Week 02 Journal Lecture An architect and structural engineer was invited to take over the lecture this week and structural design was introduced. He presented the different building structures built and linked them to natural structural designs, showed us the rela;ons and where inspira;ons can develop from these natural structures.
Image on the le> is a photograph of the Taipei 101 located in the center of Taipei, Taiwan. The design of the skyscraper is inspired by the natural structure of a bamboo, which enables the structure to be flexible under extreme weather condi;ons and able to withstand typhoon winds and earthquakes. hFp://www.taiwan-‐taipei.com/ taipei_city_;p/taipei_101.html
hFp://urban-‐review.com/urban-‐towers-‐farming-‐21st-‐century/
Image above is a conceptual design created by the AWR group in London for the purpose of an architecture compe;;on on ver;cal farming in year 2011. The beehive design is developed for its aesthe;cs and demonstra;ng the harmony with nature.
Constructing Environments 2013 Sem02 636903 Ka Wing Lee
Week 02 Journal Tutorial This week’s ac;vity was to build a structure as high as possible using 40 thin strips of balsa wood. Our group again thought the base of this structure would be the key in holding the weight of the structure above, therefore we used the shape of a triangle as it was men;oned in the lecture this week that a triangle wouldn’t bend whereas a square and rectangle would therefore triangle would be a more stable structure.
Image on Right: Our group used small pieces of balsa wood to provide extra support for the triangular base structure. Constructing Environments 2013 Sem02 636903 Ka Wing Lee
Week 02 Journal Tutorial As we moved upwards with the structure we realized that the weight above was too heavy for the founda;on structure to support it. The structure would not be able to stand by itself if we kept building upwards. This problem could be solved if we extended the founda;on part by one or two levels but due to ;me constraints, we did not have ;me to change our structure. Images on the right: The base structure of our group’s tower is shown on the le>. The design could not reach a higher height therefore we could have used the remaining balsa wood pieces to build extra levels in the founda;on in order to extend the height of the structure (shown on the right image), making it able to hold more weight on top. Constructing Environments 2013 Sem02 636903 Ka Wing Lee