skin deep: light as air

Romses Architects: Harvest Green Porject, Vancouver

2009-05-08T10:02:00.002-04:00

Interesting project:
the concept of 'harvest' is explored in the project through the vertical
farming of vegetables, herbs, fruits, fish, egg laying chickens, and a
boutique goat and sheep dairy facility. in addition, renewable energy
will be harvested via green building design elements harnessing geothermal,
wind and solar power.

Click on the title above to view project.

The Plummet

2009-04-28T07:40:00.001-04:00

From the criticism on Thursday I have distilled a few main avenues for consideration as I ride the plummet to the final critique. Brian Goldberg offered two observations that I appreciate: 1st, and I had already been moving in this direction, was to consider an industrial efficiency, not so much in the manner of the plant growth but in the labor of the people engaged in it. 2nd, and this was more of a surprise and a delight, was the encouragement towards artifice or ‘surreality’. This offers a heightened experience, especially for that most important audience, children.
Maria Guest gave me good advice on reorganizing towards more effective circulation by moving my emphasis from the eroded corners towards the central atrium/orangerie, and by adding an east-west scheme to my dominant north-south scheme. I also appreciate Pari Riahi’s comparison of the floors of my building to filters such as that found in the Bialletti coffee makers.
My first priority is to address my roof scheme. I’d like a blend of skylight, greenhouse and photovoltaic planes, and some curves to emphasize the emergence of this style of agriculture from a building originally purposed in a very different way. At the same time I need to create sections that clearly illustrate my vertical emphasis for growing surfaces, screens and trellises as well as the aforementioned circulation.

[images to come]

2009-04-27T21:17:00.003-04:00

The midterm review on Thursday was a very constructive one to help me make the next approaches, accompanying many different views and helpful comments and criticism from the guest critics.

The primary idea in my design process of reconfiguring the 19th century mill building into a vertical farm is to derive the programmatic organization, inner spatial forms, and circulatory routes from the extended axes of the existing building, reflecting the current urban context.

The biggest challenge I am dealing with is to adjust my diagrammatic conceptual studies to fit into the reality; existing structural grid of the building. To achieve this, I was advised that the best way may be through exploring the spatial aspects in sections paying attention to the verticality in spaces. I hope to figure out the making of spaces through such approach, and also simultaneously develop the facades of the building by continuously exploring the surroundings. I want the facades to be designed with the consideration of it revealing the inside spatial qualities, with intentions to make it into a welcoming element of the new vertical farm.

I will continue to explore the idea of ‘expanding outward’ in a more strategic manner keeping in mind the flow of the site in the further developments.

2009-04-27T20:20:00.006-04:00

In the two weeks following the mid-review, I plan on revising and refining the current proposal. I feel as though the project became quite muddled-up, rather quickly, towards the mid-review and as such I am hoping that the next steps I take will help towards clarifying the architectural manifestations of my initial concept. That isn’t to say that the project will be reinvented; as Anastasia pointed out at the end of my critique, the final leg of this project should be used as an (re)investment.

Based on some of the criticisms I received, I would like to reconsider my building’s relationship to its surrounding context—are there ways for the building to relate back to its surrounding that goes beyond its visual cues? I do think some of the visual cues proposed are quite important as a way to bring people from the outside in, but perhaps there are other ways that perform on a level beyond the superficial—i.e. how the spaces within embody the same qualities that the visual cues try to accomplish.

Internally, the subtractive method previously implemented will be refined and will hopefully become reciprocal with both program and human inhabitation. I am trying to discover how this can be accomplished at moments where the two grids intersect/interact with each other; or if moments where one program transitions into another will begin to generate these intersections.

Because much of the concept was generated from the outside in (sunlight from the outside piercing internal structure), I think that all 5 facades should be able to relate to the incisions made on the interior—the facades need not directly reveal components beyond them, but that incisions or openings made on the facades are able to be traced back (perhaps through projections) to incisions made on the inside.

Light Apertures

2009-04-27T20:06:00.010-04:00

The architectural intention of my design begins to create connections between the proposed program and the existing context of the city.

