ARCH 402 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO VI
THESIS PROJECT
CONTENTS 01. Cover 03. Baku City Oil History 06. Urban Analysis 09. Site Analysis 11. Building Program& Space Requirement 12. Concept&Schematic Planning 13. Floor Plans 15. Elevations 17. Structure 19. Perspectives
BAKU TRANSPORTATION HUB KENAN AKHVERDIEV
Transportation Hub
Project is located in the capital city of Azerbaijan, Baku. e site is more than 50.000 m2, where government was going to built new shopping malls, located at the end of the old boulevard and at the start of the newly developing Baku White City Boulevard on the Nobel avenue. e site was selected based on many criterias, such as the location, the traffic density present in the surrounding, social and environmental problems, also the historical value of the area.
Train ready for departure in Baku. Ludvig Nobel constructed the tank cars, and had them produced in Riga, Russia. Photo: Asbrink Collection
Baku Petroleum Industry (Land of Fire) Located on the Caspian Sea in the South Caucasus region, Azerbaijan is known as “the land of re” because of its rich reserves of oil and gas, which the government estimates total nearly three trillion cubic metres today. Baku is the oldest and most developed city in the Caucasus Region, as it was very famous for its precious oil, during the rule of Russian Empire, it was called ‘black gold’. Evidence of petroleum being used in trade as early as the 3rd and 4th centuriesan be found in the manuscripts of most Arabic and Persian authors. I. Haji Kasimbey Mansurbekov, in 1803 for the rst time in the world, begins sea-oil extraction in Bibi-Heybat bay. Aerwards, in 1806, the Russian Empire occupied Baku Khanate and took monopolistic control of oil production. Consequently, all oil sources of Absheron, Guba and Salyan belonging to Baku Khanate are requisitioned and declared state assets of Russia. Baku attracted many petrol industries including famous Rotshichlds, Nobel Brothers for being great oppurtunity against worldwide kerosene monopoly of Rockfellers. Alfred Nobel’s older brother, Robert, rst came to Azerbaijan in 1873.Another brother, Ludwig, had sent Robert over from Russia to nd walnut trees that could be used to build the ri es the family was manufacturing for the
Russian tsar’s army at the time, “instead of trees they found precious oil in the world”, according to a New York Times report. Alongside the Nobel brothers, the Rothschild brothers’ Caspian-Black Sea Company became one of the leading oil companies in the Russian oil business in the late 1880s. Development of oil industry divided Baku into two parts known as historical “Old Baku” and industrial region which was called Black City. is ironic name given to that area represented how smokes and fumes affected the overall look of the industrial part of the city, which covered buildings with black soot. Produced oil and petroleum were transported in various ways. Oil and petroleum were rst stored and later on either were transported by train which was connected from the black city to the main railway station or by port and pierces located at the seashore. In fact, e rst railroad construction and subsequent development in Azerbaijan was due to the direct transportation of oil. As mentioned. Baku oil has been used for a long time in a systematic manner and has been used for illumination and treatment mainly in Azerbaijan, its Middle East and Central Asia, Russia and India.
Rail-Transport Development (Impact on Urban Dynamics) Transport is regarded as a basic factor fostering development of urban regions. e “triumph of the city” will not be possible without an efficient transportation system, urbanisation, although in some regions it is not as dynamic as it used to be in the demographic aspect, it is still progressing in the economic, social, and spatial dimension. A new turn in the transport - development of the railway system is observed at the end of the 20th century. In many countries large investments are made to improve the quality of railway systems, in particular the construction of high-speed rail connections (Vickerman 1996; Haynes 1997).
Baku General Plan by M.Q.Hacinski. 1911-1918. Photo: Azerbaijan National Archieve
e rst high speed railway line in Azerbaijan was belonging to was laid in 1878 and was opened in 1880 within the suburban range of Baku, which led from Sabunçu to Suraxanı, today situated within the city of Baku. In freight traffic, the exportation of oil from the oil wells from Baku at the Caspian Sea to the Georgian port of Batumi at the Black Sea forms an important share of the rail transport in Azerbaijan. Proposed new high speed rail network will enhance former industrial area and improve the urban quality in underdeveloped quarters of Baku.
Baku General Plan by A.P.Ivaniskiy. 1924-1927. Photo: SCRSS Soviet Collections: Library and Archive
Baku General Plan by L.A.Ilyin. 1934-1937. Photo: SCRSS Soviet Collections: Library and Archive
Urban growth of Baku Photo: Azerbaijan National Archives
Baku Emprical Development plan. 1899-1902. Photo: Russian Empire - Romanov Dynasty Archieve
Urban Context & Baku White City Baku seashore and boulevard is a synthesis of compilation of many old and even ancient buildings such as Old Cıty Walls, Maiden Tower, House of Hacinski and etc and newly built by famous architects modern buildings such as Crystal Hall, Port Baku, Haydar Aliyev Center and etc. Late oil boom provided Azerbaijan with large amount of income, which was used to create new business and commercial areas. And development of city started rapidly increasing speed. Since 2014, Baku municipality started to re-evaluate and to clean up the former industrial areas, process of which was called ‘Whitening’. With partnership of ‘Atkins Global’ new master plan was designed. As lead consultant, global engineering and architectural design rm Atkins (UK) performed masterplanning and detailed planning activities for the project. Along with specialists from Azerbaijan, Fosters and Partners (UK), and F+A Architects, with their globally renowned experience in the design of retail projects, were also involved.
