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CYPRIAN CZAJKOWSKI
Upgradable Landscapes Redef ining Outmoded Designs
CYPRIAN CZAJKOWSKI
Upgradable Landscapes Redef ining Outmoded Designs
1 Executive Summary 2 Abstract 3 The Project 4 Issues that have brought up the motherboard 5 Site - South Kensington 6 Methods of Testing 7 Further Predictions
-6-4Executive Summary Mission: Upgradable Landscapes is a project that will provide an alternative to generic design. It will demonstrate how site can be constructed with solutions less drastic than common solutions that address mobile populations and expanding cities. By the year 2050 half of the world’s population will dwell within the city precincts. In Melbourne alone the population rate is set to double by this time, from 4million to 8 million people. With these figures in mind, a trend of constructing infrastructure will commence in order to support these rising figures. Many newly designed cities will remove old infrastructure because it can no longer support rising populations. The project will therefore address this issue by trying to understand why previous infrastructure cannot cope with higher demands of development and progression and how newly planned cities should be designed with the idea that cities will need to be upgraded to support many components. The thought of upgrading should predict that change occurs in our cities, our landscapes and architecture therefore as designers we should consider this change, without having to create designs that might be wiped out completely after a certain amount of time. With this in mind, the project aims at producing one
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-7-5Executive Summary of these landscapes and demonstrates how different components can be added onto the same pallet to support different activities. It is recommended that: •Site should be considered as an array of pieces that connect together to form one landscape. •Each piece should be designed separately and then redesigned again when connecting to other pieces. •Site should be considered as something adaptable. It cannot be created with one aspect in mind. •It must consider that the main intention of construction may fail because the end user may not desire what is offered •The design must then consider how the pieces that have already been placed on site can change without being removed. They must offer multiple solutions. •The design must consider the past. Certain rituals that exist on site cannot be removed. •The design must offer the notion of pleasure to invite a specific audience. •Pleasure on site must be connected with providing solutions to be thoughtful of the environment as well as providing a satisfying landscape that will be maintained by its occupants. •The design must re-use what is already built on site. •Finally the design/site must be designed with expansion in mind. If our population is growing, then somehow the landscape must grow with it. Objectives: •To Produce a self sufficient landscape that can be manipulated by the end user •To create environmentally safe solutions •To produce a design that can be upgraded in the future •To provide multiple solutions to a design
Abstract
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Research Question(s): “How can we design spaces that provide functions required for prevalent and future issues without having to transform the design every time new components are needed? How can a site simply be upgraded to provide for future demands? This research looks into the model of a computer motherboard being translated onto the urban fabric of a city, in order to test further functions that can immerse from site. The object, being the motherboard was initially used as an unvarnished metaphor that can be translated onto existent objects used in reality for design. The metaphor is rendered onto a site located in South Kensington Melbourne, where an old abandoned factory site is planned to be flattened and transformed into a new residential estate. The reasoning for this is urban sprawl of Melbourne and new architecture must arise to support this problem. The motherboard holds many crucial apparatus of a system that provides an input to electrical components that allows the system to communicate. It becomes a backplane that connects all of these components together. Such components include cooling fans, to prevent the system from overheating, memory that stores data and power supply which allows the system to function for a long time, which then is connected to another system itself. The system however has limitations which may not allow for certain input to occur...
method of thinking about site. Initially the site was divided into segments in order to understand how they connect and what relationship is created between segments. Subsequently these segments were then disconnected to see what other ‘new’ configurations could be formed and how they differ from the old design. Following the first test, the geometry of site was re-configured to adapt to how the site is being used currently, as well as further predictions (through geometry) of how the site may be used in the future. Reuse of existing conditions and materials found on site anticipated imagined potential of using what is on site without bringing in new elements for a future design. The introduction of form on site was employed, to provide amenities for human use; this form was then refined through flexible modelling which provided opportunity for a mobile population to come into site and set up a space which meets the need of the end user. This then was further refined by adding a material library which allowed for such forms to be constructed physically.
