Ken Chun Kit Yeung Portfolio
Towards a Dignified Architecture
Barcelona Institute of Architecture 2011-2012
Contents
2
BIARCH 2011-2012
I. Prologue
4
II.
Rethinking Landscape
6
III.
Rethinking Form
IV.
Rethinking Archetype
26 48
V. Appendix
104
Portfolio
3
I. Prologue
4
BIARCH
Towards a Dignified Architecture
Pondering in the mist of global skepticism of capital with roaring social struggle worldwide, the bubble of architectural glorification might come to an end. Perhaps this is best explained by the deflation of optimism in our social and economic situation, as oppose to over-optimism. Hyperconsumerism has driven such unsustainable economic growth which ultimately result as an excessiveness of iconic buildings in our built environment, “Architectural aesthetics will be extremely diverse” (Makoto Tanijiri, Mark No. 22, Oct/Nov 2009). It is with this formalist/ consumerist notion, architecture seems to come to an end of the age of excessiveness in diversity as a reaction towards post-crisis. Does the aspiration of improvement of society still exist in architecture within such parameters of the current cultural, social and political dynamics? Is it a-ideology or a rather ideological appeal for architect’s artistic expression? If not, does such high moral significance based on a rather anticonsumerist framework? Or simply accept and work with such parameters not as constraints but opportunity, a kind of contemporary Zeitgeist? However, such ideology is usually associated with bygone social projects. Some architects believe in acting here and now, and they divert their focus to area with the needs of immediate assistance such disaster relief and helping poverty- stricken areas. With intention or not, such actions with international broadcast inflicts cheaper versions of the same connotation of icons. It is in situations like this where a glimpse of architectural morality is still evident, though with an impact which is merely virtual. What does architecture contribute towards society at large? This collection of work is an attempt to attain a sense of dignity in contemporary architecture through rethinking the notion of landscape, form and archetype.
The notion of dignified architecture perhaps could be best explained by Kenneth Frampton’s notion of ‘Critical Regionalism’. It opposes any photogenic and self-indulgent architecture and architectural representation. It suggests a critical perceptual renewal of social and political reality. It assents the contradiction between the totalitarianism of the global capitalist institution and the cultural foundation rooted from the geographic and demographics of diverse origins. It is with such dialectic understanding that one could learn to rally with the process of total transformation which the phenomenon of universalization brings upon our society. Portfolio
5
II. Rethinking Landscape
6
BIARCH
Landscape from the Dutch word landscap, land means “region”, scap means “condition”
Portfolio
7
Algae Forest Productive Land Program with Maria Buhigas, Marc Montlleó & Anna Viader
The proposed strategy, algaeculture, works primarily through synergy with the location and is aimed at establishing new and affirming existing cycles within the bio-economical network of Parc Agrari. The area of Parc Agrari is characterized by dense network of road infrastructure, proximity of El Prat Airport and agricultural activity. The coexistence of these main postulates and a periurban condition as a fertile ground for such conditions result in a programmatic complexity whose side effects often take form of patches of unproductive land - ‘lost’ land along intensive roads (highway), technical buffer zones primarily related to the airport, automobile salvage yards, as signs of urban that invades agricultural.
The proposal takes this unproductive land and makes it into an efficient and productive substrate by means of algae cultivation. Additionally, the production process intakes waste water from the nearby waste water treatment plant and CO2 from the airport and local industrial plants. That said, the possibility of a new ‘crop’ that does not require productive land becomes even more relevant when considering the Delta’s ecosystem, primarily the danger of sea water incursion.
The location and the formal strategy employed follow the three mentioned types of unproductive land and are articulated into three differentiated but coherent production typologies first of which takes over the zone of automobile salvage yards and follows the typology of agricultural fields. It is read as a cultivation of new crop with high level of control over the production process itself. The second system is infrastructural; it uses the buffer zone of the main roads profiting from the operational benefits that the existing infrastructure offers. Lesser productivity of the system is here supplemented by additional function of a noise barrier , which responds to the airport traffic and is therefore denser and more massive while its form is at the same time used to intensify the production level.
