Total [re]design
the architectural climate of Social Engagement or: High Tech / Low Tech Fast Track Vernacular Dan Weissman 15 may 2012 Written thesis for the completion of the degree: Master of Design Studies [Sustainable Design] Harvard University Graduate School of Design Thesis Advisor: Rahul Mehrotra
NTS NTS NDS
Total [Re]Design
ENLIGHTENMENT
+ REVOLUTION GESAMTKUNSTWERK INDUSTRIALIZATION
ALBERTI
+ WORLD WAR TWO
+ WORLD WAR ONE MODERN
URBAN RENEWAL
+ ENERGY CRISIS POST-MODERN CIVIL RIGHTS
ANTONI GAUDI FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT PETER EISENMAN
+ RECESSION METAMODERN
FIVE ARCHITECTS CATALOG FRANK GEHRY
BILBAO ART MUSEUM
MASDAR SIR NORMAN FOSTER + SF EARTHQUAKE BIG SEARS HOMES NYC TENAMENT UPGRADES DOM-INO PESSAC HOUSING LE CORBUSIER BAUHAUS GSD WALTER GROPIUS DEUTSCHER WERKBUND HOUSING EXHIBITION DIMAXION HOUSE GEODESIC BUCKMINSTER FULLER CIAM NEW GOURNA HASSAN FATHY IRAQ KONSTANTINOS DOXIADIS PRUITT IGOE UNITED NATIONS SELF HELP REINHARD GOETHARDT MOBILE HOME COMMUNITY DESIGN CENTER GD,GD DESIGN CORPS RURAL STUDIO DLYGAD
+COLUMBUS
+ REVOLUTION + TREATY OF RENWICK
ARCH FOR HUMANITY UTT/ SLUMLAB GHANDO FRANCIS KÉRÉ QUINTA MONROY ELEMENTAL METI ANNA HERINGER ECOMOD FAB LAB BUTARO MASS GINGERBREADS
US OCCUPATION
PAPA-DOC
+ ARISTIDE
BABY-DOC
+ EARTHQUAKE
DIVA CRADLE TO CRADLE ECOTECT USGBC ENERGY PLUS RADIANCE TRANSOLAR SUN, WIND, AND LIGHT
VERNACULAR TRADITIONS FIRE
HEAT
MIT SOLAR HOUSES REYNER BANHAM ARCHITECTURE OF THE WELL TEMPERED ENVIRONMENT OLGAYAY BROTHERS DESIGN WITH CLIMATE FRY + DREW TROPICAL ARCHITECTURE JAMES MARSTON FITCH AMERICAN BUILDING: THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES THAT SHAPE IT
JOSEPH PAXTON
CARRIER: A/C DESECANTS COOL MECH. FAN LIGHT EDISON: LIGHT BULB FLUORESCENT LIGHTING ELECTRIC HEAT RADIATOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
LED CONCENTRATED SOLAR
FRANKLIN STOVE
EVENTS INSTITUTIONS ORGANIZATIONS TOOLS + TECH LITERATURE
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FORMS
introducing total [re]design
4 chapter 1: introducing total [re]design
Content
8 11 12 18
Abstract Methodology Case Studies Lexicon
22 24 25 27 29 31 32
chapter 2: Histories Interweave Gesamtkunstwerk and the rise of Social Agency War Seeds Modernism The Development Of Urbanism Self Help + Core Housing Community Design ‘Starchitecture’: Attempted Return To Total Design
34 36 37 37 38 40 41 43
chapter 3: Total [Re]Design Form and Process Scales of Intervention Educational paradigms + Construction training + Community design + Architecture school Zones of Design
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A Note on Representation
48 50 50 51 54 55 58
chapter 4: the Bio-Climatic approach Vernacular Formalism Industrialization Bio-Climatic Modernism Hot + Humid Sustainability + Digital Tools Social Architecture + Bio-Climatic Design
60 62 63 65 68 74 78
chapter 5: Haiti After the Earthquake Years of Struggle Bio-Climatic Design in Haiti Digital Tools In Haiti: Three Projects The Urban: Modeling Urban Energy Flows The Civic Architecture: Gressier Community Center The Home: Campeche Houses
82 84 85 86
chapter 6: Conclusion Education and Bio-Climatic Design Conditional Pitfalls Metamodern
89 90
Acknowledgements Bibliography 3
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introducing total [re]design
“My idea of the architect as a coordinator — whose business it is to unify the various formal, technical, social, and economic problems that arise in connection with building — inevitably led me on step by step from the study of the function of the house to that of the street; from the street to the town; and finally to the still vaster implications of regional and national planning. I believe that the New Architecture is destined to dominate a far more comprehensive sphere than building means today; and that from the investigation of its details we shall advance towards an ever-wider and profounder conception of design as one great cognate whole.” -Walter Gropius; The New Architecture and the Bauhaus, 1935
“Architecture is neither decoration nor ornamentation but a form of poiesis in the etymological sense of “making.” Architecture makes and remakes the world.” - Jeffrey T. Schnapp; ‘The Face of the Modern Architect’ in Grey Room 33, (Fall 2008) 9
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introducing total [re]design
chapter 1 introducing total [re]design The human population surpassed 7 billion this past year, engulfing everlarger territories for our settlements. As we head into the Anthropocene, the age of human modification of the Earth, we continue to find tension between our settlement patterns and natural ecologies. Although we are slowly learning how to manage this tension, disasters, ‘natural’ or economic hazards that result in unique and catastrophic events, serve as a defining reminder that we cannot control our environment; they will certainly define our near future. Disasters however offer learning opportunities that, although grim, may allow radical change, from the scale of rebuilding a home to reorganizing societies. “Disaster is a terrible thing to waste” notes Leslie Voltaire, former Haitian Minister of Education, Minister of Haitians Living Abroad and Special Envoy to the United Nations.01 Each reconstruction effort must be seen not as a replication of previous modes of urban life, but as a continuous upgrade, what Rahul Mehrotra calls ‘the Kinetic City.’02 Embedded within this concept is not only an ongoing preparation for the next disaster, but also opportunities for creating new sustainable urbanization practices. In light of this reality, how will human communities attain balance with the natural ecologies we inadvertently engulf? How may design practice assist in increasing quality of life, while also mitigating ever-increasing environmental risks?
01 Janet Reitman, “Beyond Relief: How the World Failed Haiti,” Rolling Stone, 4 August 2011 [http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-world-failed-haiti-20110804] (16 April 2012). 02 Huyssen, Andreas. Other Cities, Other Worlds : Urban Imaginaries in a Globalizing Age. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.
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abstract The financial crisis beginning in 2007 has hit the profession of architecture hard. Articles abound espousing the end of the profession, or the failure of architectural education to produce productive members of society01. It has brought to the forefront architecture’s failure to engage practical realities for the majority of the world’s citizens, serving only indulgent capital of the neo-liberal global economy. However, the recession also marks a moment of ideological shift - coined Metamodern by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker in 2009, this emerging shift suggests an attitude towards “pragmatic idealism, informed naivety, or moderate fanaticism.”02 To that end, two legible threads within this shift, pulled from the periphery to mainstream discourse, serve as the backbone for this thesis. The first, architectures of social engagement (agency or impact), presumes that architectural output can thrive on deep and embedded engagement with traditionally under-served communities and populations. Architecture has a long and storied relationship with the social, harkening back to the development of worker and pre-fabricated housing in early Modernism. After failures to improve conditions resulted a long period of minimal social engagement, today, the burgeoning thematic, at least from our vantage point in the United States, has been accelerated by recent shows at the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, and with ever-more-popular organizations and programs such as Architecture for Humanity and Auburn University’s Rural Studio. In such practices, not only the output of architecture, but also education of both the architect and the community, is integral to the process and long-term effects of any project. Second, blanket applications of active electro/mechanical technologies supporting architecture (fossil fueled heat, air conditioning, and electric lighting) are being replaced by the nuanced use of high-tech digital tools in the design process, revealing opportunities for high-performance low-tech formal solutions in built structures. While terms such as green design and sustainability have captured the public’s enthusiasm, many architectures built within such frameworks have relied precisely on costly technologies to minimize impact. However, new techniques have emerged employing digital analysis tools to test and design architectures that maximize the passive architectural performance before integration of active systems. Such tools can test many variables of an architecture, including structure, materials, thermal properties, daylight access, ventilation, and methods of fabrication. Underpinning the use of digital tools is an opportunity for architects to reclaim responsibilities increasingly abdicated to engineers over the past two centuries, allowing 01 For example, see: Vanessa Quirk After the Meltdown: Where does Architecture go from here? (Arch Daily, 17 APR 2012) [http://www.archdaily.com/226248/after-the-meltdownwhere-does-architecture-go-from-here/] Viewed on 18 April, 2012 02 Robin van den Akker & Timotheus Vermeulen (2011). Metamodern Architecture. In: Bernd Upmeyer (ed.) Post-Ideological Urbanism. Monu #15 (november 2011).
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introducing total [re]design
for radically integrated design processes able to optimize building performance. Weaving these two trends together, as Brian Bell notes:
For the past ten years, evidence has mounted in other exhibits and publications that design can play a direct role in addressing issues critical to the general public. Rather than just providing luxury to “the few,” designers involved in those projects worked intensely with communities to reshape their built environments. With a significant tailwind from the Green design movement that addresses the environment, design has started to show a real capacity to address social and economic issues as well. The success of those projects and the exhibitions that described them have started to change the public opinion of what design does, and whom it serves.03 Socially engaged architectural practices have been at the forefront of re-interpreting vernacular techniques and traditions, but are only just beginning to explore theories and practices of high-tech/low-tech in bio-climatic design. As is the norm with avante garde practice, the use of digital tools assisting in the design process has, until recently, been primarily employed in architectures where clients could afford additional services. In such applications, the architect-client relationship remains traditional: the design team performs their process work internally, then presents the final form to the client. Finally though, interfaces for accurate digital analysis tools are easy enough to use by designers, and analysis results can directly mold the design of form without intermediate steps or consultants. What does this mean for the nearfuture of socially engaged practice? Masdar City Norman Foster and Partners with Transsolar
This thesis unpacks the critical element of design with climate as an alternative to material and structural paradigms as a conduit for social engagement. Through historical tracings, case study analyses, and an account of recent work by the author in Port au Prince, Haiti, this thesis speculates on the growing role of bio-climatic design in the creation of forms with people and communities that don’t normally have access to design services. Such design processes may be usefully employed at the scale of the architecture, or at the scale of the urban environment. But in order to be effective, designers must develop fundamentally new forms of educational outreach, which may in fact change the very nature of analytical design practice all together.
03 Brian Bell, ‘MoMa Misses by 99%’ Metropolis Magazine Online, 16 Feb. 2012 [http:// www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120216/moma-misses-by-99] Viewed on 4 May 2012
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THE INDUSTRIAL CONTEXT OF THE BUILDING PROJECT PAOLO TOMBESI
PROJECT BASED
DESIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
PRODUCT BASED
FUNCTIONS CLOSER TO THE CORE REPRESENT TRADITIONAL BUILDING TEAM. OUTER FUNCTIONS PERFORMED BY SPECIALISTS/ DEFINED BY MARKET. BUILDING SCOPE FORMULATION
SPECIFICATION DESIGN
FABRICATION DESIGN
BUILDING PRODUCTION
PROGRAM DESIGN CONSTRUCTION DESIGN
PERFORMANCE DESIGN
BUILDING DESIGN
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
ERECTION DESIGN
SITE DESIGN
USE DESIGN
MAINTENANCE DESIGN
PROCUREMENT DESIGN
PERATIONS DESIGN
ECONOMIES OF SCALE
ECONOMIES OF SCOPE EXTERNAL
INERNAL
PAOLO TOMBESI studies the relationship between the intellectual dimension of architecture and the socio-technical aspects of its physical construction. Peggy Deamer, and Phillip (Phillip Gordon) Bernstein, Building (in) the future : Recasting labor in architecture. (New Haven, CT: Yale School of Architecture ;Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) 127
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BUILDING USE/ MAINTENANCE
CHANGE DESIGN
PROJECT DESIGN
TESTING
BUILDING ASSEMBLY/ ERECTION
SPACE DESIGN
PROJECT DEFIITION AND CONTROL
introducing total [re]design
Methodology Two parallel histories culminate in our current moment (at least in architectural discourse). The first history, Total [Re]Design, explores the development of total design and social design as theories of practice.04 Total design suggests that the architect designs everything in their domain. Although historically applied to issues of form and aesthetic, total design was reinterpreted through modernism to include responsibilities beyond physical form. Forwarded by thinker/practitioners such as Hannes Meyer and Walter Gropius, the notion of architect as total designer came to include a sizable social contract through new utopian visions for cities in post-war(s) Europe. In America however, negative reaction to modernism’s forms and poor implementation of utopian visions sparked a revolt against designers. Meanwhile, developers, unnecessarily complicated building technologies, and splintering of the industry meant that architects have taken command of less and less of the design process. This, in many cases, has been our own fault, as architects shied away from risk in an increasingly litigious society.
Bilbao Art Museum Frank Ghery
Moreover, the public (through government) has long taken responsibility for procedures (codes, building standards, etc), leaving the architect responsible for aesthetics (which may or may not include massing, orientation and programming). The historicized notion of total design continues to exist within the realm of starchitecture, a post-modern phenomenon of indulgence suggesting that unique architectural output is able to generate profit, separate from, say, maximizing floor area, while also claiming critical approval.05 Contemporary architects explicitly sell themselves as a brand, using at least the image of total design as a tool to indulge aesthetic fantasies for clients. However, architects explicitly seeking social engagement deny the notion that the goal of expressive architecture is purely for indulgence and profit. In poor neighborhoods or villages, or in post-disaster situations, the architect finds new opportunity for achieving total design in collaboration with communities. Here, instead of designing door handles and carpet patterns, designers envision natural ventilation patterns, sanitation systems, and financing mechanisms. They design wholly new systems of training for workers, and seek out opportunities to foster educational experiences with communities, all while learning throughout their process. Here, Architecture (with a capital A) can not only provide shelter, but inspire neighborhoods and communities, fundamentally changing urbanization patterns through collaboration. It is this paradigm shift of total design with participation that I call Total [Re]Design. 04  For more in depth discussion of this history, see: Design Like You Give a Damn, Expanding Architecture and Architecture School. 05  Charles Landry, The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. London; Earthscan, 2003. Based on Post-Modern theory by Charles Jencks
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The second history traces the Bio-Climatic Approach to design. Until the advent of mechanical systems, architecture performed all of the work of modifying interior climates. Mechanization and technology have steadily de-skilled inhabitants from an intuitive understanding of thermal comfort and natural light. However, in the mid 20th century, research aimed at adapting architecture using scientific data-driven climate analysis fostered a renaissance of bio-climatic design, only to be squandered by cheap energy prices and technological solutions in the 1960s-1990s, save for a blip of concern surrounding the 1972 energy crisis. However, the energy crisis, in conjunction with book publications like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and the first image of the entire earth from space, opened many eyes to the need for humans to take an active stewardship roll on our planet. Out of that populist movement, the steady growth of sustainability over the past decade has sparked new interest by designers in re-learning traditional building techniques that do not rely on electro/mechanical systems. Design rooted in vernacular traditions proliferates, where architects seek to build on details latent in local ‘tacit’ knowledge. In particular, non-physical elements of thermal comfort, solar access, and natural ventilation can draw from vernacular techniques, and many of such methods can in fact be reduced to simple diagrams. Unfortunately, contemporary conditions don’t necessarily allow for such traditional and rule-of-thumb design strategies to perform as assumed, for three reasons: First, contemporary urban agglomerations are fundamentally different than pre-modern or rural conditions. In some cases this means a failure for rural forms to translate to urban realities. In other cases, increased populations and densities simply cannot be supported by traditional techniques. Second, contemporary materials and construction methodologies have fundamental differences to traditional counterparts. Finally, internal loads are different; TVs, refrigerators, light bulbs and computers all add significant heat to interior spaces. In response to this, a new breed of digital climatic analysis tools can now be integrated into the design process to provide feedback towards optimization of well-meaning design schemes. Complicating matters, cities are governed by dynamic and complex urban processes; incremental growth creates conditions where architecture is a moving target. In order for success in dynamic conditions, the design process must be balanced with pedagogical and community engagement initiatives, creating a dialogue through the design process. New types of representations are required to explain concepts and processes, as well as new forms of collaboration, such as the use of social media. Designers must develop the skills to fluidly move between technical data and the realities of human interaction.
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Rural Home Outside of Gressier, Haiti Photo by author, 2011
Petion ville Bideonville Port au Prince, Haiti Photo by author, 2011
introducing total [re]design
To illustrate potential opportunities, multiple contemporary practices have evolved, or designed, methods for engaging communities through education. Francis Kéré relies on full scale physical mock-ups, not to test indulgent aesthetics, but to prove concepts to communities and teach workers new techniques. Elemental has design charrettes with communities, putting the design agency in the hands of those who will inhabit the structures. Architecture for Humanity actually builds schools, working with teachers and students to craft designs. All of these practices marry, in some way, ecological and educational design techniques. To speculate on potential futures of how such practices may evolve in the future, I will innumerate on a series of projects developed in and around Port au Prince, Haiti in 2011-2012, suggesting opportunities for the integration of bio-climatic design with educational initiatives.
