CLIMATE AND URBAN FORM
Study the Impact of Climate on Urban form and explore various ways of dealing with the repercussion of the issues pertaining to climate change and making provisions for future planning. Explore by design of space/spaces that respond to the climatic conditions of a given context.
DISKIT, NURBA VALLEY OF LADAKH, INDIA (Chosen Location)
Highest plateau in Jammu & Kashmir (3000m)
DISKIT, INDIA Diskit is a village in the Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is located in the Nubra tehsil. The Diskit Monastery is located in this village.Diskit is one of the major towns in Nubra region of Ladakh. It is a popular destination for tourists and is situated around 118 km from Leh and 7 km from the town of Hunder. Situated on the banks of river Shyok, Diskit has many home-stay and guest house options that are open throughout the year. The main market is a small place with a few tiny restaurants.
RAINFALL 90mm every year (rare in winter) Temp– for about 3 months There is more rain than snow. Only rain: 7.3 months (Mar–Nov) Only snow: 4.3 months (Nov–Mar) Mix of rain and snow: March Wet season lasts for 5.9 months
COMFORTABLE LIVING WEATHER June to September (more rain than snow)
Borders: Tibet (east), Lahore and spiti (south), Xinjiang (southwest corner), Karakoram Pass (far SUMMER north) May-August (hot and humid, dry windy) Upto 33oC Frequent Earthquakes
WINTER Dry and Windy Upto -40ºC
Pensi-La is open between June – Mid October
No major peaks
WIND DIRECTION West to North West, March-Nov West, NovMarch South
Mountain Ranges: 45 million years old
Peaks in Ladakh are at a medium altitude close to Zogi-lal (5km – 5,500m) and increase southwest (7km)
Indus river is the backbone of Ladakh, major historical and current towns are close to the river. Ladakh is a high-altitude desert as the Himalayas create a rain shadow.
Zanskar (gets frozen during winter) is the main river of the region
Flora is extremely sparse except along streambeds, wetlands, high slopes and irrigated places
Architecture in Leh • Most construction material constitutes of stone, sun dried Brick, poplar, grass and timber • Quartzite Stone lower stories to impart additional strength and provide protection from water • Sun dried blocks are primary units of Masonry construction. Added in lower course of wall for added strength to the structure • Earth block and timber offer up to 40-degree temperature change- Outside -20 inside will easily be up to 20 degrees • Most settlements tend to be on the plains and as close to rivers and glaciers as possible thus taking care of the settlements water requirements. • Wind direction: West to North West, March-Nov West, Nov- March South
• Insulation is provided with a mixture of clay, dry grass, straw, and sticks Typical architecture involves making the walls out of piling stones and sun dried bricks, then placing wooden beams and floor joists across the walls to support the second floor above them. Floors and roofs are made of mud treaded on wooden boards. Traditionally ground floors are reserved for stables whereas the second floor is the living spaces so that heat from the animals can be used by residents. Kitchens near sleeping area to utilise cooking heat to moderate temperature Wall thickness is 300-450mm. Walls finished in mud plaster. Needs to be changed every year
Lower stories of mud, upper stories of timber. Timber gives better thermal comfort with carpet. Walls are thicker at the base and taper towards the top Timber lintels and plaster bans. Layer of timber acts a s a thermal barrier that prevents loss of heat due to conduction from the walls and is also vernacular leh architecture
The user Our artist is a mid 30’s male painter. He doesn’t usually entertain a lot of guests at his studio and like to work alone. He enjoys his time cooking. He prefers working in natural light.
SITE PLAN (Not To Scale)
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DESIGN CHALLENGES
Promote Heat Gain- Sunlight, Trapping Heat,Reduce Shading, Utilize latent Heat Resist Heat loss: Insulation, Decrease Exposed Surface Area,Increas thermal resistance and capacity, Decrease air exchange rate, increase surface absorbability Resist wind: Trees as wind barriers, Wind breakers Earthquake and landslide zone : Foundation interventions Increasing precipitation POSSIBILITIES In a place like diskit there is possibility of compact houses, with a sloping roof. There is a possibility to explore materials as ever material acts differently in such extreme climatic conditions. There is a possibility of multi-story houses as level 0 is used for cattle and livestock. There are possibilities of frozen water tanks if not installed with proper materials. There are also possibilities of road blockage, so routes can be harder to reach places and food needs to be stored for future use.
HUMAN COMFORT A human to live comfortably in a climate like ladakh will need: Warmth Proper Ventilation Water (Drinking, Daily use) Houses with sloping roof (due to high precipitation) Houses with appropriate materials (due to extreme temperatures) REQUIREMENTS Bedroom: Wants it warm as the temperature tends to be even lower during nights. Washroom: Some kind of ventilation is necessary Studio space: Enough movement space to work freely Kitchen: Easy accessibility Compost area: To collect and discard waste Store: To keep food stock for the remaining year safely Dry area: Used for laundry Living area: Casual relaxing space Tank space: Requirement for water pumping
ITERATION 1
>> Studio space is double floored on the south-western area so that maximum heat from the southern side can be retained in the studio. The kitchen is open and centrally located on the ground floor >> so that the heat generated from there can provide warmth to the entire house. Store and Dry area are placed together on the ground floor to store dry food ingredients over longer spans of time when >> there is road blockage, and dry area to hang wet laundry, area big enough for one person’s usage.
>> Kitchen and the chimney passes through the bedroom to reach the open sky so that the heat absorbed by the sun dried brick can be retained during the night time to keep the bedroom warm. It’s a semi open space so that it can absorb heat from the window on the southern side. >> Washroom’s on the first floor because we provided the compost right under it. The kitchen waste can also be dumped into the compost. The compost area has a window opening to collect the waste. >> The tank space is on the first floor next to the washroom, so that pumping of water is easier.
