ZIGGURAT ON STILTS
A LONDON ARCHETYPE ARC407 SPRING 2021
INTRODUCTION Ziggurat on Stilts is a co-living archetype for 100 people. It is a large co-living apartment place on top of a fluid market. Short film “Frenzy” explores the mode of life in the archetype. Scan the QR Code to view the short film:
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 ARCHETYPE
4 PRECEDENTS
8 DESIGN
26
ARCHETYPE IN CONTEXT
26 CABLE STREET
40 CAMBERWELL
52 WAPPING STREET
64 COLOPHON
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PRECEDENT STUDIES Le Cabanon, Star Apartments, and Older Women’s Co-Housing are three precedents that were referenced in this project. Each of them provided information from a different scale level, giving multiple options of reference points for the archetype design.
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LE CABANON Le Cabanon’s investigation revolves around the modular man and the dimensions of the hut and its furniture. The dimensions of the furniture combine to create an entry sequence into the central space. Through investigation, standardized dimensions do not work, and dimensions are relative to different people.
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STAR APARTMENTS MMA works for the nonprofit Skid Row Housing Trust (SRHT) to create housing for the formerly homeless. It is a modular building consisting of 51 modules manufactured by Guerdon Enterprises. To integrate housing within a larger community with limited budget and tight schedule, the building is prefabricated and reuses an existing building added 51 modular construction to provide 102 apartments for formerly homeless individuals. The building itself is organized around three principal spatial zones and stack one above the other including: a commercial / retail zone at street level, a second level 0 5 10 20 30 40 for community programs and four terraced floors of residences above.
Star Apartments Los Angeles, CA, USA Michael Maltzan Architecture (2014)
SCALE BAR 1:200
SCALE 1:200
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OLDER WOMEN’S CO-HOUSING Older Women’s Co-Housing Project is a community project that looks at the relationship between solitude and togetherness spaces. The project shows a difference between a co-living unit versus single-house lots. Balconies and connective corridors are mediaries between solitude and togetherness spaces.
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ARCHETYPE
Grid System: The archetype uses a 4m x 4m grid system for its columns and an infinitely-expanding grid system for the market space. Le Cabanon’s 3.66m x 3.66m modular hut in relation to the modular man is a reference to the size of the archetype.
ARCHETYPE
Organization: The ziggurat-form co-living apartments are located above a fluid market. This idea comes from Star Apartments, as it functions similarly, having private apartments on top of a grocery store.
CHETYPE
Donut Ring: The program within the apartment space is layered in onion rings. The main premise contains an exterior balcony ring, shared spaces and amenities in the center, and bedrooms squished in between. The balcony is a reference to the balconies in Older Women’s Co-Housing, as they act as a mediary between solitude and togetherness spaces.
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THREE MAIN IDEAS The three ideas are directly adapted from the three precedent studies. The ideas include stacking private apartments on a public market, using a grid system as a set of organizing tools, and using a “donut ring” grid system. These ideas originate from the three precedents studied.
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Section across center of building, showing apartments, market, and courtyard.
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This 8m x 8m grid system is the inherent grid system that lies upon the archetype. Columns are met at the intersections. The grid expands infinitely in all directions.
The 4m x 4m grid system applies to the columns that act as primary structure that rises the archetype.
Within the ground floor contains a field of partition columns that surround the office and vertical circulation shafts.
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2m 2m
Secondary Grid Primary Grid
The horizontal structural system is a waffle slab. This waffle slab is divided at intervals of 2m, and the columns meet at every 4m.
4m
2m 2m
4m
Glu-lam floor slab with insulation inside
Glu-lam beams Arranged in cross-section to create waffles from the underside of the floor
It is assembled using a tooth system, which allows wooden joints to interlock with each other without bolts or nails.. Curtains and wall partitions may be attached to this structural system when deemed necessary.
Wall - attached to column Bolts - attach column and floor slab Column
Curtain - attached to column via beam
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View of louveres from the outside. The louvres are used for filtering views from inside to outside and vice versa.