Case studies ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY Founded by Cameron Sinclair and Katie Stohr in New York in 1999, Architecture for Humanity06 is committed to bringing safe, economical, and ecological design solutions to those could not otherwise afford it. Architecture for Humanity connects designers and financiers with communities to build projects, with an emphasis on teaching and sustainability. In 2008 Architecture for Humanity was awarded a Genius Grant, allowing the organization to build the ‘World Changing’ Network;07 an online forum for sharing design innovations across the globe. Design Corps Brian Bell founded Design Corps in 1991 after frustrations that architecture did not support the vast population of regular people. Bell has worked tirelessly to develop projects, programs, and experiences that engage communities through design. He also founded the Structures for Inclusion Conference, which maintains a level of momentum to the zeitgist. Additionally, he, along with others, have developed the SEED network, or ‘Social, Environmental, and Economic Design’ to promote wholistic approaches to sustainability beyond building performance.08 ECOmod Founded by John Quale at University of Virginia in 2004, ecoMOD is a design/build/evaluate program for students in the architecture, landscape architecture, business, environmental science, planning and economics programs. Since inception, Quale, with students, have constructed a series of affordable single family houses with an explicit focus on environmental sustainability and social justice through prefabrication. After project completion, students across the various programs continue to evaluate each home to assess environmental, 06 [http://architectureforhumanity.org/] Viewed on 1 May, 2012 07 [http://www.worldchanging.com/] Viewed on 10 May 2012 08 Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford, Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, (New York: Metropolis Books, 2008)
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social, and economic performance metrics.09 ELEMENTAL In 2000, Alejandro Aravena, taught a design studio at Harvard Graduate School of Design investigating social housing. Out of that work, Aravena worked with local authorities in Iquique, Chile to develop a 93 family housing project based on incremental building techniques. Since then, other projects employing similar techniques have been constructed throughout Latin America. The goal of Elemental is to create social housing projects in a for-profit investment model.10 ANNA HERINGER After spending a year working for the NGO ‘Shanti’ in Rudrapur, Bangladesh, Anna Heringer returned to the University of Arts and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria, to complete her architecture degree. There, she designed the Handmade School as her thesis project. In 2005, the project was completed with the assistance of Martin Rauch, rammed earth specialist, and Zieger Roswig Seller, Structural Engineers and Construction Management. The project has gone on to receive many awards including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.11 FRANCIS Kéré After growing up in Gando, Burkina Faso, Francis Kéré attended architecture school at the Technische Universität Berlin. “In his work, he focuses on education as the developing concept for his country, in which he has already built an essential infrastructure.”12 After graduating, Kéré returned home to construct a Primary School, completed in 2001. Similarly to Heringer’s school, this project has also received many awards including the Aga Kahn Award for Architecture. MASS DESIGN MASS Design is a Boston-based architecture firm that evolved out of a single project while the founders, Michael Murphy, Marika Shori Clark and Alan Ricks, were graduate students at Harvard Graduate School of Design. After an encounter with Paul Farmer, Murphy arranged for the group to design the Butaro Tuberculosis Hospital in Rwanda, completed in 2011. Since that time MASS has continued their partnership with Partners in Health, developing projects in Haiti and Africa.13 RURAL STUDIO A program within Auburn University’s School of Architecture, Rural Studio was founded in 1993 by Samuel Mockbee and D. K. Ruth. Each year, the studio brings groups of students to an area of rural Alabama 09 John Quale; Sustainable, Affordable, Prefab: The ecoMOD Project; (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press; 2012) See also: [http://ecomod.virginia.edu/] 8 May 2012 10 [http://www.elementalchile.cl/] Viewed on 1 May, 2012 11 [http://www.anna-heringer.com/] Viewed on 1 May, 2012 12 [http://www.kerearchitecture.com/person.html] Viewed on 30 April, 2012 13 [http://www.massdesigngroup.org/] Viewed on 1, May, 2012
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EcoMod ‘OUTin, 2005
METI handmade school Anna Heringer, 2006
introducing total [re]design
in the ‘Black Belt,’ the poorest, least connected region of the Southern United States, with a mostly black population. There, students engage communities in the design and construction of projects ranging from single family homes to civic structures. The program emphasizes on cost effectiveness through design innovation, using local, reused or nontraditional materials.14
Rural Studio Glass Chapel/Community Center Mason's Bend, AL Thesis Project, 2000
URBAN THINK TANK Founded in 1993 by Alfredo Brillembourg in Caracas, VZ, and joined by Hubert Klumpner in 1998, Urban Think Tank, or U-TT, strives “to deliver innovative yet practical solutions through the combined skills of architects, civil engineers, environmental planners, landscape architects, and communication specialists...Their work concerns both theoretical and practical applications within architecture and urban planning. Working in global contexts by creating bridges between first world industry and third world, informal urban areas, they focus on the education and development of a new generation of professionals, who will transform cities in the 21st century. ”15 In addition to work ranging from the building to the city, Brillembourg and Klumpner teach at Columbia University, where they founded the Sustainable Living Urban Model Laboratory (S.L.U.M. Lab). As of 2012 they hold the chair for Architecture and Urban Design at the Swiss Institute of Technology, ETH in Zürich. These case studies fall into various categories of practice and organization. Some are ‘typical’ architecture practices such as Heringer, Kéré, or MASS. Others are embedded in educational institutions such as ECOmod and Rural Studio. Yet others don’t cleanly fit into traditional categories, such as Urban Think Tank, a design practice with an educational component, or Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit organization that acts as facilitator, design studio, community organizer, and more. In most cases, the architects and designers operate out of affluent regions, mostly in America or Europe, but work in poor regions. Even Kéré, who grew up in Burkina Faso, lives and works out of Berlin, Germany. Notably lacking in this compilation are non-western designers. This does not reflect an ideological position, merely a circumstance of the research.
14 15
[http://apps.cadc.auburn.edu/rural-studio/Default.aspx] Viewed on 1 May, 2012 [http://www.u-tt.com/officeAbout_UTT.html] Viewed on 1 May, 2012
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multiple equators Spatialized Practices Variations on the political equator, and design practices that cross the boundary INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS +
+ MASS DESIGN + MIT: D-LAB/ CO-LAB + HARVARD GSD AFH + +COLUMBIA: SLUM LAB + UNITED NATIONS UVA ecoMOD + USAID + TEDDY CRUZ + RURAL STUDIO
R POLITICAL EQUATOR CANCE F O PIC TRO C I AT CLIM MONTEREY HOUSING + + TALLER TERRITORIAL DE MEXICO TROPIC OF CANCER HAITI D L R S] WOITECT D E H LL ARC WA [TD + URBAN THINK TANK MEDELLIN + ATOR U Q E ATIC CLIM GEOGRAPHIC EQUATOR
TROPIC CLIMATIC
ORN
OF CAPRIC
TROPIC OF CAPRICORN PROJECT ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY PROJECT INSTITUTION NGO / NON-PROFIT GOVERNMENT / INTRAGOVERNMENT DESIGN FIRM
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ELEMENTAL + QUINTA MONROY +
introducing total [re]design
+ FRANCIS KERE + ANNA HERINGER + DOXIADIS +HOUSING FOR THE FISHERMAN +IRAQ 1956 + METI SCHOOL + HSIEH YING-CHUN + MICRO HOME SOLUTIONS MAGIC BUS + + CENTER FOR URBAN AND REGIONAL EXCELLENCE + RAHUL MEHROTRA + BANG BUA CANAL + MILLENIUM SCHOOL
BUTARO HOSPITAL + KOUNKUEY DESIGN INITIATIVE + UN HABITAT
+ ELEENA JAMIL
R ATO QU Y CRUZ] E L D
A D ITICUDIO TE L O T P ES [
+ DESIGN INDABA
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Lexicon Architecture According to Wikipedia, the encoder of our civilization’s current definitions, Architecture may mean one of many things: +The art and science of design and erecting buildings and other physical structures. + A general term to describe buildings and other infrastructures. + A style and method of design and construction of buildings and other physical structures. + The practice of an architect, where architecture means to offer or render professional services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings, that have as their principal purpose human occupancy or use. + Design activity, from the macro-level (urban design, landscape architecture) to the micro-level (construction details and furniture).01 By extension, throughout this thesis the term ‘architects’ will be used to also refer to landscape architecture and urban design. The intent is that the services and conceptual frameworks within which they operate are most closely akin to the last definition above, that architecture requires a fluid mediation of scales, techniques, contexts and organizations. Design professionals acting upon the built environment are also fundamentally set apart from engineers or planners acting upon the built environment. client + Community : the local constituents In typical architectural practice, projects are controlled by a client - the entity paying for the project. In development work, the client may be an NGO or governmental organization working in conjunction with a community. The community however is rarely a homogenous group of people, but rather a collection of people who either already do, or will be living in close proximity and inhabiting new design interventions. Balancing the various needs and aspirations of the various local constituents is a critical part of socially engaged design practice. Digital tool / digital climate analysis tools Any tool in the digital space of computational devices that can simulate present or hypothetical conditions in reality, and provide accurate feedback when used appropriately. Generally within the context of this thesis, these tools refer to the analysis of lighting conditions, air movement and ventilation, and thermal performance (heating and cooling). This set could also include structural analysis or digital fabrication, which will not be discussed here. Optimization Optimization in this context is the maximizing a global set of conditions, as defined internally by designers. It is the goal of design process, 01 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture] Viewed on 3 May, 2012
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achieved through iteration. A set of hypothetical optimized conditions may exist even if only one final condition is attained. It should be noted that optimization is fundamentally different than efficiency, or the maximizing of local conditions, say of particular components or systems. Regardless, both terms are social constructs. The construction of quantitative measures inherently involves qualitative or subjective reasoning.02 participation / collaboration Dialogic engagements between design professionals and local constituents, including communities and authorities, where design professionals facilitate the process of envisioning future scenarios with local constituents. Goals of optimization and efficiency are presented with the understanding that constituents will adapt designed baseconditions to their own needs after the design has been implemented. Resilience Resilience is the ability for a system to cope with adverse conditions. In the context of this thesis, it most often shall refer to the ability for human settlements to rebound from disasters, be they large environmental catastrophes such as an earthquake, or economic catastrophes such as the collapse of the rice market in Haiti during the mid 1990s. If sustainable design in poor or post-disaster communities constitutes the creation of livable communities that may withstand increasing environmental and economic fluctuations, resilience provides a framework for conceiving such conditions. Sustainability According to the Brundtland Report by the United Nations (Our Common Future), sustainability connotes:
Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs...Sustainable development requires meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations for a better life. A world in which poverty is endemic will always be prone to ecological and other catastrophes.03 Sustainability is often considered a fix, a set of technological solutions to the burden we increasingly place on the planet. Discourse throughout architecture in recent years has focused on minimizing the impact a building has on various infrastructures, including energy, water, and waste, often using technical solutions (high performance glazing or suntracking heliostats). And generally, architecture itself cannot do all the work necessary to truly make reductions while maintaining acceptable 02  For more on the construction of metrics, see: James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State : How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed. (Yale Agrarian Studies; Yale ISPS Series. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.) 03  United Nations: Our Common Future, p24, 54.
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interior comfort, leaving the engineering of systems to take the load (off). Recall Reiner Banham noting:
When your house contains such a complex of piping, flues, ducts, wires, lights, inlets, outlets, ovens, sinks, refuse disposers, hi-fi reverberators, antennae, conduits, freezers, heaters -when it contains so many services that the hardware could stand up by itself without any assistance from the house, why have a house to hold it up...what is the house doing except concealing your mechanical pudenda from the stares of folks on the sidewalk?” 04 However, sustainability as a conceptual framework takes on considerably different meaning and agency when used as a formal driver in more adverse conditions. Sustainable development with people that are poor, or when disaster has recently struck, or likely both, creates situations where Architecture (with a capital A) has the agency to make significant positive change. Here, off-the-grid infrastructures or the use of cheap, local, and recyclable/recycled materials are not based on some sort of moral or value-laden judgement, but absolute necessity.05 Total Design The concept that architect/design team controls all elements in the production of a project, including form, aesthetic, procedures, techniques, infrastructures, construction, and graphics. Total [re]design(er) The act of, or person/firm/organization that pursues social engagment though physical desgin. This includes terms such as It is a marrage of total design practice with social imact design practice and bio-climatic design practice. GLOBAL SOUTH / majority world Many definitions have emerged to conceptualize the distinction between various regions of the world, but the historically wealthy nations tend to exist in the northern zones of the earth, and the historically poorer nations in the south. Often, the northern nations colonizing their southern counterparts. This boundary between north and south is of course an interpretive and ever-shifting definition, with various boundaries derived from different authors (See map on pg 16-17). In some cases, this boundary manifests itself as a physical wall. In others, bodies of water or political boundaries suffice. For the sake of this thesis, I refer to the term in its broadest implications, thinking to Teddy Cruz’s notion of ‘Political Equator’ as the delineater between north and south.06
04 Rahner Bahnam: A Home Is Not A House, 1965 05 It should be noted that Architecture in this case is the author’s term for any element that may be designed - landscape, infrastructure, urban space. 06 Teddy Cruz, Political Equator [http://www.california-architects.com/en/projects/detail_ thickbox/4452] Viewed on 30 April 2012.
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introducing total [re]design
More recently, the term majority world has surfaced, forwarded by Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam, that defines the ‘global south’ more accurately: as the areas of the world where the majority of the world’s population resides. “Majority world defines the community in terms of what it is, rather than what it lacks.”07 VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE Architecture constructed by non-professional designers, generally based on the craft model, developing form and material use slowly over many generations. Buildings reflect local needs and material accessibility, as ornament, and formal traditions. This differs from institutionalized architecture, which “is one that has been designed by an architect, a professional with all the qualities that are attributed to or design skills and knowledge of construction gained by education.”08 Vernacular also suggests passive systems for climatic control. But, as Banham noted, the fire was the first active system, and the animal pelt, the first passive system. While vernacular traditions tended to follow passive strategies and modern structures, active, contemporary practices are finding grey areas for hybridization.
OF MATERIAL / RE-APPROPRIATION TRADITIONAL MODES OF BUILDING CONTEXT WITH STRUCTURAL FOR CONTEMPORARY MATERIALS, TECHNOLOGIES AND METHODS OF SYSTEMSPRODUCTION.
PHYSICAL DESIGN
IMBUED DESIRE TO CREATE OPTIMIZED SYSTEMS AND BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS
EDUCATION
EDUCATION AS KEY TO LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY AT GLOBAL SCALE. FORMAL SPACES FOR LEARNING PARALLELED WITH INFORMAL EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES.
SOCIAL
engagement impact agency
ENGAGE LOCAL NEIGHBORHOODS. HELP CREATE PEACEFUL, PRODUCTIVE, AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
ADAPTATION OF ENERGY BIO-CLIMATIC PHYSICAL DESIGN PROPOSALS TO MAXIMIZE NATURAL LIGHT AND WHILE MINIMIZING SYSTEMSVENTILATION HEAT GAIN.
07 [http://www.appropedia.org/Majority_world] Viewed on 10 May, 2012 08 Matt Turan “Vernacular Design and Environmental Wisdom” in Vernacular Architecture (England: Avebury) 1990, p3
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Total [Re]Design: Histories Interweave
chapter 2: histories interweave total design + social design
“Of all the participants in the business of home building, the architect is the only one qualified to guild the house and its environment toward a civilized form. Well-trained and possessed of practical experience, he should be intellectually constituted to prevent abuses, develop new methods and impart originality to the design. Yet he fails in each of these responsibilities”01 -Charles Abrams; The Future of Housing
A fine line exists between social engagement and responsibility, and ‘trying things out on people.’ We have to make sure our hearts, and our forms remain in the right place.02 -Marilyn Moedinger
01 Charles Abrams, The Future of Housing.(New York and London,: Harper & brothers, 1946).p129 02 Marilyn Moedinger, personal conversation, March 18, 2011.
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Gesamtkunstwerk and the rise of Social Agency Constructing interior space is notoriously expensive, and therefore architecture is ultimate expression of indulgence in wealth. Stretching back to the Pharoahs and temples to the gods, architecture historically required either a deep benefactor’s purse or heavy taxes levied on many citizens by hegimonic rulers. Most structures considered historic architecture before the 15th century were in fact collective projects developed by many master builders and their patrons. The notion of total design can therefore be traced to the invention of architectural design by Alberti, who considered a building as an identical copy to the architect’s design.01 Throughout the 15-18th centuries, Alberti’s conception of architect grew across Europe and into America, as not only craftsman of a singular vision for a future building, but also as the master facilitator of its construction. Industrialization, fundamentally altered the relationships between designer, producer and consumer. The adoption of new processes of production put designed ‘things’ in the hands of the masses.
Leon Battista Alberti Santa Maria Novella Florence
In response to the de-humanizing aspects of industrialization throughout the 19th century, artists, composers, and architects developed respective versions of Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art.02 The theory of practice positioned the artist in distinct opposition to the neutralizing effects of industrial production, focused on distinct and unique creative output. Although initially erupting in music and visual art, Gesamtkunstwerk found its way into architecture in the turn-of-the20th century movements such as the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveaux. Architects such as Antonio Gaudi, Green + Green, Victor Horta, and Frank Lloyd Wright all created complete worlds through their particular aesthetic vision. Inherent to this output was the design of the processes requisite to the production of such built artifacts. Ironically though, much of these works came to fruition precisely due to the fortunes gleaned by industrialists. Architecture during this period, it seemed, was purely selfreflexive, concerned with its own output and only for clients that could appreciate, or afford the master architect’s approach. However, industrialization not only made a few men very wealthy, it created a fundamentally new class of workers. Life was difficult, dangerous, and downright hazardous to one’s health in working class neighborhoods within new industrial cities, settled mostly by immigrants, either from other countries, or from rural areas. The beginning of humanitarian design in America can be traced back to social reform 01 Leon Battista Alberti., Cosimo Bartoli 1503-1572., Giacomo Leoni ca.1686-1746., and Joseph Rykwert 1926-. Ten Books on Architecture. (New York,: Transatlantic arts, 1966.) 02 According to Urban Dictionary, ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ was “coined by Richard Wagner in his theoretical essays of 1849-51, means literally “whole arts work”. It is the idea of combining many variations of media for the purpose of Drama.” [http://www.urbandictionary. com/define.php?term=gesamtkunstwerk] Viewed on 1 may 2012.
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Falling Water: Frank Lloyd Wright
Total [Re]Design: Histories Interweave
movements in the 1880s-90s, as reformers, many of whom were upper class women, began studying public health. Through their analysis, housing conditions became the focus of improvement.03 Reformers instituted light wells and other ventilation strategies into tenement housing. They also improved infrastructures, including covered sewers, development of fire codes and zoning ordinances, laying the groundwork for a society that, today, controls a significant amount of the procedural process of building construction in the developed world. War Seeds Modernism In Europe, the Bolshevic Revolution in Russia and Social Democracy in Germany fostered a unique set of conditions from American and British Industrialization. Here, the worker was conceptualized as a new client, and the modern state as a new patron; both supported fundamentally new building programs, including workers housing and civic facilities like cultural clubs, clinics and schools.04 Early modernists, responding to these social movements, latched on to new opportunities for expanded modes of practice. After World War One, their concern intensified, as architects now found themselves charged with how to house many people cheaply and comfortably. As Gámez and Rogers note, “The Modern movement conceived of progress and technological advancement as tools to be employed in the service of social equality.”05 In Architecture, four figures dominated the discourse of modernism, and all with significant contribution to architecture as a social activity: Buckminster Fuller, Le Corbusier, Mies van de Rohe, and Walter Gropius. Le Corbusier‘s Maison Dom-ino, originally developed in 1914-15, was meant to be a basic, cheap, universal housing unit, a solution for rapid reconstruction in regions decimated by World War 1.06 By removing the structural requirements of load bearing walls, infill could be prefabricated and installed quickly and easily. 07 Le Corbusier would go on to develop a series of houses and apartment buildings based on dom-ino that suggested industrial methods and aesthetics for the home unit, or a machine for living. However, the notion of industrial craft here is a misnomer, as “it is doubtful if [Le Corbusier] ever envisaged [his buildings] being made in a factory.”08
Dom-ino diagram Le Corbusier, 1914
While Le Corbusier was busy revolutionizing architectural form, Walter Gropius formalized the architect as an agent of social change. Likely 03 Thomas Leslie ‘Environmental Technology, Sustainability’ in in Architecture School, Joan Oakman, ed; (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2012) 306 04 Schuman, Anthony W. “Community Engagement” in in Architecture School, Joan Oakman, ed; (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2012) 252 05 José L.. S Gámez annd Susan Rogers ‘An Architecture of Change’ in Expanding Architecture: Design As Activism (New York, NY: Metropolis Books, 2008) 19 06 Frampton, Kenneth. Le corbusier. World of art. (New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson. 2001) 07 Corb’s attempts at actually engaging the working proved less successful in practice. His housing project in Pessac, France went unoccupied for eight years, and when workers did move in, they heavily modified the structure to reflect their own cultures. Le Corbusier conceded, ‘It is always life that is right and the architect who is wrong.” Schuman 252 08 Colin Davies The Prefabricated Home. (London: Reaktion, 2005.) 13.
