Academic Portfolio MArch Architecture, Newcastle University Matas Belevicius, 2014 - 2015 094577758
Content Introduction semester one
1
Charette 2014
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Plan Rotterdam - “Manhattanism”
5 - 43
Brief Site visit Analysis Symposium Development Interim crit Final crit
6 7 8 - 16 17 18 - 28 29 - 32 33 - 43
Conclusion semester one
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Introduction semester two
45
Thinking Through Making
46 - 47
Rematerializing Rotterdam’ - “Clichés”
48 - 94
Brief G(host) G(host) + furniture Analysis Information mapping Interim crit Development Final crit Conclusion semester two
49 50 - 52 53 - 54 55 - 60 61 - 65 66 - 68 69 - 83 84 - 94 95
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Introduction Semester 1
Stage 5, semester one portfolio mainly focuses on one project - ‘Plan Rotterdam’, in particular ‘Manhattanism’. The brief asked to study a book called “Delirious New York’, written as a manifesto for the city, by a prominent Dutch architect – Rem Koolhaas and to apply the ideas expressed in the book to individually assigned site. The reoccurring theme throughout the text as well as the project is the culture of congestion, modernity and the architecture of a skyscraper as the physical manifestation of these issues. The biggest challenge, I think personally was to find the right means of strategy of translating what is written in the book into a spatial proposal. The book, at first quite difficult to read, later appeared to be immensely engaging and having a very broad perspective on architecture and urbanism in general. The exercise of looking at an architectural literature and applying it directly in the process of design enormously contributed to the richness of the proposal as well as requested to address a lot of interesting and challenging questions that otherwise might have been easily unnoticed. I strongly believe now that the method used in this project of working closely with a written work helps to develop a strong set of skills for a successful professional growth.
The portfolio is focused on the issues of understanding the importance of a historical background of an urban fabric and how the social, cultural, economical and political movements have shaped the physical environment around us and how it helps to imagine and address future developments. Throughout the semester the main focus of a design project was put on a wider urban fabric of a metropolitan city, in this case Rotterdam, Wilhelminapier. Working with a bigger scale naturally brought new challenges for me and modified the way I approached the design process. In my work I have included quite a number of diagrams as well as collages to illustrate the line of thought I was following throughout the project and how it evolved into the final proposal. I started my process with a general overview of a city and an introduction to a given site. During our field trip to Rotterdam, we have spent first few days getting familiar with the metropolitan urbanism, visiting various areas of the city as well as particular buildings. This method of physically visiting the place, for me proved to be a strong starting point of gathering necessary information for designing a high rise building. I also noticed, that a lot of design decisions later were reinforced by what at first seemed to be an unconscious way of observing the city life. By this I mean things that are not always captured by camera or sketchbook, such as the way people move through certain spaces and interact with each other as well the buildings around them, or certain cultural and ethical unwritten rules that play out in public.
The same applied when visiting my site. Looking at it as an important and closely interconnected part to the whole urbanism of a city gives much wider perspective and clues what to focus on and look for. Issues I found challenging at the beginning were that the brief was very abstract and we were asked to curate and adopt it depending on where our interests as architects lie and the way we personally engage with the city.
The main body of work in the portfolio, shows my attempt to understand the physical environment in detail, looking at cultural, economical, social and political development of a place, which at the end all seem to merge into a synthesis of the emergence of a metropolitan city. My main objective in this design process was to reveal as much as possible about the place and then methodically connect the information gathered with the requirements of a brief combined with an input of my own personal experience of a city. I did employ a new strategy for me – collaging, that was borrowed from Rem Koolhaas’s work. This way of method helped to illustrate the ideas in a very quick, effective and visually informative manner. Project in general happened to be a successful work, tackling the issues of modernity in a critical approach, revealing the current situation with regard to its past and a perspective future. With the help of a tutor, I gained quite a significant understanding as a future designer, that in terms to understand modern and post-modern architectural environment and to design for the future, one must have a significant understanding of a past. Designing a building in a traditional utopian way of improving the social fabric of society does not always work and sometimes the design that is to evoke strong criticism is more effective in bringing social change and provoking thinking about a variety of issues. ‘Manhattanism’ project, I believe proposes a theoretical dystopian city, but as a way to critically reveal what might have gone wrong with the development of Manhattan and how the current and the future skyscrapers can be improved for the better.
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Charette, 2014 The project began with a week’s visit to the city of Rotterdam. The trip included a schedule of tours, events and talks which gave a shared background and overview of the city, as well as introduced to key areas and buildings. Half of the time was spent visiting our particular site that the brief addressed. The idea was to use this time while in Rotterdam for a better understanding of a given site and the wider urban context surrounding it.
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Rube Goldberg Beer Machine A Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption, invention, device or apparatus that is deliberately over-engineered or overdone to perform a very simple task in a very complicated fashion, usually including a chain reaction.
