portfolio Isabel Chapman Stage 3 Architecture 2019/20
Contents Illustrated Reflective Report
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Charrette
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01 Project Primer
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02 Field Trip: Vienna
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03 Project Staging
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04 Project Realisation
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05 Project Synthesis
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Illustrated Cultural Bibliography
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Bibliography
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Appendix
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n
Indicates new work completed since the final review
i
Indicates work improved since the final review
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Illustrated ReflectiveReport of Elswick. An even wider impact was considered in acknowledging the non-human perspective; building on previously developed land so as to minimally disturb the surrounding wildlife.
Developing my project as a story, with a distinct narrative, has resulted in a project which is logical, rooted and rational. Being a part of the studio group ‘Remedial Housing for Architects’, an emphasis on remedy and problem solving through housing design has led to sensitive designs which recognise and respond to problems.
a sustainable energy scheme within my design. Community wide solar energy generation, storage and consumption is another method for bringing together the community at Cruddas Park with a shared purpose and aspiration.
The organisation of terraced houses was also investigated through much reading and theoretical exploration. Specifically, in the Theory into Practice module, I completed an essay exploring rhythm within terraced housing. Understanding theories of rhythm within nature and in music, and their comfort, familiarity and expectation, led to a theoretical understanding of the discomfort of tower blocks within terraced neighbourhoods and their disruption to the comfort and familiarity of the lateral rhythm within terraced streets. This theoretical framework provided a fundamental base to develop a street design from, and resituating Cruddas Park tower among the surrounding terraces became a key objective of the project. Thinking through making week inspired my project in a much different way. Thinking more abstractly and less literally, I was perhaps a little out of my comfort zone when cutting away into a block of clay, initially unsure of the direction my thoughts were going and what the outcome would be. The process of cutting away sparked curiosity about the negative spaces between the blocks, rather than the blocks themselves. Applying this thinking to my project proposal, themes of proximity, light and comfort in between buildings were explored.
Recognising problems began in our project primer. Being in both a housing crisis and a climate crisis, our studio aimed to establish how these two emergencies can be resolved simultaneously. A study of Newcastle Great Park, a generic, newly built, peripheral housing estate exemplified how, currently, house-builders’ priorities are not with people or the environment, but with profit. Analysing the insensitive, non-descript housing, expansively dispersed across green belt land, the studio worked together to create a manifesto of points detailing what we think housing should be. Outlining sustainability, sensitivity and connectivity, this manifesto is paramount and was a hugely significant step in the development of our projects, as estates like great park continue to be impetuously replicated across the country.
Dissertation submission: Community energy schemes
Disconnection at Cruddas Park Retrofitting through recognising positive qualities in a site and enhancing them is critical and formed a key basis for many aspects of the proposal design. For example, retaining the underground car park at Cruddas Park meant that the new street proposals could be car-free, so they are safer and cleaner. Prioritising the pedestrian and the cyclist intends to encourage sustainable energy behaviour in residents. The new street proposal for the site was heavily influenced by the history of the site. Before the construction of the tower blocks, the site saw an interlocking network of terraced houses, and the reintroduction of the terrace typology to the site hoped to restore the jigsaw puzzle of connectivity that previously existed.
The integration and synthesis of all modules from throughout the year have fed into a thorough and considered design for a new housing scheme at Cruddas Park. The project proposal is informed from many different angles, and the overriding, ever important, themes of connection, integration and sustainability are carried throughout. Presenting my project at different stages through its development and regularly receiving advice, critique and opinion strengthened my ongoing design process, and also my personal learning process. I feel that I have developed hugely as a learner and a designer during stage 3. This personal learning and development is embodied in this project, which has grown and resolved through the year. The project responds to its immediate context, recognising issues of disconnection at Cruddas Park, as well as responding to a wider context, by simultaneously recognising the wider housing crisis and climate crisis, and developed alongside a studio manifesto for an ideal housing model.
Thinking Through Making model
Integrating the technology module within my design began with a studio visit to CITU, in Leeds. Seeing, first-hand, the pre-fabrication of structural, insulating wall modules within a factory, and their subsequent assemblage on site, inspired the adoption of a similar technique within my own project. The repetition of homes along a terraced street is an optimum use for a production line of repeating cassettes.
Studio visit to CITU
Studio manifest posters for an alternative housing model Taking this manifesto through to the project site, Cruddas Park, it became instrumental for establishing where Cruddas Park is lacking in providing a quality living environment for its residents. Applying the manifesto to the site was a significant step in developing a project brief for Cruddas Park. The manifesto points were extremely useful in ensuring that my brief proposal was relevant, sensitive and sustainable. Recognising issues such as disconnection through the site, and a lack of integration between residents, I considered how a new development of housing on the site would benefit both the residents of this new housing, and also the residents in the surrounding area of Elswick. Considering a range of perspectives on my proposal ensured that it would not only fit within its context, but improve its context and the quality of the living environment
The professional practice report led to an understanding of the real design and construction process, recognising the RIBA plan of work and all the stages involved. Completing my dissertation was significant in developing the sustainability strategy of my design. Investigating community energy schemes, and the typical barriers to their development, I understood the necessity to overcome all obstacles and incorporate
Final proposal overview
Cruddas Park history
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Charrette Working collaboratively with all stages from the school, this charette group, ‘Frankensteins Shop’, explored themes of recycling, regurgitating and reinterpretation. Assembling ‘waste’ into new hybrid forms, vacuum forming and casting them, new creative expressions questioned disposability.
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01 Primer
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Remedial
Housing for Architects
The Peripheral Housing Estate
Remedy (n): a successful way of dealing with a problem (Collins Dictionary, 2020).
Simultaneous
Our studio group, ‘Remedial Housing for Architects’, recognises the simultaneous emergencies of both the housing crisis and the climate crisis, and intends to create a manifesto and develop proposals which respond to both of these matters. These two issues are critical in architectural practice, and beginning our project journeys with a study of Newcastle Great Park, a generic, newly built, peripheral housing estate, we developed an understanding of how these issues are currently not being resolved. Group work formed a significant part of the primer phase, as we shared our individual analysis and assembled it with an exhibition at the end of the phase.
