Sloss Blast Furnace | Birmingham, AL | Building in Three Parts

BUILDING

IN THREE PARTS

SLOSS BLAST FURNACE SITE BIRMINGHAM, AL ARCH 407 MODELING AT ALL SCALES BRYAN PETERS 2020

BUILDING

AS SHELTER

HISTORY - 1862, Iron production for the Sloss Furnace Site began, completed in 1872

Sloss Furnace Site, 1872 Birmingham, AL

- Installment of railroads going North and also East and West allowed for the movement of produced Iron to and from the site.

U

AIN T N

O M D

RE

Oxmoor Furnace Site, 1862 Oxmoor, AL

SITE PLAN

STRUCTURE AS SHELTER

MODULAR ECONOMICS

1 BAY

EMERGY EVALUATION TABLE

50’ COLUMN HEIGHT 50’ TRUSS SPAN

STEEL COLUMNS & TRUSS CONCRETE FOUNDATIONS

BAYS @ 15’ O.C.

STEEL JOISTS AND SHEET METAL SPANNING BETWEEN

60 BAYS TOTAL STEEL (COLUMNS, TRUSS, JOISTS) = 7,400 ft³ + ~10000 FT³ (FURNACES) = 17,400 ft³ MASONRY WALLS (BRICK) = 58,000 ft³ SHEET METAL ROOFING = 61,500 ft² CONCRETE FOUNDATIONS = 3,000 ft³

RAW MATERIALS COAL

ELECTRIC LOCATION

WIND

BLDG. STRUCT. & ENVEL.

SYSTEMS

ITEM TRANSPORT ENGINE ROOM

SUN

A.C. AMBIENT HEAT

BLAST FURNACES HEAT/ (COOL)

PRODUCT

LIGHT

SETTING SHELTER SITE

THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAM BUILDING AS SHELTER

HEAT SINK

WORK

ECONOMY

BUILDING

AS SETTING

SITE PROCESSES

OPERATIONS & MACHINERY 1880 OPERATIONS

2 400-ton Blast Furnaces

6 Witwell Stoves (3 per furnace) 2 84” Blowing Engines 10 Boilers 242 Beehive Ovens supplied Coke

41%

of Birmingham’s work force in 1880

565 men

worked in 1880, gone to over 2,000 by 1950

RAW MATERIALS COAL

RECYCLED MATERIAL

ELECTRIC LOCATION

WIND

BLDG. STRUCT. & ENVEL.

SYSTEMS

LANDFILL

PEOPLE

ITEM TRANSPORT COOLING PONDS

SUN

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

ENGINE ROOM A.C.

AMBIENT HEAT

BLAST FURNACES HEAT/ (COOL)

PRODUCT

LIGHT

SETTING SHELTER SITE

THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAM BUILDING AS SETTING

HEAT SINK

WORK

ECONOMY

ENERGY, GOODS, AND SERVICES

BLDG. STRUCT. & ENVEL.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES

PEOPLE SYSTEMS

ECONOMY PRODUCT

SETTING SHELTER

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE

OPERATIONAL

THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAM BUILDING IN OPERATION W/ RESPONSE TO RESOURCES

END USE

7,900 tons of iron for construction

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE

24,000 tons of iron produced in first year 7,900,000 tons of total iron produced

OPERATIONAL

OPERATIONAL

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE

IRON

CO2

MATERIAL QUANTITY (tons)

500,000

24,000 tons

of iron produced in first year, assuming a

400,000

2%

300,000

increase in iron production per year, the total amount of iron produced from 1880 to 1976 is

200,000

7,900,000 tons

of iron which creates around

100,000 0 1880

16,000,000 tons

of CO2 during operation.

1900

1920

YEARS

1940

1960

Total Energy from operations is

1.06e+17 Joules or 1.01e+13 BTU

To put it all into perspective...

The Eiffel Tower is constructed of

10,100 tons of iron.

Given that the Sloss Blast Furnace Site produced

7,900,000 tons of iron over 96 years,

The site could have produced around

782 Eiffel Towers

BUILDING

AS SITE

RAILROAD EXPANSION

90%

of Birmingham’s work force in 1880

130,000 acres

of land for ore and coal extraction on sites such as Red Mountain, helped to expand railroads from Birmingham to all major cities in Alabama as well as cities in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida from the Sloss Furnace Site. were

African American.

RAILROAD LINES MATERIAL EXTRACTION

RAW MATERIALS COAL

RECYCLED MATERIAL

ELECTRIC

LOCATION WIND

SYSTEMS

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

SUN

CLIMATE

WORK

+

PRODUCT

SETTING SHELTER SITE

THERMODYNAMIC DIAGRAM BUILDING AS SITE

HEAT SINK

ECONOMY

REFERENCES Braham, William. Architecture and Systems Ecology. Routledge, 2015.

Lewis, David. “Birmingham Iron and Steel Companies.” Encyclopedia of Alabama, 2008, encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1597.

Meyer, Catherine. “Phase II Archaeological Testing and Historical Research for the SSSIC North Birmingham Furnaces Site.” MRS Consultants, 2016.

Moe, Kiel & Srinivasan, Ravi. The Hierarchy of Energy in Architecture: Emergy Analysis. Routledge, 2015.

“National Register Database and Research.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/database-research. htm.

“Sloss Furnace: Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Company, Birmingham Alabama.” Historic Structures, www.historic-structures.com/al/birmingham/sloss_furnace.php.

“History of Sloss Furnace Site.” Sloss Furnaces, 2016, www.slossfurnaces.com/history/.