Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Thesis Presentation Discussion

By Sean Williamson


Hello! Well this past 2 weeks has been very stressful! Today was my first official meeting with my committee in regards to my thesis, which is a natural disaster resistant high-rise residential tower. In today’s blog, I would like to share some of what I presented to my committee with you.

Site Location (image 1)
- The site location is in Miami, Florida, on an island west of Miami Beach (displayed on the top right).


- The lot, highlighted in orange, consists of 196,456 square feet and is surrounded by water. The image on the bottom right is a view from the site looking south while the image above that is looking north.

Site Analysis (image 2)
- Within the site, the dominant prevailing winds are coming from the East-South-East. All the views within the site are excellent, but dominant views are towards the North-east.


Project Statement & Building Diagram (image 3)
- To the right is a building diagram explaining some of the approaches I am wanting to take.

- Due to zoning regulations, the structure will be limited to 24 stories.


 - It will incorporate 2 & 3 bedroom apartments, with a restaurant on the top floor open to both the residents of the tower and the public.

- The first floor is going to be designed to resist flooding. Above the 1stlevel will begin the apartments.

- I wanted to incorporate an outdoor community space for the residents somewhere within the tower.


- One approach I am taking to decrease the lateral forces of wind is to take the prevailing winds through the building.

- The structure of the tower is going to be composed of an all steel system because steel has an ability to bend rather than break, with the shape of the building taking some sort of curved approach to better direct the wind.

- Another idea I had was to incorporate a mechanical metal shutter system that would could close cover all openings within the structure in the event of a hurricane

Program (image 4)
- On the left is the program that will be used to design the tower. It’s not 100% complete yet because I am waiting to develop a building footprint in order to come up with the accurate square footages for the restaurant portion of the program on the top floor.

- The right image is the affinity matrix I developed to study how all the spaces interact with each other.

Case Study #1 (image 5)
- The first case study I looked at that dealt with taking wind through a building was the Pearl River Tower in Gaungzhou, China.

- 1,014-foot-tall tower includes ducts shaped to vent prevailing winds. The inlets exploit a pressure differential across the tower, causing a 20-feet-per-second wind to rush through them at 23 to 30 feet per second to generate energy for the building.


Case Study #2 (image 6)
- The next case study I looked at was the Wuhan Greenland Center located in Wuhan, China.

- Obviously this structure is a lot taller than mine, but the same concept could be applied to a smaller scaled version.

- Apertures allow air to pass freely in and out of a two-to-three-story-high segment of the double–curtain wall that rings the tower, relieving wind loads by three to ten percent.

- The tower also incorporates smooth corners equipped with vents, and a domed top to reduce wind resistance.


2 Bedroom Apartment Program (image 7)
- These last 3 sheets I have are conceptual diagrams showing how spaces relate.

- This is the 2 bedroom apartment program with a rough layout on how the spaces could be organized.


3 Bedroom Apartment Program (image 8)
- The 3 bedroom apartment is basically the same as the previous 2 bedroom apartment but with an additional bedroom, bath, and walk-in—closet.

- The goal is to incorporate a private balcony into every unit.


Restaurant Program (image 9)
- The last sheet I have for you is the restaurant conceptual diagram which illustrates customer and staff circulation within the various spaces.





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