Morro Bay Kayak Club

Two main ideas were used in designing this Kayak Club. One central idea was the use of folding planes to establish framed views of the surrounding Morro Bay. The second was incorporating the Chumash history of being skilled crafts people into a type of formdefining cladding system.

morro bay kayak club tola thomas calpoly 2nd year studio summer 2013

In order to have a solid starting point for the project, one element of the site (views) was used as the foundation of the initial design process. Although the site has many unique views, there isn’t a clear anchor point to properly observe all the views. By using the folding planes, the views were uniquely framed depending on the use of the area.

Hand crafting was a very important to the way of life of the Chumash people. Two particular areas that helped mold the structural approach to the project was the Tomol Canoe and the basket weaving techniques used by the Chumash. The idea behind this was that the Chumash’s stitching patterns could be used as both a literal and figural structure in linking the different spaces together.

The folding planes themselves were to act as a exterior membrane in the same way the Tomol Canoe acted in protected the Chumash people from the water. The same system of horizontal stitching and cladding that was used to on the canoe would essentially be interpreted as a cladding system for the design.

interior view from kayak storage

SAUNA REST.

WOMENS LOCKERS

SAUNA

FITNESS CENTER MENS LOCKERS COMMON ROOM + KITCHEN HOT TUB

WORKSHOP + KAYAK STORAGE ADMIN. MECH.

M

W RECEPTION + LOBBY CHECKOUT

PRACTICE POOL CAFE DECK

LAUNCHING DECK

site plan

section cut 2

lobby + checkout + cafe + reception locker rooms + administration

kayak storage + workshop

common room + kitchen + fitness center launching pad + practice pool

skin

structure

program diagram

transparent surfaces

opaque surfaces

yokohama terminal

WOOD

FOA

Precedents

Two projects that influenced the material selection for the Kayak Club were the Yokohama Terminal by FOA and the Maritime Youth House by BIG. Both these projects share very similar approaches to using a single material to define indoor and outdoor spaces and planes. Given that these two projects also had sites in close proximity with bodies of water they were perfect precedents in helping ground the approach to using wood as a universal material for the water front Kayak Club site.

Although the Maritime Youth House project’s ‘wood deck’ is technically made from a composite, the material language and approach of having the material define indoor and outdoor spaces was similar to the way the Kayak Club’s skin would fold over to create multiple spaces from one continuous membrane.

maritime youth house

BIG

The Yokohama Terminal’s approach to blurring the lines between the traditional notion of how walls, floor, and roofs are defined was a big inspiration to the application of using wood as a continuous material for the Kayak Club. In select spaces of the Kayak Club, there are instances where the folding planes change their function. One specific area is the public entrance and café where the wood material language of the roof continues as it becomes a wall, and then resolves it’s self when it finally becomes the wood deck that cantilevers out over the water. The idea that a building’s membranous form and spaces don’ necessarily have to be defined by multiple materials was a major basis for developing this Kayak Club.

Composition

Wood is a very unique building material because a majority of its creation is a result of biological processes rather than artificial. Wood chemical composition is essentially a combination of Cellulose, Lignin, and Hemicellulose.

The major component of wood that gives it its structural qualities is its cellulose fibers. Due to the bonds that make up their chemical composition, the cellulose fibers are strong in tension. Coupled with the compressive strength of the lignin matrix the fibers are embedded in, wood makes for a very good construction material.

Properties

Since wood is a biological by product of a living organism, it has the advantage of having unique surface grain textures. The fact that the material comes from nature lends its self well to its environmental qualities. Wood is biodegradable and also easily renewed with very little effort. The main issue with the material is balancing the rate of consumption and renewal.

Production

The production of wood is a relatively simple process.

The main steps in extracting wood from trees include, sawing, preparation and surfacing.

Sawing – Extracted logs are cut into either long parallel pieces or quadrants that are later cut into boards.

Surfacing – Before the wood lumber can be distributed it has to be first checked for any defects that may have occurred during the growth of the tree is came from or from the mechanical processes afterwards. language of the roof continues as it becomes a wall, and then resolves it’s self when it finally becomes the wood deck that cantilevers out over the water. The idea that a building’s membranous form and spaces don’ necessarily have to be defined by multiple materials was a major basis for developing this Kayak Club.

smith college campus center

weissmanfredi

GLASS Application

Although the predominate material strategy for this project was centered around the folding of wood planes to create interior and exterior spaces, its opaqueness limits it from being used as a universal material throughout the Kayak Club.

Since most of the wood used on the project was created from folding planes that ran from the east and west die of the project, a secondary plane of materials needed to be used to enclose the kayak club in from the north to the south. One of the materials used to bridge that gap was glass.

Production

The production of glass begins with fusing the materials using in the mixture at high temperatures. The molten glass is then poured into molds and allowed to cool down to a solid state.

In the 1950’s Alastair Pilkington developed a method of making large sections of glass known as Floating.

Float Glass is made by having the molten glass drawn onto metal sheets with higher melting temperatures untill the glass is fully cooled and cut.

Precedent

One project that was similar to the Kayak Club’s idea of using the glass as a defined plane apart from the primary building enclosure system is the Smith College Campus Center. This univeristy building’s use of large glass walls and windows helps to clearly define the planes of the building into distinct elements.

Composition + Production

Glass is typically composed of three basic elementsm Formers- Silica from beds of sand (majority of mixture) Fluxes- Lower the melting temperature of fomrers Stabilizers- Used to make glass stronger and more resistant to water

Works Cited (WOOD) "1. Descriptions of Manufacturing Processes." Http://www.fao.org. N.p., n.d.

"Chemical Composition of Wood." Ipst.gatech.edu. Georgia Tech University, n.d. Web. "Introduction of Wood." Ce.berkeley.edu/. University of California Berkeley, n.d. Web. <http://www. ce.berkeley.edu/~paulmont/CE60New/wood.pdf>.

"Yokohama International Port TerminalForeign Office Architects." Yokohama International Port Terminal. N.p., n.d.

Works Cited (GLASS) “Corning Museum of Glass.” Chemistry of Glass. Corning Museum of Glass, n.d. Web. . <http://www.cmog.org/article/chemistry-glass>.

“Modern Glass Making Techniques.” Glass Making. Breakglass.org, n.d. Web. . <http://www.breakglass.org/Glass_ making.html>.

“The Process of Glassmaking.” Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. . <http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/society/glass-the-process-glassmaking.html>.