OVERVIEW
CHARETTE
My approach to design modules during my third year of studies has allowed me to further my passion for design. Through the two projects this year I have witnessed the correlations in my approach between two very different projects, demonstrating what sort of architecture I would like to pursue in the future. I have found my projects extremely engaging, focusing on sustainable, adaptable and community driven designs. My interest, and in depth knowledge, of the proposed environmental strategies is something that has driven my projects and aided me greatly in design. From my feedback, my knowledge and understanding has been recognised and allowed me to communicate verbally exceptionally well. It is through my visual presentation, which I have been criticised as not reflecting my knowledge coherently. This is something I have attempted to address during the Re-Constitute studio but from recent feedback, still have areas in which to improve. Despite being apprehensive of the intensity of this year, I have found it equally rewarding as it has been challenging. My challenges have helped me tune my productivity, focus and resulted in a body of work I am extremely proud of.
Returning from second year, our design intensive week provided a great introduction back to design after time off for health reasons. Being a third year and senior member, I was responsible to structure and co-ordinate our group work. It helped me to manage work within a group so that distribution was representative of a combined input of work, a skill, valuable for my subsequent masterplanning work.
CAN RICART
RE-CONSTITUTE
For Can Ricart I explored adaptability with nature and green spaces, amongst the textural existing built fabric of Can Ricart. I benefitted from working at a 1:1 scale, helping me to explore material and structural qualities in my design. Producing existing and proposed detail models allowed me to understand the intervention of my design and the impact on the existing environment. I found working at 1:1 scale challenging as I had not undertaken modelling at this size before, especially when constructing a brick wall. This engaged my understanding of the human scale of a building away from a reliance on drawings. When considering technology, I had previously found it separated from design during stage 2. Working in detail aided my correlation between the modules and its importance in design. My feedback for this project was the lack of coherency in my visual presentation compared to my verbal presentation in my crit. My presented drawings seemed to not accurately present the depth of knowledge about the design I was explaining. They also appeared to dilute the prioritisation of key concepts which I was attempting to highlight. From this, in order to improve I explored the use of diagramming to explain my concepts more concisely. Alongside this, I have attempted to introduce a hierarchy in which I present my work in conjunction with my verbal presentation, treating them as a single narrative. Despite improvement it is still an area in which I consider a weakness. Exploring the future for the building, and pushing the limits of my design was my other key feedback. Given the highly environmentally concerned nature of my building, future projection is a key theme I did not represent but had considered. Representing this accurately visually outside verbal communication was what I needed to improve and enhance my communication. It again highlighted my need to accurately visually present everything that I was verbally presenting in unison to a coherent visual presentation.
Designing an Urban Farm for my grad project allowed me to continue the themes of growth, community and adaption which I really enjoyed during my Can Ricart project. In response to my feedback from both Stage 2 and Can Ricart I moved to present digitally for this studio. Initially I found it hard not to revert to hand drawing, a style I find easier. I found myself struggling to adopt a purely digital form of presentation which I found alien to myself. In combining the two styles and rendering digitally I found a compromise which resulted in work both engaging to myself and responding to my feedback. The main thing I struggled with this project was the scale of building and programming, despite the relevance of the all programs within my building. I found myself designing five separate entities and attempting to unite them. This led to confusion in which elements to draw out in my visual presentation, leading to pitfalls in my communication. Considering the scale of the project, I also found some areas of my building underdeveloped. Resolution of the materiality of my science laboratory core was something highlighted as an area that needed further development. Despite these pitfalls, it helped me to learn my limits when considering brief making and not to over complicate the design. Despite my best attempts to respond to my feedback on my visual and verbal communicative coherency, the scale of the project made this difficult. I found myself once again verbally explaining more than my visual presentation explained. Despite space restrictions I found this a valuable exercise in refinement within my presentation. It is an area in which I will continue to develop, to help in improving my communication skills and accurately portray the depth of exploration within my work.
Despite being commended for my drawing ability and style for this presentation, I was warned of being in danger of Illustrating my building rather than drawing it. This highlighted my lack of displaying my technical and computer skills. Although predominantly representing my work hand drawn, I utilised computer drafting to form a base. This base I worked into to produce my final image, but my drawing style masked any appearance of technical input. Despite being fluent in CAD, hand drawing comes more naturally to me and I personally find more engaging with the work. Part of my stage 2 feedback was the show a variety in my representational techniques and move away from heavily hand drawn presentations. In progression to my graduation project I was mindful of branching away from this skill set to highlight my competence with digital representation.
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Embody consisted of intense material research into a material considered as scrap or waste. We explored how these objects could be re-used and then integrated into everyday useable objects. We challenged the properties of the material and attempted to reverse the common perception of the materials qualities. We were allocated a material and had the sub topic of either household object or fashion garment. I was allocated a household object and to the left is my material research sheet we presented to the group at our exhibition.
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Exploring the solid and modular elements of bricks, I decided to attempt to create a curved recliner chair, designed to increase comfort and defy the tradition conventions of a brick as a rectangular solid object. To contradict the ideas of weighting of bricks I also incorporated a frame and used brick slips to give the appearance of a solid element but retain the idea of suprise with its lighter density. We had to display a ‘how to’ booklet alongside our exhibiton pieces to explore the idea of these methods of recycling could be available for everyday people.