These tests resulted in optimistic and pessimistic potentials that lead the design into assortment of main concerns. The design tools specified were all defined as tests, which meant that they could only function to a certain limitation given the results that were achieved. For instance the initial division of segments and re-applying them into a new form only allowed for a restricted amount of different configurations to occur, until the module started to break because it could no longer withhold more input of different variations. It did however present different options of how to reflect upon limitations of site components. Defining the parameters of geometry on site altered the existing site by presenting new ways of moving through site. It became a functional tool for circulation within the setting, nevertheless geometry started to construct a restrictive landscape were only a secluded flow of movement could occur, meaning that the What happens when more memory is needed? site was divided into areas of interest and each component was disconnected from each other. The flexible/foldable form tested What happens when the data inputted into the main memory away from site provided a solution for a changing site. Origamiexceeds all limits of the potential capacity of these components? like forms could be folded into a particular form then unfolded In computer terms the components connecting to the motheragain to produce another form. This meant that the particular board are upgraded to newer ones and the old ones are disposed material used could be folded to adapt to a specific need i.e. of... bringing back the metaphor of the motherboard and allowing for change and a plug-in plug-out design. It became the most Furthermore, newly designed components such as memory successful of all the test results because it was the closest module chips cannot be inserted into the original motherboard. This to addressing the notion of a landscape being upgradable. means that a new motherboard is required to support newer components and newer functions. This means that the old With all of the tests combined the revolution of making is vastly motherboards as well as the old components become redundant. emphasized in any design project, because it provides compoTranslating this metaphor literally onto a landscape defines what sitional complexity to the given site rather than a determined is occurring with design at the present moment. Generic designs form that can only provide limited use. With the refined test of are constructed to become disused, because they cannot cope the foldable landscape a voluptuous form was laid out which with future demands. The project therefore intends to define a then provided stochastic behaviour in how one could move new motherboard for the urban fabric that can be upgradable, through the designed form. In addition to this concept, intricate without disposing of the components in it, as well as the mothmoments took place, where the folded object could ultimately erboard itself. It poses the question, how can progressiveness of become anything, given the input and desire of human use and the future be adapted to an existing form or landscape? circulation occurring because of human use. Intricacy ultimately The project attempts to answer this question by incorporatbecame the combination of disparate elements fused into the ing a number of design tools that each specifies a particular idea of continuity. Intricacy occurred when macro and micro
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scales of components on and off site were intertwined and interwoven which provided a complex composition of folding and joining different elements. [The results of the concluding paragraph are yet unknown. The refined design of the fold has not yet been incorporated therefore at this stage it cannot be said whether it will produce the notion of continuity and intricacy in order for it to become an upgradable landscape].
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-7-9The Project
The Project
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The computer motherboard has many components which allow it to function as a system. Without the components inserted into the motherboard it is virtually just a useless part of a computer. The components in the motherboard include a CPU (Central processing unit) which is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/ output operations of the system.
If we tried to insert a metro system used in the 1970’s into a city in 2011, the metro system would not be able to cope with the pressure and magnitude of people in a 2011 landscape.
Furthermore it allows for a graphics card connector which outputs a display onto a screen allowing humans to connect with the device, as well as this memory slots and a hard drive that store data and can conveniently be re-opened again by the user. In a metaphorical sense the landscape is similar to the motherboard, where it allows for components to be connected to it. Some components however cannot be connected to a motherboard or landscape, because the end system will fail. If we take a memory chip designed in the 1990’s and try to insert it into a motherboard designed it 2011, it would not function because the programs used a system in 2011 require larger memory chips and a motherboard that can support them. Conversely the landscape operates in a similar manner.
A prevalent example of this lies in the heart of South Kensington Melbourne, where a factory site was once built in the 1950’s and now serves no purpose, with the architectural structures standing abandoned an deteriorating as time goes by. the plan is to destroy these structures and place new residential housing for the growing population of Melbourne. It renders a landscape that was once usable but now cannot be upgraded to serve as different purpose. A new one must therefore be constructed.
We can compare this metaphor to many sites constructed around our city, where a particular form is constructed, but then when it is no longer required it is destroyed and substituted with a design that can cope with the future.
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the motherboard provides a journey of electrical circuits going to different components (such as the CPU memory or hard drive) this is the layer that becomes redundant when new components are created. The new components being added to the motherboard should function without having to replace the whole motherboard(landscape).
considering the landscape as a motherboard
-12-12Common Issues
There are many global issues which have fostered this idea of wastefulness and how we create things that are only needed in the present time, but do not consider what happens to them later. This next chapter gives a preview of the research conducted on ‘global issues’ and ‘wastefulness’ and how it impacts society. It will discuss the design of a ship, its lifespan and what happens to the remains afterwards.
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The Dismantling
or Shipbreaking, Bangladesh
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Common Issues designing for pleasure
Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much wear that refitting and repair becomes uneconomical. Ship breaking allows materials from the ship, especially steel, to be reused. Equipment on board the vessel can also be reused.
scape of forbidden pleasure. This forbidden pleasure is underpinned through humans wanting a house, a car and a good life but all of this comes at an expense...
