spring 2018
MATHEM ATICS OF THE EQUA TORIAL VILLA SUTD/ ASD sustainable design options studio masters/ bachelors vertical studio Singapore
CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION: MATHEMATICS OF THE EQUATORIAL VILLA 2. CONEY ISLAND, SINGAPORE
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LOCATION URBAN SITUATION SITE TIDES MICROCLIMATE ECOLOGY
13 15 17 19 21 23 25
3. LIGHT-TOUCH URBANIZATION: AN ECOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE FOR SINGAPORE
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4. SITE AS DATA: DIGITAL SURVEY
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5. VILLA SOURCEBOOK
6. VILLA INSTANTIATION
7. PRESENTATION: SUTD ASD 8. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ANALYSIS AND INVERSION
45 49
EQUATORIAL ADAPTATIONS VILLA PLANS
79 85 97
Sustainable Design Option Studio
105 107
Sources Index of Student Work Participants
109 113 115
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MATHEMATICS OF THE EQUATORIAL VILLA The proposition surprises us: a villa. What is this, 16th century Italy? The idea of a space that exists purely for pleasure carries with it the reek of hedonism- in the data-driven city we architects work as optimizers- as happy agents of efficiency! Only in extremis are we faced with purely aesthetic quandaries. But with this problem the apparent solidity of quantitative method fails us. How can we design the superfluous...* shudders* ‌ the beautiful? 7
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Villa Stein and Villa Malcontenta - from Rowe
Autonomy - Peter Eisenman’s House iii
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Mathematical, abstract, four square, without apparent function and totally memorable. (Rowe, Mathematics of the Ideal Villa. 1947)
This quote from Colin Rowe has functioned both as our definition of the villa, and as a statement of intent- an aspiration for the final product of this studio. Rowe’s analysis, in Mathematics of the Ideal Villa, collapsed the historical distance between Palladio and Corbusier, and thereby suggested a vast space of abstract form-making. This abstract formal space was explored extensively, especially in American academic architecture of the 1970s. Peter Eisenman and John Hejduk in particular were influenced by Rowe, as were arguably each of the members of the New York Five. The language of abstract form Rowe conjured with his 1947 essay however has been increasingly abandoned for the last three decades; other directions were explored, valid criticisms have been raised. In discussing the academic merits of Rowe’s approach, architect Tim Love made this criticism: “It is precisely the autonomy of the design exercise, the complete removal of design decisions from both the physical world and a cultural context that may limit theoretical sophistication at later stages of design education and eventually in practice.” (Love, Kit-of-Parts Conceptualism. 2003)
Love suggests that the value of the Rowean architectural exercise, ‘to explore the expressive boundaries of the discipline,’ could be renewed by an, ‘overlay of content to instigate the architectural process.’ (Ibid.) 9
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instrumentalized urban data - GovTech transport app ‘Beeline’
layers of urban data - Media x Design Lab - Erik Widell
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The data-driven city provides innumerable layers of such content, of which microclimate and ecologythe contextual focus of equatorial architecture- represent just a small fraction. Singapore is in the process of modeling itself as many thousands of layers of content, highly granular, ripe for instrumentalization.(see GovTech) Could Rowe’s mathematics be made useful to contemporary students working in this data-driven context to articulate the value of form? The potential irony of confronting Rowe’s mathematics with the statistical operations of the data-driven city is not lost on us. A mathematics that produces only aesthetics without function, and a mathematics that produces only function without aesthetics- is there any overlap in this Venn diagram? We hope to provoke the city of data to desire the inclusion of aesthetics in its operations. To do this we would need a method to identify and validate formal and phenomenological values in the realm of data. Relational Mathematics In this studio we have asked students to explore relational mathematics: processes that put form in relation to content or data. Each project is conceived and articulated as process, in part autonomous (based on internal part-to-part relations) and in part contextual (based on relations between the architectural 11