View of courtyard with the office in the background, surrounded by a field of columns that are both structural and for filtering views.
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Columns and vertical louvres are the choice of filtering. While the ground floor is an open, freeflowing market, the column density is set to 4 meter distances. But in places where the ground floor are for the apartment users (ie. entrance to apartment and office) are barricaded with a dense field of columns. The louvres are made for filtering views between the apartment balcony and the outside world. Because the apartments are the backstage, they are meant to be blocked out. However, the market is the frontstage. In order to allow the residents to see the market, filtering using louvres was the choice. It can be incorporated with sunlight angles to create unique shading patterns.
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The ground floor, with a fluid market surrounding the space below the apartments, which are the courtyard and an office.
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To make the grid system continuous in the market, poles act as freestanding columns but have different purposes, including some as lamp posts and some as cloth hangers.
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The bottom floor apartments, and sample activity that happens within the apartments throughout the day.
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The bottom floor has the largest shared space. It also has an interior ring of balconies that can be used as shared spaces. This larger ring allows more types of activities.
The second floor is slightly smaller. With the introduction of cutouts and hole punches, there is lesser floor area and it may be less accessible to walk through the building.
The top floor has the least shared space and least amount of bedrooms. The onion layers are almost always one layered only, meaning that not many rooms can be combined for large shared activities.
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Nine-square grid showing how each room is related to another in the onion ring system.
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In every floor, the plan arrangement uses an “Onion Ring” system. The outermost layer is a balcony, in which a tiny column separates the private balcony space with the shared terrace. The central layer is the bedroom, which is the most solitude space. The inner space is the shared space, in which they are shared for all apartment users for collective activities.
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1:50
0
0.5
1
Nine-square grid showing how the staggered layers of onion rings work.
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2
5
Due to the staggered nature, the onion ring in section is staggered such that the floor below the balcony is a bedroom, and below the bedroom is a shared space. This creates a larger shared space on the lowest floor, allowing larger groups of activity. This also decreases cluttering of similar vertical arrangements. And the building also allows different types of activities
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Short film “Frenzy” explores the mode of life in the archetype. QR Code here: ARC407 | ARCHETYPE | 25
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CABLE STREET
The site on Cable Street is connected to a bustling road on one side, and a railroad on the other, of which hosts a number of arched shops underneath. The idea of threshold then not only applies to the entry sequence of our residents, but also between the city and the walking market with an area of domestication as mediator. In a way, the project creates a Triptych of city, residence, and community through the use of columns and the archetype’s existing grid system.
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The geometry of the ziggurat was replaced with a lopsided step to satisfy the narrow site condition of Cable Street. The apartments arrangements however, remains mostly the same with the reduction of the onion ring system.
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The archetype’s groundfloor market attaches itself to the existing arch-like shops and walkway underneath the railway, expanding its potential as a walking market.
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The archetype’s courtyard was split into two, installed between the three volumes to create a breathing space.
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The project stood as a monumental threshold separating Cable Street and the railroad. It becomes an entrance to the outdoor market space. The elevated ground floor allows for a free flow of circulation and transient shops alike.
The columns of the building acts as a threshold between Cable Street and the Market, joined with existing shops under the railway.
The entrance to the apartments is hidden in between a denser group of columns, emphasizing a more private area, designated for the residents. The column field continues to act as a threshold, separating the street and the market area.
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The outer corridor of the apartments are used both as circulation and as an exterior space for the residents to hang hammocks or grow pot plants. This is the official entrance to their respective rooms.
The residents’ rooms are sandwiched in between the corridor and the communal rooms in the middle, shared with their fellow flatmates.
An unexpected space of togetherness is discovered in the middle of the rooms. The free plan allows for residents to use any of the shared furnitures, but usually ended up using the one directly across from their own bedrooms.