Group design of beer machine - Stage 1,2 & 5
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Rube Goldberg Beer Machine Chain reaction elements of the machine, tested to work
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Plan Rotterdam Manhattan on Maas Manhattanism is the one urbanistic ideology that has fed, from its conception, on the splendors and miseries of the metropolitan condition – hyper-density – without once losing faith in it as the basis for a desirable modern culture. Manhattan’s architecture is a paradigm for the exploitation of congestion. The skeletonof the 1909 theorem postulates the Manhattan Skyscraper as a utopian formula for the unlimited creation of virgin sites on a single urban location. Since each of these sites is to meet its own particular programmatic density - beyond the architect’s control - the Skycraper is the instrument of a new form of unknowable urbanism. In spite of its physical solidity, the Skyscraper is the great metropolitan destabilizer: it promises perpetual programmatic instability. {excerpt from project brief}
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Brief
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
In Rotterdam, we are seeing Koolhaas’s ideas on congestion being played out in the Kop van Zuid, particularly in the Wilhelminapier area where the architect’s long awaited building, De Rotterdam, opened last year. De Rotterdam embodies many of Koolhaas’s core ideas on Manhattanism, particularly in relation to the building’s immense scale, and the diverse range of programmes that play out in close proximity to one another. There are a range of other buildings in the area that also represent the concept of Manhattanism, such as the World Port Center and the Montevideo. This brief asks you to interrogate, and reveal, the constituent elements of Manhattanism in the Kop van Zuid. Through revealing these existing symbols of Manhattanism, and making connections to the text from Delirious New York, we will create our own critical mass of high-rise proposals for the area.
The Kop van Zuid is a peninsula of land that lies on the South bank of the River Maas. Historically, the area operated as a significant port area with docks, a shipyard and terminal for ocean liners. The Kop van Zuid became abandoned when the port moved downstream to the mouth of the river in the 1960s and 1970s. The kilometre- long spit of constructed land, known as Wilhelminapier, is a former premises of the Holland America Line which ran passenger services between the Netherlands and the United States and Canada for over 100 years. It is through that history, that the city hoped to engineer the image of a mini-Manhattan in which buildings of significant height were slotted between retained structures such as the New York Hotel.
{excerpt from project brief}
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Site Visit
The project began with a week’s visit to the city of Rotterdam. The trip included a schedule of tours, events and talks which gave a shared background and overview of the city, as well as introduced to key areas and buildings. Half of the time was spent visiting our particular site that the brief addressed. The idea was to use this time while in Rotterdam for a better understanding of a given site and the wider urban context surrounding it.
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Analysis
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
In the Netherlands, Rotterdam has the highest percentage of foreigners from non-industrialised nations. They form a large part of Rotterdam’s multi ethnic and multicultural diversity. 47.7% of the population are of non Dutch origins or have at least one parent born outside the country.
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Analysis
The Kop van Zuid is a peninsula of land that lies on the South bank of the River Maas. Historically, the area operated as a significant port area with docks, a shipyard and terminal for ocean liners. The Kop van Zuid became abandoned when the port moved downstream to the mouth of the river in the 1960s and 1970s. The kilometre- long spit of constructed land, known as Wilhelminapier, is a former premises of the Holland America Line which ran passenger services between the Netherlands and the United States and Canada for over 100 years. It is through that history, that the city hoped to engineer the image of a mini-Manhattan in which buildings of significant height were slotted between retained structures such as the New York Hotel.
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Literature reference
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
This brief asked to interrogate, and reveal, the constituent elements of Manhattanism in the Kop van Zuid. Through revealing these existing symbols of Manhattanism, and making connections to the text from Delirious New York, we created our own critical mass of high-rise proposals for the area.
Paranoid - Critical activity is the fabrication of evidence for unprovable speculations and the subsequent grafting of this evidence on the world, so that a ‘false’ fact takes its unlawful place among the ‘real’ facts. These false facts relate to the world as spies to a given society: the more conventional and unnoted their existance, the better they can devote themselves to that society’s destruction.
Dali, The Discovery of America by Cristopher Columbus, 1959. Columbus depicted a split second before his two theses - the correct one that the world is round and the incorrect one that he had reached India - were establised as ‘facts’ by the imprint of his footstep on the shore.
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Analysis
Site Context Analysis - Hotel New York Hotel New York is a hotel in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, based in the former office building of the Holland America Lines on the Kop van Zuid. The building has been a national heritage site since 2000
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Analysis
Site Context Analysis - Holland Amerika Lijn For years it was a Dutch shipping line, a passenger line, a cargo line and a cruise line operating primarily between the Netherlands and North America. As part of this rich legacy, it was instrumental in the transport of many hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Netherlands to North America.
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Analysis
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Site no. 1 - Hotel New York Existing landscape on site, designed by Bolles and Willson Architets, 2006
Intimate Dutch Gardens
Lost Luggage Depot sculpture by Jeff Wall
Viewing Deck
Prairie like - American event space
Water taxi rank
Maaskant Bar - Restaurant
Existing Site Plan
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Analysis
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Pedestrian paths named after American States/Cities/Streets Resembling the connection between the Netherlands and the United States
Mapping pedestrian path names Existing designed landscape around hotel New York indicating states,cities in the United States
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Analysis
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Cast-iron monument at Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid area is its link to the history of Wilhelmina pier. The sculpture was designed for and placed in October 2001. For decades this was where emigrants boarded the Holland America Line, in most cases never to see their mother country again.
