Construction SYSTEMS

I’ve already touched a bit on my experience with transportation this semester. But another system we regularly have the chance to overlook while on grounds is construction. It’s everywhere.And sometimes we can literally overlook it, here’s a shot from my favorite spot in the Fine Arts Library:

The building going in is for the Drama Department, and should be a fabulous new theater.

I’ve been incredibly interested in construction this semester; I’m working on creating a website through Student Council (I’m on the Committee for Buildings and Grounds, appropriate I guess.) that details the construction projects going on around grounds. I have met with the Office of the Architect; the website (hopefully going up next semester) will be able to allow students to more easily access the information that is buried deep in the websites of the Office of the Architect, Board of Visitors, Budget Office, and so much more. We’re hoping to compile the information so that students can make a more informed decision about whether or not they believe the magnolia trees should come down, learn more about the new Thrust Building, realize that eery one of the buildings going up around grounds are LEED certified (!!!), the list goes on. I’d love to give anyone more information in the meantime!

So I guess it’s been less about construction systems and more about how construction at the university often takes place. There are stages a building must go through in approval by the Board of Visitors, and construction processes become much more complicated. It’s been quite the lesson on how systems at a public university work!

PARABOLA guest lecture– Kevin and Carrie Burke

I also loved this guest lecture. Really, for a couple of reasons:

First, we are moving 816 miles per hour at this latitude (Charlottesville). We are moving quickly, but predictably. The way the sun is right now will happen exactly one year from this second. We always think of nature as being unpredictable and always changing, but solar conditions will predictably be where they’re supposed to be. Although we may not be able to optimize a structure’s reaction to a hurricane, we can optimize the sun easily. And they have. The Timepiece House has been developed to take full advantage of this.

Second, that Timepiece House. I just wrote my Architectural Theory project on the relationships between form and function over time. This evolves that discussion to a completely new ground; how form can be driven by ‘forces’. And their home is just that– a live/work laboratory for the capturing of sunlight as an art piece. Light pierces the tope skylight at key points in the year. And on the summer solstice, the sun reaches into the floors below. The light develops the space, carves out the ceiling (literally) on its path through the day and the year.

Third, this idea of ‘design thinking’ they kept bringing up as resonant through our education. Apparently this is something valuable to give to other professions. This way of working through a problem to arise at a solution, with design a notion of design principles guiding your impact at a higher level, is seen as enviable. I found this incredibly intriguing.

Fourth, being able to sell ‘working in a great place’ as a justification for natural ventilation and lighting, even before studies came out that it helps productivity in the workplace.

Fifth, and finally, that they believe the level of individual control, even if it truly does very little, is what makes people feel comfortable. I love this.

I am excited to see more of their work in the future, as I really enjoyed hearing them speak about past work.

Jersey Sustainability

I’m from New Jersey. We usually get a pretty bad rep for being smelly and full of boisterous Italians that enjoy fake tanning or enjoy cheating on their wives with men that they have added to their cabinet, but recently, many towns in Bergen County are becoming ‘certified sustainable’. The state-wide program, Sustainable Jersey, aims towards a grassroots movement with efforts to bolster green efforts made by the town. A ‘green team’ is made out of members of the community (including small business owners, homeowners, local government and nature conservancy personnel) in an effort to “incorporate elements of environmental awareness and programming within the town’s everyday functions”.  The word sustainable might be the most-incorrectly used buzzword of our century. Many of the criteria for becoming ‘certified’ are innocuous (planning a farmer’s market! having an open-space plan!), but it’s a great start, and it’s a whole lot better than nothing. (What could ever be better than Charlottesville’s farmers market. How could anyone say no to that.) And just like LEED certifications, there are multiple levels a town can achieve. Tenafly, New Jersey’s bronze certification required only 150 ‘points’. But truthfully, even just getting a ‘green team’ together is a great step for the public sector. I would love to see how this develops in the coming years. And I hope that we go farmer’s market crazy.

