Turn Gatherings into Energy

Margot Krasojević Architects unveil a project to deliver renewable energy to worshipping communities in a newly-designed cliffside chapel in Montenegro. Montenegro has an ancient history of religion and politics, and many Orthodox Christians retreated to the mountains in the 1600s to escape the Ottoman Empire. That exodus was repeated during the subsequent great wars and, today, it is a thriving tourist and mining-based country marked by numerous unexcavated mountain tunnels that are shortcuts towards the Adriatic Sea.

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

The Pilgrimage to Ostrog, one of Montenegro’s most famous cliffside churches, is still being undertaken today. Montenegro has a varied and, at times, treacherous and dangerous landscape; the country borders Serbia and Albania and has vertiginous mountain ranges, dense dark forests, mountain plains, valleys (canyons and gorges), and basins; a dynamic physical geographic basis and strip of the Adriatic coast. However, the dangerously sinuous roads are responsible for many accidents and deaths, with several shrines dotted along them as a reminder. The country is steeped in harrowing tales of bloodshed etched into the landscape.

The cliffside project undertaken by Margot Krasojević Architects respects the region’s natural beauty, but also considers the tough and inhospitable landscape, suggesting a more aggressive, dynamic approach to the design. Montenegro has a prevailing wind called Bora, fastest at the highest peaks, embracing the cliffsides by running along them. Located between Kotor and Budva, the project combines the summer music festivals and raves popular in the area with a chapel as a type of renewable energy gathering—a congregation.

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

The prevailing Bora wind can reach 100 mph at the highest latitude, and the architecture choreographs the wind through the wind turbine channelled walls. The wind turbines are positioned in series to accelerate the speed when passed through differing cross-sections within the chapel design, increasing speed and efficiency. The building uses Archimedes spiral turbines, as they are more resilient and better suited for the Montenegrin environment’s characteristics.

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

The church embraces the idea of a congregation, a gathering of people to unite for self-expression and worship, echoing nearby raves and music festivals held along the coast, as well as Ostrog Cliff Church. The concept is to design spaces and platforms to bring people together using their kinetic movement and heat to generate electricity by employing thermodynamics and piezoelectricity along with wind energy, bringing sustainability from renewable energy to the remote areas of Montenegro. With a strong sense of history and community, the landscape has become more welcoming thanks to the thermodynamic wind turbine chapel venue, given that surplus energy generated is used to light up the dangerously curved roads that lead drivers to the Adriatic Sea from other nearby cities.

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

Photo credit: Dr.Margot Krasojević

The architecture uses thermoelectric materials, including conducting polymers, to convert thermal energy into electrical energy when exposed to temperature increase. The polymer is more adaptable and geometrically flexible, which is necessary for the building's intricate geometry. The chapel and rave club’s congregation generates enough heat energy to produce electricity. This thermoelectric effect is often associated with the piezoelectric effect and exploited for pyroelectric infrared temperature detectors. Gallium nitride, a semiconductor, is most commonly used as a pyroelectric crystal, similar to piezoelectric cells that can be applied to building materials and cladding to enable the semiconductors to detect temperature and pressure changes, which produces a voltage to generate an electrical charge stored like a capacitor when needed. The club's circular walkway dancefloor utilizes piezoelectric cells to generate an electrical charge. The architecture, coastal roads, and mountains illuminate when the chapel and club congregate.

Margot Krasojević Architects

Margot Krasojević completed her architectural education at the Architectural Association School of Architecture and The Bartlett, University College London. She worked with Zaha Hadid Architects and was a lead undergraduate and master's studio director, investigating digital and sustainable design programs at UCL, University of Greenwich, UWA, and the University of Washington. She then opened a multidisciplinary architectural design studio focusing on integrating environmental issues, renewable energy, and sustainability as part of the design process.

Ms. Krasojević is currently working on projects in Asia, where she is integrating and harnessing renewable energy as part of a building service infrastructure. She is also designing hydroelectric homes and hotels which redefine the manner in which not only tourism but everyday rituals are affected. Additionally, she is investigating hempcrete as a sustainable and carbon-negative building material in her recent project for Catalonia's Cannabis agricultural farm design.