Patch - Undergraduate Thesis (Technical Report) by Fares Al Rajal

Patch

connecting ecosystems

Technical Report By Fares Al Rajal Rafael Iniguez

CTE Report Part I - General Description Introduction Type of construction system Materiality Floor Areas Part II - Safety Requirements DB SE Structural safety DB SI Fire safety DB HE Energy saving DB HS Health safety DB SUA Safe use and accessibility DB HR Basic noise protection

Part I - General Description of Building Introduction Title Patch

Location

Main uses

The program is mainly a hybrid between residential and agricultural, a new typology of summer houses that are oriented towards the rice fields rather than them traditionally being towards the beach, and this comes with integrating the rice fields and greenery with the housing, and lastly a public ground floor of commercial uses to sustain the plot and for residents to sell their crops.

Circulations

The main uses are residential, agricultural, and commercial.

Program

Carrer del Baladre, El Perello, Valencia (39.270173, -0.273844)

The circulation is through stairs, ramps, and elevators. The stairs and elevators are mainly distributed along the residential intervention for every block of houses. They only connect to one floor to the gallery, and later private stairs in apartments connect to second floors and then to accessible roofs. Ramps and stairs are also connected to the observation decks that connect plot to rice fields and public spaces on the surroundings.

Context

The project sits on pre-existing landscape of greenhouses, orchards, rice fields. So the goal is to keep themand minimally touch them to create a nature conscious architecture that works with nature rather than harm it. The plot is between rice fields to the West and the beach and a town of summer houses to the East. The strip its on is a chaotic buffer strip where random elements from the site are scattered and aren’t organized.

Part I - General Description of Building

Type of construction system

Due to the fact that building is in a natural environment, the type of construction system is mainly composed of natural and responsibly sourced material. The construction system is made of engineered wood components mainly glulam timber frame. Concrete is only used for foundations and as a prefab for the buildings, wood planks are also used for observation decks, ramps, and stairs. The Glulam timber is used as the main framing system structure of the intervention.

Timber Structural Frame

Vertical Circulation

Modular Buildings

Horizontal Circulation

Terraces and Railings

Mesh and Shading

Part I - General Description of Building Materiality/Composition of the different layers proposed

Facades and openings

Roofs

Facades are dominantly based on orientation and sun adaptation which is what a Meditarr nean area such as this needs. The South facade has a gallery made out of metal mesh that allows vegetation to grow that acts as extra shading from the harsh sun, and since this facade holds the communal corridor and circulation, the apartment openings to this side are elevated, minimal, and shaded by green walls to keep the privacy yet still allow for cross ventilation, and less private spaces of the house are placed towards that side such as kitchen aqnd dining areas. The North facade on the other hand is very open since it does not require sun protection therefore no gallery, and it holds the private parts of the house. They made out of a ceramic ventilated facade to allow the skin to breathe and increase thermal protection.

Roofs are all accessible flat roofs. These roofs hold technical areas and water tanks. Openings in roofs are for the stairs. There are mainly tow types of roofs, the green roofs that allow for vegeta tion and crops to grow and others that are simply accessible for seating and viewing purposes with wood planks. There are options of shaded and and non shaded based on tenant’s desire.

Internal walls and partitions

The interior partitions used throughout the building are drywall systems with gypsum panels providing soundproofing for residential spaces.

Walls, floors and ceiling finishes

The general feel that the project aims to achieve is exposed wood structure and white painte buildings to contrast structure with building. The wall finishes used are plasterboards and gypsum textured finishes. The ceiling is timber structure along with the aluminum drop ceiling for HVAC systems. The slab system is composed of CLT panels of 9x5 meters. Different textures of the floor respresent different programs and their continuity. Observation decks have wood planks as floor finishes.

Services and facilities

Services and facilities are mainly in two areas; the technical rooms under the buildings in the ground floor and on the roofs. A technical core that is always in the same area in apartments is used for optimum plumbing in the WC area.

Part I - General Description of Building Materiality/Composition of the different layers proposed

Exploded Elements Axon

Accessible Roof Shading

Vegetated Shading Mesh

Communal Spaces

Green Roofs

Shaded Terraces

Communal Corridor

Structural Timber Frame Semi-private Terraces

Elevator Ground Floor

Stairs

Part I - General Description of Building Materiality/Composition of the different layers proposed

Structural Frame 5m grid for a one bedroom apartment

1.8m extension of frame allows to hold balconies or green wall substructure

Shared terrace between apartments

10m grid for a two bedroom apartment

Communal terraces connected to corridor

9m frame width allows for optimum cross ventilation

Stairs

Elevator

2.8m extrusion of frame holds corridor with communal balconies

The 9x5 meter open timber frame allows for modular building, natural cross ventilation. It extrudes 1.8m to the North to hold private balconies and green wall support, and 2.8m to the South to hold the buffer space, the corridor, and the communal spaces which the gallery consists of

