Kwame Nkrumah University Library (1953)

byJamesCubittandPartners

Locate in the Kumasi Forest, within the campus of Kumasi University of science of technology, lies the Old wing of the Central Library was constructed by James Cubitt and Partners architects. The building was conceived during 1953 the time when Africa Modernism was emerging.

The architect James Cubitt, alongside other architects such as Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry, were promoting a new type of “Tropical modernism” in Africa. The Library is located at the most central area of the Campus, and is separated into two wings, the Reference Wing and the Service wing linked together by a pinwheel plan configuration.

Structure

The 4 storey library is supported by waffle slabs and structural columns which allows for large open plans with minimal bearing wall. These spaces serve as reading area and referencing area for the library. The structural strategy allows the architect to employ a series of glass louver facades that enwrap the building.

Sun Rain

Kamusai experience a tropical wet and dry climate. The annual rainfall count stands at 787mm in Ghana with its wet season from April-June and dry season from December-February. The average annual temperature is 32 degrees. Contrary to the vernacular architecture of Ghana, often involves protective thick envelops to insulate from the high temperature and shelter against the monsoon rain, KNUST library is an example of an architect’s ambition to reduce the separation of a building’s interior to its tropical exterior. The delicate glass louver façade exposes the library to the full effects of Kamusai’s tropical climate. Hence the configuration of the interior furniture layout is responsive to the exterior climate.

Noise

Located within the large campus of Kwame Nkrumah University, the library is situated away from the cityscape of Kumasi, Ghana. The library is separated into 2 volumes, the administrative and the main library facility. The main library facility block is set back deeper into the large open field away from the internal road of the campus. Generally, the surroundings of the library have little noise pollution allowing for a delicate façade with minimal noise insulation.

Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, USP (1969)

byVilanovaArtigasandCarlosCascaldi

The Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Sao Paulo is located in a tropical altitude climate, with an average temperature varying from 18C to 22C. The humidity level in the city of Sao Paulo ranges between 75% to 80% throughout the year and it has an average monthly rainfall of 15 cm. The prevailing wind averages at 3.7 m/s in the south-east direction. Sao Paulo is the most atmospherically comfortable from the month of April to November.

Artigas and his group of fellow contemporaries (Paulista School) criticized the importing of American culture and its modern building technologies as a form of American imperialism that was done by the Carioca School. He believed that Brazilian architecture should be reflective of its local context and situation instead of only projecting a gentrified side of modernization in architecture that boasts smooth curves and clean lines which are obtained through the precise nature of industrialized construction technologies. FAU USP is an opposition to the Carioca school of thought as well as a synthesis of Artigas’ spatial and political, and educational beliefs. It is characterized by exposed concrete and raw stereotomic articulations typical of Brutalist architecture.

The large atrium, expansive roof and arrangement of the spaces around the central void in the FAU USP does not only help express Artigas’ intention to foster social interaction and freedom of idea exchange; it also allows Artigas to manipulate the hot, wet and noisy conditions of the spaces to further enhance his intent. The column-less central atrium is a space where learning and exchange of ideas is free, frequent, facilitated and encouraged. The centrality of this large atrium is further highlighted by the daylighting that enter generously from the fiber glass skylight. The presence of this central void helps to distribute daylight into the other volumes that surrounds it. This atrium is also instrumental in allowing stack ventilation in the naturally ventilated building. It creates a lower pressure zone that promotes the movement of air into the building.

The volumes around the atrium are tucked in under the deep roof in a receding manner around the external area of the building, which sends the directionality towards the central void. The floor beneath the uppermost volume is set in by 5 meters. While this overhang allows people to move freely around the building during wet weather condition and protects the spaces from the harsh solar radiation, it also creates a sense of sheltered space that is protected from its surrounding. Therefore, the receding volume not only further emphasizes the centrality of the atrium, but it also seems to want to protect the user from external influences.

This analogy of isolation becomes very evident in the uppermost volume where no windows around the external perimeter of the building at all. The only connection to the external surroundings is upwards, through the skylights. The 2 meters high internal wall also removes any possible connection to the exterior through the the apertures for air flow. The seemingly total isolation from the external surroundings direct the visual focus towards the atrium and the roof skylights, highlighting the expansive quality of the space.