My previous investigations of the way in which the human eye works responded to my ambitions of light apertures created to subdivide spaces based on their light qualities.

The iconic wall becomes a gesture that serves the purpose of a retina and allows light to be reflected and redistributed into the production space. During the summer it will become a grow wall while in the winter the dead branches will allow light to penetrate and bring more light into some of the darker spaces.

My next step is to try to resolve the skin of my building and see how it can respond to my ambitions while providing me with elements of protection and maintaining thermal qualities

Thoughts, midterm review 4.23.09

2009-04-27T00:07:00.008-04:00

I want to further explore the idea of correspondence – to push the current architecture proposal so that the language of subtraction is not only that of terracing of each floor according to the sun as it travels throughout the day and year. I want to consider the exterior facades and the roof (the skin of the building) and how that language of the segmented arched windows and the brick pilasters relates to the light entering the space of the building on both a horizontal and vertical plane. I want to define a language of subtraction AND addition to create an architecture suited for growing – that there is a strong correspondence between all floors of the building, northern and southern facades, and ground to roof floor levels such that the architecture manifests/reflects the particular mannerisms of sunlight.

Tiffany Mid-review

2009-04-26T20:52:00.005-04:00

I have approached this project with the concept of a heat exchanger, applying that idea to adjacencies of different programmatic elements. By increasing the surface area of these adjacencies, there is more opportunity for the systems within this building to feed off of each other. I have also been considering this increased surface area idea in regards to bounced light entering the building as well as protruding volumes. Many of the critics encouraged me to try to go back to the richness and dynamism of the earlier concept models and diagrams to deal with the program more appropriately. They advised me to address differences in the building/program and get away form the rigidity of the system I had designed. I liked Aaron's analogy that the column grid is like the armature of the building and everything else is like this soft material that can be washed away, so that what you are left with is dynamic volume with a variety of different spaces and ins and outs. So, maybe my intervention doesn't just lie within the existing structural grid, but maybe the new skin is weaved in and out through the column grid (like Olga said), creating a secondary limit to the building. What I plan to do next is shortly return to diagramming to break-up the rigidity of my current proposal. And, I plan to address more specific needs of the programmatic element, while keeping the spacial qualities, looseness, and sectional richness of my earlier models in mind.

The Growing.

2009-04-26T19:07:00.007-04:00

My next step in this process is beginning to look at how I can interact the skin of the building with the outside environment, IE: the surrounding public/urban forces; and how it will be a reflection of my interior program. The skin should not act purley as facade, but as a reading of the body within.

Midterm Crit

2009-04-26T17:14:00.005-04:00

One of the things that I have to focus greatly on now is program and the different lighting conditions that are necessary for each program. From this I can begin to create more meaningful relationships between programs based on these light conditions and the transitioning from one condition to the next. Since my project is very much about the spaces between two membranes, the physical and experiential transitions between the programs and areas of the building are very important. What these membranes become, whether they are permeable and impermeable boundaries, openings or enclosures based on the programmatic needs and the relationship between adjacent programs becomes a major part in structuring the decisions that I will now make. These different areas of transition and communication through membranes can begin to become unique to specific moments and thus create a fragmentation of the building into individual parts. A lot of the divisions among the building I was making were in plan, but the sectional relationships that occur and how the light filters down through the building is very important for me to investigate. All of the moves that I make from one program to the next directly relate to and will inform my buildings circulation.

Mid-Review Thoughts

2009-04-26T11:13:00.016-04:00

What I brought away from the crit is that the current scheme is too rigid. To me, what's missing is any sense of whimsy or mystery. In order to bring back some of the playfulness that my initial sketch model had, I think I need to break free of some of the rigid rules I've set up for myself and shake up (in a controlled way) the plans.

Another topic I'm considering more now is thinking of the program in in more real terms and trying to design with a restraint that will lead to a feasible proposal. How can I create a building that not only "works" as a good vertical farm but also be interesting and thought provoking. The hard part, of course, is designing pragmatically without becoming mundane.

