Lisa Fan Wu_Y5 | Unit 14 | Bartlett School of Architecture by UNIT 14

LISA FAN WU YEAR 5

UNIT

Y5 LFW

ALIBABA WUNDERKAMMER

@unit14_ucl

All work produced by Unit 14 Cover design by Charlie Harris www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture Copyright 2020 The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

@unit14_ucl

LISA FAN WU YEAR 5 Y5 LFW

lisa.fan.wu.18@alumni.ucl.ac.uk @unit14_ucl

ALIBABA WUNDERKAMMER Hamburg, Germany

oncluding from initial research of global capital flow and the urban development of port cities, a brief is proposed that Alibaba Group, a Chinese, privately-owned e-commerce giant would establish an European headquarters complex in Hamburg, Germany. The complex integrates into Hamburg’s urban fabric by providing social infrastructures such as markets and expo spaces, whilst complete with its own logistic distribution centre of global goods.

under disguise, through finances or network of flow of goods. Consequently, this is visualised to the urban habitants through choice of architecture, as a reminder of the known urban fabric is built on systemic impact of global interests.

Moving in the UNESCO world heritage site is intended as a power move for Alibaba Group, claiming the prime location and cultural heart of Hamburg. Keeping the existing Neo-Gothic brick facade, the internals load-bearing structures will be replaced by new engineered timber structures inspired by traditional Chinese timber architecture. In terms of architectural tectonics, the design of the primary timber load-bearing structures reinterprets many aspects of traditional Chinese timber tectonics, with interventions of emerging timber structural materials, digital simulation of performances and manufacturing. The use of timber has a vital architectural purpose of defining human spaces. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, no hysical models were made as intended. Currently, underground motorway tunnels are already proposed and constructed to better connect the greater Port of Hamburg area. The project taps into this future urban logistic infrastructure, by establishing a fully automated basement warehouse connected to the aforementioned network. The project is a comment on the subtle change of global orders

Rise of Chine 6

Through research into flow of global capital and the investment into European countries, there had b Chinese state companies and goes into large infrastructural investments. There is a reference in th infrastructures. However, this flow of Chinese capital isn’t stable, as it dropped after the turn of

ese capital

been a significant increase in asian, especially Chinese capitals. These mainly come from he Chinese capital into automotive industries, engery, logistics and information technological f 2018.

Picking Chin 8

Research into the accumulation of Chinese capital, the reason to its dip in 2018 is the divided opn critical national infrastructures, thereby controlling Europe, led to termination of large-scale in strategy on which Chinese investment candidate should be chosen needs to be established between the

screening

nese candidates

nions of European countries. Europe worries the Chinese major state companies investing/building nfrastructural projects. However, Euroean nations wants the Chinese money. A clear and consistent e European nations. In general, private investments are favoured over state caitals.

privately owned

new silk road

Subsurface Supply Line Driverless Delivery Trucks Shipping Routes

Site Plan 14

1:2000 @ A1

Alibaba Wunderkammer - Chan

Wunderkammer - German fo

Concluding from the research presented, it is consequential that Alibaba Group would establish an European headquartres in Hamburg, Ger Hamburg. Keeping the existing Neo-Gothic brick facade, the internals load-bearing structures will be replaced by new engineered timber constructed to better connect the greater Port of Hamburg area. The project taps into this future urban logistic infrastructure, establ

nge of order under disguise

or ‘Cabinet of Curiosity’

rmany. Moving in the UNESCO world heritage site is a power move for Alibaba Group, claiming the prime location and cultural heart of structures inspired by traditional Chinese timber architecture. Currently, underground motorway tunnels are already proposed and lishing a fully automated basement warehouse, reducing product shipment time to better compete with Amazon and Ebay.

Speicherstadt site - south building attic

Speicherstadt site - south building

Spe

Speicherstadt site - north building

Spe

Steel frame detail

Site - Speicherstad

The current UNESCO site wit

The site hosts some high-end cafes, the tourist attraction miniture wonderland, small-scale theatre spaces unused, broken apart by the steel frame and concrete floor structural systems. So as a centra more effectively, whilsting integrating the new headquartres/market with the existing social infrast

eicherstadt site - south building basement

eicherstadt site - north building cafe

Speicherstadt site - north building cafe kitchen

Steel frame

concrete base

Neo-Gothic brick facade

Oak timber piles

canal water

earth

dt Building Detail

th potential for more

es and museums, and offices. However, site visit showed in photos indicated more than half of the al port city area, the Alibaba investment would act as an urban reclaimation push. Using the land tructures under more systematic urban planning schemes.

