energy and matter

The initial design of a factory building is based on its program of demands. The factory requires six consecutive functions with additional administrative and a connection to several local, regional and national infrastructures. These spaces with their specific needs for ventilation and lighting as well as power supply must be matched to the availability of building materials and energy resources.

A material map was made showing the natural material resources on the national scale, the industrially manufactured materials on a regional scale, and unused waste materials on the local scale. Sixty per cent of the world's teak is situated inside Burma. Ingredients for concrete such as lime and basalt are found more inside Thailand. The clay for brick making can be found alongside the river that separates the two countries. Local border industry is mainly in garment, transport, furniture and humanitarian shelter materials. Locally available are bamboo and plastic bottles.

As a result there are certain biotic materials (teak, bamboo, fabric) and certain abiotic materials (metal, concrete, plastic) available on this site. A very interesting material here is clay as it is available but needs to be processed into low-tech bricks. The availability of wood is also a positive aspect however there are many examples of illegal teak logging and threats to the exhaustion of this resource. Reuse of finished products such as plastic bottles, oil drums and used tires is also a cheap and sustainable option.

As the building will be independent of two nations while forming a bridge between them, it will have to find independent sources of energy. Renewable resources such as solar, hydro, wind and thermal energy  are freely available to all however a strategy must be developed to use them optimally.

The current global consumption of energy shows that there is a focus on non renewable sources. Due to crises of these finite fossil fuels, a lot remains to be done in improving the use of renewable resources.

As an example, the Thai energy consumption is mainly fossil fuels. Of this energy, a very large percentage is used for industry. The main local potential of autarkic energy production for industry on a river could be micro hydro.