surfaces to the detriment of function. Fouling is usually distinguished from other surface-growth phenomena in that it occurs on a surface of a component, system or plant performing a defined and useful function, and that the fouling process impedes or interferes with this function.
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