Hisham a muazzam - house of future - term 1 - optimized

The Future

This Graffiti art by London Artist Banksy was done in 2011. Although the reason behind this graffiti was pointing at the state of UK financial position in midst of the recession, I think this art can also be interpreted in other ways.

In reference to the garments industry crisis in third world countries regarding to factory fires and building collapses killing thousands every year, I think this graffiti could also reflect the never ending demands of the consumer lifestyle especially in the West and how that impacts those producing the goods.

In reality if there was a sequel to this Graffiti it should be - SORRY! The lifestyle you ordered will always be in stock. As companies are willing to go to every extreme length to get products to the consumers at the right price and on time even if it is at the cost of human life!

“SORRY! The lifestyle you ordered will always be in stock.�

Consumers v.s. Suppliers

Bangladesh Consumers Suppliers This map is specifically focusing on the major 3rd world nations who are producing RMG (Ready Made Garments) for the 1st world nations around the world.

This cluster of South East Asian countries provide for all the major clothing brands from Nike to H&M. China-made garments now account for one fifth of the global market share, followed by Bangladesh who just became the 2nd largest garment exporter in 2013 and closely followed third, Vietnam.

BANGLADESH - 79% of all export incomes comes from the Garments industry - Garments factories produce 10% of the country’s GDP

79% of all export incomes comes from the Garments industry Garments factories produce 10% of the country’s GDP

Suppliers - Hourly Wages

$7.58 - 9.11

$8.25 - 14.00

$0.50 - 0.74

$0.21 - 0.93

$0.24 - 2.73

These are the hourly wage rates in garments factories around the world.

Country

United States $8.25-14.00 United Kingdom $7.58-9.11 Venezeula $2.73 Costa Rica $2.19 Guatemala $1.21 Colombia $1.20 Honduras $1.02 Philippines $0.94-1.00 China $0.93 Peru $0.92 El Salvador $0.92 Jordan $0.74 Malaysia $0.73 Nicaragua $0.65 Bahrain $0.57 Thailand $0.56 India $0.55-0.68 Mauritius $0.55-0.65 Vietnam $0.52 Egypt $0.50-0.87 Mexico $0.50-0.53 Sri Lanka $0.46 Pakistan $0.37 Indonesia $0.35 Cambodia $0.24 Bangladesh $0.21

Hourly Wage

Bangladesh has the lowest hourly wage in the world thus making it attractive to foreign brands as it helps them keep their cost per unit low which allows them for a bigger profit.

Pay Grade - Breakdown

50% RETAILER

25% BRAND

13% MANUFACTURER 11% TAX & TRANSPORT 1% FOR THE GARMENTS WORKERS!

This simple diagram shows the price distribution percentage on a Garments Manufactured shirts in 3rd world nations.

This diagram is the basic reason why there is such a growing demand for RMG (Ready Made Garments) producers in 3rd world nations.

The extremely low labour cost in many of the 3rd world countries attract all the foreign buyers to allocate jobs to these factories.

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 145 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable–most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building.

Consumers & Producers - 2050

Factories - The Producers

The Consumers

Potential Utopian Living for the Wealthy

NOW

2030

2050

I am speculating that if the world keeps moving in the direction were the gap between producers and consumers get wider then by 2050 we might see such a overwhelming shift between the rich and the poor that the wealthy might abandon Earth as in disarray to promised utopia elsewhere!

The Number Predctions of 2050

The Bangladeshi Garments Workers are my Primary Users

NOW

World Population 7.1 Billion

Bangladesh Population 154.7 Million

Major Consumer of Garments 524.6 Million

Bangladeshi Garments Workers 4 Million

Female Workers 3.2 Million The Primary Consumer Nations 26%

Export Worth for Bangladesh

The Garments Factory produces 10% of Country’s GDP.

$20 Billion

World Population 9.7 Billion

Bangladesh Population 211.9 Million

0.61% of people provide for the rest of the 99.4% of the popultion!

