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sustainablility editorials
V-RAY rendering
Complete Rhino Model
CAD
character watercolors
sustainability integration
design development/sketching
didactic sketch modelling
schematic masterplan
site analysis
hybrid program conception
site seach/selection
waste mgnt. officials
interview w/ ARUP
recycling process analysis
research agenda
typology analysis
design intent definition
design proce
the
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The recycling center also has a civic role to play in the promotion of the act of recycling, rather than just simply carrying out the process. Currently, the cause-and-effect relationship of waste management is disconnected from the public’s consciousness.
People throw their
trash in small containers where it “magically” disappears but ends up causing ecological degradation and blight that most people never see. To further conflate the problem, recycling centers are typically located outside the city and away from people, so that they may be un-inspirational edifices of our disconnected ecological engagement. This vital relationship between our lives and our waste can be brought to the forefront of the public eye through integrating the recycling center in everyday life, such as placing it within the city and having people walk through it on their way to the
Redefining Sustainable Culture Through Biophilia, Biomimicry, and Ecological Design The recycling centre is a key building typology in transforming our culture into an ecologically sound organism that derives meaning from the way we relate to our environment. The ways that people, buildings, neighbourhoods, towns, cities, countries, and the world deal with the waste disposal and resource management determine humanity’s ecological soundness. The recycling center has the unique opportunity to establish give-andtake relationships with its community and further localize its resource loops through the utilization of the standard mantra of recycling: reduce (zero-waste living), reuse (secondary recycling markets), and recycle. The new center shys away from pre-sorting and utilizes technology to sort a single stream of recyclable materials at a centralized location, a method which has been proven to increase participation in recycling.
esis
tube. This new programmatic paradigm can prove to be both a civic amenity and a positive contribution to urbanity. This design strives to achieve this more connective relationship by innovatively hybridizing the industrial program with public features such as art galleries and building centers that teach people about sustainable practices. This pedagogical aspect of the center could range from concepts such as how to minimize waste in commercial businesses, to composting effectively in residential applications. These facilities can even serve as educational centers about green technology and its implementation. The concept and importance of recycling can reach a much wider demographic through the architectural integration of public amenities such as cafés, coffee shops, community roof gardens, and public viewing galleries. This hybrid facility would insure proper social amenity to accompany a visit to the facility, making the recycling center a destination unto itself.
The Nature of Recycling thesis studio | spring 2009
understanding Much effort was invested into understanding the complexities of a single stream waste system and how new Materials Recycling Facilities (MRFs) in London operate. To handle the shift
away from presorted recyclables, a new type of facility has evolved to process a wide range of co-mingled office and commercial dry recyclables. Large equipment dominates the interior of warehouse structures and is specialised to sort between different co-mingled waste streams, i.e. paper from plastic, cans, glass, etc. Some MRFs use a series of screens, or even floatation and buoyancy to separate waste. The particular facility that I toured in London, however, uses a series of rotating camshafts and gravity feeds to separate objects based on 2d and 3d shapes. Additionally, extremely specialised equipment such as magnets and infra-red density lasers have the ability to achieve a high level of quality in the end resources recovered by this complex process.
the equipment. The quality of space revealed by close observation of the equipment could be compared to the labyrinthian quality Piranesi’s prison drawings.
The constant movement of the
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concluded that the public needed to experience the sheer rational beauty of the recycling process.
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conveyor belts, along with their multidirectional and multi-level
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Touring the facility, I couldn’t help being drawn into the beauty of
character, provided for a strong and dynamic spatial experience. I
inspiration
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to the north
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the site
itself lies on the most southern tip of the London borough, on Leamouth Peninsula. The 7 hectare piece of land represents one of the most exciting regeneration opportunities in East London. Today the area has an air of dereliction and decay as a contaminated brownfield. Situated where the River Lea meets the River Thames, the peninsula has a special character based around its waterfront location. Canning town is the nearest tube and sits directly opposite the north bank. SOM is currently redesigning the site as a mixed use development. Newham borough is situated five miles east of the City of London and is bounded by the river Thames in the south, River Lea in the west and River Roding in the east.
the borough Project Site
to the south
schematic masterplan design
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views
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This schematic design places the recycling centre at the northern tip of the site. A walkable green roof can be utilized as an interesting connection between the tube station, pedestrian bridge, and more public parameters of the site. This moment would gain a lot of exposure, as it would be viewed from the public tube and the elevated highway to the north.
opposite The drive-up-drop-off style Civic amenity site would be located directly south of the center, right by the crucial hinge point of vehicular access to the site. This would allow easy transition to the southern peninsula, where a lot of the public amenities and commercial area would lie. The southern peninsula contains the main public hub of activity, where the sustainability and research center could be located right next to the re-use center, joined by the common area for the farmers market, which could bleed onto the eastern part of the site. Also, the re-use center could be strategically positioned to buffer the public zone from the unsavoury bits of the anaerobic digestion plant. The backdrop of this public interaction area would be the commanding 02 centre to the south. Additionally the Anaerobic Digestion tanks could for a powerful place-making apparatus for the gallery, amphitheatre and the hopefully more natural park-like atmosphere on this part of the peninsula. Directly to the west of the site is an existing small-scale park, which already has a strong connection with the river and what’s across it.
