Design rooted in Vernacular Architecture through a Dairy Research Center This thesis argues for a return to the specificity of vernacular architecture. Vernacular architecture values design specific to time, place, purpose, and people. Vernacular architecture is designed and built by those who have deep knowledge of their fields. My goal is to propose a new way of designing spaces informed by vernacular architecture. I am exploring these ideas through the program of a university agricultural dairy research facility. This project will involve both the barns that the animals inhabit and research buildings for the scientists who will work there. The barn and the research building are influenced by my studies of barn typologies. The dairy parlor derives its form from the specific functions that inhabit the barn, while the research building allows materials to shape the interactions between researchers. These two buildings are in juxtaposition to each other but are connected by being grounded in vernacular Appalachian agricultural architecture. Designing spaces following the values of vernacular architecture leads to buildings that better fit the needs of the user and the demands of the site which will lead to longer building life.
Pictured Right: Study sketches of barns throughout Appalachia
The beginning sketches gave me a collection of barn components that I then reconfigured in new combinations. These collages are an exercise in combining forms and materials in new, imaginative ways. Historically, barns have always been added onto and rebuilt but I wanted to push this idea to its extremes. I knew the barns I would be designing would have different programmatic requirements than the old barns that I was studying. Therefore, I had to discover how these different barn forms and materials could intersect to accommodate the needs of a modern dairy research center. Through the intersection of existing forms, I created a new architecture, one that is still based in vernacular but meets the specific needs of the project’s time, place, purpose, and people.
Pictured Left: Merged Landscapes composed of different regions in Appalachia
Deconstruction of barn componets reformed
Change in material to introduce visual rhythm and change in material scale.
Calf Barn
The thesis design began in the calf barn. Designing this building first allowed me to apply the lessons from the imaginary barn collages to a small-scale structure. This calf barn has individual pens, along with a milk mixing room and a feeding space. There is also a small office attached to the barn for research purposes. This was the first attempt at combining the program elements of the farm and research. The barn itself is made from two intersecting forms. The intersection highlights the most important function of the calf barn, feeding the calves. The two forms also have their material qualities that come together to create a barn that utilizes a new approach to traditional materials. A large clerestory provides natural light along with the gable ends that are made of a semi-transparent material that will allow light to pass through.
Celebrating structure through a transparent skin
A design for a calf barn created by two interesecting forms with different material qualities. Barn includes individ
dual pens, a milk mixing and feeding area, and a small office.
Landscape Tapestry The goal of this drawing (Left) is to capture the patterns embedded in the landscape. The few existing buildings on site were eliminated to imagine what the landscape would have been like before them, this allows me to understand what the landscape demands rather than asserting my cuts into the ground. One value of vernacular architecture is designing for a specific place rather than something that could be replicated anywhere. This drawing is a step abstracted from a simple satellite view. The hatches and lines that make up the pastures show the atmosphere of the landscape. This site has always been a cattle pasture so ruts in the ground and vegetation have formed over years of cattle taking the shortest route through the site. This method of site analysis is inspired by the graphic work of Nigel Peake. The area pictured is the existing site for Kentland Farm, Virginia Tech’s current dairy center. Virginia Tech moved its dairy facility to Kentland farm during the expansion of the highway and buildings on campus. A location twenty minutes from campus protects the farm from future campus expansion. However, a disadvantage is that it is inaccessible to students without vehicles and is a long commute back and forth for researchers. I chose this site for the thesis project, in part, because of the existing cattle infrastructure.
Sketch placing dairy research facility in context of the river, roads, and mountains
Pictured right is a site map showing the entire dairy and research facility. Careful attention was paid to the air quality needs of each building, the calf barn being at the top of the hill with the freshest air and the waste management being downwind. The loops in roads allow for different users to go the most efficient way.
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1 Calf Barn 2 Lactating Barn + Parlor 3 Freestall Barn - Research - Sick Animals - Transition 4 Teaching Barn 5 Research Building - Labratory - Offices - Classroom 6 Equipment Storage 7 Hay Storage 8 Silo 9 Waste Management 10 Parking
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Clemson University LaMaster Dairy Cen
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Bean Barn Inspired by the modernist organic functionalism of Hugo Haring’s Farm buildings at Garkau, The Bean Barn is a dairy parlor formed around grouping together a herd of 250 cows. Many modern barns are linear and modular allowing for indefinite expansion. This barn has a curved plan which is specifically designed for this herd. Haring’s goal was to create an architecture that was responsive to the needs of the herd. This dairy parlor accomplishes this through its organic plan. Along the inside curve the cows feed, their tapered bodies are more narrow at the head which allows for more cows to fit along a curve than in a straight line. Following the outside curve, cows can rest. In the center, milking robots allow the cows some bodily autonomy and their location in the plan creates a snaking circulation for the cows to follow. Modern dairy technology allows for a drastic change in building form. The unique roof design allows for a well-ventilated space. The structure of the barn is large CLT ribs that allow for large spans and the beams themselves eliminate the need for nets to keep birds from resting on the structure.