8
In fact the three typologies construct a clearly artificial, non - romanticised and non - naturalistic, highly productive landscape. One that does not differentiate between commercial and environmental production, one that is a system imposed to the land but synergized with the landscape. Despite the fact that it performs as one, this is not a forest. It is contradictory which is opposite the contemporary tendency of understanding landscapes as images; it is not a forest in a sense that it’s not an image of a forest, it is its nature. It does not mean or represent a landscape. It simply is one. BIARCH 2011-2012
Productive Cycle
9
10
Aerial View of Proposal
0
1000
0
1000
Proposed Site Plan
11
12
Conceptual Diagram
Conceptual Diagram
13
14
Infrastructure Typology
Urban Buffer Typology
15
16
Field Typology
Proposed Productive Field
17
Dwelling, Crossing & Associate Places Registering Landscapes of Uncertainty with Toni Gironès
The project consists of recording and producing cartographic materials to reveal qualities that underlie the urban routine. It based on the experiences of a three-day journey walking along the course of a river as it moves towards the sea. We aim to slow the speed of observation – to look, to notice, to register the tempo of the everyday, to locate and identify behaviours. These are places that have managed to metabolize the successive accelerations generated by the scientific and technological revolution and today’s system based on unlimited consumption. Places that have acquired, logically, an aesthetic expression of environmental ethics, where, spontaneously, alternative options have been restarted and applied. Places where territory and landscape are the same thing because they are informed simultaneously by the scientific method and aesthetic emotion. This exercise recorded the cognitive memory of each places, materializing in a series of registers that settle into a map of diverse identities and a critical conscience that allows us to recover humanization as opposed to the single course of globalization.
18
BIARCH 2011-2012
Portfolio
19
20
Dwelling at Border
0
20
Dwelling at Border
21
22
Crossing Point
0
10
Crossing Point
23
24
Associate Place
0
5
Associate Place
25
III. Rethinking Form
26
BIARCH
Form from the Latin word forma, which means “form, contour, figure, shape�
Portfolio
27
Huesca Sports Hall Alternative Roof System Building Structure with Agusti Obiol
Enric Miralles’ Huesca Sports Hall has had somewhat of a turbulent history with its roof. Initially the roof was comprised of a series of finger-like elements spanning the long span of the stadium. These fingers were placed upon an extensive cable system, spanning the opposite direction. Giving a minimal profile to the roof on the building’s approach, revealing the more dramatic forms of the roof on the other sides. Though due to issues during the construction of this scheme, it collapsed thus calling for a redesign of the roof. The second scheme lost the minimal profile of the approach but for the most part kept the main structural forms, large oval trusses, spanning the short side of the stadium, which can be viewed from the other sides of the building. Both schemes major structural elements where across the short span of the building, exposing the form on the side approaches. These two concepts are incorporated into our roof alternative. With the use of Y-shaped triangular trusses, which increase in depth towards the middle of the span, to resist bending, give a minimal profile to the approach. While on the side the system is revealed. These large trusses rest on a truss along the east side of the building and a series of piers on the west side. To stabilize the primary structure, triangular trusses, which form skylights, and beams spanning between the trusses, are implemented within the roof. An additional cable cross bracing system is utilized around the perimeter of the roof, and atop the west elevation’s piers, to resist additional bending moments throughout the roof.
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BIARCH 2011-2012
ROOF CLADDING_ steel deck with rubber membrane
TERTIARY STRUCTURE_ cable cross bracing
TERTIARY STRUCTURE_ horizontal beams
SECONDARY STRUCTURE_ triangular trusses
PRIMARY STRUCTURE_ y-shaped trusses
VERTICAL STRUCTURE_ concrete piers and existing walls
Proposed Structural Layers
29
30
Roof Plan & Cross Section
0
20
0
5
Mask Detail
31
1. CONCRETE FOUNDATION 2. 200MM TUBE STEEL MAST 3. STEEL BRACKET 4. 100MM POST TENSIONED STEEL CABLE 5. 10MM PRE STRESSED STEEL CABLE CROSS BRACING 6. Y-SHAPED STEEL TRUSS 7. PRIMARY TRIANGULAR STEEL TRUSS 8. SECONDARY TRIANGULAR STEEL TRUSS 9. GLASS SKYLIGHT 10. EXTRUDED STEEL MESH CATWALK 11. STEEL I-BEAM
8.
4.
4. 2.
9. 6.
10.
3. 1.
1.
32
Longituditional Section
0
10
12.
9.
11. 6.
0
10
7.
Longituditional Section
33
Imagiro Chiringuito Digital Culture with Juanjo Castellon
The project aims to experiment the growth of form from a single component through the assistance of adnancedigital tools. The basic component takes shape of two isosceles triangles joined by their base and folded along it. Having a triangular section in both directions, the component allows loads to be transferred optimally in both senses. Additionally, the folding angle as a variable parameter enables variety both in formal and structural performance; for example, a simple reduction of the angle adds rigidity to the potential structure and permits it to sustain higher loads.
Parting from an idea to use completely recyclable, light, and economic material, recycled cardboard is enhanced by thin film of polyethylene on both sides in order to prevent moisture penetration. The method of assembly is based on the geometry of flat boards in order to use the minimal possible amount of material; each component is cut, folded and glued to the neighbouring one. When acting as a structural element rather than a skin, a component is additionally reinforced by means of a triangular rib (retrieved from scrap material). Furthermore, a foundation/anchorage element is conceived by combining three components and using the most present element of the context - the sand, as stabilizing mass. A combination of these two elements creates the basic structural performer - an arch.
