Visualising New Paradigms

This assignment focuses on the connections we can make from looking at the world at the larger scale and narrowing it down to the human body.

systems

Earth- Human interactions conneted by different ways.  This first diagram of the earth as a whole begins to suggest ways by which food is transported across nations as a way of humans being connected.

City- (Washington DC) Movement of materials and goods and energy- nutrients as a way of being sustainable and encouraging human relationships.

Building- A machine for living- radiant heat and air become a machine to house the human body and a means by which all the interations explained earlier come in contact with the body but passing through the material of the building.

Body- Through physical contact, different individuals are eble to interacts and share their connections with one another directly and construct for themselves a relationship to the world as well as within themselves as influenced from the world.

Assignment 5: Applying Environmental Principles in Design

This assingment involves me incorporating my knowledge systems of light and air movement into my Arch301 studio design project. My site is located in Old City, Philadelphia, Pa and is 35′ by 150′ in overall footprint. The design brief requires that we programmatically make it a Wellness Center- as a result, mine is a Spa & Rejuvination Center. My main theme throughout the design was an attempt to re-create some of the aspects of rhythm and repetition I observed in the immediate environment surrounding my site, this involved considering light and shadow, human traffic and its intensity as well as activity on the Ben Franklin Bridge directly opposite my site. I decided to primarily focus on “rejuvinating” the lower floors of my building by coming up with a design that directed ambient light to that area (which currently feels like its under the bridge). In doing this I shifted my floor plates by 5′ on the North, East and West sides which in turn created a light well in the front half of my building. Incorporating louver systems also allowed for this light flow as well as natural cross-ventilation throughout the building. In the images below, my stairwell served as the stack effect system enabling cooler air to travel to the top half in the summer as well as warm air to the lower floors in the winter.My choice of materials help encourage this light flow- glass and steel mesh systems that will let light through.

Panorama of site

Axonometric showing hot/cold air & wind

Solar studies- Transverse section perspective

Sun chart Elevation

Sun chart Plan

 

Bus Stop/Bike Shelter Assignment PartIII- Final

Kohlhepp_Young_Bike Bus Stop



Reni and Sarah’s bus shelter/bike share

One of the starting ideas was to incorporate it into the existing clock tower already located on our site: the intersection of Alderman road and Whitehead road.

Our shelter consists of 2 components: an enclosed glass mosaic room employing adaptive re-use of discarded glass; and a photovoltaic-roof structure physically connected to the existing clock tower pavilion.

The strategic placement of the mosaic room is such that it will diffuse the light of the setting sun, reflecting the mosaic and its colours on the ground. Benches wrap the interior of this structure to create a communal meeting area that encourages interactions between the users of this bus shelter/ bike share. This glass structure is slightly nestled within the second part of the structure creating a ventilation space to allow for the escape of hot air in the summer months.

The roof of the second structure is covered by photovoltaic panels. The slant of these panels is such that during the day, they collect energy from the sun, providing a power source for track lighting within the bus stop, creating a safer night environment. The lighting also interacts with the glass mosaic structure from within to create a different kind of interaction than the daytime light diffusion.

There is a central wall within the second structure surrounded with benches that provide a place for those waiting for the bus to sit. This central wall has an opening to allow wind to pass through the building gently.

The back of the structure is lined with small covered bike hubs, to protect the bikes left there by those utilizing the bike share program.

Lecture Notes 5 | Light

Air Flow: Aqua Tower + Swiss Re

Prevailing winds have positive and negative pressure and air will always move toward negative pressure. As a result the wind is stonger in the sky than it is on the ground and skyscrapers have to be adapted to withstand this stronger wind. This thererfore encourages architects to design a profile of buildings so that there is laminar flow around them.

The Aqua Tower was designed by Jeanne Gang and is located in downtown Chicago. It is an 86-story mix use residential apartment and has some very interesting architectural elements due that came about by the consideration of these strong winds that will be blowing against the building surface. (images 1-3)

Projecting balconies to redirect the wind; these therefore disperse/breakup points of wind concentration to reduce its impact on the building

Balconies are place in pools of calmer air so that people higher up in their apartments can enjoy the outdoor space without the risk of getting blown off!

Note: Most intense winds happen on the corners of skyscrapers while mid-faces are calmer.

The idea of laminar flow around tall buildings reminded me of my CAAD project case study, the Swiss Re (also know as the Gherkin) in the U.K. A building like this would need to be curved rather than have sharp edges because the wind is less turbulent on the curves therefore encouraging a more smooth flow along the sides of the building. (images 4-7)

 

 

Lecture Notes 4 | Wind & Air flow

Bus Stop/Bike Shelter | Mid-review

Sarah and I decided to go with the more artistic approach to creating a microclimate that is more sculptural and artistic. We incorporated innovative ideas like insulating paint and the use of recycled plexi-glass that acts as a light diffuser later in the day when the sun is lower and will shine directly through the space also creating a beautiful design on the ground.

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mosaic precedent_1

Insulating Paint?

Nanotechnology, the science of manipulating the atomic structure of materials on a scale of a nanometer, that product is called Nansulate, a paint-on insulation with extremely low thermal conductivity. Patented and manufactured by Industrial Nanotech, Inc. ( www.industrial-nanotech.com), Nansulate suspends specially engineered microscopic particles with nano-scale internal architecture in an acrylic resin, which is in turn suspended in water, making a product that appears similar to thick, acrylic-based paint. The company developed a residential version of Nansulate that can be applied with a brush, paint roller or sprayer and cleans up with water. Paint-on insulation can address the pervasive problem of uninsulated walls in older homes. While it is easy, in most cases, to put conventional insulation above ceilings and under floors, sealed walls must be opened and resealed or have insulation pumped through holes, which must then be patched.

Bus Stop Assignment Part II

During exploration for this project, a few ideas came to mind, one of which was a “fine-mesh fabric tree shelter” which would work like it does for smaller plants but on the human scale instead:

v  Light availability (so not too shady)

v  Fineness of mesh will also prevent the tree growth through shelter but still allow natural ventilation (air flow through)

v  Microclimate

Ambient temperature vs. Interior temperature:

• On warmer days, shelter will be cooler than the ambient temperature
• On cloudy, cooler days, shelter will be warmer than the ambient temperature

The images below show how it works at the scale of an individual plan but the idea was to have this larger for human-scale (obviously smaller than image 3 on the slideshow).

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Venturi Effect

It is an example of Bernulli’s Principle, in the case of fluid flow through a tube or pipe with a constriction in it. The fluid velocity must increase through the constriction to satisfy the equation of continuity (an equation  that describes the transport of some kind of conserved quantity), while its pressure must decrease due to conservation of energy: the gain in kinetic energy is supplied by a drop in pressure. A more applicable situation happens in large cities where wind is forced between buildings.

Bernoulli’s Principle

Bernoulli’s principle, sometimes known as Bernoulli’s equation, holds that for fluids in an ideal state, pressure and density are inversely related: in other words, a slow-moving fluid exerts more pressure than a fast-moving fluid. Since “fluid” in this context applies equally to liquids and gases, the principle has as many applications with regard to airflow as to the flow of liquids. One of the most dramatic everyday examples of Bernoulli’s principle can be found in the airplane, which stays aloft due to pressure differences on the surface of its wing; but the truth of the principle is also illustrated in something as mundane as a shower curtain that billows inward. 

Conservation of Energy

In architecture, a column of moving air there is faster moving air at a slower air principle than slower moving air.

In planes, as air accelerates over the wing, the air drops- accelerated wind creates low pressure and therefore, low draw.

Explanatory video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiWa4uzOynk&feature=related