火 の 建 築
Architecture Against Conflagration Carp - Dragon - Snake - Dance
内 容 Contents Chapter 1
Reinterpretting the Pagoda
Collective
Chapter 2
Prototyping
Collective
Chapter 3
Vulnerable Tokyo
Collective
Chapter 4
Urban Strategies of Fire Response The Wall Refuge Vertical Evacuation
Chapter 5
Urban Interventions The Compound The Parasite The Passageway
Individual/Collective
Individual
Rishabh Shah
Callum Rowland
Chris McCallum
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Chapter 1
Reinterpreting the Pagoda
Horyuji Pagoda, located in the Nara prefecture of Japan, is the oldest remaining timber structure in the world. It has withstood a great number of earthquakes during this period, with this resilience born out of a variety of low-tech structural techniques developed over time.
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再 解 釈 塔
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The Snake Dance
The Horyuji Pagoda employs a number of structural strategies simultaneously. One such strategy is its independent floors, in which each floor’s columns are distinctly separate, connected by a series of friction joints that allow slight movement. As a result, each floor can move independently during earthquakes, resulting in the ‘snake dance’. Investigating how each floor of the pagoda behaves within this condition proved key to understanding the snake dance as a whole.
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Exploded Isometric
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A Kit of Parts
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Taking a Force for a Dance
Dissecting one individual floor brought a number of structural aspects to light. Separating and offsetting the columns within each floor in the name of seismic resilience had subtle consequences. As the Pagoda tapers towards its top, so does each floor’s columns, resulting in a stepped load path. In each instance of the load stepping, a turning moment is generated. To balance this effect, the wide and weighted eaves produce a counter-moment. This idea of a load path ‘dancing’ down through the building soon became a key driver of future explorations.
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The Corner
In order to better understand the stepped-load system, analytical focus narrowed further still, onto one single instance: the corner.
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1:100
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Chapter 2
Prototyping
Abstracting elements of the Horyuji Pagoda generated a new and contemporary tectonic language, informed by tradition. Applying this to the city of Tokyo and the residential tower typology, this new structural system was then tested and honed within GeoSeismic Analysis (GSA) software.
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吟 味
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GSA Testing
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F2
Achieving Equilibrium
x F1
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Distance of offsetx Load on columnF1 M Moment vector F2 Force applied in y to counteract M
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Constant load of stiff core
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(1.4 x Dead Load + 1.6 x Imposed Load) x Area x Total no. of Floors Supported = x Floor =
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Taking a Force for a Dance 力との踊り
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The Tower
‘The Tower’ emerged as a means to test this structural language of stepped loads. By randomly generating offsets for each column-beam junction, a structure rapidly took form, undulating back and forth in each facade about a common centre. The end result was a structure that appears to shrink and expand concurrently. Once constructed, the Tower provided a useful investigative tool, both on an aesthetic and a structural level.
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Generative Testing
Feeding the design back into GSA software, a number of structural issues came to light. In a step-by-step process, each issue was resolved through small adjustments or additions to the design.
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External Tension Cables On Lower Levels
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Stiff Core Introduced
Reinforced Large Beam Spans
Original
A Return to the Corner
To conclude this prototyping, testing and development series, the Tower is illustrated in such a way as to highlight its origins within the Pagoda. This process also emphasised some of the short-comings within the structural design of the Tower, particularly within its vertically-focused application of the stepped load typology.
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Interlude
At this moment, a radical change of approach took place. Vertical focus shifted to horizontal, and 360o application to linear.
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Chapter 3
Vulnerable Tokyo
Tokyo is a place of frequent and often significant geographical events. Earthquakes and resultant fires are key components of this threat. In recent times, Tokyo has developed a level of infrastructural resilience to these threats. Some areas of the city, however, have not kept pace. Older neighbourhoods clustered throughout the city, densly populated with traditional timber-frame structures, produce a heat map of vulnerability across the city.
