GAUTAM TANWAR
STATIC AWARE QUAD GRID SHELLS, 2019
FACADE REDESIGN, 2018
OASIS HIGHRISE, ROTTERDAM, 2018
NORTHERN LIGHTROOMS, ICELAND, 2018
COMMUNAL HOUSING, ZATAARI CAMP , JORDAN , 2018
CLUBHOUSE IREO SKYON, DELHI NCR, 2016
SINGHAL RESIDENCE , DELHI NCR, 2016-2017
GOLFCLUB SRINAGAR , KASHMIR, 2017
JENGA HOUSE , DELHI NCR, 2017
6th-8th QUARTER ~ NOV 2018-JULY 2019
Tutors - Michela Turrin | Peter Eigenraam
m.turrin@tudelft.nl | p.eigenraam@tudelft.nl
Quadrangular Grid shells have generated interest in recent years for their application in rationalizing free form geometry in the built environment. Shell structure are efficient because their form is governed by flow of internal forces. But while discretizing shells into grid shells, instead of using flow of forces, current method follows patterns and tessellation techniques. Quadrangular grids are easier to manufacture but they are not stiff inherently compared to triangulated meshed grid, which doesn’t allow them to be used as frequently. There is a scope to improve stiffness by discretization informed by flow of forces.
A workflow was developed for designing quadrangular static-responsive grid shells which are structurally efficient, homogenous and has near planar cladding, including preferences of the designer. The workflow is set up in a parametric environment in grasshopper, a plugin for Rhino 3d modelling software. It uses particle spring method for form finding a shell which has membrane like load bearing behaviour. The solid shell is discretized into a grid shell by a custom stress line generator which uses principal stress vector field derived by Finite element analysis of the shell. The grid shell is homogenised and optimized for planarity by dynamic relaxation. Multiple design alternatives are generated and stored. Design space is explored by using data analytics and visualization techniques which helps user to make informed design decisions. The workflow is applied to create a grid shell over delft bus station as a case study to protect travellers from varying weather conditions.
The results are quite satisfactory in terms of structural performance when compared to methods used in state of the art in practice. Stiffness of a structure can be measure by total strain energy. The grid shell for delft bus station generated using this workflow was 32% and 49% lower in terms of total strain energy(compliance) than regular quad grid shell and diagrid quad shell respectively. The results are promising for real life application. Meaning that the workflow can be used to find a homogenised quadrangular grid shell which are stiffer than their predecessors. Grid shells are used for approximating free form geometry for various projects around the globe. Using this method can save time, money and material which was required to make a grid shells stiff by thicker beams or extra stiffening members.
High Twisting Moment Deformation of Frame Torsion Free Alignment
The diagram above shows how alighment of quad frames with direction of force or principal stress can help in making the frames stiffer and reduce bending moments in beams.
Flow chart of Software, tools and plugins used in the workflow
Stress lines generated by Karamba3d. there are a few commercial tools which are used to visualize the flow of forces through stresslines but there is no control over the outcome. A custom tool with flexible rules was coded in python in grasshopper environment to generate stress lines which provides a desired topology for grid shell.
Three of the various custom rules applied to the stress line generator. for example if a stress lines intersects with another, it will change its path before intersection if possible. Another important case is when ring forces emerge in shells, then stress line completes a loop and comes close to intersecting itslelf, Both ends are culled in that case and the curve is closed. To maintain certain distance between stress lines, every seed is checked for proximity in both directions and if the seed closer than a given distance , it is skipped.
Looping
Intersection Seeding
Stressline generated by custom designed tool.
Homogenised mesh using dynamic relaxation for ease of construction and better aesthetics without compromising with alignment.
The resulting grid shell from the workflow was compared to similar method which is used in state of the art in practice YAS grid Shell. Two grid shell of same mass or amount of material, same cross section of beams and similar beam count were created two compare the structural performance. The static responsive grid shell outperforms the grid shells derived from standard methods. It had much lower displacement and maximum utilization or stress values. Total Strain energy or compliance is considered to check the degree of stiffness for structure. Structures are considered to be stiffer if their total strain energy(compliance) is lower. Static responsive grid shell is 45% lower than regular quad grid shell and diagrid shell in terms of strain energy. Utilization is also very high in traditional shells. It can be seen in the utilization visualization that areas where beams are not aligned with principal stress direction are high in stress (red beams).
Principal stress Vector field extracted from Parallel Shell Analysis performed in Karamba3D.