Providing closure and shelter seemed to be embedded in the geometric nature of the basic component and the rules of its growth. However, when put in the context of Barceloneta beach, that nature had to be additionally challenged. Instead of an enclosed and potentially introverted form, an entity completely responsive to the context is created; a shelter is transformed into a landscape. That said, the final proposal can be seen as a sequence of evolving use - simultaneously it offers shade, enclosure, protection from the wind, seating. Structurally it originates from a strong anchor point, evolving in a cantilevered shade at one end and a counterbalancing arched enclosure at the other.
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BIARCH 2011-2012
Model of Proposed Structure
35
1/6 Triakis Tetrahedron 1/6 Triakis Tetrahedron
30 60 polyethylene
cardboard
180
1 3
1
2
3
4
Folding the component 90
3
1
4
2
1
primary component 2
1
3
2 4 1
3
Primary Component
1
4 1
3 1
36
2
2
1
60 90
1.2 m 120 150
Folding the component 90 Folding the component 90
2 Primary Component 4
Component Definition
Primary Component
30 60 Folding Axis
90 120 150
180 Parameters of change
folding the component 90o
3
3
2
2
4
3
30
Parameters of change 180
4
1 1
2
2
3
4
120
2.4 150 m
4
4
90
Ed Co
parameters of change
Parameters of change
X+Y Edge to Edge Combination
X+X Edge to Edge Combination
Folding Axis
3
6
9
12 1/6 Triakis Tetrahedron
15
18
Para
sand
patterns in space
Folding the component Folding the 90 compon
x3
X+ Edge to Combin
Primary Component Primary Component
on component
polyethylene
+
rib
X + Y edge to edge X+Y combination 4
3
1 3
folding axis
Folding Axis
‘reinforced’ component
1 4
cardboard
X + X edge to edge X+X X+Y X+X combination 2.4 m to Edge Edge to Edge Edge to Edge Edge to Edge Edge 1.2 m Combination Combination Combination Combination
2
4
Rules of Growth
37
Combination
Combination
X+Y Edge to Edge 4 Combination
Folding Axis
1.2 m polyethylene polyethylene
Edge to Edge2.4 Combination
1 3
4
Folding Axis
nd
cardboard X+X
4
2.4 m
1.2 m
1
1 2
4
4
2
4 1
3
2
2
3
4
1
4 1
3 1
2
4
1
1
3
component
3
3
2
3
4
2
4
2 3
4 1
3
2
3
3
2 1
4
2
2 3
+
1
1
Folding Axis
4
1
cardboard cardboard
sand
2
1 3
2
rib
assembly logic
sand x3 component
foundation x3
component sand ‘reinforced’ component
+ sand component
ribrib
+
x3
undation
rib foundation foundation
component
reinforcing component
‘reinforced’ component rib
+
structural arch
structural arch ‘reinforced’ component
38
Fabrication & Assembly
component
rib
longitudinal section
plan transversal section 0
3
Plan & Sections
39
Skin.Fish Facade Prototype Facade Technology with Miquel Rodríguez
The proposal assumes the program of the building to be a flight food chattering production facility located within close proximity to the airport premise. The keyword ‘skin-fish’ was interpreted for its modularity and formal flexibility, and in this case, water was incorporated into the module as the main element for this façade design. The modular system aims to be a simple and light-weight industrial technology which provides innovative alternatives to heating and cooling programmatic spaces. The prefabricated plastic module system uses water as a highly conductive element to enhance the performance of the façade as an active insulation system. Similarly, the module is highly responsive not only to fixed programmes, but rather allows for flexibility to its thermal demand even when the programs of the building changes.
Water has a high refractiveness that is comparable to a diamond, which significantly reduces the amounts of artificial light sources while achieving ¬more efficient luminance¬. Therefore, Water is used not only as a basic medium for active temperature control, but also as a light intensifier.
