This thesis describes, conceptualizes and explains the division in post-war Beirut, Lebanon based on religious distribution. Its main objectives are to contribute to the literature of segregated cities by (1) conceptualizing division practiced by individuals of different religious backgrounds in the post-war city of Beirut, (2) explaining the logic behind this phenomenon of division and revealing the harmony or paradox between perceived, conceived and lived spaces of the city and (3) proposing a spatial intervention that responds to the discussed division, by that introducing a new vision for a sustainable urban strategy in Beirut.

A discussion is raised about the relationship between perceived, conceived and lived spaces as per Lefebvre’s analysis of the social construction of space. These classifications conceptualize the condition of the urban fabric and explain the process of transformation the spatial fabric underwent after the Lebanese civil war (after 1990). It goes on to confirm that Beirut is a divided city in the eyes of its own dwellers, later to reveal a hidden reality that affirms the existence of commonalities.

In conclusion, this study raises questions related to the role of the planner as a facilitator for a unified community through understanding the harmony among the space/place and culture as tools for social inclusion and generation.

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“For war, as we have seen, is not just a condition that disappears as soon as it stops, but it is society itself in one of the forms of its organization.” Ahmad Beydoun, What You’ve Known and Been Through, 1990.

Schematic timeline for Beirut City 1975 (Lebanese Civil war started) – Present

With the increasing political and security clashes and during the lack of any form of a holistic planning for the city of Beirut, ethnic divisions are escalating and social tensions are growing and intensifying the ethnic loyalties within the framework of a secular national identity.

Addressing divisions in Beirut city starting with ethno-religious versus socio-economic distributions, reveal how each of these subdivisions acknowledges a different perception of space based on their collective memory of ‘their city’, and this is highly affecting their spatial practices. For instance, the one demarcation line (the green line) that divided Beirut during the war has now transformed into a network of lines.

Hence, the formulation of the research problem is the following: Individuals have different perceptions of the image of their city. The premises of this research is to achieve a coherent perception of the realities of the city where the image of the city and its spatial practices are acknowledged harmoniously and considered enriching rather than disuniting.

The main research hypotheses are as follows:

1. Individuals of different religious communities in Beirut have different interpretations for the image of their city and perceive it based on their various acquired social memories.

2. Individuals while divided into various religious communities in the city of Beirut are socially and spatially connected to each other.

3. Urban interventions can strengthen the relations between place and image, preserving with that the specificity of the space and its social collective memory.

Below is a matrix explaining a network of connected concepts covering the proposed hypotheses in relation with an elaborate understanding of the spatial classifications of Beirut City (based of LeFebvre’s Classifications). 

 

Perceived Space, the space that is a product of human design, urban planning and spatial organization; answers the What question: What urban interventions can strengthen the relations between place and image.

To begin with, this section is based on quantitative analysis of the community’s condition based on (1) identifying the types of divisions inside the city and (2) learning from case studies (urban interventions) that contributed to intensifying or alleviating the mentioned divisions.

 

||Religious Division.

During the Lebanese Civil war (1975-1990), Beirut was divided into East (Christian Dominancy) and West (Muslim Dominancy). The center of the city was transformed into a no-man’s land and a demarcation line was created separating the two parts of the city. In present times, mapping the distribution of churches and mosques with respect to the religious background of the communities evidently reveals how the ‘ghetto phenomena’ remains, whereby the communities still cluster around their representative religious institutions. It is also evident the effect of the Green line, which spatially is non-existent yet still reflects a division between the Christian and Muslim communities, on the urban fabric. Furthermore, the creation of new ‘demarcation lines’ between communities in the Western part of Beirut have been escalating after the 2005 events ; distinguishing  the different sects in the communities with Muslim dominancy. What had been checkpoints and militia roadblocks during the civil war have now been replaced by subtle division lines that can be experienced by anyone who travels through the city: Posters of different sect leaders, graffiti and other religious and political icons serve the exact same function and give the unavoidable impression of a city deeply divided that echoes Lebanon’s political landscape.

Map showing the religious distribution of the communities. Data Source: Doueihy, Y. 2007. The Lebanese 1907-2006. Beirut: Self-Published.

||Class Division.

According to a study conducted by Credit Suisse in 2014, 0.3% of the Lebanese own 50% of Lebanon (https://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/?fileID=5521F296-D460-2B88- 081889DB12817E02). Beirut city, being the capital, and considering the centralized economic system of the country, this condition of wealth distribution is reflected on the city’s wealth gap as well.

Erik Clark defines Gentrification as being a socio-spatial urban transformation within the context of law. It fosters and flourishes within legality in-line with laws and regulations. In the case of Beirut, gentrification has taken place during the post-war reconstruction of the city and it consists of two components (1) the production of an upgraded space through capital investment and (2) change in  population of land-users. The two major forms of gentrification taking part in Beirut are

1- Residential Gentrification: consists of evicting old tenants, demolition of old buildings, and the construction of up-scale high-rises.

Gentrifiers are generally grouped into 3 categories: Lebanese expats, Lebanese high-class, and gulf nationals.

The master plan of Beirut has remained the same since 1954. It is very basic, lacks many restriction and mostly sets the exploitation ratio for the construction on a certain plot. During the past sixty years, most efforts to develop a new master plan were constantly hindered by political pressure, while  the law of construction has been periodically amended mainly to increase heights of buildings and add more exceptions to the exploitation ratios. This led to increased profit for developers which ultimately increased the rent gap inside the city.

 

Neighbourhood livability is one of the issues that emerged as a result of residential gentrification. The figure of the stranger , whose identity is polarized and politicized against the identity of the Beirutis, emerges as a source of a social illness. The sense of attachment among the Beirutis is constantly being negotiated when put face-to-face with economic securities and prosperities. Therefore, unless serious institutional and legal reforms are implemented, and unless socially motivating urban development policies are enforced, Beirut’s socio-spatial divisions and inequalities are likely to grow and intensify especially that the notion of state and citizenship are at stake.