More specifically I'm going to try and create more than one growing climate in the building, with the smaller vertical growing pores having its own microclimate. I'm also going to let the skin of the building not only respond to the program on the inside of the building but also to its external surroundings in a more economical way. Right now, the ground floor is completely stripped of bricks and filled in with glass and new columns in an attempt to bring in the community that walks by. I think there is a more subtle (and economical) way of expressing this that doesn't include shedding the entire floor of its current skin. It only needs a trim, not a full shave.

Midterm Review 4.23.09

2009-04-25T21:32:00.007-04:00

Images from our midterm review of students: Joe, Nicole EJ, Nick and Ming-Yi. Apologies for not representing all the students, and thanks to Tiff for taking the photos.

Crit Thursday April 23

2009-04-25T18:31:00.004-04:00

Next step:

Façade -I will be looking at the trajectories of the surrounding to find areas where my skin has to change and create a closer relationship to the surrounding.

And now with roof & skylights!

2009-04-20T16:42:00.002-04:00

The Rhino file has been uploaded to our pbwiki. Same folder, different file.

Enjoy,
JT

91 Hartford St., Now in 3D!

2009-04-18T03:29:00.005-04:00

Rhino model is finally completed and uploaded to the wiki under a folder called "Rhino Model".

Updates since the last version:
-Wall thicknesses (different on each floor)
-More accurate elevations (i.e. blocked off windows, etc.)
-Better alignment of parts (actually, everything lines up now)
-All surfaces covered to prevent light leaks, in case anyone's rendering.

About the model itself:
-Locations of things are fairly accurate (within 1" I hope), but little details like window frames, sloped window sills, etc. weren't modelled
-All wall surfaces aren't joined together--they meet, but just not joined to form one continuous surface. I thought it may be easier to modify things since we're going to remove parts anyways. Otherwise you can select everything and type in "join".
-Walls are separated by floors and are put into different layers accordingly (A-WALL-1st FLOOR, A-WALL-2nd FLOOR, etc.). This means that if you're outputting the model as line drawings, you'll have to clean up these seams (between each floor) in AutoCAD or Illustrator--otherwise the building will look like 4 stacked boxes on the exterior.
-Floors are done the same way
-Cores are placed in their own layer, except that they're not detailed--i.e. no stairs, no elevator car, just the voids and walls that surround them
-The roof I actually modeled on Nick's laptop and forgot to transfer it to mine, so it'll come after we get back from Nantucket

If you've been using the older model, I think it's worth it to just copy and paste what you've done into this model--it's much better and less fussy.

I've included some renderings below.

Good luck,
JT

Inaka-de-hatarakitai: We want to work in the countryside!

2009-04-16T00:48:00.006-04:00

Not about an urban farm, nor a vertical farm but an interesting NY Times article about introducing agriculture as a way to combat unemployment and the declining state of Japanese farms. There is also a slideshow.

Site Photos

2009-04-12T21:37:00.004-04:00

I've uploaded some photos of the site + park from our second visit. They're on our PBWiki under the folder "SITE PHOTOS 2." I know this is a little overdue... OK, a lot overdue.

Enjoy,
JT

P.S. My pictures are more detail-oriented--I don't have pictures that encompass a more general area, so if anyone has those, please feel free to upload them. Thanks.

assignment 4: vertical farm

2009-04-12T16:39:00.004-04:00

vertical farm

For the next six weeks, you will be adapting the existing structure at 91 Hartford Ave to house an Urban Agriculture Center with a Vertical Farm. You are to incorporate the following program elements into the existing building, and you are allowed to extend the program beyond the structure of the building by a factor of 25%. This can be done horizontally (in plan) or vertically (in section) or both.