Housing Crisis Climate
Monotonous Expansive Dispersed
Anonymous Placeless
Non-descript Normative Generic Detached
Emergency
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Aspirational?
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Unpacking
Newcastle Great Park Newcastle Great Park embodies the themes of monotomy and placelessness of a peripheral suburban hosuing estate. With a proposal for over 4,500 new homes, the scheme was controverially developed on green belt land and the promised ‘vibrant community’ (Permisson, 2014) is undelivered, with houses dispersed, non-descriptly across silent tarmac roads. Issues of car dependency, lack of shared public space and a percieved desire for privacy and security are just a few examples which leave Great Park feeling detached, impersonal and insensitive.
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Unpacking an element:
Newcastle Great Park’s
Windows
The allocation of different ‘elements’ of Great Park to different members of the studio meant that it’s qualities could be investigated and understood at a smaller scale. A personal exploration into the expanse of standardly sized uPVC windows at Newcastle Great Park intended to lead to an understanding of the political and social implications of how a familiar window is siutated and adopted within a housing development.
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Newcastle Great Park
Hostility
great park window photo
Wondering through Great Park during the day time revealed an evident desire from the residents for concealment and seclusion from their roads. Unfriendly, unwelcoming curtains and blinds, drawn across small windows, disconnect the houses from eachother.
The missing communication between the houses at Great park is also a result of dispersion and distance between homes. Wriggly, irregular road layouts leave houses scattered with little possibility for neighbourly interaction.
Jesmond, Newcastle
Contrastingly, houses in Jesmond are aligned regularly, and face eachother, and there is a distinct language and connection between neighbours.
Disconnection This lack of language from the form of the windows impedes the possibility for the ‘vibrant community’ which was promised for Great Park.
Unfriendly
Dispersion Unwelcoming
Impersonal Indistinct
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Proximity
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Scatter
Purpose The fundamental purposes of a window are for light, ventilation and vision. The purpose of a window for vision can be divided into two categories: vision inwards, and vision outwards.
Views
in
Inward views at Great Park are uneasy and dishonest. A particular example of a house shows three different forms of window, all from the same room. The facade tells a false story of the space behind.
Dishonest
Views
out
Numerous studies have shown that multiple aspects of human health and development can be significantly improved by views of nature through windows (Abkar et al., 2010). Views out of houses at Great Park face large amounts of tarmac, roads and no connection to nature.
An entirely opposite attitude to windows is seen in the Netherlands. Large, exposed windows are honest, friendly and welcoming. The form of the window establishes a connection between the interior and the exterior which fuses the building with its surroundings.
Share
Windows in The
Present
Netherlands
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Primer
Exhibition
An assemblage of element studies from the whole studio group culminated with an exhibition expressing the disconnection and placelessness of Newcastle Great Park. Models of our individual elements were hung and scattered throughout the room, posters displayed our analysis, and a protest outlined an alternative model for housing in response to our analysis of Great Park.
Disconnected Dispersed
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Protest ‘A strong complaint expressing disagreement, disapproval, or opposition’ (Collins Dictionary, 2020)
Disaproval
Disagreement Opposition
Demonstrating the importance and necessity for housing of a better quality than Great Park, these posters declare opposition to mass produced, anonymous, placeless housing, and demand a change in housing production.
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HOUSING STANDARDS SHOULD NOT BE STANDARD GREEN MEANS MORE THAN GRASS
studio
Manifesto The project primer culminated with the creation of a studio manifesto. A vehicle for alternative housing production which is sensitive, connected and sustainable. A series of manifesto points outline what we think housing should be, and establish a base from which we can build our own housing proposals.
What housing should be
LOCALISATION for ACCESSIBILITY for SUSTAINABILITY for COMMUNITY ‘CLIMATE CRISIS’? ACT LIKE IT. CREATE TO INTEGRATE HOMES NOT HOUSES
ACTIVE DESIGN, PASSIVHAUS
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT
NO MORE NO-MANS LAND DESTROYING GENDER STEREOTYPES STARTS AT HOME FLEXIBILITY leads to LONGEVITY leads to SUSTAINABILITY
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02 Field Trip: Vienna
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The
Vienna Model
The quality, affordability and accessibility of social housing in Vienna is exemplary. Socialist values of providing high quality, affordable housing for all city residents has carried through from the “Red Vienna” period of the early 20th century, and, today, 60% of Vienna’s residents live in social housing (Ball, 2019). The city evaluates developers housing proposals against four criteria:
Costs Planning
Social Sustainability
For the
Ecology
The ideals of Vienna’s housing model have made it one of the most desirable cities to live in the world. Energy conservation, communal facilities such as shared kitchens and allottments, and safe play spaces are examples of qualities which demonstrate Vienna’s social housing model to align with our studio manifesto and set a perfect example for the delivery of housing for people.
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People
Alt Erlaa
Karl Marx-Hof
Perhaps the most striking of Vienna’s social housing complexes, Alt-Erlaa comprises of seven 75m tall housing blocks. Each has both an indoor and an outdoor swimming pool, broad balconies and planters, as well as a tennants council representing their interests.
Swimming Pools
Play Spaces
The 1,100m long Karl Marx-Hof encloses schools, baths, a library and a health centre. Famously red, Karl Marx-Hof embodies Vienna’s rich history and socialist movement of the early 20th century.
Library Health Centre
Tennants Council
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03 Staging Taking the studio manifesto through to the project site, Cruddas Park, was instrumental for establishing where Cruddas Park is lacking in providing a quality living environment for its residents. Applying the manifesto to the site was a significant step in developing a project brief for Cruddas Park. The manifesto points were extremely useful in ensuring that my brief proposal was relevant, sensitive and sustainable. Recognising issues such as disconnection through the site, and a lack of integration between residents, I considered how a new development of housing on the site would benefit both the residents of this new housing, and also the residents in the surrounding area of Elswick. Developing key objectives for a proposal, I outlined and justified a strategic brief for the opening up and reconnection of the site.