“The country is now for strangers. It’s not ours” - Hady, a 55 year-old Beiruti

“It is now the Shiaa who are occupying Ras Beirut and the country…They are buying land in Beirut to prove that Beirut is not only for the Sunnis…” – a 66 year-old native resident

Map showing the property prices distribution in Beirut. Data Source: RAMCO. 2014. (https://mostlyoff.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/startingpriceofnewresidentialapartmentsinbeirut2014/).

- Public Spaces Gentrification:  consists of attempting to manipulate the public space into an artificial arena of consumption, prohibit the use of large parks by the public, and the privatization of the public spaces (specifically the waterfront in the case of Beirut).

Only 1.8% of the surface area of Beirut is green, this would have to be multiplied by 22 to arrive at the WHO indicator. The city would have to demolish  41%  of the built-up area, and transform it into a park, in order to meet the World Health Indicator. A common explanation for the absence of playgrounds, parks and other shared facilities — as much as for the deterioration of the built and natural heritage — is that most properties in Beirut are ‘privately held.’ Given that land is very expensive, it is prohibitive for public authorities to expropriate areas for the development of parks and other shared amenities.

Hannah Arendt argues that,  a public space reinvented on a policy of amnesia isn’t only a limited public realm but also the gentrification of an entire location of memory into an elitist museum, closing not only the past but also the future. A student interviewed by Craig Larkin expressed it best: “The redevelopment involved a covering or hiding of the memory of the war, and in this sense it’s unreal. You can’t talk just of Romans and Phoenicians and our great heritage, without mentioning militias, kidnapping and bombs.”

 

||Case Studies.

Several Case studies emerge when discussing the Perceived space they are basically of two-fold: Positive Contributors and Negative Contributors:

-Positive Contributors: Projects that are either Events or Spatial interventions, contributing to welding the communities together and reducing the above mentioned types of divisions.

- Negative Contributors: Projects , specifically post-war reconstruction, that have been implying a reduction of the significance of spatial production to economic profit maximization, prioritized over the social dimensions of the city’s core, such as its religious and class mixity.

As a conclusion, it is evident that established Urban interventions, on levels and scales, ranging between master plans to  reconstruction strategies to organized events, were responsible for creating further tension and segregation among the different communities in Beirut. This proves that the third hypothesis proposed.

 

Conceived Space, the space that contains the abstract, the imagined space, as well as the visual order, signs, and codes of the city, dominated by political rulers, planners, and economic interests.

Based mainly on a qualitative research methodology, this section investigates the image of the city in the mindscape of its dwellers through interviews and observation of post-war generations. In order to support the findings of this qualitative research, the movement of this category of Beirutis was mapped a pattern of spatial dwellings inside their city was deduced.

Literature review supported this section specifically to determine the basic principles that define the conceived space. Defining the character of the city through deconstructing the city along Kevin Lynch’s five visual qualities of the city and Winy Mass’s World Class City Dimensions, the following Principles were deduced and later examined:

Territoriality, Open Space and Connectivity and Mobility.

Observations and interviews with people from different ethnic divisions resulted in determining a collage that defines a set of icons/memorable places that define their city. Furthermore, interviews with taxi drivers helps understand the division through the transportation system hence affecting the spatial interaction inside the city.

||Territoriality: an area of a town or city that a person or organization is responsible for, especially as part of their work.

Diagram showing the ten different landmarks and their locations on the map, the dwellers and the neighborhoods they live in.

What is Beirut’s Landmark? This was the question addressed to fifty-seven dwellers of the post-war generation who come from different areas/communities in Beirut. The result was 10 different answers for a city that has an area of 20km². 

After analyzing the answers, the results showed that basically these dwellers relate to the landmarks that are close to their communities (homes, wok place, study place…). As a result, very few share a national landmark to represent the city as a whole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

||Open Space: «When public spaces are successful […] they will increase opportunities to participate in communal activity. This fellowship in the open nurtures the growth of public life, which is stunted by the social isolation of ghettos and suburbs. In the parks, plazas, markets, waterfronts, and natural areas of our cities, people from different cultural groups can come together in a supportive context of mutual enjoyment. As these experiences are repeated, public spaces become vessels to carry positive communal meanings». (CARR, FRANCIS, RIVLIN and STONE, 1993, p. 344)

Mapping Public Spaces inside the city explains the concept of conceived space in terms of a network effect that normally acts as a link among the different neighborhoods of the city.

 

||Mobility and Connectivity: «mobility is “differentiated” and unevenly enacted in processes imbued with social, cultural, economic, political, and geographical power». (Sheller, 2006)

An experiment was performed on taxi cabs in Beirut that represent a major transportation tool around the city.

11:35 a.m. After 20 attempts to catch a cab,

-10 from destination A to B, in 7 minutes, 4 attempts failed (2 were sarcastic), 3 asked for extra charges, 3 accepted.

-10 from Destination B to A, in 11 minutes, 3 attempts failed, 5 asked for extra charges, 2 accepted.

Map representing the two destinations (a) and (b), the shortest ways (yellow) and the tracks from the cab drive (white and     blue respectively)

As a conclusion, and based on the three discussed principles, it is evident that the city is divided in the mindscape of its dwellers. This confirms Hypothesis nb. 1: How individuals of different religious communities and financial class in Beirut have different interpretations for the image of their city and perceive it based on their various acquired social memories.

 

Lived Space, the space that describes how people inhabit everyday life, the way they create their city as “users” through practices, images, and symbols.

Map showing the 45 tracks mapped by the dwellers moving inside the city.

Mapping the dwellers’ movement inside their city ultimately would reflect the way they inhabit it. For that, forty-five case studies were asked to track their movements inside the city using tracking applications on their mobile phones. The result was the above map whereby ‘meeting hubs’ or ‘crossing points’ can be deduced.

As a conclusion, the second hypothesis is proved based on the experiment and observations performed since individuals from different religious backgrounds are spatially connected to each other through common spatial hubs  within the cityscape. 