Lost Luggage Depot sculpture by Jeff Wall
Holland Amerika Lijn - Passenger ships route - Rotterdam - New York. Throughout 19th and 20th century this was the main emmigration artery from Europe to the United States.
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Analysis
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Ship layers distribution along the river Maas
Initial mass proposal - gate like structure on water that incorporates arriving ships. Philosophy of the mass symbolicaly resembles Columbus’s and Dali’s arrival to America and an entry point to the unknown land.
Floating cluster of towers
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Symposium
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Axonometrics Drawing for the Symposium, showing abstract diagramatic proposal
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Development
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Initial mass of the proposal in context
Initial mass of the proposal - acting as a gateway/terminal for the arriving cruise ships
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Development
A floating swimming pool parable from ‘Delirious New York’. Desingned by a Russian constructivist student, it takes 40 years for the team of swimmers, going in the opposite direction of their destination, to reach New York and dock at Wall Street. The architects of New York felt uncomfortable with the sudden influx of constructivists and criticized the design of the pool that actually symbolized the skyscraper.
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Development
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Axonometrics of the proposed new mass - floating structure in front of the site, featuring three tower blocks and walkways around, resembling the deck of a ship
Floating programmatic compartments (outlines in white), mobile structures in water that could possibly be rearranged
Historical photos of Vilhelminapier port - emphasising the importance of shipping industry on site
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Development
Current Wilhelminapier no longer acts as a major port of Rotterdam, rather it houses cruise ships from around the world that come to Rotterdam approximately twice a month. During our stay in Rotterdam, we observed the largest cruise ship in the world - Oasis of the seas, docked for a day, and ready to leave for a week’s long journey. The ship is 350 metres long and 14th storeys high, bigger than any other ship ever buld before. To specify my proposal for the new highrise, I chose to look at it as a vertical skyscraper.
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Collage showing the ‘Oasis of the seas’ cruise ship in comparison to the famous ‘Titanic’ and other world landmarks.
Development
The size of all the previous Holland Amerika Lijn cruise ships in comparison to the ‘Oasis of the seas’
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Development
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“Oasis of the seas’ liner is attractive for the widest variety of entertainment spaces it offers amongst all the cruise ships in the world, hence is the reason of the ships size. These spaces were taken as a new programme for the skyscrapper.
“Oasis of the seas’ deck plans
Aqua theatre
Flowrider
Zip line
Climbing wall
Boardwalk
Golf course
Basketball court
Ice rink
Central park
Sports pool
Beach pool
Roayal promenade
Opal theatre
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Development
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Diagram of the ship showing entertainment/leisure spaces to be used as a program for the highrise
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Development
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Collage illustratinging ‘Oasis of the seas’ arrangement of the programme
Hotel New york becomes a terminal building for the proposal
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Development
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Strategy used to refine building mass
Full Mass
Horizontal layering
Voids
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Development
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Dominating gable feature of the existing Hotel New York building was chosen as a new skin for the proposal
Skyscraper lattice facade diagram
Skyscraper structural diagram
Skyscraper floor plates diagram
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Development
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Voids of the ‘Oasis of the seas’
Voids inserted into proposal
Voids inserted into proposal
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Interim Crit
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Diagram of the programme inside the building.
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Interim Crit
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Placing the building on Site
Interim Crit Axonometrics
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Interim Crit
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Approaching at ground level
Central park void view
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Interim Crit
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Approaching at ground level
Internal swimming pool
View of the building from the other bank of river Maas
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Final Crit
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Exploded axonometrics diagram was used as a mehod to map leisure spaces inside the ‘Oasis of the seas’ cruise ship. They been then stacked one on top the other to form a condensed and physicaly connected programme. This way the programmatic horizontality of the ship was converted into a cluster of activities and adopted for the vertical highrise. Exploded axonometrics indicating leisure spaces and natural features
Collage of the programme inside the building
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Final Crit
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Floor plates and structural axes diagram
Section
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Final Crit
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Context plan
Proposal axonometrics
Context plan
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Final Crit
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Site location
Site plan
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Final Crit
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Site model with proposed mass
Site model with proposed mass
Proposal axonometrics in context
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Final Crit
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Central park floor plan
Boardwalk floor plan
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Final Crit
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Section cut with context
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Final Crit
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Ground level view
Boardwalk
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Final Crit
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Vertical Central park
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Final Crit
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Site group model, 5x4 m
Group site section
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Final Crit
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Site model with proposed mass
Group site plan
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Conclusion Semester 1
To conclude, I would like to emphasise a few things about the work in general and the development of it for the future. First, even though the semester was very intense, I feel like all the hard work paid for itself and I gained a baggage of knowledge, skills and an enormous curiosity for the profession and potential for further advancement. As a designer, my current priorities lie in investing more time into architectural reading and directly applying it to the design process, as this semester taught me how important this practice is. Another very important issue to embark on is to start technically detailing my proposals more, think about constructional and material systems, environmental control, impact on sustainability especially for this semester’s work for the final portfolio review. I am very happy to have learnt a few important practices from this semester. ‘Plan Rotterdam’ project with its strong focus on urbanism, showed how important an overall comprehension of a place is and how the attention to different social disciplines contributes to an architectural proposal. The method of in depth analysis of a society’s development and the physical environment it creates for itself opened up a very broad perspective of how architecture can be understood and envisioned. I also recognized the importance of reading prominent architectural literature and the positive effect it has on the design process. As for the next semester, I would like to keep but also grow the curiosity for the profession that this project invoke in me and try to approach upcoming projects with even broader social perspective and stronger criticism.