Major Consumer of Garments 718.7 Million

Bangladeshi Garments Workers 5.48 Million

Female Workers 4.4 Million

Based on research estimates of a possible increase of global population by 1.37 times, I have done a simple data extrapolation using the same number ratio in all the other fields of interest in my research.

Norway has a population of 5 million people and there are 4 million garments workers in Bangladesh.

NORWAY

10% 8%

$27.4 Billion

2050?

17.5%

Step by Step - Shirt Making Process

- The Production Processes from stage 6 to the final stage of packaging usually takes place in Bangladesh.

STEP 1 : Cotton Farming. It doesn’t take place in Bangladesh, the cotton is imported usually from China, India or Pakistan.

STEP 6 : Cutting. The fabrics of cotton are layered on top of one another and then using industrial cutting machines the fabric pieces are cut by a worker in the garments factory according to the template of the shirt pieces i.e. shoulder, pocket and sleeve etc.

STEP 2 : Cotton Ginning. This is the process where a series of chambers are used to separate the cotton fibres from the seedpods and husks from the cotton balls.

STEP 7 : Sewing. This is the most significant and time consuming part of the whole shirt making process and this is what most garments factory use its labour force for. There are many sewing parts - Placket Making, Pocket Joint, Shoulder Joint, Collar tack and Joint, Back tape Joint, Main/ size label attachment, Sleeve Hemming, Sleeve Joint, Side seam Joint, Bottom Hemming, Button Hole and Button Stitching.

STEP 3 : Spinning. This is the process where compressed cotton bales into yarn. Bales of cotton are beaten to loosen the cotton making it more manageable so that it can be spun into long ropes of slivers. Slivers are then combined into thick long ropes of yarn, ready for shipping.

STEP 7 : Printing. Sometime after the stitching is over each shirt might be individually printed to apply designs and extra colours to the garment.

STEP 4 : Knitting. During this process the yarn is transformed into cloth with loops and stitches crisscrossing one another. Knitting can either circular or weft knits and flat or warp knits depending upon the garment manufacturing process.

STEP 8 : Pressing. The finished garments are individually pressed/ ironed ready for packaging.

STEP 5 : Finishing. After the yarn has been knit into cloth, it is sent for the finishing process of garment manufacturing. During the finishing process any particulate matter in washed out. The cloth is bleached or dyed to the required colour. To avoid shrinking post production the fabric is shrunk as much as possible to remove chances of further shrinkage. The fabric is also softened to prevent any holes from being created when sowed. Finally it is then shipped to the Ready Made Garments (RMG) factories around the world including the ones in Bangladesh.

STEP 8 : Folding, Tagging and Packing. Now the garments are ready to be exported all around the world for the billions of consumers.

Transition of the Industry

When the Industrial Revolution started in the 18th Century they were in the centre of cities. Cities grew around the industries and was the sign of prospertiy for any city.

As time went, these industries become bigger and the cities became cramped. Poor hygiene in the cities and industrial pollution increased the spread of diseases. Cities soon bacame unliveable.

Industrial Revolution Period

This lead the re-urbanisation and planning of new cities. Industies where send to the outskirts of the cities while housing and offices where placed in the centre. This was the solution for decogesting and reducing the pollution in the cities.

At Present

2050 ?

The 2012 Olympic Ceremony depicted the prosperous times during the Industrial Revolution period.

High density living, together with pollution slowly started to impact the vision of industrial prosperity.

Now a days, cities are still following the zoned areas of urban city, subarban and industrial living. I think it might be time again to bring industries back to the heart of the city and once again celebrate the hardwork of the countries industries. It will again bring life to city living but in a responsible manner.

Interestingly this proposed shift of moving the factories back to the city centres has already happened in Bangladesh but the phenomenon is quite unique and will be explained in the succeeding pages.

The Evolution of the Garments Industry?

This map (source - www.ltisdschools.org) shows the areas of Europe where Industrial Revolution begun and the 3 main industries that developed in those cities - Coal, Iron and the Textile Industry. Industrial Revolution began in the 1700 when English farmers when they started to reevaluate the way farming was done and then improve the system to make it more efficient and profitable. Looking specifically at the textile industry there was also major changes led by the invention of the Flying Shuttle by John Kay speeding up the weaving of cotton, Spinning Jenny by James Hargreaves which increased the speed of the spinners. All these inventions along with improved transportation infrastructure led to the growth of Industries during the 1700 - 1900.