Masterplan Concept The goal of the project is to shape public space, service areas, and educational initiatives to provide an experience that promotes the act of recycling and celebrates an ecologically sensitive lifestyle. By providing social amenity alongside habitual recycling efforts, the experience is slowed down and enjoyed. The site provides useful public areas such as learning centers and green businesses that facilitate engagement with sustainable practices, methodology, and ideas. Now a trip to the recycling center becomes much more than a stop along the journey, rather it is the journey and a destination unto itself. This place-making is not the product of the buildings themselves, but a result of the design of the relationships between the buildings.
Design Concept Through the integration of interior and exterior, machine and organism, architecture and landscape, people and the natural world – the recycling center will promote the idea that Design Concept
we are nature.
Didactic Sketch Modelling Two conceptual sketch models were conceived to begin to explore the spatial relationships offered by the particular orientation of the masterplan. The process was open-ended and intuitive, leaving room for discovery and the shedding of stylistic preconceptions during the creation of the buildings’ form. This process allowed the form to “grow� from the site in an organic fashion. The models were then sensitively photographed and silhouettes of people were then added to start to understand the potential character and experiential qualities of this exploration. Different versions of parti diagrams were also derived from this process, each one being analyzed for its appropriateness to the programmatic space, site, and overall organization of the two peninsulas.
Model 1: The Invasion of Nature
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To better understand how the natural world could start to be integrated with the urban environment, two types of materials were used for this model. Small-scale bits of actual plants were used as a one-to-one representation of the quality of natural systems. Additionally, planes, columns, tubes, and screens were used to represent more man-made and architectonic forms. During the construction of the model, opportunities for their harmonies were made apparent. As their two very different forms were integrated amongst each other, notions of natural vs. manmade landscapes, and the idea of the interior and exterior, started to become ambiguous.
Model 2: Shifting Architectonics This model explored a more architectonic hybridization of the dichotomy between nature and civilization. Natural forms were represented with a screen/translucent-like material, in an effort to capture vegetation’s interaction with light and vision. Planes, 4-sided columns, and other planar materials were used to more closely relate to the built environment’s repertoire of building blocks. After building the model, more precise and rational ways of incorporating nature were arrived at, leading to a more realistic interaction with nature.
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The Invasion of Nature
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1. Rooftop Gardens This perspective shows the prospective character of the facility’s green roofs. Here, nature grows on the overhead canopies that seem to curve upward and outward from the roof. A plethora of spaces are in this photo, including covered and uncovered seating/ gathering areas, and larger lawn-type open spaces. 2. Attitude towards the River Lea More natural and organic pedestrian walkways could bridge over the river and connect to the eco-park peninsula to the west. Ample social space should be oriented towards this advantageous waterfront edge. 3. Connection to the Roof Gardens This view shows the pedestrian bridge that links the facility to the existing tube station. It starts to give light to the experience of the rooftop gardens, and how it might incorporate a café with a strong overhead “gateway” to define a portal. 4. Roof Elements from the first storey wrap around to form space-defining canopies on top of the roof. Both natural and man-made vertical elements start to form screens and visual barriers from which to look through. 5. Density=Community For the residential towers, large public deck areas would be attached to the main building volume, whilst eco-Piranesi-like walkways link the different spaces together. 6. The water’s edge South facing porch spaces and community decks could front the Thames river edge. Floating gardens could potentially be utilized to not only provide food for the development, but also provide special social amenity for this aspect of sustainable ecological living.
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Shifting Architectonics
1. Wrap Around
Screens from the ground could extend and wrap around to the roof, providing a continuous shading device for window fenestration and roof gardens. Here you can see a pathway that runs alongside of the entire building form, creating a potential opportunity to view into what could be a large recycling bay.
2. Vertical Connection
This photo depicts the true potential of the outdoor community decks and how they might be an interconnected system of social amenity and gathering space. The vegetated screens could even depart from the façade and peel away from the building to form buffered shady walkways.
3. Open to the South
The southern façade of the southern mixed-use peninsula could be open and diaphanous as well, utilizing vegetated screens and large community roof decks as shading strategies. Here you can also see how the ground level public plaza spaces could potentially open up to the water’s edge and turn into promenade walkways that lead to floating community gardens.
4. Roof Terraces
These vegetated screens could also be strictly vertical and reside above the communal roof decks while casting beautiful, dappled light onto the building’s surface.
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floorplan development
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a focus on the recycling center
[ARUP: “the best designs are those where you can’t tell where the engineering stops and architecture begins.”
