AA SED_MArch 2016 Projects

M A r c h

S u s t a i n a b l e

P r o j e c t s _ 2 0 1 6

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MArch Sustainable Environmental Design 2014-2016 AA SED MArch & MSc Sustainable Environmental Design Programme Staff Simos Yannas Paula Cadima Klaus Bode Gustavo Brunelli Herman Calleja Mariam Kapsali Byron Mardas Jorge Rodriguez Guest Reviewers Denise Bennetts Rab Bennetts Joana Gonçalves Harald Røstvik MArch Students 2014-16 António Almeida Sandeep Ellangovan Oindrila Ghosh Irene Giglio Nimmiya Mariam Wasinee Prasongsumrit Cindrella Semaan Monica Toledo Julia Torrubia Ameer Varzgani Jiaji Yang Daniel Zepeda

Editors: Simos Yannas, Paula Cadima Design: Mileni Pamfili, Byron Mardas © AA SED 2016

Architectural Association School of Architecture MArch Sustainable Environmental Design 2016 Sustainable Environmental Design engages with real-life problems affecting buildings and cities throughout the world. Providing alternatives to the global architecture and brute force engineering, that are still the norm in most large cities, requires new knowledge on what makes a sustainable environment and on how architecture can contribute to this. Architectural design research for the AA SED Masters programme is driven by strict performance criteria following a process of adaptive architecturing that proceeds from inside to outside, attuning the built form and its constituents to natural rhythms and inhabitant activities. Key objectives of all SED projects are to improve environmental conditions and quality of life in cities, achieve independence from non-renewable energy sources and develop an environmentally sustainable architecture able to adapt and respond to changing climates and urban environments. The taught programme is structured in two consecutive phases. Phase I is organised around team projects that combine MSc and MArch students. In Phase II, MSc and MArch dissertation projects are initiated collaboratively following individual research agendas. MSc students complete the 12-month course with a dissertation project that documents the architectural potential and design applicability of their chosen topic in its geographic and climatic context.

The MArch extends over a 16-month period that culminates in a detailed design application for a specific site and programme.

This publication marks the conclusion of the tenth cycle of the MArch in Sustainable Environmental Design. It features dissertation projects that were started in the summer term of the 2014-15 academic year and completed in February 2016. Early predesign research and studies of vernacular and contemporary built precedents were initiated in small groups with fieldwork, computational analysis and design research developed individually. With project sites in 12 cities and 10 different countries, this year’s schemes are spread between Guadalajara, Mexico, in the West and Guangzhou, China in the East, and from London in the North to Santiago, Chile, in the South, thus encompassing a wide range of climates and urban contexts to address fundamental questions about living, working and enjoying cities indoors and outdoors.

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Daniel Zepeda Free-Running Work Environments Guadalajara, Mexico 20º40’N 103º21’W

Monica Toledo A New Vision for the Urban Plaza Santiago, Chile 33º25’S 70º33’W

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António Almeida Integrating Industrial Remains at a Sea Side Village Trafaria, Portugal 38º40’N 9º14’W

JuliaTorrubia Perceived Environments in Offices Madrid, Spain 40º27’N 3º41’W

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Ameer Varzgani Ephemeral Art Pavilion London, U.K. 51º30’N 0º7’W

Irene Giglio The Corviale: a modernist city inside a single building Rome,

Italy

41º51’N

12º24’W

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Cindrella Semaan Integrating Vernacular Strategies and Contemporary Design Adma, Lebanon 34º1’N 35º39’E

Nimmiya Mariam Rethinking High Density Living In Warm Humid Climates Cochin, India 9º58’N 76º16’ E

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Sandeep Ellangovan Performative Stand for Outdoor Urban Markets Chennai, India 13º05’N 80º16’E

Oindrila Ghosh Revitalising Informal City Kolkata, India 22º28’N 88º23’ E

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Wasinee Prasongsumrit Shop-House Prototypes Bangkok, Thailand 13º50’N 100º31’E

Jiaji Yang Urban Village Design for Communal Living Guangzhou, China 23º08’N 113º 16’E

F r e e - R u n n i n g Daniel Zepeda Rivas

Wo r k

E n v i r o n m e n t s

Guadalajara, Mexico 20o 40’N 103o21’W

The research focused on the interaction between architecture and climate aiming to design comfortable environments for office workers in the region of Guadalajara. Study of climate and critical review of built precedents highlighted opportunities for passive design strategies.

Fieldwork conducted in offices located in the financial district of the city helped inform the computational analysis that underpins the proposed design for an office tower in Guadalajara.

SUMMER SEASON

A New Vision for the Urban Plaza Monica Toledo

Santiago, Chile 33o 25’S 70o33’W

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In Chile shopping malls are currently offering urban plazas providing good quality outdoor spaces where customers can socialize. The proposed project is for a rooftop plaza on the fifth floor of an existing shopping centre in Santiago as part of ongoing works for a new extension.

Taking local climate as a guide the proposed design offers a range of possible adaptations for different times of the day and year.

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6m/s 5m/s 4m/s 3m/s 2m/s

SUMMER SEASON

WINTER SEASON

Integrating

Industrial

António Costa Almeida

Remains

at

a

Sea

Side

Village

Trafaria, Portugal 38o 40’N 9o14’W

The proposed scheme incorporates the remains of a sardine canning factory, that was abandoned since the first half of the 20th century in the village of Trafaria on the Tagus estuary in Portugal, into a mixed-use complex comprising affordable housing for young adults and units combining residential and commercial spaces. The central courtyard is open to the local community during daytime providing a number of facilities. The thermal mass of the thick masonry wall of the old factory is integrated into the scheme’s thermal strategy, mitigating temperature fluctuations. The old factory chimney has been incorporated into the ventilation strategy for the community centre. Adaptive design strategies allow occupants to achieve improved comfort standards.