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artifact and climate, site, human perception). (and yes, also parametric) This mathematics is not identical to the mathematics described by Rowe. Rowe’s mentor, Wittkower, identified premodern aesthetics as asserting the existence of ideal proportions (geometric or harmonic). Wittkower describes a significant shift in the history of aesthetics with Burke who, ‘refuted categorically the Pythagoreo-Platonic notion that beauty resides in certain fundamental and universally valid proportions.’(Wittkower, Proportion in Art and Architecture. 1953) From Burke on, Wittkower claims, aesthetics is a ‘psychological phenomena originating and existing in the mind of the artist.’(Ibid) Rowe displays in his essay of 1947 a nostalgia for the order of Palladio’s premodern harmonic aesthetics, emphasizing ratio, proportion, rhythm. We question this nostalgia as well as the Burkean notion of artistic genius and its individual monopoly on aesthetic creation. Instead we have been intrigued by this statement: The universal communicability of a pleasure already includes in its concept that this must not be a pleasure of enjoyment, from mere sensation, but one of reflection; and thus aesthetic art, as beautiful art, is one that has the reflecting power of judgment and not mere sensation as its standard. [Immanuel Kant. The Critique of Judgement. 1790. 5: 306]
Villa as Hedonistic Machine
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That aesthetics may be a relational construct- a thing that is communally determined (sensus com-
mathematics of the equatorial villa
munis) and that as a result it would privilege reflection over sensation is a fascinating proposition with the possibility to link contemporary preoccupations with bottom-up social phenomena and cognition to a mathematics of aesthetics. With whom we share aesthetic sensation (lets be honest- universality is a dubious social distinction) and how that sensation is communicated or anticipated remains open-ended in this investigation. A reflective theory of aesthetics has colored our investigation of the villa as a hedonistic machine. What instruments and members would this machine need to posses to elicit the pleasure of aesthetic reflection? What operations should it enact, what affordance should it provide for? By what means does it work- conceptual, sensual, both? Might the hedonism of the villa exist not only in the enactment of a possible occupant’s experience, but in the pleasure of the villa itself as a system in continual interplay with climate and ecology?
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SINGAPORE’S CONEY ISLAND
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site location
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A largely artificial island on the north shore of Singapore, Coney Island has been left as undeveloped wilderness site for decades. 17
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coney island today
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coney island in the future
While Coney Island today is only accessible by foot or bicycle, future plans connect it to the mainland by road and propose residential development on the island’s south shore. (source: URA Masterplan 2014)
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coney island path network and site locations
forest site
beach site
currently under construction and off limits
Dirt Road Paved Road
Proximity Intensity 1 : 7500
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Main Spine Intensity
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coney island under construction
The southern half of the island is currently closed for construction. For this reason two prototypical sites were chose on the publicly accessible north half of the islanda beach site and a forest site.
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be
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150 150
1570
1550
140
1450
120
1280
110
1220
120
1250
120
1310
130
1370
130
1370
120
1320
130
1420
140
each site
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1530
area subject to tidal changes in water level
Coney Island’s north shore is exposed to the natural tidal movements of the Johor Strait. The waterline of the southern shore is artificially controlled. Seawalls cover most of the perimeter of the island, except for a 2km stretch of beach on the north shore. 23
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island climate
portable weather station
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Wind speed, temperature and relative humidity measured with a portable weather station add specificity (and subjectivity) to general data on Singaporean climate. Strong breezes run across Johor Strait from the north and penetrate deep the forest near the beach. Deeper in the forest a shady but humid microclimate exists. 25
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Coney Island is covered by over 70 hectares of second growth forest, mainly Casuarina Equisetifolia. As much as 10 hectares of mangrove forest may still exist on the island, including areas that existed before the island’s size was increased through landfill. 27
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LIGHT-TOUCH URBANIZATION AN ECOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE FOR SINGAPORE
North, over the commercial towers of the CBD, past the housing slabs of Hougang and Sengkang, and just beyond the new blocks of Punggol a strip of island shields the north coast of Singapore from the waters of the straits of Johor. Once a small cluster of mangroves housing the island get-away of the Haw Par brothers, today the island has been doubled in size by land reclamation work beginning in the 1970s. Connected to the mainland by dams at its north and south points, Coney Island separates the tidally active waters of the Johor strait from the artificially regulated waters of the Punggol Serangoon reservoir (once the mouth of the Serangoon river). Here are the urban fringe exists the opportunity to experiment with a new form of Singaporean urbanisation- one that preserves ecological resources and takes into account the changing needs of the country. In 2018 the number of elderly over 65 in Singapore 29
