Thesis Book '17

FEWW CORE

(Food, Energy, Water, & Waste management)

Esraa Samman

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FEWW CORE (Food, Energy, Water, & Waste)

A humanitarian framework that adapts to variable climatic conditions through explorations of regional materials and technology.

- Esraa Samman

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To my GOD, Allah. Alhamdulillah for this masters’ degree. Motivate me to do great things and to help people in need through my knowledge. Inspire me to make a change.

To my family who cut loose the rules. I apologize for missing on our family times, while you have always offered comfort and work space at home constantly. I cannot thank you enough for all the prayers, motivation, and support. I hope I pulled your head high and made you proud of me.

To my professors, thank you for your support and guidane through this tough road of my academic journey.

To Mohammed Aljuhani, I don’t know if I would’ve made it here without you and your full of love and support character through my crazy stressed side of me. Thank you for motivating me when I needed it and believing in me as a successful individual.

To friends, you were all a big part of this degree with me through the sleepless nights, and never ending work.

We did it!!!!

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CONTENTS

Chapter I:

1.1

1.2

1.3 1.4 Chapter II:

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

Introduction.....................................P10-19 Abstract Thesis statement Argument Relevance Literature Review..............................P20-43 Abstract Introduction Universal Design Regionalism Conclusion

Chapter III: Design Research...............................P44-79 3.1 Problem

3.2 Architectural Response - FEWW System

3.3 Architectural Response - Stationary Core

3.4 Architectural Response - Flexible Skeletal shell

- Participatory Process

3.5 Construction Manual

3.6 The FEWW Core Design Overall

Step A - The core is to be implemented in informal settlements in different regions.

Step B - The core defines social issues such as shortage of food, energy, water and waste disposal.

Step C - The core tackles these social issues through a technical approach exploring local materials’ properties and behaviors to use them to their greatest extent.

Step D - The core is a low cost device that addresse humanity with a sustainable recycling system of providing basic needs.

D C A

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B

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

To create a higher quality of life for inhabitants in informal settlements, The FEWW Core should be introduced as an efficient way to provide basic needs like food, evergy, water, and waste collection through a natural recycling system that is both an environmental and economical solution.

Fig_01: The core in the Seagram building in New York by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the functional utility of the building’s structural elements that is made visible to “supplant a formal decorative articulation and converse with the public than any system of applied ornamentation”.

Fig_02: The building’s service core of the Inland Steel headquarters building in Chicago by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was displaced into an adjoining, smaller tower. (1958 Plan with module).

Core

is the heart of the place that integrates utility and circulation services to supply a technical functionality and social lifestyle.

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Black box

It is a mysterious system or device to the user that encloses input and output complex parameters.

Prototype

is a preliminary module of the core, from which a system can be developed through repetition.

Introduction

Cores have always been an essential element of architecture to be integrated into everyday life and improve the quality of daily practices. Cores are depicted as a universal technological device that is mostly developed in high rise buildings. Introducing the FEWW Core, as a humanitarian low cost device that addresses poor families in informal settlements, have the potential of providing future possibilities for informal settlements communities to have locals physical needs met in an economic way.

Module

A self-reliant entity that includes a collection of standard elements that can be assembled.

Universal

a design concept that uses its maximum limits regardless the location.

Flexible

is the ability to easily adjust spaces depending on the users’ needs and desires.

Fig_03: The SINGLE HAUS is designed to “fill the niche for building in extreme/ hard-to-settle landscapes such as marshes, cliff sides, lakes, and even in place of old highway billboards�.

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ABSTRACT

Architects have always been intrested with cores as a universal and fundamental component in architecture. The FEWW Core is a universal investigation that represents an adaptable design each different contexts and conditions, but it is also regional because it requires a local building site to be tested in as an initial prototype design using local materials as an economical solution. Unlike the SINGLE HAUS that can be incorporated everywhere in the world, the FEWW Core design is modified according to a specific region. Each region portrays its contextual character through its own local natural resources, which are the best tools for an adaptable design in its surrounding conditions.

Adabtable core prototypes can be suitable solutions for the shortage of common essential needs in informal settlements located outside the city in varying landscapes like forests, seas, mountains, and deserts (See Fig_03) . My thesis challenge universal architectural to react to local settings through a skeletal design in many regions around the globe. In other words, the FEWW core will take the shape of not only a building system to engage utilities such as electricity and plumbing, but also take a stand as an engaged social justice initiative. It will address existing issues of social structures and radically propose rethinking the way a structure delivers a core. It will also rethink the social and technical possibilities for an individual unit, and potentially benefit an entire community through a modular system that can alter the structure of informal settlements to increase their quality.

Fig_04: Renewable energy approach to environmental resources’ management. “Desalination plants in the Middle East, the nexus is already posing a significant challenge for improving water, energy and food security, a concern for policymakers today”.

Fig_05: In Little House on a Small Planet book, “Brad Lancaster’s south yard collects rainwater, produces hot water, electricity, and vegetables, and cooks his food in a solar cooker”.

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ARGUMENT

By designing a core that intends to technically tackle social issues such as shortage of food, energy, water and waste disposal, different prototypes would be required depending on the region. Each core prototype can adapt to its regional climatic environment (See Fig_04). Architecture can be more responsive and meaningful to indigenous cultures by offering prototypes that are both social and technological located in local building cultures using local natural resources. These prototypes can provide a sustainable solution of providing basic needs in an adaptive evice that has variable arrangements to accomodate local residents.

Testing this technical and social FEWW Core prototype will increase the quality of life in informal settlements by providing basic amenities.

Analyzing the site, the FEWW Core prototype will propose a new sustainable technical core for shelters that minimize the impact on the environment through the conservation of energy resources with regard to using minimum power supplies.

Fig_06: The Cubitat project is a prefabricated house in a box that can be inserted into any form of structure, either new residential, old factories and lofts and schools.