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BIARCH 2011-2012
OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES WATER STORAGE
GREEN ROOF
HOT KITCHEN PREPARATION PREPARATION COLD KITCHEN
HOT KITCHEN HOT KITCHEN PASTRY KITCHEN COLD KITCHEN OFFLOADING
OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES
HOT KITCHEN PREPARATION PREPARATION COLD KITCHEN
HOT KITCHEN HOT KITCHEN PASTRY KITCHEN COLD KITCHEN OFFLOADING
OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES
N
0
250
Site Plan
0
50m
250m
41
42
Proposed Building Facade
OFFLOADING
OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES
9 5
WATER STORAGE
6
WATER STORAGE
7
GREEN ROOF GREEN ROOF
HOT KITCHEN PREPARATION PREPARATION COLD KITCHEN
3
HOT KITCHEN HOT KITCHEN PASTRY KITCHEN COLD KITCHEN OFFLOADING
programs
10
1
2
natural light exposure
roof
structural system
temperature control (WINTER)
temperature control (SUMMER)
natural ventilation
COOL ROOM (WATER STORAGE)
HEAT EXCHANGER
radiative heat
Conceptual Diagrams
43
elevation with water bags
elevation with closed shutters @ summer 12:00 - 14:00
elevation fully opened shutters @ winter to maximus solar gain
HEAT EXCHA
elevation with water bags
44
elevation with closed shutters
elevation shutter variations
Conceptual Diagrams
0
15
WATER STORAGE
WATER STORA
(WATER STORAGE)
7
6
WATER STORAGE
WATE
GREEN ROOF GREEN ROOF
COOL ROOM (WATER STORAGE)
3 10
1
2
HOT KITCHEN PREPARATION PREPARATION
HOT KITCHEN HOT KITCHEN PASTRY KITCHEN COLD KITCHEN OFFLOADING
COLD KITCHEN HEAT EXCHANGER
HEAT EXCHANGER
COOL ROOM (WATER STORAGE)
HEAT EXCHANGER
unfolded elevations with thermal demand
unfolded elevations with openning variation
0
25
Facade Studies
45
insulation TERRACE
WATER STORAGE
green roof for water collection and insulation
GREEN ROOF
opened module for ventilation green roof for water collection and insulation opened module
TERRACE
E
OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES
GREEN ROOF
for ventilation
WATER STORAGE
TERRACE FOURTH / FIFTH / SIXTH FLOOR
GREEN ROOF
HOT KITCHEN PREPARATION PREPARATION COLD KITCHEN
FOURTH / FIFTH / SIXTH FLOOR
HOT KITCHEN HOT KITCHEN PASTRY KITCHEN COLD KITCHEN OFFLOADING
summer solar path
summer solar path
OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES OFFICES
N
50m
GREEN ROOF
bifold shutters for solar control
THIRD FLOOR
250m
GREEN ROOF
WATER STORAGE HOT KITCHEN PREPARATION PREPARATION COLD KITCHEN
72
opened module for ventilation
WATER STORAGE
E 0
72
HOT KITCHEN HOT KITCHEN PASTRY KITCHEN COLD KITCHEN OFFLOADING
bifold shutters for solar control
THIRD FLOOR FOURTH / FIFTH / SIXTH FLOOR
GREEN ROOF heat exchange from water storage module
summer solar path
GROUND FLOOR
0
5m
72
25m
9 5
WATER STORAGE
6
WATER STORAGE
7
heat exchange from water storage module
H + C pipes in sub structure for inlet and outlet
WATER STORAGE GREEN ROOF GREEN ROOF
3 10
GROUND THIRD FLOORFLOOR
2
GREEN ROOF
0
5m
1
bifold shutters for solar control
raised radiant heating and cooling system
25m
water storage module
winter solar path
25
H + C pipes in sub heat exchange structure for inlet from water and outlet storage module GROUND FLOOR
10
1
2
0
5m
25m
raised radiant heating and cooling system
optional in-slab radiant heating
H + C pipes in sub structure for inlet water storage and outlet module
10
1
2
46
winter solar path raised radiant
Plan & Section through Exterior Facade heating and
cooling system
25 0
25
water bag deforming to allow water bag deforming to allow opening at overlapopening of bags at foroverlap of bags for natural ventilationnatural ventilation
pla st
ic ex fa ca pl de od m ed od ule ax on pla om st sc ic ale et ex fa r ic 1:5 ca pl de 0 de od m ta ed od il ule ax on om sc ale et ric 1:5 0 de ta il
corner plug piece corner plug piece in plastic in plastic
plastic bag with filtered water
IN
IN
OUT
OUT
Doublesided bifoldDoublesided shutter bifold shutter corner detail for light corner detail for light clippling system clippling system to allow opening to allow opening between two bags between two bags
flashing device
green roof
green roof
pipes with hot/coldpipes waterwith hot/cold water to thermally activate to thermally activate the slabs the slabs one source of light to besource of light to be one reflected to the room reflected to the room through the water in bags the water in bags through
polycarbonate, polycarbonate, translucent shutters translucent shutters
inner layer of waterinner bags,layer of water bags, used to refract light andto refract light and used controlling interiorcontrolling interior components temperatures temperatures
IN
IN
OUT
pipes concealed with pipes concealed with in plastic cap to fill in plastic cap to fill water into bags water into bags
OUT
polycarbonate polycarbonate translucent shutters translucent shutters with Aerogel insulant withinfill Aerogel insulant infill
astic cover with plastic supports for with supports for cover DPE bags, supported LDPEby bags, supported by eel angle sectionsteel fromangle slab section from slab
flashing device
plastic bag with filtered water
rail to control rail to control shutter opening shutter opening
components
capping member capping member at terrace level at terrace level
single light source for single light source for refraction through water refraction through water clip mechanism for clip mechanism for opening bags opening bags
ylene mpered water
framing system forframing water system for water bags and shutters bags and shutters
polycarbonate shutter polycarbonate shutter with aerosol coatingwith aerosol coating for insulation for insulation
plastic water storage bag
formed plastic formed plastic framing members framing members