These volumes are interlinked, creating a sense of coexistence. The building seems like one plan that’s connected by a ramp circulation in the central void. As one enters the building and moves towards the upper floors, the spatial light quality changes in accordance to the needs of the respective spaces. the spaces are also planned around the central atrium, activities within the spaces can be observed from the central atrium. The coffered ceiling diffuses the sound produced by the activities in the atrium. This creates a favorable atmospheric quality for the intimacy of the studios and classroom located at the top floors.

Former U.S. Embassy, Accra, Ghana (1958)

byHarryWeese&Associates

In the 1950s, the United States Department of State launched an embassy program stating that these institutional buildings had to be empathetic to their indigenous locales, to show respect for these countries customs cultures1. Harry Weese’s American Embassy in Accra, Ghana completed in 1958 stood out among the embassies designed at that time.

Structure

Weese’s formalistic inspiration was said to have come from a postcard of a Wa-Na Palace from a northern tribe in Ghana, by simply mirroring the form vertically, as well as Ghanaian spears influencing the shape of the columns which support the building. There was a sensitivity shown in the selection of materials, concrete and mahogany. Concrete was a popular modernist material used primarily in the lower half of the embassy in its construction of its columns and its lattice beam structure. The surficial simplicity of the structure should not be overlooked but otherwise recognised for the complexity in producing this lattice structure at that time, choosing to selectively taper the beams purposefully towards the edges of the slab. Local mahogany not just frequently used in cargo crates in Ghana, but also for its unique property of being resistant to termites was used in the upper half of the embassy. The two materials produced a dialogue which projected a lightweight and almost fragile imagery, like a perfectly square box raised on stilts.

Hot & Wet

The capital of Ghana’s hot and humid tropical weather presupposes itself as a crucial driving factor of the architectural decisions in Weese’s embassy design, seeing an average high of 28oC, and relative humidity of 85%. Accra’s climate is also defined by two rainy season in April to June and September to November, with a yearly average rainfall of 787mm, almost a third of Singapore’s. Perhaps, Weese’s embassy could be viewed as a series of volumetric layers that employed passive design strategies that responded selectively to the elements.

Noisy

Located at the junction of two major vehicular roads with heavy traffic of about 78dB, Weese purposefully used a green lawn with several trees to create a setback performing as the outermost layer of the embassy’s design to mitigate incoming external noise. The embassy was also back-turned, with the driveway going around the plot and coming in from the back, reversing the hierarchy of the embassy’s main entrance.

Layered Solution

Built in a time before air-conditioning was a reliable contender in climatic control in Ghana, the only solution was to create a natural ventilation system to create a comfortable and usable space. The application of a systematic set of overhanging mahogany bay windows wraps along the entire elevation of the second floor encasing the interior offices and meeting rooms. The manually operable louvre system on the bay windows create a porous skin allowing the embassy to ventilate naturally throughout as well as to keep rain out. The 2m wide corridor which circulates around the courtyard is flanked by intricately positioned vertical mahogany louvers. This innermost layer once again exposes the users of the building to the elements in this corridor, as rain is let in and drained in the corners of this corridor into the water feature on the ground floor. The traditional method of an inner courtyard with a square water feature is an extension of this innermost layer. The courtyard is used to allow for the breezes to penetrate and ventilate the building along with the decision to raise the building on stilts by creating a different temperature zone on the ground floor. Furthermore, the large overhanging roof typical of equatorial vernacular architecture, along with a plenum was used to draw the breezes between the roof and the internal rooms.

Although this piece of architecture no longer serves as the American embassy in Ghana, attributed to its lack of security due to its relative openness to the public and its difficulty in expanding, Weese’s work cannot be deemed a failure. Instead, his orchestrating of design strategies to suit the climate of Ghana could be seen as poetic, selectively engaging the elements, composing the user experience in the embassy.

Images above: main floor plan of building below from left to right:view of tapering concrete columns with crisscrossstructuralslab,innercourtyard with view of inner vertical screen, internalcirculationcorridoronmain level.

School of Design & Environment 3

The proposal for the new architecture wing at the School of Design & Environment presents a variety of challenges including the contradictions of noise mitigation versus the need for a naturally ventilated environment as the building runs parallel to the noisy Clementi road. Amongst many challenges of designing a building that is climatically well calibrated to mitigated the hot, wet and noisy realities of its current predicaments, there was also a need to put forth our personal inclinations on architectural education of the future- and have the design of the building reflect that ambition.

