13TH ASA Architectural Exhibition

By Chhanya Nidal

Expression through fourth dimension

Every year, the third year students of Architecture in Pulchowk Engineering Campus, Kathmandu Nepal, organize architectural exhibition through ASA (Association of Student of Architecture). And every time the exhibition is very unique, attractive and fascinating to all the visitors. The exhibition has its own theme and the whole scenario is designed accordingly.

The exhibition not only gives an insight to the technologies of past and promotes the facts of present but also provides futuristic fantasies to any design. Besides, it also provides a good platform for students, architects and everybody related with this profession to understand the field of architecture better.

When we were in third year, we organized three days long 13^th ASA exhibition on 1-3 Oct, 2010. Prior to the exhibition titled “Expression through the fourth dimension”, the entry to the exhibition block was made through quite a surprising maze, a little deserted walk on unmanaged bushes and then through a cave, showcasing the evolution of architecture through cave.

Then toward Stonehenge followed by stepped pyramid and then approach to summer pavilion with display of paintings from Art Competition. The approach to the exhibition wing from the back entry showcasing well-crafted models exemplifying different architectures of the world.

The Egyptian pyramid, Greek Acropolis, the Roman Colosseum, the Mayan architecture, Angkor Vat of Hindu Architecture, Sachi Stupa of Buddhist architecture, Taj Mahal of Muslim architecture, Salisbury Cathedral of Christian, encrusted the journey of architecture. The time line was presented by displaying models of pre historic and modern architectural works together with providing information on art movements of different periods.

Nepali architecture from inside and outside of Kathmandu valley, energy efficient buildings and design of famous architects were also showcased. The exhibition also included research papers, projects, thesis, conservation studio, photographs, design and artwork. Experience, working for Exhibition is quite different from working at studios. It is the time when we get to work with all the juniors and seniors from all the years from the school. And at last, yes, all the hard time working till late nights and preparing for exhibition worked so far, when you see lots and lots of visitors enjoying and experiencing the architecture. The three day long exhibition for us was an opportunity to show the innovative works and a way to make others feel ARCHITECTURE without being in there.

Strategies for Sustainable High-Rise Design

By Sean Williamson

After reviewing some case studies relating to hurricane resistance, I decided to take a look into sustainable high-rise design. It is projected by the year 2030, 5 billion people will live in urban areas all across the world (United Nations, 2001). In 1950, the percentage of people living in urban areas was 30 percent. In 2000, this percentage rose to 47 percent. Come 2030, it is estimated that 60 percent of the world’s population will live in an urban area. “Energy shortage, global warming, urban sprawl, air pollution, overflowing landfills, water shortage, disease, and global conflict will be the legacy of the twenty-first century unless we move quickly towards the notion and implementation of sustainability” (Ali & Armstrong).

The principal design factors that are crucial for achieving a high performance tall building are site context, environment, structure and use of materials, energy consumption, use of water, ecological balance, community development, etc. Since the beginning of the industrial age in 1830,

building technology has advanced from monolithic structures with marginally controlled passive

environments to glass-enclosed skeletal frames with intelligent robotic servicing. Much of this change occurred after 1940 with proliferation of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems (Bachman, 2003).

There are many strategies that can be implemented for sustainable high-rise design. Some of these strategies include passive solar gain, structure and material selection, facade technology, harnessing both solar and wind energy, combined heat and power systems, and fuel cells. There are other approaches one can take in designing a sustainable high-rise tower. For example, rainwater collection, biomass energy (growing plants as a source of energy), biomass fuel, and geothermal energy are sustainable techniques that may also be implemented.

Innovative building technologies such as computer-based smart or intelligent building systems can

play a major role in managing energy usage. The increasing reliance on computer technology has led to achieving sustainable functioning skyscrapers. The Building Management System (BMS) mentioned earlier is a centralized control system that manages the operations of various building systems such as fire protection, security, communication networks, elevators, HVAC systems, etc. The environmental data collection and control system is usually incorporated within the BMS which is used to control more passive features like opening windows or closing a shading device (Ali & Armstrong). If properly incorporated into the design, BMS systems can drastically reduce the amount of energy structures use. 

