Aisha System

HOU SE _AIS HA re se arc h s t u d io 3 I ma r ta ma l ĂŠ -a l emany I franc isc a aroso

m. gr z yma l a I a . ko n dz i e l a

INTRO The project based mainly on two aspects from the research excursion to Tunisia which is on the one hand the characteristic brick architecture in Tozeur and on the other hand the traditional technique of building a brick vaulted structure for dwelling units (ghorfa`s).

Inspired by the technique and the aesthetik pattern of bricks the idea was to generate a digital parametric brick structure which combines the structural brick surfaces wih the performance of perforated brick screens. At the same time we started to think about a home-made CNC machine which provides a possibility of a local fabrication process.

TR A D ITI O N A L A R CHI TE C TUR E The characteristic architecture of Tozeur, and the Jerid region, is displayed in the decorated facades of Tozeur’s traditional buildings. Instead of the white-walled buildings, traditional brickwork used protruding bricks to create intricate relief patterns in simple and rich geometric designs. This style is found only in Tozeur and in nearby Nefta. The pattern created by a variation in brick height and arrangement was enhanced by the angle of the bright sun.

The geometric patterns of the house- fronts are similar to the designs of many Berber carpets.

Ghorfas were being build for a group of fierce tribes who once inhabited the mountain regions of Tunisia where they had lived in mountain caves. They recreate this protective atmosphere and develop a unit system of simple, barrelvaulted stone structures. For the construction they were using a string which is tied to the arm of the constructor for being able to create a vaulted structure setting the bricks always in the same distance.

TR A D ITI O N A L T E C HN I QUE

We investigated contemporary brick architecture in terms of digital fabrication, perforation and curvature. All of the projects are using bricks in a unique way according to the structure and curvature but also to the material properties.

The cruzial outcome for us was to use brick as a structure system for the whole house without using framework or other supporting structures.

Marc Kohler I House Ijburg, Netherland

Gramazio & Kohler I Graunstein Winery, Germany

SHoPArchitects I 290 Mulberry, P. Zumthor I Museum Colombia, Germany NY

ELADIO DIESTRE By thinking about double curved brick structures we were very interested in the work of of Eladio Dieste, an engineer who exploited a technique of reinforcing brick walls, an innovation that could be considered his own. Form and shape investigation demonstrate the complexity of using masonry units as the elements of construction. The Church of Christ the Worker is a stunning examples of how Dieste engineering prowess led to sensually appealing forms, undulating in plan but also leaning in section, following the roof also undulating overhead.

Minimal materials are required to provide both structure and space enclosure, while at the same time providing high thermal mass and low embodied energy in a fireproof construction of great strength, longevity, and beauty.

GRAMAZIO & KOHLER Another reference for us was the work of Gramazio & Kohler which explored the digital fabrication of brick walls related to the spacing and rotation of bricks. By using the Robotic fabrication facility each brick is layed in the exact prescribed position, at the exact angle, and at the exact interval desired by the author of the program.

We were interesting in how to extend the possibilities of the robot which is not easily moved to every construction site and has certain constrains in terms of hight according to the arm of the robot.

PR OCE S S

For the developing of the house we looked for the different house types which exists in Tunisia and how the typologie is organised. The three main house types are the Ghorfas, the earth vaulted chambers and the flat houses in the city. There all have in common to create a kind of cell-structure which is arranged about an inner courtyard as supposed to be the main communication zone.

Ghorfas

Earth vaulted cham-

flat houses

HOUSES IN TUNISISA

Earth vaulted chambers

Ghorfas

flat houses

In generell there is a difference in Tunisia between official architecture which is designed by architects and the “self-help”- or “self-build”- housing designed and built by the people themselves. Contemporary buildings and architecture are very much orientated to the modern European standards. The reference to Islamic tradition in the design of contemporary buildings remains superficial and functions very much as décor stuck onto a western structure. In contrast, the self-help housing settlements follow a specific typological process. Here, the reference to the Arabic culture is not reduced to an ornamental language which decorates the architect’s buildings, but is connected more deeply to the traditional building process. The main characteristics of the self-built house are the arrangement around a central outdoor courtyard and all rooms are lighted by windows openings only to this courtyard, the rooms are narrow and access to each room is from the courtyard only, there are no interconnection doors between the rooms, the most important room is situated furthest from the street and the service area is located to the entrance and finally the house has no windows openings onto the street or any other public space.

SEL F- B U I L D - H O U S ES

In our project we were not focusing on developing a new typology or system for living in Tunisia. We were following the traditional typology and creating a parametric floor plan model which is adjustable on any size of a plot with the constraints that the inner patio always has to be in a relationship to the whole site of 20%. According on the amount of the rooms the floor plan generates the arrangement around the patio.

In our project we chosed two site scenarios for developing the house in the medina of Tunis. One is attached on two sites to the naighbour and the other one only on one site.

t unis I med ina

REQUIREMENTS By thinking about the perfomative brick surface we catagorised different requirements of each room according to the amount of light, privacy, visibility and airflow. We set up certain rules for the porosity for each room which we then used as our base for creating the surface of the house. Each surface has a specific property related to the angle, the shape and the porosity but also the brick themselve creates a different porosity of the wall by rotation or horizontal spacing between each brick.

insite patio private

outsite public

living

insite: 10%

kitchen

outsite: 5%

porosity 15%

scalar 1-5:

_transparence I light _visibility _airflow _privacy I intimicy

insite: 5

bedroom

outsite: 4%

porosity 9%

5 5 3 2

_transparence I light _visibility _airflow _privacy I intimicy

insite: 6%

bathroom

outsite: 3%

porosity 9%

4 4 5 2

_transparence I light _visibility _airflow _privacy I intimicy

insite: 3%

outsite: 2%

porosity 5%

3 3 3 5

_transparence I light _visibility _airflow _privacy I intimicy

2 2 5 5

Wallmaker The surface is done by using a Grasshopper Definition which allows us to adjust every part of the surface to the given requirements.