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Introduction Semester 2
Semester two starts with a project named “Rematerializing Rotterdam” and I personally chose a studio called - “Clichés, the everyday and super-modernism”. The overall objective of the brief for second semester was to investigate architecture at a detail level, which was the complete opposite of semester one, where focus was placed on a broader urban context. The intention of drastically shifting project scales allowed for a different perspective and approach to a design process. As the name of the project suggests, we were asked to look at an urban fabric through thorough investigation of chosen materiality and how that links to the overall design of proposed building. The start of the year began with a “Thinking through making” week of intense workshops with various artists, engineers and architects of exploring different materials (concrete, plaster, wood etc.) and their characteristics. By experimenting with different materials we managed to get a deeper understanding of how they interact with one another, as well as how natural factors such as air, water, light changes their performance. The actual design studio places focus on dwelling spaces in Rotterdam and looks at a housing design from an ethnographic perspective with an emphasis on domestic physical objects that subtly constitute to the overall performance of housing architecture. “Rematerializing” Rotterdam alludes to its post-war history of architecture and the approach that this city has taken after the war in regards to buildings and as an urban whole. Most of the city has been destroyed by Nazi Germany Luftwaffe air bombing, as a consequence, Rotterdam after that started rebuilding itself with a very brave and experimentational architectural approach. It was a complete playground for testing new types of architecture. Rotterdam is well known for having a lot of architectural practices and some of them are internationally recognised, such as the famous “OMA” office. In my opinion, such a concentrated number of professionals, was the driving factor for allowing unseen projects to take shape.
Going back to the brief, the first weeks we were asked to look at our personal living space and think of an issue, that we feel makes domestic space use uncomfortable. It could have been something that was lacking or was unnecessary overused. After identifying an issue, the next step was to come up with a physical object or a piece of furniture that improves the situation. In my case, the concern was not having any surface to place objects while working in bed, be it reading, sketching or working on a laptop. My idea was to construct a bedside table that could also be used as a bed-table. This simple piece of furniture was constructed during “Thinking through making” week. The emphasis was on using two different materials: concrete and wood, and how their material characteristics could define the surface usage. Concrete was casted in a way to allow small recessed surfaces for placing objects inside so they don’t slide away if the table is tilted. In the middle of the table a wooden plate was placed to give smoother surface friction with books and laptop. Another aspect of the brief requirement was to choose a so called g(host) or precedent building and carefully analyse it in detail. We know that architects as well as all the other design based professions, do not come up with something absolutely new. All of the final outcomes are a combination of numerous carefully studied precedents and what is usually unique about “new” designs is the way to combine different details from different previous projects. And this is what makes new and exciting design pieces of work. We have done exactly the same and investigating our chosen g(host) buildings provided us with a broad understanding of a building in terms of its construction, materiality but also history, social, cultural and economic aspects. My g(host) building was ‘Jobsveem” a refurbishment of a pre-war warehouse into a modern living units. It was designed by well known local practice in Rotterdam, called Mei Architects. One of the reasons for picking this particular building, was my personal experience of it in Rotterdam and the fact that it was done by a local Dutch architects, which provides a lot of insight on Dutch way of living. In Rotterdam, I was fascinated by the way this building comes across. In does not stand out as a completely modern building, but neither does it shout about its industrial past. Architects have managed to reuse a lot of original building features in a very subtle and aesthetically domesticated way. The dominant element of the building was the re-use of 3,5m height sliding doors that were historically designed solely for easier transportation of goods.
The narrative for the proposed building consists of three main activities combined together to create a cross programmed building - housing, food market and educational urban park. The driving idea was to use food culture to link the programme and show how environmental cycles could be used to feed from one aspect of the building to another. “Fenix Food Factory” is equipped with composting plants of food waste from the market as well as residents, to provide fertile soil to grow produce, extract heat from the process of composting and collect any methane that could be used to generate electricity. Composting plant becomes a key element in the design and is placed at the centre of the building, which provides practical educational experience for people as well as brings an understanding of how well managed organic waste could produce energy needed for the next life cycle.
