Oct '08 - Jun '09
i spent so much time last semester on building systems 2 that i found this cartoon hilarious. you may find it as boring as sticks in mud.
http://pintday.org/guides/architecture/images/ash_bsi.gif
our final design has no wind roses or 50% photovoltaics. but it does tilt 15 degrees and shade itself.
views of the north and south facades
the construction sequence
a few of the plans and sections
details of our mechanical, structural, and facade systems
this class ran like a second studio. there were a few constraints: bldg type, overall dimensions, floors. but otherwise we basically designed a building and all its details with the help of an architect, structural engineer, and mechanical engineer working in nyc. it subsequently swallowed any bit of extra time. so yeah, forget blogging much last semester cuz sleeping really didn't happen either. in our final review, it was questioned if the foundation's massive amount of concrete would negate the environmental benefits of self-shading the building. i misunderstood the question, answered with something, and got strange looks from the jurors (smartness!). thankfully one of my groupmates responded that the long-term energy savings would outweigh the initial construction's large use of concrete. and our structural engineer suggested using fly ash in the concrete to increase its sustainable qualities.
all true. but it made me wonder if this building would ever get built in the professional world. maybe in europe. but, with the leasing culture here in north america, it's doubtful that a developer would foot the bill of a costly construction for a low energy-use building when the developer would never be paying the tenants' utility bills.
anyway, thanks to R for forwarding the comic relief and to M, M and M (i'm not kidding. all my teammates' names start with m) for slogging through it all together.
8 Comments
nice documentation. who was your instructor for the class?
Spray-on building systems aside, it's obvious you guys spent a lot of time on that. Nice work. How many people worked on this project?
That's a great well developed project! Especially for being done outside of a studio course.
hi there,
futureboy - so there is like a small army of instructors for this class, and each team of instructors have 3 groups to work with. david wallance (used to work at polshek and has his own firm now) and matt melrose (struct. engr at leslie robertson) as our main instructors.
jc - most groups had four people while a few had five. we were a group of four.
i was wondering if you had david wallance as your instructor. the detailing of the glazing and sunshading system felt like his mentoring.....i know him very well. there's a lot you can learn from him. all in all, whether or not the specifics of the project you did would work for a developer project, the logic of the development of the project as a relationship of systems creates a nice, easy to follow storyline and would allow you to make the case for a more expressive project than if you couldn't make the argument. great job.
My interest in this project stems from the fact that the building systems track in my program lacks 100% when it comes to any type of hands-on learning. Anything you learn in class can be learned from simply reading a book. But this project seems to be a great solution to get students involved in understanding the different elements of building systems and how the processes are actually implemented in detail. Would you agree? or would you say it took up too much time outside of studio for what it was worth? Also, drawings done in revit?
jc - i won't lie and say that this class did not affect my studio work. for people who have never worked full-time before, i think this class had more learning benefits than for those who had come from a stint of working. no revit - most of my team does not know this program. we used what was the most commonly known/used in our group and then decided which of those programs would best do whatever we needed to get done.
I have to agree about the nice documentation - everything looks very sharp. Good Job
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.