Hyper-integration was an ultimate goal for the structure, envelope, and experience of the building. To achieve this, the architecture and engineering have to work together to create a seamless experience for the rooftop gardens and elevated inhabitable walkways, contain green roofs, serve as monitor skylights that double as viewing galleries, produce energy through photovoltaics, house vertical axis wind turbines, and contain operable windows for stack ventilation capability.
structure + envelope + experience
Two main volumes fissure at the entry to the recycling facility, creating both a pathway in between them and multiple opportunites for light to penetrate into the building. This formal parti allows strips of nature to inject themselves into the volumes of the building and incorporate themselves as part of the interior space. The exterior storage bay, with its constant vacillation of various cubes of recyclates, transforms the façade into a transient and ever-changing composition.
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the Fissure
Cafe Gateway
The recycling center is connected to a nearby tube station via a pedestrian bridge that spans the river. The café structure greets the urbanites as they leave the station with a generous outdoor seating area framed by a wooden sleeve that wraps a transparent café. The hollow wooden sleeve wraps a staircase flanked with a living wall that leads to the roofgardens and rooftop viewing galleries. Beyond the sleeve, a visual link is formed with the pathway that traverses through the two main volumes of recycling center, drawing people through the facility and toward the southern peninsula.
Deck Ecosystem
The southern façade of the mixed use development is riddled with openings, large-scale community roof decks, vegetative screens, and connective staircases. All of these components form an organic whole that emphasizes community, social interaction and an engagement with the outside. The lively nature of these roof decks contribute to the urban street life below and even overlook the floating community gardens that feather the water’s edge.
Canary Wharf Skyline
Atop the recycling center café, the wooden sleeve forms an outdoor room that also frames a view of the famous London Canary Wharf skyline. This space has the potential to be a powerful moment in the evening as the sun sets directly behind this cluster of skyscrapers. The outdoor café space is just the start of an entire rooftop garden that facilitates this scenographic experience of London.
Northern Peninsula 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
recycling facility education center civic amenity site cafe/coffee shop Canning Station Tube Stop constructed wetlands vertical parking connective path/ stormwater management existing amphitheatre
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Southern Peninsula 10. anaerobic digestion plant 11. residential towers 12. commercial street level 13. restaurant 14. salvage warehouse 15. public plaza/farmers market
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Site Context 16. existing wetlands 17. River Lea 18. Thames River 19. existing waterfront park 20. elevated highway 21. railway 22. Bow Creek Eco Park 23. Millenium Park
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North Peninsula 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
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South Peninsula 9. existing amphitheatre 10. anaerobic digestion plant 11. residential towers 12. commercial street level 13. restaurant 14. salvage warehouse 15. public plaza/farmers market Site Context 16. existing wetlands 17. River Lea 18. Thames River 19. existing waterfront park 20. elevated highway 21. railway 22. Bow Creek Eco Park 23. Millenium Park
site plan 23.
site sections
recycling facility education center civic amenity site cafe/coffee shop Canning Station Tube Stop constructed wetlands vertical parking connective path/stormwater management
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coffeeshop/gallery rooftop gardens civic amenity site anaerobic digestor
tube station recycling facility two storey parking lot - green pathway on top
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re-use warehouse - interior farmers market commercial first floor
massing ideas
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2nd level 1.1.
pedestrian bridge to eco-park 2.2. green roof walkway 3.3. viewing galleries 4.4. open office space 5.5. catwalk gallery 6.6. office storage 7.7. control room 8.8. conference room 9.9. private offices 10. 10. mechanical room 11. 11. cafe/coffeeshop 12. 12. pedestrian bridge to tube station
ground level 1. regular recycling 2. large item and irregular recycling 3. promenade and rain gardens 4. outside storage bay 5. lobby 6. art gallery 7. building center 8. storage 9. video room
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employee lounge constructed wetlands sorting bay tipping floor loading docs barge loading dock metal and plastic sorting center 17. bailer/compactor
roof level 1. community gardens 2. vertical axis wind turbines 3. roof top terrace 4. roof top viewing galleries
LRC
is the main perspective as one departs from the LRC Gateway This tube station and heads across the pedestrian bridge that connects to the elevated pathway of the recycling facility. The staircase within the cafÊ’s wooden sleeve leads to a second story outdoor room and a doorway out to the roof garden terrace. The sleeve also frames the entire pathway through the building and beyond to the 02 Center. The approach shot shows the fruition of the entry as the treelined and rain garden-flanked pathway meets the recycling facility. This richly-vegetated pathway extends down and through the site, and traverses under the elevated highway, before it terminates at the existing amphitheatre of the southern peninsula, providing a gathering area as a prelude to the southern peninsula and mixed-use development.
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approach
eco-Piranesi The main recycling bay contains multiple levels of vertical engagement with the recycling equipment. These architecgtural moments include ground level viewing, elevated pathway viewing galleries, and roof garden viewing through the skylights-all which combine to create a very piranesilike experience of the space. This perspective also shows the lack of a clear delineation of the building’s envelope. The frameless glazing system almost disappears as the buildings edge is defined by the wetlands immediately in front of the facade, the eco-park across the river, and even the city skyline starts to make its way as part of the interior of the building.
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