PLAYGROUND VIEW

COMMUNAL SPACE

Perceived Environments in Offices Julia Torrubia Aznárez

Madrid, Spain 40o 27’N 3o41’W

The aim of this project is to provide a design methodology that takes occupant environmental perception and response into account. The proposed strategies are tested on proposals for the refurbishment of an abandoned office building in Madrid. The key points of the proposed methodology focus on offering freedom to occupants to choose their preferred working atmosphere, allowing adaptive, easy to use and accessible control that can be managed by the building and the occupant in a free running mode.

E p h e m e r a l . A r t . P a v i l i o n Ameer Mustafa Varzgani

London, U.K. 51o 30’N 0o7’W

This project focuses on the relation between illumination and visual acuity in exhibition spaces. The research started with a critical study of daylighting in art galleries around London followed by computational analysis of daylighting systems. The results have informed design proposals for an ephemeral art pavilion next to the Serpentine Gallery, on the site that houses the Gallery’s Summer Pavilions. The proposed design aims to expand visitors’ experience of the interaction between light, art and architecture.

The Corviale: a modernist city inside a single building Irene Giglio

Rome, Italy 41o 51’N 12o24’E

This project proposes a strategy for the refurbishment of the Corviale, a one kilometer long building and one of the most iconic examples of modernist residential architecture in Italy.

The central idea is to create an urban atmosphere mixing different functions and activities that include a new university campus in addition to residential, commercial and recreational facilities including a panoramic rooftop garden.

CONNECTIONS

COMMUNITY

MIXED FUNCTIONS

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Integrating Vernacular Strategies and Contemporary Design Cindrella Semaan

Adma, Lebanon 34o 1’N 35o39’E

Apartment blocks in Lebanon are typically fully dependent on mechanical air conditioning systems. This project challenges current design practices and draws inspiration from vernacular architecture and the climate of the region to drive the design process. Use of materials with high thermal inertia and provision of shading elements and adaptive strategies help achieve and maintain thermal comfort all-year round.

Performative

Stand

for

Outdoor

Sandeep Ellangovan

Urban

Markets

Chennai, India 13o 05’N 80o16’E

09:00 - 10:00

10:00 - 11:00

11:00 - 12:00

12:00 - 13:00

13:00 - 14:00

14:00 - 15:00

15:00 - 16:00

16:00 - 17:00

Incident Solar.Radiation [kWh/m²] - 1st MAY

This study investigates thermal comfort in outdoor urban markets focusing on users’ adaptation and behavioural patterns. Fieldwork in Chennai helped to evaluate and assess the effect of different physical parameters. Analytical studies identified significant differences between the comfort criteria and expectations of short-term occupants (buyers) compared to those of longer-term occupants (sellers). The research findings have inspired the design of an adaptive mobile structure for urban outdoor markets in warm-humid tropical climates.

Rethinking High Density Living In Warm Humid Climates Nimmiya Mariam

Cochin, India 09o 58’N 76o16’E

The increased land value and unplanned rapid urban growth of many metropolitan cities in India, have forced inhabitants to sell their houses and move to compact mid-rise apartments.

These residential units lack communal spaces and fail to provide adequate indoor comfort conditions, driving occupants to use mechanical cooling systems. The proposed design scheme explores the use of forecourts and verandahs as social resource and microclimate modifiers. The double height forecourts provide much needed communal spaces and act as buffers from street activities. The design integrates adaptive living spaces with flexible communal areas that cater to the changing lifestyle trends and climatic conditions.

Revitalising the Informal City Oindrila Ghosh

Kolkata, India 22o 28’N 88o23’E

More than half of the urban population of India is housed in slums. This dissertation project endeavours to provide comfortable, habitable and economically viable environments in Kolkata. Lessons from the vernacular helped generate a modular unit which can be replicated in different urban contexts. The unit provides good solar control and high permeability to air flow and uses low-cost local materials, such as mud bricks, bamboo and wattle and daub.

This forms part of a holistic approach to facilitate the transformation of slum typologies into 21st-century sustainable communities, with on-site energy generation to offset inhabitants’ energy demands while providing them with another source of income.

Shop-House Prototypes Wasinee Prasongsumrit

Bangkok, Thailand 13o 45’N 100o31’E

Although in the Bangkok skyline, high-rise buildings are the most commonly seen typology, at street level the city is populated by ubiquitously continuous rows of 3-5 floor high shophouses of varied architectural expression. The major strength of this unique typology is its flexibility in accommodating changing needs following occupants’ adaptation to the country’s economic and social transformations. The research has focused on integrating passive design strategies, in particular natural ventilation and solar control, into the design of a contemporary prototype for the shop-house. Field studies of occupants’ daily activity patterns have informed the design of interior spaces and of features that provide adaptive opportunities for inhabitants.

Urban Jiaji Yang

Village

Design

for

Communal

Living

Guangzhou, China 23o 08’N 113o16’E

Since the high rise gated community appeared in China, the sense of neighbourhood seems to have disappeared from the modern city. Moreover, the presence of airconditioning units, typically hanging from the outer walls of dwellings, has made living conditions on balconies unbearable due to the heat released. In the quest for an alternative to recover these lost facets, the design research explored a courtyard community as a means of providing spatial cohesion and a better neighbourhood. The final design provides better thermal comfort indoors as well as quality of social life for residents.

1ST FLOOR

(grandparents)

2ND FLOOR

(parents & children)

3RD FLOOR

(parents & children)

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