House the Intensive of a Distance Learning Program
To create a building that represents, promotes, and encourages the associated balances of outward detached observation and inward reflection that should be a part of an architectural education. The form should represent the purpose set forth by the institution of a concurrent education which is supported by two seperate but equal parts, in the workplace, and in the classroom, where the two meet true learning may take place. The building should also serve as a comfortable, safe, and private home to students visiting from all corners of the country and possibly the world.
Outward Detached Observation
An architect must apply the intended experience of a user to a building in a scientific and objective way. It is important in an architectural education that a student learn to objectively observe the way the people interact with the built environment. This part of the concept is represented, an achieved by the large southern exposure with an immense amount of glass. The space is designed to be narrow in an attempt to allow a very large field of view from any location within the studio space. The view from the first floor of the studio space over the residential portion of the site allows view of a great variety of the city of Boston. From the large buildings of downtown to the grasses of the fens, the experience (while somewhat metaphorical) is definitely one of observation.
Inward Reflection
An architect must search within themselves for truly innovative answers to many questions. This requires the opportunity to inhabit spaces that might stretch ones personal boundaries. There are several places on this site that are attempting to provide this space. The green courtyard under the weight of the studio building provides a thought provoking generally protected experience, the space between the hard back edge of the studio building and the freeway is designed to provoke an uncomfortable feeling.
The form should represent the purpose set forth by the institution
The studio building, to a certain extent resembles the form of a bridge. While this particular bridge doesn’t span anything as most bridges do, this ‘metaphorical’ bridge with two legs and a large span across space presents an interesting form to represent the meeting of the classroom and the workplace, the studio space exists over the span of the ‘bridge’ to represent the opportunity that learning cannot take place without both equal legs to ‘hold up’ the process.
The building should also serve as a comfortable, safe, and private home
It is important that a person has time and a place to decompress, which is why the residential component is housed in a ‘nearly’ separate building. Additionally, much of that decompression could happen in the travel, or transitions from one space to another. The typical residential unit houses three students. The units are modeled from the surrounding neighborhood and the precedent set by the historic back bay townhouse vernacular. Each unit has a front door on the street to allow the students to experience the transition of using the street to get from school to home. Each unit also has a rear door on the second floor that directly connects to the studio building without leaving the confines of the building. While this doesn’t create the ideal transition, it takes into consideration security and convenience. Additionally, the layout of the units is part of the ‘green’ consideration in the project. A distance learning program would use the building for a very short percentage of each year, so the units have been designed to be comfortable and usable for other types of residential uses, possible short term or executive rentals, living space for visiting professors/professionals for any of the surrounding schools.
Studio Final: Concept Statement
Studio Final: Research and Exploration
Historic Context Exploration
It was important to me to not only attempt to represent the connection between my work and school in the project, but to also make an attempt to actually connect this school project to some of what I am working on in my work. Currently in the office I am working on a building that has a site that is similar to the school project in the fact that it could be described as a 'missing tooth' in the fabric of a historic pedestrial corridor. It is an urban infill site. I would assume that this site is similar in that it was what was 'leftover' from when the highway was built and historically Boylston was a continuous row of residential and retail buildings. The project in the office is in a historic district with an architectural review board. The review board was very concerned that the building that presented itself on the street was 'historic in nature' meaning scale, materiality, etc. Yet the program required a building that was much larger than was could be provided in a historic context. We presented the argument that if the larger mass of the required program square footage was 'removed' or set back from the street, it's mass would not negatively effect the historic scale of the surrounding neighborhood. Yet, it was important to also have the main mass of the building grounded and accesible to the street. So the final product was two 'historic' scale buildings that flank a courtyard that has access to the mass of the building. 
It seems to me that it is easy to imagine that should you actually by within the 'pedestrian' corridor of this street, you might not realize the mass of this building, but obviosly from the view on the right it is a particularly large building compared to its neighbors.
So, this I was attempting to employ a very similar approach. Yet, considering the school site had a corner access, and was triangular in shape I thought it appropriate to have the access to the mass of the building at the corner. The historic part of the building then was pushed up the the street, and the large mass of the building started to disappear from the street as you move away from the corner, and into the 'historic' neighborhood. This is not to say that there was an attempt to hide the mass of the building because in both cases it is very evident. But the attempt to 'reclaim' the 'historic' streetscape could be successful.
This view portrays my argument pretty well... actually it seems to work so well that I will quote the profesor of this class. "The low-rise for me is too contextual (it looks like it was there before you built the tower behind)." Success!!