Something or even someone must suffer for this pleasure. There are many elements that can be extracted Steel and other useful materials, however, ships (particularly older vessels) can Our designs are created for pleasure and we are gratified as contain many substances that are banned or considered danger- humans for acquiring many things we do not need. ous in developed countries. Asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are typical examples. Asbestos was used heavily in ship construction until it was finally banned in most of the developed world in the mid 1980s. In Bangladesh many workers at the ship yards are exposed to detrimental toxins coming from the ships when they dismantle them. However the aim of these workers is to recycle a form that was created through industrial measures and then questioning how can this form be put back into the world and re-used as another function. The largest vessels ever created by man are literally de-constructed by hand in third world countries and materials from these ships are either sold or re-used. Why then was this object designed in a way where it would only function for a certain amount of time? One might argue that in fact the ships are being re-used for other purposes through their deconstruction, however if we take into account the fact that one in four people on these sites develop some form of cancer from the toxins, a large percentage suffer from burns (usually on the face) when applying heat to parts still containing oil on them and many do not return home after work. When looking at such landscape and analysing the visual impact of them many might witness the sensation of awe and may in fact acknowledge this as a beautiful landscape, however on the other hand it is not something to be enjoyed. It becomes a land-
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The plan: - review the municipal boundaries, and place the whole of Kensington into one local government area - preserve Kensington’s historic streetscape chracter -restrict access to on-street parking by residents of new developments, thus encouraging developers to provide adequate parking on site - develop a traffic plan to help reduce speeding, heavy traffic and noise pollution - better links to public transport - set asside legal graffitti walls - establish community gardens - improve bicycle networks lighting pedestrian access etc... These are all issues brought up by the Kensington Action plan effective 2007-2012. They will be utlised as restrictions to the overall design so that it can be shown that the same objective can be designed in different ways.
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Site Perspectives
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Initial Reaction site with potentials The site was composed of many pieces which were already established in the parameters being reviewed. The initial reaction was that new designs could be overlayed onto the existing elements found on site and the left over materials as demonstrated on the previous pages could re-configured to create multiple forms that could be tested as arrangements that could be used by humans. The site however had many constraints in that there was a limited supply of materials which meant that if they were to end, more things could not be built therefore upgradability would not exist. Also the overall state of the site was weakened by long years of deterioration and it would seem difficult to re-use what was already on site. Nevertheless tests were still conducted with site itself to show it still had possibilities to construct designs that would suite smaller scale projects.
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In order to establish what was going to be designed certain methods were tested on/off site to determine functionality, upgradability, mobility and the idea of future re-use. The following examples briefly summarise and demonstrate that when designing a landscape, different methods for creating form can be exercised. It is a matter of testing these techniques then trying to connect them to the context in which they might be employed. In the case of South Kensington housing and mobility were the two main concerns being addressed because of the conditions stipulated City of Melbourne Council.
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divide site into segments Taking the design of a ship as mentioned in chapter 04, the ship itself is constructed with its own specifications and parts. The ship was considered as a model with numbered pieces which connect together to form its skeleton. For instance piece w6 (main hull) was connected to another w6 main floor. This process ultimately connected the final form of the ship. The question which the model raised was what would happen if a w6 connected to a w4 or w3? How
would it alter the form?
The model did demonstrate that more connections could be formed, however if we took this into the context of South Kensington, this process could be applied, however at one point in time the model would break because each piece on site would have its own limitation. The model could not be further upgraded.
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notion of recycling Re-using existing objects on site was another solution to addressing the idea of upgradability, where the elements found on site could be moved or altered to structure different formal arrangements for human use. The test of the pallets found on site was just one of many recycling test done on site, however in this one simple example it is easy to make a distinction that sooner or later the site would run out of pallets and with the increase of useability on site more would be required.
