The Ideas Factory Part II: The Chimney
Imad Amjad - U0656532 & Mitchell Hattersley - U0856059
“By means of industry and perseverance you will rise higher and higher.� - Robert Schumann
Concept Artwork in collaboration with Laura Rombaut
Site Location
Site as Existing The location of the tower on the site as it currently exists.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Site Location
Site of Future Masterplan The Location of the Tower within our new masterplan scheme for the University of Huddersfield campus.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Case Study
30 St Mary Axe 30 St Mary Axe, also known as ‘The Gherkin’ was designed by Foster & Partners as an ecological skyscraper in London’s main financial district. It features a diagrid structure which allows for column-free floor space and a fully glazed facade which lets in plenty of natural light. The facade is also double skinned and features a unique natural ventilation system. The tower also features atria between radiating fingers of each floor plate which form breakout spaces that spiral up the building. These spaces have both a social purpose and a functional purpose, as they distribute fresh air throughout the building, reducing the need for air conditioning.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Case Study
Shanghai Tower Shanghai Tower designed by Gensler is a Skyscraper in the city’s Lujizui district. The tower aims to bring the outside in and up to the sky by having several ‘sky gardens’, huge multistorey atria that act like parks. These sky gardens will improve air quality and provide social spaces, whilst also creating a visual link between the city and the interior of the tower. To achieve these atria, the curtain wall uses a system whereby it is hung from an outrigger at the top of the atria and then simply requires ties back to the core.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Developmental Series The initial tower started off with a form emulating a chimney rising out of a mill, based on the concept of the University being an ‘Ideas Factory’ from the Masterplan scheme. As the schedule of accommodation become more defined it became evident that the tower needed to grow to provide the required floor area. Natural light is very important and so we decided to decrease the radii of the floor plates to around 8 metres from the core to the glazing in order to provide plenty of light, for both psychological reasons and also as part of the environmental strategy. More natural light means less artificial lighting is required, saving both money and energy, but also adds to a happier workforce. As the floor plate radii decreased the tower had to compensate for this by rising in height.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Developmental Series As the form of the tower continued to grow in height, we soon realised that to accommodate the faith centre and a full library with services at the base of the tower, that the base needed to extend outwards. This created the idea of placing the tower upon a stepped pedestal, which also poses the visual differentiation between the public realm, which includes the faith centre and the library, and the private realm such as the offices and the Vice-Chancellors Suite. As development continued we decided to put our efforts into increasing links and providing connections between floors in order to promote a community and socialising. We soon realised that a half storey step between floors wouldn’t be plausible and heading in the direction of linking the whole building through a rising, sweeping atrium with floor plates that twisted and stepped up. This atrium has both conceptual and functional reasoning as the shared atrium represents the knowledge rising up the Ideas Factory. It presents spaces for socialising and also has a functional role as the atrium will be used along with natural ventilation to distribute fresh air throughout the floors.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Atrium Development Series Next our development focused on optimising the atrium, this involved looking at the rotation angles of the floor plates around the core to produce the stepped atrium we craved, and also the size of the atrium.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
6 Degree Incremental Rotation
12 Degree Incremental Rotation
18 Degree Incremental Rotation
110 Degree Atrium
110 Degree Atrium
110 Degree Atrium
Allows efficient triangulated exoskeleton
Atrium curve is too exteme
Initial Ideas & Development
Atrium Development Series
6 Degree Incremental Rotation
12 Degree Incremental Rotation
12 Degree Incremental Rotation
50 Degree Atrium
100 Degree Atrium
72 Degree Atrium
Atrium is too small
After investigating various rotation angles and atrium sizes, we agreed upon a 12 degree incremental rotation and a 72 degree atrium. This sized atrium would be exactly 1/5th of a floor plate. The increments would also allow a triangulated exoskeleton to be designed to support the structure.