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Glamping - Atelier Chang
Dymaxion House Study- Buckminster Fuller
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for the first time outnumbered youth under 15. (Tan, Singapore’s Demographic Time Bomb. UOB 2017) The demographic pressures that led Singapore to become a high-density,high-rise nation are changing. In the place of the over-crowded shanty-towns of the 1940s is an affluent, cultured city faced with possibly declining density and future ecological challenges. Nature reserves are essential to preserving ecological resources, but the ecological potential of adjacent fringe sites is often overlooked. These areas have the potential to extend the ecological benefits of the adjacent nature preserve beyond its borders. (see for example IUCN’s ‘Urban Protected Areas.’) The promise of a low-density, light-weight and ecologically neutral urbanization provides the larger-scale rationale for this studio’s architectural investigation, and has defined a constructional and aesthetic approach we have called ‘light-touch.’ Inspirations for low-density, ecologically integrated housing range from contemporary glamping (see Atelier Chang) and eco-resorts (see Ng Seksan’s Sekeping Serendah or current projects at Mandai), to Buckminster Fuller’s vision of global human unsettlement, to the traditional South-east Asian kampong. Without trying to replace Singaporean high-density urbanization (which will remain an exemplar for an increasingly urban and densely populated planet), these examples provide clues for how the low density urban fringe can be 31
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Sekeping Serendah - Ng Sek San
Attap Huts - 1950s Singapore
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treated in an ecologically sensitive manner. How can transitions between inhabited areas and ecological reserves be best designed, and provide a desirable contrast to high-density urban areas? In the near future low-density natural spaces are likely to become increasingly sought after as places of retreat and recreation from the growing intensity of urban centers. We must be prepared to create these spaces with minimal ecological impact, and maximal experiential pay off. Light-touch architecture as we have defined it combines a series of pragmatic constraints (simple geometries, light-weight materials, construction processes that disturb the site as little as possible) with the pleasurable qualities of the villa (mediated connection with nature, conceptual or experiential experimentation, abstract and self-referential form-making). The result should be an architecture that is aesthetically or experientially distinctive, especially through its close integration with the natural site. Though this has been an architectural studio- a future urban design studio could investigate both the practical aspects (max. persons/hectare housed below tree canopy, ecological disruption index) and the experiential and social possibilities of this type of construction at larger scale. 33
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SITE AS DATA: DIGITAL SURVEY
Two sites were chosen on the island- a forest area beneath a dense canopy of Casuarina trees, and a beach site with some tidal flooding. Students conducted a detailed survey of both sites. 35
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LIDAR-generated point clouds of the forest canopy permit the creation of a detailed mesh model of the site. Canopy data was later used to analyze sun shading in the forest. 37
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LIDAR generated point clouds of the beach site (left and right above) and mesh approximation (right below). The point cloud was generated at low-tide as much of the sandy beach is covered at high tide. 39
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The point cloud provides highly specific site data- here the lower bounds of the Casuarina forest canopy.
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Elevation contours of the beach site take from the laser survey - useful in determining tidal impact on the site.
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A view across the Johor Strait from the beach site.
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VILLA SOURCEBOOK The villa provides us with more than 2000 years of history- data ripe for mining. With its Latin roots the word has a clear western origin, but in our work we have focused on it as the architectural type that affords maximum experimentation- and as a hedonic machine that exists (almost entirely) for pleasure. With this reframing, the western history of the villa can become less historical dead weight and more useful precedent. As a studio we sought to extract the recipe - the essential mathematics- of a group of precedents in order to later re-apply it in new contexts for new designs. What follows is an open-ended list of historical and contemporary villas (the source book) and a series of precedent studies pulled from this list. Each study images the design of the precedent as a series of steps (analysis), and then alters that process, creating novel configurations or adaptations (inversion). 47