Later during design process, a combination of domestic furniture with the g(host) design was accomplished, creating interior sliding doors that could also be used as a folded down table. Following the logic of “Jobsveem” site context, an industrial building in Katendrecht was chosen as my site. Programme and the final design for the building came out of thorough contextual research. The building is currently called “Fenix Food Factory” and serves as a local organic food market. My idea was to look at the building in a way that could innovatively improve the performance of the programme, by creating architecture that directly responds and expresses that. Research, that led to design decisions, started with analysing architecture in relationship with food. A lot of ideas came from a book called “Hungry City” by Carolyn Steel. In her book she analysis the importance of food and it’s at the moment invisible importance in our everyday life. The author also spends a lot of time analysing history of food production and investigates the sustainability side of it. This piece of writing gave me a very good understanding on our current industrial food production and consumption culture and opened my eyes to how energy inefficient the system is It also broadened my perspective on food in relationship with social and economic aspects, by showing various steps from cultivation to end user and how that all constitutes to an unseen system of unsustainable production.
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Thinking through making 5 days materiality workshop Material forms the core of architecture’s practice - be it the material of construction or that of the drawing board or digital interface, the way making inflects thinking underlies the production of architecture. Thinking Through Making asks you to delve into the possibilities of material; the potentials of technologies; the systems of structures; and modes of exploration of material design through making & drawing.
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Furniture design
Bed(side) table During thinking through making week we have spent time having workshops with various artists, architects and engineers to explore different aspects of architecture: materials, sound, light etc. The objective of the week was to have a first hand experience on a chosen aspect and to explore it in more depth through making prototypes. My outcome at the end of workshops was a piece of furniture - bed table. The idea has sprung from personal household needs. Using different materials (concrete and wood) to produce the piece has allowed me to see how they join but also understand how the characteristics of surfaces can dictate their usage. Indentation in concrete were created to place object so they don’t slide or roll away, wooden plate in the middle was used to place books, sketch books on.
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Rematerializing Rotterdam ClichÊs, the everyday and super modernism Nothing exists in a vacuum – no building emerges onto paper, the screen or into the world devoid of a position in broader cultural and architectural milieus. Either implicitly or explicitly, the architect must position their work within these contexts. We have already encountered examples of this in Rotterdam and Hilversum. In both overt and subtler manifestations, we have seen architectural idioms taken hold of and reimagined in radically variant contexts and conditions – a form of re-materializing the spaces, organization and detail of canonical and vernacular architectures alike. Rotterdam, where this project is situated, can be read as a city that has itself undergone certain rematerializations as an urban whole. With a core almost completely destroyed in bombing raids in World War II, and a post-war reconstruction replacing the spaces and programmes of the historic city centre with visions of future urbanism, Rotterdam as city has been almost entirely rematerialized, and continues this process, as its economic conditions move with the flux of global trade and energy markets. {excerpt from project brief}
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Brief
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The brief asks to engage with a ‘[g]host’ of an architecture embedded in an historical context. Through these [g]hosts, you will be asked in varying ways to propose strategies, programmes and structures that rematerialize Rotterdam. These strategies, programmes and material approaches will draw on close analysis of the specific character of the [g]host to realise a project in the city that questions ways that material, structure, technology, atmosphere and programme can coalesce into an architecture of rigour, detail, depth and resolution.
Looking closely at the details of buildings can tell us a lot about the values, attitudes, and priorities of the culture in which they were produced. Imagining and creatively appropriating the details of [g]host or destroyed buildings is a way critically to understand and work in dialogue with them. This project asks you to investigate details, materials and technologies, and, through those, to design a building. A clear narrative should link the detail with the strategies for the building. This same narrative will thread your proposal’s environmental, structural, climatic, lighting, acoustic and energy strategies together into a coherent whole.
{excerpt from project brief}
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
G(host)
Jobsveem - Rotterdam Designed by Mei Architects
The former warehouse and national monument Jobsveem, also known as St. Job, on the quay of the Lloyd Pier in Rotterdam, has been changed significantly. The warehouse was originally a substantial industrial building. The design by Mei architects and planners breathes new life into the old warehouse. Since its completion in 1913, the former warehouse had been extremely introverted in character. This closed character was intended to protect the stored goods from too much daylight, rain and wind. The structure involved the use of construction methods that were very advanced for their time. The large-scale stacked structure with concrete galleries and loading bays is an example, as is the stacked structure of timber floors and cast-iron columns filled with concrete. The levels of Jobsveem are characterised by long floors (130 x 25 m) with cast-iron columns of different hยงeights and conditions. The warehouse is an important national and municipal monument because the function of loading and unloading resulted in a uniquely expressive faรงade of concrete loading decks on the side facing the water.