The program for the new building is broken into two categories. The first is the Urban Agriculture Center, where food and soil are grown, and community/education outreach takes place. The square footage of this category is open, and the area allotted to each component is given in percentages. The second category is supplemental, serving as financial support for the UAC. These programs are given specific (minimum) square footages. The breakdown is as follows:

urban agricultural center:
food production & acquaponics (65% of area)
compost & vermiculture (10% of area)
classrooms, offices & incubator kitchens (25% of area)

supplemental program:
market - 10,000 s.f.
café – 4,000 s.f.

optional site enhancements:
exterior (windrow) composting area
livestock/chicken area
bee hives
exterior (seasonal) growing beds

other considerations:
loading areas
site circulation
vertical circulation
site/neighborhood context

The following programs are required to have zenithal light (i.e. daylight from above): classrooms, offices & incubator kitchens, the market, and the café. Obviously the food production area will need light from above as much as is possible, but it is understood that artificial light is essential to the control of the growing environment.

assignment 3: subtraction

2009-04-12T16:04:00.002-04:00

subtraction

As established at the beginning of the semester, the mill building you have so thoroughly documented is eventually to be re-imagined as a vertical farm. Though we do not yet know exactly what that requires programmatically, we know that it will demand a large amount of light indoors. The existing building has a particular relationship to light, a particular materiality and a particular structural system.

You each have spent the last few weeks thinking carefully about light and making devices that measure, register, regulate and manipulate light. Using the thinking that the full-scale process has initiated, you are to spend the next week exploring subtractive operations on the site. Though your work may involve many ways of manipulating the materiality of the existing building, subtraction (also understood as the addition of light) is to be primary. Everything else is open: the degree of abstraction, the scale, the method, the sensibility.

Using a material of your choice, build a ‘thumbnail’ sketch, in model form, of this operation. Begin with the building itself, at one of the following scales: 1/2” 1/8” 1/16” or 1/32” = 1’. The thumbnail itself should be no larger than 10” in any direction.

You may wish to build several models in sequence to flush out your ideas. This is welcome, but some degree of resolution should be present in the final thumbnail that is presented. If you have built a sequence of models, present the trajectory. If the process of drawing is important to facilitate your inquiry, please pursue that, and present those drawings to accompany your thumbnail.

Reading:

Stoner, Jill. Rain in the City. from Visualizing the City, ed. Alan Marcus and Deitrich Neumann, Routledge 2007.

assignment 2: measurement & documentation

2009-04-12T15:40:00.005-04:00

The students spent Saturday March 14th, and part of Thursday March 26th documenting and measuring the site of their next project. The following was their assignment.

measurement & documentation

We will spend Saturday, March 14 at the building at 91 Hartford Street in Providence. The building is a former mill structure, situated on the Woonasquatucket River at the southern edge of Olneyville. You are to work as a team of 12 to document the building completely in a set of drawings. The drawings are to be completed in Autocad, fully coordinated and cross-referenced with each other.

All drawings are to be at a scale of 1/8” = 1’, except for the site plan which is to be at 1/32” = 1’. The following is the list of drawings to be completed:

cover sheet / index of drawings
a1-0 site plan
a2-1 ground floor plan
a2-2 second floor plan
a2-3 third floor plan
a2-4 fourth floor plan
a2-5 roof plan
a3-1 cross section
a3-2 cross section
a3-3 long section
a3-4 long section
a4-1 south elevation
a4-2 north elevation
a4-3 east elevation
a4-4 west elevation
a5-1 ground floor reflected ceiling plan
a5-2 second floor reflected ceiling plan
a5-3 third floor reflected ceiling plan
a5-4 fourth floor reflected ceiling plan
a6-1 ground floor interior elevations
a6-2 second floor interior elevations
a6-3 third floor interior elevations
a6-4 fourth floor interior elevations
a7-1 – a7-12 detail

Each person will be in charge of one category of the drawings, depending on the level of complexity. The group will need to work closely together to coordinate the set, and make sure the correspondence between drawings is correct.

You are also to individually locate and document one detail in the building. Select the detail for its particularity and idiosyncrasy. The detail drawing can be at any scale deemed appropriate. It should communicate an intrinsic aspect of the building to the rest of the class. Presume your drawing to be a highlighting of some aspect of the materiality of the building, and a document of the detail’s relationship to natural light. If necessary, take creative license with this drawing in the pursuit of the detail’s particularities. How do you communicate the idiosyncrasy of this detail?

Reading:

Frascari, Marco. The Tell-the-Tale Detail from VIA 11. University of Pennsylvania. 1991.

