Y3.6 Thesis Reader

THESIS PROJECT : BIG BOX A LONG WINDOWLESS FACADE WITHIN A CITY Moabit, Germany Reem Bashawri K1354763

“Big buildings happen” -Hugh Strange Studio 3.6 is interested in the idea of big buildings and how they sit within a city having a dense urban grain. The studio deals with the relationship between the big building and its immediate context as well as its bigger urban footprint.

Despite their functional aspect, big buildings will be studied and tested, as studio precedents, as critical elements of a city’s urban infrastructure. Upon these studies, formal, material and spatial strategies will be developed as means of understanding the fundemental principles of large building types and as a way of handling big buildings that are not usually appreciated and given any architectural treatments.

The studio brief is to design a place of production and storage over an area of twenty to thirty thousand square meters. The brief focuses more on the presence of the big building and its civic character rather than its programme.

The site is located in Moabit district in Berlin, offering an ideal urban environment to test out interpretations of big buildings, specifically for the reason that Berlin is a city that integrates industrial function in the city, in contrast to London, for instance, where the industrial buildings are always stripped out away from the city and situated in the periphery, where its architectural value is of no imporatnce.

Berlin District of Mitte Moabit Berlin TV Tower Tiergarten

Moabit, located north-west central Berlin, is one of the interesting districts in Berlin, Germany, with a mixture of immegrants, students and families living side by side. It is part of the borough of Mitte, and it is well connected to the city by public transport; trains and buses. Moabit acts as an islandsince it is surrounded by water from all sides; River Spree, the Westhafen Canal and the Berlin-Spandau Navigation Canal, which allows it to stand as an individual area different from the other districts. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, Moabit is no longer a border town between the east and the west, however it is now intergrated in the city of Berlin through good transportation links and thriving economical connections.

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The district of Moabit is divided into two main sectors; the 19th century residential area which floods the southern part of the railway and the industrial zone which sits on the northern part of the railway. Highlighted in pink, our specified site is situated between the residential and indistrial zones, but it sits well within an industrial strip right to the south of the railway tracks. A site so large in area, situated in this location gives us an opportunity to design an industrial building with civic characters, integrating between the two different zones of Moabit.

Moabit is known for its historic value as it accommodates buildings of historic values such as 1: 1909 AEG Turbine Factory by Peter Behrens which serves as a cultural icon of modern industrial power, 2: 1980’s Arminius Markthalle, an authentic Berlin experience with a sense to its past and a glimpse to its future, and 3: 1840s JVA Moabit Prison which housed some famous historical prisoners, political activists and Nazi war criminals before it was demolished in 1955. A remembrance park stands in its original location today surrounded by the walls of the original prison. However, down the road from the original prison stands a newer version completed in 1965 and used mainly as a remand prison.

Berlin Central Station

New Developement Strip BeusselstraBe Station

The site also sits within a strip of new development in Moabit, where new aparetment block and a group of industrial buildings are being developed, hugged by the two main stations in Moabit that connect back to the city.

Histpric Map of Moabit

An existing wholesale market warehouse sits on our spesific site having an estimate area of twenty thousands square meters. It was agreed, as a studio, that the existing building does not really respond to its surrounding context neither on an urban scale nor on a more personal level upclose. The existing building clearly wants to maximaze the efficiency of the site hence why it is just a big box that fills up most of the site, with the rest of the space used as a car parking area. The awkward shape of the site creates numerous factors to be considered such as the kinks along the long edges of the site and the triangular tip at the west corner.

These photographs capture a certain composition of visual information about the character of the context showing the contrast of the two different zones of Moabit. The character of Moabit’s residential area, as demonstrated through this still composition, is very vibrant yet quiet and calm. The 19th century blocks are very dominant across the area, having a well defined grain with narrow corridors in between. On the other hand, the industrial area, which is demonstarted in a more dynamic composition, shows the pragmatic and busy feel of the area through the traffic of cars and the motion of cranes. The atmosphere seems more dull and heavy.

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As one edge of the specific site faces 19th century residential blocks, with the building gaing an industrial function, few considerations are to be thought of, in terms of well responding to these apament blocks and not disturbing any residents. Moreover, this facade in particular will act as a public face and should offer back to the civic character of the context by ways of interacting with pdestrians on a personal level. However, the opposite facade of the site faces a busy street and the railway and would often be viewed from a further point of view or at a higher speed, hence this should be designed as a whole with minimum attention to detail.