Fig_07: Designing for world’s poorest demographic ,that are in the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid, Govindarajan and Sarkar propose basic necessities for surviving in the modern world, from mosquito nets and water filters to solar panels and a tablet PC.

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RELEVANCE

Focusing on informal settlements, with their rich vernacular architecture helps to understand the cultural and social levels of the current inhabitants. The lack of infrastructure and basic needs calls for a new design prototype to help preserve and revitalize the inhabitant’s lifestyle, and historical and cultural identity. Therefore, testing this prototype in a specific location aids a social reaction of locals adding their identity to a universal skeletal core. This executed technical design bring forward an ownership sensation through participatory process.

My approach towards the informal settlements’ social aspect is to incorporate local skills and natural resources in a participatory design to enrich the cultural identity of the local building site. I will initiate a flexible framework that local citizens can use to design their own spaces, functions and unique identity (See Fig_06).

Designing for low income communities in informal settlements by implementing a technical and social core can be regarded as a humanitarian architectural approach to revitalize the cultures in a responsive and meaningful architectural language to their indigenous cultures (See Fig_07).

Fig_08: The three spheres of Sustainability: Economic, Social, & Environmental.

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Chapter II: Literature Review

“When I graduated from an architecture school in Bombay, I was not aware of an increasing income disparity between the rich and the poor, and that my degree was too expensive for the ordinary people. People who needed me to house themselves could not afford me, while rich people who already had houses needed me to increase their housing stock. Where to turn: money or people?” – Ramesh Manandhar

Fig_9: The Rockefeller Center (RCA) was cut in 1931-32 back to maintain the same 27 feet from the core of the building to the exterior walls. “Immense slab born out of mathematical calculations for utilizing ground and space to the best advantage”.

Fig_10: The Lever House’s elevator core was positioned not at the center of the slab (as in the RCA building & the United Nations Secretrait) but at the end farthest from Park Avenue.

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1 Martin, Reinhold. The organizational complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), 89-101 2 Koolhaas, R. “The double Life of Utopia”, in Delirious New York: A Retroactive manifesto for methods. (New York: Monacelli Press,1994), 80-158

Introduction

Cores are depicted as universal technological and social artifacts that are mostly developed in tower buildings. Looking at social cores, the Rockefeller Center’s circulation core is located at the center of the slab, as opposed to the Lever House’s elevator core, which is decentralized1 (See Fig_09-10). On the other hand, looking into technical cores, the Seagram building is also an example of a technical utility core that has visible structural systems. Designing low cost core prototypes for informal settlements would be an economical and environmental solution that solves the challenge of energy efficiency and high performance at an affordable cost for economically disadvantaged people. Koolhaas’s designs in the twenties gave insights to the possibility of developing tall buildings that can accommodate more people than the average two to three floor houses2. But are skyscrapers the only solution for the issue of density, or are there other approaches to accommodate people and resolve the problematic case of density? Even though Koolhaas’s skyscrapers offer a solution to the density problem, taking the contrary approach of looking at landscape urbanism can also be a solution. Being trapped in the decorated interior of each level of the skyscraper without the need to go out and move around is not a social and cultural solution.

There are aspects of revitalizing abandoned lands and developing informal settlements that will direct people to be dispersed outside of the city center. Therefore, not only the density issue will be addressed but also some environmental problems such as pollution.

Fig_11: Core variations design of Tsunami-safe(r) for the Prajnopaya foundation.

One of the core designs for the poor.

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3 Hamdi, Nabeel. Houses without Houses: Participation, Flexibility, Enablement. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991), 168

FEWW Core for the poor

Inspired by the concept of Participation, Flexibility, and Enablement discussed in Housing Without Housing by Nabeel Hamdi, the FEWW Core is a humanitarian low cost project that addresses the needs of poor families in informal settlements. It defines the existing issues, uses as much of the available resources and renewable natural resources as possible, and provides a better quality of life for both individual families and potentially communities.

Section I: Universal The technical approach to the issues of:

Fig_12: Revolt house is a “self-sufficient energy adaptive floating unit powered by solar energy with implementation of technology that will give the house an efficient use of its resources”.

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4 “Minimalist Architecture.” Minimalist Design Architecture.

5 ReVoltHouse. “ReVolt House - TU Delft’s Entry for Solar Decathlon 2012.”

6 Martin, Reinhold. The organizational complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), 104 7 TEDtalksDirector. “Alejandro Aravena: My Architectural Philosophy? Bring the Community into the Process.”

A. Basic needs Synthesis design

Considering the four elements of life states of matter, types of energy, and roles to meet the user’s basic demands in space physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, minimal architecture can solve these basic demands. Minimal architecture is defined as the creative idea of less is more. That is to say, an intent of a beneficial supportive structural design out of the barest requirements as a multiple usage space or product for essentials4. This calls for an open floor plan design of a flexible core that commits to the main needs according to the space typology. It also calls for high efficiency energy production to create an adaptable design. For instance, the Revolt House case is a solar energy powered unit with a few implementations of technology that gives the intervention an efficient use of its resources. In elaboration, the roof is an element that serves multiple fundamentals because it is made of a solar collector generated system for electricity and hot water. That same roof is capable of transferring rainwater to be collected into a storage tank for water use or for cooling the interior through a vaporizing process of water spraying into the ducts system5 (See Fig_11). Unlike the Revolt house case mentioned above where one of the service programs is centralized while the others are located upon the interior of the exterior walls, the FEWW Core will be confined as an object so it can have more flexibility to act as a flexible prototype of a modular system. A similar case to the FEWW Core is the core of the Inland Steel headquarters building in Chicago, which is portrayed as a “module of the building’s service core that was displaced into an adjoining, smaller tower6”. The concept of a confined core that acts like an object raises the question of flexibility in locations.