IN scale 1:20
folding hinge within shutter
scale 1:20
OUT
IN
plastic water storage bag
OUT
folding hinge within shutter
polycarbonate, polycarbonate, translucent shutters translucent shutters
plan
0
2
plan
elevation
0elevation 0.2m
0
0.2m
1m
1m
Detailed Facade Section
section scale 1:20 section scale 1:20
47
IV. Rethinking Archetype
48
BIARCH
Archtype from the Greek word archetypo, which means “original pattern�
Portfolio
49
Global Cities
“The global city model is the logical effect of a set of political priorities which place the wishes of capitalist above real social needs. . . the rest of the social landscape is in crisis.” 1 The concept of ‘Global city’ emerges from a functional organization of the world economy. The economic world is no longer divided into territorial units, but rather units which perform different function in the world economy. These citiescome to seem like possession of the relevant sector of capital, rather than of the local state or population. The result is the over-abundant grid-city. Cities which reproduce the ‘orthogonal’ grids with skyscrapers dominate the urban landscape. Global cities are a metaphorical corporation. States dispossess hinterlands to subsidize global cities to conciliate the city’s position in the global hierarchy. Capitalists can only make massive profits if they find a way to create monopolies. The concept of Urbanization introduced by Ildefonso Cerda is the protagonist which appropriates the foundation of ‘entrepreneurship as a new form of production. The production of entrepreneurship and ownership is refined by the this very concept of ‘Global city’ formation by extracting rents, gentrification and dispossession. Accumulation by dispossession reveals the fundamental relationship between global cities and the basis of capitalism in the neoliberal economy. What follows is constructing the spaces of appearance over substance. The protagonist of the so-called-urban –renewal projects is simply an oppressive action of social cleansing of poverty and deviance for the image of crimefree and struggle-free global city that exist in virtuality.
Sizeable number of precisians’ living in or near global cities is a direct result of soaring land value being one of the major symptoms of this global status. This effect of self-colonization is ever more evident in developing nations such as the coastal regions in China, where some cities have the entire region around turned into low-income suburbs. Class segregation became increasingly visible with the rise of gated communities.
50
BIARCH 2011-2012
1. Andrew Robinson, “Global Cities: Too Big to Last,” Ceasefire, December 2, 2011
Creative Cities
In the past decade, we have witnessed the rise of a new urban paradigm; the quintessential place of (post) modernity, the so‐called Creative City. The brave new environment where the workers of the knowledge industry would find a perfect habitat to create, network, socialize and produce. The ‘flexibility’ of this creative labour is actually a form of precariousness that requires the worker to live in a condition of total insecurity and constant competition with his or her peers.
We believe that the creative worker has become the silent subject of the contemporary city. Take Barcelona as a paradigmatic example of Creative City in search for new spatial models as it has become an exemplary case for the development of the knowledge industry. It is the birthplace of par excellence of the project of urbanization as it is here that Ildefonso Cerdà first tested his theoretical framework for the construction of a new kind of urban environment. Knowledge workers today are not only freelancers, researchers and teachers but also the students themselves, as the university has become yet another cog in the mechanism of immaterial production. Proposing new spaces for this highly precarious subject is a way to come out of the cliché of the creative city and actually address the real needs of the citizens that inhabit an urban context and the needs of the workers. Investigating new forms of housing that instead of clinging to worn models could better fit and even represent the standpoint of the contemporary subject.
Housing will not only be considered as a simple functional matter, but rather as the core of a welfare project that would ultimately offer better environments and also reread the city as a place of production but also social interaction and possibly political action. Today labour coincides with any aspect of life. They is the very core of human production where life, culture, affects, and politics are absorbed into one continuous space of relationships. It is labour, and its social and political organization that we have to tackle in order to find the clues towards the formulation of a new project for the city.
Portfolio
51
Critical Regionalism
The term Critical Regionalism is often peculiar and confused with the rather Populist notion of Regionalism. With K constant reference to Paul Ricoeur’s “universal civilization & national culture”, Keith Eggner perceives Critical Regionalism as broader post-colonist concept, as what he calls “monumental binary opposition”, natural and culture, self and others, space and place.2 However, according to Frampton’s understanding, Critical Regionalism could be described discretely as the path of a humanistic architecture of resistance within the modern technological advancement and universal civilization. It aims to capture the filtering quality of reality that refrain from the instrumental signs and the formal replication and adaptation of the international modern movement.
