portfolio
Tiletide
Year 2025
Course Technology
Duration 6 months
Professor Sabrina Sguanci
Design of a bioreceptive module able to integrate with different habitats and species. The project explores coexistence, adaptability and modular growth through experimental geometries and natural or advanced materials.​
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Tiletide is a ceramic module for active ventilated façades. It improves thermal comfort through passive cooling. Rainwater is collected within the system and used to trigger evaporative cooling, helping regulate the building microclimate without mechanical systems.
Bioreceptivity
The term combines bio (from the Greek bios, meaning life) and receptivity, the capacity to host or receive. In architecture, it describes the ability of a material or surface to support living organisms, enabling different species to coexist and interact with the built environment.
Thermoregulation
When bioreceptivity is combined with thermoregulation, structures do more than host other species—they actively shape the microclimate. Bioreceptive modules and surfaces use water, vegetation, or porous materials to cool or humidify the environment, creating a system where biological coexistence and climatic comfort reinforce each other.
The building becomes a living ecosystem, interacting with both the climate and its inhabitants, humans included.
Module Morphology
The module is generated through the vertical extrusion of a spiral planar profile, translated 40 cm along the Z-axis to create a projecting, enveloping geometry. The resulting form is organic and non-linear, designed to increase the surface area of interaction between air and water and enhance climatic performance.
Active ventilated façade
The active ventilated façade arises from the need to move beyond the traditionally passive role of the building envelope. Rather than simply shielding or protecting the structure, it interacts with air and water to contribute to the building’s thermal regulation. Through ventilation and evaporative cooling, the façade becomes a climatic device capable of improving environmental comfort while reducing reliance on mechanical systems, transforming the building surface into a dynamic filter between interior and exterior.
Evaporative cooling
Evaporative cooling works in two main ways. In direct systems, air is cooled through contact with water, increasing its humidity. In indirect systems, heat exchange occurs through a separating surface, cooling the air without adding moisture.
The Maisotsenko Cycle (M-Cycle) improves the indirect approach by using separate humid and dry air flows to reach lower temperatures more efficiently.
The project follows a logic inspired by the M-Cycle, combining evaporative cooling with separated air flows within the modules and the interstitial spaces created by their aggregation.
Water
Rainwater, collected through the gutters, flows into the modules from top to bottom. Each module gradually fills, including the side channels that act as small reservoirs.
Front view
Top view
When the water level in the modules drops, the glazed cisterns still retain a reserve, ensuring continuity of the evaporative cooling process and preventing interruptions in the system’s operation.
Terracotta
Water
Glazed wall
Airflow
Warm air enters the central channel and cools by drawing heat from the wet, porous ceramic walls, which act as natural heat exchangers.
Top view
Warm air
Cool Humid Air
The humidified air is expelled through the top outlet following the M-Cycle principle, leaving cool, drier air near the wall to condition the surrounding environment without unwanted mixing.
Aggregated Operation
When combined, the modules create additional interstitial spaces that guide airflow. These dry channels are essential for the M-Cycle, with already-cooled walls from adjacent modules enhancing the system’s overall efficiency.
Maisotsenko Cycle
Warm air
Cool Humid Air
Fresh air
Assembly
The module’s complex geometry requires a metal support structure with vertical posts anchored to the wall and horizontal crossbars shaped to match its form.
Layout
Modules are designed for vertical installation, alternating orientation to create a dynamic, continuous composition. Positioned upside-down and staggered, they form a wavy band across the wall, adding movement to the surface.
Water flows vertically by gravity from one module to the next.
Projecting roofs
Modules are inserted into dedicated niches and secured like puzzle pieces. To allow rainwater entry, walls without significant overhangs are preferred.
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​For projecting roofs, an alternative system with a perforated secondary gutter connected to the downspout supplies water to the modules.
Gutter overhang
Gutter
Gutter-to-downspout connection
Secondary gutter
Downspout
Project scenario
The module is tested in a hot, dry context inspired by the Greek islands, with low-rise buildings and flat roofs. Rainwater flows directly into the modules, while a perforated secondary gutter ensures supply where needed.
Perforated gutter
Flat roof
Inlet