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villa sourcebook
1545 Villa Pisani Bagnolo Palladio 1549 Villa Poiana Palladio 1558-60 Villa Foscari (Malcontenta) Palladio 1565 Villa Rotonda Palladio 1574 Villa Roca Pisani Scamozzi 1927 Villa Stein (Garches) Corbusier 1928-30 Villa Savoye Corbusier 1930 Chee Guan Chiang House Ho Kwong Yew 1930 Villa Muller Adolf Loos 1933 Dymaxion House Buckminster Fuller 1935-38 Fallingwater Frank Lloyd Wright 1937 Haw Par Beach Villa Ho Kwong Yew 1940 Pier House (Cashin House) Ho Kwong Yew 1945-51 Farnsworth House Mies Van Der Rohe 1948-1998 Lunuganga House Geoffrey Bawa 1949-51 Maison Tropicale Jean Prouvé 1949 Case Study House 8 Ray and Charles Eames 1952 Walker Guest House Paul Rudolph 1960 Chemosphere John Lautner 1963-67 Diamond House A John Hejduk 1966 Villa Mache Iannis Xenakis 1967 Gwathmey Residence and Studio Charles Gwathmey 1971 House III Peter Eisenman 1973/2000 Wall House John Hejduk 1976 Todoroki House Hiromi Fujii 1991 Villa dall’Ava OMA 1997 Jayawardena House Geoffrey Bawa 2004 Sekeping Serendah Seksan Design 2009 Villa Chardonne MadeIn 2009 View House Johnston Marklee 2012 NA House Sou Fujimoto 2012 Braver House SSD 2013 Buggenhout Villa OFFICE 2014 Element House MOS 2015 Maison des Vignes Convergeo
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villa sourcebook
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nesting todoroki house - hiromi fujii - 1976 51
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analysis
Wormhole Axonometric Wormhole View Axonometric V
Left: 1F Axonometric Left: View 1F Axonometric V Right: 2F Axonometric Right: View 2F Axonometric V
1:500 Plan with grid1:500 Plan with g
Nested grid
Nested g
1st layer grid 5x5, 1m grid
1st layer g 5x5, 1m g
2nd layer grid 2nd layer g 2.8x2.8, 0.7m grid 2.8x2.8, 0.7m g
3rd layer grid 2x2, 0.5m grid
3rd layer g 2x2, 0.5m g
52 Analysis
Analy
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inversion
Facade Analysis
Facade Analy
Nested Openings Analysis Nested Openings Analy
nesting todoroki house - hiromi fujii - 1976 53 Analysis
Analy
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inversion
Inward Nesting Inward Nest Inversion Axonometric Inversion View Axonometric V
Inward Nesting Agglomeration Inward Nesting Agglomerat
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Inward Nesting Inward Inversion Nesting Inversi
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inversion
Outward NestingOutward Nesting Inversion Axonometric Inversion ViewAxonometric View
Outward NestingOutward from Nesting from different origin points different origin points
Outward NestingOutward Agglomeration Nesting Agglomeration
nesting todoroki house - hiromi fujii - 1976 55 Outward Nesting Outward Inversion Nesting Inversion
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villa sourcebook
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splitting house iii - peter eisenman - 1971 57
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analysis
1. Grid
2. Mass
3. Divide
6. Push
5. Intersect
4. Rotate
Peter Eisenman
House III
7. Split
In House III, Peter Eisenman beings by segmenting the Villa into 18 cubes; bounded by a 3x3 grid on the top and the bottom, and a 3x2 grid on the sides. These grids are split along their diagonal which forms a skeleton structure that follows the original orientation 58and space of the house. A massing that spans 2/3 of the main grid and structure is then
3 magazines are rotated 450 from an origin point creating a void space and an open space below. This open space is accentuated by a linear translational movement. The massing intersects the main grid which splits the interior spaces up. The amalgation of the massing and the skeleton structure forms the main geometry of the villa. The
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inversion
1. Grid
2. Mass
3. Divide & Intersect & Rotate
4. Split Massing: 12 Origin : 14 Angle :+45 Split : 2
This iteration creates a cantilevered frontage that guides as an open void into the villa. The rotated top splits the lower floors into 2 double volumes spaces. The tight connection between the upper volumes gives a private quality to the upper floors.
Massing: 12 Origin : 6 Angle : -45 Split : 1
This iteration creates an upper volume that surrounds the central double volume space. The bend massing on the lower floor creates a nice arc that exposed the perimeter to views and makes the porch the focal point.
Massing: 4 Origin : 10 Angle :+90 Split : 2
This iteration creates a jengalike arrangement that opens the lower floor. The cross massing on the upper floor splits the volume into 5 private solids that is connected by a central spine.
Massing: 5 Origin : 13 Angle : -45 Split : 1
This iteration has most of its massing on the lower floor. This can be interpreted as an extened open space that has been spilled over the upper floors.
Massing: 5 Origin : 8 Angle :+90 Split : 2
This iteration swings open the top mass creating a large open space that directs the entrance. This permutation creates a massing with many double volume spaces that are connected through the exterior spaces.