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Newcastle upon Tyne City Centre
Cruddas Park, Elswick A 15 minute walk from Newcastle city centre, the project site sits at Cruddas Park, in Elswick, in the west end of Newcastle.
Cruddas Park
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Site Overview Central to the site is Cruddas Park Tower, which has a bad reputation and high crime rates. By applying our studio manifesto of ideals to the site, I could establish where Cruddas Park is lacking in providing high quality housing and living environment. I found the most significant aspect ot be the separation throughout the site and the lack of integration that stems from this. The site is hugely fragmented, both in terms of the disconnection of building types, but also the disconnection of the people within each type. Taking a closer look, you can see that it’s not just space and roads between the different housing types; the terraces at the top of the site literally put blank walls up against the towers, and the towers at the bottom of the sit are individually fenced off, even from each other. The central issue is the 100m long Cruddas Park Shopping Centre which is impermeable, blank and disused. It forms a complete barrier down the centre of the site.
But, despite the physical barriers, looking beyond them, there is an underlying unity which brings together the different fragments. The connective views are brought about by the hill on which the site sits, and culminate down the valley towards the river.
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Cruddas Park
Tower
Central to the site is Cruddas Park Tower. It has a very narrow demographic of largely single or divorced men aged 45-70, with little to no qualifications.
‘It feels like we’ve been totally forgotten about’ (Cruddas Park resident during lockdown, 2020)
‘I wish we had a communal garden’ (Cruddas Park
resident during lockdown, 2020)
‘I’ve had tears running down my cheeks’ (Cruddas Park resident during lockdown, 2020)
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Cruddas Park Shopping Centre
Besides hosting Newcastle College campus and a small library, the majority of the commercial units in Cruddas Park Shopping Centre are empty and it is largely inactive.
Inactive Disused
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History
of the Site
Before the towers at Cruddas Park were built in the 60s, the site saw rows of terraced hosues which fit together in a tight puzzle form. The unity and the connection between these puzzled pieces is something that I wanted to restore in my proposal for Cruddas Park. Restoring the terrace typology hopes to bring back the bond to the site which is currently fragmented and disconnected.
Connection
Unity
The site in 1950
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The site in 2020
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Theory
into
Practice:
Rhythm
In my Theory into Practice Essay, entitled, ‘The Influence of Rhythm on a Street Proposal for Cruddas Park’, I explored the theory of rhythm and it’s application to the terrace typology. Through theoretical reading, I learned of the comfort, familiarity and expectation of rhythm. Restoring lateral rhythm to Cruddas Park through the development of terraced streets would help to resituate the tower and ground it comfortably among its surroundings.
There is a comfort established from rhythm, stemming in nature, e.g. beating hearts and changing seasons. Rhythm is strongly also associated with beats in music.
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Small rhythms feed into larger rhythms, which feed into even larger rhythms.
Understanding the rhythm of the terraced street.
Diagrams influenced from readings which describe the discomfort which comes from a break in rhythm.
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Restoring lateral, comfortable rhythm to Cruddas Park to resituate the tower.
DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT OF PROPOSAL OF PROPOSAL
Objectives Removal of the shopping centre which is a central physical barrier disconnecting the site. Open up the site, increase activity and promote integration between residents from all around. Replace it with a new permeable streetscape, reintroducing the terrace typlogy which historically existed on the site. Configure streetscape to open pathways and connections through the whole site, which are defined by connective views down the hill towards the river. Delivery of a new scheme of homes, shared work, play and shopping spaces which fit around the views and pathways that I intend to open. Resituate Cruddas Park Tower among its surroundings, ground it among the terraced houses. Experimenting with re-appling the historic terrace form to the site.
Initial exploration into opening up the site and reconnecting the fragmented landscape.
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Making the site permeable; opening views and pathways through.
DEVELOPMENT OF PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT OF PROPOSAL
DEVELOPMENT OF PROPOSAL
T OFOF PROPOSAL ENT PROPOSAL
VELOPMENT OF PROPOSAL Acknowledging the
height of the tower With an objective to resituate the high-rise tower among the low-rise terrace, a necessity arose to address the contrast between these two, very different, typologies. Standing at 75m tall, Cruddas Park Tower dominates the site and its collosity has the potential to overwhelm low-rise housing beside it. The introduction of mid-rise housing, between the tower and the terraces, will mitigate the contrast and reduce the overwhelm of the tower, blending it among its surroundings.
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The
Malings
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Triangle
Ouseburn, Newcastle, Ash Sakula Architects
Southwold, Ash Sakula Architects
In configuring my street form, I took inspiration from how The Malings opens and unfolds to views of the Ouseburn River.
Looking at how homes are puzzled around a central pathway in Tibbys’s Triangle, I thought about how I could puzzle homes around pathways and views that I want to open through Cruddas Park.
PRECEDENTS
PRECEDENTS
Tibby’s
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Applying precedent forms to the site By laying scaled site plans of exemplary precedents over the Cruddas Park site, I could gain an understanding of which aspects of their form, scale and complexity could apply to reconnect Cruddas Park.
form
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scale
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Strategic Brief A new permeable streetscape which: Opens up the site, increases activity and promotes integration between residents from all around. Opens pathways and connections through the site, defined by connective views. Resituates and reconnects Cruddas Park Tower, and grounds it among its surroundings.
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04 Realisation
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Resolving
Street Configuration
The initial key step in the realisation phase of my project was massing my urban strategy at 1:250. Here, I configured blocks around the definitive views and pathways that I had decided to open during the staging phase and had a tangible method to reconfigure and resolve the form of the proposal.
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Resolving an ideal proximity between buildings, which is neither too narrow or too far. Ensuring the units feel connected to eachother, but also indiviudally light and comfortable.