Map:

Photos from Growing Power

2009-04-07T15:45:00.004-04:00

Over spring break, Ming-Yi Wong and Yoko Saeki travelled to Chicago and Milwaukee to visit the innovative urban agriculture project Growing Power and to interview it's founder, Will Allen. They learned a tremendous amount about grass-roots urban farming, and the potential for translating this organization's systems into a true vertical farm. Allen has a project in the works very similar to ours already.

Here are the photos from their trip to Growing Power, Milwaukee/2009. Click title.

Urban Agriculture in Providence

2009-04-05T14:12:00.003-04:00

here's a little informative pdf on Urban Agriculture in Providence.

(click on the title or.. http://www.farmfreshri.org/learn/docs/urbanag-growing.pdf)

3D Rhino Model

2009-04-05T04:07:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to let people know the status of the Rhino model of the building I started (click images to look at a larger version).
The only things missing are:
-south facade
-interior elevations
-stair cores
-roof

I've spent quite a bit of time getting this set up and the rest should be a little easier, but just tedious. Since I will be sharing the model with everyone, it would be great if I could get people to help me finish it quicker.

JT

P.S. I'll upload pictures of the site on Sunday.

Southside Community Landtrust

2009-04-03T16:58:00.003-04:00

Here's a link to Providence's Southside Community Landtrust. It was started in 1981 to help the residents of south Providence grow their own food. There's some good info in there if you poke around.

http://www.southsideclt.org/

Vertical Farming readings

2009-04-03T10:53:00.004-04:00

Click on the title above to go to the 2 essays written by the Columbia University professor: Dickson Despommier on vertical farming. (this link is in that www.verticalfarm.com website).

correlational charts

2009-04-01T12:09:00.002-04:00

repetition

2009-04-01T12:08:00.002-04:00

tolerance

2009-04-01T12:07:00.002-04:00

Competition

2009-03-31T12:07:00.004-04:00

For everyone who has not seen this already. It is a competition website, where other architects had proposed buildings for vertical farming.

http://www.verticalfarm.com/

Also, the Discovery Channel has made a short documentary about vertical farming. Interesting to see but only superficially informative.

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/earth-urban-farms-grow-up.html

Sliding House

2009-03-19T22:10:00.002-04:00

Here it is: http://www.archdaily.com/16082/sliding-house-by-drmm-in-action/

Enjoy your break!

JT

Project 6: Screen Membrane Installation: Ambient Shade

2009-03-17T13:36:00.008-04:00

a membrane; a thin pliable layer of tissue covering surface or separating or connecting regions, structures, etc.

There are several unique peculiarities accompanied by our site; the five panes of windows on the second floor, located on the street side of the Bayard Ewing Building.
The windows are in the context of a working environment, a studio space in constant use by students, therefore having a close relationship to human bodily engagement. Through investigations and observations, the horizontal characteristic of the windows led us to define our site as a ‘membrane’ which sits between the two contradicting conditions of inside and outside. The membrane allows light and view to permeate between the two conditions of great depth, and these are the aspects in which we worked respectively to create our screen.

Due to its specific orientation, the inside studio space during the majority of the day is lit by ambient light. Therefore, we have mapped the projected light qualities throughout the floor, and have reflected the quantifiable data on to the pattern of our screen. Our intention for such an approach was to interweave the horizontal ambient light quality and vertical spatial depth, cast by the membrane.
The screen serves to map the interior quality of light on the windows, acting to subtly shade the ambient light and yet still allowing the view from inside-out. It works at the same time to limit the access of view from outside-in and to set a boundary of privacy. The moment where our screen/membrane rests is where a great amount of contrast (in light) happens, therefore resulting in a flattening-effect of our screen. This very phenomenon is adapted to represent our idea in completing our project: to create a thin membrane that permeates light and view and reflects on the spatial depth and conditions of its designated situation.