Structurally efficient. Allows efficient triangulated exoskeleton. Atrium takes up 1/5th of a floor plate.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Design Development A render showing our 3D design development from our initial tower form to a more refine form featuring the sweeping atrium and stepped floor plates.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Atrium Development A render showing our 3D models for the atrium development series. We discovered that the last model, the 12 degree incremental rotation and 72 degree atrium design would be what we took and developed further.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Development Visual A render showing the form and structure towards the end of the development stage. It was important to us that the exterior created the visual impression that the steel appears continuous, rising up the building uninterupted. The steel structure represents the rising of ideas from the ideas factory, fueled by the knowledge contained within the library located at the footings.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Atrium Visualisation A render suggesting what looking down the atrium could be like, as the floor plates step down and curve around the core. The steel members of the exoskeleton also spiral upwards in a continuous and uninterupted manner.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Case Study
Kiefer Technic Showroom This kinetic facade system features perforated panels that run on a rail system. The panels can act independently or combined and can be used in conjunction with sensors in order to provide an automated system that opens and closes the facade in response to internal temperatures and the amount of glare. On a building the scale of a skyscraper that will be featuring a fully glazed facade, a system like this could be very useful as part of an environmental strategy.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Case Study
Q1 Headquarters The Q1 Headquarters in Essen, Germany features kinetic feathers that open and close to provide shading. This sun protection system is oriented in response to the location of the sun and enables light redirection without blocking any views out from the building.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Kinetic Facade Design Taking inspiration from the Kiefer Technic Showroom facade, we devised a kinetic facade and detail for our tower, that would run on rails connected to the exoskeleton.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Kinetic Facade Design Each panel in the facade can open or close independently or they can open and close in unison. When fully open, the panels act as a louvre, further helping to reduce overheating in the summer when the sun is highest in the sky. If the internal temperature becomes too high in areas of the building or the glare becomes too much for the office works then panels will begin to close.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Kinetic Facade Animation A quick series of images to show the Kinetic Facade going from the open to closed position.
Open
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Half-Closed
Closed
Initial Ideas & Development
Closed Facade Render A render showing the Kinetic Facade closed, with the perforations added. The facade will still diffuse a more than adequate amount of natural light into the building when fully closed, however the system will control individual panels and so the facade will rarely be fully closed, instead it will mostly be panels in direct orientation of the sun, meaning the facade will move across the building like a slow wave.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Kinetic Facade Open A render suggesting what looking down the atrium would be like with the Kinetic Facade open.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Initial Ideas & Development
Kinetic Facade Closed A render suggesting what looking down the atrium would be like with the Kinetic Facade closed. The building will still be brightly lit as the perforations diffuse the natural light.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Structure
Raised Floor Interior Glazing
Exterior Glazing
Rubber Gasket
1:20 Detail 1:20 Detail of a floor section from the core to the exoskeleton & kinetic facade.
300mm CHS Secondary Structure Suspended Ceiling
450mm Castellated Beam 600mm CHS - Primary Structure
500mm Reinforced Concrete
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Kinetic Facade
Structure
Exploded Detail Exploded detail showing from the core to the exoskeleton & kinetic facade.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Final Design
View from Campus A visualisation of what the approach to the tower would be like from underneath the skin that shelters the masterplan, with the kinetic facade of the tower closed.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Final Design
View from Entrance A visualisation of what the tower would be like when viewed from the new entrance to the University as per the masterplan.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Final Design
Night-time Render Visualisation of the Ideas Factory illuminated from within at night.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Final Design
Interior View of Atrium Visualisation looking down the atrium. Each floor plate features spiral stairs down to the plate below and a balcony that acts as a social break out space.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Final Design
Site Section 3D Section taken through the site.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Final Design
Sectional Model Section of the tower, showing how the skin of the masterplan lightly kisses the tower and also showing how the atrium spirals up the building.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Layout
Core Design
The core design takes inspiraton from the core of the gherkin, in the sense that we divided it into thirds in order to achieve an efficient use of space. The core is split into two halves with circulation space in between from the stairways and the lifts. Each side of the core is encased in reinforced concrete for both structural purposes and fire protection. The outside edge is 500mm thick as this will be used for structural elements for the floor plates, connected to the exoskeleton via castellated beams.
Service Riser
There are two stairways that are fire protected and feature a refuge area. 5 lifts and a goods lift make up the lift shaft, 1 of which will serve as a firemans lift. 1 Lift will be reserved for access to the Skydeck only, another lift will be to the PHD area and the Vice-Chancellor’s Suite, leaving the other 3 lifts to serve the offices and student services. The library will be served by a seperate lift core for security purposes in order to stop unauthorised people entering the library on each floor and the stealing of books. A male and female bathrooms, including shower cubicles are placed in either side of the core, with service risers and a comms room taking up the rest of the space. Due to the form of the tower and the atrium, the core will also feature a 1500mm circulation corridor around it.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Comms Room
Layout
Skydeck PHD Lounge & Research VC Suite
Programming of Space
Offices
The programming of the space tries to distinguish the private and semi-private from the public. The public areas such as the Library and Faith Centre are located in the ‘pedestal’ area at the base of the tower, with offices occupying the majority of the tower above this. A basement will also feature the plant room and Library Archives. At the top of the tower is a public skydeck allowing views of Huddersfield from on top of the 115 metre tall tower.