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What views can the warehouses offer? Zoom out mapping of site in realtion to access points in other areas of South Kensington
Vagrant form to be designed around the restricitve qualities of access and circulation. This diagram provides exact co-ordinates in which this occurs,
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geometrical solutions
Calculating the use of site was another important procedure. This was done through a geometrical study of current site uses and potential future uses. The main points were highlighted, such as accessibility to public transport, roads, sounds, schools, shops, bicycle paths and views towards the water and city skyline. All of these subjects are rendered as important to residential development because when residential development is at mind, so is the potential land-use, therefore housing accompanied with all of these subjects must be geometrically considered. What this test lead to was the process of addition and subtraction of different layers whereby adding a pathway that could potentially lead to the water’s edge potentially could take away the option of placing a building in this particular area. It became restrictive in a sense where one could not predict accurately whether the designers intention would be utilized by the end user. Would there be enough people using the pathway moving towards the water or would more bike paths be required to allow quicker access to the roads leading to the city? If the geometries discovered were employed, the landscape itself would not be upgradable because they would predetermine the activity and it might be possible that nothing else could be placed in that particular geometry if the activity ceases in the future. It would either have to be covered with something else, or completely removed and re-configured again. To further investigate the idea of geometry an analysis of cities was conducted to determine how their geometries have been successful for many years and their overall character allows for much more than just the guided movement of their initial design. What occurs is another movement that adds another layer on top of the existing geometry. The question that was raised from this study, is how to construct a landscape that would work geometrically. How could the existing geometry on site be used to allow for another layer of movement to be shared with a new geometry, such as the example of the cities studied?
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geometry around the existing
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city studies
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supportive form To broaden the test of geometry an introduction of form with a focus allowed for a better understanding of how the site could potentially be used. The subject used for the test was shelter. This is because the site in mind was planned to become a residential estate.
connection that larger form could also possess smaller opportunities such as openings smaller shelters and the idea that something else such as a open space could be connected to a particular structure.
In spite of this, the idea was restrictive because it did not enable for any further construction or design to be adapted to this multifunctional form. It meant that once this particular "multifunctional" form was fully occupied it would serve no further use and could not be upgraded to produce more uses. It only gave the successful idea of multi use. Summarising this test as briefly as possible, the subject of shelter It could only be concluded that if the South Kensington Site was became the predominant force in the decisions made about what to be upgradable for future use it would require form that could move according to human and geometrical use. form should be constructed to support this initiative. Additionally, the study of form with the idea of shelter offered The form of shelter was designed in a way where it would create options within the design itself. It would allow for more room with the arrangement of other objects around this particular form.
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suggestive opportunities
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the idea of folding The following consideration was one of folding architecture or a landscape, according to how the site might be used. We cannot assume that a design will react in the way we want it to react. The idea of this test was to construct a form that would operate as a changeable structure, meaning that it could be folded to the way the end user would like to use it. The overall idea was one for a mobile population. It was aimed at presenting the merits of such a program into a wider extent of the current built environment; poor and affluent, urban and rural. Melbourne being one of the most expensive cities to live in cannot make available enough ‘affordable’ living options for all of it s dwellers. It asked the question of how can a foldable structure cater for such needs additionally how can these forms be upgraded and refolded again to create more form that would support other activities?
The test does not work however on the grounds of upgradability, because it has no material speculations therefore a further test with the application of materials would ultimately prove whether such foldable structures could be feasible
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Carbon fiber (carbon fibre), alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of extremely thin fibers about 0.005–0.010 mm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in microscopic crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber. The crystal alignment makes the fiber very strong for its size. Several thousand carbon fibers are twisted together to form a yarn, which may be used by itself or woven into a fabric. The properties of carbon fibers such as high flexibility, high tensile strength, low weight, high temperature tolerance and low thermal expansion make them very popular in aerospace, civil engineering, military, and motorsports, along with other competition sports. However, they are relatively expensive when compared to similar fibers for example glass fibers or plastic fibers. Carbon fibers are usually combined with other materials to form a composite. When combined with a plastic resin and wound or molded it forms carbon fiber reinforced plastic (often referred to also as carbon fiber) which is a very high strength-to-weight, extremely rigid, although somewhat brittle material. However, carbon fibers are also composed with other materials, such as with graphite to form carboncarbon composites, which have a very high heat tolerance
A tensile structure is a construction of elements carrying only tension and no compression or bending. The term tensile should not be confused with tensegrity, which is a structural form with both tension and compression elements. Most tensile structures are supported by some form of compression or bending elements, such as masts (as in The O2, formerly the Millennium Dome), compression rings or beams. Tensile membrane structures are most often used as roofs as they can economically and attractively span large distances. The SympaTex membrane is made of hydrophilic polyether-ester block copolymer, which is closed (i.e. it has no pores). Like its more common polyurethane equivalent, it can also be referred to as a monolithic membrane. No water can get in from the outside, but water vapour molecules are transported through the membrane from the inside to the outside by way of an absorption and evaporation process. This moisture transfer through the membrane is what is referred to as "breatheability." A closed membrane like SympaTex differs from microporous membranes (such as eVent or now discontinued Triplepoint Ceramic) which have microscopic pores that let air (and water vapour) pass through, yet have such low surface energy that the surface tension of any (liquid) water in contact remains too high to allow it to squeeze through the pores. Microporous membranes have traditionally been let down by the contamination of their pores which significantly degrades their breatheability and commonly also have poorer adhesion to fabrics making them more susceptible to delamination. SympaTex's co-polymer consists of polyester for molecular strength, and polyether to transport water molecules. The membrane weighs about 30g per average jacket. The membrane is at least 5 micrometres thick, translucent, and stretchable with good stretch recovery. The SympaTex membrane is completely recyclable and relatively environmentally friendly.
