ECO - MMUNITY
GROUP 9
JIAWEI LIU SONCHUAN YANG
YUCHENG DENG
CPU[ai] PS1 Submission
Client Targets
Create a space for students to gather and collaborate
Connect MMU campus and students
Design an affordable accommodation for students
Creating inspiring learning and working space
Design a building that follows MMU zero-carbon plan
Create a space to work with students and residents
Accommodation
Our Brief
• Students accommodation block should have 40-60 units as a baseline.
• The project should be designed in DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly).
• Use mass timber construction in the design process. It should be in line with current mass timber DfMA limitations in the UK, which is currently a maximum 8 storeys high.
• The process should minimize carbon emissions – as a response to climate emergency.
Built environment
Other industries
A large part of The 17 Goals proposed by the United Nations is for the sustainable development of the earth. RIBA explained the ways in which architects and architecture can contribute to supporting all seventeen UN SDGs In the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Practice (RIBA 2017). To achieve this goal, reducing carbon emissions is a necessary measure. According to GBC, the construction industry’s carbon emissions account for 40% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. In response to this goal, the European Union, RIBA and MMU have all put forward corresponding goals to reduce the carbon emission. In order to make buildings less damaging to the environment, while responding to these goals, reducing the overall carbon emissions of the building is very important for this project.
EU, (2018), Going climate-neutral by 2050 MMU, (2021), OUR ROUTE TO ZERO CARBON Carbon Management Plan 2020-2026, [online]Available at: https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2021-07/Carbon-Management-Plan-2020-26_1.pdf
RIBA, (2019) RIBA SUSTAINABLE OUTCOMES GUIDE UKGBC, (2021), UKGBC’s vision for a sustainable built environment is one that mitigates and adapts to climate change., [online]Available at: https://www.ukgbc.org/climate-change-2/ UN, (2015), THE 17 GOAL [online]Available at: Shttps://sdgs.un.org/goals
Students think the student housing right now is too expensive. The security right now in student housing could be better.
General Social
Students want more social life when they live in accommodation. Students require more and bigger social space (common room etc).
Space
Students require more study space (public area and private room). Students want a bigger gym.
Social Space
Study space Gym
187 people take this survey, 83.15% of them are postgraduate students.
The majority of students stay in there room 60 - 110 hours per week (65.73%)
We found that students have a great demand for learning space and most of them spend a lot of time in the accommodation. Also they need some space for communication and entertainments.
We found that students have a great demand for learning space and most of them spend a lot of time in the accommodation. Also they need some space for communication and entertainments.
Based on these, we can define the study in a different way.
Main Roads
Secondary Roads
Site context
Student day-time foot path Student night-time foot path
accoummadation
Site
Before the start of the project, all of the students from Atelier CPU[ai] made a file for site analysis compendium together.
Here is the link: https://stummuac.sharepoint. com/:b:/r/sites/grp-CPUai_atelier-STUDENT/ Shared%20Documents/YEAR_03%20 %5Band%5D%2005/Site%20Analysis%20 Compendium.pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=dtYGeZ
Residents Students Vison
Close to the site
Residents flow didn't clash with the students
Cluster Student Accomadation
Leave space for student to come in
Good view MMU Brooks building and The Hulme Arch briage
The Entrance faces MMU brooks building, create a conection
We set off from the MMU library to the site at around 8:30 in the evening and took photos along the way. From the photos, we found that most of the roads along the way are relatively safe (good lighting and srrounded by student accommadations), but some roads do have small safety hazards (dark corners and blind spots)
Kingston University Town House A woodscraper
Grafton Architects
Intended as a connection between the student population at Kingston University and the local community, the Town House establishes a new civic space that facilitates learning while encouraging collaboration and fostering a sense of belonging.
The building’s colonnade extends the public space, turning the project into an inviting presence at street level. At the interior, voids and staircases link the various functions shaping a diverse experience where activities interweave.
The spatial solving of the opposing uses, a dance studio and a library, as well as the resulting dynamic. Execution, detailing and acoustics were also acknowledged, as was the environmental performance of the building.
Sou Fujimoto Architects
This is a project by Sou Fujimoto. It has impressive balconys and roof gardens, which is of great reference value for us. Also, it is a timberstructure building, this also opens up the possibility of wood in high-rise buildings.
The roof garden uses stairs and ramp to creat the space, which is similar to our setback design.
SPACE EXPERIENCE
In this part of our case study, we mainly focused on how interior space can collabrate with each other; What experiencer can people get when they in the space.
Connectivity of different spaces
Brings together different user group
Correspondence between internal and external spaces
Brock Commons Tallwood House
Canadian practice Acton Ostry Architects Inc.
Brock Commons Tallwood House is a student accommodation at the University of British Columbia. This is the tallest wood skyscraper in the world till this moment.