It opposes any photogenic and self-indulgent architecture and architectural representation. It suggests a critical perceptual renewal of social and political reality. “The universal Megalopolis is patently antipathetic to a dense differentiation of culture. It intends, in fact, the reduction of the environment to nothing but commodity.”3 It assents the contradiction between the totalitarianism of the global capitalist institution and the cultural foundation rooted from the geographic and demographics of diverse origins. It is with such dialectic understanding that one could learn to rally with the process of total transformation which the phenomenon of universalization brings upon our society.
52
BIARCH 2011-2012
2. Keith Eggner, “Placing Resistance: A Critique of Critical Regionalism” in Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and Tradition, (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), 394-410
3. Kenneth Frampton, “Prospects for a Critical Regionalism”, Perspecta, no. 20, (1983), 162
Rights to the city
The knowledge worker’s condition in Barcelona, his socioeconomic and spatial behaviour reveal how flexible and adaptable they can be, but also reveal the need to rethink ways of sustaining and protecting their potential. Barcelona’s public policies have been involved in attracting and shaping this subject for three decades through active and sometimes aggressive interventions. These policies were concentrated in peripheral areas resulting in gentrification processes that increase the insecurity and precarity of this new subject. Working in Eixample is an attempt to propose alternatives for these policies by rethinking ways of relocating this subject in the centre of the city.
Cerda’s initial project of “private-sharing-public” was halted by the rise of private space, a closed and well defined space that left no room for negotiation and change. The rigid structure of the private family apartment is no longer suited for the new worker and his needs for new forms of freedom and flexibility. Redeeming Cerda’s project and proposing strategies for the future of Eixample should start by requisitioning the idea of ‘Vialidad’ and the rigid structure of the ‘strictly private’ block.
Portfolio
53
In.xample
Short Design Studio_Catalan Metabolism with Yoshiharu Tsukamoto & Bet Capdeferro
In.xample is a new generation of hybridized existing exterior building and interior courtyard typologies, which based on the notion of converging evolution. It aims to stimulate new opportunity for Exiample to metabolize according to the observed current social and economic needs through the process of genealogical studies. In.xample is an attempt to repurpose the existing interior courtyard contradiction with the evolving logic of knowledge production. It aims to appropriate the indigenous quality by negotiating the exterior spatial order of the courtyard in the manzana blocks by superimposing a new interior spatial order.
This typological proposal is shaped by the observation on the new demand of office space which favours programmatic diversity and flexibility. The failure of current office property condition reflects such demand and calls for a new generation of office space. Natural day light being the intrinsic element which shapes the uses offices, the long-forgotten Exiample interior space re-presents itself as a matching solution. Due to the By-law building height limits, the interior of the block is only capable of receiving little direct sun light. Such condition is registered as an inherent order from the existing condition which physically translates into a spatial hierarchy similar to monasteries, according to the issue of privacy, sun light, noise, and accessibility.
The proposal aims to experiment in the interior block by replacing existing peripheral office buildings with an open colonnade structure. The envelop of the building follows the outline of the building height limits, which intensifies the three-dimensional spatial hierarchy. On the one hand, the interior space echoes with the new office managerial hierarchy: meeting space on top floor, administrative area on the second, and ground floor is dedicated to general productive uses with interruption of patios and amenities. On the other hand, the roof resulted as a cascading terrain that is flexible to be occupied by existing and new users through different spatial devices.