Similar to minimal design architecture concept, innovative designs come when one is short on necessities that leads him to think outside the box to make it possible to have these enough basic needs. With barest tools in the built process how can one make a structure out of local resources and skills. Synthesis design is an efficient design approach to support low cost buildings. Therefore, it is considered as an architectural solution towards the economic issues especially in lower class communities such as informal settlements. Aravera approached so by resolving the people necessities with a basic needs infrastructure inside half a house design leaving the rest of the house framework for a participatory phase process that can happen later on7. On the other hand, the life core as a pre-assembled basic needs infrastructure core module has more flexibility in positioning it since it is installed by the employer.

The life core would adapt to different inhabitants needs through a modularized prototype living infrastructures, flexible structures arrays that can be differently assembled and configured by each user. It’s all about creatively designing a future vision living spaces layout using a balance of survival basic needs and desire in a smart approach that will allow us to produce a good quality built environment.

Fig_13: An image of Climatic conditions such as cold dry, hot dry, cold humid, hot humid, and coastal in “Design and Construction of High Performance Homes”

Legend

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Hot Humid

Marine

Hot Dry

Cold Humid

Cold Dry / Mixed

Very Cold Humid

Mixed Humid

Polar

8 Patrick Schumacher, “Parametricism and the Autopoiesis of Architecture,” Log†21 (February 2011): 62–79.

9Trubiano, Franca. Design and Construction of High-Performance Homes: Building Envelopes, Renewable Energies and Integrated Practice. London and New York: Routledge Tylor & Francis Group. Page 143 10Trubiano, Franca. Design and Construction of High-Performance Homes: Building Envelopes, Renewable Energies and Integrated Practice. London and New York: Routledge Tylor & Francis Group. Page 37

B. Climates & Contexts

Universal architecture is the concept of a design that exhausts its uses to its greatest limit in any situation. Cores have always been a universal component of architecture. Thus the mission of the FEWW Core is to create a core that can be used to its greatest extent to adapt to different contexts and conditions, which challenges Schumacher’s parametric tool to be used as or to its extent value. Patrick Schumacher is a german architect and a theoretical thinkers in architecture, who focuses on the autonomy of the architecture, to relate and adapt to an environment which influences the FEWW Core; despite the different approach, the FEWW Core is an efficient product that would also adapt to multiple different contexts8. Schumacher defines parametricism as a style that he is aiming for, when the life core is a flexible device of different configurations to fit different inhabitants according to their identities and needs. For instance, “a space-heating system designed for a home in northern Europe will perform poorly in southeast Asia, while a space cooling system designed for Miami will be oversized for Toronto9”. Thus, climate has a major role in building design’s mechanical system.

Adaptable design according to a specific climate is not a contemporary invention, but a renewable energy practice found in historical and traditional cultures that supplies a building’s interior with a comfort environment. The architect Franca Trubiano who teaches in construction technology, materials, theories of building, integrated design, architectural ecologies, and high performance buildings discusses in her book Design and Construction of High Preformance Homes, “Global interest in low energy high-performance buildings, and energy free

design principles are increased promoted for a range of climates and many parts of the world10”. A contemporary precedent of so is the “Passivhaus movement use the of the adaptable envelope double skin strategy to integrate an energy free design10”. This raises the question of materials and how universal architecture undergoes changes in materials and more characteristic appearance when found in another context to adapt to the surrounding climate the design is located in. For example, in a hot and dry dessert context, a mud material is an adaptable local natural material that is used. In opposition, water’s sensible qualities of cold and wet is a tool that is being employed to wet the mud walls in order to cool the space.

Fig_14: The tsunami-safe(r) house portrays the concept of UpgradabilityBamboo partitions are initially provided inbetween the cores; they can be transformed and customized, engaging the residents with their indicidual choices, also promotes the reuse of found elements.

Fig_14: The tsunami-safe(r) house use of the available porous structure promotes natural ventilation and sun shading, ameliorating internal comfort.

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11 Andres Lepik, Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement, Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)

C. Natural Resources Materiality

Andres Lepik believes in successful architecture exceeds the minimal needs towards smart small scale designs that can motivate social aspects towards natural local resources. Knowledge of natural material’s properties and behavior encourages the architect one to envision solutions of evolving a community’s architecture where there might be a lack of energy and resources, and encourages him or her to understand the material’s sustainability and adaptability in regards to each context and climate. Analyzing bamboo, an elastic stable construction building material that has multiple ways of tectonic building style, works in its local context in a hot tropical climate. One must consider how nature is very malleable and changeable to adapt with the environment and a simple evidence is vegetation’s ventilation role in space, giving oxygen during the day yet warming up or humidifying the space at night. Another evidence is wood, a sustainable natural material, that is known for its hygroscopic feature. Hence, wood would be a good adaptable material to use in a water context, where it will respond as a sponge absorbing the water and swelling up in damp conditions, then giving out the water again when the air dries and the temperature rises. In order to know more about the material’s behavior, studying the context is a critical matter. So, figuring out the water state if it is a salt or fresh water might, affect the material use. Learning that salt water is more buoyant would help one know that more load, whether a heavier weight or bigger scale, would be better for stability.

Moreover, the knowledge that salt water has a higher boiling point than fresh water will help with estimating how much installation one needs to embed to adapt with the climate.

Each community has its own developed traditional building materials.

Given the fact that informal settlements lack machinery and energy for construction, building designs are dependent on available materiality along with local natural resources. Natural local resources define land, water, soil, and plants as elements to manage a better quality of life. As a visual concept, earth materials such as wood or stone might be a sub section of natural resources. From a more technical perspective, understanding materials’ properties and behavior is important to comprehend the features of natural resources and ecology to achieve an environmental adaptable use of resources. Natural materials do not have to be a product out of earth but can be using earth itself, and that is referred to as earth architecture. To elaborate, stone is a durable, recyclable, acid resistant, and non-absorptive earth natural product, that can be immune to freezing. Additionally, it is a fireproof material and a good heat insulator that can be used in its local mountain context of a cold dry climate. Lastly and most importantly, sand, which I will be working with for my thesis desert context of a hot dry climate, is an interesting responsive earth material that supplies a cooler temperature in space when watered.