Figure1: An actual example of sustainable high-rise techniques

Works Cited

Ali, M., & Armstrong, P. (2008). Overview of Sustainable Design Factors in High-Rise Buildings. 1-10. Retrieved November 11, 2014, from http://grundfos.kernelglobal.dk/BLUEPRINT/BP_03_2011/GJP/3_DOWNLOAD_FILES/3_SPREAD3/B4/Future-high-rise-technology-water.pdf

 BACHMAN, L. R. (2003). Integrated Buildings: The Systems Basis of Architecture. John Wiley & Sons. Inc. Hoboken, NJ. pp. 402-404.

 UNITED NATIONS (2001). Future World Population Growth to be Concentrated in Urban Areas. United Nations Population Division Report. November.

 Image: http://www.ctbuh.org/News/GlobalTallNews/PR_0907_GoettschSoochow/tabid/1265/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Crunch Time

By Nicholas Bosman

Well, it is that time of the semester. It is time to get things moving for the final presentation. Finish up floor plans, get the site plan ready, and get the building ready for some renderings. We cannot forget about the model either. That is a big part of it. I feel pretty good at this point in studio. I am confident about my progress. I am thinking that I will do renderings from Revit this semester. Sometimes, on projects that are big like this hotel, I would do the renderings by hand. My first attempt at doing this is second semester junior year. Two weeks before the final project was due, my flash drive snapped. So I did all of the drawings by hand since I did not have a backup file. Since then, I realized that I have an option to do it by hand.

            Anyway, back to this project. My hotel for Barra Da Tijuca, Brazil is 13 stories above ground and two stories below ground. Fifteen levels in all. I have decided that it will have a façade that includes stucco, concrete cladding, and granite. The granite is a native material from that area.

            From the past reviews, I have not gotten any suggestions about how to improve my building or the site plan of my area. I only got suggestions about how to convey the message I am trying to get across better. So I am making my own tweaks and changes as I see fit. Once I found out how to do the structure of the buildings, everything else followed and it really started to develop. My master planning group for our entire master plan in which my building is set in will meet to finalize the plan and start producing final presentation drawings for it to explain our idea.

            What I plan on doing to finish this project is, most importantly, get my floor plan finalized. After that comes things outside of the floor plan such as sidewalks, roads, etc. One thing I have to figure out is the parking. I have two floors for parking but I do not think that it will be enough for all of the rooms plus the workers. The only thing after that is figuring out how the service vehicles will get in for deliveries. I would like to try to hide that as much as I can but I am not sure as of now how I will do it.

            Well, that is all I have for now. I have to get going on the site plan. Have a good day.

A Chair is a Very Difficult Object

By Kyle Fountain

You might recognize the title as the beginning to the famous Mies Van Der Rohe quote:  “ …A chair is a very difficult object, a skyscraper is almost easier…”  I was recently listening to one of my favorite podcasts 99% Invisible when they were discussing the invention of the Nerf ball.  As Bruce Hannah describes during the interview, they were playing with a piece of foam, intended for a chair, cut it into a diamond shape in order to toss it back and forth in their design studio without breaking things, the rest is history.  Unfortunately, Bruce isn’t mentioned on Nerf’s Wikipedia page, or credited with the invention.  That is why everyone with a good idea should read, or listen to Stephen Key’s “One Simple Idea.”  

In the same way Mies described the complexity of a chair in his quote, one could also assume that designing one of the largest grossing toys was almost easier than applying the aforementioned piece of foam to a new chair design.  This semester I have been struggling with the design of a media storage furniture piece.  The idea came to me when my mom was begging my brother and I to remove the large stereos from our home.

Figure 1:  Ugly Stereo

Figure 3:  Elevation-Front and Side of my current design

The design is inspired by the old 1950’s and 1960’s credenza’s and stereos that were designed as a piece of furniture integral to a room.  My issue with those, however, is that they become a box to hold clutter.  My goals were to enclose the above stereo, router, Bluetooth adapter, and record player into one clean, simple furniture piece.

Figure 2:  Example of Mid Century Credenza Courtesy of – K2 Modern  <https://www.flickr.com/photos/kinzco/>

I have finished with the initial design, acquired the wood, and am beginning to build this week.  I am planning to have the piece built by the next blog entry.  Finished photos and process images will also follow.