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G(host)
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G(host)
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
The former warehouse and national monument Jobsveem, also known as St. Job, on the quay of the Lloyd Pier in Rotterdam, has been changed significantly. The warehouse was originally a substantial industrial building. The design by Mei architects and planners breathes new life into the old warehouse. Since its completion in 1913, the former warehouse had been extremely introverted in character. This closed character was intended to protect the stored goods from too much daylight, rain and wind. The structure involved the use of construction methods that were very advanced for their time. The large-scale stacked structure with concrete galleries and loading bays is an example, as is the stacked structure of timber floors and cast-iron columns filled with concrete. The levels of Jobsveem are characterised by long floors (130 x 25 m) with cast-iron columns of different heights and conditions. The warehouse is an important national and municipal monument because the function of loading and unloading resulted in a uniquely expressive faรงade of concrete loading decks on the side facing the water.
Shutters before reconstruction
Shutters after reconstruction
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G(host) furniture design
Living room collage showing domestic sliding door with integrated folded table.
Bedroom collage showing domestic sliding door with integrated folded table.
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G(host) furniture design
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Existing wall
20mm plywood board
Detail 1
100mm thermal insulation
Detail 2
18mm ply fixed to insulation
Timber frame
Sliding door track 20mm plywood board
Timber frame
Detail 1
Existing wall
Detail 2
G(host) + furniture design plan
Detail 3
Existing ceiling plate
20mm plywood board
Timber studwork attached to ceiling
Timber frame
Anodised flush fit sliding door track Intumescent strip Detail 4
Anodised flush fit sliding door track 18mm ply fixed to floor plate
20mm plywood board
G(host) + furniture design section
Detail 3
Existing floor plate
Detail 4
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Analysis
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G(host building) is situated next to the historic dock in Delfshaven previously served for logistic functions of loading and unloading imported goods. My look for potential site followed the same logic of g(host) site context. Investigating sites that that have a direct connection with water helped me to narrow down my search. In addition, Jobsveem used to be an industrial warehouse, hence I was aiming for the same typology of buildings on my chosen site. Due to the fact, that most of the industrial buildings are situated next to the water, for the same logistic reason previously mentioned, I have managed to find an abandoned warehouse in Katendrecht.
G(host) building’s relationship with water
Warehouse on site in use, 1930s
Site search perimeter
Chosen site location in Rotterdam
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Analysis
History of Katendrecht Residential area of Katendrecht was first populated by a Chinese community at the end of 19th century. Later during the beginning of the 20th century the peninsula gained popularity amongst various groups of artists, mostly musicians. Jazz bars were the main stream establishment in the place, where a lot of dark skin complexion artists from Dutch colonies found their place in Rotterdam. During the WWII Katendrecht served as an entertainment neighbourhood for soldiers, although with the increase of Wehrmacht soldiers the area was forced to shut down leaving a lot of abandoned estates. After the war Katendrecht became notorious for prostitution, tattoo and piercing salons and other what was considered immoral at the time activities. Only at the beginning of the 21st century, successful council initiative was taken to convert the area into an attractive residential neighbourhood.
Dutch trade Empire Map illustrating Dutch empire and its colonies throughout 17 - 20th centuries. Colonised territories allowed Netherlands to become one of the most prosperous nation on earth. Most of the oversea territories were used to import local goods and mainly food products to Netherlands, as well as re-export some of it to other European nations.
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Analysis
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The existing warehouse on site has been recently converted to a food market “Fenix Food Factory”. Initiative to establish a food market was done by seven young entrepreneurs, who realised the importance of promoting organic and local food culture. The programme inside the building proved to be very successful and attracts a lot of local people from Rotterdam as well as being advertised as a place to visit for tourists. Unfortunately nothing has been done to the actual architecture of the building which makes the market near to invisible for those unfamiliar with the place.
Site location
“Fenix Food Factory” market
Programme of the existing building
Daily market
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Analysis
“Fenix Food Factory� catalyst for urban connections
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Analysis
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Existing building The existing warehouse is 7x10m concrete structural grid, ground floor columns are 1,5m wide, 1m deep to withstand upper load, the first floor columns are slenderer as it has to support only the load of the roof. On both levels floor to ceiling height is 6 metres. The structural grid is clearly expressed on both facades, it also has a very dominant sliding industrial doors elements continuing throughout.
Structural grid
Deliplein square facade
River-front facade
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Literature reference
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
The book “Hungry City” by Carolyn Steel analysis in great depth from the very fundamentals our relationship with food and what role does an architecture play in this synergy. It historically analysis food chain from production to end user and how all the stages slowly evolved to current day post-industrial food market. Having read the book immensely contributed to my thesis of the project and the understanding of analysing food connection with broader social, economic and political issues.
The book “Informal” by Cecil Belmond allowed me to look at building structures from a completely different point of view. With the example of various well known architectural case studies, it shows the development of building structures in accordance with the initial architectural design. By following the process of design from very basic sketches to fully complete structures the book brilliantly illustrates how the primary, secondary etc. structures and details express the architectural intention behind.