Section II: Regionalism The social approach to the issues of:

Fig_15: The tsunami-safe(r) house use of the available porous structure promotes natural ventilation and sun shading, ameliorating internal comfort.

12 Hamdi, Nabeel. Houses without Houses: Participation, Flexibility, Enablement. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991), 23

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13 Hamdi, Nabeel. Houses without Houses: Participation, Flexibility, Enablement. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991), 27

A. Economy - Incrimenatal design process

Due to the economic issues in informal settlements, along with the factors of natural renewable resources and local adaptable materials that are mentioned previously, the incremental design process could be a possible solution to only focus on the synthesis design of the basic needs core and leave a space aside for future expansion options7(See Fig_15). Incremental design allows one to have the same size of build land yet built in phases according to one’s budget and current needs. But on a bigger scale, attempting to put the basic necessities in an architectural innermost core that is to be a part of a modular system can be an introduction to a community’s incremental architecture strategy. Inspired by Nabeel Hamdi’s award-winning housing projects that established his reputation in participatory design and planning, The FEWW Core is an “Investment in land, services, and utilities rather than in building houses12”. By thinking of the existing issues of social structures, the FEWW Core radically proposes to rethink the potential of delivering a core that has social and technical possibilities for an individual unit but potentially for an entire community. This incremental building process is a vision that drives the core infrastructure as an active prototype methodology to develop a built community in informal settlements. The core theory is to implement poor people in informal settlements with basic needs, utilizing renewable natural resources that can be a first phase of unit building process, which can be another phase of an incremental process towards a community core generator scale or a community method. In other words, this incremental building process is economical, and according to Hamdi, “a better approach is to be more realistic in defining adequate housing in assessing existing stock and in the

management of resources, including land, labor, skills, services, utilities, materials, and money”13.

Fig_16: The tsunami-safe(r) house uses Low Technology- “Walls are made of concrete blocks strengthen with rebars; the roof is made with traditional wooden elements, covered with tiles or tin; partitions are made of recycled materials”.

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14 Architectural education: The core and the local [Liane Lefaivre, Alexander Tzonis, 2012, Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalisation, London, Clifford Geertz, 1983, Local Knowledge].

15 Kenneth Frampton, “Rapel a L’ordre: The Case of the Tectonic,” Architectural Digest 60, no. 3–4 (April 1990): 20–32.

B. Preserving Identity - Local Skills & Tectonics

“Perhaps, the most challenge than architectural education faces today, perhaps even more serious than responding to the technological development of computer based design and drafting, is the recognition of the fact that next to the ‘global’, ‘universal’ ’knowledge’ of architecture, - or ‘core’ as it is often called – there is ‘local’ knowledge that corresponds to each of the many regions of the world and that this ‘local, ‘regional’ knowledge has to be taken into account in architectural practice and in architectural education14”.

Skills are enhanced when one is confronted with a practical situation where he needs to act upon an issue yet doesn’t know the methodology or believes that the one he is familiar with would not be a great approach due to time or any other factor. Being in the most difficult conditions under the stress of time, a strong social voice full of desires to acknowledge all the survival techniques and take an action that will lead to some efficient skills using local resources. Being a local and physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually knowing the area by heart, blurs the line of the stress due to the harsh conditions and introduce the line of authentic creativity meeting a better future vision to efficiently conduct an adaptable community service foundation. Longing for an upgrade of a place one is living in, innovation can emerge from natural local resources and consumers’ waste which can be perceived as available recyclable materials to originate a survival vernacular aesthetic character to the community (See Fig_16). This is how nature forces can be an economical architectural solution.

I agree with Frampton, whose regarded as one of the world’s leading architecture historians of modernist architecture, criticism of modern architecture that

is not based on tectonics such as the work of Venture, Frank gehry, Liebiskind, and Zaha Hadid15. Although the FEWW Core is a device, it is not a radical object that can be situated anywhere, but a flexible artifact with configurations as a part of a bigger frame that will relate and have meaning in the social or cultural context it’s situated in. Hence, I believe that Frampton would be proud of the timeless core that benefit from and relate to the past using the resources in the present to predict an evolved future.

Despite the fact that the architectural theory might be a necessary component of architecture like Schumacher discusses in his article of Paramatricism, I disagree with Schumacher’s belief that the architectural origin only started when theory was introduced8. I refuse to think that everything before Alberti, during the early renaissance, is not architecture but a form of traditional building. He observes architecture as a structured communication system of key principles, distinctions, methods, and practices8. For my thesis I question what are common people’s theories of architecture, without any former architectural studies background. Each community has its own developed traditional building materials and tectonics. Given the fact that informal settlements lack machinery and energy for construction, building with earth focuses on evolving local craftsman. Informal settlements are places where one can see a variety of tectonics techniques to learn from and evolve from.

Fig_17: “The main technical aims of the aquaculture are to clean the wastewater, to produce biomass (plants and animals) from wastewater, and to provide heat.

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C. Education - Participatory design

The participatory design approach provides the opportunity for the community to use their local skills and be involved in a building community design and construction process. Most of the times architects are needed by common people who don’t have a large budget, but the power of design can be used to improve lives through participatory design. The question is how do we as architects and inhabitants split tasks? To ensure an efficient functional design, our mission as architects to provide an initial structural frame and functional infrastructure that the inhabitants’ probability of having the knowledge of is very low and therefore probably not as sufficient. Just like Aravera starts the participatory process with designing half a house while leaving the other half as a structure framework for the common people to fill in using their knowledge and local materials, the FEWW Core will also start up the participatory design process by being a modular prototype allowing the public to take over towards building around it with their usual local skills and available resources, or installing it in their existing homes. It is a process that can be characterized as an experimental journey in the building culture. It is an effective notion of equipping the public with a quick education on an infrastructure core to live in or with and unlimited building alteration possibilities in the future.