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having seen early attempts at pre-fabrication such as the Sears Houses in America, Gropius developed his own versions of industrial architecture, and a school, the Bauhaus, to teach students to work between methods of craft and design, relying on function to determine form. During his tenure, the school became a nexus for socially conscious design using industrial methods. Gropius also worked with Marcel Breuer to develop the first slab apartment block, where they strove to increase density without sacrificing access to light and air, provided each apartment with windows on both sides of the building. Blocks arranged into ‘super blocks’ were surrounded by green spaces.09 Importantly, Gropius’ understanding of the architect as master facilitator re-interpreted Gesamtkunstwerk theory for the modern age. As he notes:
“My idea of the architect as a coordinator — whose business it is to unify the various formal, technical, social, and economic problems that arise in connection with building — inevitably led me on step by step from the study of the function of the house to that of the street; from the street to the town; and finally to the still vaster implications of regional and national planning. I believe that the New Architecture is destined to dominate a far more comprehensive sphere than building means today; and that from the investigation of its details we shall advance towards an ever-wider and profounder conception of design as one great cognate whole.”10 The architect, according to Gropius, must be steeped in craft, as well as in industry.11 They must be able to move fluidly between these two zones of influence, using design to coopt industrial processes in the service of people. However this goal, a Total Architecture, was actualized within the constraints of functionalism, a narrowly defined relationship between form and function that promoted a stark, industrial aesthetic devoid of ornament. The 1927 Deutscher Werkbund housing exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany, under the direction of Mies van de Rohe, served as a platform to envision new modes of industrial architecture for the masses. Meant to showcase designs of “modern dwelling units suitable as prototypes for mass production,” houses designed by Bauhaus proteges and Le Corbusier suggesting new methods of pre-fabrication and material use in residential design.12 Realistically though, most of the homes within the exhibition far exceeded the budgets of typical workers, and with little attention given to the technical hurdles of mass construction. Concurrently in America, Buckminster Fuller may be the first “evangelist 09 Walter Gropius ‘The Scope of Total Architecture’ (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 5th ed, 1955) Fig 40 10 Walter, Gropius. and P. (P Shand. The New Architecture and the Bauhaus. (London: Faber and Faber, 1935.) 11 Walter Gropius ‘The Scope of Total Architecture’ (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 5th ed, 1955) 12 Moffett, et al; Buildings Across Time (McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/ Languages; 2 edition,, 2002) 518
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Bauhaus Pedagogy Diagram
Total [Re]Design: Histories Interweave
of humanitarian design” and godfather of the mobile home.13 He began his ‘design-science revolution’ by studying the house, inventing the Dimaxion House in 1929. Built not only to maximize material use and minimize energy, the house was autonomous, making its own energy and composting waste. Later, his geodesic dome structures would become a mainstay of disaster relieve shelter kits, easy to assemble and light weight. Throughout this period, these new attempts at pre-fabrication in service of the working class proved less successful in practice than in theory. Much of this failure could be attributed to the lack of the architect’s desire to actually engage with the communities for which they were designing. Arguably, most architects likely could not even conceive of social engagement in its present form. Their understanding of the architect as the master builder and facilitator, and therefore the grand top-down organizer of society, did not allow for bottom-up design strategies. As in Design Like You Give A Damn, Katie Stohr, notes:
“Le Corbusier’s low cost housing for workers in Pessac...prefigured a move away from the craft of building toward the technology of building. It took design out of the realm of the many and put it in the hands of an educated few. Perhaps more important, it negated the need for a dialogue between the architect and the occupant. Suddenly a house could be designed, detailed, and delivered without the architect ever meeting its owner.”14 Euro-centrism also blinded architects to productive examples of prefabrication in other cultures, such as the Mongolian Gers, developed since the 1300s as a completely standardized kit-of-parts, down to the hinges and stoves.15 Unfortunately, the trend of top-down design intervention would only continue, and intensify into the mid-century years, lead by a group of architects and planners unaware that their top-down visions for the future of cities simply did not conform to the complex realities facing human settlements. the development of urbanism
The undersigned architects, representing the national groups of modern architects, affirm their unity of viewpoint regarding the fundamental conceptions of architecture and their professional obligations towards society. They insist particularly on the fact that “building” is an elementary activity of man intimately linked with evolution and the development of human life. The destiny of architecture is to express the orientation of the age. Works of architecture can spring only from the present time. 13 Stohr 36 14 Ibid. 37 15 [http://www.woodlandyurts.co.uk/Yurt_Facts/Build_Your_Own.html]
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They therefore refuse categorically to apply in their working methods means that may have been able to illustrate past societies; they affirm today the need for a new conception of architecture that satisfies the spiritual, intellectual, and material demands of presentday life. Conscious of the deep disturbances of the social structure brought about by machines, they recognize that the transformation of the economic order and of social life inescapably brings with it a corresponding transformation of the architectural phenomenon.16 -CIAM La Sarraz Declaration, 1928 CIAM, the International Congresses of Modern Architecture, was founded in 1928 under the La Sarraz declaration. During the interwar period, CIAM, under the thumb of Le Corbusier, forwarded a new formal typology for cities in The Athens Charter under the term The Functional City.17 Although some elements of The Functional City were legitimately grounded in context, such as solar orientation, The Functional City codified the team members’ theories of a top-down approach to the design of cities without regard for the desires of those that would inhabit them. World War Two wiped out huge swaths of urban areas across the world, causing a crisis of shelter on a global scale, providing CIAM proteges a chance to test their ideas. As Europe and Japan began the rebuilding process, low-rise apartment buildings constructed using local practices were still the favored norm. For example, in the Ina Casa districts south of Rome, Italy, a ten-year plan for building worker housing, began with detailed attention to form, scale and identity.18 However, architects and planners quickly realized that the scale of need was far greater than such nuanced approaches to city building could afford. Some architects attempted new forms of pre-fabrication to speed up the process, such as Gropius’s collaboration with General Panel Corp, or Jean Prouvé’s attempts in France. However, such attempts proved fruitless in the eye of the public. In Chapter 3 of her MIT dissertation “CIAM and the Emergence of Team 10 Thinking, 1945-1959,” Annie Pedret uncovers a plethora of members’ grievances with the current state of modern architecture. In particular many voiced negative reactions to architecture’s allegiance to dialectics of “form and function, and beauty and utility,” with an increasing desire for architecture to relate more directly to site and social issues. Pedret notes Ernesto Rogers’ vocal objections to aspects of modernism emanating from earlier CIAM conferences, exclaiming that, “An architecture that did not take into account aspects of the country, region, 16 Ulrich Conrads, ed Programs and Manifestoes on 20th Century Architecture (Cambridge, MA: Massachuestts Institute of Technology Press, 2nd ed, 1971) 109. 17 For more on CIAM, se Mumford, Eric Paul, The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000.) and Fishman, Robert, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century : Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier. (New York: Basic Books, 1977.) 18 Stephanie Pilat. “Building on Tradition: Appropriations of Local Histories in the Neighborhoods of Ina-Casa.” In Reconstructing Italy: The Ina-Casa Neighborhoods of the Postwar Era. Dissertation, UM, 2009.
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Ina Casa Housing, Italy
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city, and dwelling unit at the moment of execution, and urban plans that did not provide the flexibility needed to allow for changes in the social milieu were academic. They were no longer forms, but formalism.”19
“Before realizing a plan the population has to be educated, which requires the architect and urbanist to take on a new social role.”
Pedret also notes positions on how architecture should engage society. Rogers argued that “before realizing a plan the population has to be educated, which requires the architect and urbanist to take on a new social role.”20 This seems antithetical to The Functional City. In CIAM 8, discontent with the Functional City exacerbated, and members increasingly focused on desires for a more humane direction for modernism. Unsuprisingly, the discontent split upon generational lines: “For the executive old guard, the city plan remained the product of a topdown approach according to which the expert architect provided a space for satisfying popular social (Le Corbusier), spiritual (Giedion), and civic (Sert) needs. For the younger Dutch and English members, the role of the architect was to satisfy the needs of a socially responsible, politically engaged citizenry.”21 In spite of these grievances in the discourse, city planners and architects, overwhelmed with the scale of need, and armed with the design proposals of the Bauhaus and CIAM, began the construction slab apartment blocks throughout many major cities, meant to house working class. In America, these projects ultimately served a secondary purpose of hastening the flight of middle and upper classes (mostly white folk) out of the city. From Pruitt-Igoe to the work of the Smithsons in Britian, the general public’s vision of design thinking able to address social problems heavily degraded, in part due to the stark aesthetic associated with functionalism. As Katie Stohr quips “In the public eye at least, the modernist tower block became the scapegoat for an era of flawed housing policies…Rather than fulfilling the promise of decent housing, Urban Renewal left a legacy of corruption, rioting, poverty, crime, discrimination, despair and isolation.”22 Such attempts at smart buildings with ‘unfortunate’ aesthetics cast a dark shadow over future attempt at ‘social architecture.’ self help + CORE HOUSING In response to the need for aid and development, Non-Governmental Organizations or NGOs formed to fill the gaps that governments could not, or would not fill. Organizations such as American Red Cross, Oxfam and Catholic Relief Services developed and expanded greatly in the post-war years.23 Grounded in the pioneering work of women such as 19 Annie Pedret CIAM and the emergence of Team 10 thinking, 1945-1959. Dissertation, MIT, 2001. 85 20 Ibid 81 21 Ibid 95 22 Stohr, 41 23 The American Red Cross was actually founded in 1881 by Clara Barton, but considerably stepped up its initiatives after World War Two.
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Clara Barton and Dorothy Day during the Progressive Movement in the late 19th - early 20th century, these organizations added capacity, along with other bureaucratic or extra-governmental organizations such as the United Nations, and USAID in America. Throughout the 1950s, disaster relief diverged from development work, particularly in the United States, where slum clearance and urban renewal initiatives were not seen as methods to improve the lives of the poor, but to evict them from city centers. The construction of low-cost housing in rural areas was left to NGOs, many of which did not trust architects to productively engage communities afteri their failures to improve the city. Most instead relied on engineers to design and oversee projects. Stohr quips:
Although architects participated in and in many cases mobilized self-help housing programs, the very concept was a negation of the traditional role of the architect. Design was not perceived as adding value. Architects in the self-help housing model were mere trainers if not unnecessary inconveniences.24 As designers retreated from improving living conditions, many poor Americans found the one and only successful pre-fabricated housing solution an acceptable option: the Mobile Home. Standardized to the current 10 foot width in 1956, this solution represents the home option for 25% of North Americans, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development heavily regulates standards. Meanwhile in developing nations, core housing (or incremental housing) as a new form of construction for the poor, came as a response to local needs and funds.25 The concept was grounded on the reality that governments and NGOs simply could not afford to provide completed homes to everyone, and the poor simply could not afford the elements of a completed home all at once. Therefore, top-down planning could provide for certain services and basic architectural elements, leaving the residents to complete their individual homes on their own terms. The first successful implementation of core housing occurred in Puerto Rico in 1949, a project of “self help and mutual aid” that entitled 67,000 farm workers to small plots of land approximately 3 acres. Families organized into groups of 30 to help build each other’s homes, with revolving loan funds to finance the work. Officials helped encourage participation. Each group was assigned a construction supervisor and a social worker. Families chose the aesthetic and construction methods for their own home. Between 1949-early 1960s 30-40,000 homes built.26 Puerto Rico’s program continued successfully well into the 1960s, implemented far better than the Egyptian Architect Hassan Fathy’s 24 Stohr, 45 25 Horatio Caminos and Reinhart Goethert ‘Urbanization Primer’ (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978) 26 Stohr, 41
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attempt to resurrect traditional Egyptian forms with poor communities. Fathy, trained at University of Cairo, was inspired to by vernacular Egyptian architecture during a period when Egypt suffered from shortages in steel, timber and concrete. Landing a project in New Gourna, Egypt, Fathy tested traditional materials and sustainable building techniques, and attempted to engage residents to assist in the construction of their homes as a way of building trust and ownership. The community, which would include a mosque, a school, a theater and other amenities, was constructed between 1946-1953 of traditional mudbrick craftsmanship historical to the region. Unfortunately the project did not transpire according to Fathy’s hopes. Villagers rejected Fathy’s ideas of traditional material use and forms. Moreover, they expected finished products instead of incremental homes. Due to this tension, Fathy was forced to employ hired construction laborers to complete the project instead of employing the residents, and for many years the community was under-populated. Fathy’s failure here is rooted directly in the Modernist position that the architect entered into a locale as savior, attempting to implant alternative methods upon the citizens of that locale without engaging them in the design process from the project’s inception. In spite of Fathy’s altruism, he fundamentally could not account for the realities of how people desired to live. COMMUNITY DESIGN
Egyptian Architect Hassan Fathy Tafline Laylin; Hassan Fathy is The Middle East’s Father of Sustainable Architecture, February 26th, 2010 [http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/02/hassn-fathysustainable-architecture/] Viewed on 3 May, 2012
“The certified professional makes a fool of himself, and often does a great deal of harm to other people, by assuming that he knows more than the uneducated by virtue of his schooling. All that secondand third-hand knowledge and intellectual exercising does for him, however, is to reduce his ability to listen and learn about situations significantly different from his own social and economic experience - with consequences that can be tragic when he has the power to impose his solutions on those who are not strong enough to resist”27 -Turner and Fischer Policy shifts across American and Europe in the 1970s created new opportunities for development work as self-help and core housing gained support. The UN held a number of conferences on the topic, and the World Bank shifted its focus from funding housing to other slum-improvement initiatives, particularly site selection, services and infrastructure, and in some cases, assisted in attaining land tenure. The notion of slum redevelopment slowly transformed to the concept of
upgrading, assisted by micro-credit lending for building infrastructure. As Nabeel Hamdi in Housing without Houses explains, “Slum upgrading typically entails blocking out to regularize land, control settlement, and deliver services and utilities.”28 Organizations such as the Cooperative 27 Turner, John F. C. and Robert Fichter joint author. Freedom to Build; Dweller Control of the Housing Process. (New York,: Macmillan, 1972.) pg 47 28 Nabeel Hamdi, Housing without Houses,, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York,Ny, 1991, 17.
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Housing Foundation (CHF) advised governments on policy while implementing self-help and sites-and-services programs. These approaches also had limits. For one, occupants would not invest time and money in property they did not own. The model also tended to relocate people from urban cores to periphery areas where land was available, making accessibility to jobs and services difficult, and creating social unrest. Third, financial accounting within NGOs put pressures on quantity over quality, regarding design as a low priority, and with very little environmental consideration. In America, community participation intertwined with the civil rights and social justice movements. The Community Design Center, or CDC, emerged from a particularly rowdy 100th AIA convention in 1968, when in a speech, civil rights leader Whitney M Young Jr, Executive Director of the Urban League, scolded a room of architects:
Demolition of Pruit-Igoe, 1972
“You are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social and civic contributions to the cause of civil rights, and I am sure this does not come to you as any shock. You are most distinguished by your thunderous silence and your complete irrelevance...You are employers, you are key people in the planning of our cities today. You share the responsibility for the mess we are in...It didn’t just happen. We didn’t just suddenly get this situation. It was carefully planned” In spite of this cry, architects continue to retreat from social agency; it would take them a few decades to again reassert their design intelligence for social good. ‘STARCHITECTURE’: attempted return to total design From the mid 1960s-2007, various conditions coalesced into what became know as post-modernity; including the triumph of capitalist economies, loss of faith in Enlightenment ideals, a philosophical and political disorientation in wake of the collapse of socialist experiments, and ‘free market’ ideologies proliferating through the culture industry. Architecture responded to these conditions through various methods of retreat from social practices, ether into former cultural traditions, or through the explicit denial of the social in favor of an internalized architecture as critical art practice.29 In 1972, MoMA published the Five Architects Catalogue, including writing by Peter Eisenman. In the text, Eisenman expounded on the development of formal manipulations through rule-sets, focused exquisitely on the architectural product as a unique siteless, programless form.30 Architecture, according to Eisenman, was a discipline unto itself outside the realm of design or art, and with its own linguistic characteristics of 29 Thomas A Dutton and Lian Hurst Mann, ‘Modernism, Postmodernism and Architecture’s Social Project” in Re-Constructing Architecture’, (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1996) 6 30 Museum of Modern Art; Five architects: Eisenman, Graves, Gwathmey, Hejduk, Meier. (New York, N.Y.: Wittenborn, 1972)
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House III transformation diagrams Peter Eisenman
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walls, floors, and stairs. By organizing rule-sets, manipulations to the basic elements would produce unique and complex spaces. Although rebuked by The Greys, the concepts forwarded by Eisenman influenced a generation of Architects, who preferred the ease of internalized logics to the difficulties of working within complex socioeconomic and political conditions. This trend was exacerbated in the 1980s by failures of the Reagan administration in the United States to fund community development, meaning few chances for architects to perform paid work in socially conscious design. Although funding rebounded under Clinton, the effects of the rebound wouldn’t be felt until the turn of the millennium.
Starcitecture as the epitome of indulgent architectural practice reached public acceptance in the wake of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Cities realized that employing an architect trained in the pure aesthetics of total design to create a focal point cultural building could dramatically increase the economic standing of the city through increased tourism and civic investment. The ‘Bilbao Effect’31 was subsequently mirrored throughout developed nations in struggling cities, such as Santiago Calatrava’s Art Museum in Milwaukee, WI. Milwaukee Art Museum Santiago Calatrava, 2001 Image by author
Although opening up opportunities for the investigation of new form and harnessing new digital tools, this trend has generally had a disastrous effect on the profession at large, as students and professionals came to lack the moral underpinning of the Modernist generation. “Architecture is shamefully comlicitous in these later trends, in that image making and other modes of aesthetic differentiation are now key to general economic production. The pressure on architects to establish distinct forms, styles, and images is clearly felt.”32 However, not all architects have ‘drunk the koolaid’ - contemporary formal investigation has been coopted by a new generation of architects working with communities. It’s Total [Re]Design.
31 Which has its roots in the Sidney Opera House, or arguably back to the Acropolis... 32 Thomas A Dutton and Lian Hurst Mann, ‘Modernism, Postmodernism and Architecture’s Social Project” in Re-Constructing Architecture’, (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1996) 6
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Total [Re]Design: CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES
chapter 3: total [re]design New Architectures of Social Engagement
Form is a mystery which eludes definition, but makes [us] feel good in a way quite unlike social aid.01 - Alvar Aalto
Socially responsible design celebrates social, cultural, ethnic, gender and sexuality differences; is critical of existing asymmetrical social structures and relationships of power and seeks to redistribute power and resources more equitably; changes sociaty; continually calls into question its own social, cultural and philosophical premises, and, through a continuing dialectic, seeks to ensure that its ends are consistent with its means; seeks in its process, to develop strategies for public intervention and participatory democracy. Socially responsible design recognizes that only those people affected by an environment have any right to its determination; avoids the use of mystifying private or professional languages; takes as its frame of reference the collective meanings of empowerment; recognizes that the process of empowerment can only be a process of self-empowerment, and that designers must engage in a process of mutually empowering experiences with the disempowered; recognizes that the process of participatory self-empowerment is a never-ending, ongoing struggle that there is no “ideal” or utopian state that can ever be attained.02
- Stephan Marc Klein
If you strip away all the ego and all the design theory and all the hype, all we do is provide shelter and if you can’t do that you can’t call yourself an architect.03 - Cameron Sinclair
01 Goldberger, Paul. Why Architecture Matters. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) 82 02 Stephan Marc Klein, Introduction to catalog What is Socially Responsible Design? (New Yorl: Pratt Institute and Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, 1993). 03 Lukas Feireiss, “Riders on the Storm. Into This House We’re Born and Into this World We’re Thrown’ in Architecture of Change, ed Kristin Feireiss, Lukas Feireiss (Berlin: Gestalten, 2008) 25
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Form and Process Arguably a place still exists for the total work of architecture, in spite Lebius Woods’s insistence that “The idea of Gesamtkunstwerk...has long since gone the way of all 19th century Romantic ideals, into the trash-heap of history.” We humans respond to great architecture, when inspiring spaces, materials, and forms combine to create catalytic effects upon surrounding communities, exemplified by the Bilbao effect. As Giselmann and Ungers note, “Form is the expression of spiritual content.”01 The highest point in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs points to self actualization, creativity, and delight.02 But where does one Biblao art museum leave the billions of people unable to access such institutions? Is art only achieved at the expense of others, as opposed to in collaboration with them? Must we sacrifice great spaces and the art of architecture to house everyone? In 1975 Denise Scott Brown wrote an article for Oppositions, On Architectural Formalism and Social Concern: A Discourse for Social Planners and Radical Chic Architects’ noting that:
Modern architectural theory dictates that form should derive from Function; that is, that the physical appearance of a building should be derived totally from the program of physical (and maybe psychological) requirements given by the client, and from the imperatives of structure and construction. The architect’s or client’s previous experience and symbolic associations with form or preferences for certain forms over others should, according to this theory, have nothing to do with the design process, and previous, traditional, or culture-based ways of arranging forms - previous “formal languages”- should not be accepted. She goes on to note that:
Allegations of social and architectural irresponsibility can, indeed, be made if the architect does not resynthesize all factors to the greatest extent possible in design. But there is nothing socially irresponsible, per se, with the analysis of form.”03 Brown’s argument has become a primary driver for contemporary social design practices emerging in the past twenty years, using form, and by extension, aesthetic, ornament, and technique, as a means of engaging communities. If form is not in question then, process is - how do designers reach formal solutions?