The deduced eight hubs were analyzed based on the three principles discussed earlier: Territoriality, Open Space, and Mobility & Connectivity in order to choose one case study to be investigated.

Mapping of Beirut’s seafront was necessary to choose a site that can contain a proposed intervention, taking into consideration the below variables: Landmarks, private vs public use, occupancy functions and accessibility.

The waterfront strip includes the two sides of the avenue parallel to the coast. The landside houses a majority of private residential plots while the waterside includes the majority of private resorts or restaurants with limited accessibility for the public.

The Dalieh hub marks the most relevant site for a case study since it is a controversial open public space, it is considered by the majority of the interviewed dwellers to be a national landmark, and the accessibility to the site is currently being compromised for the benefit sake of establishing private projects on the land.

 

The Intervention

 

What matters is that people of different social backgrounds and different walks of life encounter one another, in the ordinary course of life, because this is what teaches us to negotiate and abide our differences. Michael Sandel

Diagram showing the two compared sites along the seafront : Dalieh and Zaitunay Bay

 

“When space becomes a tool for division, careful and responsive planning, though not the only tool for conflict resolution, has a role in shaping spaces of opportunity” (Shirlow & Murtagh, 2006).

Theoretically speaking, Beirutis are in a desperate need for these kinds of planning measures; didactically, they need methods to understand, create and perform within the public realm. The ignorance of any form of communal ownership and shared spaces is very evident in our city. We are still negotiating definitions, meanings, identities and ownerships of our land from different points of view, refusing to meet each other halfway. The issue of citizenship arises and with that we define a private space as a place that does not belong to others, and not a place that is basically ours. That said, working on public spaces as a communication tool that declares the existence of this “halfway” will have a different form to materialize the anticipated spaces of opportunities.

The site of Dalieh contains an aspect of these spatial characteristics. The property is held privately and the organization and management of social practices, activities, and/or conflicts are worked through informal agreements. The problem currently in discussion is the prospective high end private project that will eventually deny right of entry to members of public as well as risking erasure of local character in favour of corporate sterility as was the case of other projects on Beirut’s waterfront. From a wider perspective, responsive planning can consider the merging of private and public domains as an opportunity rather than a downside. But how can this be implemented? Micheal Sandel says in his book Why We Shouldn’t Trust Markets, “Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require  that citizens share in a common life. What matters is that people of different social backgrounds and different walks of life encounter one another bump up against one another in the ordinary course of life, because this is what teaches us to negotiate and abide our differences. And this is how we come to care for the common good.”

Diagram identifying 25 forms of spatial uses: Boat harbours, cave excavation, horse-back riding, site seeing, skating, dancing, jogging, sharing food, relaxing, sunbathing, diving, fishing, playing, yoga, occasions, romantic pockets, food kiosks, festivals, picnics, music, scuba diving, playing sports, socializing, group biking and swimming.

Diagram placing the identified activities on the site

 

Diagram placing the proposed activities on the site

“Public spaces in cities define the protocols for cohabitation used by a community to build a society. It is the place where code lines for social interactions are written, where the culture of belonging and of urban identity is created. It is also the territory that houses the infrastructures making a city operate.” (Guallart, 2006). Nevertheless, like everything else that is given, not earned, these spaces will not be sustainable if not built through the work of their people. In order to achieve a sustainable shared space that promotes communal behavior for the public users and generates financial revenue for the shareholders, the proposed strategy extends over several phases that ensures a long-term consistency. The context of this project is based on comprehensive thinking in order to design a context for human interaction based on three major principles:

- incomplete context which invites the public to give their input and participate in the notion if decision making.

- temporary context which allows flexibility and possibilities of future modifications of the space through building with lightweight deployable structures.

- indefinite context which invites the public to relate to the character, history and memory of the space in their own personalized approaches.

Therefore the project’s aim is to empower the concept of sharing through innovative interactive spatial interventions ensuring in parallel eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable standards.

Activating the space: This phase extends along the first year of the project’s initiation and targets high sustainable traffic to the site with little necessity for monetized caliber of users. This will grow the trust of the public as they experience a new form of spatial innovation unseen before in Beirut. On the other hand, the private investors in the project will not be dedicating high initial capital to kick off the project. On the level of the architectural intervention, this phase includes the improvement of the general setting of the site, introduction of the major public features of the program and investing in recurrent activities such as markets and events. The time factor is critical in this case, as it allows the public from different backgrounds, to gradually get acquainted to the concept of shared space until  they become  eager to improve this space and eventually care for the common good. The actors involved in this stage are:

-  the shareholders who will ensure the site management and receive the financial revenue as well as coordinate with the governmental officials. With that, they will be eventually promoting themselves as socially responsible private developers. The source of the revenue generated will be through organized events, classes, and access to specific facilities.

- the public users from different age groups, social and economic backgrounds will be the incubators of the space themselves. The targeted interaction among them is the first aim for ensuring the sustainability of the project.

- the official party which includes the Lebanese Ministry of Environment and Lebanese Ministry of Tourism. The first controls the norms of the built structures and guarantees that no damage is endangering the ecosystem. The latter performs control over the touristic activities happening on the site.

- the non-profit organisations (in this case recommending Civil Campaign to Protect the Dalieh of Raouche along with other organisations committed to research on ecological diversity) that contribute to on-going research on the preservation of the ecosystem in the site as well as implemented innovative self-sufficient strategies and experimentations (energy generation through wind energy, solar power, and algae).

Maximizing the interventions’ returns: This phase introduces further private spaces into the project including a new experience of self-sufficient housing capsules. The limitation of space development remains the exploitation factor based on the existing zoning regulations which is 20% for Zone 10 IV while Zone 10 III remains considered as non aedificandi.

The proposal’s agenda clearly invites all actors to take role in the inclusive urban regeneration of Dalieh focusing on major target added values on the economic, social and environmental levels and therefore contributing to urban connectivity. Fishermen for instance, who have been working on the Dalieh site for a long time, are invited to share their experience with tourists, generate additional economic revenue, and keep their businesses which now has become part of the traditional heritage of the site.