The research for this semester will encompass our understanding of the existing building as a ‘tail’ for the campus network, the current and future possibilities of architecture education at the School of Design and Environment and striving towards the possibility of restoring the building to its original naturally ventilated state.

Concentri-cism

byTanKengChuan&ChenRonglyuCyril

Rejecting the normalized perception of buildings as individual massing’s, “Concentricism” envisions the architecture Studios of SDE to be seen as individual volumes surrounded and hugged within various layers calibrated to filter various site conditions and elements.

The plan is composed of large individual volumes carved into the floor plates of the existing structure. The concentric arrangement of the surrounding “rings” resulting from the negative spaces created by the Large volumes become spaces which are integral in improving and enhancing the quality and usage of the spaces of SDE 3.

The three rings consists of the outer façade, the green belt and the actual studio spaces, further divided by the flanking in between spaces used to divide and separate the studio spaces. Like the Russian doll, the various “rings” either protects or improves the interior in which it hugs.

The large volumes, which consist of the office and studio, allows the interior to be independently calibrated to suit the needs and functions of the inhabitants. As oppose to the old design which is seen as a fully air-conditioned building, the current design while still acknowledges the need for active cooling at certain times, attempts to provide alternatives by breaking up the interior airconditioned spaces.

The outer Concrete façade, though seemingly heavy and brutal at first glance, serves the primary role of a Brise soleil and at the same time as light shelfs to pull in light into the deep floor plates of the existing architecture. The pattern of the exterior façade coincides with two elements of the interior; the floor plates and the spaces in between the large volumes. Aligning the horizontal louvers with the floor plates responds to the existing architecture elements and the floor plates also serve as structural bracing for the exterior facade. On the other hand the punctuations of the façade varies the permeability of the façade in the in between spaces which encourage cross ventilation.

The slight tapering of the vertical components of the exterior façade also serves as a response to the increasing solar insolation of the higher floors. The tapering increases the thickness of the Brise soleil in the upper floors.

Images (upper) front elevation of 1:100 model detailing the thiness of the exterior facade

Images (lower) fromlefttoright: Lux intensity simulation of hallway; light render of Hallway

Taking design concepts and strategies from the precedent studies, the main intention is allowing the selective interaction of the exterior conditions with each individual “rings”.

The main circulation together with the sub circulation is sandwiched between the exterior façade and the interior studio spaces. It acts as the green belt which aims to improve the visual quality of the building, but also as the rain buffer between the exterior and the interior.

The main internal circulation which is positioned at the east of the building, is allocated a larger width to not only accommodate the large volumes of circulation but also transforms it into an outdoor studio/ study space. This is done such as the activate the east portion of the building as it is located furthers away from the main road of Clementi and hence by flushing the studio spaces

Due to the location of SDE 3 sitting adjacent to Clementi road, sound mitigation becomes a very apparent issue. In response to this while trying to reconcile the issues increasing the amount of naturally ventilated spaces, the studio spaces are places within the most inner portion of the floor plates to allow for some distance away from the road. This combined by the operable windows of the interior façade allows for the studio spaces to configure between an enclosed interior spaces during the roads peak hour and a naturally ventilated spaces during the traffics down time.

In addition the staggered configuration of the façade system of the informal discussion areas, are meant to diffuse and prevent the sound emitting from Clementi road from reflecting further into the building. The material chosen for these walls consist of a dense polyester fabric which allows the walls to function as pin up boards at the same time, the material serves as an efficient sound absorber due to its high sound coefficient value.

Images (upper) fromlefttoright: plan view of sectional model showing green roof grid; Close up view of the varying grid

Images (lower)

South Elevation of sectional model

Axonometric (from top: Exterior Facade; Solar insolation; 2nd Floor with circulation; Lux intensity of 2nd floor; Celing grid; Studio and office volumes with DB Data.

rear.front

byAyanoYamada,IsabelLye,NgSzeWee

The genesis of the scheme stems from our views on the culture within the current architecture studio, that there is a certain shyness and reserve in engaging in discussion about ideas. Critique sessions are often held behind closed doors and there is a lack of inter-fertilisation of ideas across studios and across years.

What the scheme suggests is that the placement of important circulation routes be directly adjacent to studio/critique spaces and the use of the triple volume void along the east facade as both an element to unify the studio spaces but also as a means to bring the gentle morning light deeper into the floor plates, into the studio spaces.