01 Reinhard Gisselmann and Oswald Mathias Ungers; Towards a New Architecture in Programs and Manifestos on 20th Century Architecture ed Ulrich Conrad (Cambridge MA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2nd ed 1971) 165 02 [http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp] Viewed on 3 May, 2012 03 Denise Scott Brown; On Architectural Formalism and Social Concern: A Discourse for Social Planners and Radical Chic Architects’ (originally published, 1975) in Oppositions Reader, K. Michael Hays, ed (Princeton Architectural Press, 1998) 317-330
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scales of intervention URBANISM ARCHITECTURE SITE CONTEXT ENERGY SUN AIR HEAT
OBJECT
PROGRAM USERS INHABITANTS MATERIAL STRUCTURE CONSTRUCTION
Le Corbusier famously quipped that architects must be able to design everything from the spoon to the city. With that in mind, Total [Re]design has tended to follow one of three scales: object, architecture, and urbanism. In the spoon’s case, designers work out prototypes of industrial design at the human scale. Design products may be modified through the process of community engagement, but are generally created within the design studio. Objects such as the Portable Light Project by KVA MatX, LifeStraw and Q-Drum all seek to improve the lives of many through design.04 But considering that this form of engagement need not consider larger questions of site, context and climate, or temporal concerns of permanence and chance, for the sake of this thesis I will limit the discussion of this scale. In the second scale, the architectural, designers engage a community, or a community engages designers, to construct a particular project or series of projects, typically small to medium sized buildings including apartments or homes, community centers or other public buildings. Projects are completely unique, tailored to specific conditions and contexts, and with the goal that the process is the replicable agent. This is currently the model by which many contemporary designers operate, including Rural Studio, MASS design, Anna Heringer, Francis Kéré, and Architecture for Humanity.
Woman Using Q Drum in Indonesia [http://kopernik.info/image/woman-using-q-drumindonesia-0, April 21, 2012]
In the largest scale, that of urbanism, the public becomes the client - governments or NGOs play the part of mediator, first engaging with communities, then hiring designers to engage in the design process. This model could include new infrastructures, larger quantities of housing or slum-lifting and/or other services, generally executed as prototypes. Urban Think Tank, Elemental, and Architecture for Humanity all engage at this level. Although products may be specifically tailored to context, similar to the architectural scale, products also tend to be more universal in scope, such that both the process and the product may be replicable. Much of the larger-scaled reconstruction work in Haiti follows this model, similarly to large scale slum-upgrading programs throughout Latin America and Asia.
EDUCATIONAL PARADIGMS In order to effect change, many designers use education as a primary conduit, or mediating role in collaboration. As Hannes Meyer noted,
“Building is an activity profoundly connected with social-economic needs and the spiritual superstructure. And the architect is always of necessity a collaborator. He does his work together with economists
04 Lance Hosey, Towards a Humane Environment: Sustainable Design and Social Justice” in ‘Expanding Architecture: Design As Activism” Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford, ed; 2008 Metropolis Books, New York, NY, 35.
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and industrialists, with workers, artisans, and housewives.’05 Cultural exchange is necessarily a two way street. Architects in such circumstances learn informally throughout the process of design, researching and familiarizing themselves with new cultures, sites, and conditions. In parallel, clients and communities also have opportunities to learn from designers. If this is indeed the case, the architect has agency to design pedagogical experiences for and with our clients and future community members. Although informal moments of learning undoubtably occur throughout any exchange, significant opportunity exists to explicitly lead clients in new ways. Building on Jean Piaget’s epistemological theory of constructivism, Seymour Papert developed the notion of Constructionism in the mid 1980s. The theory suggests that making things is an active learning experience. As Edith Ackermann notes, “knowledge, to constructivists, is not a mere commodity to be transmitted—delivered at one end, encoded, retained, and re-applied at the other. Likewise, the world is not just sitting out there waiting to be uncovered, but gets progressively shaped and reshaped as people interact with it.”06 Constructing things as a method of knowledge building is partially the goal of architecture school, but it can serve as a fundamental mediating role in interactions with clients, communities, and construction professionals. To that end, three phases of formal education exist across the process of building creation: Construction Training, Community Design, and Architecture School. Although all three are most often considered as autonomous processes, innovative practices are blurring the boundaries between disciplinary and temporal lines.
Construction Training When the builder’s attention is narrowed by training, whether in the dusty shop of a master carpenter or the sleek classroom of a university, past experience is not obliterated. It endures in the strange caves of the breain and in the old habits of the muscles as they seek smooth routes throu the air. Education adds a layer. In precept and admonition, in pedagogical technique, if not in content, the teacher brings cultural values into the process of transmission. 07 Generally, two forms exist for training workers in construction. Informal on-the-job or apprenticeship models are field based, and intrinsically linked to the specifics of projects. In such circumstances novices learn
05 Andrew Saint, The Image of the Architect (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 136 06 Edith K. Ackermann, Constructivism(s): Shared roots, crossed paths, multiple legacies’; (Constructivism 2010, Paris) 2 07 Glassie, Henry H. Vernacular Architecture. Vol. no. 2. (Philadelphia :Bloomington: Material Culture ;Indiana University Press, 2000.) 18
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Pamphlet on Vocational Schools for Building Trades Doxiadis and Associates with the Government of Iraq 1956
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with an experienced worker, following along and assisting in the work product. Conversely, formalized methods of instruction and information transfer are manifest through construction training or vocational schools, emerging during the industrial revolution alongside training schools for industrial production.
Workers building Ghando Primary School, completed in 2001, Francis Kéré, architect.
In the first form, on-the-job, the full scale mock-up serves as both an age-old technique for guaranteeing design ideas, and as a unique training experience for workers. In particular, the technique not only serves to prove concepts to the designer, it creates buy-in with local communities dubious of foreign ideas. Francis Kéré relies completely upon local labor and materials. However novel techniques of building construction, new to the community, require explicit methods of training. To convince residents of the new opportunities, Kéré uses full scale mock-ups to prove operability.08 Climatic adaptation, low building costs and self-building are the focus of Kéré’s crafts: “The community needs to be educated about how to monitor climatic circumstances and how to use local materials. Only people who take part in building processes can maintain and spread the word about these developments.”09 The second form, the vocational school, requires an institutionalization of practice methods. In 1956, Constantinos Doxiadis was hired by the Iraqi government to develop urbanization strategies for Iraq’s five largest cities. Doxiadis began a series of workshops and design studies to urbanize Baghdad (along with four other Iraqi cities). The city was faced with similar pressures found in many urban zones today from a steep influx of migrants from rural areas. Through the process, Doxiadis developed a series of vocational construction training schools meant to anchor new communities with an institution that would foster the quick urbanization procedures required. In the school:
a. Students will live and be trained in a healthy place surrounded by lots of green. b. Students will be given the opportunity to work on their trades in the housing projects of the Western Baghdad Development which will be constructed, during the next few years in the neighboring area: they will thus be able to participate in their country’s development from the very beginning of their vocational career. c. Construction of a Research Center on the site located south of the Baghdad School is now under consideration. This will enable the two institutions to cooperate on common subjects of construction methods.”10 Proposed construction Training school Doxiadis and Associates 1956
Here, Doxiadis conceptualized a formal mode of information transfer for poor communities, using the construction training school as a 08 Francis Kere; Lecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 11 Nov 2011 09 [http://www.kerearchitecture.com/person.html] Viewed on 30 April, 2012 10 Iraq Ministry, of Development and consulting engineers Doxiadis Associates. Vocational Schools for Building Trades. (Baghdad, Iraq,: The Ministry, 1957.) 5
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potential locus for community building, not merely physical construction. This forward thinking agenda was unique to Doxiadis at the time, but unfortunately the program was canceled after Iraq succumbed to a coup in 1958. More recently NGOs such as YouthBuild International have developed construction training programs, but rarely have they included input from the design professions.
barriers between fabrication space, vertical prototyping space graded prototyping space and classrooms are permeable
clam bucket distributes aggregate to create grade
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Interactive Construction School Austin Parks + Lisa Ishihara Studio Total [Re] Design, Boston Architectural College
As Fathy and Corb embody, the historicized scenario of architect engaging in social outreach suggests an upper class Westerner barging into poor neighborhoods showing ‘better’ ways to live. However, this attitude has shifted greatly by architects working in such contexts, where designers are beginning to enter different cultures and communities with their hands open - seeking to learn first from local communities, and then work WITH them to develop strategies, designs, techniques, and technologies. This reciprocal learning process is emergent and truly innovative. By not only engaging communities, but bringing them into the design process in various ways, architecture becomes a conduit for participation, empowerment and pride in locality. For example, in the Elemental housing projects by Alehandro Aravena, the base unit is thoroughly designed by the architect, and maintains a fairly stark, clean aesthetic. Perfect for pictures. However, the true genius of the project is its reliance upon inhabitants not merely to inhabit the structure, but to complete the structure on their own dime. Similar to the model developed a half-century ago in Puerto Rico, this incremental housing solution allows owners to grow their homes as they attain the funds to do so, Yet this incremental approach is not merely a free-for-all. Arevena and his colleagues actively coach new communities in design, leading exercises where new residents are asked to envision their buildout, and are guided towards solutions that benefit not only their own dwelling, but set a common standard across the community.11 This is not construction training. It is design practice.
Architecture SchooL Marie Aquilino suggests that architects have at least three zones by which to be effective in poor or post-disaster contexts: capacity, representation, and vision. Capacity suggests that architects have the
11 [http://www.archdaily.com/10775/quinta-monroy-elemental/] Viewed on 10 May 2012
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Community Design: Participation + Collaboration
machinery for fabricating into grade
gradable prototypin
The studio ‘Total [Re]Design’, taught in the Spring of 2012 at the Boston Architectural College by the author with colleague Aviva Rubin, builds on Doxiadis’ proposal, suggesting agency for architects to develop new forms of vocational training institutions. Students were asked to find a location in Boston that could benefit from such an institution based on a series of filters and mappings of the city. They then designed the institution’s pedagogy, program, and finally, architecture.
interactive construction school - graded proto space
Elemental Housing design Charrette Alehandro Aravena 2007
Total [Re]Design: CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES
experience to erect structures able to handle “needs, resources, and budges through the arc of a program.”12 Representation suggests that architects may assist in mediating a series of complex relationships between a community and local officials, businesses, infrastructures, sites, and ecologies. The third, vision, suggest that in the wake of disaster, in “a state of emergency it is difficult for desperate individuals to imagine a better future. Architectural expertise can promote public heath, encourage investing in new skills and environmental awareness, and advocate for mitigating risk, which together help ensure a sustainable way of life.”13 Yet how do such architects get trained? Architectural education has seen a waxing and waning of social engagement throughout the past century. “Currently, architectural education mostly prepares student to meet the building needs of relatively wealthy individuals and organizations, even though most of the growth in population and most of the need for architectural services exists among billions of impoverished people across the planet.”14 Architecture as indulgence has dwelled on theoretical, geometrical, and formal manipulations as sales techniques for rich patrons, so architectural education has tended to favor those that can afford to take years out of their lives to study. The effects of such methods are still fully apparent within a majority of architecture schools today, where students often spend multiple years manipulating form around internal programs, or on complex sites, but with little to no experience actually talking to non-architects throughout the design process. Moreover, schools have historically under-valued assessment and feedback of architecture’s impact as educational tools. As Thomas Fisher notes,“While scarce funding for architectural research has limited the ability of architects and others to assess building performance broadly and systematically, the public has long judged the ethics of what architects do according to the utility of their designs.”15 Architecture school, and specifically the design studio, is inherently meant to instill an epistemological structure - students acquire the skills of architecture through various core curriculum courses and studios, and through the process form their own beliefs of what architecture is over the course of their education. The truths of architecture, as seen from the western perspective, have an ideological basis in the GrecoRoman notions of Commodity, Firmness, and Delight; they read today as successfully accommodating programmatic requirements on budget, with a structure of durable materials that will stand up indefinitely, and that is enjoyable to inhabit. A series of pragmatic realities must 12 Marie Aquilino; Beyond Shelter (New York, NY: Metropolis Books, 2011) 8 13 Aquilino, 9 14 Thomas Fisher ‘Public Interest Architecture’ in Expanding Architecture: Design As Activism (New York, NY: Metropolis Books, 2008) 10 15 Thomas Fisher ‘Ethics: A Pervasive and Often Overlooked Presence in Architectural Education’ in Architecture School, Joan Oakman, ed; (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2012) 313.
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ultimately be addressed in order to produce a building, regardless of one’s belief systems or intent. These realities, very broadly defined, include: program, site, energy, climate, light, materials, and structure. Additionally, a series of less tangible conceptual frameworks help designers make design decisions, including, but not limited to: space, form, transitions, circulation, meaning, history, culture and context. The eventual outcome of a project is dictated by the way in which a designer’s beliefs overlap with pragmatic truths. This, in shorthand, is architectural knowledge. Educational experiences that lead to the production of form, style, and aesthetic are critical steps in the development of the architect as distinct from engineer or planner. It most however be accompanied by parallel experiences that foster student’s awareness and comfort engaging non-architects throughout the process. As previously described, form as an active actor in the project of social engagement has deep roots. The Bauhaus meant to instill its students with a moral outlook, but based within a particular formal idiom. Yale has, for the past 40 years, committed its first-year masters students to the construction of a home for a low-income family, using design innovation as an under-riding principle. And recently, academic programs have begun supporting new research tracks and coursework to address the disparities between the rich and poor through design. Innovative programs such as Rural Studio at Auburn University (1993), University of Virginia’s ecoMOD (2004), The Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State, SlumLab at Columbia University (2007) and SIGUS, CO-Lab and D-Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have all developed novel methods for students and faculty to engage non-designers directly, using the institution as a vehicle for executing projects. Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner of Urban Think Tank created the Sustainable Living Urban Model Laboratory (SlumLab) at Columbia Unviersity with the goal to “shift the emphasis of contemporary architecture and architectural education from form-driven to purposeoriented and to eliminate the disconnect between design and its social impact.”16 In their model, students, under the direction of the directors, take on the task of envisioning and implementing ‘SlumLifiting’ techniques, often based in infrastructural improvements. The ecoMOD program at the University of Virginia, lead by John Quale, seeks not only to provide students with a design/build experience, but also to reconceptualze the notion of pre-fabrication as a critical tool for addressing environmental, and social, and economic sustainability. Quale emphasizes the need for houses to be affordable, free of toxic materials 16 Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner; Slumlifting: An Informal Toolbox for A New Architecture’ in Beyond Shelter, Marie Aquilino ed (New York, NY: Metropolis Books, 2011) 128
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and minimal energy required. In his book Sustainable, Affordable Prefab, Quale notes that “By offering our more advanced students an opportunity to test-drive their design ideas and collaborate with other emerging professionals, we can give these students the opportunity to benefit from the nonthreatening feedback loop of academia and to more carefully hone their critical thinking skills”17 Moreover, as the program is named: design/build/evaluate, Quale teaches courses that ask students to evaluate completed projects to assess building performance and other metrics such as the economic condition of the house and its residents. At MIT, Lawrence Sass and Neil Gershenfeld, both Professors of Architecture, have developed the Fab Lab - a deployable Digital Fabrication laboratory for poor communities. The project, based around CNC routing machines to cut flat stock materials such as plywood, empowers communities to construct anything from knick-knacks to furniture, to entire buildings. Integral to the Fab Lab is the education of its students. To that end, the Fab Lab Academy “provides advanced digital fabrication instruction for students through a unique, hands-on curriculum and access to technological tools and resources.”18
Fab Lab built shotgun house: MoMA Digitally Fabricated Housing for New Orleans (Exterior). 2008
INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS +
To further consider alternative relationships between the traditional academy and informality, MIT and Harvard have recently teamed up on an online education collaboration titled ‘EdX.’ Following many other programs in online education, EdX builds on MIT’s very successful MITx, which already has over 100,000 students across the world for a single course. At this point we can only speculate as to the effects of this mode of knowledge transfer, and as I will argue later, online education may be a platform for climate-based design innovation in coming years.
+ FRANCIS KERE + ANNA HERINGER + MASS DESIGN + MIT: D-LAB/ CO-LAB + HARVARD GSD AFH + +COLUMBIA: SLUM LAB + DOXIADIS With educational outreach as an integral component to socially engaged + UNITED NATIONS UVA ecoMOD + USAID + TEDDY CRUZ +HOUSING FOR THE design practice, a new goal, one of dissemination of FISHERMAN design principles, + RURAL STUDIO +IRAQ 1956
R
R NCE F CA
MONTEREY HOUSING +
R
zones of design
+ TALLER TERRITORIAL DE MEXICO HAITI
becomes a novel driver for production. The architect’s dominance over + METI SCHOOL aesthetic judgement remains intact while also allowing for dissemination + MICRO HOME SOLUTIONS MAGIC BUS + + CENTER FOR URBAN AND RE of information, and hopefully, knowledge. + RAHUL MEHROTRA + BANG BUA
MEDELLIN +
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+ URBAN THINK TANKLimited
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IT
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ELEMENTAL + QUINTA MONROY +
moments in time exist where systems are malleable, openHOSPITAL ended field contentions yet to be honedBUTARO into standards, codes, and + KOUNKUEY DESIGN INITIATIVE + UN HABITAT prescriptive environments. Embedded systems form the backbone of society, from stop light timing mechanisms to cell phone frequencies, timber sizing to fire code regulations. Every ‘infrastructure’ ofATORZ] QU U L E Y CR contemporary globalized society has been thoroughlyLITdesigned, and ICA IO TEDD PO [ESTUD tested over years of implementation. Andrew Barry explains these phenomena as ‘technological zones’ which
+ ELEENA J
+ DESIGN INDABA
17 Quale, John; Sustainable, Affordable, Prefab: The ecoMOD Project, (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press; 2012) 47 18 [http://www.fabacademy.org/] Viewed on 3 May, 2012
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“can be understood as a space within which differences between technical practices, procedures and forms have been reduced, or common standards have been established. Such technological zones take broadly one of three forms: (1) metrological zones associated with the development of common forms of measurement; (2) infrastructural zones associated with the creation of common connection standards; and (3) zones of qualification which come into being when objects and practices are assessed according to common standards and criteria.”19 These territorial or temporal boundaries (along with socio-economic pressures) can serve as limits to achieving the total design. However, within the context of poor communities, such zones are significantly more malleable, or nonexistent. In their place, informal networks serve to do some of the work, but in many cases, the physical environment takes the burden of under-developed infrastructure. Therefore, intrinsic within the design process in such communities is the design of infrastructure. Further, just as technological zones bound areas in which certain metrics, infrastructures and qualifications dominate, so to can design ideals disseminate into surrounding territories beyond their origins. In Brazil beginning in the 1950s, modernism, brought in as the avant garde elite architecture, filtered its way into middle class homes, and eventually in the Favelas, all through auto-construction. The technological zone of materials used, construction methodologies employed and aesthetic sought after have transferred through society in a malleable and emergent manner.20 More recently, Rural Studio in rural Alabama has created a zone, a sphere of influence in which its projects have come to dominate a landscape. So to in rural Burkina Faso, Francis Kere’s introduction of novel tectonic and material systems has infiltrated into local building practices. Arguably then, socially engaged architectural practice does not present a wholly new vision for architecture as much as an age-old reliance on organizing the systems around one’s practice to ‘get it right.’ It just happens that by engaging poor communities, or cultures without significant embedded technological zones, such designers can operate without the restraints imposed in developed, or wealthy regions. Architects such as Francis Kéré or Anna Heringer do not build in rural communities of Burkina Faso or Bangladesh so they can capitalize on this open field condition, as much motivated to respond to the immediate needs of people. However this motivation cannot be glossed over. Le Corbusier also was genuinely motivated to improve the squalor of Paris with his new urban visions, seen in retrospect as horribly anti-urban and
19 Barry, Andrew, “Technological Zones” in Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (New York: Athlone Press, 2001), 16-44., 16 20 Fernando Luiz Lara The Rise of Popular Modernist Architecture in Brazil (Ganesville, FL: University Press of Florida) 2008
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Fernando Lara describes the dissemination of modernism into the Favelas in Brazil - Diagram by author.