THEN & NOW The above images show a typical working environment of a Textile garment factory in the UK with a dominant female workforce. Rows of workers working in a large open floor space using sewing machines. Unfortunately the major problem is this overall working environment hasn’t evolved much in the spatial sense. Machines have developed along with the fabric quality but the space layout and working condition is still very similar to the one seen above.

The only major change that really significantly has transformed is simply considered as a geographical evolution. The factories have now moved from the West to the developing East!

MERELY A GEOGRAPHICAL SHIFT? Conditions are still the same - Low wage, cheap labour - Poor working condition, considered as slave labour - Majority female work force, all work force exploited - Poor building safety measures

THEN & NOW Workers are still demanding better wage, human rights, improved working conditions and their basic livelihood.

THEN & NOW Factory fires are still imminent taking place on a weekly basis.

Factory Working - As Portrayed by Charlie Chaplin

Modern Times is a 1936 comedy film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in which his iconic Little Tramp character struggles to survive in the modern, industrialized world.

It reflects similar conditions of the current factory environment, demanding work load at a fast pace.

Also shows the exploiting attitude of the work floor managers, intimidating and forcing to work harder.

A Quote from this scene, by the owner of the factory demanding more speed in the output “ Section 5 More Speed”.

The scene here shows the overbearing attitude of the owners who even intrude the short break periods of the workers, asking them to go back to work!

Quote from this scene, the inventor says “ The Bellow’s Feeding Machine - A practical device which feeds your men while at work. Don’t stop for lunch, be ahead of your competitor. The Bellow’s feeding machine will eliminate the lunch hour! Increase your production and decrease your overhead.”

Charlie Chaplin being used as the guinea pig for the product demonstration.

Having soup while working.

Having biscuits while working.

Having corn while working.

Unfortunately the excessively automated system to improve efficiency and reduce basic human rights of a lunch shows major flaws and the lack of compassion.

Thus the intervention is terminated. This short clip from 1936 sadly still reflects the situation of factories especially in the East where workers livelihood isn’t respected and aren’t given their basic human rights.

Factory Working Conditions - Safety and Health Problems

NOT ENOUGH DAYLIGHT Many of these factory buildings are very deep and often don’t receive any natural light at all especially further into the building, which impacts the workers health as well as their working efficiency.

NOT ENOUGH PASSIVE VENTILATION The deep buildings along with small windows also reduce the amount of natural ventilation taking place in the centre of the building. This often leads to workers fainting during the summer months when temperatures reach 30-40 degrees with 90-100% humidity.

OVERCROWDED Workers are often cramped into spaces to increase work volume, sitting on hard floors for 10-14 hours has serious health effects on the bones in the future.

LOUD MACHINERY NOISE AND HEAT DISPERSION The huge number of machines in the factory floors generate a lot of heat and at the same time a lot of noise, long hours with such noise also effects the workers hearing over time.

The Garments Factory layout can be closely compared to that of an exam hall except for the fact that in the factory workers have to go through this on a daily basis.

- restricted movement, no talking - limited communication and toilet privileges - constantly overlooked which creates an intimidating atmosphere - prison like environment

Poor Factory Layout

Jail like features.

Additional floors being constructed at a later stage.

Factories disguised within normal buildings in the city.

Existing building with single core and one way in and out often converted to factories without any considerations of emergency exits.

Concrete block with deep floors and small grilled windows make the floors dark, hot and almost jail like.

Floors are packed with sewing machines and artificial lighting all adding to the heat generated by the people and the machines make the spaces more unbearable.

When you have multiple floors often 10 - 15 storeys with heavy machinery on a commercial building not for heavy machinery, the stress often gets too much and the buildings collapse.

Factory Working Conditions - Security Grills/ Death Traps

Safety Grills are always used for security reasons.