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ARCHETYPE
SITE
ARCHETYPE
SITE
THRESHOLDS THRESHOLDS
GRID SYSTEM GRID SYSTEM
CAMBERWELL The site in Camberwell along Peckham Road is surrounded by a ring of buildings, with four openings that connect to the site. An existing police station is removed from the site to create a new opening to the city along Peckham Road. The key idea was to use these four openings and place a market to connect the city together. The grid system follows the orientation of the surrounding buildings. The east and west thresholds are met with a courtyard cutout.
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Section across north to south entrances
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0 1 2
5
10
20
30
The market is on the ground floor. Unlike the archetype, it is situated under the building itself. All four thresholds can access the market. It also acts as a connective corridor between the site, after the walls have been taken down, thus becoming a new connective tissue within the site.
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Bedroom Shared room Shared Balcony Office Bathroom
5
10
20
30
Staircase
0 1 2
The shared spaces and core amenities are in the center of the building. Surrounding it are a ring of bedrooms and balconies. Unlike the archetype, the only access to the apartments are via the vertical staircases. Courtyard cutouts face the east and west entrances.
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North Entrance along Peckham Road, aligning the facade roof to its neighbor’s roof
West Entrance, in which the building is blocked from its neighbors
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View from west entrance. The courtyard responds to the opening created by the carpark.
Walking in from the west entrance is the market.
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Shared rooms can be combined together to become a mini movie theatre.
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The bedroom can be accessed via the shared spaces or balcony.
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Balcony can be a relaxing solitude space, to look out to the city.
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Balconies can also be used for shared activities among neighbors.
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WAPPING STREET In the Wapping Site, our group has decided to preserve the “stage” idea from the archetype. We have made a clear interpretation between the front stage and back stage. Using a metaphor from a performance stage, the front stage represents the gathering space which is public and active. While, the backstage gives the performer (residents) privacy, a breathing area for them to prepare the show. For better interpretation of giving solitude to the residents and at the time filtering out the togetherness, we rearrange the louvres system and the grid organization. While we designed to keep using wood as the main material throughout the project and waffle slabs and columns for the main structural system.
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The site is located on Cinnamon Street in Wapping, encompassed by the main streets of Wapping High Street and Wapping Lane. The site comprises abandoned warehouses and open hardstanding, a London Underground ventilation shaft is located on the southern part of the Site.
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The residential building itself is organized in three massing cube. The first and the second floors are in the same layout and cover the entire part of the site. The third and fourth floor started to subtracted the area to preserve to idea of a “ziggurat” a stepped building with a variety of heights.
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The site is divided into three parts, and we have decided to place the apartments only to the largest site and use the other two for communal space. According to the stage idea, we defined that front stage as the picnic garden and the market. Where the main activities happen in Cinnamon street and the backstage would be the apartments. Enter the site on Wapping High Street, through the market, the columns are arranged in a 8x8 m grid system. As going closer to cinnamon street, the abandoned underground ventilation shaft has turned into a sitting area or a gathering stage open up to the picnic garden and the market.
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For the apartment layout , we chose to keep the idea of the onion ring arrangement, which is the 4x4 m grid system. The outer ring is the 2m wide corridor, where bedrooms are placed along. Moving into the inner ring, where gathering spaces are set to customized. No fixed walls and doors, the space is set to be continuous with added removable partitions like curtains.
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Section looking at the Wapping High Street
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Perspective view from the intersection of the Clave Street and the Cinnamon Street
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Enter the site on Wapping High Street through the market and the stair on the left going up to the apartments.
Louvers placed at the edge of the apartments corridor, filtering out the crowded activities in the markets
Interior gathering spaces and resident activities in the inner ring.
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Open garden located on Cinnamon Street. Providing open space for residents and visitor for picnic and barbecue use.
Looking at the building on the intersection of the Clave Street and the Cinnamon Street
Looking at the market and the building on Clave Street
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Syracuse University School of Architecture Spring 2021 London Program ARC407 Architectural Design VI Professors Davide Sacconi Joao Ruivo Team Members Thitaree Suwiwatchai Emerald Man Javier Lam The design is a response to the prompt: To design a house for 100 people and place it in three different sites in London. This project was a 15-week long result of precedent studies, archetype design, and site-specific surveying and design.