Perceiving craftsman’s local skills and being a part of a participatory building process as an architect is a weapon to comprehend a greater sense of the building community and its meaning to the people. It is a tool to learn about the reasons and environmental knowledge behind techniques like joint details15. What’s the design building process that’s traditional and holds meaning to the community

versus the more recent methods? Learning about history of the built process or techniques allows for opportunities of giving the community more efficient approaches to be open to new perspectives of essential improvements that can take place in this local building.

Participatory design is a valuable cultural exchange experience that everyone whether an architect or a common person, can learn from and teach in. In other words, it is a practical educational event that opens up the culture for advancement and architecture for authentic identities. Participatory design will permit the inhabitants with the freedom of ways they choose to approach. It is an inspirational practical learning process that will result in revealing families’ characters through their designs. Subsequently, occupants will be supported as individuals identified as a part of a larger community, feeling ownership over their homes when they achieve social equity, and most of all engaging as a part of their homes’ identity just like it is a part of their identity since they are who customized it7. As a result, cultivating a social cohesion will be achieved though the principles of the modular prototype that the architect built, which will have the same features depicting equality and the social residential buildings that families customized, which will differ, portraying each family’s character.

Section IV: Conclusion

Fig_18: “Lexil house is an innovative design exploring flexible architecture as a structural component with assembled materials technique by using systems configurations”.

Fig_19: The core in I.M.Pei and E.H. Duhart’s Designs for Postward Living, is “an effecient mass-producible design core of preassembled components (PACs), reserved for biologican and mechanical functions, bathing, cooking, heating and cooling; the living or social areas were flexible for variety of arrangements”.

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Flexible design

The FEWW core will be a project a combination of the Lexile house that is more freely in being positioned by the inhabitants and the Chilean modular houses done by Aravera where the core is not an interior object but a visually modular intervention (See Fig_17). The FEWW Core device is to be installed in the interior connecting to the exterior for communication purposes. In spite the fact that the core might not depend on high technology, it is of a high performance and flexibility as cores built using high technology for rich environments. For instance, the I.M. Pei’s and E.H. Duhart’s Designs for Postwar Living advocate a mass-producible efficient static design core that is of “preassembled components reserved for “biological and mechanical functions like bathing, cooking, washing, heating and cooling (See Fig_18). The PACs surrounding is more loosely aid-out of modular living or social areas of the house that were flexible panelized for variety of arrangements”.

The FEWW Core is influenced by the PACs concept to be in a variety of multiple arrangements to promote an idea of a prototype that can be a first of a series that have the capability of modification adapting different sites.

Fig_20: The Chase Manhattan bank tower building by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Chase Manhattan, “was designed under the imperative of maximum organizational flexibility, with two rows of interior columns runing through the core. This was done to allow for future shifts within the company, such as expansion and moving of departments, as well as to provide for a sectioned floor space to be rented�.

Fig_21: Flexible Core design in plan variations of Tsunami-safe(r) for the Prajnopaya foundation.

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Flexible design

The Chase Manhattan tower is another example of a flexible core that is “designed under the imperative of maximum organizational flexibility, with two rows of interior columns running through the core (See Fig_19). This was done to allow for future shifts within the company, such as expansion and moving of departments, as well as to provide for a sectioned floor space to be rented�. Flexible infrastructure design should be an aspect to contemplate of, so one can make sure that in later periods of times when the capability of extending the design comes the flexibility of connecting the new to the old would be an option.

Tsunami-safe core design has a similar concept of being a flexible core to the core in the Chase Manhattan tower, but it is designed as a low cost distater relief for a community of a low budget (See Fig_20).

References

Architectural education: The core and the local [Liane Lefaivre, Alexander Tzonis, 2012, Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalisation,

London, Clifford Geertz, 1983, Local Knowledge] Andres Lepik, Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement, Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) Dean, Adrea Oppenheimer. “Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an architecture of decency”. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. Print.

Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.

Hamdi, Nabeel. Houses without Houses: Participation, Flexibility, Enablement. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991.

Koolhaas, R. “The double Life of Utopia”, in Delirious New York: A Retroactive manifesto for methods. (New York: Monacelli Press,1994), 80-158 LIXIL HOUSE VISION 2016 TOKYO EXHIBITON / “LIXIL HOUSE VISION 2016 TOKYO EXHIBITON.” Martin, Reinhold. The organizational complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.

“Minimalist Architecture.” Minimalist Design Architecture.

Murphy, Diana. Design like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises. New York: Metropolis Books, 2006.

Patrick Schumacher, “Parametricism and the Autopsies of Architecture,” Log†21 (February 2011): 62-79.

ReVoltHouse. “ReVolt House - TU Delft’s Entry for Solar Decathlon 2012.” Tanney J. Modern modular : the prefab houses of Resolution. New York :

Princeton Architectural Press. 2014. Print.

TEDtalksDirector. “Alejandro Aravena: My Architectural Philosophy? Bring the Community into the Process.”

Trubiano, Franca. Design and Construction of High-Performance Homes: Building Envelopes, Renewable Energies and Integrated Practice. London and

New York: Routledge Tylor & Francis Group.

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Image Sources

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Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.

Fig. 03. Manaugh, Author Geoff. Single Hauz. BLDGBLOG. N.p., 16 Dec. 2015. Web. Accessed April

12, 2017. http://www.bldgblog.com/2007/08/single-hauz/ Fig. 04. The Nexus Approach. UNU - Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of

Resources. Accessed April 12, 2017. https://flores.unu.edu/en/research/nexus.

Fig. 05. Salomon, Shay, Nigel Valdez, and Frances Moore. Lappé. Little house on a small planet: simple

homes, cozy retreats, and energy efficient possibilities. Guilford, Ct.: Lyons Press, 2010.

Fig. 12. “TU Delft bouwt zonnehuis voor Solar Decathlon - Architectuur.nl.”

Architectuur.nl - De wereld van de architect. Web. <http://www.

architectuur.nl/nieuws/tu-delft-bouwt-zonnehuis-voor-solar-de cathlon/>.