FACADE DESIGN
ACADEMIC PROJECT AT TUDELFT
3RD QUARTER ~ FEB-APRIL 2018
Tutors - Arie Bergsma | Frank Schnater
a.c.bergsma@tudelft.nl | F.R.Schnater@tudelft.nl
Facade is the most technically challenging and multi-disciplinary part of a building. This course takes an existing building and analyses its facade and proposes a new improved seign. Doelen conservatorium also known as codarts universityfor the Arts is located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. A lot of issues were found in the analysis of this building’s facade, like the heavy structure, the time consuming construction process, poor sustainability and poor thermal performance. After considering the problems, various methods of improvement were discussed and analysed.
The goals were set towards the redesign of the façade which includes use of lightweight materials, demountable elements, reusability, low carbon footprint, improved thermal performance, improved acoustic performance. It was decided to retain the initial concept of façade to keep a low percentage of glazing and screen off the exterior elements for the students to concentrate and provide relief to the façade with overhangs. All these considerations led to the proposal of a light weight GFRP sandwich panel unitised system.
Dew
and
Connection Unitized Panels
De Doelen’s façade was designed to protect and divide the inside of the building from the outside using dense and heavy materials. The use of a rain screen cavity wall to insulate the outside from the inside and a mass barrier to insulate the building from external sound sources prove to perform adequately.
However, an even better performance, could also be achieved by a mostly bio-based, lightweight, demountable façade. The new design will maintain at least the same level of performance as the existing facade, while providing a more sustainable solution to the existing design.
Acoustic Stud Walls
Biobased Insulation
GFRP Panles
Constructing the components of the mold
Assembling the mold
Adding the fibers and pouring the resin on top
Disassembling the mold
Adding the insulation, frame and the tripple glazing to the GFRP panel
Final Product
In this case, the flow of heat is from inside to outside, so the vapour from the interior space tries to pass through the gypsum boards, which along with the sealants and the wood trim (1st line of defence) form a continuous vapour and water barrier. Two layers of EPDM sealants (2nd line of defence) seal the joints between GFRP panels and act as water and vapour barriers. The outer most horizontal layer of EPDM has gaps in the bulb (see figure x) to let the water flow out at each level. The GFRP sandwich panels act as a rain screen and they protect the thermal insulation inside, being non-permeable.
The gaps left for tolerance between the window frame and GFRP panel are sealed with EPDM at various levels to ensure a water and vapour tight system. If the outer most layer of EPDM fails, there are tiny outlets placed at the bottom to let the water drain out. The glazing is fixed using EPDM sealant, with two lines of defence creating an air and vapour tight barrier.
Since most of the façade is comprised of modular and prefabricated elements, tolerances can be reduced to a minimum and will have to be dealt with during the fabrication process. However, once the panel is installed, vertical and horizontal tolerances must be handled to secure them in place and to account for any irregularities. This is made through a facade bracket that allows for vertical and horizontal movements.
4TH QUARTER ~ MAY-JUNE 2018
Tutors - Filip Geerts | Oscar Rommens | Niklaas Deboutte | Nicola Marzot
F.Geerts@tudelft.nl
Studio : The course MEGA focuses on interdisciplinary integration of various fields of Architectural design; structural design; climate design and building services; façade design; project and construction management and computational design. This design process is applies for the design of a Highrise building in Rotterdam, Netherlands. I played the role of an Architect along with another collegue for the project.
Context :The Rotterdam Central District (RCD) is the area centered on Rotterdam Central Station. The district intends to further develop a mix of programmes and environments, targeting kinetic urbanites for work, play, and living. The Conradstraat, between railway and Groothandelsgebouw, is together with Weenapoint, Delftseplein and Schiekadeblok, one of the locations to give form to the RCD’s future urban development.
Program: 1. Conference Centre 15000 m2 gross | 2. Hotel 15000 m2 | 3. Offices 15000 m2 gross | 4. Housing 15000 m2 gross | 5. General services/plinth 6000 m2 gross | Total 66000 m2 gross
Vision: In an increasing digital and virtual world, for a prosperous and healthy future for young multicultural Rotterdam, the authorities are following the ambition of a circular city, where resource flows are efficiently used and reused, food and energy are produced locally and economical alliances are formed. The city, as the gateway to Europe is growing 80.000/ year, has a high office vacancy rate ( 13,9 ), as well as rising inovative cultural and economic ideas, questioning our lifestyle and changing the way we live, work, consume and interact with each other.
Our site, connected to the RCS in the central district, is a gateway and space of transition, where residents and guests of the city flow together in one place. Therefore, requiring a building representative of Rotterdam, integrating the present urban ecosystem, embracing the digital world and promoting human interaction. Our Highrise should be a symbolic and active building for the development of the city, the users, the owners and investors, forming synergies between functions, flows and interactors. Offering the Users a highly spatial quality experience.