Rick Mather Architecture

I’ve fallen in love. There, I’ve said it. Peter Culley from Rack Mather Architecture came to speak with us, now a bit ago, on a couple of the projects he has been working on with the firm. (Sorry for the crazy break during Charette.) I was especially interested in the London-South Banks Master Plan. The space was first planned in 1951, with the construction of the Noyal Festival Hall for some sort of world fair. The system of the hibe of the activity hall had eroded significantly over time, and was no longer an effective space. The firm strategically surfaced the space to create a vibrant and life-like community. They claimed that a space gets life from people, energy from people, and vibrancy from people. This supports the environment around the structure considerably, and the firm has found great justification for it– it’s a great economic stimulus. The space has been completely transformed; it has been made a ‘place’. There are now 6 million people that walk through the space, and restaurants have absolutely boomed on the ground floor of an adjacent building.

This is incredible. As a psychology minor, I have always been interested in how space invites public interest and how a space can be shaped architecturally to become an active and successful space. I love that the firm has created a solid justification for it to the public. I also love just how they were able to convey it. Peter Culley flashed a photo of the space before, decrepit and unsuccessful, and then a photo of the successful space they created. They argued that the space was created by the presence of people, which it so true. It was so refreshing to hear quantifiable and obvious data about exactly how the space had been transformed! Here’s the link to the project if you’d like to look! Here!

applying systems to STUDIO

This semester, our studio has been concentrating on designing an art museum for children. The program highlights a series of Artists In-Residence that would teach the children. My design concentrates on two major diagrammatic portions: the ‘tower’ of a relationship between residences and studio/classroom workspaces, and the ‘gallery’. This is in combination with how the two spaces intersect to form an interstitial lobby, office, and privileged reception space. Within the gallery space passive heating and cooling doesn’t make much sense; the drastic climate changes and high humidity in New York could pose a serious threat to the art. While designing the structure, the residence tower became a great place to begin implementing passive systems to provide a comfortable experience within all the spaces.  All of the floors are above directly adjacent buildings, providing uninhibited space on all sides. In addition, this space will not need to account for small amount of climactic change within the precious art of the gallery spaces.

Within the residence tower, I implemented a horizontal shading device to manipulate the predominately south-facing light of the structure, and reflect much of the light at the height of the sun’s path.  This light can become a strong thermal strategy in the winter, as the majority of it enters directly with low sun angles (the sun only gets to 25.8 degrees high in the sky).  The sun heats the thick wood floors to provide a pleasant winter heat for the double height studio spaces. The heat stratifies within each space and slips into the void of the stair. This intended Stack Effect pulls the air up and out of the building’s roof. This effect is heightened by taking advantage of the Bernoulli Principle; creating a low pressure microclimate at the top of the tower by collecting stagnant air over the opening. The space is blocked by a collection of dense shrubbery and a continuation of the screen system above the highest point of the roof. It then creates a low pressure microclimate at the top of the void. This stack effect/ slight Bernoulli Principle combo comes into its element in the summer. To the advantage of the studio space, much of the harsh summer light barely enters the space directly because of the high sun angle at noon (75.8 degrees). The screen system comes into its element, reflecting and dispersing much of the light. This is most clear in the detail drawing.  Although I didn’t include them here, I have also designed pairs of small apertures in the residence portion just beyond this studio space to provide natural ventilation on especially hot days, through each residence from east to west and from the residence across the hallway, south to north.  This takes advantage of the north-west and north-east wind directions in the summer months.

Although the screen is predominately a thermal skin, reflecting and blocking much of the light, it can act as a slight stack effect as well. The space between the screen and the building creates negative pressure, and draws the air up and out of the pre-lobby outdoor space to get the air circulating under the highline. This moves the warm air away from the envelope of the building, cooling it further.