Massing: 4 Origin : 6 Angle :-45 Split : 1
This iteration creates interesting room intersections that creates many possibilities for the extension and agglomeration of rooms. The top heavy massing allows for extended open spaces below.
splitting house iii - peter eisenman - 1971 59
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villa sourcebook
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subdividing walker guest house - paul rudolph - 1952 61
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analysis
Further subdivision of the grid
3 x 3 Grid subdivided into 6 x 6 grid entrance along the subdivision
3 x 3 Grid System & 2 x 2 Grid System
The exterior frame follows the extension of the 3 x 3 grid in the interior space. The walls are constructed along the major grid system as well as its further subdivisions creating a circulation axis through the living room and allowing light into the toilet even when the shutter is closed.
Floorplan
N 1:200
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WALKER GUEST HOUSE Paul Rudolph 1953
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inversion
Axonometric
Section
Level 3 (Bedroom)
Level 2 (Toilet)
Inversion The main circulation axis is maintained along the center of the living room continuin vertically upwards at the other end from th entrance.
Level 1 (Living / Dining room & Kitchen)
N 1:200
WALKER GUEST HOUSE Paul Rudolph 1953 subdividing
walker guest house - paul rudolph - 1952 63
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villa sourcebook
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carving view house - johnston marklee - 2009 65
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analysis 8018
12938
12938
8018
6469
6469
8018
16036
16036
Superimposition Superimposition of of Ellipse and Rectangle Ellipse and Rectangle
12938
12938
6469
6469
8018
Obtaining a new Obtaining form a new form from half of each from shape half of each shape
Addition
Addition
16036
16036
Selection of views Selection of surrounding of views of surrounding landscape / Consideration landscape / Consideration of of incoming neighbourhood incoming neighbourhood sight lines sight lines
Volumes are scooped Volumesout arefrom scooped out from the form. These thecreate form. sightlines These create sightlines when the house when is viewed the house fromisafar, viewed from afar, where the Viewwhere House thewill View obscure House will obscure the neighbouring thehouses, neighbouring granting houses, granting uninterrupted sightlines uninterrupted around sightlines around the house when theviewed house from whenthe viewed from the adjacent crossadjacent junction.cross The scoops junction. The scoops also creates sheltered also creates around sheltered the around the exterior of the house exterior of the house Subtraction
Subtraction
Internally, the oversized Internally, windows the oversized pro- windows provides a sequence videsofaviews sequence that direct of views that direct the inhabitant through the inhabitant an ascending throughciran ascending circulation that culminates culation that in aculminates roof deck in a roof deck that enables the thatinhabitant enables to thelook inhabitant be- to look beyond the neighbouring yond thehouses neighbouring and athouses and at the green landscape the green in the landscape country club in the country club
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VIEW HOUSE VIEW HOUSE Johnston Johnston Marklee Marklee
mathematics of the equatorial villa
inversion
Superimposition of Ellipse and Rectangle
Primitive Square
13000
6500
6500
13000
Obtaining a new form from half of each shape
Obtaining a new form through a composition of S with Circle
Addition
Subtraction
Selection of views of surrounding landscape / Consideration of incoming neighbourhood sight lines
Selection of views of surrou landscape / Consideration incoming neighbourhood si
Volumes are scooped out from the form. These create sightlines when the house is viewed from afar, where the View House will obscure the neighbouring houses, granting uninterrupted sightlines around the house when viewed from the adjacent cross junction. The scoops also creates sheltered around the exterior of the house
Separate volumes are collid the form, resulting in a new These volumes further emp the neighbouring houses as within the form of the View Addition
Subtraction
Internally, the oversized windows provides a sequence of views that direct the inhabitant through an ascending circulation that culminates in a roof deck that enables the inhabitant to look beyond the neighbouring houses and at the green landscape in the country club
VIEW HOUSE Johnston Marklee
The subtraction of the circu results in the house taking ov part of the green landscap house. While the views of become more introverted a more space is absorbed b of the house as opposed to case study.
carving view house - johnston marklee - 2009
INVER
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villa sourcebook
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penetrating wall house - john hejduk - 1973/2000 69
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analysis
End
Start r=18m
Analysis of organic forms of free spaces
Addition of spiral staircase for circulation through the free spaces
Puncturing the wall to create second entrance to 2nd level
Formation of first free space on 1st level and long corridor
Start r=18m
2nd Floor
End
1st Floor
Using circles with varying radius, the shape of the rooms were formed. To emulate a similar pattern of walking from a constrained small space to a large big space, the radius of the circles used from at the beginning and ending of the formation process is relatively smaller than the radius of the circles used in the middle of the form formation.