19th century block study: elevation

19th century block study: ground plan on top and first floor plan on bottom

19th century block study: section

Porticus Aemilia, Rome, Italy 1:1000 Urban Plan

Porticus Aemelia, Italy 29 220 sqm

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Cordoba Mosque Cathedral, Spain 23 400 sqm

Piazza Ducale, Vigevano 1:1000 Urban Plan

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Bank of England, [London] 1:1000 Urban Plan

Bank of England, United Kingdom 14 000 sqm

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Piazza Ducale, Italy 8 600 sqm

Markethalle III, Berlin 1:1000 Urban Plan 10m

Berlin Markethalle, Germany 8 500 sqm

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Alazhar Mosque, Egypt 7 800 sqm

Precedent study: understanding scale in an urban manner throught big building located in a dense city

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This concept sketch was the starting point of the thesis project, where this loose mark evolved into a concept of a continuous elevation with a smooth curvature against the 19th century residental blocks. The idea is to have a curved building edge, which would be part of a bigger circle as a metaphorical reference to a larger urban impact on the city. Additionally, this curve would have an effect on many other aspects of the building as a whole such as the interior view of the curved colonnade of structural columns and the exterior street view of the curved facade on a pedestrian experience level.

Urban footprint model photograph

Curve meets residential street

Street conditions

63.351 42.649

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91.235 Articulations and Measuremenets compared to Bank of England’s

Street view perspective; facade curved away from the eye and relief appears once the previous one is just disappearing

High balcony view looking onto facade; articulations appear at different moments with the industry at the background

Street view perspective; the power of the curve against the residential block street

Street view perspective; a single corridor leading up to the facade and articulations start to appear

Corner piece design as a pedestrian shorcut through the awkward tip of the proposed building offereing a civic moment

The Tivoli corner: Bank of England The key factor to analyse is the way the walls wrap behind the set of columns creating a spatial volume inside that feels enclosed yet open. The Tivoli corner is a moment that offers a civic value back to the urban city and creates a connection bwteen the bank and the neighbouring buildings. The Tivoli corner is used as a precedent for my thesis corner and as a guide in terms of dealing with an awkward shaped corner piece.

Articulations on a large windowless facade break the emptiness along the long plain elevation by playing with relief and depth. Delicate relief has been borrowed from the facade of the Bank of England to embilish the proposed facade.

Articulations along the facade of the Bank of England deal with relief in a very delicate manner which make the facade seem flush

Isometric representation of facade against internal concrete structure

parapet flashing with sealed butt straps soft insulation board

membrane coated galvanised steel falshing: any joints sealed with welding strip Kingspan 1000 topdeck insulated roof panel PVC membrane strip insulated membrane lined gutter draining pipe structural horizontal tapered beam in elevation gun grade sealent between concrete joints

structural horizontal concrete beam

service lighting tube in elevation

square steel purlins to fix facade against structural columns

self supporting precast concrete sandwitch wall with insulation laid vertically

steel storage racks in elevation

350mm self supporting precast concrete sandwich wall with insulation laid vertically

gun grade sealent to panel joint

precast concrete sandwich base panel with insulation 60mm latex floor covering

concrete cobble 300mm concrete slab

140mm rigid insulation

atleast 7m deep concrete pile foundation

Detailed Technical Section 1:20 on A1

Detailed Technical Section

The precast concrete barn in Shatwell by Cedirc Price is a very delicate structural shed.

It is a precedent that influenced the thesis project in terms of its structural lightness and simplicity through its tectonic manner in the joining of structural concrete elements.

Inspired by Shatwell barn, the proposed warehouse adapts the same structural strategy on a much bigger scale, the precast concrete thin columns and triangular beams have been aquired as structural elements of the warehouse. The delicate barn-like structure also implies that the means of construction would be cheap, hence adding to the effiency to the construction strategy. The aim is to have a cheap economic structural strategy as it is an industrial building, with a more articulated outer shell offering moments and relationships back to the city.

Interior model photograph of production zone

Proposed section in context

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Proposed plan in context

Interior perspective view: curved colonnades giving an impression of internal eternity

Secondary accommodation arrangement plan

Sban station route highlighted

Street view

Street view

Street view

Street view

Street view

Street view