The detail is a highline-height open-air reception space. The space serves as a reception space for wine and cheese at gallery openings, and serves as an important link between the galleries to its right and the residences and studio spaces above. The space receives a mix of direct and indirect light. The screen system from the above studio spaces remains continuous. Made of ceramic tubing (similar to Piano’s New York Times Building), the system’s primary function is to control some of the light as it enters in the peak hours of the day. Light is reflected and diffused into the building at a much more desirable height, lighting the space without impacting it too harshly during the day. However, I see this space being used primarily during the evening. The thick wood floors heat up during the day, and trap the day’s heat for warmth on chillier nights, a common occurrence in New York. The space can be dimly lit from within in the evening, and easily ventilated from the north-east (especially seeing as it is above the buildings and highline directly surrounding it). These lights would make the most sense by the walls, in close proximity to food and drinks being served (it also serves as an interesting reversal from the day’s sunlit edges). The space provides an important link to the city itself, with views of the skyline and nightlife of the Highline. It provides a strong connection to the quality of the natural environment around it, a quality that does not happen often in the ‘space suit architecture’ of New York City. I am incredibly excited to continue with the design for this project, and loved implementing what we have learned this semester.

Transportation SYSTEMS

I am sitting on the Amtrak Northeast regional train waiting for the engine to be changed en route from Charlottesville to my hometown in New Jersey. I’ve taken this exact train many a time since my first year. The train stops for about a half hour in DC. Over this time maintence men change the engine from diesel to match the electric grid of the northeast corridor, like a pit crew for Nascar. We stop, the lights go out, the engine is changed, lights flicker back on, more people get back on, and we’re on our way to New York. I always thought this was fascinating, but it seems even more so now. This switch from diesel to electric lines happened about five or ten years ago for the commuter lines near my house. They allowed for a cleaner and more efficient system of public transportation. This, coupled with new trains and better signage systems, enhanced both public transportation itself and its use. A diesel train can be switched to a completely new system for a more heavily-used corridor of the US with a quick engine change. This is amazing, to see a train that goes from Lynchburg to Boston every day, exhibit a change in its system every single day, to allow for multiple sets of characteristics. This is only a reminder of just how adaptable systems in our world can be. Systems do not need to be static, even on a system as large as an established train system up and down the east coast.  Systems can change based on geographic conditions, but we must remember that they can change based on environmental, use, population, and time changes, among many others.  Systems that can adapt to these changes will only continue to function effectively, widening the ‘plateau’ of resilience.

Tracking Light Phenomenas

Throughout design work in studio, I’ve become increasingly interested in this idea of light (just look at my last blog post). Natural light piercing a space can be incredibly moving. Often, natural phenomena like this feels like it cannot be controlled, or even consciously designed. But thanks to modern technology, it can! A software recently bought by autodesk has made this easier to understand, track, and graphically represent. Ecotect, a program that only two years ago was free, can make it all possible. Here’s a quick rundown of the software from autodesk:

If you look around 7:02, the video begins to explain what I am especially excited about: Ecotect features a ‘Shading Wizard’ that will create a step-by-step analysis and generate an optimal system for shading devices and louvers. The video makes it look pretty cool- it produces a set of systems that can then later be manipulated for aesthetics– the software is all about creating efficient systems to shade the harsh southern light. This is something I am really looking forward to delving into for my studio project: creating a facade structure that creates a fantastic interior condition of filtered southern light in the summer, and can heat the space easily in the winter by simply manipulating the structure.

Although I may not end up with louvers, or even mini-louvers, I can’t wait to get my building into the Ecotect software as an analysis device, and allow it to help me create a comfortable interior.

I am also incredibly interested in tracking a more specific effect light has on a space– more like the chiaroscuro box I posted about last week. I plan on tracking exactly how a beam of light hits and therefore defines the space. I cannot wait to use Ecotect to define these relationships as well. “Tracking Light Phenomenas”

 

 

Chiaroscuro: As light pierces

I was recently perusing my classmate’s blogs for inspiration when I came across Victor’s. He inspired me to go back through some of my first year work, I guess the last time we formally studies light. My attention to light really began in ARCH 1020– I really didn’t pay much attention to it at all before that. But it started a love affair. I guess you could say it all started with the Chiaroscuro box; I slipped planes into a larger box and blocked off the back so you couldn’t see where the light was coming from. It bounced light off all of the sides in these great patterns. That continued with the ‘lantern’ project–

Light spilled out of the cardboard planes and bounced around them as it emanated from within. Because that”s when I started to see light everywhere.