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脆 弱 な 東 京
Shirahige Higashi Fire Wall 39
Fire Risk
Due to Tokyo’s high risk of fire, extensive analysis is being carried out on each district to determine actions needing to be taken to ensure safety. This map indicates each districts susceptibility to fire in the event of disaster. The densest concentration of high risk areas is located to the NE of the city centre, an old and condensed area of the city which has survived recent disasters. This region, Adachi, was chosen to be the focus of further analysis. Low Risk High Risk
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Evacuation Zones
On top of municipal research into Tokyo’s fire risk, the prime response to ensure safety is the designation of evacuation zones. These consist of open areas such as public parks, river banks and sports grounds, and are located strategically adjacent to or in the midst of the areas more prone to fire, ensuring a close safe place for as many citizens as possible.
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Interfacing
When considering the zones of fire and zones of evacuation together, the borders between the contrasting areas becomes the point of interest for intervention. The strategy implemented here acts as the interface for transferring people to safety and resisting a fire.
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Shirahige Higashi
The 1.2km apartment block known as the Shirahige Higashi Firewall is located along the border between a large area of high fire risk and a public park by a river, acting as an inhabited fire-block. Research into the structurewould unveil a programmatic “algorithm� which can be readjusted depending on the variables of a specific site. Key elements of the firewall include fire resistant materials of concrete and steel shutters, multiple options of circulation around and through the building, and vitally the ability to tessellate along whicher border it is protecting. The essence of the following project is to develop a new algorithm derived from the existing Shirahige Higashi Firewall
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Programming
Methods of Escape
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Schedule of Accommodation Blocks: 17 Average Units: 104 Hospital School Nursery
Horizontal Circulation Units: 108 Vertical Circulation Escape: Bridge Steel Shutters
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Fire Strategies Exterior Staircases
Methods of Escape
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Escape: Bridge Vertical Circulation Escape: Exterior S
Algorithm of Fire Resistance Horizontal Circulation Units: 108 Vertical Circulation Escape: Bridge Steel Shutters
Escape: Bridge Vertical Circulation Escape: Exterior Stairs
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Chapter 4
Urban Strategies of Fire Response
Combining previous structural and contextual understandings, an urban strategy of fire response has been developed for the neighbourhood of Kitasenju in the Adachi region. This chapter proposes a detailed yet adaptable structural system of fire defence; one which can be deployed throughout the region and help to safeguard the future of Tokyo’s most vulnerable environments.
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都 市 の 火 災 対 応
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Kitasenju Evacuation Block
Analysing Evacuation zones formed by the urban fabric, the Kitasenju super block was picked as the preferred site due to its dual relationship to fire. As a block the square is within a region of high fire risk among the wider urban context. However, interestingly, the courtyard creates a safe haven within this vulnerable urban site due to the wall like buildings primarily comprised of fire proof construction.
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Exterior Staircases
Steel Shutters
Interior Circulation
Methods of Escape
Horizontal Circulation Units: 108 Vertical Circulation Escape: Bridge Steel Shutters
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Kitagata Housing
Escape: Bridge Vertical Circulation Escape: Exterior Stairs
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Having studied the algorithm of fire resistance in the Shirhige Higashi urban ‘wall’ , attention was turned toward focusing on program. Presuming that the population of Tokyo doubles every generation, the building hoped to respond to this changing urban Algorithm for a Firewall Block character of the city.
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For this reason a rapidly adaptable methodology of apartment building was sought after to create a more successful urban block in the Kitasenju neighbourhood.
Programme - Kitagata Housing
The Kitagata Apartment Building by SANAA in Gifu, Japan used a modular approach by stacking various volumes to create unique spaces as well as a dense urban block.
Kitagata Housing Programme
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Doubled Density of Programme Result is Unstable
Rotation of Units
Units
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Programmatic Prototype
Learning from the Kitagata Apartment’s strategy toward achieving high density apartment blocks whilst emphasizing a slender elegance, an initial prototype of the fire wall was created. The stepped load precedent ghosting lessons from the pagoda created opportunities for the apartments to shift in the x axis emphasising the stepping nature seen in the structure but further evident now in the living modules.