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Configuring units to fit around views and pathways also revealed the facades which would face these views and pathways.
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Fusion and
Access
These conceptual diagrams begin to explore indiviudal homes within the blocks, their relation to each other, and their access. The high-rise and mid-rise stack homes on top of each other, and have virtical access to the existing underground car park. To the left, I explored how the relationship between individual homes within the blocks may not be linear; the connection and fusion of different homes, or different functions, could change along the building.
Low Rise
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Mid Rise
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High Rise
Developing Site Sections These initial site sections show a resolve of blending heights. Blending the height of the tower is achieved through the mid rise housing which mitigates the contrast between the tower and the terrace. In the opposing direction, the forms are configured to use the hill and blend downwards.
Blending Height
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Thinking
Through
Making
Continuing to explore puzzle form, during Thinking Through Making, I reversed my thinking and cut away into clay to reveal a new puzzled form. The process of taking mass away from the clay slab made me
really consider the spaces and atmospheres between the blocks, rather than the blocks themselves.
Spaces
Between
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05 Synthesis The integration and synthesis of all modules from throughout the year have fed into a thorough and considered design for a new housing scheme at Cruddas Park. The project proposal is informed from many different angles, and the overriding, ever important, themes of connection, integration and sustainability are carried throughout. The synthesis phase of the project sees these aspects coming together in drawings which convey how each quality of the proposal design contributes to fulfilling my individual brief.
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Masterplan This masterplan shows the new street layout which opens connections through the whole site. It also shows the positioning of retail units, creating a permeable high street at the top of the site, along Westmorland Road. The base of the podium at the bottom of the tower will hold the existing college campus and library, at the quieter end of the site. The retention of the underground car park means that the new streets can be car free, so they are clean and safe.
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Main access from city centre
Permeable highstreet facing the main road
Shared, overlooked, play spaces Regular markets organised by residents
Public Realm
Staircases and lifts providing access to underground car park and upper homes within mid-rise
Low-rise secluded gardens with shared access path
The pathways through the site are designed for high usage and activity. Prioritising the pedestrian and the cyclist, paths swoop around zones of varied usage. Largely taking inspiration from the communal spaces between housing blocks seen in Vienna, the public realm is full of life, activity and opportunities of varying scales for the residents.
Shared garden space for mid-rise residents Wide access to Newcastle College Campus and library
Access to underground car park
Communal bike stores and allotment planting
Pathways leading to access for flats within the tower
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Paths open up to wide green space at the base of the site
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Public Realm Perspective
The main access into the development, from the direction of the city centre, is broad, inviting and active. The spaces within are safe and appealing to residents from all around the site, and provide opportunties for them to meet each other in comfort.
Initial massing strategy from realisation phase
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Site Overview Connecting the wider site, the new development opens pathways and connections, where previously the impermeable shopping centre formed a barrier. Views down the hill, towards the river are also revealed and draw activity through the site.
Initial massing strategy from realisation phase
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Sustainability
Strategy:
Community Energy Scheme The proposal incorporates a community energy scheme, whereby energy is generated from photovoltaic panels on the roofs through the site and stored in a large community battery. The battery buffers peak energy demand times, and offers the opportunity for excess energy to be sold to the national grid at a profit to the residents. Residents across the site will feel ownership of their energy production and consumption, and residents from both the tower and the new housing will feel a collective purpose, determination and ambition, harmonising them.
Community Hub Community Management Central to the site, the community hub facilitates the management of the scheme. Owned and managed within the community, the hub offers space for regular meetings and engagement. Providing the opportunity for residents to interact with their energy production and consumption, screens within the hub make the energy scheme tangible and increase residents awareness of their energy consumption.
PV Integrated Technology Submission
Residents will understand the necessity to adopt sustainable energy behaviours and reduce their energy consumption, whilst connecting and bonding as a community with a shared purpose.
Integrated Technology Submission
Community
Hub
Dissertation Submission
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New low-rise terraced housing
Reintroducing the terrace typology to the site which existed before the construction of the towers.
Engaging with the site boundary and the surrounding community; both outwards and inwards facing.
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Drawing a new family demographic to the site, broadening the overall demographic of the wider site and bringing new life and activity to a previously inactive area.
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Elevation This elevation shows the presentation of the homes to the street; they are set back from the public street with a level front garden space. As well as creating opportunity for interaction between neighbours, this front garden creates an intermediate space between the very public street and the very private home.
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Individual Home
Plans
Optional upper floor plan - Two bedrooms and study
The themes of movement and activity are carried through into the individual home plans. The homes themselves are permeable, with front and back entrances. This also means that the layouts can be alternated house to house, so there is constant activity at both ends. This establishes a natural surveillance system over both sides of the street so the environment is safe and calm.
Optional upper floor plan - Three bedrooms
Optional upper floor plans suit different needs, and there is the opportunity for two upper floors t be stacked to create an even larger home.
Optional upper floor plan - Two bedrooms and terrace
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Ground Floor Plan
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Modular
Construction
A studio visit to CITU, in Leeds, allowed us to see, first-hand, the pre-fabrication of structural, insulating wall modules within a factory, and their subsequent assemblage on site. This inspired the adoption of a similar technique within my own project. The repetition of homes along a terraced street is an optimum use for a production line of repeating cassettes, and this method of constuction is both safe and sustainable.
Safe
Sustainable
The casettes have a high thermal performance, and the integration of the windows within a factory environment ensures a minimal thermal break so the homes have high heat retention and require less energy for heating.
High thermal performance
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1:50 Section Looking through the terraces in section, the back gardens can be seen, which start with a more secluded, enclosed space, but blend and connect with neighbouring gardens, so there is neighbourly interaction and association between the homes. This section also shows the thick walls which are a result of using a modular construction system of pre-fabricated, structural, insulating wall panels. Because the walls are so thick, there is the opportunity to use that depth to denote the experience of the thresholds through the walls by pushing doors and windows through by different amounts.