Studio Final: Site and Roof Plan
The developement of the site was largely based on a single idea. That the studio building and the residential building would be seperate. From there is seemed simple that the studio building should go along the freeway due to the noise and activity, while the residential building would existing on the street in a 'historic' fashion.
The residential building sits on the street and has the scale and materiality of typical surrounding streetscape. It is important that this building fill in the blank that this site is in the Boylston Street pedestrian corridor. Additionally, the residential building sitting on the street and its relationship to the studio building serves to mask the height and impact on the pedestrian of the studio building, making the experience on the street a few yards north from the corner no different than that of any other street in the area.
The studio building is parallel to the north property line that borders the Mass. Pike, and transit corridor. The north elevation towers more than 100’ above the highway, to provide a protective wall not only for the use of this site, but much of the neighborhood to the south of the site. This elevation of the building is juxtaposed to the southern glass elevation in an attempt to provide a barrier to the noise and pollution of the highway. Yet, there is an opening in the wall that provides a glimpse of what is inside the site to create interest from the freeway. More importantly though the pedestrian view from Mass Ave is a direct shot into the interior courtyard of the building, and the angle in which the opening is cut decreases the impact of the wall on this view. The remainder of the site or the interstitial space between the two buildings became a grassy lawn with little ornementation. I wanted this area to be simply... a back yard. Flexible in use.
My theoretical client has arranged with the neighbor to provide parking on a limited basis to the site, due to the fact that the neighbor is using part of the site to access his lot. Additionally, there won't be much use for parking considering most of the people to come to the building won't have cars. I have provided a drop off zone at the corner for students coming in using the transit system.
Pedestrians have accessible access to the front door of each residential unit and the main entrance to the building and lawn area.
Studio Final: Program
Program
The client for the project is asking us to provide a facility that houses the intensive part of a distance learning program. It will be located in the vicinity of the Boston Architectural College to allow for easy access to support functions (Library, IT, etc.)
The facility will offer living quarters for 24 students, three class rooms for up to 14 students each and a dining/lounge/exhibit area.
The facility will be open to students 24 hours, scanning, printing and model making is possible on site. Desk work, lectures and critiques will happen in class rooms and the lounge area. The exhibit space shall be open at times to the larger community.
A break room will offer snacks and beverages, breakfast and sandwiches will be catered (other meals will have to take place off site).
It is desired to have a small outdoor space for recreational or contemplative use on the site.
This blog section has a requirement, but I think the requirement is met by the many other documents that have been posted to this blog, SO, Instead of listing the rooms, spaces and square footages that I have applied to a physical building, I am going to take this space to make a few comments on the design process, and how it can affect a client, or a user, to truly investigate a program and how space is used. Often clients ask for one thing, but through the design process (with their beloved architect)… and work… and strife… arrive at something much, much greater. Which answers one of the questions from this cohorts first semester, Why are architects important?
It is important to realize how a program can go through a metamorphosis during the period of time where a client or user (which happened to be ourselves) begins the design process, and where it ends. The design process is a very emotional, provocative, outrageous process. Additionally, the constraints of physics, locale, code, and aesthetics can cause a great deal of stress on a program. But, the design process in itself often brings out changes in how a user will actually use a space. For example, many people in the class during the first round of schematics had programmed a fairly large or extensive exhibit space, (as you will see in my original program) but during the conversation of the following weeks in class with the professor and the users, it became clear that an exhibit space was… under utilized in places where they currently exist, and maybe not so important as originally considered.
As you look at the bubble diagram that I started out with, all of the spaces are included in the proposed building, but the sizes and relationships may have changed. In my particular scheme, after I arrived in Boston and became acquainted with the site, (and re- acquainted with what it was like to participate in an intensive) my overwhelming theme for the project became very clear: which is the separation between the studio space and the living space. This singular idea really developed the largest part of the relationship of space. How can I design a building on a 2/3 of an acre that has a feeling of separation from one use to the other. Individual buildings became an obvious choice in my design. After this, I began to think about an architectural education, and how I could metaphorically represent this in form. I really believe that observation is an important part of being an architect, so raising the height of the studio building was important, along with having a great deal of glass. This particular program is based on bridging what you learn in experiencing the profession, and what you learn in school… so the bridge became a symbolic form. In the end, it was those ideas that really drove the program, not the sizes of spaces, and how many vending machines I had in a particular space. Really.