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Information mapping
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1958 Reconstructed families
Single parents
Travellers
1958
Single elderly
Thought reference: Venice Biennale 2014: Rem Koolhaas in Conversation with Tony Fadell
Students
Couples
Single
Families
Elderly
Same sex families
Generations
Extended families
Modern day household dynamics
2015
2015
Social priorities
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Information mapping
Dutch food imports Mapping of Dutch (applies to all industrialised western countries) food imports from around the world. Diagram indicates where major produce comes from, the number of kilometres it travels to end user and also the amount of CO2 it produces by different means of transportation : water, air.
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Information mapping
Industrial food production chain Mapping of separate industrial food production steps. Drawing illustrates where each of the step occur, how much food supply is lost, global water demand, price share, average travel distance and energy input in relationship with output.
Global resources demand and supply Time line Illustration shows post oil discovery in relationship with population growth. It also indicates projected numbers of population growth, food and fresh water demand, needed produce and price increase.
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Information mapping
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Local urban farms
Dutch agriculture market Netherlands are the second largest agriculture exporter in the world giving the lead only to US, despite the fact that total area of the country is 200 times smaller than America. 70% of total land is used for agriculture, unfortunately 80% of produce is exported due to economic benefits. Most of it is sold to EU countries and a smaller part to the rest of the world.
Commercial farming
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Information mapping
Local produce in Food Factory market A local map of Rotterdam showing different areas around the city and what specific produce is grown/supplied to Fenix Food Factory. Drawing also illustrates the freshness of the river Maas and the existing urban farms in Rotterdam.
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Interim Crit
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Site surroundings Site analysis map emphasising the height of surrounding buildings, waterfront accessibility and walking distance time around the peninsula. Proposed massing is raised on one side to allow the maximum solar gain from the south, courtyard in the middle follows the housing typology in the area and also allows evenly distributed natural light for all housing units.
First massing attempt 66
Interim Crit
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Terraces
Urban Garden Education
Kop Van Zuid
Deliplein Urban Agriculture
Commerce
Environmental cycles Diagram showing what potential closed loop energy cycles can be created on site. Increased solar gain on the south to would help grow the produce, rainwater collection ponds could be used for irrigation, also would serve as a landscape feature.
Environmental cycles interconnected with programme
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Interim Crit
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Basic programmatic diagram
Testing volume, Deliplein square
Testing volume, river front
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Development
Interim Crit feedback Comments received in the interim crit taken into consideration. Physical massing model exploring different volumetric arrangements (slicing,raising, opening, intervening).
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Development
Volumetric studies
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Development
Volume in urban context Final building volume derived from the surrounding urban context. Diagram illustrates the relationship between the volume and neighbouring buildings. A diagonal cut in the middle follows the existing street to create direct access to the river. A corner cut on south side is created by projecting the existing building facades in front, hence expanding Deliplein square into the building.
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Development
Food production cycle on site Industrial food production steps mapped on site to form a closed loop Food production steps on site system. Each of the step is indicated with the potential programmatic to formap-local closed cycle loop proach to reinforce the cycle.
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Development
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Existing structure
Creating connections/walkways throughout the building “Food Factory� advertisement facade Initial conceptual sketch showing how the existing facade could be retained and used to create produce growing facade, serving as a billboard for the programme inside the building.
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Development
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Food wastage - 1/3 of all produce, 2,5kg person/week
compost digester tank hot water ducts
Co2/O2 exchange heat recovery
electricity
generator
organic waster collection
methane tanks
rainwater collection landscape pods
compost digester tank compost
Environmental strategy
Outputs of organic waste compost Highlighting organic waste composting energy outputs and how it can establish environmental strategy for the building.
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Development
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Development
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
South facade
Ground floor plan
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Development
Fertile soil
Organic waste
Pretreatment and mixing
Food waste
Living green facade Composting process in the building
Decomposition
Maturing phase
Heat, methane gas (electricity)
Post treatment
Finished compost
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Food market Urban park
New drawing Illustrating the steps needed to convert organic (food market) waste into fertile soil used for growing produce.
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Development
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Aeration Natural ventilation inside the building/ aeration for compost to speed up the process
Living wall irrigation Collected rainwater and re-used grey water from residential bathrooms to be used for watering plants
New drawing
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Development
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Heating
Maturing phase
Composting tank Heat produced by bacteria during the process of breaking up the organic waste to be collected via ducts filled with liquid
First floor Organic waste Pretreatment and mixing Decomposition
Ground floor
New drawing
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Development
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Sliding facade sketch
Folding facade study skecth
Urban park
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Development
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Living wall sketch
Food market atrium
Vertical vegetable growing
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Development
Corten steel sliding facade Detail study sketches of perforated corten steel sliding facade facing the river. Drawings illustrate how the facade is connected to timber structure behind it which forms sheltered walkway on the ground floor and balconies for residential units on the first floor.