Typical Plan Configuration

Part I - General Description of Building Materiality/Composition of the different layers proposed

South Wall Detail

Facade adaptation should be at the core of an intervention in a Mediterranean area, especially on the South facade, which holds the gallery that is for privacy and shading, less private spaces that require less privacy such as kitchens and study rooms will be placed towards the gallery. All above an open ground floor

Part I - General Description of Building Materiality/Composition of the different layers proposed

South Wall Callouts

Top Mesh Connection

Middle Mesh Connection

Shaded Accessible Roof House-Gallery Connection

Shaded Balcony

Bottom Mesh Connection

Part I - General Description of Building Materiality/Composition of the different layers proposed

North Wall Detail

More open and private spaces are towards the north side, with an option to personalize the facade for each tenant using the timber frame

Part I - General Description of Building Materiality/Composition of the different layers proposed

North Wall Callouts

Green Roof

Green Wall

Private Balcony

Indoor Ground Floor

Part I - General Description of Building

Floor Areas

Part II - Safety Requirements DB SE STRUCTURE Structural System Description

Soil composition

Foundations

Given the soil composition analysis and the dimension of the building, the best solution for the system is: deep foundations (pile-cap foundations). 6m reinforced concrete piles dug into the soil, spanning every 5m. This is the best solution for this soil as it gives stability to the building, having a solid underground load foundations. This foundation will be positioned as a grid throughout the whole building, supporting all vertical timber columns. A steel connector will then connect it to the wooden structure.

Vertical components

The lithological composition of the soil of El Perello is fundamentally based on aerosol soil, which cause highly permeable soils that are strongly washed with rainwater. Calcareous arenosol soils have medium levels of organic matter. These are sandy soils made up of quartz sand particles, with low ionic exchange capacity and great aeration that results in a rapid oxidation of organic matter. The soil is considered of relatively good bearing capacity. The soil introduced for the plot is one that benefits the landscape and agriculture mostly.

Glulam timber columns: Structural glue-laminated timber columns, 200x200mm, single-grade layup, radiata pine (Pinus insignis), structural certification GL32h.

Horizontal elements, slabs

CLT slab: EGOIN CLT slab panels EGO CLT180, costumized 5000mm width, radiata pine (pinus insignis).

Grid layout, structural frames, modulation

The timber framing system is a simple grid system of 9x5m that spans along the whole interven tion. It extends 1.8m to the North to hold green wall substructure and balconies, and 2.8m to the South to hold the gallery and horizontal circulation. The section of the glulam beams is 140x200mm. The CLT slab panels have a width of 5000mm to be able to go from beam to beam. The whole proposal is modular since the frame does not change in dimensions.

Part II - Safety Requirements DB SE STRUCTURE Loads

Structural Concrete Requirements (EHE requirements)

The deep foundations, pile-cap, will be made out of reinforced concrete. Pillars will go 6m into the ground and span every 5m.

Safety Ratios and Control Levels

Part II - Safety Requirements DB SE STRUCTURE DB SE –M Timber Structures

The Primary structure is made of Glue laminated beams, with a span of 5m between columns. The main components of the timber frame are glulam beams 140x200mm section and 200x200mm glulam columns. The frame is connected with simple and double wedged connections. The wood used is a softwood (Pino Carrasco).

Part II - Safety Requirements DB SI FIRE SAFETY

SI 1 Fire Areas (Sectores de Incendio)

The intervetion is a residential one, with a commercial ground floor, therefore a fire sector must be ≤ 2500m2, with most areas not being high risk due to nature of intervention. Stairways are not considered fire sectors due to them being open in the exterior seperate from the building. Apart ments and ground floor functions are seperated from each other therefore in the table below it never even gets close to the maximum allowed.

Part II - Safety Requirements DB SI FIRE SAFETY SI 2 Fire Resistance Rating of the Boundary Elements

SI 3 Evacuation of Occupants

The evacuation of occupants is of X people, in total there are 30 exits. All distances are ≤ 20 m to the nearest exit.

All the stairways of this development are >1.5 wide or more allowing to evacuate 240 people.

Stairways are outdoors and seperated from the buildings and less than 10m h therefore not protected but can occupy all occupants due to width of more than 1.5m wide.

Part II - Safety Requirements DB SI FIRE SAFETY SI 4 Detection, Control and Extintion

SI 5 Firemen Intervention

There must be an open space (free of vegetation, urban furniture and obstacles...) for the pumper truck to access with the following dimensions: Free width≥ 5 m - Free height ≥ 4,50 m - Máx. Slope =10% All around the buildings are paved pathways allowing fire trucks to enter, from all sides of intervention, buildings lines extend to edges.