Fig. 13. Trubiano, Franca. Design and construction of high-performance homes: building

envelopes, renewable energies and integrated practice. London: Taylor &

Francis Group/Routledge, 2013.

Fig. 14. “Tsunami safe(r) house.” MIT Senseable City Lab. Web. <http://senseable.mit.edu/ tsunami-prajnopaya/2.htm>.

Fig. 15. “Chile’s Half-a-House Creator Wins 2016 Pritzker Prize.” ArchitecFig. 06. “Cubitat from Urban Capital and Nichetto Studios is a compact home in a box.” Slate Magazine ture . Construction . Design . Engineering . Property. Web. <http://

Politics, Business, Technology, and the Arts. Web. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_

sourceable.net/chiles-half-house-creator-wins-2016-pritzker eye/2015/01/27/cubitat_from_urban_capital_and_nichetto_studios_is_a_compact_home_ prize/>. in_a_box.html>.

Fig. 16. “Tsunami safe(r) house.” MIT Senseable City Lab. Web. <http://senseable.mit.

Fig. 07. “The $300 House: The Concept.” The $300 House: An Experiment in Impact Innovation. Web.

edu/tsunami-prajnopaya/2.htm>.

<http://www.300house.com/concept.html>.

Fig. 17. “ARTICLE.” EcoEng Newsletter No. 13, September 2007 - Schoenborn, Fig. 08. Clough, G.W., J. Chameau, and C. Carmichael. “Sustainability and the University.”The

Stensund Wastewater Aquaculture. Accessed April 17, 2017. http://www.

Presidency. Winter 2006, pp. 30-40.

iees.ch/EcoEng071/EcoEng071_Schoenborn1.html.

Fig. 9. Clough, G.W., J. Chameau, and C. Carmichael. “Sustainability and the University.”The

Presidency. Winter 2006, pp. 30-40.

Fig. 18. LIXIL HOUSE VISION 2016 TOKYO EXHIBITON / “LIXIL HOUSE

VISION 2016 TOKYO EXHIBITON.”

Fig. 10. Metalocus. “METALOCUS.” Gordon Bunshaft and SOM at Nueva York, Lever House |

METALOCUS. September 05, 2016. Accessed April 17, 2017. http://www.metalocus.es/

en/news/gordon-bunshaft-and-som-nueva-york-lever-house.

Fig. 19-20. Martin, Reinhold. The organizational complex: Architecture, Media, and

Corporate Space. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.

Fig. 11. Martin, Reinhold. The organizational complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space.

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.

Fig. 21. “Tsunami safe(r) house.” MIT Senseable City Lab. Web. <http://senseable.mit.

edu/tsunami-prajnopaya/2.htm>.

Inputs VS Outputs

Climate Local Skills & Tectonics

Local Resources

46

Natural Basic Needs Sys Preserving Identity

Low-cost

The FEWW Core can be observed as a black box that has inputs and outputs. It is impacted by the environment in terms of climate, local resources, and the identity of the place. It impacts the community by providing basic needs like food, energy, waster, and waste management through a natural recycling system.

Chapter III: Design Research

Climate

Food

Energy

Water

Waste

Climate: Coastal Context: Water Site: Ganvie, Benin

A

B

C

D

Climate: Dry Context: Dessert Site: Ushugie, KSA

Forest

Mountain

Food

Food

48

Waste Management

Energy

Climate

Waste Management

Energy

Climate

PROBLEM

People in informal settlements need architects the most, but they cannot afford them. It is a world, where people have shortage or lack of food, energy, water, and waste management.

FEWW SYSTEM

HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK? 1

FOOD MANAGEMENT (PLANTS)

2

ENERGY (SOLAR PANEL)

Liquid Waste

Food Waste Management

A

A. Solar panels convert the suns energy into electricity Fruits & Vegetables

Climate

Energy

Meats & Diary

B. A control device changes this electricity, enables it to pumb up the water

Solid Waste

Water

C

Generator Anerobic Digester

1m^3 of Biogas

MJ: Megajoule KW: Killowatt-hour

Climate Energy

4

WASTE MANAGEMENT (TANKS)

B

C. The electricity then passes through a breaker box to outlets in the pod and controls pumping water.

19 MJ (5.3 KW)

3

WATER (TANK)

1 1 55

Solid Fertilizer

Solid Waste:

2

Food

4 Waste Management

Water

3

50

FEWW DESIGN

3 4 55 55

1m^3 = 264 gal 1,000 kg

Fertilizer

Urine = 800 to 2000 milliliters 1.2 L / day (.32 gal)

Organic = .66/person/day = 4.66 pounds/ family

Grey Water = 64.4-75.7 L (17-20 gallons) Total Liquid Waste=134.82 gal/ family

5 55

23.3â&#x20AC;?diameter (59.18cm)

55 gal

35â&#x20AC;?

(89cm)

11-14 gallons (41.6-53 liters) and lasts for 6.66 minutes at average flow rate of 2.1 gallons per minute (7.9 lpm)

Liquid Waste:

Excrement = 175 grams (.39 pounds)

Total Solid Waste=7.355 pounds/ family

2 55

6 gallons for washing and other uses per person per day

1m^3 = 264 gal 1,000 kg A family of 7 members

will last for 2 days

ARCHITECTURAL RESPONSE FEWW SYSTEM

My thesis concept introduces the FEWW (food, energy, water, and waste management) Core that contains a sustainable system to dwellings in informal settlements all around the world. The system consists of plants boxes, solar panel or thermal panel, water tank(s) with an option of water pump, and waste barrels. The FEWW system relies on the sun rays that charges the solar panel to generate electricity. The energy produced is used to cook food or cool and protect food longer in refrigerators, and to pump the water stored in a water tank underneath the service programs. Water and food waste are being managed; solid waste have the capability to covert its chemical energy to thermal energy when burnt and grey water feed plants to produce food.

Based on my collected data on an average person consumption of food, energy, and water I came up with a sustainable system that efficiently provides inhabitants with a 264 gal water, 24hrs electricity, vegetation, and an efficient management system.