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On this page is the final exhibiton piece presented. The design was curved to fit into the curve of the base of someones spine and the reclined nature not only promotes a psychological idea of comfort but the cantilever appearance of the back gives it a material perception defying quality. The variations in brick colouration was chosen to highlight the variety in not only colour, but production methods and brick type, of which we have so many. The different brick types chosen represent different localised bricks, as during researching the material there is a large element of regional identity associated with bricks. Bricks still create one of the largest waste products in the building industry and by reconfiguring their use into uses, like a chair, could prevent large volumes of non degradable waste from being put into landfill.
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Initial Site Visit After the first phase of our project we visited our site, Middlehaven. Middlehaven was once the centre of Middlesbrough during its height of industrial power. It housed the steel industrial capital of England, exporting all over the country and world. Since the decline of the cities industries and the relocation of the city centre, the Middlehaven area is close to abandoned. The landscape was very empty with the transporter bridge and old town hall as a reminder of the historical importance of the area. The Boho development and the CIAC building show the attempts at rejuvenating the area but the scheme’s withdrawals make them seem alien in such a distopian urban context. The population was scarce but the city of Middlesbrough, located on the other side of the railway, was very busy. We visited a local art commune, Navigator North. A company that turns derelict office space into art studios and looked around their building above the town shopping centre. We understood with the low income nature of the area we would have to design with an incentive to not only re-invent the city but to also cater for the many existing citizens of Middlesbrough.
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Photo Montage Exercise During our site visit to the middlesbrough area, we were encouraged to document our initial responses to the site and photograph the entire area, avoiding the focus on a specific area or site. After our visit we were asked to create a collaborative photomontage of photos selected that sum up our individual impressions on the Middlehaven area. The image to the immediate right is the full collection of images from the group. The image to the far right, highlights the images I selected to input to the groups findings. I was interested in the decay of materials, shown by the damp ridden floral wallpaper. Also by the amount of scrap and dumped materials around Middlehaven. I came across mounds created entirely of rubbish when exploring the riverside and from our recent EMBODY project began to think of the possibility of recycling these areas and the rubbish disposed there.
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Drawing Exercise We were asked to create an image or drawing to present at our subsequent tutorial that summarized our experience of our site visit to Middlehaven. I decided to present the image featured top left. It plays on the proposed haven shown in the Allsop developments proposal shown bottom left. The idea behind it is to create the predecessing image before this regeneration, showing the area for what it is now. The contrast between the energetic proposals of regeneration and the slightly mecabre derelict landscape that Middlehaven currently exists as. The chimney is used to represent the large amount of industry still visible from the middlehaven area, something i was suprised by. It is flanked by two 60’s buildings that create the skyline of Middlesbrough that are uninhabited.
Found Object Exercise We were asked to source a found object from our site visit to Middlehaven. After focusing on bricks and mortar for my embody project I chose a brick which was broken off from a protected victorian wall located close to the transporter bridge. To me it highlighted the decay of the area. Bricks and mortar, which are considered to be a solid and long lasting material, in this instance is beginning to decay and break apart. The heritage of the wall also is reminicient of the decline of the industry which once was the heart of Middlesbrough.
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Research Presentation On arrival to Middlesbrough we were given a research topic which we were to research before presenting our findings to the group the following week to provide a broad spectrum of in depth analysis. I was given topography, in which i looked at the ground conditions of the area. One thing I found interesting was the heavy amount of landfill in the area and issues with soil pollution around the area. The riverbank also sits atop a flood plain, but has minimal risks of flooding
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Masterplanning Exercise After our initial research phase and reporting all our findings back to the group we then discussed our next exercise, masterplanning. We immediately broke into three smaller groups of 6 to develop masterplanning proposals to present back to the group. We were briefed to create a proposal or bid against the other groups with the idea that we would evaluate the individual strengths and weaknesses of each proposal and merge them into one finalised group proposal. Our group began my discussing our access points, where people would enter into the Middlehaven area and how to draw them into the area from the Middlesbrough city centre. We evaluated the existing roads and decided on additions needed to improve circulation. Our biggest transport addition was the introduction of a direct road from the Middlesbrough centre to the transporter bridge. Following this we looked at zoning and where we would locate various types of building to provide a balanced and clear definition between areas. (shown in bottom right diagram) Our next step was to assess links between the key historical elements we wished to retain on the site (shown by the bottom left drawing) celebrating the heritage of the site. These areas we picked out as the transporter bridge, the old town hall, the dock, the wall and the buildings on Queens street providing the link to the city centre.
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Our next step was to contemplate the building typologies that we wanted to include, this we drew up as a list of 19 potential project proposals. Ranging from an Urban Farm to a Faith and Cultural centre. We then located plots for these proposed buildings within our proposed zoning scheme and what category in zoning these buildings would come under. During this process it became interesting to note which buildings became the links between zones and provided bridges in links between them. We also decided to model our scheme to help with our understanding of building height and density across the Middlehaven area. highlighting the high density, low level residential proposals we were suggesting and the high rise, more spaced commercial centre around the dock. This was located due to the proximity of the football stadium which brings in a steady supply of fans and tourists and encourages business due to increased visitors.