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Development
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3ndy studio - precedent Outside of Venice, Italy, a 19th century structure suffered from a fire, leading to a rehabilitation of the Campiello at Palazzo Di Vigonovo
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Final Crit
Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Facade envelope layers
Urban park axonometric
Building envelope axonometric 84
Final Crit
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Steel frames
Timber frame on steel plates
Aluminium SHSs
Aluminium profiles
Perforated corten steel
River front facade construction
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Final Crit
Night time view of river front facade
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Final Crit
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1. Green roof 300mm Growing medium Buried irrigation pipes Filter barrier 50mm Drainage board 20mm moisture retention layer 10mm aeration layer 10mm root barrier board DPM 200mm thermal insulationยง
2.
2.Perforated steel/timber facade 1.5mm perforated corten steel 50mm aluminium SHSs frame T 150 x 80 x 8 mm profiles 300 x 100 green oak fin Line of 400 x 200 x12 mm steel flitch plate 70mm thermal insulation Continuous 300 x 12 mm steel base plate
River front facade detail The end result of the facade facing the river consists of perforated corten steel sliding door panels on both floors. The height of the panels is kept to the original ceiling height of the warehouse to emphasise the experience of opening and closing the facade. The sliding elements are attached to oak fins which are visually dominant from the inside
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Final Crit
Vertical vegetable growing facade The living wall to grow produce is one of the most dominant features of building design. The wall is continuous throughout the “Fenix Food Factory� and is most visible on the retained existing facade of the warehouse. In addition, all the entrances to residential units are designed to be incorporated into the living wall.
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Atmospheric model photographs outside/inside the living facade
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Final Crit
Site plan showing how the building integrates into the neighbourhood of Katendrecht New drawing
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Second floor, 1:500
Second floor, 1:500
Second floor, 1:500
8.
8.
First floor, 1:500
2. First floor, 1:500
New
First floor plan
Second floor plan Second floor, 1:500
First floor, 1:500
3.
1.
2.
8.
3.
4. First floor, 1:500
6.
5.
2.
Remaining
1. Entrance to residential units 2. Food market 3. Cafe/restaurant 4. Composting plant room for market 5. Urban park 6. Composting plant room for residential units 7. Parking area 8. Residential units
7.
Existing
Ground floor plan Ground floor 1:200
Ground floor 1:200
Ground floor 1:200
Primary structure diagram
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Final Crit
Lighting study models
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Final Crit
Integrated section Amended drawing Section drawing depicting the relationships of the food market with residential units on the right and urban composting park and living wall on the left.
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Academic Portfolio 2014-15 - Matas Belevicius
Final Crit
Atmospheric drawing Illustration showing the interior space of the building. Image depicts the circulation atrium on the first floor with living wall for the residents on the left as well as entrances to flats through them. On the right - food market atrium, glazedplant room on the ground floor and access to bridges over the urban park above that.
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Conclusion Semester 2
Semester’s two work with its focus on building’s materiality and detail constructions has allowed me to look at the design process from a different perspective. I have learned through reading, analysing precedents and actually designing that detailing and how the building is constructed is not a separate part of design, as thought before, but probably one of the most important elements in architecture. “Rematerialising Rotterdam” was a very successful project in many ways. For me personally, the biggest professional gain out of this studio was the understanding of how your proposed architecture could connect what might at first seem distinct fields of life: economy, culture, environment and social fabric of society. Only by trying to find the meeting ground for them could you produce a successful piece of work, a work that creates a dynamic and sustainable synergy of human activities. The final outcome of my design, has taught me to look at architecture in a very broad social way and think how your proposed architectural narrative could be expressed through building construction. What I took from semester’s one work and now fully realise the benefits of it is the importance of indulging yourself in architectural and any other literature. By reading and thoroughly researching on the issue you are trying to tackle can you only understand the real fabric of your design intentions. Two pieces of writing in particular “Hungry City” and “Informal” has helped me to come up with the final architectural proposal. Having read the books I managed to connect very important social issues with the physical performance of architecture. The ideas taken from “Hungry City” forced me to look at a specific matter, in this case food culture in a very broad social, environmental, cultural and economic perspective. Any narrative that architects choose to create with their architecture has to connect subjects in a cohesive plot, because at the end nothing exists in vacuum and fundamentally everything has a common meeting ground. Especially in our current modern world, where so much emphasis is placed on environmental issues, successful architecture links social aspects of human life with sustainable use of energy. The other book “Informal” allowed me to look at the construction side of buildings from a design point of view. The author, with very clear and well know architectural examples, showed how architects choose to express and in some cases amplify their design intention through structure and details of the buildings. Both of the books were an inspiration and reference for my design. The other learning outcome taken from semester one and integrated into this project was the analysis of chosen architect’s work. “OMA” office being the most successful practice in the Netherlands played a key role in my fifth year architectural education. I have managed to read quite a few books written by AMO, where they talk about their projects in a very unconventional, almost magazine article like way. In particularly the book called “Content” by AMOMA brilliantly illustrates very big social ideas that the office is trying to convey with their architecture. Overall I am very pleased with both of the fifth year’s projects and the learning outcomes that came out of them. I feel very optimistic and highly motivated to start my final thesis project in September. I am confident that my knowledge and understanding of architecture that arouse this year will help to produce quality final thesis work.
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