Typical Apartment blocks are often converted to be used as a factories.

But these grills often become the reason of fire deaths in these apartment turned factory buildings.

Fire Escape - Facade Study

Typical Day

Fire in the Building Public Walkway Security Element/ Fire Escape

Underfloor Extending Slab Security Element/ Fire Escape

In case of a fire the security device will fold out creating an escape route onto the public walkway, taking the workers to safety.

Use of a secondary floor slab which extends outwards from the building providing the innovative fire exit route.

Security/ Safety Innovation

Initial sketches of folding facade security/ fire escape intervention.

This exterior buffer zone can be used as a double skin facade to improve natural ventilation.

Natural Ventilation.

NORMAL USE - security grill and also can be used as solar shading device.

IN CASE OF A FIRE - Folding out fire escape stairs.

Security/ Safety Innovation

Model in motion.

The Rana Plaza Collapse - A House of Cards

Rana Plaza Collapse Site

Why did the building collapse?

The 9th floor was under construction again without any permission.

6 Garments factories were accommodated from the 3rd to the 8th floor.

The initial 4 storeys were built without local council permission.

More importantly from the 5th to the 8th storeys were later built without any new extra foundation support and without any supporting walls.

TUESDAY 23rd April 2013 : Cracks appeared across the building walls, people were evacuated.

WEDNESDAY 24th April 2013: The workers were forced to go back to work with threats of wage cuts.

8:45 am that morning the building collapsed killing 1129 workers out of 2500.

There was only a single way in and out with no emergency exits.

Filled up pond around the building also weakened the foundation.

Bangladesh Factory Deaths Timeline

Number of Deaths

Year Company Name

350

53

1990 - 2000

2000 Choudury Knitwear

24

2004 Misco Building 2001 Maico Sweater

1990 - 2000 - 350 deaths

9

23 64

2005 Shan Knitting Spectrum Shahriyar

3 22 57 61

2006 Sayem Fashions Phoenix Building Imam Group KTS Design

1 110

7 1129

2012 AKH Stretch Garment Tazreen Fashion

2013 Smart Fashion Rana Plaza

Total deaths in the last 10 years - 1486

The number of factory deaths has significantly increased in the last 10 years compared to 1990 - 2000. The number has increased by over 4 times in the new millennium which should be a point of serious concern.

Rack and Gear - Moving Floor Innovation - Components

The Rana Plaza tragedy led me think about the architectural significance in the collapse of the building. The lack of adaptability and floor space flexibility led the owner to take the illegal route of constructing extra floors without proper structural support. Therefore I wanted to experiment with the notion of moving floor plates with a single gear rack column, the column would allow to add extra floors or remove excess floors depending on the space requirement, in my case if there was a sudden increase in production due to a major Primark sale then the factory owner would add more floors and increase the production.

Gear Rack Column

Tri - Beam Component

Corner Support Component

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Corn

Tri - B

loor eam F

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Supp

Floor

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Outlin

Rack and Gear - Moving Floor Innovation - In Motion

Moving Floor Innovation - A Tower System

Possible System Configurations

Proposal of Innovation - 1:10 Model

These initial sketches show the design concept of having this moving floor plate which moves up and down. This allows the floors to be added or lifted away and stacked one above the other when not being used opening free space for the available floors to have more light and double height space.

LIVING - creating a community similar to those they have lived in the slums, allowing communal eating, cooking and sharing of life. Private sleeping quarters.

The RED block represents the building highway which will allow the floors plates to move up and down to improve flexibility of floor use and response to an adaptable manner to ever changing demands of goods around the world.

The area on the left of this dotted line represents the fixed elements of the design while everything on the other side can respond and move to allow introduction of new floors and vice versa.

Public Walkway connected to neighbouring office and shopping buildings. This will allow the public to look into the nations most productive industry and get them to interact and celebrate this thriving work force.

There will be internal courtyards/ voids which will run along all the floors vertically to provide natural light and passive cross ventilation. Reducing the depth of the buildings will allow this to happen.

WORK - flexible working hours as the workers live in the same tower block, reducing travel times and thus increase family time at home.