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materiality This test was then established even further by investigating which materials could operate in this way. The aim of this research was to discover lightweight construction materials that the end user could engage with on site. These would include Basalt Fibre-reinforced Materials, Natural Fibre Insulation, Spacer textiles and many other lightweight shape changing materials. These are all sustainable and multi-functional materials, which would allow for creative technical innovation of a landscape that could fold. It is in the next phase of the project that these will be incorporated into the foldable modules.
Rock-Fiber Rebar Gets First Big Test – ENR.com Researchers in Northern Ireland report promising results from a demonstration project that used rods made with basalt fibers to reinforce a 22-meter-long concrete-deck section of a $1.5-million replacement bridge in County Fermanagh. The mineral material, which resists corrosion and has twice the tensile strength of steel, is not yet accredited for structural use in the U.K. Northern Ireland Road Service worked with researchers to test basalt-fiber rebar. Photo: Courtesy of MagmaTech Northern Ireland Road Service worked with researchers to test basalt-fiber rebar. In addition to testing the basalt-fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP), the project is a demonstration of compressive membrane analysis in deck design, says Susan Taylor, a senior structural-engineering lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast, which secured a $160,000 grant from the U.K. Dept. for Transport for the demonstration. The method takes into account the arching behavior within restrained slabs, which enhances load capacity beyond that predicted using conventional flexural theory, she says.
The following represents a small snapshot of the advantages of hemp: Hemp for insulation, building materials Is a fully ecological solution. The manufacture of insulating materials such as mineral wool, fibreglass, polyurethane foam and polystyrene foam consume large amounts of energy (non-renewable). Energy consumption for manufacture of hemp boards for insulation is low and based on solar energy. A Suffolk-based (UK) study into using a hempbased material to build environmentally friendly homes has found hemp to be the ideal choice and, although more expensive than conventional brick and block, experts are sure the costs will fall. Hemp fibreboard produced by Washington State University (US) was found to be twice as strong as wood-based fibreboard.
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The projection for the project is to design an upgradable landscape. With all of the methods tested positives and negatives can be extracted to outline which technique would work best in the site being discussed. Ultimately it becomes the designers decision as to which one of these will work. In the end product the idea of the folded landscape will be predominantly applied above all of the other design methods, simply because it offers more chance for changeability and mobility i.e. upgradability. The success of refining this idea in the final stage of the project will be determined by how it is built and what materials it will be constructed from. With materiality and site in mind many restrictions will be placed on the fold, where many aspects discovered on site do not operate in the same way a piece of paper would. How will the land water, existing buildings and surroundings be manipulated into a fold? The images on the concluding page demonstrate 1 model changing into various forms to create different options because of its folds. How can this be translated onto the landscape of South Kensington, and how then does it become a motherboard that is adaptable to future demands?
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-47-47Final Stage
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-50-50Bibliography
-Wiley, John. and Sons, 2004, Folding In Architecture, Architectural Design, The Atrium, West Sussex. -Sascha Peters, 2011, Material Revolution, Sustainable and Multi-Purpose Materials for Design and Architecture, Birkhauser, Basel. -Burdett, Ricky. and Sudjic, Deyan. 2010, The Endless City, The Urban Age Project by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrenhausen Society, Phaidon, London. -Jackson, Paul, Folding Techniques for Designers, From Sheet to Form, 2011,Laurence King Publishing, London. -John, Linam, Jr, 1999, Machiya and Transition, A Study of Developmental Vernacular Architecture, Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia. -Buerk , Roland, 2006, Breaking ships, How Super Tankers and Cargo Ships are Dismantled on the Beaches of Bangladesh, Chamberlain Bros, University of Michigan.
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to be continued..