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Bell Phillips Newham Housing
Peter Barber Hafer Road
Doors
&
Windows
From looking at how precedents push and pull windows and doors within the walls of different rooms, the decision was made to push the front doors of the homes inwards, creating a usable space within the wall, to facilitate the change between the public outside and the private inside. Peter Hudspith Newham Infill
Contrastingly, an upper floor window pushed out into the surroundings really connects the inside of the home with its environment.
Peter Barber Moray Mews
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New stacked homes, with external front doors, private balconies and a shared garden space.
New mid-rise housing
Addresses the relationship between the low-rise terrace and the very highrise tower. Mitigates the contrast. Blends the physical height and mass of the tower, and reconnects it with its surroundings.
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Site Section Mitigating the contrast between the different heights and masses of the tower and the terraces, the mid-rise housing knits the whole scheme together, where, previously, the form of the shopping centre disconnected and detached the tower from its surroundings.
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Mid-Rise
Access
As the homes within the mid-rise blocks have the same individual plans as the terraces, each of the homes has its own exterior front door. The front doors of the upper homes are accessed via an open, communal stair case which faces both the street and the shared garden spaces. The access is inviting and welcoming, whilst providing opportunity for passive interaction between neighbours.
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Mid-Rise Communal Gardens As well as private balconies, the homes in the mis-rise blocks benefit from a communal garden space, in which residents can sit, play and interact. This perspective also shows the relationship of the access staircase to the communal garden, so residents passively interact with this space without necessarily entering.
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Existing
Meets
New
In adressing the key moment where the base of the exiting tower meets the base of the new building opposite, providing shared facilities (library, college campus, shared studio and work spaces) on either side brings activity to this space which was previously disused and inactive. This space is also opened out by setting back the higher floors. The height of the tower feels less impactful on the space and its presence is softer, so the space is more open and comfortable. By wrapping the tower base with brick, it creates a continuum at ground level through the site, which is comforable and familiar, and grounds the existing and the new together.
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ReConnected In summary, the proposal provides a new permeable streetscape, which opens up the site increases activity and promotes integration between residents from all around, opens pathways and connections through the site, defined by connective views, and resituates and reconnects Cruddas Park Tower, grounding it among its surroundings.
The site in 1950
The site in 2020
The site proposal
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Bridging
Disconnections
in alignment with the
studio manifesto for better quality housing
The scheme proposal reconnects Cruddas Park within its wider site, increasing activity and integration throughout, by bridging the disconnections which were established at the beginning of the project to be hindering the quality of the living envronment at Cruddas Park.
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Illustrated Cultural Bibliography
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Dissertation Case Study: Community Energy Scheme at Trent Basin, Nottingham
Studio Visit to LILAC, a Cohousing Scheme in Leeds
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Studio Visit to CITU, Modular Home Construction in Leeds
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Thinking Through Making Workshops
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Film: HLM, Habitations Légèrement Modifiées Refurbishment of the Bois le Prêtre tower in Paris by architects Lacaton and Vassal with Frédéric Druot, through the eyes of its inhabitants
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Documentary: George Clarke’s Council House Scandal George Clarke visits Alt Erlaa in Vienna during a documentary exploring the steep decline of affordable housing in the UK
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Bibliography
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Abend, Gabriel, ‘The Meaning of Theory’, Sociological Theory, 26:2 (2008). Abkar, Mahdieh, Kamal, Mustafa, Maulan, Suhardi, and Mariapan, Manohar, ‘Influences of Viewing Nature Through Windows’, Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 4:10 (2010). Brown, Neave, ‘The Form of Housing’, Architectural Design, 37:9 (1967). Bwamu, Kevin, Back to the Basics: Putting Architectural Theory in Actual Practice (2013) <https://archinect.com/cedar/back-to-the-basics-putting-architectural-theory-in-actualpractice> [Accessed 18 February 2020]. Cambridge Dictionary, Rhythm (2020) <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/rhythm> [Accessed 18 February 2020]. Freeman-Powell, Shamaan, Grenfell survivors project messages on ‘unsafe’ tower blocks (2019) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48619156> [Accessed 14 June 2020]. Illich, Ivan, Tools for Conviviality, (London: Harper & Row, 1973). Jacobs, Allan B., ‘Great Streets’, Access Magazine, 1:3 (1993). Jancke, Lutze and Koelch, Stefan, ‘Music and the Heart’, European Heart Journal, 36 (2015), 3043-3048. Lefebvre, Henri, Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life (London: Continuum, 2004). Newcastle Residential Areas, Cruddas Park (Riverside Dene) (2020) <https://newcastleareas.wordpress.com/cruddas-park/> [Accessed 18 February 2020]. Nichol, Rachael, ‘I’ve had tears running down my cheeks’: Newcastle high-rise residents speak of lockdown struggles (2020) <https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/ coronavirus-newcastle-north-east-elswick-18131493> [Accessed 14 June 2020]. Perec, Georges, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, (London: The Penguin Group, 2008). Sands, John, ‘Transgressing Boundaries: Considering a Societal Function of Music and Architecture Through Markus Pernthaler’s Helmut-List-Halle’, in Resonance: Essays on the Intersection of Music and Architecture, ed. By Mikesch W. Muecke and Miriam S. Zach (Ames: Culicidae Architectural Press, 2007). Sterken, Sven, ‘Music as an Art of Space: Interactions between Music and Architecture in the Work of Iannis Xenakis’, in Resonance: Essays on the Intersection of Music and Architecture, ed. By Mikesch W. Muecke and Miriam S, Zach (Ames: Culicidae Architectural Press, 2007). Thapa, Rena, ‘Rhythm in Architecture: an Aesthetic Appeal’, Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 13:1 (2017), 206-214. Vienna Direct, The Karl Marx Hof (2020) <https://www.viennadirect.com/sights/marx.php> [Accessed 14 June 2020]. Wilson, Katharine M., ‘What is Rhythm?’, Music and Letters, 8:1 (1927), 2-12. Wunderlich, Filipa Matos, ‘Place-Temporality and Urban Place-Rhythms in Urban Analysis List of images: Page 39: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48619156 Page 42: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/gallery/7048301 Page 50: https://www.ashsak.com/projects/malings Page 51: https://www.ashsak.com/projects/tibbys-triangle
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Appendix
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Thinking through making exhibition
Studio primer presentation
Collaborative studio work
Collaborative studio work... in lockdown
Hand drawing iterations
Developing the studio manifesto
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Field Trip Case Study Report Spittelau Viaducts Housing Project, Vienna, Zaha Hadid Architects Collage of Zaha Hadid’s drawings and paintings
Spittelau Viaducts Housing Project by Zaha Hadid Archi! tects is located on the bank of the Danube Canal in the Al! sergrund District of Vienna, Austria. First commissioned and conceptualised in 1994 and completed in 2005, the City of Vienna used the 4000 square metre project aimed to ‘revitalise’ this waterfront area of Wiener Guertel and extend Vienna’s social housing, by combining a multitude of uses- housing, offices and studios- over three buildings.