Post by: Eun Joo Nicole Kim, Tiffany McGlone

Project 6: Screen Membrane Shade: Ambient Screen

2009-03-17T11:16:00.017-04:00

Project 5: sculpt (v. sculpt·ed, sculpt·ing, sculpts ): To shape, mold, or fashion especially with artistry or precision

2009-03-17T04:03:00.008-04:00

Through our investigations of the sun’s quantifiable direct projection into a space through an aperture, (or a series of apertures) and the experiential result of that projection, we began to understand the rays of the sun as being modifiable “objects.” Our device, attached to the existing double-hung window, is one sculpted by, as well as having the ability to sculpt sunlight. Direct sunlight coming into the room was sculpted such that at any given time, a number of light tunnels either shattered or scattered the sun’s parallel projection. Our light tunnels were sculpted such that at any given time a certain number of them would allow the true projection of the sun, coming through the existing window, to hit surfaces in that space.

Following an extensive study of the constantly shifting sunlight projection in the space, we were able to set up parameters that guided us in defining the individual light tunnels that made up the whole installation. The understanding that was imparted on us through those studies enabled us to form our light tunnels such that direct sunlight, projecting through them, can be seen as expanding and contracting (i.e. breathing) over time.

Each light tunnel was attached to a CNCed plywood frame on site. The geometry of each light tunnel enabled only a small number of variations in terms of how each individual part would create a whole—much like puzzle pieces creating the overall image.

We see this installation as an initial study or experiment that would, hopefully, give us clues on the way we are able to manipulate light in the vertical farm. Perhaps through further empirical observations and modifications, we will be able to use the installation as a tool to move forward in a more specific manner.

Project 4: Curious Mindfulness

2009-03-15T22:35:00.005-04:00

We began by documenting the shifting qualities of the mostly diffused light within the stairwell, particularly in the volume spanning the third and fourth floor. Using a digital camera set to a constant exposure and aperture, we collected photographs of a set of views through a generally sunny day. At the same time we became interested in the various surface qualities of the space: matte plasterboard, rough painted brick, glossy painted metal, etc.

Soon this train of thought was interrupted by a serendipitous discovery. The light reflected off of the rearview mirror of a Vespa in the parking lot projected clear direct light into the relatively dim space of the stairwell, carrying with it the impression of the tree that stood between the mirror and the wall receiving the projection. This incident redirected our thought. By placing a set of mirrors outside the building, along the rail line perpendicular to the northwest face of the building, we sought to create a schedule of light events in different parts of the stairwell.

In time this lead to a second set of reflections, made within the volume of the stairway, towards other qualities of light. In one case we hoped to bounce the incoming light vertically, nearly parallel to the wall, raking the light along the surface in such a way that the texture would be revealed. In the second case we wanted to bounce the light horizontally from the risers of the stairs, echoing the rhythm of the rise, and also interacting with the passage of the occupants. The first case is potentially blinding for descendors and the second will be more noticeable to ascenders.

Project 1: Investigation of the BEB Reading Room

2009-03-15T22:12:00.006-04:00

Project 3: Light Tracing

2009-03-15T22:05:00.009-04:00

Our installation's goal is to bring a re-awareness of the existing ambient sources of light by emphasizing the shadows cast by a series of nails set into the wall. The shadows are only perceived at a zoomed-in scale. We created a new surface to our site's wall with the quilting pattern that the shadows create, the reflective tips of the nails that capture light from different angles, and the nails themselves. The pattern created is also a large scale "drawing" of the light conditions during the days we hammered.
The condition we found to be the most interesting was the way that each nail was installed dictated the shadow it created. In this way each nail installed is directly related to the one in front of it and the one behind it in the sequence. Creating a chain of events across the wall, with each nail becoming a specific moment in time that is related to our body position, position of our hand holding the nail and elevation on the wall the nail is placed.
Each day we regenerated the pattern by striking a vertical line of nails spaced 1" apart and then from there tracked the light throughout the day. We usually started sometime around 8am and ended around 5 pm. However this all depended on weather.

Project 2: Aperture Installation

2009-03-15T19:57:00.013-04:00

Beginning with light studies, we decided that we needed to control our site with the use of an aperture device. This manor of mechanical control gave us ample amount of working space for the device to shift in scale and complexity for the desired lighting effects. During the design process we learned that once the device (the panels) were placed into a chosen orientation according to sun path, we could bounce color to suggest movement in the aperture. This gave the aperture endless possibilities as to which colors were used and what intensities of color seen, according to angles the panels were set to in relation to the sun. Thus, the aperture became an ever changing, ever influenced installation.