Total [Re]Design: CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES
detrimental to the realities of city life. Motivation therefore forms a significant undercurrent throughout socially engaged practice. What metrics may be used to judge if designers are acting exploitatively for their own wellbeing, or truly being altruistic? As will be examined in the next chapter, bio-climatic design supports this altruistic design practice, as it, as opposed to the purely material and structural investigations that give rise to form and aesthetic, must truly be of a particular place, context and climate.
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a note on Representation Simplicity, Communication, comic books. Architecture is, in a sense, a mediation between representation and reality. If anything represented before executed can be considered architecture (or design?), then the form that representation takes can be a significant driver of outcome. And recently, digital representation has become standard practice, allowing for fundamentally new forms of representation across design territories. To that end, BIG’s, or Bjarke Ingels Group’s “work combines astute analysis, lighthearted experimentation, social responsibility and humor.”01 In particular, BIG leverages didactic representation using two distinct techniques that seek to allow non-designers to understand design ideas. First, BIG uses simple story-telling graphics to explain design strategies, where absolute clarity is sought over all else. In the project at far left, solar access became a primary driver for this un-built design, so simple diagrams were used to explain this concept to readers. For their Proposal for the QNM - Musee national des beaux-arts du Québec, seen at left, BIG takes the reader through a series of very simple diagrams that explain the formal morphology of the project. More diagrams (not shown here) then explain reasoning, including access to light or the preservation or enhancement of particular views to the city.02 Such drawings are similar to mayn of the construction training materials found throughout NGO developments, using images to convey meaning in place of text. Secondly, BIG uses the comic book format as a way of providing explanation to spatial concepts or other ideas on paper or screen. BIG’s monograph ‘Yes is More,’ underscores the impact of the representational format, using humor to ease the reader. Although this technique requires literacy on the part of the reader, comic-book style explanations may be quite useful in conveying ideas to clients, especially if drawings are being emailed instead of presented in person. Both representational strategies may help serve the project of social engagement directly when the use of 2D drawings are required to create dialog with clients.
01 Holcim Foundation: Regional Juror Kai-Uwe [Bergmann http://www.holcimfoundation. org/T1155/Kai-UweBergmann.htm] Viewed on 7 May 2012 02 [http://www.big.dk/] Viewed on 7 May 2012
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the bio-climatic approach
chapter 4 the Bio-Climatic Approach
“The discourse on semantics of ‘vernacular’ is inconsequential. What matters is the localized knowledge-base of climactic responsive formal techniques/operations at scales ranging from the body to the city that have been underutilized or ‘lost’ since the advent and subsequent reliance on ‘active’ systems, or those that rely on electrical energy to produce environmental effect.” 01 -Amos Rapoport: Defining Vernacular Design, 1990 “When architects view technology as a primary determinant of production and innovation, we perpetuate a blatant fiduciary irresponsibility. Despite the fact that technology dominates our buildings, our practices, and our lives, architects know relatively little about its operation, effects, and behaviors. We often unreflectively accept building technologies, energy practices, and “innovations.” In doing so, we collectively yield great momentum to techniques and technologies that may or may not serve our interests or the interests of our constituencies. Too often we limply accept the technological momentum thrust upon us by our adjacent industries and the habits of mind bestowed upon us by previous generations of building. This state of technological acquiescence is a product of a persistent, unexamined fallacy: the techniques and technologies of architecture are often taught and practiced as technologically determined rather than socially constructed.”02 - Kiel Moe: Thermally Active Surfaces, 2008 “Architecture at is most potent is performative: it is the concrete manifestation or deployment of a design matrix or servo-mechanical diagram”03
- Sanford Kwinter
01 Amos Rapoport: Defining Vernacular Design, in
Rapaport Turan, M., Vernacular
architecture : Paradigms of environmental response. (Aldershot England ;Brookfield, USA: Avebury., 1990). 02 Kiel Moe. Thermally active surfaces in architecture. 1st ed. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2010) 18 03 Sanford Kwinter Requium (Barcelona, Spain: Actar) 2010. 19
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Port au Prince, Haiti
Vernacular Formalism Humanity’s first use of building was as a means of protection from everyday weather conditions. Architecture was therefore first created to expand the protections afforded by our own skin and subsequent clothing. Form was primarily determined by two factors: material acquisition and bio-climatic adaptation, based in long-term-feedback. People inhabiting architectures changed and adapted their structures as needed to optimize whatever conditions they required. This took time, and at times the optimized condition may still not have been truly good enough. But in most cases it just had to do.01 As architecture came to include structures of permanence, local climates had significant influence on form. For example a superficial analysis of churches across Europe shows how window sizes directly correlate to The shotgun house: An African American Legacy latitude, with small openings found around the Mediterranean, and larger John Vlach, In, Upton & Vlach, Europe. “Readings in American multi-colored openings in Northern Rayner Banham makes Vernacular Architecture”, 1986 a distinction between the two types of environmental management beholden to architectural form and material: The conservative mode, Urban Shotgun House “devised by that master-environrnentalist Sir Joseph Paxton, in 1846” Porto au Prince, Haiti seeks to contain heat while also admitting light. This type, “which proverbially defines a house as four walls and a roof, is the ingrained norm of European culture.”02 However in hot and humid climates, the reverse must be true: Architecture seeks to expel heat, and limit the quantity of harsh sun light. This type, according to Banham, is the selective mode. “Traditional construction has always mixed these two modes (indeed, it is a modem intellectual conceit to separate them and has tempered both with the regenerative mode of applied energy, whether from the combustion of fuel or the exercise of human and animal muscle power. The proverbial phrase ‘Hearth and Home’ recognizes this interrelationship.”03
Industrialization Industrialization and modernization gradually have changed our relationship to climate. Climate adaptation continued through the 19th century in Europe and North America, as evidenced by the development of details such as skylights in factories and civic structures. However, technological innovations have steadily diminished the necessity for architecture to respond to local climate. A sense of technological determinism has created a cultural condition that places unreasonable emphasis upon the use of active technologies that require the input of fuels or electricity, over passive techniques embodied within the architecture.04 01 For more on vernacular architecture, see Henry H. Glassie Vernacular Architecture. Vol. no. 2. (Philadelphia :Bloomington: Material Culture ;Indiana University Press, 2000.) 02 Banham, 23 03 Ibid, 23 04 Moe 19
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John Vlach,house: The Shotgun House: An African American The shotgun An African American Legacy Legacy in: In, Upton& American John Vlach, Upton &Vlach Vlach,'Readings “Readings inin American Vernacular Architecture," Vernacular Architecture”, 1986 1986. Urban Shotgun House Porto au Prince, Haiti
the bio-climatic approach
Milestones of this determinism notably include Ben Franklin’s stove, invented in 1741, Edison’s proliferation of the light bulb in 1887 (no less than ten other inventors lay claim to the actual invention of the technology, but Edison undoubtably made the light bulb a commercial success), and Carrier’s development of air conditioning in 1902. Carrier also developed the psychometric chart, which has become a main-stay of all mechanical engineering practice since, allowing for the maximization the efficiency of mechanical systems to deliver precise temperatures and humidity levels, but with little regard to climatic variation.
Who thought building like this in Haiti was a good idea? Image by author.
Throughout the late 19th-early 20th centuries, a shift in perceptions of public health also had a significant effect on architectural form. Perceptions that dark, enclosed spaces nurtured disease abounded, and “at least in theory, glass architecture offered the benefits of sunlight, cleanliness, and healthy living.”05 Forwarded by thinkers such as Bruno Taut and Paul Scheerbart in his Glass Architecture manifesto, public perception came to desire a future of glass architecture. This manifest as “the un-shaded single-glazed facade systems that could only work if coupled with energy intensive mechanical systems able to deliver a consistent stream of air.”06 In response to the increased complexity of new mechanical systems for ventilation and air conditioning, Environmental engineering emerged as its own discipline in the 1920s. Over time, the development of active systems able to deliver heating, cooling and artificial light have done two things: First, to use an argument by Richard Sennett, such technologies have de-skilled society, to the point where today the contemporary citizen in developed society simply cannot live without mechanical devices modulating the thermal environment.07 Secondly, these technologies have decoupled architecture from context. Glass towers in the desert proliferate.
a bio-climatic Modernism
Seagram Building’s luminous ceilings seen through it’s single-glazed, unshaded facade. Mies van de Rohe + Johnson
To heighten this decoupling, many Modernist western architects sought to create a universal language for architecture that could transcend particular site conditions by celebrating the mechanistic and the technological. Rather than a building derived from local context, Modern architecture explicitly relied on such active technologies as HVAC systems and fluorescent lighting, intended to allow the new Architecture to transcend space and time to become an ‘international style.’ Projects such as the Seagram Building in New York, NY employed ‘luminous ceilings’ of fluorescent lighting, and industrial sized mechanical systems to deliver hot and cooled air to occupied spaces, at enormous energetic 05 Leslie, 306 06 Ibid, 306 07 Sennett’s argument is more general than climate adaptation, noting that many aspects of modern society ‘de-skill’ its inhabitants. He explicitly refers to moments where social interaction has been diminished, such that humans are loosing the capability of interacting with those that are different from themselves. - Richard Sennet, Lecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, 28 February, 2012.
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expense. This popularized view of Architectural Modernism explicitly opposed vernacular or regional approaches to architectural production. However, a less-discussed history of Modernism serves as the basis for today’s sustainable design movement, and the ensuing digital tools used in the design process: the pioneering research into climatically responsive architecture at many leading western Architectural institutions throughout the 1950s. Work by Victor and Alday Olgayay at Princeton, MIT’s Solar House Projects, and the Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew’s research into hot and humid climates at the Architectural Association in London, provided the basis for many computational analysis programs discussed later in this thesis. This work was foregrounded by James Marston Fitch, a meteorologist for the American army in World War Two, used his knowledge of weather after the war in architecture to write a seminal book American Building: The Environmental Forces that Shaped It (1947). In it he notes that “the ultimate task of architecture...is to act in favor of human beings: to interpose itself between people and the natural environment in which they find themselves, in such a way as to remove the gross environmental load from their shoulders.” 08 Additionally, Sibyl Moholy-Najy, teaching at Pratt, is among the earliest to propose an alternative history of architecture based on climate response and spatial typology. In her 1955 manifesto Environment and Anonymous Architecture, she argued that “contemporary architectural practice needed to be better integrated with regional, environment-based “tradition” than the rapidly multiplying combinations of exposed concrete, glass curtain walls, and mechanical air-conditioning systems allowed.”09 But well before the Moholy-Najy and Fitch suggested departures from the reliance on mechanical systems, modern architects were experimenting with forms of sun control and ‘passive’ ventilation strategies. Gropius and Meyer used sun diagrams in the 1920s to determine appropriate building spacings.10 Le Corbusier’s studies of Bris Soliel’s on multiple projects suggest attempts at understanding solar context, a technique he later used to enter new markets in Brazil, Tunisia, and India, and finally in the Carpenter Center at Harvard University. Brazillan Modernists went on to experiment heavily with architectural control techniques under the consultation of Le Corbusier. Lucio Costa’s design for the Ministry of Education in Rio de Janerio employed “sets of adjustable horizontal louvres, set into a three-dimensional gridded façade made from reinforced concrete, to allow ventilation and the entrance of solar 08 Fitch, James Marston and William Bobenhausen 1949-. American Building : The Environmental Forces that Shape it. [Rev. and updated] ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 09 Sibyl Moholy-Najy Environment and Anonymous Architecture, Perspecta 3 (New Yaven, CT: Yale University Press, 1955) 10 Walter Gropius ‘The Scope of Total Architecture’ (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 5th ed, 1955) Fig. 40
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radiation to be controlled from inside the building.”11
However, “the occasional disastrous performance, like Le Corbusier’s Salvation Army building in Paris in 1933, whose single-glazed curtain wall made the hostel rooms behind it unbearably hot in summer and frigid in winter, suggested that for all the lofty rhetoric about “exact respiration” and mechanical control, the reach of early modernist architects toward the fully controlled environment exceeded their collective grasp.”12 Accordingly, in reference to Doxiadis’s failures to truly engage climatic response, Panayiota Plya notes that “despite all the research and analysis of the locale, what prevailed most was an aesthetic imperative of standardization, which left little opportunity to contemplate a more cultured conception of the human subject or to conceive of urban development itself as a cultural process tied to the locale.”13
The Bioclimatic Chart Design With Climate Victor and Adlay Olgayay, 1963
To combat this naïveté, the Olgayay brothers played a significant role in exploring the ‘nitty-gritty’ of design with climate. The brothers immigrated to America from Hungary in 1948, having trained in architectural modernism during the inter-war years and built a handful of projects in their home country. They made their way to Princeton, and by the mid-1950s commanded a hefty research lab studying forms of modernist climate control. The brothers promoted functionalist forms as the basis for their research, using newly developed tools such as solar and thermal heliodons to test design ideas. They offer direct historical lineages to current work presented later in this thesis. In particular, the Olgayay’s developed a series of studies on thermal performance and daylight, published in the book ‘Solar Control and Shading Devices in 1957.14 This was followed up with ‘Design With Climate: Bio-climatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism in 1963.15 These books have served as primary texts for architects since, giving them new ways of understanding how climate effects buildings, and how architecture effects climate. As one architect noted, “Written 40 years ago it is still one of the most comprehensive books ever on bio-climatic architecture. [It] provides a step by step guide to understanding, learning and applying bio-climatic principles for architectural design. It is good reference for most common cases, with good theoretical information and guide to practical applications.”16 However, the Olgayay’s research was 11 Le Roux, Hannah, “The Networks of Tropical Architecture” in The Journal of Architecture vol. 8 (Autumn 2003) 339. 12 Ibid 306 13 Panayiota Pyla Back to the Future: Doxiadis’s Plans for Baghdad (Journal of Planning History 2008 7: 3) 15
Thermal and solar studies Design With Climate Victor and Adlay Olgayay, 1963
14 Olgyay, and Olgyay. Solar Control and Shading Devices, Princeton (New Jersey): Princeton University Press, 1957. 15 Victor Olgayay: Design With Climate, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 1963.) 16 Yarza, Javier; Architect; A classic of Bio-Climatic Architecture, Amazon.com Review; Mexico City, Mexico, June 23, 2003 [online} http://www.amazon.com/Design-With-Climate-Bioclimatic-Architectural/dp/0691079439
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mostly tailored to the American climatic context, and did not delve heavily into the extremes of hot or cold.
hot + humid
Building Technologies
As noted earlier, the selective mode predominates in zones of hot and humid climate. In these contexts, James Marston Fitch notes specific adaptations that include:
1. elevated living floors...offering maximum exposure to prevailing breezes 2. huge, light mass parasol-type roofs to shed subtropic sun and rain; 3. Continuous porchs and balconies to protect walls from slanting sun and blowing rain; 4. Large floor to ceiling doors and windows for maximum ventilation; 5. Tall ceilings, central halls, ventilated attics for warm weather comfort; 6. louvered jalousie, providing any combination of ventialtion and privacy...etc17 In the post-war years, work of British modernists quickly infiltrated into Britian’s colonial holdings, and vice versa. The inability for ‘international style’ architecture from northern Europe and America to create comfortable conditions in hot and humid climates infuriated architects Passive building techniques illustrated by and students from such regions - they pressured the Architectural Harvard University Massachusetts InstituteBerkeley of Technology Climate Consultant, University of California Graduate School practice of Design in such Department of Architecture & Planning Association to establish new diagrams methods for design from Climate Consultant: www.energy-design-tools.aud.ucla.edu contexts. In 1953, the first Conference on Tropical Architecture was held at University College, London. Focused on technical particularities, an entire day was devoted to issues of climate. As Hannah Le Roux notes, “By holding the conference, members of mainstream British practice acknowledged the opinions voiced by foreign students that there were absences in the canon of architectural education. The event was suggested by a Nigerian architect-in-training, Adedokun Adeyemi.”18 Maxwell Fry, former member of the MARS group, and his wife Jane Drew had partnered with Gropius between 1934-1937. After that, Fry and Drew began working in Britain’s West African colonies, where their architecture “drew [from] many of the forms first invented in the pre-war period, such as the brise soleil, raised floors and adjustable louvres, into use in the every-day built environment of colonial settlements”19 After the 1953 Conference on Tropical Architecture, the pair spent the next decade compiling research into a series of books, most notably Tropical Architecture in the Dry and Humid Zones.20 Here Fry and Drew laid out both architectural methods, techniques, and technologies (material and energy systems) as well as discussion on the role of the architect 17 James Marston Fitch, The uses of history, in Architecture and the Aesthetics of Plenty, New York, 1961, pp244-245. 18 Le Roux, 342 19 Le Roux, 342 20 Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew Tropical Architecture in the Dry and Humid Zones.(London: Batsford, 1964.).
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University of Ibadan, Tower Court and Vice Chancellor's office Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, architects. c1958
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in foreign contexts. In particular, they note that “There are three main considerations influencing architectural design in the tropics which it is necessary to distinguish as belonging particularly to the zone. These concern, first, people and their needs; second, climate and its attendant ills; and third, materials and the means of building.”21 The first is an obvious and central tenant of social engagement, the third, a tangible element, but the second, climate adaptation, is problematic, illusive and uniquely invisible. Because of this, many designers gave lip service to climatic responsiveness, when in actuality not truly understanding local conditions, especially in conditions quite unlike those found in Europe or America:
Climatic conditions were treated abstractly in terms of solar exposures, wind patterns, and rainfall data, never really becoming an integral part of material choices, spatial conceptions, or larger design sensibilities. Doxiadis Associates may have recognized the open-air courtyard and colonnaded upper gallery as typical of the region’s residential architecture, but the firm’s own reinterpretations in its standardized “house types” pushed courtyards to the side or to the back of each unit, thereby losing any of the traditional courtyards’ climatic benefits and secluded qualities 22 This issue has much to do with representation: how does one relate climatic information, when energy systems are invisible? Although light may be seen in the effect it has on material, thermal properties and air movement are very difficult to imagine in all their spacio-temporal dynamics. It would take the development of the computer and digital technology to provide a window into this invisible world.
Sustainability and the Rise of Digital Analysis Tools Since the 1950s, funding for climatically responsive architectural research, and the resulting academic coursework required by students, has ebbed and flowed with global access to flows of energy. Through a period of generally cheap energy prices, the 1960s-80s saw very little development in bioclimatic design within the mainstream architectural discourse. The environmental design movement of the 1960s counterculture grew out of elements of the research performed in the 1950s. ”While seeking new architectural, landscape and urban design proposals based on research, it eschewed purely technological solutions in favor of softer, more holistic approaches. In a more populist vein than Olgayay’s handbooks, do-it-yourself manuals like the Whole Earth Catalog also 21 Fry and Drew, 20. 22 Panayiota I Plya Hassan Fathy Revisited: Postwar Discourses on Science, Development and Vernacular Architecture in Journal of Architectural Education, 2007. 34.