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Developing a Rationale
In order to ground the randomness of the stepping structure in a plausible reality, the step from one column to the next is defined by a Richter scale value from the aftershocks of the great earthquake of 2011 in Japan. The following cantilever of the beam is based of the traditional pagoda ratio of 7 keeping the entire column-beam-column assembly in equilibrium.
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M5.3
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By identifying the average magnitude of the
aftershocks being 5.3 on the richter scale we devised a parametric system of how every quake translated to the positioning of the columns
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The resultant rythm the b
be read in the japanese r
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The Early Section
Thinking in section created a clear distinction of unique spaces. Hence, this early section forewarned of various design concerns such as vertical circulation, function of the cantilevering area, the livability of the units, the composition of the wall amongst other issues.
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Intervention
Doubling the density of the Kitasenju Square while addressing the issue of Pyro-safety, required the fire wall prototype to address a scenario of the next great fire. The individual buildings in the block work in tandem in order to create a safe haven within the plaza. The larger building functions as the ‘wall,’ ‘fighting’ the fire at the very forefront as well as being penetrable to allow for immediate circulation. Thereafter the surrounding buildings aid in evacuating both residents and neighbours into the courtyard. The final building on the safest side then addresses the issue of refuge for both its short ad long term requirements.
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Before Conflagration
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During Conflagration
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After Conflagration
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The Wall by Rishabh Shah ‘The Wall’ has always been the primary point of contact for when the building is under Pyro risk. For this reason , it adopts a brutal approach to keeping the fire at bay. The front facade of the vulnerable side expresses this rigidity and control in every step undertaken in order to make the wall impermeable to risk. In order to stay within the overall ethos of the stepping load and ambition of a slender structure, the wall doubled as a storage facility for all of the buildings often (referred to as ‘ugly’ mechanisms) that keep it alive. In addition due to its prime position at the frontier of safe and vulnerable, the wall must incorporate immediate circulation within the building. How then can the wall incorporate space for all these functions as well as being dense enough to ensure safety?
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Vertical Circulation
With the building split into 3 and the first point of contact being the wall, meant that circulation into and across the building (safer side) in event if a fire was key. The vertical set of stairs run the span of the wall with the walkways penetrating through the building offering safe passage to the flip side where you would be safe. Up - Across - Safe.
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The Protruding Modules
Housed within and out through the wall lie the protruding modules. Initially thought of to be a glass extrusion into the city allowing residents a view out into the city. However, with the development of the design, the extrusions now take up a more functional role, answering the question posed earlier and creating functional space within the wall that keeps this apartment building ‘alive.’
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Services within the Module
The Electrical system powers a bay of units branching from a sole electric room at the base of the protruding modules. As well as housing the electric facilities, the wall incorporates for the plumbing system that runs through the building. Plumbing is split into sanitary piping as well as domestic hot and cold piping . The heating system is yet again housed in a module sized accordingly. The building’s water canon system is provided for with a recyclable drainage system from the protruding slabs on the safe side yet again housed in an appropriately sized module.
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Electric
The Electrical system powers a bay of units branching from a sole electric room at the base of the protruding modules. This in turn distributes power through the bay Step down transformers from the electric module dissipate electricity from the switch gear to the apartment’s electric panels. Ideally the electricity will be pulled from a central transformer which will be situated outside the premises.
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Irrigation The Water harvesting system looks to make use of the protruding slabs on the safe side in order to provide the water canons with adequate water. The yellow arrows indicate the flow of water into the tanks after being filtered. The red arrows indicate the flow of water into the water canons which is used to irrigate the green courtyard. Further expansion looks to supply domestic water back into the units. The recycled water tanks and filtering system make up the largest of the protruding modules.