We envision the high rise of the future as a more connective space than it is the case for skyscrapers today. Therefore, the challenge of combining multiple functions in one building was a chance for us to connect, to create community and spacial and functional synergies, to support neighborhood and enable social activities. The Urban Oasis is a place where people paths are crossing to meet and recover.
The site is a narrow piece of plot situated in a prime location next to the Rotterdam Central. It is well connected not just within Netherlands with bus and train but internationally too with the Eurostar platform. This makes the project very high value and demanding.
The municipality envisioned a plinth of 30 meters and a huge tower. According to the program we concluded that the volumetric impact of the tower was enormous within the given context. So, we split the functions into 2 towers.
This gave us an opportunity to create an in-between space both literally and symbolically. Different user groups can come together and enjoy leisure activities. Plinth can serve this purpose at the urban level.
After we established the guiding principle of the building, we optimized it in terms of wind, sun and quality of space and architectural expression.Terraces created a playground for interactions and visual connections. They also helped in reducing the wind draft in the inner core between the towers.
More terraces face south and bigger terraces are on the lower levels to make them accessible to all users of the building. The architecture expression of the building comes out with the cut on the edges and make towers look even slender.
The raised platform on the plinth level invite people into the building and make connection to the station easily accessible. It gives shelter to the bus station, adds green space on a public accessible level, creates outdoor seating and leisure for the restaurants.W
Splitting the towers helps creating distinguished entrances for each function. All the lobbies entrances are celebrated with double ceiling heights. All loading unloading docks are kept in the west side of the tower without disturbing the main square or acquiring valuable space. The terrace provides shelter for people waiting for buses. Bikes are parked underground, with a direct connection to the existing bike path. We raised the green area that used to be on our site and made it a big terrace in front of our building. By doing this, we maximized desirable retail space, solved the problem of intersecting bus lines and pedestrians and made a proper connection to the train station. Once people got up the inviting stairs, people enter the gastronomical level. A café, bar and a food marked offer enough possibilities to grab some food and sit in one of the many spots the terrace as to offer.
9th floor plan
Ground floor plan
On the terrace, there are spots for barbecue, relaxing, gardening and making little walks. They are connected on five levels, so users of the Gym & Spa as well as from several offices have a direct connection to the common space too. In that way, every user of the building has a direct connection to the roof garden. The building opens up towards the sunny south side and a great view over Rotterdam. The terraces help to reduce wind speeds at human level.
All the communal functions are gathered around the common roof garden. This includes two restaurants as well as an multifunctional event room for differently sized events. As it can be seen at the restaurants, there green houses in front of most facades that works energetically as a buffer space. The outer layer is full openable and therefore adaptable to all weather conditions while maintaining the outdoor experience.
Two facade typologies were designed for the current project. The ventilated typology, is placed in all facades apart from the ones facing the core where the terraces are located. More specifically, one facade panel consists of a double skin box window, pv panels and one aluminum sheet which covers an operable opaque window. In winter natural ventilation is provided through facade, since an external vent provides air in the cavity, where it is preheated by the heat generated from pv panels on the window before entering the interior space. (Figure 8.1.2). In summer, two vents placed at the bottom and top of the panel provides constant airflow in the cavity while the natural ventilation is achieved by the opaque operable window.
Facade Brackets
Louver
Ventilation Panel
The hotel rooms either have a view over Rotterdam or the roof terraces, including a private balcony. The apartments are deeper towards south to make optimal use of the daylight. The net gross floor area ratio ranges frpm 18 to 22
The bigger apartments have winter gardens that can be closed in case of bad weather. They work as a thermal buffer space and save energy. The net gross floor area ratio ranges is 16
The offices have open floor plans with concentrated work zones and leisure areas towards the roof garden. The lower ones even have direct access to the terraces. The net gross floor area ratio ranges from 18 to 22
Adored with little volcanic peaks in the backdrop, the still waters of Myvatn and the aurora Borealis in the north; the context has been an inspiration for the design. Maintaining the serenity of the environment, the design blends with the site. While the main guesthouse is optimized for functional operations; the detached guest rooms provide a mesmerizing experience with 360 degree clear view of the aurora borealis while laying in their cozy environment. The guest rooms have been designed to create a memorable scenic experience of Icelandic environment in comfortable internal condition.