TEACHING - taught life skills alongside proper education for adults and their children to improve their future potential especially for their children.

Typical Living Condition - Factory Worker

Use of all floor surface area to accommodate sleeping arrangement for large families.

Multi - function floor use, dining, cooking and family time.

Cooking in the same room, special ventilation openings are made to allow excess heat and smell to be extracted.

Again the use of window grills as part of a security precaution.

Spending family time in the same room.

Corrugated metal roof.

The typical living space based on the photos above and research. A 3m by 3m single room with all basic living amenities and usually a shared bathroom outside, used by all other residents in the quarter.

Masonry wall.

Typical semi-shanty living spaces, sometime might have masonry wall with corrugated metal roofing as shown in the example.

3 Metre

3 Metre

Timber truss, roof support.

Metal window grills for security.

Timber wooden window frame and doors, for privacy and extra security as all their worldly possessions are inside that 3m by 3m volume.

Small ventilated breeze blocks at the foot of the wall near the cooker to allow for natural food smell extraction.

Simple wooden doors.

Single double door timber cupboard for storage.

Timber bed, usually with a thin layer of padding as bed mattress. Area underneath bed also used for storage.

The grey area represents the floor space used for everything from sleeping to cooking and relaxing, studying to playing. It is a multi-use space which provides a flexible usable space for the family.

Small TV for home entertainment.

Cooker often coal burned, wood burned or gas based.

Having looked into this typical living space of the factory workers, I used the 3m by 3m area as my own design study to design a livable space for the workers and family, considering privacy of the parents, study and play space for the children and also work space for the family.

Typical Live / Work Units

Narrow rooms with work area on the floor and a wooden raised surface above for sleeping.

Life through the grilled windows, a workers stares out through his cage like work threshold.

Sleeping on the floor.

No daylight.

A typical work/live unit part of bigger cluster in a building block. Usually of masonry construction with very basic amenities and shared bathroom.

Workers usually migrate from the villages to live and work here to send money back to their family back in the villages.

Sometimes multiple workers will live and work together in run down half constructed buildings as shown above. They might get sub-contracted to do small jobs for bigger garments factories without having any work place safety/ security regulations.

Steel grilled windows, again for security reasons.

Small single window with not enough passive lighting thus dependant on artificial lighting which adds to heat combined with the sewing machine heat.

As passive ventilation is also limited, the room requires wall fans.

Simple wooden doors.

Elevated surface, 1.5 -1.7 m above the ground, used for shared sleeping area.

Also used as work space during the day.

Working floor with compacted together sewing machines for maximum working capacity. Also using the floor space to do non-machinery work work.

1:10 Model Diagrams

Gear rack column design.

The brown is the conveyor belt application which allows the swift transition from one space to another.

The colour yellow is often used in referring to being alert thus it is suitable for the moving gear boxes.

The colour green is often used to indicate the notion ‘GO AHEAD’ and also in fire exits signs.

Worm gear and synchronous gear belt work together to move floors up and down.

Secondary beams and the public circulation which can also become a emergency exit if in danger.

Blue is often used to reflect green energy.

Again the moving part is in yellow.

The sewing machines and the folding facade, both in light blue. The sewing machine will be used to generate energy while the folding facade will provide controlled energy consumption.

Again the use of the folding mechanism to allow space partition as well as folding down when floors space is reduced.

The pink refers to the house furniture.

Blue is for energy conservation.

The housing unit frame within a 3m by 3m area with green space in the front and courtyard space below to allow natural ventilation and daylight.

The kitchen and bathroom are set in a similar zone due to their plumbing needs, the kitchen has flexibility to allow communal cooking to reduce CO2 emissions.

The final expanding/ rotating housing unit which enables the users with extra space for privacy or expanding family.

Single Housing Unit

Axonometrics

Dynamic Model

Final 1:10 Model

Final 1:10 Model

Work Space

Gears

Synchronous Belt

Final 1:10 Model

Final 1:10 Model

Step 1 - Sliding Housing Unit

Step 2 - Rotating & Folding Housing Unit