Dalieh, as a shared space, is a vital ingredient in the success of a united Beirut, helping build a sense of community, civic identity and preserve cultural heritage. These facilitate social capital, economic development and community revitalization, where the public realm has a say in decision making (bottom-up approach), and where environmentally sustainable design, social interactions from different calibers of the society are encouraged.

In conclusion, the three layers of realities in Beirut city: the Perceived, Conceived and Lived realities, are translated into spatial conditions yet with different intensities. The Perceived and conceived spaces are directly affecting the dwellers perception of the city and time factor is limited to the nostalgia of the past in their mindscape. The lived reality, although being positively affecting the connections and interaction processes between the different communities, is not vastly promoted. This paradox is explained by Lebanese architect Bernard khoury:  ‘An Ancient City for the Future’, because ‘it evokes and links the past and the future, but shrugs off any notion of the present’. The proposed strategy aims for creating a network of sites of opportunities that influence each community and emphasize the necessity for sharing these spatial incubators or attractors towards a socially sustainable urban strategy for Beirut City.

 

 

 

 

The debate linked to a more responsive architecture, connected to nature, has been growing since the 1960s. Notwithstanding this fact, to this day, architecture is somewhat conservative: following the same principles with the belief in rigidity, solidity, and longevity. Bio-inspiration highlights a sensitive observation of biological processes and their transfer into novel design methodologies for the creation of innovative architectural explorations.

This research proposed to explore the possibilities of creating living systems by means of novel fabrication techniques (robotics) using algae as a biomaterial, thus raising the question of how to design with a material that lives, grows and dies.

The experiments developed were based on aerial algae, which obtains very similar properties in terms of photosynthesis comparing to aquatic algae, but does not need constant flow of water – although a certain humidity level must be maintained – in order to stay alive. Another interesting feature of algae is that when environmental conditions are adverse, algae goes into a form of hibernation until conditions are once again favorable. With this being said, aerial algae is much better suited for use in terms of maintenance. So the decision was taken to 3D print algae medium with an embedded culture, using a robotic arm fitted with a pump extruder.

To maintain the algae alive, 2 types of medium were tested – 1) Agar agar medium; and 2) Methylcellulose (powder hydrogel) with sodium alginate. The first showed good algae growth rate, but some constraints were identified – such as extrusion temperature and algae insertion, which can be only done after having completed the printing of the medium. The second medium, on the contrary, forms a homogeneous mass that can be extruded at room temperature, having added the algae to the mix prior to printing. Thereby methylcellulose was chosen for further tests with a robotic arm, including tests on different printing parameters (pressure, speed, line thickness, etc), as well as deflation/ deformation tests in order to understand the behavior of the material while drying.

The final result represents the first large scale hydrogel print with the size of 1.5m x 4m. It was designed according to previous material tests. It was demonstrated that better results can be achieved by printing a pattern with one continuous line, creating so called nodes (line intersections) enhancing the structural capabilities of the screen. For the final print the pattern (approx. 1 km) was divided into equal parts in order to fit the available printing area (0.5m x 2m).

Moreover this fabrication method demonstrated some advantages when compared to a typical water pump systems that are using aquatic algae.

-        Fabrication time is faster

-        Reduction of overall system complexity (does not call for large amounts of technical detail)

-        Maintenance is relatively simple

Seagrass possesses the special characteristic that it hardens over time. This process creates the seagrass roofs shapeless surface character. This kind of process is known, in the science of geology,as the process of concretion.

This thesis is dealing with how buildings can be a host for the nature by using seagrass as roof material. The goal is global usage, helping to decrease the emissions of greenhouse gasses worldwide by hosting a productive vegetation. The goal is reached by combining ancient thatching technique with seagrass learned from Læsø (Denmark) with modern digital fabrication and computational design.

ABSTRACT

Buildings are responsible for the biggest global emissions of greenhouse gasses. One of the reasons why this is the case is that the building sector is based on static dead materials, accumulating  greenhouse gasses rather than absorbing them as the living nature can. This thesis deals with how the present architecture can fully host for the nature, using organic materials resulting in a living architecture.

The research is based on the organic material seagrass which has been used as a traditional roof material at the small island, Læsø, in Denmark for over 300 years. The ancient seagrass roofs are based on manual work and have no noticeable connection to our contemporary digital age.

The project will use computational design tools together with logics from bio-mimicry in order to

introduce an innovative and sustainable way of constructing living roofs with seagrass. The idea is to host the nature rather than merely exploiting it.

Seagrass serves several functions for the existing roofs. It works as insulation, weather protection and as a fertilizer for growing plants. The result is a heavy massive roof holding its own living ecology. This ancient construction method has four main disadvantages I will take into consideration:

1)       Aesthetic. Harsh and subjective “ugly” looking appearance. I will study how seagrass can be used in a different manner to get a more appealing appearance in a contemporary context. This part will be based on computational form finding but will also look into morphogenesis, geometrical patterns and physical prototyping as tools of finding appropriate shapes and forms. Theory from scientific papers and theory in bio-materials will ground the proposals which are suitable for the properties of the material.

 2)       Material usage and limited inclinations. A big quantity of seagrass is used in order to make the roof water proof, and the existing roofs only work with an inclination between 30-45 degrees. Research and theory based on bio-mimicry and environmental analysis will provide a system to make a more efficient section of a new roof typology for seagrass which also can be functional in different inclinations.

3)       Unintended ecology. The small ecology of plants grown on the roofs are not controlled or optimized. For a seagrass roof to be an even more appealing sustainable alternative to traditional structures, the ability to grow vegetation in the material needs to be more present in the design.

4)       Inhabitable spaces. The roof structure is 100% closed. The consequence is that no daylight enters and that the attic therefore only serves as an inhabitable space. I will aim to change the function of the roof-system to be a habitable space.

These are the main challenges and drivers but also work as my main strategies for designing an alternative to conventional static building materials: Grace, Concretion, Ecology and Habitat

INTRODUCTION

I have always had a big interest in the link between nature and architecture. In all of my project so far, the nature has been a driver for my design approach.