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Final Group Presentation In the subsequent tutorials we built and developed our masterplan proposals and then we presented them to the rest of the group. We presented a collection of plans, strategic diagrams, models and atmospherics to get across our ideas behind the masterplan. We finally focused on highlighting the historical attributes and linking them with green links within our residential and civic ‘core’ This linked into the area around the dock which became our commercial and tourist centre and we created a ‘cog’ concept. How one grouping of building typologies could feed into the other and work together to create a cohesive masterplan in which these elements are highlighted by history and by green spaces and ecology. Given the shared research into the area, the other groups came to similar conclusions and our masterplans overlapped considerably, especially in terms of proposed building programmes.
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Top Left - Atmospheric of pedestrianised Queens Road Top Centre - Diagram showing proposed access routes, new metro stop and bus stops alongside proposed water taxi and bicycle hubs. Top Right - Atmospheric of Indoor Market and Digital Hub, showing connection to the BOHO area. Left - Diagram highlighting historic elements within the area to be retained and highlighted. Right - Diagram showing green links linking historic points and promoting circulation to and from dock. Bottom Left - Atmospheric from dockside clock tower towards transporter bridge, highlighting green link. Bottom - Diagram showing the concept of cog’s, one for the dock and the other for the residential/ civic core of our proposal and how they link together highlighting historic elements. Bottom Right - Atmospheric of the transporter bridge and proposed recy cling centre, looking towards the dock.
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Top Left - Diagram of proposed plots Top Centre - Atmospheric of buildings surrounding proposed dock, including marine conservation centre, watersports centre and library Top Right - Diagram of proposed zoning scheme Left - Atmospheric of proposed hotel on the dockside Right - Atmospheric of proposed community centre development incorporating existing town hall Bottom Left - Diagram showing building and population density of proposed residential scheme Bottom - Atmospheric showing proposed sustainable housing developments providing the green link between the old town hall and the transporter bridge, aiming to make it an ecological link.
I found the masterplanning work highly rewardiing, working within a group of very strong minded people i found challenging but helpful to clarify what we wanted to put across with our scheme. Always referring back to a point so that we did not go off on a tangeant and detract from our original concept as we found ourselves doing numerous times. For the final crit i found we utilised everyone to play to their strengths and yet evenly distributed the work so that everyone did part of every part. I spent more time on atmospherics than model making for example but we all played a part in every stage of the presentation process.
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After group presentations of their individual masterplans, we set about joining the three seperate schemes into one cohesive masterplan and a finalised list of building typologies for us to chose from and develop into our third phase of the project. We utilised overlapping themes and typologies to create a zoning plan as seen above. When allocating typologies we merged a few which overlapped between groups and came up with 19 project proposals which we then subsequently allocated between ourselves and then as a group located them onto our rough group masterplan. This then gave us our sites for the next phase of our project. I was allocated the typology of Urban Farm, something I had thought of during our group discussions.
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Final masterplan Shown below is our final masterplan presented at our final reviews. It shows our individual designs incorporated into our combined group work. This image highlights the scale and diversity in our briefs animating the Middlehaven landscape. Aside from our overall strategies and diagrammatic representation of our proposed scheme, we collaborated within groups of people whose sites immediately relate to a public or shared space to design areas key to the overall masterplanning scheme alongside our own building. Being located on the proposed road linking Middlesbrough town centre to the transporter bridge I found myself having a key part in designing the route strategy alongside the handling of the public space leading to the road and the park directly next to my building. Along the route of the proposed road we decided to create a green link to the transporter bridge. Incorporate the digital library and gaming centre with the green nature of the park and the Urban Farm we decided on a concept of the transition of artificial to natural. This provided the anchorage in which my building sits within the masterplan.
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The image top left shows the rough proposed masterplan drawn up after our initial plot allocation workshop. The Urban Farm was located next to the proposed park for obvious ‘green’ connotations and placed on the proposed road to highlight it as a social and cultural statement the building represents. It was located close to the residential area we were proposing to make it a building immediately engaging the local community. Its close proximity to the BOHO area suggests the building becoming a link between the scientific and digital area of BOHO and the green and ecological proposals. The drawing bottom left indicates the existing site plan on Lower East Street, showing the existing buildings on my proposed site. The image above shows the final masterplan, showing my final design located within the group masterplan. It highlights the green links to the north of the building, linking it directly to the park. It also highlights its function on the proposed pedestrianised road providing the buffer between the artifical nature of the proposed artificial garden we designed linking BOHO to the road, and the green park beyond, on route to the transporter bridge.
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Located above is my initial site analysis presented to our group during our first week of tutorials. It highlights the division of my site caused from the proposed road, something I had to consider with the group as to how it would sit in terms of its impact on the existing buildings on site. Given the nature of our studio focusing on recycling and reconfiguring I made the decision early on to not knock down the building but to attempt to reconfigure and recycle them. The road proposal was placed as to minimise distruption to the existing built environment. To the right is a series of aerial images highlighting the site in its existing context.
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The images on this page were taken from our secondary site visit in which we conducted more in depth analysis of our chosen sites. On exploring mine, I was drawn to the existing buildings, a industrial Sulzer warehouse and an old abandoned Victorian, red brick, union building. The contrast of the buildings immediately presented a challenge in which to find a way to unite the two different styles of buildings in a uniform and cohesive approach. The existing ground conditions was another interest. Despite designing a farm, something percieved to have a need for soil access, the ground retains traces of existing buildings and inhabitance with large concrete areas, obscuring access to the soil on site.