This is a typical case of DfMA. It took the first seven months to build the concrete base and another two months for assembling. Prefabricated components include floor slabs, columns, facades, etc.
From the second picture, we can clearly see the connector between columns and the slab. The columns are prefabricated with timber and steel and the slab are cut into certain shapes. After this, they will be fixed with bolts.
DESIGN STRATEGY
In this part of our case study, we mainly focused on design strategy that could achieve 0-carbon target. We found couple of way could help our design:
DfMA
References:
naturally: wood, (2017), BROCK COMMONS TALLWOOD HOUSE CONSTRUCTION MODELLING
naturally: wood, (2016), BROCK COMMONS TALLWOOD HOUSE DESIGN MODELLING
University of British Columbia, (2016), BROCK COMMONS TALL WOOD BUILDING INTRODUCTION
Mass timber structure
High efficiency plant
Natural ventilation
Solar energy
Here we use Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) as an example
Get the raw material from forest
Based on the analysis of precedents, we plan to use the non-volumetric DfMA method to build this building. The main principle is to transport raw materials to the factory, process them into parts in the factory, and finally process these parts into components of the building. Then ship them to the construction site for assembly.
Process them into single panels
Place them crosswise
Glue together Cut into small pieces
Transport to the construction site Assemble
Combine with other materials to form a wall of the building
Public Study Space
We decided to combine student accomadation with public study space to meet students' requirements. It also will create a linkage between the site and the university campus. Moreover, it can also achive building full year utilization.
Construction Method
We decied to use Mass timber DfMA as our building construction stratage. Therefore meets MMU 2030 zero carbon target and boost university brand identity.
Vegetation
We want to use high efficiency plant as one of our passive design stratage, therefore good to reduce the emibodied carbon emission. Moreover, large vegetation is good for creating a wellcoming space for publice.
MMU Estates
Variety of functional study spaces, mainly for learning, supplemented by the service industry. Student dormitory, various room types, and consideration of lighting and greening, the disabled, etc.
The overall structure is prefabricated wooden pillar structure. Modular production of upper living units.
Use the line of the sunlight to form a surface and project it to the site.
The height of the left part will not affect the solar gain of residence area.
According to the previous analysis, there is a relatively short residential area in the northeast of our site. If our project is too high, it will surely steal a lot of sunlight from residential areas. Therefore, after calculation, we have selected an angle to ensure that the residential area can get sunlight at least for half the daytime for at least six months.
Cut the box with two surface to ensure the residence area will not be affected.
Increase the height of left part to respond to the tall building on the opposite side
Remove a corner to show wellcome to the people on main road.
Remove the part behind to reduce the dark space inside the massing.
Move the tower to get a larger space. (Because of the limit of the sunlight. The floor area of the tower on this position is small. )
Final massing
Take the x-axis as privacy and y-axis as the noise level for spatial arrangement.
The solid line is the main flow, the dotted line is the interior circulation.
According to massing and space demand, we simply arranged the location of the space. The Ground Floor is mainly for reception and some functional space for it is a more public than private space. Put the study space on one side and another side mainly for accommodation so that the circulation can be easily controlled.
The space under the roof is mainly used for mechanical equipment. And part of it serves as a roof garden
The fourth floor and above are almost all accommodation area.
The third floor has a smaller interior area due to the influence of the roof and is close to the accommodation area, so most of the space is given to study areas.
The second floor is also a mix of study and accommodation areas. The second floor has a distance from the upper accommodation area, so the discussion area will be arranged on this floor
The first floor has a large area of study space and is close to the ground floor, so the music practice space will be placed here.
The Ground floor is mainly reception and some semi-open areas providing services for resident students, such as laundry room and gym.
Studio 2 bed En-suite
Living Space : 36 square metres
Bathroom
Living Space : 20 square metres
3 bed En-suite
Living Space : 15 square metres
Arrange the studio space; 2-3 people en-suit shared space, and private room unit according to the needs of privacy and shared space.
Based on the specific building interior space arrangement , arrange different types of units.
Identify project objectives, user, sustainability aspirations, and develop an initial project brief.
Examine site information and make recommendations for further information required. Assemble project team and design responsibilities.
Establish project programme and write up draft contract with client and prefabrication contractors involved.
Revisit project objectives and prepare a brief. Preparation of feasibility studies and options, for client to decide how to proceed.
Preparation of concept design, including outline proposal modules, framework, service systems and sustainability. Review design responsibilities.
Prepare project roles. Assemble full project team and disuss brief. Agree on project programme and procurement strategy.
Review project programme with considerations of the feasibility studies and preapplication advice.
Preparation of a developed design, reviewed by project team, and presented to client. Review developed design with respects to primary project aims.
Consultations with structural and environmental engineers. Preparation of technical design, with response to planning application response, as well as consultation's advice.