Project 1: Reading Room Installation

2009-03-15T15:33:00.006-04:00

In our Reading room installation we worked with diffusing ambient light. We set up a grid that worked with the existing ceiling tiles to measure the amount of light that was reflected from the ceiling and the amount that would reach the ceiling to create both a visual reading of the light in the room and a new possibility for orchestrating where people sit and stand.

risd architecture collaboration with brown university.

2009-03-03T11:47:00.007-05:00

paul myoda and rashid zia came by the studio last thursday and gave us a presentation of their work, along with a brief lecture on the art & science of light. they are co-teaching a class by that name up at brown. students then presented their projects and discussed the conceptual and material aspects of what they are trying to achieve at each site in the BEB.

the new tool

2009-02-24T22:15:00.004-05:00

The students got an introduction to RISD's new CNC router, a beautiful tool (at 11' x 7'!) that they can use to fabricate their installations. It can cut material (wood, foam, plastic, some metal) in the x,y and z axis. Size limitations are around 10' x 6' x 7". No clamping required, a strong vacuum in the basement of the building holds material in place through suction...

visit with VELUX

2009-02-24T22:04:00.005-05:00

Tim O'Neill from Velux spent the afternoon with us last Thursday, talking about daylight and the strategies for increasing it indoors that his company's products enable. He showed us the Sun Tunnel, and students got a close look at the makeup of that device. Then we walked our building together to locate the six sites for the first assignment.

Vertical Farm

2009-02-19T22:01:00.001-05:00

From Rob Williams.
http://americancity.org/daily/entry/1405/

assignment 1

2009-02-18T19:32:00.000-05:00

Few things have had greater historical significance for architecture than the introduction of consistent, coherent parallel projection into architectural drawing, and few things have been more transparent to critical attention than its effects. -Robin Evans

projection & measurement

due tuesday, february 24

Read “Seeing through Paper” from The Projective Cast by Robin Evans

In the article above, Robin Evans argues that the parallel lines used so comfortably by architects in orthographic projection are essentially representations of light paths. Not just any light path, but that of the sun whose distance is so great from the earth that its angle relative to terrestrial objects is effectively a straight line. The relationship between our orthographic drawings and representations of light & shadow would thus seem clear cut.

Read “Architectural Projection” by Robin Evans from VIA 11 ‘Shadows’

The site you have been given has particularities to its form and orientation that have direct effect on the conditions of daylight found there. You are to create detailed measured drawings of all aspects of the site that concern light. Use orthographic projection to generate the drawings, at a scale of your choice, but no less than 1”= 1’.

Track and document the patterns of daylight at your site over the course of several days. Determine a methodology that most effectively captures the conditions you find over time. Use technology where it is helpful but manual representation whenever possible. Record all light conditions: ambient, direct, reflective, refractive, color mappings, etc.

Based on what you record, initiate a formal response to the conditions present with specific materials, as any material you choose will have with its own particular characteristics in daylight. Propose a methodology for working within your site based on information gathered in your recordings and drawings.

possible tools & materials: cold press watercolor paper, pencil, charcoal, ink, bleach, water, light meter, camera (film or digital), sunprint or photo sensitive paper, emulsion coatings, cyanotype fabrics/papers

further reading:

D. N. Jordan and W. K. Smith. Simulated influence of leaf geometry on sunlight interception and photosynthesis in conifer needles. In Tree Physiology v. 13 pp. 29-39. 1992

Aljofi, E. The potentiality of reflected sunlight through Rawshan screens. From “Passive and Low Energy Cooling for the Built Environmnet” International conference, May 2005. (download pdf for images)

Frascari, Marco. The Lume Materiale in the Architecture of Venice from Perspecta. Vol. 24. (1988) pp. 136 – 145. (download pdf for images)

Neuman, Dietrich. “The Century’s Triumph in Lighting”: The Luxfer Prism Companies and Their Contribution to Early Modern Architecture from The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Vol. 54, No.1. (March 1995) pp. 24 - 53

