Concept – Transformation, growth, forces and deformation

Architectural work- Embryological House by Greg Lynn

Click the link below for the video of the final presentation:

WATER CUBE

Beijing National Aquatics Center – 2008

The water cube is an aquatic center won in a competition by PTW architects and built for the swimming competitions of the 2008 summer Olympics. The ecologically friendly water cube maximized social and economic standards. One of the concepts the architects used was to build on natural process of using soap bubbles by building with Weaire-Phelan structure. When two bubbles meet, they form a flat angle to build on. They then unified the angle at  105 degrees.

The second concept is using the square shape which symbolizes the Chinese culture, where the cube signifies earth and the circle of the stadium represents Heaven. However since all bubble are at the same angle hence similar, the whole volume was rotated before it was sliced into a square in order to get a façade with bubbles shapes of different size depending of the cut line position. That is why it looks random while it actually is very regular. The architects and engineers used the state of art technology and materials to get an energy efficient building. The 100,000 sq. ETFE plastic used is the largest clad structure in the world. It is very thin and recognized for its light weight characteristics – it weighs 1% of the weight of glass. As well it allows natural light to penetrate requiring 55% less artificial light. By having a double sheet design, it creates an opaque insulating skin which captures solar energy to heat the interior and the pools. This makes it an energy efficient building. As well, the double sheet concept creates fluidity and continuity between the interior and exterior. Yet the most impressing feature of ETFE is that when it catches fire, it simply melts away instead of burning and spreading the fire, and it instantly stops when the fire is put away. It is also water efficient since it harvests rain water and has a backwash system, recycles and filtrates allowing the building to require 90% less potable water than a typical construction. The notion of performance is very important in this building; the nodes and connections used resemble a tinker toy and are built in a way to make the building the most earthquake resistant structure known.

I am interested in understanding and experimenting with the same systematic way that these architects had. Researching with materials, building advanced structures, and implementing sustainable and efficient solutions all together would be a great win in my opinion. By moving towards a sustainable architecture, spreading the word by showing diagrams of efficiency over time and try to apply it in new constructions, even in old ones, when possible, would make the world a better place.

Critical reading:         Bernard Rudofsky, “Conditioned Outdoor Room”

RELATIONAL LOGIC

The “Studio House” built in Gijon, Spain, is composed of four units which interrelate and form a unified construction integrated with its surrounding. The architects took into consideration two main elements during the design process; the energy efficiency of the project and its integration with nature. The Guest house emerges from the ground and then branches into the house and the atelier which are placed in a way to ensure a double orientation, ventilation and lighting. The fourth unit is the garage. The relationship of the Studio house with the ground varies according to the typology of the plan, which is a mixture of the modern house and the industrial warehouse. This relationship creates spaces such as the center covered exterior space which serves as a climate regulator.

In the “Conditioned Outdoor Room”, the author starts by showing how people want to control nature and the climate as much as they can, even if it means living constantly indoors or underground. However he believes they failed in this attempt since their control is restricted to the indoors.  According to Rudofsky, people need the outdoors since it is not only the air we breathe but it also is part of our mood, our skin color, our happiness etc. That is why he says we need gardens, the domestic gardens of the past which where habitable and had privacy, not the contemporary gardens which remain unoccupied. For people need to feel they are in their living room, but at the same time enjoy the sun, wind, and smell of nature. People need the outdoor living room; the garden. Rudofsky talks about Adam and mentions the wall which is a very important invention yet no one gave it enough credit. He also mentions Guinea and Pompeii, places where nature and climate are seen as the most suitable.

In both texts we notice an environmental relationship since both include nature; in the “Studio House”, the roof is green and the design is based on energy efficiency and in the “Conditioned Outdoor Room” the main idea is about the garden and how to appreciate the natural light, and wind. Positional Relation is evident in the way the walls are placed in a clearly specific way creating the different spaces. In both texts we notice the importance of nature and how humans should contribute to it; like a bird nest is part of nature, the houses we live in are part of nature as well and design decisions must be made while getting closer to nature.

The path that I would choose to research would definitely include the interaction between architecture and nature, adding the new advanced language of architecture including parametricism. As we may observe, parametric is mostly site, sun, vegetation, rain and nature related, it gives us precise information which we are able to use more freely and correctly in our designs. Having an environmental friendly construction does not mean it is on the expense of the design, on the contrary it can bring a lot more to its inhabitants as Rudofsky implied; being close to nature is not just breathing fresh air, it is also our mood, our skin color, and our energy, so we should make the most out of it.

Image: Stone House in Vietnam

Architects: vo trong nghia