EXISTING SITE SECTIONS
After the site visit my next step was to the survey the existing buildings to provide a base in which to work my design into. (see drawings on the right page) These surveys were generated from site photos, counting bricks and dimensions taken from the site visit.
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SITE PHOTOS 1:400
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PRECEDENTS Living with the Land - Epcot, Walt Disney Florida, 1993
Naturhus - Sweden, Bengt Warne, 1976
Pasona Urban Farm - Japan, KONO Designs, 2010
Dublin Rooftop Farm - Dublin, Ireland, 2012 Centre for Urban Agriculture - Seattle, Mithun architects, 2007
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PRECEDENTS Galilee office - Toulouse, France, Studio Bellecour, 2010
Ken Yeangs proposals for vertical sky farming
Frac Nord - Pas de Calais - Dunkirk, France, Lacaton & Vassal 2013
Bauhaus - Dessau, Walter Groupis, 1925
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Development Stage 1 These pages demonstrate extracts of development work during the early stages of my project. Initially my program devised from my site research, considering where links and access would be. With the division of the proposed road and the plot of land linking to the residential sector I decided to incorporate a new build element, creating a community farm which engages the residential inhabitants and also creates the bridge between the main building core and this extension of my site. Given the nature of the existing ground conditions and the senstivity of site disruption and destruction I decided to explore different avenues of farming rather than those that depend on soil contact, something limited by the existing ground conditions and also the existing issues with soil contamination and pollution. My design focused on finding a uniform approach to envelope both existing buildings, considering environmental strategies, this took the form of a polycarbonate second skin that wrapped around both of the existing buildings. This provides a thermal buffer allowing for the warehouse to become a sealed controlled growing environment. The existing union building, being previously a public building would be renovated to my indoor market space to celebrate its heritage. The indoor market was an element added to my brief after group discussions and we thought it was a key point of my building to move into integrating the public into the building, engaging community and promoting locals to grow their own and improve eating standards within the area.
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Development Stage 2 After reviewing the strengths of my previous design and assesing its weaknesses I further explored the idea of route through the building and the public intergation of public of the content. How to create a route through that is not only engaging but dynamic. The photo collage at the bottom indicates the proposed atmospheric route through the building. The drawings indicate the work presented at interim level, the sections highlight the long route through the building linking both the market and the community farm education centre. The journey inbetween is shown in the sections as linear and was an attempt to follow a industrial and machine aesthetic, creating the idea of the public journeying along a conveyor belt witnessing all stages of food production. The section at the bottom left also indicates the laboratory core of the building introduced to introduce an element of research facilities within a centre dedicated to the progression of developing ‘alternative’ farming methods. This core, sits upon the existing building creating a new intervention and also provides a direct link to the warehouse which has been converted to the main growing environment. following feedback from interim, the route was developed to break away from the machine ideal. it became a more engaging space, creating a more ‘Willy Wonka’ approach. This design change harnesses the drama and atmospheric qualities of these new explored farming methods and translates them into an architectural format. The addition of a sky farm to the building also introduced a prototype model developed by Ken Yeang, a building idea not yet built dispite being developed conceptually in great depth to create a landmark for the building.
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DEVELOPMENT Aeroponic Farming
Farming methods based on nutrient filled mist sprayed onto exposed plant roots. a method explored by NASA to explore plant growth potential in outer space. The direct absorption of nutrients by the roots allows for highly efficient and rapid plant growth.
Alternative Farming Methods To move away from a dependence of soil quality with the proposed Urban Farm, I researched farming methods developed to support growth outside of a dependence of healthy soil. Many of these methods incorporate the need for a substrate which is best performed by recycled brick aggregates. This allows for wide scale recycling to re-use waste product, not only from my own site but those ajoining. The varying styles allow for a variety of experiences and drama. For example aeroponic farming relies on nutrient filled mist, providing an opportunity for challenging clarity and disorientation when experiencing this exhibition. Part of my programme was to provide educational nodes throughout the route and these points incoporated in the design were meant to educate the public about the methods used, as well as provide space within the growing environment to experiment and test new and existing methods.
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Vertical Farming (Left) Farming method involving a motorised rotating belt housing plant bedsthat move around the evenly distribute light to all growing beds. Provides a highly even plant yield as all plants are equally exposed. LED Mushroom Farming (Below) Method which uses pure LED lighting within a dark room to enhance mushroom growth and quality.
Hydroponic Farming (Right) Farming method which involves floating rafts of plant life, exposing roots into a basin of nutrient enriched water. Aquaponic Farming (Left and Model) Farming method that involves fish and plants creating a cycle to increase growth productivity. Developing this method into a tectonic model i found extremely helpful in engaging these methods into a human scale alongside understanding the content of my building. This greatly helped my design engagement.
Tectonic Aquaponic Farm Model
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To the left is the exploded axonometric of my final design and was presented in my final presentation. With the complexity of the design I found working in this way the most effective way of communicating the many confusing progammatic elements of my building. The plants diagrammed alongside the sky farm indicates the crop able to be grown on that floor due to solar and thermal gain, with the viewing platform on the top. Above is a diagram, highlighting in red, the private laboratory and research facilities of the building, proposed as an intervention over the existing.