The landscape of my native Denmark has changed drastically from a landscape characterized by a big diversity of small farms, animals and crops into super farms and continued lands of the same type of crops and no animals visible. I grew up in a small village surrounded by an oak forest near Copenhagen in Denmark. I experienced the difference and the impact between nature and the city. Slowly but steadily the city has expanded into the woods and left scars in the forest. Some parts of the forest I cannot even recognize anymore. The expansion of the city has not taken into account how to repair the forest again or how to live in it without destroying it. I find this very disappointing but it also encourages me to work for a better dialogue between nature and architecture.

In the 20th century major technical inventions such as planes, space travels and the internet have been integrated into our lives. Most of the inventions were made without taking into account the usage of none renewable materials and the global carbon budget. The 21th century has showed us the limits of our relative small planet. We now know for sure that the world is changing, and we soon will ran out of the many natural resources which most of our technology is based on. So we find ourselves in a crisis, lacking natural resources that we are dependant on while exploiting the nature that provides them.

The link between architecture and nature is universal.  Mankind has always been interested in this subject. However, many  contemporary buildings are to a large extant distant related to the nature rather than working actively  and closely with the nature. We are standing in front of a global problem that we need to tackle. The logic of this thesis is based on the understanding that the problem could be solved by letting the nature in instead of cutting it off.

We have been relying our design approach on common ways to construct and think our architecture although our tools and knowledge have changed drastic during the two industrial revolutions. A building is still constructed by static materials. The materials are separated from their natural growing behaviour, and when a building is constructed, it is just waiting to be torn down and being replaced by a new and smarter one. We see that happening a lot in suburban areas worldwide where new condos and skyscapers are built all the time and farmland trusts and other activitists have to fight in order to keep some land green.[1] We have developed a use-and-throw-away-culture. We do not expect our buildings to perform better during time as in the nature.

Digital computational architectural design has mainly been focused on static and non-organic materials. There seems to be a small amount of research working with organic materials. The main architecture of today has no life, does not produce oxygen and it is a one-way transfer of energy from the nature to the man-made environment.

To change this unsustainable way of energy usage, some architects aim to find a better dialogue between nature and architecture. I would like to be one of them and therefore my research seeks to recreate a (lost) dialogue between nature and architecture. Hence, my challenge is how it is possible to let the contemporary static architecture turn into a living organism which can be a host for the nature. A living architecture that will respond.

“The most effective way to ‘heal’ a stressed ecologymay be to construct living buildings.” Rachel Armstrong [2]

The specific research started with the fascination of the material, seagrass (eelgrass), which has been used as roof material in the small island Læsø in Denmark for over 300 year. Læsø was lacking typical building material to construct their houses with because of the harsh weather condition on the island. So they had to look into alternative solutions. The sea had always been the main element and influence to the citizens of the island, situated in the middle of the sea of Kattegat, so it was likely for them to observe what the sea could provide them with. They tried with seagrass.

Seagrass is a waste product from the sea which can be collected on the beach and dried to be used as a building material. The seagrass were laid directly on the roof beams, and the roofs were gradually getting more sealed over the years, given the houses a shelter from the weather conditions. Over time the roof started to merge with the nature while plants and organism started living on the surface of the seagrass, without damaging the roof. The houses became hosts for the nature. The seagrass served several functions for the houses: insulation, roof cladding and  membrane. It also worked as a fertilizer and “soil” for growing plants. The result was a heavy massive roof with its own unintended living ecology. Many of the houses are still intact on the island, and this proves that the usage of seagrass as roof material has longterm properties.

All the houses have more or less the same type of typology of construction. The get the roof sealed and water proof, the section of the roof is sometimes up to 1,5 meter in depth which means a lot of seagrass is used to construct it, and all the roof inclinations are limited between 35-45 degrees. Nowadays, this material usage and limitations will not be suitable and this need to be optimized to work in a contemporary context.

The roofs made by seagrass has a kind of “bad taste” and lack of sophistication as well which means that many will not describe them as beautiful in a traditional sense. However, I think they have great and interesting potential.. Seagrass roof can titillate us and tempt us to use terms like organism, and I think it calls on a discussion of the importance of beauty in architecture and the origin of natural forms and shapes in nature, which I am tempted to call the origin of beauty or grace. Therefore, I will look into the concept of the morphogenesis theory based on Alan Turings ” The Chemical basis of Morphogenesis” and D´Arcy Wentworth Thompson´s “On growth and form“, which are some of the most important founders of the theory behind understanding the order of geometries and therefore grace in the nature.

By studying the properties of the material, its process and aging process, it shows that seagrass possesses the special characteristic that it hardens over time – and that it is this hardening process which, in particular, creates the seagrass roof shapeless surface character. This kind of process is known, in the science of geology, as the process of concretion[3] formed from mineral precipitations found in sedimentary rocks and soil. This mechanism gives the material of seagrass another very specific and rare dimension than other standard building materials: Time.

To amalgamate the ancient technique of constructing the roofs of seagrass with a more contemporary design language calls for a new transition. The typical seagrass roof is based on manual labour and the new typology will be based on digital fabrication which is the paradigm at our time. I will therefore use digital computation as the main driver to explore new ways of using seagrass and challenge the shape, creating a competitive and contemporary approach to using the material in architecture. The link between the two ways of constructing is the material and the behaviour of the organic matter and understanding natural processes. The research will be based on form finding in computational modelling and small scale prototyping. I believe that this part of the thesis will be crucial for the future of the material because of the way in which the material can be understood and lifted into a new time age through my method. I will therefore aim to have the process of the form finding with the seagrass as a centrepiece and the final outcome of the thesis to be exhibited.

In our present time biology has often been a key to create new systems with materials introducing bio-mimicry.Inventions like Velcro, tanks and airplanes is all studies based on natural phenomenon - “the nature invented it first“[4].  This directs the research to try to understand other natural systems found in the nature which can help to optimize the new language into a new sufficient system of roofs with sea grass.