Feynman, Richard. "Photons: Particles of Light" from QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. 1985.

welcome

2009-02-18T19:16:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the studio. This is a description of the course:

The cells in the skin of the human body have the capacity to transform sunlight into vitamin D, an essential nutrient to our thriving and growing. Without it our skeletal system deteriorates, and bones become weak. Certain plants have the ability to ‘breathe’ light as we breathe air. Photosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that uses light to translate carbon dioxide into nourishing organic compounds, releasing oxygen as waste. The class will look at the capacity of the skin of a building to harness light and nourish life within, resulting in case studies for a new building typology: the vertical farm.

Taking as a point of departure the sun tunnels developed by VELUX to deliver daylight to interior spaces efficiently and cost-effectively, the studio will begin with full-scale constructions of a device for light sited in the former mill building that now houses the RISD architecture school. Working in teams at existing skylight and window locations in the building, students will measure and manipulate the daylight present. They will construct full-scale installations that transform the physical and ephemeral aspects of the sun as it enters the building from the side (through windows) and from above (through skylights). They will verify their observations through photography and drawings, and the devices themselves will be rigorously tested and documented in detailed studies and working drawings.

Building on the concepts and physical manipulations of light established in the first exercise, the remainder of the semester will be spent investigating an underutilized 19th c. mill building in Providence. Students will analyze and then reconfigure the existing structure to develop a rich and varied day-lit environment indoors. The building will be modified into an environment for growing, harvesting and selling food. The program will be a ‘vertical farm’ and marketplace, with offices and incubator spaces for new food products.

Light and its very real relationship to an interior will be studied and then crafted through subtractions and additions to the existing structure. Traditional and experimental growing technologies will be explored to illustrate the potential for ‘cradle to cradle’ local, year round food cultivation. The program will address (and question) food farming in all its aspects: space requirements, initial nutrient generation, light, air and water requirements, sustainability, community and labor, infrastructure, harvest and the market/commerce of harvested foods, food waste and compost. Students will investigate these infrastructural, cultural and formal issues through the architectural problem of reusing and re imagining an existing heavy timber & masonry building sited in a particular neighborhood in Providence RI. Parallel to this, students will delve into the role daylight plays in nurturing people in their homes and workplaces. How does daylight affect those employed at the vertical farm in terms of morale, creativity and efficiency and those visiting the market in terms of purchase decisions, frequency of visits and attitude toward the enterprise?

Innovative re-imagining of interior spaces through the judicious deployment of daylight both from above, via skylights and vertically, from windows, will be the center point of the class. The studio is sponsored by VELUX, and is endowed with a budget for full-scale work, as well as a travel fellowship for a single project at the end of the semester. Students will explore the differences between lighting from above and vertical lighting and will learn from the model of innovation and contextual problem solving which is the foundation of the VELUX company. The company’s history, mission and technological innovation in day-lighting will serve as the cornerstone for the student’s own innovative look at adaptive reuse and new building typologies.

In an effort to further their specific knowledge of daylight, students will also be able to collaborate with light artist Paul Myoda and light engineer Rashid Zia from Brown University. A workshop at the beginning of the semester will introduce certain concepts, and ongoing critique of the work will help guide the projects. The semester will end with a publication and formal exhibition of the students’ projects. These documents will serve as a demonstration of the innovative reuse of buildings for urban agriculture, and to illustrate the new building typology of the vertical farm to a wider audience.

Criteria for Evaluation:

The following are the expectations for the studio, and form the criteria for the juried prize:

• The project must artfully employ daylight, from early concept through the construction of a full-scale mock-up to the translation into a comprehensive building proposal. In particular, the project will demonstrate the creative use of lighting from above via skylights in conjunction with other openings in the building’s skin.
• The project must artfully and comprehensively develop an enclosure or a ‘skin’ system that promotes the program and the day-lighting strategies.
• The project must successfully develop the programmatic relationships internal to the building and outward with the community.
• The project must successfully develop from conceptual origins to fully realized building proposal.
• The project must clearly communicate these attributes through artful documentation and representation.