surface behaviour

straight functional device

tilted shadow device

tilted porosity device

bended porosity device

Brick maker

brick behaviour frontal visibility

certain visibility I visual barrier

rotation move

bath

bedroom bedroom

kitchen patio

living

terrace

porosity

1%

angle

15째

porosity

rotation

bath

3%

tilted

kitchen

move

patio

bended straight

living

porosity

-%

angle

0째

concave I convex

wall1

wall2

wall6

wall7

wall11

wall12

wall3

wall8

wall13

wall4

wall9

wall14

wall5

wall10

STRUC T U R E By using double curved curvature it gains structural capacity and at the same time curvature helps orient surface area towards or away from environmental impact, so as to gain also thermal energy or to self-shape, to accelerate brick airflow, and to increase or decreas / filtering light and visual penetration.

DE TAIL S

EG

1. OG

Section

AIR CIR C U L AT I O N The porosity of the surface also provides a natural air circulation with is increased by certain openings in the wall.

U RB A N CO N T E X T

PAT IO

I NT E RIO R

FABRICATION PROCESS

CNC-MACHINE

The idea for the machine is to create a portable CNC machine which translates the traditional way into a digital fabrication process. By taking the traditional techniques and methods into consideration the aim is to design a CNC machine which is able to localise the exact position of bricks in space by using a laser pointer and a string. The laser pointer gives you angle in polar coordinate system for two corner-points of the brick and by unrolling string it shows exact distance by unroling the string.

For the G_code we use each angle of the corners for getting the direction and the string for placing the brick in the right position.

string

laser pointer

G-CODE

G01x0y1z279.039 M01 G01x4.691y0.183z261.904 M01 G01x3.828y0.035z256.111 M01 G01x9.272y0.181z241.07 M01 G01x8.449y0.058z234.995 M01 G01x14.688y0.183z222.163 M01 G01x14.013y0.061z216.274 M01 G01x21.063y0.194z205.774 M01 G01x20.648y0.033z200.599 M01 G01x28.48y0.227z192.727 M01 G01x28.388y0.042z188.749 M01 G01x36.876y0.308z183.976 M01 G01x37.078y0.187z181.544 M01 G01x45.944y0.473z180.349 M01 G01x46.306y0.424z179.419 M01 G01x55.15y0.76z182.062 M01 G01x55.523y0.728z181.616 M01 G01x63.98y1.17z188.035 M01 G01x64.418y0.95z185.861 M01 G01x72.285y1.573z195.81 M01 G01x73.072y0.8z190.486 M01 G01x80.251y1.685z203.73 M01 G01x81.482y0.369z196.672 M01 G01x87.867y1z212.931 M01 G01x1.497y1.859z264.825 M01 G01x6.543y2.186z248.304 M01 G01x5.59y1.988z242.149 M01 G01x11.459y2.374z227.851 M01 G01x10.619y2.174z221.784

M01 G01x17.365y2.626z210.026 M01 G01x16.766y2.446z204.613 M01 G01x24.383y2.982z195.88 M01 G01x24.101y2.84z191.571 M01 G01x32.455y3.489z186.43 M01 G01x32.534y3.405z183.534 M01 G01x41.314y4.206z182.184 M01 G01x41.674y4.201z181.077 M01 G01x50.462y5.231z183.502 M01 G01x50.956y5.304z183.868 M01 G01x59.374y6.711z189.756 M01 G01x59.968y6.792z189.459 M01 G01x67.839y8.923z198.319 M01 G01x68.81y8.925z194.058 M01 G01x76.159y12.901z205.494 M01 G01x77.58y13.128z197.569 M01 G01x84.389y25.729z211.55 M01 G01x81.835y17.989z200.011 M01 G01x88.316y55.534z215.31 M01 G01x0.547y3.642z274.64 M01 G01x4.102y4.068z256.796 M01 G01x3.004y3.906z250.486 M01 G01x8.492y4.416z234.881 M01 G01x7.422y4.248z228.343 M01 G01x13.848y4.862z215.472 M01 G01x12.957y4.707z209.253 M01 G01x20.353y5.451z199.767 M01 G01x19.804y5.331z194.506 M01

G01x28.038y6.243z189.077 M01 G01x27.959y6.184z185.208 M01 G01x36.686y7.305z183.778 M01 G01x37.031y7.329z182.025 M01 G01x45.813y8.741z184.315 M01 G01x46.443y8.867z185.135 M01 G01x54.875y10.729z190.6 M01 G01x55.679y10.975z192.975 M01 G01x63.549y13.638z200.866 M01 G01x64.7y14.102z200.327 M01 G01x72.086y18.62z209.976 M01 G01x73.647y19.736z202.576 M01 G01x80.696y30.497z214.115 M01 G01x82.228y34.135z203.837 M01 G01x88.782y75.909z218.162 M01 G01x0.787y5.709z260.13 M01 G01x5.843y6.321z243.076 M01 G01x4.688y6.202z236.469 M01 G01x10.653y6.934z221.734 M01 G01x9.668y6.833z215.531 M01 G01x16.647y7.717z203.83 M01 G01x15.979y7.649z198.711 M01 G01x23.956y8.727z191.125 M01 G01x23.629y8.696z187.384 M01 G01x32.295y10.011z184.812 M01 G01x32.398y10.038z182.543 M01 G01x41.22y11.656z184.53 M01 G01x41.67y11.749z184.622 M01 G01x50.157y13.79z190.34

1:1 SCALE PROTOTYPE