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Puncturing the wall to create first entrance to 1st level
Central Feature 18m by 14m by 1.5m wall
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inversion
The people will now have more than one route to walk through the building. Instead of merely looking out into the surrounding,people in the building will now be looking into other rooms. In Hejduk’s Wall House, the shape and quantity of roomswas clear for everyone to see. As such, for this inversion, a hidden room would be placed in the middle of the 4 rooms. People in the rooms will think they are staring into the rooms opposite theirs when in fact they are staring into the hidden room only accessible from 1 room.
Instead of having the rooms grow outwards from the wall and axes of the circulation path, the rooms will grow inwards into the wall.
The puncture holes made to create entrances will be covered up.
The central feature (the wall) is beginning retained because it is a distinct symbol that has successfully separate the free rooms from the long and narrow corridor. It also emphassis Hejduk’s paradox of dimensionality.
penetrating wall house - john hejduk - 1973/2000 71
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villa sourcebook
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stacking na house - sou fujimoto - 2012 73
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analysis
10
11
10
3
2
Large Planes
11
13
9
4
Large Planes
12
7
8
6
3
13
9
4
5
12
7
8 Circulation
2
6 5
1
1. Car Porch 2. Guest Study 3. Stair Platform 4. Kitchen 2 7 5. Living 6. Living 81 7. Study 8. Laundry 9. Bathroom 10. Bedroom 11. Study 12. Bay Window 13. Balcony
1. Car Porch 2. Guest Study 3.5 Stair Platform 6 4. Kitchen 5. Living4 6. Living 7. Study 38. Laundry 9. Bathroom 10. Bedroom 11. Study 12. Bay Window 13. Balcony
1
Circulation
1. Guest Bedroom 2. Study 3. Bay Window 4. Balcony 5. Bay Window 6. Balcony 7. Storage 8. Bathroom
Grid
Large Volume
Grid
Large Volume
1 1 2
5
4
3
Small Planes
Volume Volume
6
Small Planes
3
1. Living 2. Bay Window 3. Balcony 4. Storage 5. Living 6. Balcony
1 2
1 1
Level 2 Plan 2
Small Volume 1 1
Level 2 Plan 2
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House NA is a house of 21 planes with widths in the ratio of 2:1:1. The edges of the planes flush to one another along the Small Volume x and y axis without overlapping, creating a setting for a in the ratio of House NA is a house of 21 planes with widths program of its own. DueThe to edges the absence of walls, 2:1:1. of the planes flush private to one another along the programs are placed nearer to the edge,overlapping, setting the creating house a setting for a x and y axis without back from the street and planes staggered demarcate program of itsare own. Due totothe absence of walls, private boundaries.This results in a tree assembly whichsetting the house programs arelike placed neareroftoplanes the edge, can also be seen from in and circulation paths that to demarcate backthe frompatterns the street planes are staggered branches out fromboundaries.This a main path, allowing to move of planes which results in adwellers tree like assembly separately despite can being in one single room. also be seen from the patterns in circulation paths that branches out from a main path, allowing dwellers to move House NA separately despite being in one single room. Sou Fujimoto House NA
mathematics of the equatorial villa
inversion
Small Planes
Volume
Small Planes Volume
Small Volume
Small Volume
verted Site Boundary Inverted Site Boundary
Large Planes Large Planes
Large Volumes Large Volumes
While the originalWhile house smaller volumes of theplaces originalthe house places the smaller volumes of stacking the public programs on theprograms outside to private the public on set the the outside to set the private spaces of the house backof from the street, inversion na -the sou fujimoto - 2012 spaces thehouse house back from the street, the inversion involves placing the smaller volumes first, building up building it up involves placing the smaller volumes itfirst, from the middle,from while larger volumes of the private the middle, while larger volumes of the private spaces take positions on the of the spaces takeperimeter positions on the boundary. perimeter of the boundary. This sets the private apart from one another, Thisprograms sets the private programs apart from one another,
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villa sourcebook
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pivoting villa der bau - office - 2015 77
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analysis Rotation Rotation
Rotation of service cores to generate distortedofinterior Rotation serviceand exterior spaces cores to generate distorted interior and exterior spaces
Micro Grid Micro Grid