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Above is a diagram highlighting the public elements of the building. This includes the laboratory walkthrough and educational laboratory facilities available to the public and local schools, a further move to engage the community within the building. Elements such as the market, restaurant, exhibition hall and community farm highlight the purely community focused spaces but also explores the permeability of the main growing space open to the public by means of the route through the building.
Above is a diagram indicating areas of the building used to produce food. These growing spaces are all retained within the building itself with the exception of the urban orchard. An idea in which apple trees are placed in aggregate bags and left to grow to provide a temporary green space until the soil conditions of the concrete landscape improve. To the right are photo’s of my final model presented at the final crit.
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Ground Floor Plan 1:400
Diagram indicating existing buildings
Diagram indicating proposed intervention
Diagram indicating public and private access points. Green as public, Purple as private.
First Floor and Partial Roof Plan 1:400
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Left is a diagram indicating the route through the building, the route itself is reversible so does not specify a start or end point. It is accessed from both the community farm and the market/restaurant providing a narrative of the processes between the two nodes of public inhabitance. On the neighbouring page is the remaining floor plans for the sky farm proposal, indicating the 15 floors of growing space and viewing platform. All of the drawings are scaled at 1:1000.
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Second Partial Floor Plan 1:400
Third Partial Floor Plan 1:400
Fourth Floor and Partial Roof Plan 1:400
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Proposed Roof Plan incorporated into Masterplan 1:1000
The drawing above shows an atmospheric aerial perspective of my building with its built context in the proposed masterplan. It highlights the bridge between the digital zone. Shown by our artificial park, the astroturf radial landscaping and the giant carrot sculpture hint at a futuristic idea of ‘green space’ it links through the road to the park with my building becoming the transition between built and natural. The expansion of the urban orchard into the communal park encourages this. It also highlights the beaconing element of the sky farm, becoming a prominent feature within the immediate context drawing people to the building .
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To the left is a section highlighting the main central growing environment and shows the public route through it. To the right is zoomed in views of the section to highlight the structural elements behind the polycarbonate second skin facade, the interaction of the human scale of the farming interventions and the route through the building in its immediate context to the growing environments. To the far right is a section showing the laboratory core of my building and its inhabitation in relation to the rest of the public inhabited building.
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Section below showing the inverse side of the main growing environment highlighting the aquaponic fishery and the outline of the existing building and its relation to the polycarbonate second skin and its envelopment. To the right is the structural strategy page submitted in my final presentation explaining the strategies behind the design of the second skin.
SECTION CC
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INTERNAL GROWING ENVIRONMENT STRUCTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH POLYCARBONATE SKIN FACADE 1:20
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1. ALUMINIUM FIXING BRACKET, GLAZING BAR 2. MULTILAYER KALWALL 120MM POLYCARBONATE PANEL 3. ALUMINIUM GLAZING BAR BASE AFFIXED TO STEEL TRUSS PORTAL FRAME 4. STEEL TRUSS PORTAL FRAME
2. 1. STEEL TRUSS FRAME 2. STEEL FIXING BRACKET AJOIN ING TO TRUSS 3. STEEL FRAMING 4, 120MM KALWALL POLYCARBONATE PANEL 5. ALUMINIUM FIXING BRACKET, GLAZ ING BAR
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POLYCARBONATE SKIN FACADE 1:10
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SECOND DETAIL
1. CORRUGATED WEATHERPROOF METAL CLADDING 2. CLADDING BRACKET 3. DPC AND VAPOUR CONTROL LAYER 4. INSULATION PANELS INSIDE STEEL FRAMEWORK 5. INTERNAL STEEL FRAME 6. CORRUGATED WEATHERPROOF METAL CLADDING
EXISTING
WALL 1:20
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TECHNICAL SECTION 1:100
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DETAIL OF GLASS CURTAIN WALL CONNECTION TO STEEL FRAME 1. SKY FARM STEEL FRAME STRUCTURE 2. ALUMINIUM FIXING BATTEN 3. DOUBLE GLAZED 6MM THICK REINFORCED GLASS 4. ALUMINIUM FIXING BATTEN 5. BOLTS FIXING CURTAIN ` WALL SYSTEM TO EXTRU SIONS IN STEEL FRAME.
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SKY FARM STRUCTURAL & ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH
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1:20 DETAIL OF FRAME JUNCTION TO CONCRETE COLUMN
1. CONCRETE COLUMN 2. 50MM PERFORATED METAL FLOOR 3. STEEL BRACKET 4. 245MM THICK STEEL I BEAM 5. PLANT BED HANGING BRACKET 6.INSULATED PLANT BED
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Supplementary Information In addition to my final presentation i decided to produce a pair of supplementary information to help my reviewers to understand the complexeties of the farming methods housed within my building and the route through. I produced a museum style map in an effort to help guide the reader through the route of the building I was proposing, highlighting the theatricality of the content within it. (see left page) The guide to farming methods helped to summarise the content of my building and provide a reference point for further information on the moments highlighted throughout the route of the building. (right image) I chose to format these images in a booklet style as if they would be information given to people visiting the building to help their understanding. This connected with my ideas of engaging the community through my building and by adding additional information within the booklet such as educational facility timings and restaurant information enhances the feeling of legitimacy.
