Environmental Systems Integration

Sun, wind, water.  The final design should harness the sun either through a solar panel system or maximized utilization of day lighting, it should block cold winter winds from the south west and it should allow for individual accumulation of rainwater for reuse.

From our last meeting, the below sketch explored some arrangements of the houses in the site.

Moving forward with design C, the below analysis began showing sun effects on the design, how each section could be recessed to maximize sunlight, but also how the height of each unit could be stepped to prevent many units from sharing one terrace level.  However, with stepped, individual terraces, one can be watched from above for certain portions of the terraces.

 These studies began with some simple foam models:

 

Of course, the design that is symmetric and orthogonal is the easiest to control the elements, but it creates one terrace plane that all units share.  Being eye-level with your neighbor is not private enough so I began stepping/recessing the units.  For expediency, I switched to SketchUp and utilized it's shadows tool.

 

C-shape

 

 Morning, noon and evening (September)

 Random Layout

 Morning, noon and evening (September)

 

 

 Stepped Layout

 Morning, noon and evening (September)

 



 Each design has it's benefits and it's faults, but the stepped layout (last one) holds the most promise to fulfill all of the design elements set by being both off-grid and modular.

One situation to address with the stepped layout is the resulting stepped terraces and their creation and lack of privacy (as mentioned before).

In this image, each unit get's it's own (or two) terraces.  Being at a separate level than the neighbors creates regularly creates a visual boundary.  In this case, the opportunity to look down on your neighbor's activities without them knowing is not a feature I am fond of.  Therefore, a "party wall" was created:

Here, a solid wall railing creates a visual barrier from most of the lower neighbor's terrace, while a glass partition created both a wind block and prevents the ability to look over the railing and down on your neighbors.

For my next iteration, I would like to fully develop my design to include parking and designing the interior program for each unit.  I would also like to incorporate other features ( like the wind diagram below ).

Site Revision

Based on previous sketch ideas and research, I believe it is best to orient my homes in a different configuration than that of a circle. 

Precedents:

Rokko Housing One - Tadao Ando
An excellent concept, but what if you don't have a mountain?

 

The Mountain - BIG and JDS
If you don't have a mountain, you make one...

 Simply, you have housing and you have parking.  How can you change these two separate entities into one mass?

 "Rural site with Urban densities..."

 

 

 

 

Seongbuk Gate Hills:

 

Provides a greater diversity of design and less symmetry (even if there is only one unit design but rotated).  The use of roof-top grass terraces is a bonus, but not effective in rainwater collection.

 



I learned from these studies some things I like and don't like.  The concept of terraced housing with parking under it as a base for the elevations seems like an obvious answer.  However, the massing of the Mountain is more than I would like.  A smaller number of homes per building will provide a less-dense, more private opportunity.

Site:

The concept of quartering the entire site remains from last week's design.  Central roundabout remains but now houses a significant wind turbine.  Siting of complexes is now designed to capture southern light and buffer S/SW winds.  Rainwater collection will be at the individual level.

A few different approaches: 

A - responds to sun and wind.  May require more pathways and smaller parking garage options.
B - like the stacked option's ability to buffer wind and the stepped terraces.  Dislike how similar it is to precedents.
C - as with B, responds to sun and wind, this time providing half the units with E&S views and half with S&W views.  Inner spaces and space underneath stacks can be utilities and parking.  I would like to develop this layout in the site.  Will need to standardize unit dimensions and features to control terraces and utility spaces.
D - similar to B but closer to turbine.  This siting in each quadrant would create a type of inner-city surrounded by forests.  This siting would be convenient if programs such as convenience stores and grocery shopping centers are implemented into the design.

Off-Grid Options

Living off-grid has many options and possibilities.  Living off grid in a housing complex has many restraints and the design would need to be responsive to these off-grid options.

Water

Although much of Michigan's underground water supplies are high quality and purity, the opportunity to drill wells in urban Detroit may not be feasible or the best choice.  Many factors against well-drilling include sub-standard quality or industrial pollution of existing groundwater, existing underground infrastructure and electricity necessary to run pumps.   Below is a basic model for how a typical well works:

A second option is rainwater collection.  Many factors should be considered including site and installation choices.  First, does our location provide adequate rainwater to be collected?  The annual rainfall for Detroit is 33".  There are some calculations that can be done to devise whether or not rainwater collection is an option and is based off the square footage of the roof collection area. 

Below is a basic model for underground rainwater collection systems:  Basically, water is filtered while being collected and brought to a large tank (or bladder in some retrofit cases).  Stored there, an electric pump (or gravity fed if tank is stored above utilities) brings the water into the house where it is again filtered or treated based on it's use (basic filtration for toilets, UV treatment to kill bacteria for drinking and laundry).

Here is a fun, quick video on YouTube of two homeowners and their remodel project that now includes a bladder-style rainwater collection system:

How to recycle rainwater for use at home....

There is much legal debate about the collection of rainwater.  While some states are requiring rainwater collection systems, states like Colorado make it illegal claiming rainwater runoff is the right and property of those downstream as well as the "original owners"...and can be treated like theft.

Sunlight

Solar panels, solar heat-gain and natural lighting are all ways a design can harness the sun to create an off-grid design.

Traditional solar panels can be unattractive in most installations...unless you are in a solar decathlon and live in Germany...in which case you could use the sleek black panels as a curtain wall system.