Further subdivision of grid into 1.2m x 1.2m grid and 0.4m x 0.4m Further subdivision of grids for1.2m details such as grid into x 1.2m door elements and grid and 0.4m x 0.4m service cores grids for details such as door elements and service cores
Macro Grid Macro Grid
3.6m x 3.6m grid used to structure the placement walls in 3.6m x 3.6m of grid used 1 and the ground tolevel structure level respectively placement of walls in level 1 and ground level respectively
Structure Structure
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Villa Der Bau OFFICE Villa Der Bau OFFICE
mathematics of the equatorial villa
inversion
Grid Grid
Elements Elements
Rotation Rotation & Distortion & Distortion
Boundary Boundary condition condition
1.2m 1.2m x 1.2m x 1.2m grid grid
Service Service cores cores are are addedadded and extended and extended beyond beyond the grid the grid
Rotation Rotation of negative of negative spaces, spaces, resulting resulting in thein the distortion distortion of service of service cores cores
Negative Negative spaces spaces that that exceed exceed the rectangular the rectangular boundary boundary are subtractare subtracted ed
pivoting villa der bau - office - 2015 79
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VILLA INSTANTIATION
[EQUATORIAL ADAPTATION] We confront Rowe’s mathematics with a layer of content - site data obtained from photogrammetry, LIDAR, portable weather stations, and Singapore’s open data service. A relational mathematics- linking site data directly to architectural geometry- augments or replaces the mathematics of ideal proportion. Instead of an ideal villa our goal is an contextually-adapted, climatically-driven equatorial villa. 81
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[HEDONIC MACHINES] The articulation of equatorial function is complicated by the hedonistic imperative of the villa. It’s purpose is not to regulate climate, but instead to afford human pleasure through the mediation of climate! Instead of a climatic machine a low-tech air conditioner- our pursuit is a hedonic machine. What instruments and members will this machine need to posses to elicit the pleasure of aesthetic reflection? What operations should it enact, what affordance should it provide for? By what means does it work- conceptual, sensual, both? Might the hedonism of the villa exist not only in the enactment of a possible occupant’s experience, but in the pleasure of the villa itself as a system in continual interplay with climate and ecology? 82
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[PROGRAM] To allow visiting artists and researchers to spend the night in the nature preserve, a guest villa is to be established on Coney Island, Singapore. The villa will provide a unique, direct experience of the Coney Island landscape and ecology mediated by a mathematical, abstract, apparently function-less and totally memorable architecture. The design will act as a prototype for a light-touch architecture that might populate the southern half of Coney Island. -Area: 108 (9 x 12) - 225 m2 (9 x 25) -Footprint: 75 m2 (3 x 25) max footprint -Spatial Subdivision: 9 rooms minimum -Maximum Weight = [2,400 kg/m3] x [5m x 5m x 0.2m] = 12,000 kg
5.0
= 5.0
The weight of a concrete slab measuring 5x5 meters and 20cm thick is around 12,000 kg or equivalent to the weight of eight standard automobiles. To limit impact on the site- of the final building and of the construction process- we have made an effort to keep our total building weight below 12,000 kg.
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Corbusi 1927
1.5
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Rowe, a 1947
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Rowe, Analysis Villa Stein 1947
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1
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Corbusier, Villa Stein 1927
site med
9/4 square gridstarting point for villa designwith relation to Rowe’s analysis
9,4 squa suggest point fo with rela Rowe’s
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site, mediated by data
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Rowe, a 1947
Rowe, Analysis Villa Foscari 1947
Palladio 1560
Palladio, Villa Foscari 1560
The two contexts: an undifferentiated 9,4 grid placed in relation to both Rowe’s mathematics and the site as mediated by data
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LIDAR generated point cloud of Coney Island overlayed on an undifferentiated grid.
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tree geometry defines initial site volume
Level-based nesting- analysis Todoroki House
resultant volume from analysis of tree canopy
nesting - first application
nesting - limited second application
Nesting by unitanalysis Todoroki House
[left] analysis of Todoroki House (Hiromi Fujii, 1976) defines a ‘nesting’ process [right] nesting applied to site geometry and adapted to wind.