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advocated passive environmental response, but as part of a radical rejection of social and architectural conventions.23 Schools such as UC Berkeley and Oregon took up the environmental design approaches, becoming strongholds to performance-driven design. The 1973 oil crisis furthered the awareness of energy scarcity and the need for designers to engage the conversation. Unfortunately this was largely a blip in an era of immensely energy intensive buildings. The crisis diminished, and by the 1980s, the culture of consumption had no place for the austere measures imposed by energy-consciousness. Through this period, new theory began to emerge, re-casting sustainability through regional design. In ‘Critical Regionalism,’ Kenneth Frampton argued that “climate should a be a main factor in architectural design and contribute as a tactic of resistance to the leveling tendencies of globalization.”24 Others such as Edward Mazria, and John Reynolds also contributed to the conversation. In 1985, G.Z. Brown and Mark DeKay published “Sun, Wind & Light: Architectural Design Strategies.” The book, republished in 2001, sought to further the work begun by the Olgayay brothers to include more formulaic methods for architects to analyze and modify architectural designs to better engage local climates.25 Over the last decade, sustainability has become a withered cultural trope, while the frequency and intensity of weather patterns, the exponentially growing human population, and dependence upon, and diminishing quantities of fossil fuels have heightened a sense of urgency. Radical shifts in practice toward sustainable design and construction are under way, provoked by texts such as Ecological Design by Sim van der Ryn, and Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough. Organizations such as The US Green Building Council have steadily gained acceptance and authority in mainstream architectural practice. Forwarding the movement in the public eye, a few starchitects have employed methods of sustainable design throughout their careers. Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, and more recently, Sauerbruch Hutton and Bjarke Ingels have focused much of their design attention towards site specificity and climate-based design strategies. However, their works, steeped in a technological top-down approach to sustainability, have ‘hijacked’ the contemporary understanding of sustainability in favor of technical solutions such as double-glazed curtain walls and photovoltaic panels. Masdar EcoCity, now a canonical case study in the development of sustainable design, defined an ideal for climate mediation through 23 Leslie 310 24 Frampton, Kenneth, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance”, in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. edited by Hal Foster, (Bay Press, Port Townsen, 1983) 25 But similarly to the Olgayay brothers, Sun, Wind, and Light focused primarily on the North American context.
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Masdar City Norman Foster And Partners with Transsolar
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architectural and urbanistic strategies. Foster, working with the environmental engineering firm Transsolar, developed ground-breaking methods for the assessing and designing climate-mediated architecture at the urban scale, incorporating passive techniques throughout the design. However that ‘sustainability’ comes at a very high price. Beyond the exorbitant price tag, Masdar government will heavily control and regulate its residents, as the city is not really so much a city, but an academic village. This control all but negates any unplanned interventions, maintaining the intended design through regulation. DIGITAL TOOLS Parallel to the rise of sustainable theory and practice, digital technologies have grown from paradigm shifting in the 1990s, to a ubiquitous part of today’s design process.26 The two developments have fostered a condition where new tools for assessing building performance are now rapidly proliferating – much based on research begun in the 1950s. The first validated tools, such as Radiance and Energy Plus, were built in scripting languages without graphical user interfaces. Therefore, early adopters of these technologies tended to be engineers, who only used them for narrowly defined analysis, such as sizing mechanical equipment. Progressive engineering firms such as Transsolar developed their own software (Transys), and although focused on the reduction of active systems in favor of ‘architectural work,’ such firms have mostly worked with high end architects and clients.27
Solar shading study Ecotect Study by Author
Ecotect, originally developed by the firm ‘Square One’ in New Zealand, was explicitly based on the Olgayay brother’s research, providing a digital graphical user interface and algorithmic structure for analyzing 3D models of buildings. The program, purchased by Autodesk in 2008, provides a user friendly interface for performing various analyses at the early stages of building and detail design, including daylight access, radiation, basic thermal performance and acoustics.28 The program, providing designers new tools during schematic design, has fundamentally changed the way architects may access climate data and use climate analysis in building design. Unfortunately though, the program is fraught with technical hurtles, including inaccurate calculation methods for daylight and thermal modeling.29 However, Ecotect also works as a front-end graphic interface for two programs that have allowed more accurate climate analysis: Radiance for lighting, and Energy Plus for thermal calculation. In this form, Ecotect paved the way for a proliferation of new climatic analysis front-end user interfaces. In 2010, the architectural research firm @UTO developed 26 Mario Carpo The Alphabet and the Algorithm (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2011O) ix 27 Transolar does in fact do pro-bono and out-reach projects. 28 [http://usa.autodesk.com/ecotect-analysis/] Viewed on 10 May 2012 29 Weissman, Dan and Omidfar, Azadeh; DESIGN WITH CLIMATE: The role of digital tools in computational analysis of site-specific architecture; in Hanif Kara and Andreas Georgoulias, Interdisciplinary Design, New York: Actar, 2012
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an interface between Ecotect and the parametric modeling software Grasshopper, for Rhinoceros, called Geco.30 And more recently, Christoph Reinhart and students at Harvard Graduate School of Design have created a plugin for Rhinoceros 3D31, a front end interface for performing various climate based analyses within the geometric space of Rhino.32 Calculations use Radiance, Daysim and Energy Plus to output results back into the Rhino space. DIVA has allowed radically new methods of design practice, including work by Azadeh Omidfar at Harvard University Graduate School of Design who re-designed building facade systems based on solar and thermal anaylysis.33 It is with this tool that the author performed much of the analysis presented later in this thesis.
Daylight autonomy calculated in DIVA for Rhino. Image by author.
SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE + BIO-CLIMATIC DESIGN “Green buildings often draw from traditional architecture and construction techniques, which facilitates acceptance.”34 Intrinsic to site-specific architecture is the thorough understanding of local climate, so from the start of its resurgence, social impact architecture has tied itself broadly to bio-climatic design. The position of the sun, direction of major wind patterns, precipitation measurements, average temperatures, and humidity all form a set of data that may be mined in the design process. To that end, researchers discovered that mortality rates increased in African hospitals built in modern styles between the 1950s-70s due to poor ventilation. When treating Tuberculosis, a disease that travels through air, ventilation can be the life or death of its patients. In response to this, MASS made the movement of air a central formal strategy, when they engaged Partners in Health to design the Butaro Tuberculosis Hospital in Rwanda. siting World Health Organization standards for 12 Air Changes per Hour (ACH),35 the design team explored the six passive techniques for ventilating space, using vernacularbased methods: stack, venturi, chimney, cross and wind catcher.36 Upon deciding to use the stack effect, MASS worked with the fan company ‘Big Ass Fans’ to include minimal active air movement within each space. The company performed their own Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) 30 “Geco’ @Uto, accessed April 15, 2012. http://utos.blogspot.com/ 31 Rhinoceros 3D is a 3D modeling software engine developed by Robert McNeil and Associates. The program is widely used in academia, as well as in some progressive architectural practices. 32 Christoph Reinhart et al; DIVA for Rhino” http://diva4rhino.com/ , April 22, 2012 33 Azadeh Omidfar; A Methodology For Designing Contemporary High Performance Shading Screen-The Integration Of ‘Form’ And The Diva Simulation Tool (Submitted for publication to Building Simulation 2011 in Sydney (November 2011)) 34 Kari Jorgensen Diener, Green Building: A Window of Opportunity [http://www. chfinternational.org/node/37171] (April 16th, 2012 ) April 20, 2012 35 World Health Organization, The world health report 2002 - Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life [http://www.who.int/whr/2002/en/] 36 MASS Design Group, Empowering Architecture: The Butaro Hospital, Rawanda; (Self Published, 2012) p70.
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Butaro Hospital: Rawanda MASS Design Group, 2011
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modeling to determine the size and quantity of fans needed to achieve the required 12 ACH.37 In the Ghando School, Francis Kéré designed a double skinned roof to combat solar radiation: a metal roof hovers above the interior structures, allowing the rooms below to breath under the shade of the roof instead of baked by it. Here, the discussion of climate was also used as a mediating agent within the process of community participation and design collaboration. Kéré used simple drawings to explain how his architecture could be cooler than the typical buildings found in Burkina Faso. It was through representations of the future building that Kéré sold the project to the community. Air Movement Diagram Ghando School Francis Kéré, 2001
In both circumstances climate mediation was employed to directly engage the conditions of the site, context and users. They used traditional strategies coupled with contemporary analysis techniques, materials, and technologies. However, both of these projects were constructed in rural environments. Such environments offer a few critical benefits for architects: 1) Rural environments often cannot rely on outside infrastructures, so must be self sufficient, providing a compelling restraint for design innovation. 2) Open space allows for appropriate siting and access to light and air. Vernacular traditions and technologies may be locally available or accessible for minimal modification. 3) Often, limited procedures of governance are in place to control formal output. However, how can climate-based design strategies engage with billions of people living in slums and informal settlements across the world? To address this question, we turn attention to Port au Prince, Haiti as a case study.
37 Michael Murphy, E-mail Message to Author, April 16, 2012.
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haiti after the earthquake
CHAPTER 5 HAITI AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE haiti and proposed design interventions
Since the late 1970s, relentless neo-liberal assault on Haiti’s agrarian economy has forced tens of thousands of small farmers into overcrowded urban slums. Although there are no reliable statistics, hundreds of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents now live in desperately substandard informal housing, often perched precariously on the side of deforested ravines. The selection of the people living in such places and conditions is itself no more “natural” or accidental than the extent of the injuries they have suffered.01 - Peter Hallward, 2010
01 Peter Hallward, Our Role in Haiti’s Plight, (The Bullet, 15 Jan, 2010) [http://www. socialistproject.ca/bullet/296.php] Viewed on 14 Sept 2011
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Over the past year, I have had the privilege to experience the reconstruction process in Port au Prince, Haiti after the devastating earthquake in January 2010. Working with a multi-disciplinary team of designers and planners from Harvard Graduate School of Design and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture and Planning, I have traveled to the city on six occasions. Originally our team worked on a project in Zoranje, a community 10km north of the city. The settlement of 300 families was the site of a Building Expo, and 525 houses have since been built. Our design work, which sought to re-cast the project not as the construction of houses, but the creation of a community, was widely accepted as an alternative approach, but ultimately untenable to the speed and demands of politics.01 Since that project, our team has used the research learned to begin work with other NGOs and institutions, with the hope of facilitating more resilient strategies for reconstruction and future urbanization. Haiti can serve as a case study for this thesis in multiple ways: Both before, and now after the earthquake, Haiti is a worst-case scenario of much of the Majority World, where people who’d been priced out of their land, or their goods lost value in the globalized market place have been forced into cities. Clearly this fast-paced urbanization has taken an irrevocable toll on the environment. In the past half-century such places have seen a wide spectrum of intervention by those in power, ranging from complete diffusion of settlements to legitimation and upgrading. Cities such as Medellin, Columbia or Belo Horizonte, Brazil, have proved that physical design improvements can make social, as well as environmental change, but those changes must be accompanied by ongoing bottom-up as well as top-down support.02 Add to the corruption and destitution from debilitating earthquake, and the context of Haiti is a perfect locale for socially engaged design.
Port au Prince upon Approach Image by author
Rendering of Zoranje in Designing Process Rendering by author
YEARS OF STRUGGLE Haiti’s history is all but defined by foreign involvement. Politically charged histories of the nation tend to gloss over more brutal moments, but generally, Haiti’s continued political corruption is a direct result of unchecked global capitalist tendencies stretching back to 1492. Within 25 years of the Columbus’s landfall on Hispaniola, 90% of the indigenous Taino population had died from disease, malnutrition or slavery. Spain and France eventually settled territorial disputes, and by the end of the 18th century, as Paul Farmer notes “Saint-Dominique - roughly the size of the modern state of Maryland - generated more revenue than all thirteen North American colonies combined”03 Unfortunately for the Colonial power, the French Revolution had 01 Werthmann, Christian, et al; DesIn du processus | Designing Process: Exemplar Community Development Project, Volume 3, [online] http://issuu.com/gsdmit/docs/ designingprocess, 2012 02 Alejandro Echeverri “Social Urbanism for the poorest and most violent areas, to achieve urban sustainability and social equity in the city of Medellín” 03 Hallward, Peter “Damming the Flood” (London, England: Verso, 2010) 9.
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Team from Harvard GSD and MIT, Zoranje Foundation, and Deutche Bank, with Bill Clinton and Haitian President Michelle Martelly, June 2011
haiti after the earthquake
extraterritorial effects. Saint-Dominique slaves began a revolt in 1791, ultimately creating the first free black nation in 1804, even fending off Napoleon’s attempt to reclaim the territory. Peter Hallward notes that “Arguably, there is no single event in the whole of modern history who’s implications were more threatening to the dominant global order of things. The mere existence of an independent Haiti was a reproach to the slave trading nations of Europe, a dangerous example to slave-owning US and an inspiration for successive African and Latin American slave movements.”04 Destroyed National Palace in Port au Prince Image by author
Gingerbread house in Port au Prince. Image by author
Although it achieved independence, freedom came at a heavy cost. France demanded 150 million gold Francs in reparations, a debt who’s effects are seen to this day in the consistent governmental turnover. After years of political upheaval, the late 19th century saw a short period of wealth generation, largely due to the influx of private capital from foreign investment. During this time the Gingerbread building style grew to prominence, as rich land owners adopted a blend of French resort style, Victorian Architecture from the southern USA and African traditions into ever-larger mansions. According to the World Monuments Fund Report:
Due to Haiti’s tropical climate, the Gingerbread houses were designed to take advantage of ventilation and shade, and exclude moisture. Large windows and doors allow for cross breezes. Tall ceilings and large attics with ventilators allow hot air to rise, collect, and be expelled. Deep porches that extend from the front façade to the side walls provide shading for the windows and allow the living space to extend outside the walls of the house. Heavy shutters on the windows allow them to be closed quickly and securely in the event of a tropical storm or hurricane. Raised first floors help prevent dampness from reaching wood framing and interior spaces, and provide for control of insects. Steep roofs quickly shed water during frequent rain storms.05
Bio-Climatic Design in Haiti
Trash in downtown Port au Prince intersection. Image by author
Haiti is routinely characterized as the poorest country in the western hemisphere, as soon-to-be-President Aristide pointed out in 1988: “Haiti is poor because of the rich.”06 In such a context, architecture, an instrument most often employed in the hands of the rich, takes on a multiplicity of meaning. The conception of ‘long memory’ in Haiti helps clarify this dichotomy: negative feelings towards those holding power falls within that of ‘short memory’ and has the possibility to be replaced. Architecture, by it’s very nature must be able to withstand the fluctuations of short memory.07 To that end, two issues exist suggesting the need for design thinking and bio-climatic analysis in Haiti. First, in light of Port au Prince’s fast paced 04 Hallward, 11 05 World Monuments Fund Report, 18 06 Hallward, Peter “Damming the Flood” Verso, London England, pg8 07 Wilentz, Amy; The Rainy Season, Haiti Since Duvalier; Simon & Schuster; 1990
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urbanization, as well as a long-time shortage of wood (as well as longstanding laws against building with wood in the city due to fire), most urban living simply cannot take advantage of any of that cultural heritage of building. As the Haitian rural architectural culture is explained:
Most are single-story, two-room shacks, usually with a front porch. In the dry, treeless areas, houses are constructed of rock or wattle and daub with mud or lime exteriors. In other regions, walls are made from the easily hewn native palm; in still other areas, particularly in the south, houses are made of Hispaniola pine and local hardwoods. When the owner can afford it, the outside of a house is painted in an array of pastel colors, mystic symbols are often painted on the walls, and the awnings are fringed with colorful hand-carved trimming.08 Secondly, the earthquake of January 2010 created a scenario where a poor urban area must undertake the task of rebuilding significant portions of city. The earthquake destroyed poorly-constructed buildings and infrastructures, killed over 300,000 people and displaced over a million people, creating tent camps throughout the city.09 The commonly acknowledged reason for the massive death toll was not to the earthquake itself, but from poorly constructed buildings.10 As in other countries with high percentages of informal housing, construction practices and standards are uncoordinated, and few probe the nascent potentials of contemporary design and construction methodologies. Haiti’s building practices and current vernacular mostly involves early 20th century technologies including concrete cinder block, reinforced concrete and metal roofs. Therefore, training regimes generally focus on mixing concrete, tying rebar and building seismically safe dwellings. Across much of Port au Prince one sees simplistic diagrams explaining how to build seismically safe buildings in calendars, posters and leaflets.
Rural Home outside Gressier, Haiti Image by author
Homes in Port au Prince, Haiti Image by author
Although a critical to building safely, unfortunately this focus fails to account for the myriad elements of the natural and built environment that which people must regularly interact. Training regimes tend to limit recommendations to simple construction techniques using existing material palates. Seems appropriate given context and realities of economy. However, in many ways this is merely palliative - little discussion is given to environmental appropriateness of building materials and techniques, long-term suitability, and other metrics of building performance such as thermal comfort or access to daylight. Although homes built with such techniques may be earthquake resistant, they may be uninhabitable due to excessive heat gain or lack of light. In other circumstances, organizations have developed innovative home 08 Culture of Haiti [http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Haiti.html#ixzz1ZSEnk7Sq] Viewed on 20 February, 2012 09 Janet Reitman, “Beyond Relief: How the World Failed Haiti,” Rolling Stone, 4 August 2011 [http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-world-failed-haiti-20110804] (16 April 2012). 10 Build Change, [http://www.buildchange.org/ ] viewed on April 15, 2012.
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Pancaked building in Port au Prince, Haiti Image by author
haiti after the earthquake
units, but with little attention given to material access, infrastructure, local culture and the need for residents to assume responsibility for interconnections made beyond their dwelling. Clearly more holistic approaches are necessary.
DIGITAL TOOLS IN HAITI: three projects Given this scenario, digital climatic analysis tools can provide feedback towards such holistic approaches. The process can be categorized into three general scales of analysis: urbanism, public architecture, and the home. Through explanation of a project each scale, I aim to show how digital analysis tools may be employed to analyze and develop new architectures in the context of Haiti’s reconstruction process, and by extension other similar conditions throughout the world.11 At the scale of urbanism, interactions necessarily must occur between many stakeholders, including communities, government and NGOs. This scale engages both urban inter-relationships, as well as the singular home unit. Digital tools present opportunities to optimize certain conditions (such as natural ventilation) across entire communities, and can provide data for decision-making when designing urban layouts or significant infrastructural interventions. However, this process must avoid the pitfall of Masdar, assuming that an urban area will exist in a static and top-down controlled state. The project Modeling Urban Energy Flows will explore this scale of analysis and design.
Modeling Urban Energy Flows suggests methods for assessing multiple metrics including thermal comfort, daylight access and control, and access to services across an informal urban fabric. By assessing these metrics at the urban scale, optimization of certain conditions may be attained, understanding that incremental growth will change conditions over time. In the case of Port au Prince, where large areas of urban fabric are currently slated for rebuilding, such studies can assist in the decision-making process at the macro scale, by providing concrete feedback for designers, implementing organizations and community members.
Modeling Urban Energy Flows Delmas Neighborhood Redesign Air Flow simulation: FlowDesigner Simulation performed by Krisa Palen, 2011
0 kWh/m2
BASE CONDITION
0° Front face avg: 2004 [62% above 2000] Back face avg: 1703
1876kwh/m
avg #6
2
1000 kWh/m2
2000 kWh/m2
OPTIMIZED
The big tree
18° Front face avg: 1948 [29% above 2000] Back face avg: 1727
1854kwh/m
avg #7
2
36° Front face avg: 1917 Back face avg: 1742
1842kwh/m
avg #5
2
47° [NORTH] Front face avg: 1848 Back face avg: 1764
1812kwh/m
avg #3
2
54° Front face avg: 1798 [2.5% below 1000] Back face avg: 1781
1791kwh/m
avg #2
2
72° Front face avg: 1834 Back face avg: 1812
1825kwh/m
avg #4
2
This analysis shows that building rotation has a significant effect on solar radiation. Since the worst direction for orientation in this region is to the southwest, just rotating the building so it’s oriented with the long face towards the road decreases solar radiation over 100kWh/m2
Gressier Community Center Solar Radiation Analysis using DIVA for Rhino (Radiance calculation algorithm)
90° Front face avg: 1679 [5% below 1000] Back face avg: 1852 avg #1
1753kwh/m
2
For any building larger than a home, it is assumed that the structure will be built by trained workers and completed to an architect’s specifications. Here digital tools become a conduit for designers to discuss architectural form with clients in flat terms, and with content to support considerations. Similarly to a line-item cost estimate, the process of showing current conditions, and opportunities for improvement, empowers clients to, at minimum, understand decision-making, and make their own informed decisions about building design. This requires clear, innovative data representation, and has the opportunity to show information in real, VISUAL terms.