cross section of site with new design - concept stage 1

cross section isometric slice of site design with programmes- concept stage 3

isometric view and cross section cut demonstrating design concept - concept stage 0

new timber structures design new internal structures inspired by Chinese

During the concept design stage, many new timber structures were roposed. The main design drive is building and within the building parametre with no obstruction. Many features from traditional Chin the Chinese morphology dissaminates while trying to fit into the facade parametres.

cross section of site with new design - concept stage 2

long section cut of site with new design in north building - concept stage 0

- freeing internal space architecture while retaining existing brick facade

to free ground level spaces. A visitor will be able to walk from the street level into the nese timber architecture were proposed to be reinterpreted. However, the design bottle neck being

Proposed design -

Brick, timbe

The use of timber in the building is also an indicator of human activities within the site. Tim disguised, indicating the space for machines. The brick facade, with timber retention structures, connection created b

mixed materiality

er, concrete

mber cores carries human throughout the complex, where as the concrete basement warehouse is not mirrors the materiality of tradtional German long houses, bridging the Chinese and German cultural by the project brief.

programme and floor occupation diag

The shown diagrams are during the early stage of schematic design. One major change is in these dia However, the strategic arrangement of programmes remain the same. The mid to upper floors of the nor flagshi showrooms for firms collaborating with Alibaba, and upper floors forming market arenas for sma

*~1:1500 in scale displayed

grams during schematic design stage

agrams the ground floors are at -3.4m. This is later revised back to ground floors being at 0m. rth building is where the Alibaba Group headquartres office is. The south building lower floors are aller product sellers.

1 2

3 4

*1:1000 in display

1. building entrance 2. ground floor opening to lower ground level 3. timber core with stairs and mep 4. open-plan ground floor (public) 5. cutline of timber retention structure 6. cutline(red) of brick facade 7. Seicherstadt warehouse buildings 8. New Hanseatic trade centre by KPF 9. canals 10. local residential/mixed used buildings

Building G

ground fllor and 3rd floor

The selected floors shows the main circulation of the building. On the ground floor visitors could a leading visitors to the lower ground floor bar, which is also a viewing platform for the specticle arena in the s

15 12

14 16

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Alibaba Group headquartre office double height area within the office Alibaba Wunderkammer market arena double height area within the market void void seeing down to other arena levels

GA - plans

r lan of the twin buildings

access the building from the original door openings of the brick facade. Floor entrances are shown of automated bots at work. The 3rd floor is Alibaba headquartres in the north building, and market south building.

*A1 @1:1000 on display

Building GA a pair of ‘tree’ -

GAs of a paired cantelivered ‘tree’ structure sho

The building have double height veriendeel timber truss walls as primary load-bearing stru Shown as blue hatched areas are the double-height spaces. The plans fo each main floor and sub floor wall as stacking unit and taller roof, resul

- double height floors in blue

owing double-height and singleheight floor spaces

uctures, and single-floor height truss walls dividing the space further within the building. rs shows the alternation between double and single height spaces. The south building has a shorter lting in more floors than the north building.

primary load-bearing structures

new glass-panelled roof to let more light in upper floors

both side upper floors accessble by public with views to the outside through glass roof

double-height CLT truss walls

single-height CLT truss walls

main floors

sub-floors

vip conference room over canal

glulam core column

timber retention

brick facade

diagonal timber bracing

CLT core elevator shaft with lift

double core structures reviewed exploded isometric diagram of double core ‘tree’ tectonics

view of timber core shaft from south building 2nd floor

new glass windows keeping internal environment stable

mep of each stacked unit

mega glulam timber joinery forming frame of truss wall

rotatable timber walls CLT vierendeel truss wall

removable timber fins and glass panels with light strips

brick wall on canal side

view of new building tectonic 1 south building adjacent to canal side

floor systems with conventional timber frames

640mm glulam beam depth resisting bending moment from cantelivered floor plate above

cantelivered floor above supported by the vierendeel truss walls

stacked and cantelivered clt beams reaching 1500mm beam depth at lowest tier

ground floor oening walking down to bot-viewing platform with bars

diagonal glulam bracing pushing into concrete base to prevent timber core from buckling

view of new building tectonic 2 south building adjacent to canal side seen from inside

building tectonic -

rotational walls can create flexibility be

The rotational walls, taking inspiration from oriental folding screens, optimises maximum spacial of various sizes. The tilted timber fins with glass panels connecting two floors can be removed fo wind

flexibility of space

etween private meeting rooms and open areas

flexibility. Depending on the occassion, the open-plan floor space can be divided into smaller rooms or the occassion. The occupants can see close detail of the brick facade and the view outside the dows.