It washed sidestreets in the bright morning.

It bathed brick, and most notably, it provided the most religious moment of my life. Light pierced the Vatican apse; it felt like heaven had come down upon us.

Light is a powerful medium…

CREATING AN EFFICIENT ENERGY SYSTEM FOR TURKEY

For many years, Turkey has been referred to as a second rate country. Through the years of its war-torn past, the country has seen many rulers, and many forms of government. There is a great deal of nostalgia for the past; it is often noted that many residents of Turkey live in a state of ‘huzun’: “the feeling of living in the ruins of a once great civilization”.(6) But many Turks are looking towards the future. The modern Republic of Turkey was officially instated in 1923, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the country has grown greatly as a world power since then.(5) The population and social standing of the country has skyrocketed in the past thirty or so years especially, and the modern country is on the verge of reaching its goal of eventually being recognized as a member of the European Union. One of the major criteria for this transition is the country’s utility system.(5)

Turkey is a country of great promise in the coming years, and its government is increasingly adapting many sustainable practices into the laws of the country. But it was not the government to make the initial change. Many grassroots movements throughout rural Turkey have been crucial in the government’s decision to embrace these practices. In many ways, the Turks themselves seem to have the greatest handle on what they believe their country should be doing to run most efficiently. About two years ago now, villagers in the small rural area known as Akbiyik owed the government a couple thousands of dollars in electricity costs. The village simply decided to build a wind turbine. The region paid the country back in electricity, which only took a couple of months. The system now allows the country to be completely independent from state utilities. Many believe that this sparked the federal government to pass the National Wind Energy Act, a bill that gives incentives to regions that implement and construct locally produced large-scale turbines.(3) A mosque in Buyukecell recently installed photovoltaic panels on its roof to protest a nuclear power plant government officials were trying to build in the area. A newspaper article cites this as the government’s spark to hold the ‘Alternative Energy Races’ in Izmir.(8)  The people of Turkey are excited about these new technologies.

The real reason many of these regions have found so much success with the implementation of these sustainable ‘microgrids’ is the country’s climate conditions. Turkey’s climactic conditions are fertile for many of the most current energy-efficient technologies, including wind, solar and geothermal, and the country has produced a surprisingly large market for many of these. Although these movements show much promise, Turkey still has a long way to go. Throughout this discussion, I hope to stress Turkey’s need for a more efficient infrastructure system, and develop an effective system that the country should be taking as they develop infrastructure—one that involves as little state-wide infrastructure as possible.

The country is obviously receptive to these changes. But Turkey needs to develop its infrastructure because:

(1) It just signed the Kyoto Protocol. The federal government signed the Kyoto Protocol in 2008, and beginning in 2012 Turkey will be obliged to reduce its harmful gas emissions by 60%. This includes four greenhouse gasses; carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and sulphur hexafluoride, as well as two groups of gasses, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. (9)

(2) Surge in population in the last 20 years has left the country in dire need of an updated infrastructure. Turkey’s population has skyrocketed in recent years, and its utility system has only lagged behind. The country needs a better system to keep up. (10)

(3) This will allow Turkey to get closer to its goal of becoming a part of the EU.

Well then, how should the country develop?

The country needs to transition from underdeveloped and dirty centralized nuclear and thermal power plants to microgrids of renewable energy systems. Systems, like solar, wind, and geothermal, coupled with energy efficiency through established vernacular trends for specific areas will produce the greatest effect. This energy efficiency is about implementing off-grid technologies and systems that allow communities to be self-sufficient in the ways they use the energy. A microgrid connected to a wind turbine is most efficient if the structures do not require much from the system.