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Domestic Hot Water
With a 100 gallon water heater serving a pair of apartments, the protruding module was appropriately sized to accomodate for the large but slender heaters. The heaters are ventilated independently out of the module at the top. A prime position at the top of the building promotes the ventilation of the heaters.
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Sanitary
The sanitary plumbing system works by grouping sanitary requirements bay by bay. A central vent hence services the 14 paired units, venting the system above the building at every bay. Grey water and Sewage is directed down the wall from the apartment’s bathrooms, kitchens and sinks. The piping makes its way into the ground before turning out of the building and joining into the council’s main sewage line.
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Into the Wall
What is the wall made of? The complexity of ‘The Wall’ may be easily lost due to its orthogonal and boxlike front elevation. However, the elaborate arrangement of space within the wall reveals the essentiality of this inbetween space. With the core services of the apartments, the vertical circulation of the block and the fire safety barriers being housed within the wall, this area becomes one of the most fundamental parts of the Kitasenju Fire Wall. Below: The pot bearing joint transferring load from the wall structure onto the frame.
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Protruding Modules
Each of the protruding modules attributed to a specific service are housed in an equally industrial material. The materials are specifically chosen to be reactive of the service within as well as staying true to the brutal and raw exterior of the facade on this vulnerable side.
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1. The protruding modules that house the boilers are specifically designed to weather over time. Due to the moist, warm air exiting the boiler vents, the design of these modules encourages the often weaker properties of steel (rust) to thrive. 2. The facade bosts the ability of the building to hold weight on its cantilevers by expressing the recycleable tank for the plaza’s irrigation, through a steel mesh which sits delicately on a steel frame. 3. With the electric room so close to the plumbing fittings there was a need for it to be housed in a tight, waterproof material which protects it from internal and external anomalies. The steel bars create a breathable membrane for the electric room which is bound to heat up within its concrete housing.
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Exploded isometric
What is the Wall made of ? The isometric exposes the complexity of ‘The Wall’s composition. The elaborate arrangement of space within the wall reveals the key spaces created within to allow circulation and service space.
1. Tension Cables 2. Service Modules 3. Services 4. ‘The Wall’ 5. ‘A’ Frame 6. Fire Shutters 7. Subsidiary Columns 8. Interlocking Sub Frame 9. Inner Sheathing 10. Pot Bearing 11. Primary/Unit Frame
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Into the Wall
Amongst the most mechanically alive space in the building, the wall presents itself as a space of transition. The moment offers a glimpse into what navigating through this space may eel like. Beside a person walking up, the buildings services rise with them while the light that comes into the space is controlled. Reminding the user of the measures put in place to keep them safe.
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Beyond the Wall
Marking a stark division between vulnerable and safe, the wall extends above its surroundings.
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Refuge by Callum Rowland Shifting back and forth from the wall, the apartments generate the turning moments that inform the cantilevers and terraces beyond. Mediating between each facade of the structure, variable housing arrangements allow for regular through-passages from one side to the other. The overall tesselation of the apartments - informed by SANAA’s Kitagata Housing - allows for a greater depth of experience within the apartments, whilst also halving the number of required walkways. From day-to-day living to the chaos of conflagration evacuation, these apartments provide a moment of calm refuge within Tokyo. The Kitasenju Fire Wall is a truly inhabitable infrastructure.
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Livability
The Kitasenju Fire Wall operates on two scales. Bold fire-defence strategies serve the city as a whole, whilst the apartments within provide a daily experience to its residents. Consequently, striking a balance between the machinic essence of its infrastructure and the livable qualities of light, space and texture was key, all the while working within a city approaching 100% density.
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Inhabitation Section
A steel sub-frame sits within the main structure, clad externally with concrete panels and internally with Japanese Cedar. Sunlight streaming through the large glass-frontage illuminates the cladding seams and textures, whilst shadows from the framework further divide space. Small punctuations in the rear facade invoke the design of the fire wall beyond it, allowing for brief snapshots of the infrastructure passing within it.