Week 2 Program
Studio Final: Plan
THE STUDIO BUILDING
STUDIO FLOORS 1ST, 2ND AND 3RD
STUDIO FLOORS 4TH, 5TH AND 6TH
THE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING
RESIDENTIAL BUILDING PLAN
The residential building is seperate from the studio building in all but one connection. I believe this helps the students have a place to go to that is physically removed from the studio which can sometimes get very hectic. There are also spaces in the residential building to do some school work. Desks and data connectivity is provided in each space, offering the opportunity to study, do research, read, etc outside of the studio space. Which I beleive is very important.
TYPICAL UNIT PLAN
The typical unit plan is 2 small semi private bedrooms, with a common bath on the top floor, and 1 larger bedroom with a private bath at street level. The living space features a full kitchen and living area on the middle level with access to the common corridor to the studio building. This corridor also serves as an egress path for the units. The layout of this unit is derived from the potential to use this as a rental unit when the program is not in session.
Studio Final: Structure
A special truss is the Vierendeel truss, named after the Belgian engineer Arthur Vierendeel, who developed the design in 1896. The Vierendeel truss is a truss where the members are not triangulated but form rectangular openings, and is a frame with fixed joints that are capable of transferring and resisting bending moments. In this statically indeterminate structure the individual horizontal and vertical members are designed as beams. Diagonal bracing is omitted as the joints are designed to withstand the moments that occur at the ends of the members. Trusses of this type are used in some bridges, and were also used in the frame of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. By eliminating diagonal members, the creation of rectangular openings for windows and doors is simplified, since this truss can reduce or eliminate the need for compensating shear walls.
Studio final: Building Services
It is my intent to use a combined passive/active radiant heating and cooling system. The floors in both of my buildings are concrete, which is an excellent medium to use radiant heating in the floor. Additionally, water cooled polypropylene mats will be installed in the ceilings. In the studio building is will be cast directly into the bottom surface of the floor assembly to cool the space below. Radiant cooling works best when the cooled surface has a direct ‘line of site’ to what needs to be cooled. (People) In the residential building the mats will be installed in a dropped ceiling system that will be more appropriate for a residential application.
Typical radiant heating systems are supplied by hot water that is heated by either a gas or electric water heater. Considering the lengthy southern exposure (200’+) of my building I plan to use a passive solar water heating concept. On the roof there is a ‘mechanical’ penthouse, which will contain fairly thin storage tanks, that will be heated by the sun. These tanks will supply the radiant heating… I intend to maintain an auxiliary electric or gas fired source at the end of the storage system which will monitor the temperature of the water, and should additional heat be needed the conventional source will kick in. Keep in mind though that the water that is being heated will still need much less energy to get to the required temperature to heat the spaces. Here is a link to a website where a guy built a ‘shed’ specifically to do this. www.builditsolar.com
Below is a description of radiant cooling that I got from the website www.toolbase.org
Radiant cooling systems rely on chilled water pipes to distribute cooling throughout a building rather than a conventional system that uses chilled air and ductwork. Radiant cooling systems rely mainly on the direct cooling of occupants by radiative heat transfer (heat transfer through space like the sun’s warming effect on an object in its direct path) because the pipes, which are commonly run through ceilings, maintain the surface at temperatures of about 65°F. Through radiative heat transfer, people in the room will emit heat that is absorbed by the radiant cooling surface. To manage indoor humidity levels and air quality, a separate ventilation system to supply fresh air is needed. Due to the ease of controlling water flow, independent control of areas of the home is relatively simple.
There are at least three methods of delivering chilled water in radiant cooling systems. The panel system is the most common of these. Aluminum panels that carry tubing can be surface mounted or embedded on floors, walls, or ceilings. Another, the capillary tube system, consists of a mat of small, closely spaced tubes that are embedded in plastic, gypsum, or plaster on walls and ceilings. Or, similar to hydronic heating systems, a concrete core with embedded tubes can provide the conduit and thermal storage capacity for a cooling system. In each of these systems, the water is mixed with glycol and cooled by an air-to-water heat pump, a cooling tower, a ground-source heat pump, or even well water. Because the radiative surface is typically a whole floor or ceiling surface, the water can be as warm as 65ºF and still provide comfort.
Studio final: Detailing
www.greengridroofs.com This is a link to the green roof system that I plan to use on the residential buildings roof. The most fantasic part about this product is that it is removable in small sections, which makes maintenance of the roof below much easier and more economical. Additionally, this product was quoted at an installed price that is below even a low end paver and pedistal roof system. We have decided to incorperate this into our condominium project "here in Columbus".