In addition, what makes this ‘microgrid’ application so appropriate is the drastic change in climactic zones within the country. (7) Creating separate self-sustaining and climate-specific regions allow individualized regions to specialize; develop the most appropriate system for their climate conditions. I have diagrammed suggestions for a few of the regions, using basic climate data to diagnose solutions. The most important aspect of these solutions is efficiency. Each of these solutions must use both vernacular building practices to develop energy efficiency at the building scale, and modest technologies that much of the country has already embraced to create an efficient method of creating these energies.

(image resources A,B,C)

(image resource D)

The country can easily ‘leapfrog’ messy and overcomplicated utility systems that many western countries implemented during the industrial revolution. The country will do best to create these\individual mircogrids; it specializes the system, allows for a more direct relationship and accountability for the amount of energy used, and requires far fewer industrial connections at the country’s scale.

This system will accomplish a great deal of efforts for the country, and is following trends that have already been established in Turkey’s recent (and, of vernacular practices, not so recent) history. I would absolutely love to see this established.

Thank you for reading!!

major sources:

(1) “Kyoto’dan sonra Turkiye’yi neler bekliyor?” Translated using Google Translate http://arsiv.ntvmsnbc.com/news/474657.asp
(2) http://www.marketresearch.com/Business-Monitor-International-v304/Turkey-Infrastructure-Q1-6050242/
(3) Julia Harte “Turkish Village Goes off the Grid with a Wind Turbine” http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/10/for-first-time-in-turkey-a-village-goes-off-the-grid-with-wind-turbine/
(4) http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-report/solar-report/electricity-for-the-rest-of-the-world-opportunities-in-off-grid-solar-power.html
(5) http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3432.htm; http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/national_energy_grid/turkey/index.shtml
(6) “Urban Dissonances: Istanbul’s Dialogue Between Past and Future” Presentation, Michelle Benoit+Nicole Keroack, UVA School of Architecture
(7) A. Zerrin Yilmaz “208: Low Energy Design Strategies for Different Climates of Turkey: Comparison of Traditional and Modern Samples” (October 2008)
(8) Arwa Aburawa “Mosque in Turkey Goes Solar” http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/11/mosque-in-turkey-goes-solar/
(9) Kyoto Protocol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol
(10) Google Public Data for population http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:TUR&dl=en&hl=en&q=turkey+population

image resources:

(A) http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/energy-issues/turkey/additional-renewable-maps.html
(B) http://www.uq.edu.au/geothermal/geothermal-energy-in-turkey
(C) http://www.evwind.es/noticas.php?id_not=5508
(D)A. Zerrin Yilmaz “208: Low Energy Design Strategies for Different Climates of Turkey: Comparison of Traditional and Modern Samples” (October 2008);

Living Without the AC/Heat Grid

Just had a thought while commenting on Emily Scott’s blog.

I loved this Moe reading; it was really eye-opening. I really don’t understand where we went wrong, and why we have made the ‘social decision’, as Moe puts it, to rely on this horribly consumptive and wasteful practices, that are often incredibly inefficient. He states that heat and air conditioning have become the assumption of human comfort and practice. This was especially resonant. I can probably count on my hands the amount of families back home (hey there fellow north Jersey) that don’t have central air conditioning, and I’m positive this is a distant concept to anyone in Virginia. But a world of buildings existed before Carrier ruined it; we can survive without heavy machinery to heat and cool a space. (And if not, maybe we shouldn’t be living there.) We always speak of people who move to New York who ‘aren’t used to the weather yet’; can we just get used to the weather without all of these mechanical systems? Maybe for once we won’t need a heavy sweater to sit in the A-School for the month of August.

Although I’m not home in north Jersey very often anymore, I almost never turn on the unit for my attic bedroom, even in dead summer. (Another great adaptive system, the attic is it’s own zone, allowing me to digitally change the air running through. I really only turn it on when it gets over 100.) Maybe now my mom won’t think I’m as crazy. I have Moe behind me.