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Detail: Static Fixing
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Detail: Roller Connection 103
Plan Arrangements
There are three housing arrangements, dictated by their role within the building as an infrastructural machine. In cases where landings within the wall staircase align with apartments, a through-passage is cut through, allowing for horizontal circulation across the structure. These passageways serve as semi-private spaces, providing a modest external space for the adjacent residents.
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CR 1
Master Bedroom
Bedroom
Bedroom
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Bathroom Family Room
Kitchen/ Dining
Arrangement One
Japanese Room
Master Bedroom
Arrangement Two
2 Bedrooms
2 Bedrooms
Larger Ground Floor Area
Larger First Floor Area
No Terrace
No Terrace
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Master Bedroom
Bathroom
Japanese Room
Family Room
Master Bedroom
Bathroom Master Bedroom
Japanese Room
Arrangement Two
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Bedroom
Kitchen/ Dining
Family Room
Arrangement Three
2 Bedrooms
1 Bedroom
Larger First Floor Area
Through Passageway
No Terrace
Terrace
Kitchen/ Dining
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Family Room
Master Bedroom
Bathroom
Bathroom
Japanese Room
Kitchen/ Dining
Family Room
Kitchen/ Dining
Japanese Room
Terrace
Arrangement Three 1 Bedroom Through Passageway Terrace
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Services
With all of the building’s infrastructure located within the wall, each apartment can simply ‘plug in’ to this vertical core. Serviced by discrete modules within the wall, electrical, waste and heating systems are all provided for in this way.
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Moment
‘Infrastructure becomes the environment for everything’ CJ Lim
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Elevator System
Elevator circulation is located on the exterior of the fire wall. The elevators will primarily be used by the residents, with additional maintenance access to the service modules also provided. Located on the vulnerable facade, the elevator system as a whole is seen as expendable in the case of conflagration. In this case, power to the elevators will be cut and steel shutters will seal off all openings as the wall fortifies itself.
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Perforations A series of punctures through the wall allow for horizontal circulation into the building. During conflagration, these openings will be sealed off by steel shutters.
Operation The machinery operating the elevators in located at the top of the wall, utilising the existing wall framework. The counter-weights move up and down within the wall, visible from the throughways that lead towards the apartments.
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Vertical Evacuation by Chris McCallum This section considers adapting the mechanism of the stepped load and its usage in the Firewall. As its fundamental purpose is balance, and therefore seismic resistance, it required further development in order to gain a role in the wall’s pyro-defensive strategy. Due to the requirement of a large weight to make the cantilever work, it was logical to inhabit the cantilever. Located on the �safe� side of the wall, the inhabited mechanism acts every day as an exterior terrace space, whilst in the event of conflagration, it becomes extra evacuation space as the fleeing population enters the firewall. This is particularly relevant when considering the high level of density which now defines Tokyo.
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Gerberettes
The cantilevering beam called the ”gerberette”,pictured right, is used frequently in the Pompidou Centre, Paris. This was a focus of study as the beam carries out a similar purpose of countering a turning moment. This beam was adapted to suit the purposes of the Firewall. The inclusion of the tension cable derives from early prototyping to represent the weight of the pagoda’s eaves, giving the adapted gerberettes both a structural and a seismic purpose. Secondly, the length of the cantilever within the Pompidou creates evacuation routes held away from the structure, enhancing safety in fire. To allow these beams to become suitable for the stepping of the superstructure, they are constructed with a hollow spine to allow tension cables to pass through, as well as the ability to be scaled depending on the cantilever which is necessary.
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An experiment in the tessellation of the gerberette beam 117
The Mechanism
The final cantilever design becomes a modified gerberette, capable of being scaled larger or smaller, complete with perforations to allow cables from above to pass through. The tension cables themselves are pinned to the end of the beam and the ground directly below, acting as the final line of defense when seismic activity causes movement and moments. It is vital to remember that the when the loads steps in the pagoda then movement is allowed, resulting in each floor moving independently. This is mimicked in the steel structure by rigidly fixing all elements of one floor together, whilst implementing a movement bearing (PTFE POT bearings have been chosen) at the top of each column, hidden by the gerberette, and allowing each floor to move independently of those vertically adjacent.