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BIARCH 2011-2012
site
‘residential office’
Eixample Diagnoses
‘headquater’ office
‘for rent’ office
55
1891 1855
1932
1920
1957
1928
1976
2008 2012
56
Eixample Genealogy
existing condition negotiated boundaries
proposed condition
Repurposing Interior Courtyard
conceptual interior volume
57
58
Eixample Building Genealogy
structural order
spatial order
Inherent Spatial Orders
programmatic order
59
60
Spatial Configuration
Spatial Devices
61
62
Ground Floor Plan
0
25
0
25
Upper Floor Plan
63
64
Longitudinal Section
0
15
0
15
Longitudinal Section
65
66
Transversal Section
0
15
0
15
Transversal Section
67
Eleanor Rigby
Core Design Studio_Labor, City, Form with Pier Vittorio Aureli & Maria Sheherazade Giudici
The proposal is a critique on the idea of ‘Vialidad’ in which Exiample was primarily created as a system of managing vehicular movement. Barcelona is the exemplary case of the notion of infrastructure. However, the street became a space which predominantly addresses mobility and the immediate consumption, while pedestrian experience is compromised. The project aims to challenge this notion of infrastructure and revive the long lost ‘civicness’ to rhetorically critique the concept of ‘public space’. The project is to create a new building for collective living while keep the existing façade. This put forward the issue of identity and symbolic image could be considered in the process of metabolising in a historical city like Barcelona. The core of the project is to radically rethink the implication of circulation as an archetype which is situated between the new building and the existing façade. The ramp is accessible by all pedestrians. It allows the citiziens to extend their journey into the building, and let the shared environments to be absorbed and become part of the street. Through investigating the existing Exiample typical blocks, the proposal uses the typical residential block as the basis, but to dissect the existing combined servant space, which are ‘infrastructures’ of living, the vertical circulation and services. The new building requires restructuring to give new layers of spatial hierarchy with the minimum infrastructure for different activities. The condition of such intervention is initiated from the symbolic corner blocks which have high economical potential. By turning them into common spaces which are to be a part of the streetscape. It offers the possibilities to make visual connection with the interior courtyard scenery and create a monumental space to celebrate the notion of ‘common’. The proposal deploys two architectural languages. One is a reduced skeleton structure with light-weight steel columns for the vertical circulation and the shared environment for work and gathering, while load bearing wall with provision of necessary services structure the living units. The other language aims to avoid creating a new superficial identity from a new façade and any notion of class segregation. The intervention simply deploys the language of the Bourgeoisie culture. The one that is borrowed from the city to further challenge the pre-established and overly-abused concept of ‘public space’. 68
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Proposed Axonometry
69
70
Proposed Situation
0
50
Detailed Axonometry of Proposed Corner
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e
d
c
b a
72
Manzana Plan
0
30
0
10
Detail Plan of Intervention
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74
Cross Section
0
10
0
10
Elevation
75
76
Section through Shared Ramp
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5
0
5
Section through Living Units
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78
Axonometry of Intervention
Detailed Axonometry
79
Rethinking Archipelago
Independent Research with Ferran Grau, Clara Sola - Morales & Cecilia Obiol
In the race of ‘who is the next global city’, many countries have fallen during the process of globalization, left in the ruins of violent gentrification and potato-stamped ghost housing towns. While the city remained overwhelmed by the symptoms of their success, ‘global city’ reproduce itself with the same orthogonal grid, skyscrapers and high-rise offices dominate the urban landscape. Soaring prices in inner city land value leads to a sizeable number of low-income neighborhoods around the cities. On the other hand, highlydensified housing estates which have been celebrated by the Capitalists with the hyper-optimism, are now suffering the aftermath of housing bubble. Workers and precariats struggle to reclaim the right to return to the city, the city morphologically rebuild itself to further nurture the pervasiveness of Capital. Bombarded with repressive low-cost densified housing schemes and endless under-occupied residential blocks in the outskirt of the city, this research aim to repurpose the mass housing towards an architectural dignity: a dignity which celebrates the subject of the society – Labor.
This study aims to rethink the concept of Archipelago which was first introduced by Onswald Mathias Ungers for the post-war Berlin. By making comparison between some exemplary proposals which attempt to dignify the issue of housing in a politic or social dimension, namely The city of Captive Globe by Rem Koohlaas, Highrise City by Ludwig Hilberseimer and No-stop city by Archizoom. The notion of Archipelago could be appropriated by revising its relevance to the present global political, economic and social climate.
Four exemplary housing projects will be studied and questioned, on the dialectic framework of Archipelago, between the ‘islands’ and the ‘sea’. The written research is complimented with analytical drawings to dissect and to make comparable the core aspects of the three projects which includes, the Soviet Communist Community proposal New Unit of Settlement, Ludwig Hilberseimer’s High rise City, Karl Marx Allee in Berlin, and Karl Marx Hof in Vienna. Issues of production and reproduction of labor power will be investigated on the issue of density, compactness, solid and void, mobility, elemental living typology, urban organism, through which a resultant form is constructed with a sense of architectural dignity. The typology of these different aspects will be examined and dissected to reduce to a minimal sense of logic which could be applicable towards current economic and social tendency. 80
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Karl Ehn - Karl Marx Hof
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Kurt Liebknecht - Karl Marx Allee
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1000
Alekseﾄｭ ﾄ僕ﾊｹbrusovich Gutnov - New Unit of Settlement NUS
0
1000
Ludwig Hilberseimer - Highrise city
Portfolio
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Ludwig Hilberseimer - Highrise city 1924
A city for 1 million inhabitants. 15-20 sqm per inhabitant.
A cure for the chaos of metropolis in capitalist society with single urban typology. 600 m X 100 m urban block.
Each residential unit (80m by 10m) is capable of housing 600 - 800 inhabitants. 8000 inhabitant for urban block. Lower level (5 storey) for business and vehicular traffic. Upper level (15 storey) for residential and pedestrian movement. A homage and critic to Le Corbusier’s City for 3 million.(1922).
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1000
Portfolio
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Alekseĭ Gutnov - New Unit of Settlement NUS 1919 - 1930
A settlement structure for 65,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. 50 sqm per inhabitant. Primarily designed f or the period of industrialization.