e new master plan is located at the end of the boulevard. roughout the boulevard many shopping malls are located. On the new masterplan the area of junction old Baku White city and Baku, new shopping mall was proposed to be built, which feels like it was proposed just to cover the empty area. My project scope is to cover the area between the Baku City and newly developing Baku White City, by designing ‘Transportation Hub’ and ‘Public Service Hall’ and in the intermediate area between Baku and Baku White City. By designing ‘Public Service Hall’, which will be a headquarter which compiles many governmental and semi-governmental institutions serving the citizens in `and everyday communal services, its aimed to decrease the corruption rates which is one of the biggest social problems in Baku.
Site location, size, topography, zoning, traffic conditions and climate were examined, also considered for any future developments, or changes to the sites surroundings, s, changing cultural patterns and etc. To encounter with various problems, environmental simulation used for sustainability goals. Although analog tools, guidelines and design recommendations provide with some support for designing sustainably, simulation was an essential part of my design for predict the performance of design options related to urban spaces and buildings forms. program, materials and technologies. e temperature regime and its distribution throughout Azerbaijan is regular, and depends on the features of air masses entering the country, the regional landscape, and proximity to the Caspian Sea Solar radiation chart represents the annual average solar radiations and solar angles throughout a year.
Wind is one of the things Baku is famous for, even the name Baku means ‘Windy City’ from translation from old language. Wind is strong throughout all year. Most strongest wind streams are from north-west and southwest from the sea.
Gentri cation is being increasingly discussed as a driver of urban change globally, including in the former Soviet Union. Baku has a continious grenery axises. ese axises are connect either physically or visually. Even though some connection of these axises were disrepted during 2000th. Municipality started many projects to reconnect and to establish new green city.
Old Baku Collage. 1710-1920. Photos: Russian Empire - Romanov Archieve
Transportation Infastructure As Baku City is the capital and near to half of population of country lives here, all Azerbaijan regions and cities, even foreign contries related to Baku. e connections are variable, there are many ways used to create logistic and touristic routes to and inside of Baku city. Subway system is one of the most popular public transportation in Baku, with population of 5 million citizens. 2 million people are using Baku Subway everyday. e subway system is divided into 2 routes : red and green routes. ey both travel to furthest parts of tyhe city and intersect at the İcerisheher station, which is locate at the central part of “Old Baku”. e existing routes became insufficient throughout many years and due to large amount of population increase. By municipality it was decided to establish one more subway railway system which was shown violet in the graph. e construction of the new subways system is ongoing now. Baku boulevard aer Baku White City extensıon became too long of the boulevard park, so new boulevard tramway is proposed by the municiplaıty. On graph shown as blue. ere are also sea connections, which Baku seashore is compiled with many pierces and ports connecting other Baku ports and other countries, such as Russian Federation, İran, Turkmenistan and several islands.
Road Hieararchy Baku is very dense in terms of population city, and roads can create very big problem in terms of intercirculation within the city. To decrease the chance of traffic problems, road hierarchy is established. ere are four (4) degrees of the road in Baku.
• • • •
1st degree Roads- Main roads connecting Parliament and Old City with the aiırport. Also known as presidential road, on the graph shown as Yellow. 2nd degree Roads- ere are main roads connecting regions and main dşstricts of Baku city in the gridal system. On the graph shown as Dark Blue. 3rd degree Roads- ey are the intermediate roads which help the 2nd degree and 1st degree roads to decrease the traffic rate. 4th degree Roads- ey are the roads within the regions and districts of the Baku City. Giving circulation path inside the districts. On the graph shown as in Black.
Building Program
Transportation Hub proggramme at rst seems easy to put together. ere are no many function and many spaces. Nevertheless the amount of area that will the Transportation Hub cover is going to be large. Transportation Hub consists from 5 portion, which are Main Platforms, Maintenance areas, Public use areas, Administration Offices an Retail and Entertainment areas.
Space Requirement
•
is charts not only represent which area coverage does every space require, but also gives understanding of what kind of hierarchy will the space have according to public and privacy issues.
As mentioned before the Transportation Hub wii cover large amount of area with having the least amount of spaces. In Transportation Hub most of the area wii be required by the circulation 30 percent, parking and of course concourse. e places where the people will wait and spend their time befopre arrival.
Schematic Planning & Conceptual Mass
Floor Plans
Elevations
North Elevation
East Elevation
South Elevation
West Elevation
Structure
Rendered Pespectives