Collage of some of Zaha Hadid’s buildings
Considered one of the most dis! tinctive/radical styles, it is impos! sible to place her work into any category or style of architecture. All of her buildings are visually very different in shape and size and materiality, yet her work has a running theme of aiming to en! gage the senses and be fluid, with pure formal mathematical geom! etries and patterns. The works focus on the building’s aesthetics as a whole and less on detail and specific requirements. Hadid’s tu! tor Zhenglais described her -‘She couldn’t care about tiny details.’
The reinforced concrete structure with a façade of plas! ter and metal-framed glazing is built over and around the arches of an old protected viaduct, with some parts of the structure supported by concrete stilts, de! scribed by the architects as ‘[interacting] playfully with the viaduct, creating new experiences and vistas’. The building is now over a decade old, and can be consid! ered to not have fulfilled its intended use and purpose as the architect intended, as many of it’s spaces are now unoccu! pied, and much of the facade and immediate site has fallen into disrepair.
Hadid’s firm was founded in the 1980’s and the practice’s first ma! jor work was in 1993 and they have continued to consistently produce many buildings right up until pres! ent day. When Zaha Hadid found! ed her practice, and completed her first project, Post-Modern! ism and High -tech architecture (late modernism) were reigning architectural styles, followed, with Deconstructivism appear! ing shortly after her practice was founded. In the last years of her life, the era of sustainable ar! chitecture began to emerge.
Hadid’s work is characterised by her iconic drawings and paint! ings of her buildings. The draw! ings are abstract and aiming to be free-flowing and communicative. Her forms have been described as ‘liberating architectural geom! etry’, as are expremely expres! sive and avoiding geometrical rigour. The Guardian described her as ‘queen of the curve’, with her recurring use of sweeping lines and planes. It is impossible to find right angles- she is quot! ed as saying “The idea is not to have any 90-degree angles. In the beginning, there was the diagonal. The diagonal comes from the idea of the explosion
Group Members Rachel Sexton Architects/designers, structural strategy
Isabel Chapman Concept and design development, materiality
Spittelau Viaducts Housing Project
Architect/Designer | Context of Architectural Eras
Architect/Designer | Architectural Style
Introduction
Sophie Spoor Programme, spatial sequence
Futurism has been a consist! ent style that many say Had! id was very influenced by and many buildings are obviously inspired by it, involving long dy! namic lines suggesting speed. Although Hadid’s architecture fits into none of these eras complete! ly, different elements of certain buildings are inspired by charac! teristics of these eras, especially Deconstructivism, with its charac! tersistic of appearing to fragment a building. Many critics have catego! rised Hadid as being a main leader of the deconstrucivist movement.
Charlie Barratt
Zaha Hadid Architects
Typology, environmental strategy
Talal Bader Site, threshold 5
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Architect/Designer | Other Works
Architect/Designer
Typology
Company Logo
Spittelau Housing
Iraqi-British architect Dame Zaha Hadid DBE RA (1950-2016) studied mathematics in Beirut, and then studied at the Architectural Associa! tion School for Architecture in Lon! don. Aftre graduating, she worked for Rem Koolhas in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in the Netherlands, and founded her firm Zaha Hadid Architects in 1980 in London, now international! ly renowned. The company em! ploys a large team of architects to deliver the projects, and now aim to continue Hadid’s legacy in their ongoing work, with 350 staff in their London office alone.
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Typology | Interaction Urban housing (Three Houses)
Karl Marx-Hof
Spittelau Housing
Urban housing (Three Houses)
Karl Marx-Hof
Spittelau is one key example of how a building badly interacts with the street and pedestrians passing by. There is obvous proof of disslike in the form of graffiti. The ground floor of the building offers nothing to passers by and nothing to the waterfront.
This building expresses how to successfuly interact with the street and pedes! trians. The apartment blocks bring value to the street in the form of a popular cafe that is very well-recieved by locals. The way it spills out onto the street makes the building inviting.
The buildings give an enormous amount to the local community in terms of facilities. One example is this squash centre, used by poeple from all edges of vienna. The courtyards also form routes that are part of many peoples daily routines, even if they dont live there.
The Center was one of Hadid’s last major projects before she died. The building is ‘a gigantic cultural and confer! ence centre containing three auditoriums, a library and museum’. Zaha Hadid’s innovative designs were per! fect for Baku’s vision for transforming the city into a post-modern and contemporary infrastructure, departing from the city’s ‘normative Soviet Modernism’ past. Typ! ical of Hadid, the building has no straight lines, the over! all form undulating like a wave, composed of a sweeping a fluid form that ‘emerges from the natural topography’. Vitra Fire Station | Weil Am Rhein, Germany | 1991-1993 |852m2
The company has a huge repetoire of projects all produced in collabo! ration with clients, with over 140 buildings in 28 countries stretch! ing 6 continents, many award win! ning. Hadid’s firm is famous for and pride themselves on leading contemporary architecture with their innovative and distinctive de! signs that combine free and for! ward thinking designs and drawing with new technologies. Their de! signs are at all at a variety of scales, budget, programmatic require! ments and context but all aim to be culturally significant to the area. The practice aims to design with a ‘democratic attitude’, and of! fer generous and spacious plublic spaces that are well articulated.