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PTFE POT Bearings
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Point Load Diagram
This diagram demonstrates the structural logic of the superstructure. Mimicking the ratio of the step of the columns to the cantilever of the eaves in the pagoda, the “eaves� of the firewall extend seven times the step of the apartments. The differing scales of gerberette both structurally counter the apartment step, as well as aesthetically emphasizing it. Note: when the apartments step in the opposite direction, the wall acts as the counterbalance to the turning moment, breaking up the density of cantilevers.
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CM The Wall
The Apartments
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Inhabiting the Cantilever
Day-to-Day : The large slabs provide terrace spaces for the residents, located within a dynamic array of vertical cables and suspended above the surrounding context. The irrigation system allows the possibility of vegetation, creating peaceful space. In Disaster : Fleeing residents of the surrounding context will pass through the building to flee fire; the slabs will provide places of refuge they are located on the “safe� side of the wall. This is especially relevant in the area of Kitasenju where open space is scarce; the Firewall simply extrudes this space vertically.
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Compression Tension
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Services : Irrigation
The cantilevering terraces play the role of water collection in the service system of the Firewall. With a surface area of up to thirty-five square metres, the large quantity of rainfall in the autumn to spring months is collected in the drainage system, feeding through the apartment to the wall where it is cleaned and stored. Day to day, this water can be fed to the water canons, located between the terraces, for irrigation purposes and to cool the residents. In the event of disaster, these act as an extra line of pyro-defence by dampening both the Firewall and the surrounding “safe� context.
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In Disaster
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Terraces
Overlooking the courtyard below and the city beyond, the terraces adopt a totally different atmosphere to the wall facade on the other side,.Residents are welcomed out of their homes and into the vertical gardens.
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Elevations
Orthogonal views of the Fire Wall exaggerate its monumentality, emphasising its mass as a key component of its fire defence strategy. Cutting through the apartments in the perspective overleaf also highlights the tesselation of the units.
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Wall Elevation
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Cantilever Elevation
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Full Inhabitation Section
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Plans
Stepping loads in and out horizontally along its facade as well as vertically down it, the plan and section perspectives blur into one.
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Ground 137
First
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Second
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Sixth
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Isometric Drawings
Within the Fire Wall, a multitude of processes happen simultaneously. Isometric drawings capture the complex density of this infrastructure.
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Isometric Plan Livability I
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Isometric Section Elevator Access
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Isometric Plan Livability II
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Isometric Section Service Modules
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Perspective Section
The perspective section begins to describe the feeling of the spaces within the Fire Wall, emphasising the experiential differences between each of its three distinct components.
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Chapter 5
Urban Interventions
The final stage of this project concerns itself with context. Having developed the system of the Kitsenju Fire Wall, this chapter explores its varied applications within the region, informed by contextual studies and fire mapping simulations.
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都 市 介 入
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Mapping Conflagration
In Tokyo’s dense traditional neighbourhoods, fire can spread easily both within and between blocks. By understanding the way in which fire can spread throughout the surrounding Adachi region, urban interventions can target areas of risk more effectively, cutting through lines of fire spread.
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Fire Spread (12m Separation)
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Journey of Evacuation
Taking note of the fireproofed, concrete buildings as well as open spaces, there is a clear attempt to create an evacuation route though the condensed urban area. When highlighting blocks of housing between roads, it is also clear that there is a lack of order in their placement. The close proximity of these blocks can result in fire spreading through the whole district without interference, hence blocking these routes and surrounding the evacuation areas. The masterplan of intervention aims to create a protected route through the context to an evacuation complex of increased safety.
