This project was developed on a floor plate of the Old Chicago Main Post Office building downtown, designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in 1921. This is a megastructure by the same architects who completed the Merchandise Mart earlier in their careers, once the biggest building in the world. The program which I explored in this adaptive-reuse project was a 1500-2000 sq.ft. live-work access economy focused unit (surrounded by classmates' units on the floor plate) that challenges normative models of architecture and interior architecture in the Chicago area.

​

My client is a 25 year old Latino Bitcoin Miner living with his two dogs, Henry and Ronald. The space he needs to run a successful bitcoin mining operation is ever evolving, but the essentials are in the “rig” which consists of a bitcoin miner, a power supply, internet connection, a mining pool and a source of high ventilation. In order to be profitable with mining, Ed must stay current with his bitcoin miner and have a plentiful supply of miners. My client uses mining as his primary income so therefore must have a large space to set up racks of server rigs. The Bitmain Antminer S7 which each contain 162 chips and have a hash rate of 5.06 TH/s and consumes approx. 1278 Watts of electricity. This means one machine will solve calculations at a rate of 5.06 seconds, the more chips solving these calculations at a fast level means the closer Ed is to solving a translation block and making more bitcoin. To keep this efficiency in electricity and mining, the proper climate must support the machine, thus needing a space for cooling and ventilation. The heat produced from these machines is so significant that the heat coming off them will fuel the complex with heat from piping above. This heat will also allow my client extra spaces with a greater amount of heat, such as a sauna, a hot yoga room and a beach area adjacent to the hydroponic garden.

Other possible relationships Eduardo may have are with The Electric Market, which allows him to prevent substantial losses in profit by helping my client sell old equipment and possibly supply new equipment for my farm. Another way Eduardo may create profit is using the partnership with the local Virtual Reality Startup to create “cloud” mining relations.