Guangzhou Opera House | Guangzhou, China | 2003-2010| 70,000m2
Vitra Fire Station was Hadid’s first major project, a small fire sta! tion for a factory. one of Hadid’s smaller works. Its radical design launched Hadid’s career, despite only being used as a fire station for a short time. Its design was considered innovative, made of concrete and glass, and intended to be sculptural, formed of sharp diagonals ‘colliding together in the centre’. The firm describes the building as ‘emerging as a linear, layered series of walls’.
Guangzhou Opera House is one of her largest build! ings midway through her career, and a budget of 300m US$. It is ‘an 1,800-seat theatre, multipurpose the! atre, entry hall, and salon. Hadid described the two main structures as ‘pebbles’, as the buildings were in! spired by natural earth forms, its facade is composed of glass and granite. The gentle curving interiors and massive spaces make it an amazing sensory experience.
(1:10,000)
(1:1000)
(1:1000)
36 Apartments
100 Apartments (approx)
1382 Apartments
!"#"$%"&'& Heydar Aliyev Center | Baku, Azerbaijan | 2007-2013| 15,514m2
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Approximate Max Inhabitants: 90
Approximate Max Inhabitants: 250
Approximate Max Inhabitants: 5,000 8
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Typology | Form Spittelau Housing
Programme | Private and Public spaces Urban housing (Three Houses)
Programme | Issues
Karl Marx-Hof
Ground Floor Plan
The public spaces are located on the ground floor. The intention was to also create public outdoor spaces to invigorate the space, through the infill of restaurants and bars, situated under the arches of the viaduct. However, when visiting the site there was the quick realisation that most of these spaces were disused or abandoned. There was evidence of a couple of office spaces in use, filled with desks, filing systems and organisers, however this was the only activity that was apparent. The private spaces are from the second to the fourth floor, consisting of spaces to contain 36 apartments. The intention was also for the rooftop to accommodate private retreats and roof terraces to take advantage of the visual activity along the canal.
One thing is instantly noticable about this building: the absence of right an! The form of this building is much more economical and highlightings a dif! The scale of this building is almost uncomparable to the other two. It is the gles. The form of this building does not seem to be influenced by the site, ference focus of the scheme. This building puts its occupants and the use of sheer size and scale of this project which determines its form. It vast size pro! wider context or environment, but by the architects style.This caused a great spaces above fancy formwork and elaborate angled facades. duces the need for huge coutyards and blocks of etreme length. deal of expense.
LANDSCAPING
Private Space Public Space
First Floor Plan Map illustrating the difficuty of accessing the site
The idea was that there would be some 36 apartments in the building, with an assortment of restaurants, shops, bars, and offices established in the original brick arches or nearby. However, shortly after launching, inhabitants began to move out and the commercial side was soon neglected with no further development planned. When looking at the map there are clear reasons as to why this site hasn’t been successful. The site is isolated as it is so close to the canal, due to the railway and the road disconnecting it from the community being able to access it with ease.
Semi-Private The immediate context is exteremly hard and harsh, as is the form of the These apartment blocks are extremely well nestled within their site. They sit building. It is surrounded by concrete and tarmac pavements with look down among old and newly planted trees and bushes and connect seamlessly with onto the canal, which is possibly the only soft feature of this building. There is near by parks. Childrens play apperatus is even provided on the site. a noticable absence of greenary.
Private
The extremly spacious courtyards prive the inhabitants of these apartments with plenty of green space. There are spaces for kids to play, dogs to be walked and people to exercise. These courtyards are nearly entired turfed and are filled with trees.
Public
Second, Third and Fourth Floor Plan
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Concept and Design Development
My work
Concept and Design Development
The array of apartments, offices and studios are intend! ed to ‘weave like a ribbon through, around and over the arched bays of the viaduct’ (Zaha Hadid Architects, 2005). Playfully interacting with the protected viaduct, an interest! ing relationship is created between two structures which do not touch.
The shape and form of the three struc! tures appears to be derived from the directional influence of the site. The longitudinal configuration of the buildings along the river bank reflect the lines of the river, viaduct, railway and road which all run the same way across the site.
The high contrast and lack of touch results in a building which feels more than physically detached from the site.
Private Space Public Space
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Railway
Viaduct
Donaukanal
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Environment
Spatial Sequence | Entrances
Concept and Design Development
Environment | Energy Water vapour & filtered flue gasses
There are several entrance points to the building. With the building being held in 3 different blocks the entrances are spread out around the site. When on site, the entrances to the housing aren’t very apparent, because you are confronted with the public spaces as the private spaces are located from the second floor and above. The studios are vacant, which doesn’t make anyone’s arrivals very inviting as they are inaccessible due to the locks and shielded with graffiti, as can be seen in the sketches on the right. There are 3 entrances to the building on the ground floor which provide access to the housing and two entrances on the first floor which provide the same access.
Waste is delivered by 250 trucks each day, with each truck tipping its load into a huge bunker topped by a garden densely planted with trees. The waste is then fed into two incinerator lines capable of handling 18 tonnes per hour. Burning the waste is only the first stage in a complex process of treatment. The bulk of the plant is taken up by sophisticated flue gas scrubbing systems and an ultramodern dioxin destruction facility. These scrubbers remove hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and dust, while the second phase removes sulphur dioxide before the flue gases go through selective catalytic reduction, before being released into the atmosphere.
The concept drawings and models created by Zaha Hadid Architects for this project are highly focused on the shape and abstract form of the three buildings. The way that the buildings inter! act with each other is highly developed but the relationship with the context of the site is less considered.