My Digitally Fabricated World

By Donald Olsen

Issue 6- Fabricating my Thesis – Friction Fit Housing

So last time I explained most of the elements of my thesis project and left it saying this article would try and best explain friction fit housing. To start friction fit housing is an interesting concept that dates back farther than most would think about. Let’s begin with the simplest friction fit building, the log cabin. Log cabin utilize a very similar building style in that most of the logs are cut at the ends to resemble the classic toy the Lincoln log. At full scale log cabins at one time were fit together, jointed at the ends and then the gaps would be sealed with a number of methods such as mud or clay. Unlike its frontier day counterpart the modern day friction fit house uses similar concepts to become a complete house, just without the mud. The modern day version uses a CNC to precisely cut and number each piece so that the house can easily be put together by someone who has no previous building knowledge, very similar to giant puzzle. The benefits of friction fittings is that they require little to no hardware to assemble, which also means that they also require little to no tools.

The best example of a friction fit house completed recently is a project called Housing for New Orleans done as part of a display at the MOMA in New York called Fabricating the Modern Dwelling. The project was developed by Lawrence Sass, professor at MIT, who said that the greatest challenges and benefits of this project were the testing of new design software’s, building physical models, testing and re-testing said models, and demonstrating the potential of digitally fabricated structures. Unlike what you might be thinking about a single housing unit that fits together like a puzzle, the Housing for New Orleans project not only functions but is really brings the aesthetics of a classic New Orleans shotgun house. This project similar to the ones talked about last week all starts in the digital format. The digital design process utilized needed to do a number of different things for the design team; it needed to ensure that all the parts would eventually fit together, it needed to account for all material thickness, it needed to subdivide all the surfaces on the entire structure to create all the pieces that would eventually come together to complete the structure, and it needed to prove it could work. One of the keys things in that list is the subdivision of surfaces. The MIT team used a series of algorithms to both subdivide and weave the connect points across the surfaces of the structure. The purpose of the weaving was to create strength by weaving the pieces. As an example of what this entailed I liken it to building with Legos. If you take a handful of pieces and simply stack them end to end on top of each other they don’t have near the strength as the same pieces stacked in a staggered pattern. Likewise the weaving of the plywood surfaces enable the structure that has no screws or nails holding it together to gain its strength from the way the pieces fit together.

From the images above you can get a greater sense of what the connections looks like and how they fit together. Friction connected houses are interesting because of their simple yet complex nature, the precision of design and their adaptability. For all these reasons I felt that this topic greatly lent itself and would benefit my thesis proposal. Next time I’ll spend some time talking about Solar Decathlon houses, what they do and how they perform, and how my thesis seeks to achieve similar goals.    

Photo Credits to: http://www.momahomedelivery.org/

http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/home-delivery-digitally-fabricated-housing.html

Third Time’s a Charm

By Brittney Mount

Over the course of the fall semester, along with our integrated studio and structure courses, we also take a research methods course which is meant to prepare us for our thesis studio course in the following spring. By the end of the semester we will have the first three chapters of our thesis book completed, which includes: the introduction to the research, site analysis, case studies, program analysis, and preliminary design solutions. I will admit, it’s a lot to take on. That’s what you sign up for when it’s a fifteen month program though, right? I honestly appreciate the push to get a head start on the thesis rather than spending the first two months of spring semester on research, now we can (hopefully) jump into the design portion. However, my journey through the thesis selection has been a struggle. Thus far I have written two blogs on my thesis because I have changed it twice. I began with a hotel casino project that focused on the psychology of design, but quickly learned that just wasn’t interesting enough to take on for seven months. The second option was a low-rise high-density residential housing complex in an urban fabric, which was very relevant to current architecture issues with economy, sustainability, and social interaction, but I felt unattached to the topic. So, two weeks later there I was in need of the names of my thesis committee members with no thesis to propose to them. It took one conversation with a professor to realize what I needed to do, rehabilitation.

Now here I sit, in studio at 6 am, playing catch up on my thesis chapters, and enjoying it. My official thesis proposal will focus on the research of the integration of the environment and family into the rehabilitation of children with special needs.

This concept is not new to me, I am actually all too familiar with the process, but only from the outside. At a young age my younger sister came down with an illness that left her paralyzed from the waist down. I have been to a fair share of rehab sessions, or I went for the long ride to the hospital and watched a lot of TV with my mom and dad in the waiting room. I believe the integration of the family in rehabilitation is extremely important, so much is lost in the transition from hospital to home. Children resist therapy at home, parents are not therapists, and so being a part of the therapy process needs to start in the actual sessions. The proposal will integrate spaces for family therapies along with typical exercise spaces. The environment can also play a vital part in the healing process, so outdoor therapy spaces will also be a priority in the program. I am looking forward to what my research surfaces in these concepts!

The third time’s a charm! Is it spring yet?