Pictured is the plan of The Bean Barn dairy parlor. This parlor follows a feed-first method o the lactating cows eat their TMR (totally mixed ration) which is a combination of all of the animal needs perfectly blended so that each bite of food is consistent. This ensures that a of their nutrient needs. This feed can be distributed manually or through a feed dispensing sweep up stray food mix. This is one example of the many ways that robotics can be introd herd. Then, a series of one-way gates allow milking cows into a holding pen to wait to be cow can trigger the gates and only allow the cows through that are authorized to be milked and researchers greater control over milking frequency, an important variable in dairy sci way through the center of the barn to get milked by the VMS (voluntary milking system) rob enjoyable for the cows and they are given a small treat when they enter the machine, waitin for their turn. After milking, a gate with sensors directs cows either to the resting area on t barn or to a holding pen where a veterinarian can meet with cows that have been marked to b in the milking robots can analyze the cow’s milk and notify others if something is wrong.
of robotic milking. First, e food and nutrients the all cows are receiving all machine which will also duced into caring for the milked. Sensors on the d. This gives the farmers ience. Cows make their botics. Getting milked is ng cows patiently line up the outside curve of the be checked out. Sensors
Progression Calf Barn to Bean Barn
Linear asymetric trusses used in calf barn
Asymetric trusses arranged on a curve
A collection of unique barn types that become more complex over time. The form is dictated by the program and the material is decided by place. Over time, simpler barns were added onto or simple roofs were replaced with more expensive and complex roofs. These barns have European precedents that further evolved in response to the different conditions in Appalachia. European barns were simpler because they were used primarily for storing grain. In America, there was a shift in the usage of barns and they were also used for holding animals. Nowadays, barns are similar to warehouses that could be used to hold anything. This thesis proposes returning to the point in American history where barn design was based on its purpose and place. These studies use ideas of abstractionism to focus on form and openings.
Research Building Architecture has the power to shape experiences. In a research lab, architecture changes how people work and the work itself. The layout of an office can create opportunities for spontaneous collaboration. This building houses research laboratory space, classrooms, and offices for faculty and graduate researchers. Having a place on-site to conduct research can eliminate unnecessary commuting between campus and the farm. There is also an overnight on-call room for the nights where a researcher might be staying at the farm so they don’t have to stay in their car or the barn. The classrooms also enable undergraduate classes to happen on-site, this was something that was lost when the dairy facilities were moved to Kentland Farm.
Large openings bring light into shared spaces and private workspaces
Materials envelop building componets
Cross section showing how daylight can be brought into workspaces
Lognitudinal section showing visual connection between labratories through the drive-in entry
Plan showing placement of work spaces and classrooms with a wide corridor for collaboration
The building has several layers that overlap and wrap around each other. The stone ground southeast corner wrap around the drive-in opening and provide shading for the windows loo connects the east and west facades and allows for a large window on the western wall to br The siding has different orientations throughout the facades which call back to the change with vertical siding to combat the rain. After the war, many people who worked on repairin diagonal siding was sometimes used in areas that needed some protection from the eleme a tobacco barn. This research barn combines all of these elements to create different types desiring natural light, while classroom spaces benefit from large open windows that look ou research work taking place. The research building examines the role of materials and reimag
floor eastern walls are met with the overlapping wooden western walls. The louvers on the oking into the laboratory. The second set of louvers wraps over the top of the building which ring light into the common space between the offices and classrooms. es historic barns went through in their lifetimes. Pre-civil war barns were almost always built ng barns were typically residential builders which explain the use of horizontal siding. The ents but were left with gaps for airflow, this would often be found at the top of a hayloft or s of openings. Places of sensitive focus such as a laboratory need more shading while still ut onto the farm. This building shows how the material can impact the form and flow of the gines how traditional materials can create a new architecture.
This image is an abstracted representation of explorations of the role of form and materiality presented in this thesis. Barns overlap and collide in a surreal conglomerate which allows for further analysis of the intersection of form and material. This image also encapsulates the thesis design process which was a balance between pragmatism and conceptual experimentation. This thesis is an exercise in learning from vernacular buildings as a means of developing new architectural approaches. I believe that architects have value in the industrial agriculture space. Buildings that are inspired by a specific typology don’t have to be cartoons but they can be informed by precedent tastefully. By freeing the design from being a cartoon of itself novel ideas can emerge. I accomplished this through intersecting vernacular forms to propose a new architecture. The goal of this thesis is to be able to draw from historical precedent to create something new that is enabled by the development of technology. In the case of the bean barn dairy parlor, new technology is both the building technology of CLT structures but also developments in dairy science such as the robotic milkers and robotic maintenance machines. This thesis argues that designing for a specific place, people, and purpose will create innovative buildings that better serve the end-users.