BUILDING
IN THREE PARTS
SLOSS BLAST FURNACE SITE BIRMINGHAM, AL ARCH 407 MODELING AT ALL SCALES BRYAN PETERS 2020
BUILDING
AS SHELTER
HISTORY - 1862, Iron production for the Sloss Furnace Site began, completed in 1872
Sloss Furnace Site, 1872 Birmingham, AL
- Installment of railroads going North and also East and West allowed for the movement of produced Iron to and from the site.
U
AIN T N
O M D
RE
Oxmoor Furnace Site, 1862 Oxmoor, AL
SITE PLAN
STRUCTURE AS SHELTER
MODULAR ECONOMICS
1 BAY
EMERGY EVALUATION TABLE
50’ COLUMN HEIGHT 50’ TRUSS SPAN
STEEL COLUMNS & TRUSS CONCRETE FOUNDATIONS
BAYS @ 15’ O.C.
STEEL JOISTS AND SHEET METAL SPANNING BETWEEN
60 BAYS TOTAL STEEL (COLUMNS, TRUSS, JOISTS) = 7,400 ft³ + ~10000 FT³ (FURNACES) = 17,400 ft³ MASONRY WALLS (BRICK) = 58,000 ft³ SHEET METAL ROOFING = 61,500 ft² CONCRETE FOUNDATIONS = 3,000 ft³
RAW MATERIALS COAL
ELECTRIC LOCATION
WIND
BLDG. STRUCT. & ENVEL.
SYSTEMS
ITEM TRANSPORT ENGINE ROOM
SUN
A.C. AMBIENT HEAT
BLAST FURNACES HEAT/ (COOL)
PRODUCT
LIGHT
SETTING SHELTER SITE
THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAM BUILDING AS SHELTER
HEAT SINK
WORK
ECONOMY
BUILDING
AS SETTING
SITE PROCESSES
OPERATIONS & MACHINERY 1880 OPERATIONS
2 400-ton Blast Furnaces
6 Witwell Stoves (3 per furnace) 2 84” Blowing Engines 10 Boilers 242 Beehive Ovens supplied Coke
41%
of Birmingham’s work force in 1880
565 men
worked in 1880, gone to over 2,000 by 1950
RAW MATERIALS COAL
RECYCLED MATERIAL
ELECTRIC LOCATION
WIND
BLDG. STRUCT. & ENVEL.
SYSTEMS
LANDFILL
PEOPLE
ITEM TRANSPORT COOLING PONDS
SUN
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
ENGINE ROOM A.C.
AMBIENT HEAT
BLAST FURNACES HEAT/ (COOL)
PRODUCT
LIGHT
SETTING SHELTER SITE
THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAM BUILDING AS SETTING
HEAT SINK
WORK
ECONOMY
ENERGY, GOODS, AND SERVICES
BLDG. STRUCT. & ENVEL.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES
PEOPLE SYSTEMS
ECONOMY PRODUCT
SETTING SHELTER
CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
OPERATIONAL
THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAM BUILDING IN OPERATION W/ RESPONSE TO RESOURCES
END USE
7,900 tons of iron for construction
CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
24,000 tons of iron produced in first year 7,900,000 tons of total iron produced
OPERATIONAL
OPERATIONAL
CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
IRON
CO2
MATERIAL QUANTITY (tons)
500,000
24,000 tons
of iron produced in first year, assuming a
400,000
2%
300,000
increase in iron production per year, the total amount of iron produced from 1880 to 1976 is
200,000
7,900,000 tons
of iron which creates around
100,000 0 1880
16,000,000 tons
of CO2 during operation. 1900
1920
YEARS
1940
1960
Total Energy from operations is
1.06e+17 Joules or 1.01e+13 BTU
To put it all into perspective... The Eiffel Tower is constructed of
10,100 tons of iron. Given that the Sloss Blast Furnace Site produced
7,900,000 tons of iron over 96 years,
The site could have produced around
782 Eiffel Towers
BUILDING
AS SITE
RAILROAD EXPANSION
90%
of Birmingham’s work force in 1880
130,000 acres
of land for ore and coal extraction on sites such as Red Mountain, helped to expand railroads from Birmingham to all major cities in Alabama as well as cities in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida from the Sloss Furnace Site. were
African American.
RAILROAD LINES MATERIAL EXTRACTION
RAW MATERIALS COAL
RECYCLED MATERIAL
ELECTRIC
LOCATION WIND
SYSTEMS
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
SUN
CLIMATE
WORK
+
PRODUCT
SETTING SHELTER SITE
THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAM BUILDING AS SITE
HEAT SINK
ECONOMY
REFERENCES Braham, William. Architecture and Systems Ecology. Routledge, 2015. Lewis, David. “Birmingham Iron and Steel Companies.” Encyclopedia of Alabama, 2008, encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1597. Meyer, Catherine. “Phase II Archaeological Testing and Historical Research for the SSSIC North Birmingham Furnaces Site.” MRS Consultants, 2016. Moe, Kiel & Srinivasan, Ravi. The Hierarchy of Energy in Architecture: Emergy Analysis. Routledge, 2015. “National Register Database and Research.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/database-research. htm. “Sloss Furnace: Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Company, Birmingham Alabama.” Historic Structures, www.historic-structures.com/al/birmingham/sloss_furnace.php. “History of Sloss Furnace Site.” Sloss Furnaces, 2016, www.slossfurnaces.com/history/.