exploded isometri diagram of building tectonic 55

step 5 extract current oak timber foundation piles step o current

piling machine brought on site via empty roof top, can both escavate and insert piles

due to site proximity to water and escavated amount, the foundation will float if no tension iles are inserted

step 1 scaffolding

timber piles and foundation underneath facade is untouched

step 6 insert steel sheet piles to prevent water seeping into foundation

step 2 taking out current roof

large amount of manual labour is needed to saw through steel frames whilst retaining the facade

digging machine brought onsite via roof hole, earth escavated exits through roof too

step 7 escavation starts step 3 taking out current concrete floor

step 4 taking out current steel frame

step 8 escavation continues and steel retention tubes are installed to prevent facade collapsing

large demolished construction material moved out through emty roof top

The contruction of this complex is extremely challenging.The retention of the facade and the excavation of the new basement extention. A thorough construction sequence had been developed with consulation from structural engineers.

The contruction of this complex is extremel and the excavation of the new basement ext had been developed with consulat

step 9 insert concrete and steel tension piles into earth

step 14 installing lower level primary timber truss walls

step 10 new concrete foundation is poured

step 15 installing upper level primary timber truss walls

step A installing meps for basement warehosue

step b installing steel racks for bots to travel along

step 16 installing secondary timber truss walls

step 11 installing prefabricated timber core and bracing pieces

fire safety on maximum alert as large amount of timber on site

manual installation include wood-towood connection and wood-to-metal connection

the automated underground goods tunnel takes oento containers from the port to the warehosue

step c fully installed bot warehouse taking goods from basement to ground level delivery trucks

engineered timber has higher fire resistance as the surface chars quickly and stops burning

step 12 uninstall steel retention tubes

step 16 installing floor plates

step 17 installing new glass panel roof and taking away scaffolding

large amount of timber material is resent on construction site

ly challenging.The retention of the facade tention. A thorough construction sequence tion from structural engineers.

goods are sorted by bots/robotic arms of various sizes, then travels along retention structures to the ground level to be delivered

step 13 new timber facade retention structure installed

After the construction of the human occupied spaces, the installation of meps and robotic frames works begin. The logistics within the building takes goods from the underground motorway, through a series of sorting, dispatches to customers from street level.

warehouse seen from inside building through glass floor panels

expressive views of building te 58

fully automated Alibaba Wunderkammer basement warehouse

ectonic with automated warehosue

lower ground floor viewing platform area for visitors and employees

expressive views of building te 60

automated bots at work and cavaties for human maintainance

ectonic with automated warehosue

view with cutouts - materiality & spacial arrangements

cross-section with sacial and programme arrangments 64

Short section cut view

interior building view - ground floor entrance

Long section cut view - south building market arena

Summer night view with cut outs

Perspective cut view - winter Christmas market

All work produced by Unit 14 Unit book design by Charlie Harris www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture Copyright 2020 The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmited in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retreival system without permission in writing from the publisher.

UNIT @unit14_ucl

S Y S T E M I C I M PACT

2020

he focus of this year’s work is the awareness that architecture can affect at deepest systemic leveland the understanding that architectural proposition is in itself a system of interrelated constituents where the findings of interdisciplinary systems theory apply. This knowledge opens a way to a method-driven approach that can materialize in architecture of great performance and considered expression while driving architectural authorship and novelty. We will aspire to reinstate the designer’s engagement with all aspects of the system’s constituents aiming for impactful architecture delivered by the negotiation of the interacting entities that define the unified spatial whole. Societal, technological, cultural, economic as well as political developments will propel our investigations with a deep understanding of how they interlink. This will shape our strategies and heuristics, driving synthesis. The observation as well as re-examination of civilizatory developments will enable us to project near-future scenarios and position ourselves as avant-garde in the process of designing a comprehensive vision for the forthcoming. We will find out about how human endeavour, deep desire and visionary thought interrelate while they advance cultural as well as technological means, driving civilisation as highly developed organisation. Futurist speculation inspires and ultimately brings about significant change. Supported by competent research we will aim for systemic impact and amplify found nuclei into imaginative tales with architectural visions fuelled by speculation. Our methodology employs both bottom up and top down strategies in order to build up sophisticated architectural systems and will be tailored to the individual problem. Pivotal to this process and to fight charlatanism is the concept of practical experimentation – and intense exploration through both digital and physical models that aims to assess system performance and its direct application to architectural space. The emphasis on applied research fuels the process of design and allows us to develop highly considered architectural propositions with great momentum. Thanks to: Zaha Hadid Architects, DKFS Architects, Seth Stein Architects, Orms Designers and Architects, Cundall Engineers, Knippers Helbig, DaeWha Kang Design, AL_A, Innochain, Langstaff Day Architects

All work produced by Unit 14 Unit book design by Charlie Harris www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture Copyright 2020 The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retreival system without permission in writing from the publisher.

UNIT 14 @unit14_ucl