FEWW SYSTE

Organic = .66/person/day = 4.66 pounds/ family Total Solid Waste=7.355 pounds/ family

Climate

Food

Grey Water = 64.4-75.7 L (17-20 gallons) Total Liquid Waste=134.82 gal/ family

Energy

1m^3 = 264 gal 1,000 kg A family of 7 members

Water

will last for 2 days

Waste Management

Hot - Wet

Hot-Dry

Cold-Dry

Cold-Wet

52

FEWW Core System catalogue in differenet climates

To address this universally it has to response to different climates thus I studied and remodeled my system in 4 different climates (hot dry, hot wet, cold dry and cold wet). According to each climate, the sys parts would be situated differently.

For instance, in an extreme hot dry or cold dry climate the water tank would be placed underground to keep water neutral protecting the water from evaporating or freezing. But in a cold or hot wet climates it would be located above ground.

4 Waste Management

Water

3

54

FEWW ADABTABLE DESIGN

Urine = 800 to 2000 milliliters 1.2 L / day (.32 gal)

Organic = .66/person/day = 4.66 pounds/ family

Grey Water = 64.4-75.7 L (17-20 gallons)

Total Solid Waste=7.355 pounds/ family

FEWW STATIONARY DESIGN

BATHROOM

Excrement = 175 grams (.39 pounds)

KITCHEN

Total Liquid Waste=134.82 gal/ family

ARCHITECTURAL RESPONSE FEWW STATIONARY CORE

My concept introduces the FEWW Core referring to (Food, Energy, Water, and Waste management) to be a prefabricated 6.5x10ft / 2x3m pod that is easy to transport and to be installed. The FEWW core houses service programs which are the bathroom, and the kitchen. They share a wet wall in which all the systems are connected through.

56

yad rep nosrep rep sesu rehto dna gnihsaw rof snollag 6

lag 462 = 3^m1 gk 000,1 syad 2 rof tsal lliw

srebmem 7 fo ylimaf A

sretilillim 0002 ot 008 = enirU )lag 23.( yad / L 2.1

smarg 571 = tnemercxE )sdnuop 93.(

L 7.57-4.46 = retaW yerG )snollag 02-71(

yad/nosrep/66. = cinagrO ylimaf /sdnuop 66.4 =

ylimaf /lag 28.431=etsaW diuqiL latoT

ylimaf /sdnuop 553.7=etsaW diloS latoT

2

dooF

4 etsaW tnemeganaM

retaW

3

NGISED WWEF

airetirC

a si ti esuaceb setis tnereffid ot elbacilppa si tcejorp sihT dna tropsnart ot ysae si taht dop tsoc wol ,tcapmoc ,detacirbaferp eb nac ,nwo sti no dnats nac ti taht hguone elbixefl si tI .llatsni ot .gnillewd gnitsixe na otni deggulp eb ro ,dnuora tliub dna decalp snoitidnoc gnitsixe rof snoitseuq airetirC 01 ?noitidnoc ETAMILC eht si tahW .1 ?ecruos DOOF eht si tahW .2 ?ecruos RETAW eht si tahW .3 ?ecruos YGRENE eht si tahW .4 ?eno si ereht fi dohtem TNEMEGANAM ETSAW eht si tahW .5 )noitartseneF ,noitalitneV ,noitalusnI ,slairetaM ,mroF( ?RETLEHS rieht fo stcepsa tnatropmi eht si tahW .6 ?NOITATROPSNART fo snaem eht si tahW .7 ?secruos emocnI ?SEIRTSUDNI eht era tahW .8 ?ytinummoC / ylevitaroballoC sv laudividnI ?SEULAV LARUTLUC eht si tahW .9 ?ssecorp NOITALLATSNI + NOITCURTSNOC eht si tahW .01

esnopseR larutcetihcrA

-niatsus a sessapmocne taht dop elbixefl lasrevinu a si eroC WWEF ehT eb ot si tI .tnemeganam etsaw dna ,retaw ,ygrene ,doof fo metsys elba -vewoH .sesirc lateicos fo semit ni ro stnemelettes lamrofni ni deyolped hcae ot defiidom eb nac dop eht ,setamilc tnereffid ot esnopser ni ,re -orp ecivres sesuoh eroC WWEF ehT .ni detautis eb dluow ti txetnoc htiw ecaps elbixefl a dna ,nehctik a ,moorhtab a edulcni hcihw ,smarg -oep ot eud yltnereffid secalp dna elpoep tcapmi dluow taht egarots -ed si eroc eht ,serutluc tnereffid ot gnitcaeR .serutluc dna sdeen sâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;elp ot ecalp a stnatibahni sedivorp taht erutcurts lateleks a sa dengis .ot ytitnedi nwo rieht ni dda dna sevlesmeht ngised

melborP

tub ,tsom eht stcetihcra deen stnemelttes lamrofni ni elpoeP evah elpoep erehw ,dlrow a si tI .meht droffa tonnac yeht etsaw dna ,retaw ,ygrene ,doof fo kcal ro egatrohs .tnemeganam

58

To develop the installation methods of the pod, I studied 4 different sites: Ushguair KSA, Ganvie village in Benin Africa, Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, and Pina village in Nepal to test its adaptability according to the surrounding site context. It can be adjacent to an existent interacting with it (see KSA example). It can be inside on an existent plan. It can be on its own (see Mongolia site) shared per plot by family.

PROBE

60

ARCHITECTURAL RESPONSE FLEXIBLE SHELL

Architecture can be responsive and meaningful to informal settlements in indigenous cultures if it offers adaptable universal design prototypes through an adabtable self sustainable core. (see Probe example) The flexible shell offers an optional extensions either horizontal or vertical as an open space for sleeping and living and maybe an outdoor space or transitional space are being included in the design depending on the regional conditions. This dynamic spatial program/open floor plan aspects allows for assemblance and reassemblance providing flexibility to change space around it according to the inhabitantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lifestyle.