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Atmospherics indicating the proposed route through the building. Top left - Community farm entrance foyer including shop selling domestic farming supplies and merchandise. Space provides link to educational facility and gateway to walkway through the building. Top right - Domestic farm ani mal petting zoo as part of the community farm. Bottom left - Laboratory walk through, first information point after leaving the community farm showing the workings of the private laboratory core to the public.
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Top left - Sky farm walkthrough, connecting the laboratory core to main growing environment and allowing people to walk through the sky farm on suspended metal grated floors, engaging with the plant life first hand and understand the scale of the farm. Middle right - LED mushroom farm, providing a buffering space into the main growing environment. Utilising the dark nature of the farming method to create drama.
Bottom left - View up from the proposed vertical farm tower. First information point in the main growing environment and contains a sealed roof light to allow a well of natural light in to the circular arrangement of vertical farms. This arrangement includes a entrance allowing members of the public to enter the space and look up. The nature of vertical farming relies on moving plant beds creating a dramatic kinetic moment within a very green environment.
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Top left - View over the hydroponic farm lake featured in the main growing environment. Top right - Aquaponic fishery walkthrough allowing for the public to engage in an aquarium type experience witnessing fish production. The exposed roots overhead highlights the unity of plant and fish in the aquaponic system. Bottom left - After emerging from the submergence of the aquaponic farm, a view of the following aeroponic farm which is a point filled with mist, revealing the suspended roots overhead.
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Top right - View from the top of the aquaponic farm following the ramped ascent through the aeroponic farm creating a view over the entire space Bottom left - Vegetable wall housed within the central exhibiton space on exiting the growing environment Bottom right - View of exit from warehouse growing space and the central exhibition hall including vegetable wall Bottom far right - View of ramped walkway from exhibition hall to the restaurant within the existing brick union building.
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Top left - View of ground floor indoor market, utilising the existing buildings brick and render divisions to open up the space to create an open European style market, retaining the existing materiality. Bottom Left - View of upper floor restaurant utilising the same design approach as the ground floor market, opening up the space. insertion of a polycarbonate roof and atrium to unite the building aesthetic with the polycarbonate second skin of the main building core. Right - Image of the existing building utlised in this design and below a diagram showing the manipulation of existing forms to create the archways.
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Top left - Material pallete of my proposed building shown on an external perspective. Bottom right - External perspective showing the polycarbonate skin and highlighting the assemblage of building elements.
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Following my final crit it was brought to my attention the lack of clear visual presentation of the road which seperated the community farm from the main body of my building. This road provides the link to the transporter bridge and was a key insertion during our masterplanning process. On the right is a diagram showing the transition from the BOHO area and the digital heart of Middlehaven to the bridge and proposed green spaces. my building being green in nature needed to promote its internal content a bit more externally to unify the building with its green context and provide the gateway to the park it was always meant to be.
To the right is an atmospheric of the road dividing my site and the public route through. To include more external green elements I decided to introduce landscaped green chairs providing a reformed way of using waste soil from the site and turning into a public feature. I looked at the Barcelona biogdigital chair (shown above) as precedent of how science and nature can work in unison. I reconfigured the design of my bridge between my community farm and main building core, it had previously been a solid element to echo a machine vent but I altered the design to incorporate green latticing to encourage plant life to grow up and around the walkway creating a green link and using polycarbonate to increase visibility instead of the funnel effect i was previously trying to achieve.
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After the final crit it was highlighted that the longevity of the issues i raised about soil pollution were not being addressed. Despite this being a concept i had thought about. I had not verbally communicated well that the urban orchard being bagged trees was only a temporary measure but I had not implemented any strategies into how to reverse the damage rendering the soil unusable for food production. After researching methods of soil regeneration i found that sunflowers are the most efficient and natural way of healing soil. They absorb radiation and heavy metal based pollutions without any harm to the plants development. They have been planted in Chernobyl to help absorb the damage caused by
the the nuclear explosion. The absoption of metal based pollutants is key as it is the primary type of soil pollution from the neighbouring landfill site, located on the map to the right indicating the close proximity to the building. Introducing these insertions creates a strong social and environmental power about the regeneration of the area and healing of the damage caused by pollution. It also helps to create key moments in the entrnce sequences to the building highlighting its importance. To aid with the design of the urban orchard featured in the image to the right the trees were relocated to a grid formation to aid with pollination.
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The development of my science core cladding was soemthing I was criticised for being under developed in my final presentation. My initial response of white render had been to create a clinical looking building enforcing the idea of it as a scientific institution but the points raised of it not being cohesive with my project were valid. The transparency of the building was another thing that needed improvement as the knowledge of what is going on internally to the building to the public is a key aspect of my design. I decided to change the facade to a polycarbonate skin but include wooden external shading, which given the new insertions of green space on the road would allow for plant life to grow up and envelope the face of the building directed towatds the community farm.