Tender stage to be complete. Materials to be sourcred off site manufacturing to commence. Insitu construction to commence in accordance with the construction programme.
Meeting with full design team and and contractors. Handover of the building.
Undertake service and checks after a period of time.
Meet with client, contractors and pass on feedback with project team. Take additional action if required.
Conclude the building contract. Close of contract.
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According to the above description, the structure of this project will mainly consist of two parts: a cement base and timber structure above.
The cement structure has a stronger loadbearing capacity, so there are fewer columns in this part. As shown in the picture, the column span of the G Floor cement structure is larger than that of the upper timber columns.
Also, the concrete core can be a structural part to hold the load above. This greatly improves the stability of the structure.
At the same time, the cement base can also solve the problem of easy water seepage of the G-layer timber columns.
These are diagrams show the main components of different walls.
Exterior walls have a thicker insulation layers for better U-values and they are mainly the facades of the building. Some of them are used for better thermall performance inside.
Interior walls are mainly used for dividing the rooms. Therefore they also need some vapour barriers to prevent mold growth.
Clapboards are only used to separate the space that does not require special sound insulation and moisture resistance, so the structure is relatively simple.
Roof Surface
Drainage Trough
Plant pot
Soil
Floor Surface
Filter
Reservoir Layer
Root Proof Layer
Drain-pipe
Waterproofer Insulation Floor slab
This diagram shows the drainage system of this roof. There are many small drainage grooves on the roof surface, which can control the direction of water flow to a certain extent.With the help of these troughs, most of the rainwater will flow down the roof to the ground. But in our design, the roof has some openings as gardens.We designed a drainage trough on the upper edge so that the rainwater flowing through here can be led to the feet of the plants. Excessive moisture in the soil will seep into the aquifer below.
At the same time, the floor here is made of wooden boards with voids. They allow rainwater fall through the filter into the water storage layer below, and follow the drain to the outside of the building.
The green roof can absorb part of the sun's radiation and the evaporation of plants and water can take away some of the heat in the room.
Also, it is a good way to reduce the CO2 for the city.
The balcony can effectively reduce the noise outside. They can block most of the noise from below and the noise absorbing materials can make this effect better. Because this facade faces Princess Road, balconies can be an effective way to reduce noise.
Many recording studios use slats for sound insulation. They are helpful to absorb the noise. Because of the main busy roads nearby, we use this element to form the facade of the project.
In the lifetime of a building, carbon emissions include the embodied energy of materials and the carbon emissions generated during the process of construction, operation, maintenance, and demolition.
We have already chosen the timber as the main material and used DfMA to reduce the carbon emission during the construction. But the maintenance and demolition can not be controled, so we would like to have a research on passive design to reduce the emission during operation process.
*Volume refers to the approximate value of this material in this project.
**Data (Embodied energy & Density) from the Inventory of Carbon and Energy ('ICE') prepared by the University of Bath (UK)
Diagram shows the embodied energy of the project
Except for the envrionmental strategies mentioned above. Natural ventilation system is also applied in the project. As the diagram shows, when the wind pass by the wind tube, it can extract the polluted air inside the building. Also, solar panels are installed on the facade facing the south to get clean energy as much as possible.
Although we intend to reduce it, carbon emissions will inevitably be generated during construction and operation. Plants are widely used in this project to compensate for carbon emissions
With the help of these measures, coupled with the use of negative-carbon wood and detachable construction, a large amount of materials can be recycled. We estimate that the entire building can reach net-zero.
This diagram shows how the MEP system applies in the building. We chose the first floor to demonstrate the system horizontally and used an axonometric drawing to show the system vertically.
1.9 The door has a minimum clear opening width of 775 mm.
1.15 The room containing the WC has a minimum op[ening width of 775mm,
1.17 There is clear space to access the WC with minimum 750 mm.
1.11 The lift doors have a minimum 800 mm.
2.14 There is a level landing a minimum of 1500 mm wide and 1500 mm long directly outside the entrance and clear of the swing of any door.
2.14 The entrance door has a minimum clear opening width of 850mm. where there are double doors(or gate), the main (or leading) leaf provides the required minimum clear opening width.
3.24 The minimum clear width for wheelchair of every hallway, approach or landing is 1050mm.
Reference: Approved Document M: access to and use of buildings, volume 1: dwellings
2.1 All habitable rooms should have either an opening directly onto a hall leading to a final exit or an emergency escape window or door
2.10 People
3.26 A person escaping through the common area, if confronted by the effects of a fire in another flat, should be able to turn away from it and make a safe escape via an alternative route.
7.22 Any stair or other shaft passing directly from one compartment to another should be enclosed in a protected shaft.
3.16
30 minutes fire resistance
Fire protected stairs
Internal route
3.27 Every flat is separated from the common stair by a protected lobby or common protected corridor (see Diagram 3.7).
3.50 The corridor or lobby next to each stair should have a smoke vent.
3.51 a. The smoke vent should be located on an external wall with minimum free area of 1.5 square meters.