“Human subtlety…will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.” Leonardi Da Vinci [5]

In recent years bio-mimicry has gained strength through researchers such as Janine Benyus and later for example translated into architecture by Michael Pawlin. The research from the two of them will serve to help me how to  understand and interpret  the life of seagrass from the nature into a system of building with seagrass.  In detail I will look in to the phenomenon of furs at animal amphibia species (animal living in water and on land). One of the characteristics of these types of furs is that the water is easily drained away and leaves theinner skin dry and warm. The insulation is not based on blubbers, as marine species normally are, but 100% thefur. This behaviour is what I am looking for in order to optimize the existing system of the seagrass roofs.  While the intention is to have a better controlled ecology in the seagrass mass, the nature will obvious be the point of inspiration. Nevertheless, the link to useful computational tools such as solar radiation studies will be crucial and will link the computation design to the local environments.

1. GRACE

The seagrass roofs have a kind of “bad taste” and lack of sophistication, which means that many will not describe them as beautiful in a traditional sense. But they can do something which in my opinion is more interesting. Seagrass roofs can titillate us and tempt us to use terms like organism.

To better understand the typology in the design language, I have compared the existing seagrass roof with hair. I am not to judge beauty, but I am proposing the concept of hairstyles as a metaphor here in order to form a design language about seagrass. I am also introducing the concept of grace in order to discuss the aesthetics of seagrass:

“A characteristic or quality pleasing for its charm or refinement”[6]

 I prefer the definition of grace above because it is including the concept of refinements, and is maybe not as subjective as the concept behind beauty. The refinements are looking into the details behind the beauty and are giving the style some depth.

Hairstyles 1960s

 

“The 1960s also introduced The Beatles, who started a more widespread longer hair trend. The social revolution of the 1960s led to a renaissance of unchecked hair growth, and long hair, especially on men, was worn as a political or countercultural symbol or protest and as a symbol of masculinity.” [7]

People like Brian Jones (the Rolling Stones) was wearing this kind of haircut during the sixties. His hairstyle was clearly based on a centralised line, and the hair “falling” from this – just as the seagrass roofs are based on the horizontal roof beams, and the fibres are falling down towards the ground. The hairstyle is based on washed hair, which is not more treated, and then fall into place.

Hairstyles 1980s and 1990s

The thatched roofs with straw have a much broader design language. This might be because the tradition is much more wellknown and tested. But it might also be because the fibers are more stiff and easier to group and cut in sharp angles.

In the 1980s there where an introduction of a broader selection of hair products. This gave the hairstyles a better chance to become more independent of the gravity. The hair should look more clean and sharp. As well as coloring the hair was more common. The hairstyles were testing the normal and the gravity using these products. The haircut was essential for the hairstyle and needed to be well maintained. So a visit at the hairdresser was needed more than once per year more than in the 1960s (if ever needed).

In the “hairstyles of thatched roofs” there lies a great amount of experimentations and refinements. The different compositions is not made, only to make a functional roof/hairstyle, but also giving new aspects of dealing with meeting between openings as doors and windows and introducing the twig. Instead of relying on one massive mass being the roof, the thatched straw roofs were using the direction and cut of the fibers to drain the roofs in a much more sufficient and sophisticated way compared to the seagrass roofs. For me, this is some of the refinements (and details) which lead to grace.

Hairstyles 2000s

The new ecology of seagrass posses a new design language. Learned from the tradition of thatching with straw, an optimization is key to create the new language. Grace is not necessarily the end goal, but it is more a generator to explore the opportunities with the seagrass.

To me, grace is found everywhere in the nature. The nature has its own complex system to evolve and regenerate itself. Studying different systems from the nature will be my tool in order to to reach the grace in a new design language for seagrass. The system will give the appearance of the complexity and at the same time some kind of an order.

My references for the new language is for example the hairstyle of Björk. Using different systems of weaving, binding and creating different heights, pores and densities, Björk experiments with her hair. Combining this hairstyle with computational design tools and systems from the nature could create a new system and design language.

2. CONCRETION

To optimize the existing strategies of using the fibers of seagrass, new approaches to the technique have to be explored. This chapter is dealing with how to compact the fibers in order to make a more efficient section of a new system of roofs made out of seagrass.

By studying the properties of the material, its process and aging process, we learn that seagrass possesses the special characteristic that it hardens over time – and that it is this hardening process which, in particular, gives the seagrass roofs a shapeless surface character. This kind of process is known, in the science of geology, as the process of concretion[8] formed from mineral precipitations found in sedimentary rocks and soil. This mechanism gives the material of seagrass another very specific and rare dimension than other standard building materials – time. So already in the property of the material, it turns into a more compact state over time. This behaviour could be increased, controlled or forced.

The first months of the research have been based on material and digital testing. In order to find a new language and a technique for the seagrass, there has been a parallel track of digital modeling and physical tests. The physical tests show the limits of the material, and the digital tests challenge the material in new ways based on digital fabrication rather than on slow manual labor ( like building traditional houses with seagrass roofs). The tests were made directly with the material of seagrass, 3D-printings and 3D-modelling using Rhino/grasshopper.

The research showed that there were five different main ways of  dealing with the seagrass:

Compressing

The first approach is to compress the seagrass. The compressing is based on adding an additional material (or the seagrass in another state) to keep the seagrass in pressure by force, and therefore a more compact section of the seagrass can be made.

Interlocking

Interlocking the fibers, so they stay into place between gaps. A complex porous structure creating a interlocking system to grap and hold the seagrass.

Weaving

Coming from the old thatching technique from Læsø where they were attaching the twisted seagrass to the beams by weaving the seagrass. New techniques to twist and weave the seagrass should be explored.

Binding

Fencing the seagrass together.

Glueing

Forcing the seagrass together with an additional binder. This technique could result in the ability to molt the material, and eventually mill in the material.

The investigations of shapes, geometries and systems to deal with the seagrass fibers, will be based on mainly system and characteristics from the nature. Example of systems analyzed are fibers of the palm tree, corals and furs.