Faculty offices are then located directly beside studio spaces along a secondary, more private circulation with hope that the proximity would promote more informal discussion and learning within the studio spaces.

Drawing lessons from the Golconde Dormitory, which uses circulation spaces/ noise tolerant spaces as buffer strips to protect the meditative spaces from the heat and noise of the neighbourhood, this scheme seeks to protect the studio spaces, the triple volume void and rear garden by pushing all the faculty offices to the west elevation.

Parti

The parti of the scheme can then be described as one that occurs on three distinct bands- faculty offices, studio spaces and void/gallery spaces. This layering of programs ranging from the least to the most sensitive spaces provoked a rethinking of the front and the back of the building. The uniform placement of the offices on the west facade can hence be read as the scheme ‘turning it’s back’ on the harsh conditions posed by Clementi Road. Hence the envelope on the west side must be read as the office spaces plus the private balconies rather than just the sawtooth organisation of the variegated concrete walls.

Althought the lack of a facade seem to suggest that the west elevation was somehow delaminated in nature, the intention is however to not allow the west elevation to be read as the main facade. Features to mitigate hot,wet and noisy concerns are nevertheless embedded within the west facade, to combat the noise and heat problems.

Noise

Variegated concrete wall installed on the west elevation seeks to diffuse the loud high volume traffic noises from Clementi Road throughout the day, the use of the balcony is also to create a sound trap to reduce the energy of the sound entering the studio spaces dramatically to create a more conducive environment for learning and discussion.

On top of being a device to resolve the forty-five degrees kink in the plan of the current School of Design & Environment, the angle of the offices is so that the balconies would act as wind funnels to bring air through the pivoting louvered doors and into the studio spaces. This would however mean that any furnitures should then be organised parallel to the perceive direction that the wind would travel through the spaces.

Images (top) fromlefttoright: western elevation with angled faculty offices, office walls with variegated concrete along the western elevation- forming an acoustic wall against Clementi road. bottom: view of western facade from the south showing pivoting doors to allow the facade to funnel the wind into the studio spaces.

Images lefttoright:viewofmezzanineon thegroundfloor,triplevolumevoid puncturingtheeasternedgeofthe buildingtointroducedaylightinto thestudiospaces.

Sun

The employment of the pitched roof with an extended overhang was due to many reasons, one of which was to relieve the east elevation of the thermal load it would experience throughout the course of the day during the period of late afternoon to evening.

Rain

The assymetrical angle of the pitched roof was also to allow more run offs to be drained along the west facade and less on the east (as it would mean draining into the rear garden). The runoffs are then drained downwards along the edge of the concrete walls of the office into the planters located on the balcony.

Main Facade

The rejection of Clementi road afforded us the luxury of creating a facade that is more ornamental than functional, to be able to read as the new facade of the department of architecture. However, the veil still protects the studio spaces and a triple volume critique/gallery space behind it, presenting a dilemma between the need to reject the element but still allow copious amount of daylight through into the studio spaces and not denying the students of the view from behind the veil.

The rejection of Clementi road also means that the scheme feels that the periodic noise generated by engineering block is much more tolerable (and because it cuts off completely on weekends and after offfice hours), hence, it accepts the conditions of the rear and the scheme seeks to instead beautify the engineering block and the paths leading towards the east facade of the architectural building.

Images (top) fromlefttoright: eastern elevation with view of the main entrance directly into the studio spaces, model of twisting veil.

Images (bottom) fromlefttoright: view of the outside from behind the veil, view from the edge of the void showing the spaces behind the veil, level four circulation spaces behind existing lecture theatre.

byNgYihuiMaryAnn,SeowYeongChuan

Any attempt at tackling the design of an architecture school necessarily has to first grapple with this question – what exactly entails an education in this old, noble and storied profession? What is the essence of learning how to design buildings architecturally, and how can it be done? There are a multitude of approaches to learning architecture: some institutions advocate more technological and data-based pedagogies, preferring to focus on engineering, craft and tectonics. Others prefer more conceptual approaches, steering the discipline away from reality towards a more hypothetical realm in anticipation of future urban problems. Some schools, caught up within the digital revolution, turn to computer programmes and digital media to drive their teaching methods, whilst yet others focus on the intensive