However, advances in technology make using "solar panels" on roofs almost invisible:

Or like plant life like Ivy:

Regardless, the harnessing of solar power at the site no longer dictates a huge part of the home's design, but is dependent on the amount of sun your site receives and, if panels are on the roof, annual snowfalls.  Detroit is a snowy place with an average of 37 days of snow totaling an average of 43" per year.  Although panels will be installed at a pitch that can shed melting snow, not much snow there melts.  Perhaps a vertical, accessible location would be best so the homeowner can clear the snow?

Sunshine state?  Meh.  Southern states receive 150 - 200+ days of sunshine, prime for solar panels.  By comparison, Boston receives approximately 100 clear days of sunshine, Detroit averages 75 clear days of sunshine, Seattle, WA averages 58 clear days a year while Buffalo bottoms out around 54 clear days of sunshine.  Therefore, Detroit is not a prime location for harnessing the sun, but it can be done.  Maximum penalization should be considered in the design and surfaces.

Wind

The wind too can be harnessed for it's power.  Below is a wind rose for July 2012 for Detroit:

Detroit can be freezing cold just as much as sweltering hot.  In July, mostly gentle breezes entered the site from a variety of directions.  Ventilation within the collection of housing units should reflect this and allow for breezes from multiple directions.

Now one 5 months later, December 2012:

 Now, what's important to observe here is the steady winds from the south, south-west direction.  Warm air right?  Absolutely not.  This is for the month of December.  Let me explain:

Life around the Great Lakes is tricky: while western Lower Michigan gets lake effect snow (big fluffy snowflakes and milder temperatures, eastern Lower Michigan get the plains winds.  Winds blow across the Great Plains dropping temperatures to -30 degrees F.  This cold wind warms up over the lakes and snowfall is started, but some cold wind skirts around the bottom of Lake Michigan and charges straight for Detroit...something about low and high pressure.  I'm no meteorologist, but winter winds absolutely need to be addressed in by site design.

However, wind can also be an energy source.....

 

Yes, one giant wind turbine can power the entire site as well as provide the ability for the residents to sell excess energy back to the city.  If planned well, a wind turbine can almost pay for itself.  Maybe one wind turbine centrally located in the site can harness those bitter winter winds and provide a type of beacon, or landmark, for the site....instead of towns being built under the watchful face of a clocktower, they can be formed around a majestic symbol of hope, prosperity and green living.  Maybe you could see it from A-nah-bah....

Site Approach

Given our design and our impression of the site, I was influenced by many factors to iterate my design. 

Here, I continued with the concept of stacked housing under a sort of web.  I see these as four separate pods within the whole site, which has been cleared of all remaining structures and infrastructure.  Each pod will be self-sustaining and connected by a central road that winds through the tree farm.

Upon further iterations, the concept of having the buildings themselves create a type of arch and the roofs to create the web.

 This concept was challenged and I was asked to consider arranging the structures to be responsive to sun and wind as well and not just rainwater collection.  These three attributes will have to be researched based on the dynamics of the site as well as available technologies for harnessing each element.  Farming opportunities will be considered as terraces outside of each unit instead of one central garden area.  Other considerations include parking underneath the living structures as a means to elevate them for maximum light and views and the manipulation of the roof systems to be changeable or stagnant.

Detroit

Friday, March 1, my studio and I set out to Detroit for a site visit.....

Much of the rundown sections of Detroit are exactly as the pictures show:  vacant lots, lots with debris-filled foundations, burned out shells of homes, occupied homes that shouldn't be occupied, homes that are well-kept amidst all of this.

 

 

Visiting the waterfront, I was pleased to see people out ice-fishing in such a non-traditional location.  Ice fishing is a dedicated sport; people that ice-fish share a quality of tenaciousness, determination and appreciation for the art of enjoying one's self amongst mediocre surroundings.  It is very appropriate that it is this type of people are occupying Detroit.  The "don't you tell us no" attitude is great ammunition when aimed in the right direction.  Can this spirit be utilized if these people are given a good housing situation in which to begin rebuilding their lives?  What can we offer them to initiate this change?

 As a beacon of hope (or a beacon of resentment) stands the GM building.  Being an architecture student living in Boston (though from Michigan), do I have a skewed perspective of the GM building?  Perhaps those that have suffered living in Detroit feel it's a reminder of how/why/who made it all go badly? 

In comparison, are there other beacons that encourage hopefulness?  At the very successful Mies van der Rhoe Lafayette Park complex, it is obvious that the tenants appreciate the effort and design of the complex and work hard to maintain it and it's legacy.  The success of the park is due to a number of factors.  Can these factors influence my design and site to help my housing complex be so successful?  What are these factors?

Community can bee seen in some places in Detroit.  Here at Detroit's Eastern Market, everyone comes together to buy meats, produce, plants and other goods.  The space is cheerful, high-energy and welcoming.  The surrounding blocks are a haven for young businesses that specialize in such things as BBQ and traditional printing presses.  Is it the location of these "hot spots" relative to each other that makes them so successful?  Perhaps the simple meeting of needs is what makes them so successful?

The potential of Detroit as a manufacturing city is amazing.  It's like finding an abandoned garage full of tool and dye and stock steel pieces.  Some of it's rusted beyond use, but the rest is so well made at the beginning that it can still serve a function.  Great things can be created if the potential of the tools can be harnessed by someone that knows how to use them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

The paper ball above, to me, represents Detroit well:  a collection of similar parts with similar wants...but to be successful as a whole, we need to weave and attach ourselves together create a structurally-sound whole entity.  Only when the individual parts are joined is the overall design a success.