STUDY MODEL 1
ITERATION 2
>> The results of the testing(next page) on first model of the studio influenced the second model and we made changes, so that ventilation is proper and heat is trapped in well.
>> We reduced the studio size from 2 storeys to single storey as so much space was not needed by our artist and excess space would lead to heat loss.
>> We made changes in the arrangement of bedroom, studio, washroom as we removed the water tank area from the first floor and made it an underground system.
>> We extended the bedroom area so that now it fits all his furniture. >> We changed positions of few windows to improve the ventilation.
STUDY MODEL 2
CONDUCTING TESTS
VENTILATION METHODOLOGY 1.For conducting this experiment, we assumed that there was no wind factor, and the wind was only moving due to the heat movement. 2. Burn an incense stick and place it inside your model. 3. Keep all your windows or chimney open to see where the smoke comes out from. It may take a few seconds. 4. This experiment communicates whether the designed windows or ventilation systems are working efficiently. 6. Write down your observations.
CHECKING INPUT OF AIR 1.Going ahead with the same assumptions, as for the above activity. 2.Light a candle {Cut it into small piece, around 5cm }, place it inside your house. 3.Take an incense stick and keep them at a slight distance from your window. 4.Check whether the smoke from the incense stick enters the house. 5.This may take a while, as the air below needs to be heated first, in order to create low pressure for the air of the outside to move in.
RESULT In the first study model, while the window in the bathroom and chimney were working extremely well but the large windows facing southwest didn’t take any input of air. This was unexpected for us, as we had begun with the idea that the said window would act as a great source of ventilation. We tried to work on that in our second study model. The window was then divided into two, one in the upper left most corner and the second part was in lower most corner of right hand side. In the second study model test, the ventilation worked efficiently and there was an adequate air exchange rate. ANALYSIS The analysis of the experiment are as follows; STUDY MODEL 1 •There was no circulation from large north west window. •Large amount of sun light on north west side but rest of the house was dark. •Good circulation from north east bedroom window but air just accumulates within the house with very little passing out of the chimney. STUDY MODEL 2 •Opening on the western side acts as a better ventilation point than before. •Eastern side window allows lesser air to come in than in previously conducted experiment •Air entering house is successfully leaving out of chimney duct •And through the chimney duct the bedroom heats up, as heat is produced at an intended space from stove. •Dispersing windows instead of previously singular larger window allows more light to enter. •No material variability.
MATERIAL METHODOLOGY The intent of this experiment was to test the durability of different materials in extreme cold conditions such as in Ladakh thereby striving to find what would be an ideal insulator for a house. Having read that air is an excellent insulator and that traditional Ladakhi houses employ mud for insulation we were leaning towards these two materials to succeed. Incidentally it was the plastic straws that proved to be the best insulation. To test the material, we made 4 different walls that would be stuck on the four side of our house. Each side had a coating of a different insulation. The materials we decided to test were mud, straw, thermocol and air. Once we stuck all the sides on to the model of the house we calculated the base temperature readings of the model on each wall. We then placed the model within a freezer for a duration of half an hour and then checked the temperature within the three walls. What was interesting was that straw and thermocol both performed as good insulators but mud absorbed moisture within the freezer reaching extremely low temperatures. Unfortunately, this experiment wasn’t entirely successful since the model once outside quickly gained heat giving us inaccurate readings. As a result, we decided to redo the test concentrating on one material at a time to better focus our results. We placed the model in a freezer and checked the temperature differences on each of these walls for 10 minutes each. Openings were sealed shut using tape. At the end of each time period the model was removed and the wall temperature measured. The results are as follows: Unit of measurements: °Celsius
CONCLUSION OF BOTH METHODOLOGY The test showed that air was the poorest insulator reaching lows of 20.5째C. On the other hand, mud in this experiment proved to be the best insulator having absorbed no water. Unfortunately, since Ladakh has been experiencing increased precipitation in the dry months mud would be successful in keeping the house warm but in the face of wet conditions it would not perform so well. Hence, we looked at the next successful material-Plastic straws. The idea behind using straws was to mimic the emerging concept of using plastic bottles to build. The air trapped between the straws added with the inherent insulating properties of plastic (25.8째C) proved to work excellently with merely a 0.6째 degree difference between the results of dry mud (26.4째C). What was further interesting was that the wall with plastic was the one with the largest openings and hence the largest weak spots. While thermocol also acted well it was a lower temperature than with the straws. The test was of course not the ideal and most effective way to test our model but given the time constraints and availability of resources it was the best option. Another constraint of the experiment is that the temperature sensor was fluctuating between an average of 4 degrees each time. Having said that in the purview of our experiments we have deduced that the plastic straws did work the best and are hence moving forward using this material
ANALYSIS When all the experiments were performed, we came to a few conclusions as to what materials according to us are appropriate for construction in Ladakh, where should the windows be placed for proper ventilation, how should the interior be in order to keep the house warm, how to retain maximum heat? To get all the answers we conducted several tests; We understood that maximum sunlight comes from the south, and therefor to keep our house warm we gave bigger windows on south and south west. We incorporated wooden flooring and all wooden furniture so that it absorbs all heat during day and can emit out during night time. We also understood that the placements of interior affect a lot, as placing the bedroom over the kitchen kept the bedroom warm: also, because the chimney was passing through. The material that conducted least heat loss was plastic straw and so we concluded, building our studio with an insulation of plastic straws. Plastic materials are also used in Ladakh to insulate their walls, as it is easily available and hard to recycle
FINAL MODEL
VASUDHA JEENDGAR collabrated work with
Spondana Chattopadhya Eshita Arora Simran Goplani