The form of the guesthouse and detached guest pods has been derived from the basic stable geometry of the cube to ease the construction method and building costs; which is otherwise involved in complicated custom manufactured products. The entire project aims to maximize the use of local construction materials, the passive design techniques and renewable sources of energy for a sustainable future and low carbon footprint.
The form of the guest house and the individual rooms have been derived from the pure geometry of the cube.
To ensure maximum transparency, strucural steel or wood members were avoided. Panels consisting of three layers of laminated glass were used to make the structure. Embedded steel connection were used to join glass panels. Finite Elements analysis software Diana FEA 10.2 was used to calcultae stresses and deflections in glass panels. Different combinations were tried until an optimum thickness, members sizes and connections were achieved. This resulted in cabin entirely made of glass. The whole structure is composed of demountable elements. In order to move a pod, one can use a crane to transport it or demount it and assembly it in the other location.
Assembly Sequence
1. Glass roof to Glass roof
2. Wooden floor to glass wall
3. Wooden base beam to beam
4. Wooden secondary beam to beam
5. Wooden base beam to leg
6. Using pegs to anchor the sleeping pod to the ground
Construction materials play a primary role in determining the effect on environment. Thus, the materials with low embodied energy have been chosen for the construction of this building. Local material like wood have been used for secondary structural framework, cladding, flooring and furniture. The indegenious methods of using stone masonry walls and earthberm have been used to improve insulation. Use of materials like concrete, which have a high embodied energy, has been limited to foundation. Steel portals have been used for the main structural system of the guest house. Steel has benefits over concrete construction systems as steel can be reused and recycled. Cross laminated timber could also be used in place of steel for structural framework to further reduce the carbon footprint, however preference has been given to steel because of thinner member sizes.
1. Renewable Energy: Electricity in Iceland is provided through 100 renewable source of energy, 73 of which is hydropowered and 27 geothermal. Thus, the renewable source of electricty from Myvatn geothermal power plant is used to power the guest house.
4. Heating the sleeping Pod: Electrical oil heaters are used to maintain the indoor room temperature. Since, the guest rooms are portable, thus it is challenging to channel hot water via underground pipe network
7. Reusing Grey Water: The water from activities in kitchen, shower, laundary and sauna room can be filtered and reused for flushing toilets. This reduces the fresh water consumption of an average household by 30.
2. Local Cladding Materials: Use of locally available materials like wood and stone helps to create a low carbon footprint and saves energy losses due to transportation.
5. Structural Glass with Low-e coating: 3 layers of 8 mm thick, heat-strengthened laminated glass with low-e coating has been used. This maximizes the indoor comfort in the guest pods without compromising the 3600 view to the exterior.
8. Disposing Black Water:
The water from toilets is unusable and is high on pollutants. Due to lack of any drainage and sewage system at the site, the black water is treated through a decentralised treatment system of septic tank. The Septic tank filters out harmful inorganic substances from the water and channels it in underground, which gets further filtered through the layers of earth before reaching the ground water table.
Lighting and Sensors: Using LED lights and motion sensors can help reduce the electricity load by 30 thus reducing running costs.
6. Fresh Water source: The site is located adjecent to Myvatn lake. The water from this lake can be used for drinking by channeling it through a filteration system to ensure removal of any minerals and impurities.
9. Geothermal heat pumps:
Iceland has special conditions to generate geothermal energy. Thus, this renewable, lowcost and efficient system of energy is tapped from the ground using heat pumps. Cold water is channeled through insulated pipes underground which gets heated and pumped up, finally using this to fulfill the heating requirements. The hotwater is channeled into the pipes which run through all the living spaces.
10. Heat Exchanger:
Heat generated in the kitchen can be used to warm other areas. This reduces the reliance on external heat sources. Thus, heat exchangers have been used to direct the heat generted in the kitchen to the restaurant. Similarly, the heat generated in the stables due to rearing of mammals can be directed on the upper floors via heat exchangers.
11. Underground Connection: The reception and lobby area of the guest house is directly connected to the host’s residence via an underground passage to ease functionality in the harsh climate conditions of Iceland.
12. Earth Berming:
Traditional method of insulation has been used to maintain the temperatue in ground floor. Earth, which is available in abundance, has been used in consonance with the geometry of the building to maximize indoor comfort levels.