A systematic small scale intervention, which is smaller than a building scale can be a system of a bigger concept that is solving universal issues.

62

64

ARCHITECTURAL RESPONSE FLEXIBLE SHELL IDENTITY BY LOCALS / PARTICIPATORY PROCESS

The flexible shell is designed to be manipulated according to social and culture needs of various regions.

Studying different contexts, I came up with extention options that the shell can do. For example in KSA, which is spacious desert contexts, the shell is extended horizontally and a side roof can be extended to bring in shade for their existing courtyard but in Ganvie village in Africa and in Nepal, which is dense villages, the shell is extended vertically to create an additional space for occupants. Learning about different cultures and comprehending their lifestyle, I designed the flex space to be impacted and used in various ways. Also I respected the vernacular arch in the informal settlements and designed this shell as a skeletal design in order for people and communities to add in their cultural id to it, make it their own, feel ownership over it. For instance in Saudi Arabia palm fronds and fabric materials would be often used as the infill for this skeletal design.

66

DAY IN THE LIFE IN USHGUAIR, SAUDI ARABIA

EXISTING LIFESTYLE

MALE LIVING ROOM

BATHROOM

LIVING ROOM

BATHROOM LIVING ROOM

BREAKFAST LIVING ROOM

LIVING ROOM

FEMALE BED ROOM

BATHROOM

KITCHEN BATHROOM

UPDATED LIFESTYLE

MULTI USE SPACE

OUTDOOR + STORAGE

BATHROOM

KITCHEN

STORAGE

MULTI USE SPACE

BATHROOM

BED ROOM

68

70

72

SELLING FRUITES

HARVESTING RICE & WHEAT

A. The black box model as a a symbolic representation of the core.

Concept: Natural Ventilaton Program: Outdoor Porche & Mezzanine

Concept: Natural Ventilaton & Tectonics Program: Outdoor Space

B. The context it is to be built in.

For example the trace peper represents water.

C. Scrap materials as the available local materials.

Concept: Light Program: Livingroom & Outdoor Space

74

PARTICIPATORY PROCESS Students Survey (Local Skills=Preserving ID)

Items provided in this student experiment:

Conce Progr

1. A black box model.

2. A wooden framework structure (in some models) 3. Trace paper (Optional) 4. Scrap materials.

This student survey is a symbloic method of Participatory design method. It allows flexibility to the inhabitants to react to the core by using local materials to decorate, enclose, and expand on according to their needs.

Conce Progr

Context (Salt or Fresh water) might affect the material use:

A) Salt water is more buoyant requires more load, whether a heavier weight or bigger scale, for stability.

B) Salt water has a higher boiling point than fresh water will help with estimating how much installation one needs to embed in according to adapt with the climate.

Material (Wood): Wood is a sustainable natural material with a hygroscopic feature.

76

Material in Context (Wood + Water): Wood would be a good adaptable material to use in a water context, where it will respond as a sponge absorbing the water.

sreffo eroc eht ytilibixelF

Studies of the contexts outside the cities that informal settlements are located in and the corresponding local materialâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behavior and properties. In order to know more about the materialâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behavior, studying the context is a critical matter. Lastly, the use of local materials is an effiecient economical and social solution due to the materialâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s avialability and cost.

Phase I: Transportation The light weight compoenents of the FEWW Core is capable of being tranported on a floating base pulled by boat, animal carriages, and trucks.

78

Phase II: Construction The FEWW Core requires very minimum building work on the site.

Phase III: Installation The FEWW Core offers possibilities to be situated installed as a plug adjacent or inside an existing dwelling, or to be positioned in place for new construction to be built around.

CONSTRUCTION MANUAL Further I developed this construction manual that would be distributed to local shops in different communities to prefabricate this FEWW Core with their local low cost materials. It is easy to follow and built off of it.

The FEWW Core Design

“How” can architecture support the economy? Architecture can re-

spond to an economical issue through a flexible low cost self-efficient core design. The core can be assembled & reassembled providing flexibility to create a variety of dynamic spatial program and or open floor plan according to the inhabitant’s lifestyle (See Fig_20). The core itself is a universal utility services components prototype that can be inserted anywhere supplying individual families with basic necessities (See Fig_21).

Moreover, the core has a systematic aspect to respond to the context it is in from climate to local resources. Finally, the core is a flexible component of elements and materials that can be personalized by its inhabitants and since I am thinking of informal settlements materials recalls for local natural materials that has a regional character.

“What” does architecture means of interest to me. Architecture can be more responsive and meaningful to indigenous cultures if it offers universal core prototypes that are grounded in local building cultures using local natural resources.

It synthesizes notions of regionalism, tectonics, modularity, and social equity.

“Where” will this core be tested? I am considering informal settlements in

the small towns and cities that are inhabited in the dessert communities in Saudi Arabia. I picked this site for the reason that it is my home country and it would be easier to visit and relate to. Its vernacular architecture is rich yet it lacks infrastructure.

“Why” do I want to bring survival necessities in a universal infrastruc- “Who” am I designing for? Locals with low income living in informal settleture prototype to regional contexts such as informal settlements? My belief is to direct my architectural mission to the current major humanitarian challenge of supplying a better quality life in informal settlements, where I’d learn about the history context and the traditional culture life style the most. I’d want my design to provide them not just a house that is a shelter to be in, but a home that is a meaningful space, where one can dwell identifying himself within the environment. It would already be full of participatory build process experiences and ready for more daily activities life to take place in.

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ments that lacks infrastructure and needs architects yet do not afford so. Working in such a context with locals will transfer knowledge of innovation designed to save energy between architect’s background in technology advancement and the commons’ grasp of natural resources possibilities. Through a participatory design process, a more personal communication between architects and the community will take place exchanging skills and cultural identities for the purpose of revitalizing the community with both sociological and economical presence incorporated.

OVERALL

Even though this is a smaller than a building scale design, it serves a greater purpose on a universal scale.

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