Spittelau Housing project is situated adjacent to the Spittelau Incinerator, from which the building recieves its power and heating. Infact the heat it gen! erates is sufficiently provides heating for 15,000 homes in the city.
Turbine
Materials recycling in Vienna amounts to 30 per cent of the overall waste volume, with a further 9.5 per cent going to make compost. Of the rest, 49 per cent is incinerated, representing an annual saving of 330,000 tonnes of oil, and only 11.5 per cent is landfilled. Ground Floor plan showing entrance points
Scrubbers
Sketch and photo montage of entry point
Furnace
Waste Warm water output used for heating Ash output recycled in construction
First floor plan showing entrance points 17
Sketch and photo montage of entry point 18
Spatial Sequence | Routes through the site
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Spatial Sequence | Interior vertical cirulation
Environment | Noise Pollution
Materiality Journalist: The external surfaces of the three buildings are composed of white plas! Alongside the strong lines and angles, the lack of colour makes the angu! ter and exposed concrete. The crisp, clear, monochrome tones are simple lar shapes become sharper and more dramatic. More attention is inten! and quiet, and coupled with the smoothness of the concrete, the tones tionally drawn to the edges and the angles of the forms. are calm and elegant.
“In the apartments overlooking the highway, though measures were taken to reduce the sound of traffic, The architect failed to consider the vibrations felt from the underground trains.”
Point at which trainline goes underground
Photo of interior stairwell circulation
Photo of interior stairwell circulation
Trainline
Photo of interior stairwell circulation
Waterfront Pedestrian/ Bike access to the site
Car/vehicle access to the site
Train access to the site
Architect: “The problem of soundproofing and vibration from the trains of the working subway isn’t solved in the apartments facing the highway.”
These diagrams analyse the routes and the possible journeys that can be taken in order to access the site. Running behind the Spittelau Viaducts Housing is the “Spittelauer Lände“ which is one of Vienna’s busiest and well-travelled highways in which cars can use to access the housing. The Danube Canal which connects Germany to Hungary has a busy bike path that runs along its banks, in which pedestrians can also utilise. There is also the Viennese railway system and Otto Wagner’s viaducts. With all three-transport links it results in a noisy and busy atmosphere around the site, with the sound of traffic from the cars, and many people passing through the site along the canal either by foot or bike. Many complaints have also been received, since the railway runs so closely alongside the site and disrupts the atmosphere. The bike path is utilised by many people out on a jog or a bike ride, which results in an atmosphere still hanging around the site even though the building doesn’t appear to have much use.
There is little evidence from photos on what the inside of the building is like, apart from the plans and section, however the interior circulation is still self-explanatory from these drawings. For each block on the site there is a staircase, and in some cases a lift, that leads through each floor and onto an internal corridor that leads the occupant to their apartment.
Section diagram showing circulation throughout building and inhabitation
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Resident: “I was woken up every morning by the subway trains shaking my bedroom.”
Concrete 24
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White Plaster
Materiality | Deterioration
Materiality | Contrast to Viaduct
Weathering
There is a stark contrast between the materiality of the new white buildings and the old brick viaduct around which are heightened by their unambiguous visual differences. The choice by the architects to build something on the site the building is playfully situated. The themes around the interaction and lack of touch between the two structures so dissimilar to the existing site is not unusual for their style.
Graffiti
Structural Strategy| Detail Section- Structural Issues
The lack of intended activity and use in and around the building is evident through the deterioration seen on the site. The facades are weathered, dirty and vandalised. In comparison to the clear white surfaces which were revealed when the building was first opened, the damage and lack of upkeep demon! strate peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s negative attitudes towards the building.
These photographs show an area of the building next to a doorway on the ground floor where the wall had been broken- revealing the in! teranl materiality and construction of pre-cast concrete beneath the plaster facade and polystyrene,insulation, the wall ties made of plastic
An external wall detail of the ground floor
Why was this construction type used over over technqiues? This the use of concrete as the internal structure and the columns was important as is more easily cast in the diagonal and sloping parts of the building, and is strong and able to sup! port the heavy load of the sloing upper floor compared to other techniques such as timber. Concrete is also a cheaper option, and the facade of plaster is again easy to cast for the sloping diagonal surfaces, and creates the visual effect of plain white walls that emphasise the forms.
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Structual Issues: Cheap and easily breakable materials have been used to cut costs in this building- with an extremely thin plaster facade that was broken in many places, revealing polystyrene insulation which is also cheap and not environmentally friendly. These photographs exemplify how easily the flimsy wall can be broken through, to reveal the inner con! crete. this can pose a health and safety issue, and can lead the concrete within to become weathered and unstable.
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Structural Strategy | Overall Strategy
Structural Strategy | Overall Strategy To the left are my own reproduc! tions of sections of the buildings that show the sloped pre-cast concrete walls, with the sup! porting columns for overhanging parts of the structure. There is a thick load-bearing concrete slab running through the centre of the building, redistributing the load horizontally, on the level where on some parts of the build! ing there is only internal space above it. The building sinks into the ground, with the base! ment spaces having much thicker walls to protect from collapsing and act in part as foundations.
The diagrams above show the layout and slope of the external supporting columns- the use of slanting columns is necessary to be in keeping with the diagonal forms of the rest of the build! ing- and are less likely to buck! le and snap under the weight as they create triangular form which are structurally stronger at load-bearing than geomet! ric structures with right angles such as squares and rectangles
The mid-way slab is construct! ed of thick horizontal beams with space and insulation be! tween- this thick floor is cru! cial to support the sloping ver! tical above it from collapsing. Above are my reproductions of overall plans of the buildings- highlighting the additional core structure of internal concrete columns running throughout the building to support the sloped exterior walls and the roof. These are unevenly spaced and located in close proximity to external walls. The walls within the building are a mixture of loadbearing walls and parti walls- with loadbearing walls often seperating flats or different functions such as th commercial units.
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