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The collage to the top right shows the layering of the materiality and the hints of inhabitance that, given the change of facade detailing will be apparent. Remodelling my design changing the facade hekped me to understand the improvements in my design. Refer to model photos along the bottom of the page. I experiemented with the image at the top right to explore the idea of the sky farm becoming a beacon and exploring the nightime appearance of the building and how it would appear to the public alongside its longevity and future strategies. How it becomes a model for urbanised farming and how it can evolve within a city.
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‘Through each of these living architecture, the cities of tommorow are dreamed of, changing the way we look at those we live in today’ - La Machine
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In October 2013 we travelled to Barcelona to undertake our first design project of the year . Barcelona as a city has much to celebrate architecturally and our site was located within the Poublenou region, an area previously known for its industry and has since fallen into decline. Barcelona as a city is an extremely interesting masterplan with the insertion of the Barcelons grid in 1859 by Ildefonso Cerda shown in the map above, Highlighting the historic city centre and the modern extension of this historic city. The maps to the left indicate the location of our site within the urban context of barcelona and you can really get an impression of the rigourous grid system. Within the Poublenou area we explored the 22@ plans for regenerating the area we too would be designing within. Our client for this project was the Theatrical puppetry company La Machine, who specialise in the production of large scale puppets for exhibitions and displays. They are most famous for L’Elephant featured on the mid left image and its Aeroflorale project below. They also recieved global acclaim for the giant spider presented in Liverpool as part of the La Princess display as part of the cities cultural celebrations. The company focus on a machine aesthetic and work as a team of designers, technicians and artists to create these wonderful pieces of work, the scale in which they undertake work, in itself provides a unique challenge to accommodate their needs.
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After initial exploration of the city and the large scale context of Barcelona we visited our site, a derelict old textile mill within the Poublenou district. The initial thing I was capivated by with the site was the material layering and contextual build up of the building. The build up of varying historical elements to create a collage of different materiality and a romanticised ruin. The hints of previous industry seemed distant but i was fascinated by the traces left by the build up and reduction of the building over the years and how it changed to fit the demands of the current inhabitant and the changes in the industrial needs. The site photos on the left highlight the textural qualities of the site but also highlights the amount of green space that has grown in the voids and ruins of the building since its abandonment as a working industrial building. This was something that went on to inform a large part of my design approach with this project. To the right is a series of initial site drawings I did whilst on site, the columns within the old turbine hall was something I was very interested in as they existed void of any supporting structure and became a very dramatic and sculpural element. Above is our initial site research presented during our first tutorial on returning from Barcelona and highlights my interest in the material qualities and layering of the history of the site. Our site was divided into three areas in which we were to design a proposal for one, I chose on site two focusing on the length of the old turbine hall and the clocktower, a key focal point across the site.
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Far bottom left - Further exploration of material layering using photographs to highlight out key areas of material layering . Especially when focusing on the traces of existing structures that had been removed like in the far left image with the holes left as remains of an existing roof structure. Far top left - Black and white version of the above detail consatina sectional study of the existing site two buildings. Left hand image - Diagram exploring the explosion of the historical and material layers and how to read them in both a poetic sense and a structural sense.
Above is a consatina sectional exploration presented alongside our material and site research during the early tutorial stages. Compared to previous sketches it explores colour and texture in much more depth and highlights the patchwork nature of the building. We hand drew any brick, render or ruined feature but yet with steel or structural insertions we used a straight edge in an attempt to differentiate the new from the old.
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The Egg Theatre, Haworth Thompkins, London 2009
Beldevere House, ARUP, Basingstoke Carlo Scarpa, Castelvecchio, Verona
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Palais de Tokyo, Lacaton Vassal, Paris
Wspolczesny Park, Prague
Duisburg Nord, Peter Latz, Germany
Open Air Theatre, Haworth Thompkins, London 2000
L’Aeroflorale, La Machine 2010
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Following on with my intial interest in the removal and insertion of built elements within the built context of Can Ricart, the diagram above indicates a mapping of the growth and reduction of the site since its completion in 1855. The change over time has rendered the site a collage of exiting materiality and also shows the need for a space that is adaptive. Being a industrial building and the amount of reduction and growth implicates a huge carbon footprint and appears in need of a building that can change in the future as rapidly as demonstrated above. Creating a proposed framework for a building that can be expanded and shrunk to fit in to suit the needs of the client, this works extremely well given the nature of the varying scales La Machine works in.
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Existing built context
Working the existing built context, excavating down to reveal the sites historical wealth of foundations preserved below ground level and re configure these into green spaces. Using the existing textural layering of the building fabric and implementing it into facade studies extruded from the existing building. Removing areas to open up the internal materiality and improve circulatory flows between the internal building and the external public realm.
Removal of turbine hall to open up space and extrusion of cast wall elements
Excavation of ruins below surface of ground to create landscaping framework
My interest of the plant life that had re-emerged on the site fitted with the need for adaptability as it correlates with the adaptive qualities of the natural elements. This model helped me to explore the built scale of green spaces inserted into built context and acted as a tectonic study of the impact green space. As the model grew over time it engaged my idea of how the plant life and nature of the site could grow alongside a potential adaptive architecture. The study of nature is something very key to the process of La Machine and would provide a working laboratory for their intense study of nature in their work. Especially with their work on Aeroflorale which focuses on environmental concern and environmental concerns in the community.