Perhaps it is folly to attempt to dictate what architecture school should be, given the myriad of academic opinions and methodologies architecture schools employ in the running of their syllabuses. To insist on a certain ‘correct’ trajectory of architecture education is probably a pointless endeavour. In fact, what makes architecture school so unique is precisely this amorphous, diverse and plastic nature – there really isn’t a ‘right’ method of tutorship, and there are undeniable merits to whatever style of education is employed. Architecture school is far from the normative university

The primary concept of this design is therefore to celebrate the distinct identity of architectural education through separating the building from the generic modernist

Strategy

There are two main groups of people that use the building – the staff and the students. These two disparate groups are intentionally separated via a naturally ventilated corridor that highlights and extends the peculiar geometries of the building (an abrupt turn at a 45 degree angle); this corridor is created by a diagonal subtraction of the current massing of SDE. To further facilitate the passage of wind through this space, a circular courtyard space is also placed within to enable the wind to move vertically. This wind tunnel is also purposefully angled towards the predominant South to North (and vice versa) winds in Singapore to produce the venturi effect and increase wind speeds.

This strategy of separating the students from the staff is also a programmatic one: staff members typically use their office spaces from 9am-6pm, while students inhabit the design studios nearly all the time. The original position of staff offices block out daylighting and natural ventilation to the studios, which is especially problematic at night when the air-conditioning is shut off and students are unable to open windows to gain some measure of thermal comfort. The division of students and staff into two distinct buildings solve this problem, as two separate thermal strategies can be easily employed to benefit both groups without compromising the other. The offices can remain air-conditioned, while the studios can now utilise a mix of natural ventilation and mechanical fans for thermal comfort at night after the air-conditioning ceases.

Conceptually, this corridor is a forceful intervention in the form of the building, acting as a liminal threshold that bridges the redesigned architecture school from the other buildings in SDE. The offices are now also read as part of the administrative block in SDE1. The building is therefore not understood as a single entity, but two clear volumes.

Skin

In line with the design ambition of an architecture school with a distinct and exclusive identity, the monolithic ventilation block was chosen for its absolute geometry and precise appearance, coupled with its porous nature. These ventilation blocks are fabricated using EIFS (exterior insulation and finishing system cladded with polystyrene), which allows the block to be lightweight, thermally and acoustically insulative, and yet maintain a semblance of heaviness and gravitas. The geometry of the perforation in each block resembles a funnel, designed to reflect external noise on the flat side of the wall and diffuse internal noise with the variegated surface.

The façade wraps around and envelopes the building volume, forming a climatic barrier on all three elevations of the building.The ventilation block is also purposefully calibrated for climatic reasons – the size of the perforation increases along with the altitude of the block in three clear bands. For instance, the incident noise on the first level is the harshest and most direct, hence the smallest perforation is used on each block. On the fourth storey, incident sound from Clementi Road is minimised due to the shape of the block, allowing for a much larger perforation that admits more daylight into the spaces.

On the fourth storey, the building skin turns and wraps overhead, creating a porous sunshade that improves the quality of the common spaces outside the lecture theatres. The large number of students that must navigate this lengthy corridor on the fourth storey daily for their lectures are therefore greeted with a vast yet open space that is well lit by diffused daylight filtered through the ventilation block.

Layering

The west façade of the building facing Clementi Road receives the most noise, and the main strategy to mitigate this is a system of layers that recalls the precedent study of Golconde.

Firstly, the ventilation block façade on the west side is pushed away from the existing building in order to extend the buffer zone separating the outside from the noisesensitive studio spaces. To support the façade, a new web of steel columns and beams is attached to the façade on the west, which in turn are tied back to the existing beams and columns of the original building. These new columns are placed to the same rhythm as the existing ones to facilitate this. This functions as the first layer of noise mitigation.

This new zone created through the moving of the façade away from the floor slabs is replete with lush vegetation, fire escape staircases and circulation walkways around the periphery of the studio spaces. These behave as the second layer that filters out outside noise.

The passage of sound from Clementi Road is then filtered a third time when it meets the glass enclosure that bounds the thermally-hybrid studio spaces. These noiseinsulating glass windows enable the studios to be placed in the closest proximity to the building exterior to take advantage of the strong daylighting without compromising on acoustic quality. The noise intensity of the road is heavily reduced at night, and the operable glass doors can then be opened to admit the equatorial atmosphere and let it permeate the building.

These layers work in tandem as a climatic filtering engine that prevents the undesirable noise from Clementi Road from interfering with the microclimates created in the studio spaces.

Images (topandbottom)sectionalviewof detail model.