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Evacuation Zones
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Intervening
The masterplan begins with the demolition of two urban blocks to create a boulevard for evacuation along the existing route, enhancing the likelihood of fleeing citizens to reach their destination of the Kitasenju Evacuation Complex. In this plan, the first intervention enforces safety at the complex’s vulnerable rear, the second acts as a filter to receive the evacuees, and the third contains any potential fires at the focal point of the evacuation route.
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Safeguarding Passage
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The Fortress The Kitasenju fire wall in this particular urban possibility reinforces the back corner to be ‘fire tight.’ A relatively safer location due to the less dense population toward the river behind the site, the building here plays the part of ensuring safety within its plaza. 1. The new intervention as compared to its predecessor, opens up the site both in the front and back. The car park is cleared to create an ‘urban backyard’ creating a fire buffer to the wall. 2. The overall perception of the square is more open and inviting due to the angled nature of the buildings. 3. Pedestrian access is provided amongst the raining tension rods and ‘vertical forest’
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The Fortress: Exterior
From a distance, the over emphasis on safety can easily be seen due to the additional gesture of the closing wall. The moment captured here demonstrates the facades control and rigidity in ‘fighting’ the fire.
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The Fortress: Interior
On the contrary, the freedom of space expressed by the hanging gardens creates a pleasant aesthetic when being within this safe space.
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The Parasite
In cases where it is desireable for the existing context to be retained, the Kitasenju Fire Wall system can be deployed in an adaptable and parasitical way, attaching onto the ‘safer’ facade of a building and in this way reinforcing it’s role as a fire-break. In this particular scenario, the Fire Wall responds to its context in two distict ways. Given the relatively lowrise nature of the existing structure, the number of apartment storeys is reduced, whilst service boxes are condensed upwards, with any additional requirements provided for by the existing infrastructure.
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On Site
Although the Kitasenju Fire has been sensitively weaved into the fabric of the surrounding buildings, its overall aesthetic sits in stark contrast to its neighbours. The forest of columns and tension cables that extend to the ground create a rich new public boulevard, with the sheltered spaces beneath the apartments now providing an ideal location for local pop-up market stalls and the like.
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A Beacon
Looming over the facade of its host building, the Fire Wall acts as a beacon to the rest of the region. Consequently, the noticeable break in the fire wall announces the evacuation passage below, cutting through the existing buildings and providing an ideal and otherwise obscured route to safety.
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The Passageway by Chris McCallum In the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, 40% of all fires were stopped by open spaces and continuous buildings. This intervention is focused on creating urban compartments which, if a fire occurs, cannot affect the surrounding context. Focusing on the route which was outlines previously, this structure safeguards the urban passageway by restraining the possibility of fire-spread across it. Proposed is the demolition of two awkwardly sized blocks of houses, sandwiched between two main roads and open space, creating a boulevard of evacuation. The placement of the structure intervenes between possible points of fire-spread, whilst rehousing those who have been relocated.
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Tokyo’s 10 Year Plan
The municipality of the city recognizes the pro-seismic threat of these condensed neighborhoods and are in the midst of a ten-year plan to widen roads and create more open space between residential areas. However, this is arising issues of land ownership and an increase in cars in the newly formed spaces. To aid this plan, the intervention weaves between urban blocks and provides inhabitation space as well as infrastructural, both in the same footprint.
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Compartment
Inhabited Firewall
Urban Surroundings
Level of Infrastructure
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Passive Fire Prevention
With the increased open space as well as the Firewall, the distances for typical fire-spread have been succeeded. This is a vital direction for urban planning to continue within Tokyo to ensure every citizen has fast access to safe areas.
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Rishabh Shah Callum Rowland Chris McCallum
Informed by the traditional Japanese Pagoda, a contemporary structural language of stepped loads has emerged. Applied to the city of Tokyo, this system has responded to the unpredictable and devastating effect of conflagration. Operating across a variety of scales - from day-to-day life to the event of fire, and from individual intervention to urban strategy - the Kitasenju Fire Wall safeguards local communities whilst contributing to a city of everincreasing density.
Carp - Dragon - Snake - Dance