3.60 If the stairs is also a firefighting stair, it should be at least 1100mm wide.
3.94 The fire door of any doorway or exit should be hung to open in the direction of escape whenever reasonably practicable.
Reference: Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings, 2019 edition incorporating 2020 amendments
41.
40. Recycled clean grit binding 50 mm
floor slab, reinforced concrete, with diamond-ground 48. Soil 49. Cement 50. Glulam timber column 300×300mm
sand, aggregate and
Corsican pine timber studs (40mm × 35mm, 40mm × 60mm, 40mm × 67.5mm, 40mm × 140mm; 50mm × 20mm, 50mm × 40mm, 50mm × 50mm, 50mm × 75mm, 50mm × 110mm, 50mm × 130mm, 50mm × 140mm; 65mm × 35mm, 65mm × 45mm; 75mm × 25mm) 42. Timber beam 265mm 43. Timber beam 100mm × 360mm, 140mm × 450mm 44. Timber lintel 45mm × 370mm 45. Timber sill 45mm × 370mm 46. Aluminium sill flashing 47. Foundation, 70% GGBS concrete-mix,
38. Polymer damp proof membrane
35. cement 175mm
29. High density plasterboard 37. Protection layer
28. Resilient bars 25 mm surface 350 mm
26. Timber I-joist beam 400 mm Horizontal battens 25 mm 36. Ground
27. Mineral wool insulation100 mm upper
25. OSB board 18 mm 34. Vertical battens/ventilation gap 50 mm
Recycled rubber isolation matting 5 mm 33. Acetylised MDF 18 mm
JIAWEI LIU
400mm X 400mm timber column
Steel connector
Bolt 50mm floor finish
150mm CLT timber floor
2 X 25mm water proof layers
50mm sheating board
50mm celling finish
400mm X 400mm timber column
100mm Mineral wool insulation
50mm facade panel
50mm floor finish
200 concrete floor
2 X 25mm water proof layers
100 glass wool insulation
50mm celling finish
600mm X 600mm concrete column
100mm glass wool insulation
100mm wood floor panel
200mm concrete floor
2 X 25mm water proof layers
100mm Plaster board
50mm sheating board
600mm X 600mm concrete column
Jiawei's Summary
This is a simple but difficult project for me. 'Simple' means that the requirements of this project are very clear: to build a student apartment with 60 to 80 households. 'Difficult' means that there are many additional conditions, and it is a field that I have rarely touched, such as: zero carbon strategies, DfMA structure design, etc.
For the design process of this project, at the very beginning, our group thought of using sunlight as the basis for forming the main body shape. However, although the idea of sunlight worked well, it also a strict limit for our design. Almost all of the positions are determined by the lines of sunlight. Moreover, our model was a big box from the beginning. In order to make new and reasonable changes under the limits, we tried many possibilities. At the same time, we needed to ensure the balance between the main function, that is, accommodation, and additional functions. These made our design enter a bottleneck period for a long time. In the end, we used the simplest subtraction to make a satisfactory result.
This is the first group work I have experienced on an architectural design project and this is a very helpful experience. In this project, the communication of our group was not efficient, which brought a lot of trouble to our work. I believe that after this project, I can do group work better.
Songchuan's Summary
As an undergraduate student from a noarchitecture background, this project is an experience to understand the architecture standard (MEP system, RIBA building regulation, etc.). The learning process of DfMA and Mass timber has been provocative. The ability to achieve a high quality and efficient building is something traditional building systems cannot reach. The zero-carbon strategy makes me thinks in-depth about what architects can contribute to achieving zero carbon goals in terms of design decision making. Inviting all the environmental and structural experts into class helps me to bring modular construction and different operational design strategies together in a reasonable method to arrive at our final design outcome.
Within these 12 weeks, the project successfully responds to our live client - MMU estate's requirement. Furthermore, I believe we also have met our user group's needs. It accomplished to bring a solution to the current zero carbon target of the MMU university.
Yucheng's Summary
The PS1 course is about a student housing project at DFMA. The project is located near Manchester Metropolitan University. In the design we have stuck to timber construction as much as possible, which makes the design zero-carbon and environmentally friendly. However, we had to use concrete in the foundations of the building to reinforce the mechanics of the structure. This sacrificed the integrity of the timber structure, but made the building more implementable.
This is the first time I have taken part in a design project that uses group work as a way of working. I gained a lot of new experience and learnt about the different ways of working with different partners. Although there were setbacks, it was a pleasure to spend 12 weeks with you all and to complete our design. Cheers!
In general, I learned a lot in the process of doing this project, from the design method, to the structure, to the graphic representation, to the teamwork. These will be my valuable experience.