Interview with team of designers for Terracotta Valley Wind

Terracotta Valley Wind’s team of designers shares more with Red Dot

Terracotta Valley Wind is among the top five projects nominated for the top prize, the Red Dot: Luminary at the Red Dot Award: Design Concept. It is selected among the Red Dot: Best of the Best winners, and serves as an inspiration to aspire towards. The Red Dot: Best of the Best winning concept from Sustainability category is designed to provide a passive cooling system for subway stations during the summer. By making use of the induced wind from arriving or departing subway trains, the station can be cooled down in a natural and low carbon way, eliminating the need for air-conditioning and reducing energy consumption.

Tell us about your team.

We are Intsui Design from China. We recently graduated with a master's degree in Integrated Design from Tama Art University in Japan. We like to explore the relationship between subconscious human behaviours and design. Therefore our design practice usually focuses on people’s intuition and natural responses to objects and the environment.

Tell us about the project Terracotta Valley Wind?

Terracotta Valley Wind is a terracotta evaporative cooling system. It cools down the subway station in summer and effectively alleviates the heat problem caused by lights, facilities, trains, and crowds, releasing the burden of energy consumption. 

Terracotta is a cheap and accessible clay material. Its nature allows water to quickly evaporate while maximising the value of train-induced wind, which is an unused wind resource in subway stations.

Can you share with us a few interesting knowledge gained from this project?

While developing this project, we have researched a lot of ancient methods of cooling. For example, in the Middle East people use the combination of terracotta pots filled with water and special architectural structure to cool down the interior. These ancient wisdoms can still bring us a lot of inspiration today. 

How important is the role of design in projects like Terracotta Valley Wind?

Zhang Yu：Firstly, the shape of the terracotta tiles was designed to guide the train-induced wind. Therefore, the airflow is able to exchange cold and heat in the subway station in an ideal path.
Secondly, the design of positive and negative tile units increases the contact area with the wind and improves the cooling efficiency. 

Lastly, the design of the modular structure makes it easy to transport and construct. 

What does winning a design award, especially the Red Dot mean to the team?

Winning a design award, especially the Red Dot, gives us the confidence to keep moving forward, and gradually gain a deeper and more accurate understanding of the needs of people, society, and the environment.