Each NUS is 1km by 1km and 5km away from industrial area 80 m X 10 m residential units with school, sport, community and consumer complex, each housing unit is capable of housing 1000 inhabitants. residential unit (17 storey) for residential.
Green landscape is between the residential designed for pedestrian connection. less than 0.5 km from community centre, 7minutes walk emphasis on school and education, school facility on the edge of landscape, for a direct connection with parks and forest.
A direct reference to greek ‘polis’ and ‘oikos’, but here the emphasis is on education and the community.
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1000
Portfolio
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Kurt Liebknecht - Karl Marx Allee 1952 - 1958
Settlement structure for 80,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. 20 sqm per inhabitant.
Primarily designed as an urban project to function as a mean of mobility towards city (Macro-centric) under the Soviet Socialist Regime. It is a route which slice through the tormented city fabric to connect with the city centre, combines highway, landscape and pedestrian promenade as one. It is also the centre of Freiedrichshan district.
2.3km long at first, then expanded to 3.3km, 90m wide promenade designed to accommodates 5000 apartments, 6 lanes for cars, sides walks and bicycle path wit mass transit system underground. The original design is consists of 12 m deep with 100m to 280m long residential units, 75m to 100m apart, with school, sport, community and shops on the promenade.
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1000
Portfolio
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Karl Ehn - Karl Marx Hof 1927 - 1930
Municipal tenement complex for 5,000 inhabitants. 30 sqm per inhabitant.
The Architecture of Red Vienna 1919--1934, the communal houses were a vivid expression of the working class’s ascent to power.
Between 1923 and 1934, the city’s socialist administration launched an extraordinary campaign to provide housing for working-class residents, who were among the party’s most enthusiastic backers. The government constructed 400 apartment complexes--64,000 new apartments in all--that together housed one-tenth of the city’s population. 1.6 km long along the railway line , 156,000 sqm of total area, only 20% are built up areas, 12 m deep enclosed courtyard form designed to accommodates 1400 apartments.
Residential unit are 7 - 9 storey, green interior courtyards as well as state-of-theart kindergartens, playgrounds, maternity clinics, health-care offices, lending libraries, laundries, and a host of other social services. 92
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Portfolio
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Karl Ehn - Karl Marx Hof
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Kurt Liebknecht - Karl Marx Allee
Density
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200
Alekseﾄｭ ﾄ僕ﾊｹbrusovich Gutnov - New Unit of Settlement NUS
0
200
Ludwig Hilberseimer - Highrise city
Density
95
Karl Ehn - Karl Marx Hof
96
Kurt Liebknecht - Karl Marx Allee
Spatial Strategy
0
10 20
Alekseﾄｭ ﾄ僕ﾊｹbrusovich Gutnov - New Unit of Settlement NUS
0
10 20
Ludwig Hilberseimer - Highrise city
Spatial Strategy
97
Karl Ehn - Karl Marx Hof
98
Kurt Liebknecht - Karl Marx Allee
Elevation
0
20
Alekseﾄｭ ﾄ僕ﾊｹbrusovich Gutnov - New Unit of Settlement NUS
0
20
Ludwig Hilberseimer - Highrise city
Elevation
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Karl Ehn - Karl Marx Hof
100
Kurt Liebknecht - Karl Marx Allee
Typological Elements
Alekseﾄｭ ﾄ僕ﾊｹbrusovich Gutnov - New Unit of Settlement NUS
Ludwig Hilberseimer - Highrise city
Typological Elements
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Speculation
Speculation
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104
Speculation
Portfolio
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V. Appendix
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2011 Winter Term Agusti Obiol
Guillem Baraut
Juanjo Castellón
Pep Avilés
Fredy Massad & Alicia Guerrero Yeste Josep Anton Acebillo
Maria Buhigas, Marc Montlleó & Anna Viader Javier García-Germán
Philip Ursprung
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto & Bet Capdeferro
2012 Spring Term Building Structure
Miquel Rodríguez
Facade Technologies
Digital Culture
Joan Fontcuberta
Towards a postphotographic culture
Large structural typologies
Toni Gironès
Pier Vittorio Aureli & Maria Sheherazade Giudici
Historical Threads
Ferran Grau, Cecilia Obiol & Clara Sola-Morales
History and Criticism
Disruptive Urban Turn
Productive Land Program
Energy and Sustainability
Images:Architecture and the Iconic Turn Catalan Metabolism
courses
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Registering Landscape Labor City Form
Independent Research
BIArch Open Lectures
BIArch Conversations Bernard Khoury
Cecilia Puga
Cecilia Puga
Philippe Rahm
Pere Riera
Philip Ursprung
Manuel Bailo & Rosa Rull
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto
events
Portfolio
109