Many of the approaches will not be purely based on one technique, but will be a combination of multiple techniques. These different ways to control the seagrass have each different characters and benefits. To conclude the investigation a catalogue has been made. This catalogue shows basically how to layer the seagrass into a new system. The catalogue is giving the different new compositions properties in terms of creating a new roof system.

3. ECOLOGY

In our present time biology (and nature) has often been a key to create new systems with materials introducing bio-mimicry. Inventions like Velcro, tanks and airplanes are all studies based on natural phenomenon – “the nature invented it first”.  This directs the research to try to understand other natural systems found in the nature which can help to optimize the new language into a new sufficient system of roofs with seagrass.

The bio-mimicry gained its strength the last years through researchers such as Janine Benyus and later for example translated into architecture with Michael Pawlin.

In the following chapter I will for look into the phenomenon of furs at animal amphibia species (animal living in water and on land) as an useful example for my project. The characteristic of these types of furs is that the water is easily drained away and leaving the inner skin dry and warm. Also, the insulation is not based on blubbers, as marine species normally are, but 100% the fur.

This behavior could be what I am looking for in order  to optimize the existing system of the seagrass roofs.  The intention is to have a better controlled ecology in the seagrass mass, the nature will obviously be the point of inspiration. But here the link to useful computational tools such as solar radiation studies will link the computation design to the local environments.

Furthermore, I will look into the ecologies and logics behind: Bark, Lichen, Fur and Coral

The fur of the sea otter

The fur of the sea otter has a very rare characteristic too; it can keep the animal dry while been in the water for up to 30 min. This is because of the distribution of hair.

The whole body of the sea otter, with the exception of its nose and pads of its paws, is covered in dense fur. This is made out of two layers; a short underfur and a guard layer. The underfur is the densest of all mammals, with a density of 1 million hairs pr. square cm. In comparison, the humans only have 100,000 hairs all over the head. Unlike other marine mammals, the sea otter does not have any blubbers for insulation. They are only using their thick, water-resistant fur to keep them warm in the freezing icy waters.

Guard hair

A top layer of long, waterproof guard hairs are keeping the underfur layer quite dry by draining the cold water. The pelage is typically brown in color with tones of gray. The guard hair are long up to 2,6 cm.

Underfur

The underfur is made out of a much denser fur. The hairs are shorter –  from 4,6 – 15,8 mm. For each guard hair there is grouped hair, connected to it – up to 400 times more hairs fibers. The underfur is so dense that it traps air bubbles and works as an insulating layer and as the final drain for the water because the fur is so dense that water cannot penetrate it. Therefore the underfur is working as the global drain for the sea otter.

The fur of the seagrass

A new fur is made by the concept of having guard hairs and an underfur. The guard hairs are cells of a local distribution of water drainage according to the location on the surface (solar radiation analysis). The underfur uses the concretion of the seagrass and creates a much denser “fur”, to drain the water away. The geometry of the undefur is determined by simulations of the water flows on the specific surface learned from the corals. Under the underfur a ventilation layer is added to keep the underside of the layer healthy and dry,

Although the sea otter is not using blubbers for insulation, the new proposed section has blubbers as the insulation layer. The blubbers are 100% dry and are the visible layer in the ceiling. The blubbers are following the shape of the cells ,creating “pillows” hanging from the ceiling.

 Animation of a new seagrass fur

A new conceptual fur is proposed, to optimize the roof structure according to drainage and insulation. The animation shows the evolution of the design and the different inputs. The different input is controlling the geometry made in Grasshopper. The inputs are:

•                           Determined surface
•                            Solar radiation on surface
•                            Solar radiation on extruded cell
•                            Slope angle
•                            Opening sizes 

4. HABITAT

The local resource of suitable seagrass is important to find out, where the system can be applied, so the material should not be transported from far away, which not would be sustainable. Working with local materials, I believe, is a most, when you are working with bio-materials. In Spain seagrass has been regulated by law, and all usage of the material is illegal caused by the decreasing amount of the material, so Denmark was chosen to be the place to apply the system in a new habitat.

Typology and construction

The traditional Danish house is based on a pitched roof with a slope angle between 35 and 60 degrees. There has been many examples of transforming the traditional houses into a contemporary context, but most of them has not been challenging the geometries of the roofs; either the houses have kept the slope angles or made them as a flat roof.

The new typology for the terminal is based on the traditional pitched roof but is morphed into a landscape, by slowly deformation the angles of the roof. This is creating areas with a slope angle down to 15 degrees to challenge the new technique of creating seagrass roofs.

The new roof will be a landscape partly self-supporting and supported by vertical orientated wooden planks. This brings the new terminal into the boat community, as well as applying something completely new to the harbor.

The building technique is a combination of traditional wood crafting, farming the seagrass, and new digital fabrication.

The process of the construction is as follows:

1. The main structure of the building is made on site

2. Molting the underfur

3. Placing the underfur on the main structure

4. Filling the underfur with wet seagrass directly from the sea

5. Drying time for seagrass

6. Adding the guard hair layer

Process of softness and perforation

The creation of the final design for the terminal has gone througgh several processes. Combining the landscape with the simple environment in the harbor, has been tricky because it is introducing a whole new language. The relationship to water has been crucial in order to let the more organic landscape be reliable. The new landscape is an extension of the water (seagrass), representing a certain movement which also is related to function as the terminal.

The logics behind the perforation of the roof, to let daylight in, also led to two different proposals. In the first proposal the perforation is based on the functions of the terminal – where there is an open space for people, holding more daylight. The second is a combination. Here the perforation is also based on where the building is connected to supports. The roof is getting more dense close to the supports where there is a greater height or cantilevering, the pores of the roof are getting bigger.

Layers of concretion in roof

The earlier design distribution of layers has been used for the new roof system as follows:

GUARD LAYER: Guided layer of loose seagrass and molted seagrass. Drain path according to slope angle and solar radiation.

