Ojo del Sol, also called The Fish House by local residents, is a home designed in 1993 by architect Eugene Tssui. The building was constructed between 1994 and 1995 in a residential neighborhood of Berkeley California. The home's name "Ojo Del Sol", Spanish for "Eye of the Sun", originates from the fifteen foot diameter eye-like window that faces south. According to the architect, the structure is based upon the world's most indestructible living creature, the

tardigrade Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them . In 1776, th ...

The building

Design and construction

The building's design is centered around durability, ecology, and sustainability. The building is said to draw upon the physiology of the tardigrade, a creature known for its durability, for its structural strength. In addition, the walls are angled inward at 4 degrees to "create a compressive structure with a low center of gravity further aiding in resistance to lateral turnover forces produced by strong earthquakes." A variety of both standard and non-standard building materials were used including: Concrete,

insulating concrete form Insulating concrete forms or insulated concrete forms (ICF) are a building system to create reinforced concrete walls or floors with integral insulation. They are dry-stacked (without mortar) and filled with concrete. The units interlock somewha ...

s, hardwall (a type of gypsum plaster)dictionary.co
"hardwall"
/ref> structural plaster, stucco, non-toxic waterproofing, acrylic, marine fiberglass, douglas fir, recycled wood, and birch veneer plywood. The house is designed to maintain a comfortable temperature with little power from the grid. "Water in the black tubes is heated by the sun throughout the day. At night the stored heat is radiated back into the interior of the house walls and provides radiant wall heat." For cooling, the house is set 1.5 meters into the ground, eliminating the need for air conditioning.

Cost

The home was built in 1994-1995 for a cost of .

Style

The building style is Nature Inspired Architecture or Biomimetic architecture. Biomimetic elements include: * The overall draws from the tardigrade, the four-bedroom, two-story Tsui House is elliptical in shape and has parabolic arches. * The concrete forms create a concrete lattice structure which mimics the skeleton of the Cholla cactus. * The solar-heating system is based on the bone and vein structure of two dinosaurs, the

Dimetrodon ''Dimetrodon'' ( or ; ) is an extinct genus of sphenacodontid synapsid that lived during the Cisuralian (Early Permian) Epoch (geology), epoch of the Permian period, around 295–272 million years ago. With most species measuring long and ...

and the

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fo ...

. * The dimpled exterior surface enhances the aerodynamic efficiency by relieving wind friction like fish scales.

References

Buildings and structures in Berkeley, California {{California-struct-stub