EARTHY STUDIO ACADEMIC PROJECT AT TUDELFT
5TH QUARTER ~ SEP-OCT 2018
Tutors - Pirouz Nourian | Serdar Asut| Hans Hoogenboom | Fred Veer | Dirk Rinze Visser
p.nourian@tudelft.nl
EARTHY is a master’s level design studio with the aim of designing and engineering earthy buildings, in particular adobe buildings, intended for mid-term accommodation of displaced communities. Our goal is to design buildings that can be ideally built by their prospective inhabitants. Earthy buildings are virtually 100 recyclable and, compared to tents, they offer much more comfort. The use of earthen materials necessitates the knowledge of complex geometry e.g. in designing and technical drawing of vaults, domes and arches in optimal shapes. The focus of the course is on the relations of materials, forms, and structures, explored computationally. Automated construction design and generation of assembly instructions are extra challenges to be tackled via computation.
“The consequences of family separation are significant, and in addition to financial burdens, expose refugees to serious protection risks, including harsh child labour, broken social networks, parenting challenges, and changes to familial roles. Furthermore, decades of research connect damaged social networks to poor physical and mental health.”
The Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan has developed rapidly since 2013, with a large influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war. Now home to approximately 80,000 refugees, the camp has transformed into a city and is anticipated to remain for a prolonged period of time. Many refugees are living with exacerbated challenges due to the separation of families; resulting in broken social networks. Children suffer from the lack of structured space to play outdoors and many refugees feel unsafe and lack privacy. There are also infrastructural problems; the camp was built in a desert, subject to heavy rainfall and sandstorms at certain times of the year. To improve the health and wellbeing of refugees, more permanent forms of housing that respond to social and cultural needs should be developed.
These diagrams analyse different types of urban housing clusters to understand the organisation of an urban block. A variety of urban clusters have been observed in the refugee camp. It also showed that the veru orthogonal configuration of caravans by the UNHCR was adapted by the refugees to form these very organic cluster arrangements.
A communal home is proposed for families in need of additional support. The home brings together individuals and small families to share facilities and build a social support network. The communal facilities are located on the ground floor of the building and include safe play areas for children, space for single parents to work at home while caring for children, kitchen and dining facilities for group meals, wash facilities and a mix of spaces for gathering. On the first floor, dwelling units provide private areas for individual families. The design strategy is largely landscape driven, with the goal of managing water on the site to prevent deterioration of adobe structures due to stagnant stormwater. The landscape includes planted swales and retention basins to absorb excess stormwater and wastewater.
The idea behind the computational plan generation was that this communal housing scheme could be repeated accros the camp with varying requirements for spaces. Our program can support a community from 40 to 80 people and can generate a plan according to the input from the communities in an excel file. This particular scheme accomodates 60 people with varying family sizes.Each family gets their own dwelling on the top floor. According to the landscape driver urban design strategy a mound is created which is intersected with streets and courtyards taking inspiration from vernacular syrian architecture and after analysing different housing typologies in the camp. These intersection also provide light, ventilation, visual connection and relationship between courtyards on ground and top floor.
The street is bend at an angle of 30o and a courtyard is introduced at the junction to make focal gathering point in the settlement. Relationship between different communal activities were established. All these parameter were coded in the program to generate the ground floor plan. , A dot grid dual to the orignal grid system was used to for placing the top floor dwellings. Points on this grid were identified where single floor and two-floor dwelling could be placed following a certain set of rules such as: atleast one grid distance between dwellings, dwellings cannot be placed above points above street and courtyards.etc.
Exploded Sections
The structure is based on a simple princple of a hanging chain. when a chain is suspended it makes a caternary which is a tension only shape as the chain cannot take any compression. If you fix all the parts in the chain and reverse it, the chain makes an arch which is compression only. This princple is applied to a uniform mesh to find initial shape of the catenary domes by dynamic relaxion in ‘grasshopper’ using a physiscs engine ‘Kangaroo 2’.Note that only self weight of the domes(inverted) was used to find the form for these catenary domes. Due to the additional load of the the soil above and load of the dwellings above, some tension will occur in the domes, so the shape of catenary domes has to be adjusted. New optimised structure is derived by applying the additon load and inverting it in the dynamic relaxation process. This gives a structure which is compession only or negligible tension.
Initial form finding with only self weight of the domes
Optimised form finding with weight of the earth fill and dwellings on top
Principal stress 1,layer 1
Max tensile stress 0.07 Mpa (Tensile Strength 0.1 Mpa)
Principal stress 1,layer -1
Max tensile stress 0.07 Mpa (Tensile Strength 0.1 Mpa)
Principal stress 2,layer 1
Max comprseeive stress 1.28 Mpa (Compressive Strength 2 Mpa)
Principal stress 1,layer -1
Max tensile stress 0.07 Mpa (Tensile Strength 0.1 Mpa)
Street and courtyard ground floor
Courtyard top floor