UNDERFUR: High density of molted seagrass. Drain path according to the fastest way to the gutter..

BLUBBER: Insulation pillows serves as the visible sealing.

Furthermore, by controlling the geometry of the roof it is possible to allow the roof to have different areas with conditions linked to the orientation.

The wind in the harbor is coming most likely from southeast and southwest. The wind can help flat areas to dry faster. So towards those directions the roof is getting more flat, enabling the roof  to dry faster.

Functions and plan

The new terminal buildings main function is to serve as an office to the harbor and the ferry. This requires an office which is allocated in the center of the building. The office is connected to a hallway which is dividing the building in two pieces and allowing guests to access the bridge on the other side of the terminal.

Facing the water and the open area in the building, is a new café and a waiting area. The roof is cantilevering over the existing bridge of wood and is creating a shelter for the guests who are waiting for the ferry outside.

Back in the new terminal, a space for boats are made for surviving the hard winters in Denmark. It functions as a woodshop during the summer.

The facade follows the functions: Where the functions are more public, the building opens up and it is more closed in the end of terminal where the storage of boats are allocated.

[1]  One example could be Toronto, CA, where Ontario Farmland Trust fights in order to save some green land in the area http://ontariofarmlandtrust.ca/about/

[2] Essay written by Rachel Armstrong for NextNature.net 2010
 http://www.nextnature.net/2010/06/self%E2%80%93repairing-architecture/

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concretion

[4] Popular Science - Robert E. Martin - Magasin 1935

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_hair#cite_note-cosmetology-16

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concretion

ABSTRACT

People have always inhabited spaces. Humans have always adapted their functions to these spaces which they occupy. If a building is constructed to fulfil an outlined function, why then should its occupants need to adapt to it? This is neccessary because constant renovations are impracticle and expensive, and structural changes are often near-impossible.

So we change. We adapt. Adaptive architecture, as a theory, suggests that the architecture can adapt to our functions instead – moving it’s walls and floors, creating and closing opening.

The truth of this though, is that buildings that are constantly in a state of motion are uninhabitable. Fixed prices per square metre, neighbours, nice furniture, these basic neccessities all inhibit the obvious application of adaptive architecture.

Self-assembly is the best type of adaptive structures, offering the most fluid and infinite variations of potentialities. Self-assembly also leads to the true application of adaptive architecture: high risk areas and environments.

These high risk areas range from subterrainean to extra-terrestrial construction. It also includes the more current needs of post-natural disaster relief. The application of a system which can spontaneously build a structure allows connectivity in flood zones, support of unstable structures post-earthquakes, as well as unmanned access to high radiation zones to create containment structures. These few applications listed here are some of the many needs for an unmanned construction system.

A photo-voltaic skin can allow the bots to use solar energy to recharge their batteries. Aswell, Piezo Electrics can harness the energy of the vibrations to charge the bots.

redistribution of power through community energy grid – the struts of the individual robots can transfer electricity through the network/structure to recharge bots whom require more power.

The Aesthetics of Efficiency for Sustainability VIDEO OF THE DESIGN PROPOSAL

My project proves an 18 % reduction on the environmental impact [GHG´s emissions] of a case study CEMEX Factory in México. By using a set of architectural defined tools for intervention, such as renewable technologies [Wind & Solar generation], Direct reduction systems such as CO2 Storage systems with CO2 absorbant tree´s greenhouses, District Heating Systems [taking advantage from the klins 2000°c constant gas waste] for the creation of sustainable communities within the factory premises, as well as the implementation of green facades as a CO2 compensation system on all non productive buildings.
Each area of intervention was found by an exhaustive previous analysis of the Cement Industy, focusing on México´s production and on CEMEX factories. Once having them, they were individualy analyzed in order to apply them in the most efficient way to the new factory design proposal.

La Sustentable Factory is a 900 tons/day of cement manufacturing plant, located in Sonora, at the North West part of Mexico [La colorada highway km 17.5] with Climate relativly warm/desertic with an average temperature of 25°C throughout most of the year, but with enough rainfall to supply for the nearby cities and the factory itself. With an overall footprint of 60 hectars including Mining.
This proposal generates twice the electric energy that the factory needs with solar radiation, reduces the GHG´s emissions & reuses the waste on temperature from the ovens to support heating systems for almost 2 hectars of habitable areas within the factory and enhancing self-sustainable communities.
The factory lifespam will be of 70 year having a daily need of raw material for production of 1,143,000 tons supplied from 2 main mines located not further than 300 m away from the new factory.

IAAC is presenting a project for the competition Torrebaró Self Sufficient District today at 13.00.

This is a project that the City Council of Barcelona has commissioned to the 5 Barcelona based schools of architecture -EALS, ESARQ, ETSAB, ETSAV, IAAC – in a competition format in order to select the best project of a self sufficient building, to be built in Torrebaró next October 2015.

Javier Peña, Rodrigo Rubio and Silvia Brandi together with the MAA02 students, since October 2014, have been developing the IAAC proposal.

Join us at the Biblioteca del Nord, c/ Vallcivera 3bis in Torrebaró to see all the presentations!

11.00 / 11.30 ESARQ

11.30 / 12.00 EALS

12.00 / 12.30 ETSAB – UPC

12.30 / 13.00 ETSAV – UPC

13.00 / 13.30 IAAC

At 17.00 the jury will announce the results of the competition.

The resulting submission for the LLUMBCN2015 IAAC special project.

Student team: Tobias Grumstrup Lund Øhrstrøm, Alejandro Martinez del Campo, Robert Douglas McKaye, Alessio Verdolino

Professional team (IAAC): Areti Markopoulou, Silvia Brandi, Mathilde Marengo, Maria Kuptsova, Anastasia Pistofidou, Anna Popova, Alexandre Dubor, Guillem Camprodon, Luis Fraguada, Carlos Gómez

Collaborators: Mery Glez (Out Of Format), Ignacio de Juan-Creix y Umbert (tl3), Carmen Aguilar y Wedge (tl3), Meral Ece Tankal (tl3)