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Working with the existing building, opening the existing archways within the design to create a permeable and fluid space for the public to travel freely around. retaining the existing form to monumentalise the theatricality of the materiality and history of the building.
Building within the existing Proposed intervention
Building within the existing building. By creating a independant structure inside the existing building fabric it allows for the existing building to be kept seperate from the interventions proposed and as the plant life around the site grows it can take over the existing without any structural impact on the new. By creating a steel framework inside the old structure it allows for new additions to be added on and removed with minimal disturbance to the existing structure.The metre gap between the new and old structures allows for services to wrap around the building aswell as provide access for maintenance alongside public filtration.
Public intermediate cafe space Private La Machine Workshops
Seperating out the private and public functions of the building it allows for the outside spaces to become to main focus of the building. By introducing green spaces within this communal space it provides an environment in which the public can engage directly with the ideas behind the building and by opening up the existing archways it provides the public the ability to interact with the existing building.
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Cafe Space
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Cafe interior
Cafe Space
Rooftop Terrace
Exhibition Hall
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Plant Rooms
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Public View of Workshop
La Machine Studios
Above is an atmospheric of the proposed external landscape highlighting the historical foundations utilised into green garden spaces varying in landscaping so that over time so will remain cultivated and the others will grow as the building should. To the right is a model I created to attempt to engage myself into the La Machine way of thinking, engaging myself into a technical approach to designing a natural object. a concept I adopted for the consideration of my building.
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Image to the left was an image I used as my key image in my presentation creating a visual representation of what I wanted my building to convey. The nature of the plant life taking over the site, lifting it out of the industrial city fabric of Barcelona and claiming it back. This image highlights the microsmic ecology created within the urban fabric with this design and directly relates to the newly inserted park which is located to the east of the site. The other images depict my final model presented at the final crit.
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Another element of our consideration for the client of La Machine was to consider the element of ‘parade’ in which they frequently use to exhibit their work to the public. With my design eventually spanning across elements of the whole site I decided to create a parade route which incorporates a convergence of people in the communal courtyard space. The images surrounding indicate the storyboard presented to show the route and development of the La Machine parade.
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Basing my design around environmental and ecological strategies i found technology incredibly important and correlated greatly with my design work throughout the process. On this page i have included elements of my technical report submitted as part of my ARC3013 submission but found it incredibly helpful in my final crit. I enjoyed working at a 1:1 scale on the wall detail shown below and i enjoyed searching for constructional methods which incorporate minimal structural and environmental impact. I decided to use screw pile foundations to tie in with the adaptive yet environmentally senstive ideas of my building so that no concrete and lasting, damaging traces are left over time.
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On the right is a photograph of my original presentation for the final crit. Due to the high volume of hand drawn work I used a collaged presentation to eminante the energy and natural disorder I wanted to promote in my design
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From my final crit feedback it was brought up that as an adaptive design I did not show the potential of the future prospects enough to portray this concept accurately. To the left is my original site atmospheric showing my proposed design at the final crit. With the structural strategy of a steel frame with the ability to bolt on and remove elements from within the existing fabric my idea behind my building was that it could adapt a the varying social, cultural and economic impacts on the site change its size requirements in a undisruptive way to the environment, unlike its previous built history. The diagram above indicates the potential areas in which the building ould expand without disrupting the existing fabric adding onto the inserted interventions to create a flexible building framework. The images to the left show the potential adaption not only of the built environment but the potential of nature taking over the site and growing into the built context in which it already exists. The top left image indicates a projection of roughly a year with the bottom right a projection of the next five to ten years where the plant life is allowed to thrive. The remenant traces of the roof on the area that was previously site one will grow to create a living roof for the space beneath through the introduction of wire framing to encourage vine growth and in future could potentially become fields in which food could be grown.
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For Charette this year I was assigned to the Animate Space group. The project consisted of creating a moving sculpture or rube goldberg machine which would travel around the entirety of the architecture school. We were broken down into smaller teams of 6 and given an individual title in which we had to theme our motion sculpture. We had to converse with ajoining groups to devise a way of creating connections between the previous motion and the subsequent. Our title theme was ‘reflection’ a topic we found extremely difficult to conceptualise as reflection doesnt engage or cause any kind of movement. To combat this we took an indirect approach of using a disco ball and adding the element of reflection as a by product of the motion created by our section of the sculpture. On the right hand page is a series of images showing a stop motional representation of our work. From the group before we had an impact from a wheel running down a track to initiate our sculpture. We used a cup of water on a splint that would be knocked away by the impact to run down a chute, dissolve some toilet paper, releasing a pulley system rotating our disco ball and releasing the projection before lowering our miley cyrus themed barbie weight onto a seesaw to initiate the domino effect of the following group.
RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE
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http://vimeo.com/76698744
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AQUAPONIC FARM TECHNICAL SECTION ARC3015 1:10
1.
GERMINATION OF A BROAD BEAN.
shoot
lateral bud 12.
TOMATO PLANT Solanum lycopersicum
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fruit
6. 3.
13. 8.
vascular tissue
14. ground tissue
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9. 4. 5. 10.
1. 4.
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7.
5. 3. lateral root
primary root dorsal fin
caudal fin
root hairs gills
TILAPIA F1-60 Oreochromis niloticus plectoral fin
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