11
To be clear, it is the process that may be replicable, not the products.
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Total [Re]Design
The project Gressier Community Center presents a process for using digital analysis to modify an existing architectural design based on climate, while maintaining culturally relevant form. Representations are then tailored to explanation and engagement with our partner NGO and community to achieve buy-in of design strategies. 1.20
Porch becomes center of family life
Bath
Cooking space extends onto porch for charcoal cooking.
Rainwater collection cistern located under porch - or installed post-occupancy in external container.
Living
7.15
2.60
Kitchen
SECTION CUT
Grey water filtration rain garden planted with tall plants
2.20
Tall plants shade wall.
Bed
LEVEL 1 0.5
N
3.50
Windows to include metal grate [not breeze blocks]
Roof Vent 1.50
Asymmetrical roof minimizes surface area on sun-side
ORIENTATION House will be oriented such that porch faces approximately north for maximum shade. Rain Garden located on south/west side of house allows tall plants shade wall. Bedroom will warm up during day, radiating heat at night.
2.30
Gutter transfers rainwater to cistern
PITCHED ROOF
Base vents
Vent block wall for daylight and ventilation
SLOPE
Gutter transfers rainwater to cistern.
FLAT ROOF
0.50
2.70
Vent block wall for daylight and ventilation
1.00
Through each project, many elements are considered beyond bio-climatic design. However, the use of climate analysis plays a central role in form making, and suggests that such a design process can make for more meaningful engagement with communities.
Porch
Bathroom becomes wet room. Detail floor 2cm below rest of house. Drains into rain garden.
1.75
At the scale of the home unit, digitally based climate design could assist in the creation of a new vernacular. Under normal life, people modify their structures, they add a porch, a window, they change the door, because as they live in it, they learn it. After they collect enough data, they alter it. But if a large population is struck by an earthquake and must rebuild many homes, businesses and other structures, people don’t necessarily have that stored knowledge; digital tools can be the stand-in, a jump-start. The project Cempeche Houses illustrates possibilities for new home design in the Haitian context. This final project synthesizes certain elements of the first two, proposing multiple modular home designs based in climatic response that may be incrementally built out over time. This proposal, submitted to the American Red Cross in March 2012, focuses directly upon the home unit, balancing culturally relevant form and climatic mediation with explicit requirements for program put forth in the Request for Proposals.
1.90
Black water disposal TBD
Single Family House Proposal For American Red Cross RFP Campache, Port au Prince, Haiti
gressier
I maintain the planters on the west and east facade. It’s pretty easy, just a bit of water in the dry months, and trim back any overgrowth. The plants are critical in helping keep the building cool.
Same materials and similar floor plan as Ronald’s version. I’ve extended the porch roof over the entire length to shade the full building, and added stairs at the end to handle the grade change. Space in front of the building may be used for outdoor activities.
66
haiti after the earthquake
PORT AU PRINCE Area: 36.04 km2 (13.9 sq mi) Population (2009 Estimation) _City 897,859 _Density: 64,524/sq mi _Metro: 2,509,939 canaan
zoranje
Zorange shown here for context, but not presented in this thesis.
airport CITE SOLIEL
downtown
DELMAS
carrefour feulles PETION VILLE
67
Total [Re]Design
Project 1: ‘Haiti Urban Energy’ Term Project for GSD 6428 ‘Modeling Urban Energy Flows’ Christoph Reinhart, Associate professor of Architectural Technology [Now Associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
PORT-AU-PRINCE/AERO 10-year summary: 2000 - 2009 N
Course description: The primary focus of this course is the study of energy flows in and around groups of buildings. The investigated scales will range from individual buildings to urban ‘proto blocks’ (around twenty buildings) and complete neighborhoods that include hundreds of buildings. Students will learn about and practice the use of emerging digital techniques that allow them to analyze and influence building energy use as well as occupant health and comfort at these three scales through deliberate design interventions. An initial learning objective is for students to appreciate that in dense urban settings buildings strongly interact with each other and thus create urban microclimates that significantly alter their energy use from what it would be if they were placed sufficiently far away from each other. These microclimatic effects include shading of neighboring buildings, urban heat island effects and localized Project Discription: The goal wind patterns. Predicted climate change projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the coming 90 years will be used in simulations, and student projects will be evaluated in current and future climate scenarios. 01 As the urban population continues to rise from 1 Billion today to 3 Billion by 2050, informal settlement patterns will continue to increase.02 These numbers, while staggering, are also a huge, mostly untapped market for designers. The modernist project of urban renewal is dead. Community participation is key, but must be paired with top-down investment. And the creation of new architectures with such communities cannot be solely based in vernacular methods, as they cannot contain contemporary conditions. Climate-based strategies for improvement can be a mediation between vernacular tradition and contemporary realities. Where in rural contexts, climate, or at least sun and wind, are reasonably easy to assess and understand, in urban environments these elements are significantly more complex due to the density and dynamic nature of urban space and form.
W
E 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0%
S 5
WIND
27
26
25
24
23 JAN
68
FEB
MAR
TEMPERATURE
In this context, part of the design process must also include anticipating future changes to the local environment, such as the growth of buildings around a particular project, or an environmental disaster. Courtney Brown, Director of the Office of Humanitarian Assistance at CHF International and author of the issue brief, notes that, “The demographic and geographic conditions associated with urban disasters pose new complexities and challenges that must be addressed and integrated into future relief efforts”03
01 Christoph Reinhart, “Course Description” Modeling Urban Energy Flows, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Fall 2011. 02 The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements, (UN Habitat 2003) [http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=19&catid=10&cid=928] April 21, 2012 03 Courtney Brown, ISSUE BRIEF: The 21st Century Urban Disaster: More disasters, more devastating, more expensive, more complex – how are aid agencies responding? [http:// www.chfinternational.org/urbandisasters, March 6th, 2012] 15 April 2012
Variable: 6.2% Calm: 1.8% Mean: 9.2 KT
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Knots
SOLAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
OUTSIDE DRY-BULB TEMPERATURE
THE URBAN: MODELING URBAN ENERGY FLOWS
Project Team Krista Palen, Man Kim, Jessica Yurofsky, Dan Weissman.
Project Description This project employs digital simulations to compare a baseline informal settlement to designed Incremental [Re]Design with directed growth.04 The baseline condition is a 10 hectare community in Port au Prince, Haiti. The designed scenario, based on a gradual replacement of the baseline condition, maximizes for shading, ventilation, block size, access to public space, and infrastructure, while maintaining similar materiality and unit size of 25-35M2. Analysis occurs at three time steps for both scenarios, creating six models. In the designed scenario, we suggest that growth is directed to maximize environmental performance.05 Metrics for analysis include natural ventilation calculated with Computational Fluid Dynamics, thermal comfort measured by operative temperature06 and calculated with Energy Plus, daylight autonomy calculated with Daysim and Radiance,07 and walkability, calculated with the “Street Smart” Walk Score Algorithm by ‘Walk Score’08. Recommendations based on this analysis suggest how design strategies can improve thermal comfort and livability in informal settlements.
Process The primary goal of this study was to compare the performance of incremental informal housing to designed approaches to incremental housing over time. This required a three step process. The first step was to create two base models based on the same initial street network: A randomized informal housing settlement, and a designed incremental housing settlement.
1.26.2010
11.7.2010 Delmas 32 Tent Camp
In order to mimic realistic settlement patterns, we chose an existing site in Port au Prince as the model for “unplanned growth.” The site chosen, in the Delmas 32 neighborhood of Port au Prince, Haiti (18°32’46.90”N , 72°18’33.33”W) was a tent camp that grew very rapidly after the 2010 earthquake, allowing us to trace the informal growth over time. However, due to the size of the tents relative to the size of typical informal homes in Port au Prince, we scaled up the model (2x) to approximate built units. We then used a grasshopper script to randomize building heights within 1-2 stories.
04 Similarly to Elemental 05 This ‘directed’ approach would require significant educational outreach, as discussed in other parts of this thesis. 06 Nilsson, H.O., Comfort Climate Evaluation with Thermal Manikin Methods and Computer Simulation Models, National Institute for Working Life, 2004, pg. 37 07 Reinhart C F, Herkel S, “The simulation of annual daylight illuminance distributions- A state of the art comparison of six RADIANCE based methods.” (Energy & Buildings, 32:2, 2000.) 167-187 Sustainable Design 08 (www.Walkscore.com) Viewed on 17 November, 2011.
69
Total [Re]Design
The resulting model in Rhino had a wide range of building volumes (501000 m3). Because natural ventilation must be scaled corresponding to building volume, the broad range became a hindrance requiring either an infinite number of building templates to provide an appropriate measure of natural ventilation, or we would need to divide the buildings into a small number of volume ranges. Four different building volumes (three one-story, one two-story) were chosen as representative of typical constructions, and populated the original site plan with these standardized four models. Additionally, although the site did include a moderate amount of topography, due to the limitations of our software we simplified the geometry for a flat site. Consideration of this limitation should be noted for future reproduction of similar studies. Parallel to the analysis of existing informal conditions, we developed a series of incremental housing options that could be deployed within the approximate infrastructure network existent on site. Design methodology was based on a series of principles, including potential locations for growth over time, shading, access to open/green space, ventilation and block size. To limit the variables within the study we maintained the typical building material palate found in Port au Prince: Concrete cinder block, reinforced concrete, and flat concrete or pitched tin roofs. The addition of pitched roofs was deemed critical to increasing buoyancy within spaces, but due to geometric complexity at the urban modeling scale, this detail was omitted for urban thermal calculations. We then constructed 3 versions of each settlement model to approximate growth over time.
Analysis After creating each model (6 in total), we analyzed each variant through a series of calculation metrics: Natural ventilation penetration [CFD in FlowDesigner] Thermal comfort [Urban Modeling Interface - UMI] Daylight autonomy [DIVA for Rhino] Walkability + access to services [Walkability Grasshopper script]
Natural Ventilation Within an economic environment where mechanical cooling is unrealistic, creating architectures that can be comfortably inhabited is critical. Access to natural ventilation is a major driver of thermal comfort without mechanical cooling. However, the software used to calculate thermal loads, ‘Urban Modeling Interface’ or UMI, developed by Christoph Reinhart and Alston Jakubiec, is based on the Energy Plus thermal load modeling algorithm which cannot directly account for natural ventilation. To account for this, we first simulated our various building units in DesignBuilder, which uses energy plus for calculation. From these 70
Studies of incremental [re]design
THE URBAN: MODELING URBAN ENERGY FLOWS
GOOD FLOW
models we attained ventilation schedules for each structure, or the quantity of air the moves in and out of the structure without any wind associated with it. This data was exported to Excel, converted from cubic meters per secon (M3/s) to air changes per hour (ACH). Then, we simulated wind patterns through the urban region using the Computational Fluid Dynamics program ‘FlowDesigner’, using a typical wind condition in Port au Prince of 5.5m/s from the east. From this, we identified which structures received more or less wind by assessing the windward side of each structure, thereby assigning each structure a wind pressure coefficient (WPC).By pairing each building’s WPC to the calculated ACH from the DesignBuilder data, we were able to account for natural ventilation in the UMI program.
Thermal Comfort We based our assumptions of thermal comfort upon the adaptive comfort model, which suggests that in warmer climates, people are more adapted to warmer temperatures, and therefore higher acceptable interior temperature ranges. Where in New York City acceptable temperatures may range from 19-25C where the mean monthly outdoor temperature is 12C, in Port au Prince that range increases to 23-29C where the mean monthly outdoor temperature is around 28C.
Daylight At 18deg North latitude, daylight in Port au Prince is generally high in the sky. Direct sun can significantly decrease thermal comfort, so creating ample shade is critical. Additionally, due to the sun’s altitude throughout the year, the roof surface receives most of the solar radiation. However, due to the brightness of the sun, interior spaces can often feel very dark if not designed to maximize daylight due to relative brightness ratios. The design of details for maximizing interior light while minimizing direct sun is critical. Basing design study upon work by the Olgayay’s and Fry and Drew, this study sought to balance minimizing solar gain with access to daylight in dense aggregations of structures. Two methods were used: At the urban design scale, the use of courtyard spaces adjacent to buildings limits the construction of new interior spaces to ‘approved’ areas. At the architectural scale, the strategic use of breeze blocks and clerestory windows under roof eves minimizes access to direct sun while maintaining access to light and air.
Walkability + Network Connectivity
Water bottle solar light project [http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678329/the-worldscheapest-lightbulb-is-made-of-just-a-plastic-bottle]
Although not directly climate-related, for a thorough study of an urban condition, the analysis of how humans move through its network can have significant impact on quality of life. Therefore, we used the ‘walkscore’ algorithm as a baseline.09 The algorithm uses street networks and amenities, weighted according to human need. A home’s distance to 09 [www.walkscore.com]
Viewed on 15 Nov 2011 71
Total [Re]Design
street network and to various amenities such as grocery, restaurants, coffee shops, banks, parks, schools, etc creates a score (0-100) relative to other homes in a given area. John Sargent (Harvard GSD M.Arch 2011) replicated the algorithm in Grasshopper for Rhinoceros. We then adapted the script further for use in the Haitian Context, replacing amenities and changing the scale factor to reflect the local conditions of Port au Prince.
water restaurants + informal markets mechanic market banks / micro-credit parks schools health clinic + Community center entertainment [+ bar/club]
Results Through this study we found that through the designed process of incremental housing can in fact increase thermal comfort, access to daylight and walkability. Small boxes of concrete block and metal roof may only be improved so much, but the strategic placement of structures to maximize ventilation and shading, and the addition of shade structures such as roofs and trees can have a significant positive effect. In modeling the thermal differences between the informal growth and planned settlement without addition of trees and roofs, we found that we were able to drastically reduce the amount of time that interior spaces would be above 28 degrees C (see graph at right). While the average temperatures may have only fallen an average of a degree or two in this study, we are confident that the additional inclusion of high pitched roofs increasing buoyancy and exterior shading, as well as the inclusion of trees and other plant material could continue to increase thermal comfort and lower interior temperatures.
0
25
50
75
100
Moreover, many other factors may influence one’s thermal comfort, including views to flora, or the haptic response of touching cool stone and concrete. Provisions for such experiences must be considered in the design of future settlements.
24
28
32
INCREMENTAL [RE]DESIGN
36 INFORMAL
40
200
400
600
CUMULATIVE HOURS AT OR BELOW TEMPERATURE (C)
72
800
THE URBAN: MODELING URBAN ENERGY FLOWS
~400 families
~700 families
COMMUNITY CENTER + HEALTH CLINIC
MAIN
STRE
ET RIPARIAN CORRIDOR MIN 13M
MARKET
GREEN DRAINAGE STRIPS
SCHOOL
~1000 families
[informal settlement: ~1200 families] 73
Total [Re]Design
Project 2: sant cominote community center in gressier, haiti The Harvard and MIT team assembled for the Zoranje project has, since October 2011, worked with Oxfam to assist in the development of an 80 home community outside of Gressier, 15 miles west of Port au Prince. This project is a collaboration with the Irish NGO ‘Haven’, who are overseeing the day-to-day implementation of the project, acting as construction management. Haven had hired a Haitian architect, but he has failed to engage with the needs of the community. In light of this, Haven and Oxfam asked out our team to adapt the home designs, urban layout (at right), and plans for a community center. The following pages outline the process of adapting the Haitian architect’s community center design using bio-climatic strategies.
Tem stru pora ctur ry e
Tem stru pora ctur ry e
52 56 AGRICULTURAL PLOTS
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COMMUNITY CENTER
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Sant Kominotè
a CommUnitY CEntER WitH a nEW CommUnitY nEaR GRESSiER, Haiti in PaRtnERSHiP WitH HaVEn, oXFam, mit Sa+P, anD HaRVaRD GSD
moo.
74
Hey there, I’m architect Dan. Over the following pages, I’m going to show you around my design modification suggestions for a new community center, here, in Gressier, Haiti. My goal is to improve this base design using climatic analysis and design strategies, as well as ‘urbanistic’ strategies for creating a wonderful place for people to gather in and around.
civic architecture: gressier community center
This diagram shows the yearly solar radiation (which becomes heat) that accumulates on differently oriented surfaces.
RADIATION MAP [kWh/m ] 2
SKY
PRI_MAYAGUEZ-EUGENIO.MARIA.DE.HOSTOS.AP.785145_TMY3
0 333
50 °
.3
203 9.5
07
.5
2.5
64
185
17
1804.3
6.4
1533.5
1474 .6
1113.4
°
S180
47.5
°
SW225°
SSW 202.5°
1122.7
999.75
861.9
1161
.4
778.9
W2
1326.1
1451.1
.5
WS
1217
70°
.1
.4
0°
90°
50
94
1874.9
27
T
WES
18
EAST 1555.9
W
Note: The data actually corresponds to Mayaguez Puerto Rico, which is the closest weather file to Haiti. But for solar data this works just fine as the latitudes are very close.
.5
170
This diagram shows the yearly solar radiation (which becomes heat) that accumulates on differently oriented surfaces.
39
15
H
1667
19
.4 2008
RT
The worst surfaces in this region are those facing Southwest at about 30 degrees (red), so the goal in this study is to minimize architectural surfaces (walls and roof) that accumulate solar radiation.
2.1
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NO
1333
2000
1898.7
°
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1000
20
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UT
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.9
440.6
713.7
270.8
373.9
192.1
EARTH
440.8
579.6
Building is not taking advantage of tree, urbanistically or climatically.
No ventilation at floor level.
The step up into the building hinders accessibility for disabled and elderly folk.
Second, the orientation and pitch of the roof maximize solar radiation, without ample space for ventilation. Since a majority of solar radiation in Haiti hits the roof, the design optimization goal became: minimizing solar radiation on the roof through formal manipulation of the structure.
The building is oriented towards the Eco-San toilets across the street. Not the nicest view.
If we first look at the base design, I see some critical issues worth considering.
0 kWh/m2
BASE CONDITION
0° Front face avg: 2004 [62% above 2000] Back face avg: 1703
1876kwh/m
avg #6
2
1000 kWh/m2
2000 kWh/m2
OPTIMIZED
The big tree
18° Front face avg: 1948 [29% above 2000] Back face avg: 1727
1854kwh/m
avg #7
2
36° Front face avg: 1917 Back face avg: 1742
1842kwh/m
avg #5
2
47° [NORTH] Front face avg: 1848 Back face avg: 1764
1812kwh/m
avg #3
2
Note: The data actually corresponds to Mayaguez Puerto Rico, which is the closest weather file to Haiti. But for solar data this works just fine as the latitudes are very close.
This is the Haitian architect’s design, which has two primary flaws: first, the orientation of the structure maximizes direct sun on the porch space in the afternoon, creating uncomfortably hot conditions for sitting. Also, the porch directly faces the toilets across the 3M path.
End windows don’t have any shade
As I will show on the next few pages, this orientation is bad for solar radiation.
The worst surfaces in this region are those facing Southwest at about 30 degrees (red), so the goal in this study is to minimize architectural surfaces (walls and roof) that accumulate solar radiation.
54° Front face avg: 1798 [2.5% below 1000] Back face avg: 1781
1791kwh/m
avg #2
2
72° Front face avg: 1834 Back face avg: 1812
1825kwh/m
avg #4
2
This analysis shows that building rotation has a significant effect on solar radiation. Since the worst direction for orientation in this region is to the southwest, just rotating the building so it’s oriented with the long face towards the road decreases solar radiation over 100kWh/m2
90° Front face avg: 1679 [5% below 1000] Back face avg: 1852 avg #1
1753kwh/m
2
In step one, I rotated the existing structure 90 degrees, finding that merely through this act the structure to could more effectively take advantage of a shade tree. Moreover, since the maximum radiation is towards the southeast, by minimizing exposure to this direction surfaces on the structure will not heat up as much. This act lowered the average surface radiation by 150kWh/M2
75
Total [Re]Design
BASE CONDITION
a: 1.5m
7.1°
35.5°
8.7°
A1 35.5° A1
7.1°
1000 kWh/m2 1000 kWh/m2
22000 TOTAL AREA: 252.8m kWh/m
1,723.5 1,723.5
2
2000 kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
In step two, I maintained the optimized orientation from step one, and created twenty variants, moving the peak of the roof forward and backwards, and vertically.