SI 6 Structure Resistance Against Fire Conditions

All areas are of Housing/Offices/Residential use with columns, beams, and slabs being made of Glulam, therefore CTE R-60 and projected R-90.

Part II - Safety Requirements DB HE ENERGY SAVING STRATEGY Energy Demand Limitation

Buildings shall feature a set of characteristics capable of adequately limiting the energy demand necessary to ensure human thermal comfort in accordance with the local climate, the use of the building, and the summer and winter regime as well as the characteristics of insulation and inertia, air permeability and exposure to solar radiation, reducing the risk of superficial and interstitial humidity, and with appropriate treatment of the thermal points to limit heat losses or gains and avoid hygrothermal problems therein.

The project is situated in Valencia with a Climatic zone IV

Total domestic hot water demand of the building: 30 l/day

Orientation: The main focus of this project is orientation, in a Mediterranean area like this it’s very important to protect from the sun efficiently, therefore each facade adapts to the orientation specifically: South: Gallery pro tecting intervention, East and West: completely closed, North: completely opened. Building maximizes South and North orientations. Cross Ventilation: The width of the intervention is purposely made to be 9m to optimize cross ventilation efficiently, every apartment has it with windows on each side. Vegetation: Vegetation is used for many purposes in this proposal, agriculture in the landscape of the ground floor, growing on the metal mesh to shade gallery, green walls to shade and hide apartments, and on the green roofs to grow crops. Global Solar Radiation

Part II - Safety Requirements DB HE ENERGY SAVING STRATEGY

Sustainability Strategy Summer sun

Winter sun

Shaded vertical garden Green roof

Personalized green wall

Technical core

Cross ventilation

Ceramic ventilated facade

Triple Low-E glazed glass

Private apartment spaces

Green wall

Communal apartment spaces

Trees shading

Recycled locally sourced

Open ground floor with minimal touching continuing greenery

Facades

North Facade

South Facade

Part II - Safety Requirements DB HS HEALTH SAFETY HS 1 Protection Against Humidity Conditions

All the enclosure elements in contact with the exterior air or the ground need to ensure the correct protection from humidity, with the objective of reducing the risk of users of the building feeling uncom fortable, as well as reducing of deterioration of the building or its immediate environment.

The pitched roof has wood boards as roof finish supported by battents, waterproof membrane, dou ble shingle wood board, insulation system (140mm, water-repellent and fire-resistant) and vapour barrier. All these layers standing on top of the timber slab system. The floor is made out of a wood slab system with insulation, waterproof membrane and vapur barrier with solid beech wood flooring system as a finish. Other than that, there are the green roofs.

HS2 Waste Material Storage

All waste materials are collected on ground floor in storage technical rooms that are accessible by garbage trucks.

HS3 Interior Air Ventilation Requirements

Mainly the building is maximizing natural cross ventilation due to the design of it, in addition to that in very harsh months, HVAC systems are available in the intervention.

HS 4 Water Supply

Part II - Safety Requirements DB HS HEALTH SAFETY HS 4 Water Supply

HS5 Water Evacuation

Roof slabs (both wooden planks and green roofs) are sloped 5% to direct water towards the gutter, water tanks are strategically placed on roof (on technical cores). With a dimension of 1x2x0.5m of 2000 liters of water.

Part II - Safety Requirements DB SU ACCESSIBILITY AND SAFETY CONDITIONS FOR USERS Safety Conditions

All safety measures are taken to prevent any risks.

The use of balustrades, handrails, and parapets

Floor finishes materials

The ground floor exterior pavement is made of compressed sand that absorbs the heat, the observation platforms and vertical circulation are made out of wood planks, and for apart ments its made of prefab concrete slabs, finally the roof is a prefab concrete with either green roof above it or wooden planks.

Glass surfaces

All terraces, platforms, baclonies, ramps, and stairs are equipped with 90cm height and 4cm thick triple glass parapets.

The glass used is triple low-e glazing, used in windows, railings and ground floor. 1.5m of accessible space is always provided for maintenance.

Stairs and ramps

Stairways are 1.5m, threads are 30cm and risers are 14cm. The height between ground floor and first floor is 4.6275m. Ramps are 1/12 to provide a smooth slope with 55m dis tance.

Part II - Safety Requirements DB HR BASIC NOISE PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

Since the project is in the middle of a rural area, in the landscape, therefore no noise pollution or extra noise protection is needed.

South facade is towards gallery therefore there might be some noise towards that communal corridor, so not very quiet functions were placed there such as kitchen and dining rooms.

The very private and quiet functions such as living room, office, and bedrooms are towards the North facade.

The solution provides the use of particular gypsum boards in the partition composition, such as the Gold Bond SoundBreak XP 5/8” or similar.

Patch connecting ecosystems Undergraduate thesis project Fares Al Rajal For more: https://linktr.ee/faresalrajal