Fullscreen
URBAN DESIGN STUDIO | F10
@
CASE
In the building industry, sustainability has been a much-hyped topic for long. Due to the growing number of buildings, our resources like water, energy and materials have been producing more and more waste over the years. Each new space created brings forth a different environmental challenge. In order to reduce that large impact, the field of sustainable design will tackle the issue at its source. There is no doubt that this is a significant concern that is being addressed by various firms and industries.
Bio-analysis is the examination of nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems. Organisms have been able to survive and evolve for centuries by using natural resources. Therefore, by studying these organisms, we can simulate their behaviors and performances in our buildings in order to use less mechanical energy.
Penguins have a heat-exchange blood-flow in their feet and flippers. The warm blood entering these regions flows past cold blood leaving so warming it up in the process and cooling the blood entering at the same time. Blood in these parts is significantly colder than in the rest of the body. By the time the blood re-enters the rest of the body it has been warmed up and so doesn’t have so great an effect on the core body temperature.
Counter-current heat exchange is a counterflow mechanism that enables fluids at different temperatures flowing in channels in opposite directions to exchange their heat content without mixing. Through heat generation, heat is given off from the core of the module. This exchange heats up the current flowing through the secondary “arteries”. The reverse effect can happen if the warm current is flowing through the secondary tubes and the main core is cold.
The most prominent solar exposure occurs on the southern and western side. This provides an advantage to collect the most sunlight from these facades. On the eastern and northern ends, the building gets the most shade because of the tall apartment buildings that surround it. Therefore, the openings need to be larger here to get as much sunlight as possible.
The lighting conditions vary throughout the building due to various module size. Furthermore, the overall shape of the shell provides shade during high summer sun, and openings during low winter sun.
DETAILS
EAST & SOUTH FACADE
Fullscreen
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT | S11
with
Lauren Thomsen
The TEK (Technology + Exhibition + Knowledge) building by BIG proposes to challenge the typical organizational hierarchy present in a mixed use program using a boolean relationship between a spiral tube inscribed within a cube as formal inspiration. The area of the spiral tube is cut from the cube, and the difference is the enclosed envelope of the building. The negative space created by the spiral serves as an exterior vertical plaza, allowing public access and creating aleatory conditions at all elevations of the building, and finally culminating as a park on the top level. The spiral void also serves as circulation for the building’s interior program, which is extremely diverse. The programmatic functions are organized not according to elevation, but are instead designed to maximize the spaces remaining in the booleaned cube. The dramatic juxtaposition of public and private, and exterior and interior space is furthered by the facade assembly, the transparency of which blurs the relationship between each element, and heightens awareness of the contrasting conditions.
The project consolidates the hypothetical contents of an entire city block into the program, proposing to extend the streetscape vertically. Interior program typologies include hotel, retail, office and conference, gallery, showroom and exhibition spaces, and restaurant spaces. Exterior program typologies include public plaza, inclined promenade, amphitheater, and rooftop green space. The TEK building is located in a dense urban context, adjacent to an existing pedestrian street in Taipei, Taiwan.
Rather than adhere blindly to formal constraints of symmetry and repetition existing in a true spiral and cube, the design proposes to modify the spiral tube to create more efficient spaces within the building. Interior program will no longer be subordinate to the formal consequences of the spiral void. Instead, the program and the form of the building will have a symbiotic relationship; the void will be modified according to programmatic needs.
The building negotiates the relationship between three major elements - volume (program) void, (circulation), and skin (enclosure system). The volume of the building is comprised of multiple programs each which demands a different scale, form, and publicity level. The void serves as the main communicating element between disparate programmatic volumes, it exists only in relation to them, and at times it becomes part of them. It adds anticipation and interest to the project, drawing people in and up through the building. It interacts with the programs by creating adjacent spaces that are neither program nor void. These spaces slow the transaction between the two elements and encourage people to simply appreciate and enjoy the space. The facade and envelope condition of the building unifies all of the elements and the void within a single volume and provides the project with clarity and coherence. The facade moves to the interior of the building, following the void and defining interior and exterior spaces within the building to create some very interesting conditions.
DIAGRAMS & DRAWINGS
RENDERINGS
IMAGES
coming soon...
Fullscreen
COMPETITION WINNER
with
Kieran Martin
"The Duncan Dunbar Memorial Drinking Fountain provides the designer an exciting site due to its historic importance to Greenwich Village and the harmonious manner in which it balances human engineering and the natural unpredictability of water. “SANDS THROUGH the [HOUR]GLASS” seeks to coalesce these three key concepts into the material of our intervention. The design takes historic geometry and construction principles as a takeoff point, gathering a swarm of rectilinear “building blocks” around the corner of W. 4th and Thompson Streets. These blocks align along the engineered linearity of Judson Memorial Church’s horizontal rustication, but are then penetrated by organic (ie. physics based minimal surfaces) voids through the translucent blocks. Through the integration of engineered volume (:blocks based on historic trial and error) and organic void (:penetrations derived from natural laws) “SANDS THROUGH the [HOUR]GLASS” physically exhibits the dichotomy of the Dunbar Memorial Fountain. The temporal aspect of the memorial fountain is represented through the erosion of the “building blocks,” provoked by running water and true grit. The construction process and arrangement of the blocks creates a system that does not require additive materials after installation. The shelves act to collect rainwater, which funnels through the calibrated voids into the catch basins/public benches. Once collected, the rainwater is circulated by large gauge, low pressure pumps powered by solar panels. As the water pours over the voids, it collects and carries the powdery grit from the 3D printed hole, catalyzing the act of erosion. Over the course of time, the opaque prints of the void give way to polished translucency, providing a dynamic installation which allows New Yorkers to recognize loss through time. Just as our memory fades with time, so too does “SANDS THROUGH the (HOUR)GLASS.” Our re-framing of the Dunbar Memorial Fountain seeks to reinstate the corner of W. 4th and Thompson Streets as the hub of Greenwich Village community through the introduction of relaxing benches and an integrated children’s game. The game, a type of “urban plinko,” plays out by children choosing one of five outlets then watching as an object is introduced at the origin of the fountain and finds its individual path to one of the five outlets."
COMPETITION ENTRY
Fullscreen
THESIS STUDIO | F11_S12
final project
in progress...
Urban metabolism is the conservation and expansion process of a specific system through the evaluation of energy intake and the waste generated within an environment. The analysis that is derived from this evaluation will demonstrate and suggest methods in which urban sustainability can be approached. Sustainable development is an ever-growing notion that is challenged in Nairobi by rapidly increasing population rates, the illegal construction of infrastructure, and consequently the deterioration of natural resources.
By controlling the urban expansion and implementing a modular, responsive eco-tourism network on top of the existing city plan, we can begin to limit and manipulate the transition zone between the built and the natural environment. The scale and application of the network will be a direct response to the energy intake and outtake of specific sites in Nairobi, which in turn will stimulate a more sustainable urban growth model/system.
Through strategic establishment of active nodes based on sensory and experiential parameters that respond to land regeneration rates, the improved eco-tourism network can address issues of conservation and localize the tourism job market. Consequently, the goal is not necessarily to increase the number of tourists, but to maximize the tourist experience, while at the same time minimizing its footprint.
Fullscreen
HYDE STUDIO PUBLICATION | S12
lead graphic designer & editor
coming soon...