Keep going, there’s another page of this...
B: 2m
8.4°
B1 40.2° B1
191.0m 66.5m 1,897.0SR 1,202.5SR 191.0m2 66.5m2 2 TOTAL 257.5m SR 1,897.0AREA: 1,202.5SR
By moving the peak vertically, surfaces are even less oriented towards extreme solar conditions, and self-shading for more of the year.
D: 4m
10.8°
25.5°
10.8°
A5 A5
54.8m2 193.7m2 1,778.4SR 1,745.3SR 54.8m2 193.7m2 2 SR SR TOTAL 248.5m 1,778.4AREA: 1,745.3
TOTAL AREA: 247.4m2
TOTAL AREA: 247.2m2
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
1,752.6 1,752.6
1,746.7 1,746.7
[SR] kWh/m2
26.6°
13.2°
26.6°
13.2°
B3 B3
TOTAL AREA: 248.5m2
1,755.9 1,755.9
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
18.3°
19.6°
B4 B4
18.3°
19.6°
[SR] kWh/m2
29.4°
15.4°
B5 B5
29.4°
15.4°
12.7° 12.7°
1,717.5 1,717.5
1,725.1 1,725.1
1,730.2 1,730.2
1,739.8 1,739.8
1,747.9 1,747.9
12.4°
51.7°
15.2°
51.7°
15.2°
12.4°
C1 C1
193.5m2 82.0m2 1,876.6SR 1,067.62SR 193.5m2 82.0m 2 SR TOTAL SR AREA: 275.5m 1,876.6 1,067.6
1,635.7 1,635.7
TOTAL AREA: 275.5m2
[SR] kWh/m2 [SR] kWh/m
2
2
2
TOTAL AREA: 252.4m2
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
C2 C2
2
2
TOTAL AREA: 250.4m2
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
36.9°
19.3°
36.9°
19.3°
C3 C3
2
2
TOTAL AREA: 250.1m2
[SR] kWh/m2 [SR] kWh/m2
28.1°
26.4°
28.1°
26.4°
C4 C4
2
TOTAL AREA: 251.8m2
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
22.5°
40.2°
22.5°
40.2°
18.7°
C5 C5
18.7°
159.6m2 107.2m2 1,834.4SR 1,362.8SR 159.6m2 107.2m2 SR SR 2 1,834.4 1,362.8 TOTAL AREA: 266.8m
126.3m2 136.7m2 1,829.8SR 1,522.4SR 126.3m2 136.7m2 SR SR 2 1,829.8AREA: 1,522.4 TOTAL 263.0m
94.1m2 168.2m2 1,750.92 SR 1,647.5SR 94.1m 168.2m2 SR SR 2 1,750.9AREA: 1,647.5 TOTAL 262.3m
200.9m2 64.7m2 1,709.9SR 1,568.42 SR 200.9m2 64.7m SR SR 1,709.9 2 1,568.4AREA: TOTAL 265.6m
1,644.9 1,644.9
1,670.0 1,670.0
1,684.6 1,684.6
1,675.4 1,675.4
TOTAL AREA: 266.8m2
[SR] kWh/m2 [SR] kWh/m
2
TOTAL AREA: 263.0m2
[SR] kWh/m2 [SR] kWh/m
2
TOTAL AREA: 262.3m2
[SR] kWh/m2 [SR] kWh/m
2
TOTAL AREA: 265.6m2
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
OPTIMIZED
16.4° 16.4°
D1 D1
59.3° 59.3°
19.9° 19.9°
D2 D2
45.0° 45.0°
25.1° 25.1°
D3 D3
35.4° 35.4°
28.9° 28.9°
D4 D4
33.5° 33.5°
48.4° 48.4°
D5 D5
24.3° 24.3°
197.0m2 99.8m2 1,855.7SR 972.5SR2 197.0m2 99.8m 2 TOTAL 296.7m SR 972.5SR 1,855.7AREA:
163.8m2 121.3m2 1,266.4SR 1,837.2SR 2 163.8m2 121.3m 2 TOTAL 285.1m SR 1,837.2AREA: 1,266.4SR
131.6m2 148.0m2 1,460.2SR 1,778.9SR 2 131.6m2 148.0m 2 TOTAL AREA: 279.6m SR 1,778.9 1,460.2SR
101.1m2 177.6m2 1,666.4SR 1,591.4SR 2 101.1m2 177.6m 2 TOTAL 278.6m SR 1,591.4SR 1,666.4AREA:
74.5m2 208.8m2 1,436.12 SR 1,666.0SR 2 74.5m 208.8m 2 TOTAL 283.3m SR 1,436.1AREA: 1,666.0SR
TOTAL AREA: 296.7m2
1,594.4 1,594.4
TOTAL AREA: 285.1m2
1,610.2 1,610.2
TOTAL AREA: 279.6m2
TOTAL AREA: 278.6m2
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
1,605.5 1,605.5
1,558.8 1,558.8 [SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
76
25.5°
13.1°
A4 A4
159.6m2 87.5m2 1,702.5SR 1,853.3SR 159.6m2 87.5m2 2 SR SR TOTAL 247.2m 1,702.5 1,853.3AREA:
195.1m2 56.8m 1,732.7SR 1,752.3SR 195.1m2 56.8m2 TOTAL AREA: 251.8m2 1,732.7SR 1,752.3SR
[SR] kWh/m2
Now, this also increases the area of the roof and quantity of structure. We will have to discuss numbers to determine if this is cost effective, or if trade-offs exist. In light of this issue, the next page shows a design based on C1 instead of D1.
13.1°
15.6°
88.8m 161.3m 1,850.9SR 1,678.6SR 88.8m2 161.3m2 TOTAL AREA: 250.1m2 1,850.9SR 1,678.6SR
[SR] kWh/m2
This formal shift can save as much as 200kWh/m2 over the course of the year.
B2 B2
15.6°
16.7°
128.0m 122.4m 1,595.9SR 1,870.6SR 128.0m2 122.4m2 2 TOTAL AREA: 250.4m 1,595.9SR 1,870.6SR
2
TOTAL AREA: 257.5m2
C: 3m
10.25°
16.7°
121.5m2 125.9m2 1,876.3SR 1,621.8SR 121.5m2 125.9m2 2 SR SR TOTAL 247.4m 1,876.3AREA: 1,621.8
156.5m 95.9m 1,881.7SR 1,469.5SR 156.5m2 95.9m2 2 TOTAL 252.4m SR 1,881.7AREA: 1,469.5SR
2
The results show that by moving the peak forward, total solar radiation decreases by limiting the size of the surface oriented to the sun.
TOTAL AREA: 248.9m2
1,740.9 1,740.9
10.25°
A3 A3
11.2°
[SR] kWh/m2
40.2°
8.4°
11.2°
155.8m2 93.1m2 1,503.1SR 1,882.9SR 155.8m2 93.1m2 TOTAL m2SR 1,503.1 1,882.9SRAREA: 248.9
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
This analysis shows how moving the roof’s peak toward the front of the building, as well as raising it up can decrease the yearly solar radiation on the roof surfaces.
22.9°
A2 22.9° A2
8.7°
190.4m2 62.5m2 1,876.6SR 1,257.0SR 190.4m2 62.5m2 TOTAL m2 SR 1,876.6SRAREA: 252.8 1,257.0
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
1,618.6 1,618.6 [SR] kWh/m2
TOTAL AREA: 283.3m2
[SR] kWh/m2
[SR] kWh/m2
civic architecture: gressier community center
It’s so nice and cool in here during the hot day!
The interior structure can be as simple or complex as Haven has capabilities for. Obviously a structural engineer will need to review and amend this concept. But this could also be a beautiful element if handmade. Clerestory above could be filled with breeze-blocks for increased protection from heavy weather.
From there, I conceived of an architecture that could perform based on the roof diagram. I maintain the planters on the west and east facade. It’s pretty easy, just a bit of water in the dry months, and trim back any overgrowth. The plants are critical in helping keep the building cool.
These images were used to sell the design to Haven, and will hopefully be used in discussion with the community to determine final design criteria. Same materials and similar floor plan as Ronald’s version. I’ve extended the porch roof over the entire length to shade the full building, and added stairs at the end to handle the grade change. Space in front of the building may be used for outdoor activities.
As of May 2012, unfortunate setbacks have called into question the future of the entire project, including the 80 home development. Although the land was theoretically secured by Haven, squatters began erecting structures on the land. To complicate matters, a wealthy Haitian family submitted a cease and desist letter to Haven claiming that the site is part of their property. Only the mayor and community may sort out these issues.
Hefty overhang keeps direct sun out of space except extreme times of year.
Floor vents increase ventilation
Ok, so now we have our building oriented well, and have a roof profile that performs better. Here’s a concept of how this building could look. I also separated the peak to introduce an inlet for daylight and outlet for hot air.
77
Gressier Community Center
Project 3: Campache Houses Design Proposal for Participatory Owner-Driven Housing Construction in Carrefour Feuilles, Port au Prince
american red cross
1.20
Porch
Bathroom becomes wet room. Detail floor 2cm below rest of house. Drains into rain garden.
Cooking space extends onto porch for charcoal cooking.
Bath
Exterior stair to second level.
Living 2.60
Kitchen
SECTION CUT
7.15
Using learned lessons from the Gressier analysis, we offset the roof slope to minimize the solar gain on south-western surfaces. The wall that supports that roof should be made as permeable as residents are willing to maximize ventilation and light. At the base of the wall, a planter harvests grey water from sink, shower and roof. Plants provide additional shade to the facade.
1.90
1.75
In December 2011, the American Red Cross released an RFP requesting prototypical shelter designs, and with a specific location in Port au Prince for each team to address.1 Our proposal, another collaboration with the Haven and Oxfam, involves the acupunctural model, where individual homes may be built within existing urban fabric instead of tabula rasa condition. While many of the design decisions were based around a kit-of-parts approach to handle unique sites and resident requirements, the bio-climatic approach was the primary driver for many of theBlack design water disposal TBD decisions.
Greywater filtration rain garden planted with tall plants
2.20
Tall plants shade wall.
Bed
LEVEL 2 0.48
N
3.50 Windows to include metal grate [not breeze blocks]
Asymmetrical roof minimizes surface area on sun-side
1.50
ORIENTATION House will be oriented such that porch faces approximately north for maximum shade. Rain Garden located on south/west side of house allows tall plants shade wall. Bedroom will warm up during day, radiating heat at night.
Roof Vent Double sided provides More opportunity for Natural ventilation
Vent blocks in wall for daylight and ventilation
2.30
Gutter transfers rainwater to cistern
PLAN CUT
2.70
Base vents
Base vents
1 American Red Cross Haiti Assistance Program - Integrated Neighborhood Approach Program - Neighborhood Upgrading (American Red Cross Haiti Delegation, 26 Dec 2011)
Weissman | GSD Mdes Thesis
78
ROOFTOP PLANTERS
PITCHED ROOF
2ND FLOOR
BREEZE BLOCKS
CISTER
N
BASE H
OME GREYW ATE RAIN GA R RDEN
SLO
PED
MATERIA
L DEPOT
AND TRA
KIT OF PARTS
INING
Basic house type can be adapted with modular options based on the input and interests of each homeowner.
FOU N
DAT ION
Gressier Community Center
PROTOTYPICAL URBAN LAYOUT
PRIMARY PATH / ROAD
SECONDARY PATH / ROAD
7.15
2.00
2.00
2.00
3.00
Residents may choose from various plan arrangements and amenities [see kit of parts diagram].
Backyard contained with walls at ends of each row. Space may be used for individual agriculture, or build out additional room.
As the home unit aggregates, green spaces and stairs are used to maintain appropriate distances between units for ventilation and access to light. An enclosed back yard space may be used by the residents for agriculture, outdoor living, or future building additions. Maintaining and strengthening existing urban organizations is critical to the community’s acceptance of the new addition. The site plan at right shows how the units could be integrated into existing urban fabric in small portions, as opposed to a tabula rasa condition. The kit-of-parts shown on the previous page suggests methods to handle sloping sites.
Weissman | GSD Mdes Thesis
80
Mixture of one and two story homes. Quantity and exact locations of new homes determined with community
Maintain and enhance existing gathering spaces around community landmarks such as trees New homes can fill in voids as desired by residents.
New stair increases access to public space
football pitch
Lots currently being re-built by owners independent of ARC project.
Homes oriented such that rain gardens and short roof section oriented South or west.
conservative surgery
CAPITALIZE ON EXISTING CIRCULATION AND PUBLIC SPACE
INTEGRATION OF BUILT FORM
Total [Re]Design
82
Conclusion
CONCLUSION
Design and education in the metamodern
The emphasis on design has restored aesthetic credibility to an enterprise that has been characterized, often unfairly, as emphasizing progressive social activity at the expense of progressive form-making.01 - Anthony Schuman
The setup is clear: the human population is growing quicker than designers and planners can keep up with the modes of urbanization. As we repeat the history of turn-of-the century ideals and commit our sensibilities towards improving conditions for the lives of many, what does that look like in practice today?
01 Schuman, Anthony W. “Community Engagement” in in Architecture School, Joan Oakman, ed; (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 2012) 256
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The attacks of September 11, 2001, followed by Katrina in 2005 and Haiti in 2010 have hastened the call to conscience in architecture, especially because rebuilding processes require a diverse set of uniquely architectural skills. To that end, Thomas Fisher suggests that the concept public architecture or public interest architecture as analogous to public health, which emphasizes long-term preventative care over custom solutions to site-specific problems. 01
public architecture through EDUCATION AND BIO-CLIMATIC DESIGN Throughout this thesis, a series of paradoxes have surfaced: form / process, material / energy, real world / digital world, majority world / minority world. The attempt of this thesis is to find the grey areas between these assumed dichotomies, to find moments of dialogue, where education can serve as a mediator. As discussed, multiple forms of formal education exist throughout the creation of architecture, and in each, contemporary case studies have shown fundamentally new forms of overlap and engagement. Institutional initiatives are pairing students with communities; public design charrettes seek to engage many constituents, and public physical mock-ups prove untested structural systems. Yet typically, material/ structural systems are the topic of consideration. Where does that leave bio-climatic design, or the design of energy systems? The presented projects in Haiti suggest that the most immediate opportunities lie in the architect as the agent of research and bioclimatic design. In all projects, the designer performs the calculations and creates representations, which serve as the conduit for collaboration - with the speculative goal of empowering clients to engage the design process with us. Digital climate analysis tools are merely learning tools: tools to learn about conditions found in reality. However, more importantly digital tools are windows into the future: tools to model conditions as the COULD be, to test and learn what variables are most sensitive. Following EDx or fablab’s methods, bio-climatic analysis tools could be taught to many across the world through online courses, empowering students to use the technology for wholly new purposes. For example, individuals in informal settlements or incremental housing developments could use technology to test their own homes before building additions, maximizing access to sunlight and air flow while mitigating heat gain. Yes, people gain an intuitive understanding of their own residences over time, and although, as Richard Sennett argues that “simulation is an imperfect substitute for accounting for the sensation of light, wind and heat on site,” digital tools 01 Thomas Fisher, “In the Public’s Interest: Creating Public Interest Design Internships” in Georga Bizios and Keatie Wakeford, eds; Bridging the Gap: Public Interest Architectural Internships(Raleigh: self published at North Carolina State University, 2011)
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Conclusion
can help by providing visual information and critical feedback throughout the learning and design process.02 Moreover, if your city is struck by a massive earthquake (or hurricane), and you need a lot of homes rebuilt quickly with long-term development in mind, fundamentally new methods are required to produce such forms. We architects can speed up the process using digital analysis tools to find appropriate base conditions, and using data as a means of empowering people to adapt their own structures over time. And, as digital technologies continue to proliferate, opportunities will emerge that offer real skills that can be capitalized upon in the future – on the ground by residents themselves. Just as structure and material systems may be used to foster constructionist educational experiences, so to can bio-climatic design be a conduit for collaboration. Re-positioning digital tools within the framework of participation changes their meaning and agency, it puts people back as the reason for the process. Moreover, bio-climatic design approaches necessarily conjure vernacular or historic architectures, which come bearing social weight and meaning. A culturally-imbedded methodology for using digital tools allows for modification of culturally relevant form in collaboration with communities, not in spite of them.
CONDITIONAL PITFALLS The celebratory dimensions and optimism inherent throughout this thesis is a conscious effort to tilt the discussion towards a more sustained socially engaged architecture. Of course inherent in any condition of public life is a truly complex terrain where multiple players must align in ways such that such performances may be achieved. However, any system that places the human being at the center of the equation must inherently deal with temperaments and ever-shifting aspirations. People’s requirements shift over time,they grow and change with the world. Architecture as an autonomous entity, responding only to abstract internalized logics and an abstract sense of time is completely detached from society. Society is inherently complex, meaning unpredictability. Let us celebrate that unpredicatbility, even if it means forsaking traditional notions of authorship. To that end, not all of the case studies presented in the thesis have developed cleanly and without setbacks. The project in Zoranje failed to take hold. The Gressier Community project has seen significant setbacks in recent months since the initial design phase. And the American Red Cross Proposal is currently on hold. As designers, we must also know when to stand back and let local processes occur in their due time.
02 
Richard Sennett The Craftsman (New Haven: Yale University Press. 2008) 42
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METAMODERN To be able to build ‘green’ architects need to adapt their designs to the environmental characteristics - sun, wind, rain - of a specific site. Again this tenancy indicates neither a return to strict functionalism (modern) nor a continuation of boundless formalism (postmodern) but points towards new ways of doing, making and thinking that oscillate between these poles.”03 To be truly responsible, sustainable, resilient and beautiful, architectures must be intimately adapted to their context. Vernacular forms developed iteratively over generations, making them inherently resilient strategies to fundamental conditions. Unfortunately the contemporary world is changing fast. Urbanization has changed landscapes, climates, material, energy, and waste flows. Climate change is beginning to heavily disrupt vast regions, either through sea level rise or increased major storm activity. We need new models that are dynamically responsive to the changing conditions of our world. The Metamodern paradigm suggests a return to a certain degree of naïveté, but positioned within the understanding of a dynamic, complex and quickly changing world. Community engagement is difficult and hard to control. Seemingly at odds with such processes, total design, and by extension the use of digital tools, suggests precision based on isolation from contingent realities. Yet in the grey areas, in the ever shifting patterns of human occupation, lie latent potentials for radical change. Remake the world. It’s Total Redesign.
03 Robin van den Akker & Timotheus Vermeulen (2011). Metamodern Architecture. In: Bernd Upmeyer (ed.) Post-Ideological Urbanism. Monu #15 (november 2011). 72
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87
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acknowledgments First a thank you to my three advisors. To my academic advisor, Christoph Reinhart, a sincere thank you. It has been such a pleasure working with you these past two years. To Rahul Mehrotra, my thesis advisor, thank you for being a mentor to me in so many ways. And To Christoph Werthmann, I am indebted to your willingness to bring me on for the project in Haiti. What we thought was a dead end may turn into a life’s work. Thank you. Also the rest of the Harmit team: Phil Thompson, Anya Brickman Raredon and Erdem Ergin. You have put up with my crazy antics and I love you all. Thank you. Thank you Hashim Sarkis and Erkin Ozay for allowing me to participate in the New Geographies section for thesis prep, and to Kiel Moe for design discussions. The project changed but the conversations were formative. And thank you Krista, Eddy and Jessica, my fearless group that took on my project and made it their own. A sincere thank you to Kyle + Lauren and Marilyn for your support through all my conundrums, and to a future that includes our collaboration. And to my family, David, Mimi and Aaron: you are everything cheezy one could profoundly say in an acknowledgements section. I even managed to spell acknowledgements right. A special thank you to my readers: Marilyn Moedinger Kiel Moe Erkin Ozay
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