Estates
The Vice-Chancellor then gets a suite towards the top of the tower allowing him and his guests to enjoy views of his domain, his Ideas Factory Empire.
Student Services Library Faith Centre 1:500
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Layout
Library Layout The new library will be featured on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. For security and fire escape purposes the library features a new core seperate from the main core. The main core however will still be usable for fire escape purposes with panic bar doors installed to prevent people sneaking into the library. The new library focuses all the books towards the interior core, away from direct sunlight. Around these will be the personal and group study spaces as well as all amenities such as quiet rooms and meeting rooms. 1st Floor
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Layout
Library Design
2nd Floor
3rd Floor
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Layout
Learning
Office Layout Concept Our concept for the layout of the office floors in our skyscraper takes inspiration from the extensive research carried out by Gensler into workplace performance. The research outlines that there are four modes of work carried out within the office environment; Focus, Learning, Collaboraton and Socialising. Our personal research also suggested a shift towards the concepts of ‘Hot-Desking’ and ‘Co-Working’ within modern contemporary offices rather than the traditional open plan fixed workstation idea. In the future we believe that offices will be more online and cloud based reducing the requirements for fixed desks and physical copies. This influenced our idea to divide the core up to provide a space for each work mode and then employees can take their work to whichever space and work mode they require. Fixed closed offices will be provided for staff that require them for privacy reasons and these will provide the breaks between zones. The benefits of Hot-Desking and Co-Working include requiring less space helping to reduce costs and save energy, it allows people to work from home when they’re not required to be in the office helping to save emissions from travelling and having zones tailored for each work mode increases productivity and helps to create a happier workforce.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
This mode is aimed at working to acquire knowledge. Because of the constant demands of change and the need for new skills, learning must be integrated into the modern office. This learning could be online training or one-to-one coaching and the most effective way to move knowledge or new ideas is via human interactions. When people can see and connect with each other, learning becomes fluide and occurs naturally.
Collaboration This work mode is all about working with other people to achieve a goal. Collaboration can occur everywhere, ranging from informal areas for casual interactions and brainstorms or meeting areas for formal scheduled meetings. Spaces for collaboration should consider different sized groups and could include dedicated war rooms for longer term projects.
Spaces that should be considered for this work mode must allow work to be transparent and encourage conversation, providing easier access to knowledge and information.
Focus The Focus work mode is all about working individually with full concentration on a certain task or project. On average, people spend amost half of their time in focus mode. Workspaces must fit individuals needs and work styles and must control all disruptions and interuptions. Spaces for focusing should consider how to remove visual and acoustic distractions. Quiet rooms or pod like areas should be considered, along with choices of materials that can help to reduce acoustics.
Socialise The socialising work mode is all about providing a sense of community within the office. Socialising builds trust and social networks which can help to improve morale, whilst also improving collaboration and learning. Areas for socialising should go beyond just a boring break room and should aim to double up as a learning and collaboration space. Because of the nature of socialising, the spaces for this work mode should be located away from focus work areas to reduce noise disractions.
Precedents
Office Interiors Here are some precedents of office interiors that demonstrate the themes that we plan to include within our office plans. The high topped sofas and pod style chairs will help to remove visual and acoustic distractons and would be great placed inside the focus areas of the floor layouts. The open tables and group meeting areas would be placed within the collaboration zone in order to allow people to share work and encourage conversation. Lockers will be provided for workers so that they can store their laptops, phones and any other items they require at the end of the day.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Case Study
The Superdesk The Superdesk was designed by Architect Clive Wilkinson for the advertising agency, The Barbarian Group. The concept of the design was to provide an open plan space with an endless sinuous undulating 1,100 ft long desk that rises and falls in order to create break out spaces, storage spaces and meeting rooms. The desk consists of a plywood frame with a resin desk top that was formed in one continuous pour and aims to bring and connect the office together.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad
Layout
Office Interior Visualisation Here is an example of what the office space could look like. This render is set in the learning zone and displays the ‘Superdesk’ that we envision will form the pods and work spaces as well as act as the suspended ceiling. The pods will allow people to minimise distracts whilst learning on their own or in small groups.
Mitchell Hattersley | Imad Amjad