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thermodynamic differentials between nested spaces drive air flows, in alignment with prevailing wind (see wind rose)
mathematics of the equatorial villa
Villa Render (Tan Yu Jie)
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2 5
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1
6 7 1
6. 6. 7. 7. 8.
Lounge Bedroom Balcony Balcony Bedroom
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Bay Window Circulation Bathroom Balcony Balcony
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Circulation 5
Openings for Trees
ideal grid adapts to pre-existing trees
2 4
Small Upper Volumes Repeller Zones rioritising Levels
1
9:00 21.07 Long morning sun - partially blocked by canopy.
5 6
4
1 2
4
1
8
Volume Small Planes initial volumes LargeGrid Planes extrude to Main Large Volumes
7 3
canopy
52 2
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6 1
7
1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6. 7. 7.
Bay DiningWindow Circulation Kitchen Circulation Living Bathroom Studio Bay Window Bathroom Lounge Bedroom Balcony Balcony
8. Bedroom
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12:00 21.07 Noon sun short shadows at north.
provide Small VolumesLevels rioritising Upper Access Boundary
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5
cantilevers Openings for Trees
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shade
25
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floor areas Small Planes evaluated Large Repeller Zones for use and Main LargePlanes Volumes climate
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1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6. 7. 7. 8.
4 4
8 7 3
3 2 6 5 1
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7
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17:00 21.07 Afternoon sun - mostly blocked by tree canopy.
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additional small volumes SmallGrid Volumesincrease rioritisingAccess Upper Levels overhang and shade
2 1
[left] Diagram, volume aggregation process. [right] solar analysis with tree canopy shadows
88 Large Planes Repeller Zones Main Boundary Large Volumes
Bay Window Dining Circulation Kitchen Circulation Living Bathroom StudioWindow Bay Bathroom Lounge Bedroom Balcony Balcony Bedroom
5 8 7 25 6
3
4
3 9
17:00 21.07 Year - cumulative direct solar analysis drives selection of glass set backs. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Dining Kitchen Living Studio Bathroom Bedroom
mathematics of the equatorial villa
Villa render (Goh JiaHui Jan)
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Villa model (Ryan Chee Wei Shen)
Diagram reconciling three viewpoints to generate villa massing
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Villa model (Pheeraphat Ratchakitprakarn)
Space / time diagram showing pattern of use and shadow movement
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The elemental tubes are oriented such that exposure to sun and the highest wind velocity is maximised the sun tubes in the east-west direction and the wund tubes in the north-south direction.
Solar Analysis
Villa model (Kerine Kua)
Solar Analysis
Wind Analysis
1. Axis based on Sun, Wind and Circulation
2. Grid overlay
The elemental tubes are oriented such that exposure to sun and the highest wind velocity is maximised the sun tubes in the east-west direction and the wund tubes in the north-south direction.
The elemental tubes are oriented such that exposure to sun and the highest wind velocity is maximised the sun tubes in the east-west direction and the wund tubes in the north-south direction.
Wind Analysis
Solar Analysis Wind Analysis
Wind Analysis 1. Axis based on Sun, Wind and Circulation
2. Grid overlay on the axis
3. Tunnels drafted based on the grid
The elemental tubes are oriented such that exposure to sun and the highest wind velocity is maximised the sun tubes in the east-west direction and the wund tubes in the north-south direction.
Wind Analysis 1. Axis based on Sun, Wind and Circulation
Wind and Circulation
and Circulation
2. Grid overlay on the axis
2. Grid overlay on the axis
3. Tunnels drafted based on the grid
5. Tight envelope wraps the tunnels
3. Tunnels drafted based on the grid 5. Tight envelope wraps the tunnels
4. Tunnels extruded to form ‘Elemental Tubes’
6. Envelop broken down into smaller triangles based on midpoints
5. Tight envelope wraps the tunnels 7. Ramp and inner mesh connects the tunnels
6. Envelop broken down into smaller triangles based on midpoints 8. Envelope readjustd based on (7) and to meet height requirements
7. Ramp and inner mesh connects the tunnels 9. Facade calibrated to create micro-climates
A’ A’
Diagram, villa orientation and massing process
‘Elemental Tubes’
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sh connects the tunnels
5. Tight envelope wraps the tunnels
6. Envelop broken down into smaller triangles based on midpoints 7. Ramp and inner mesh connects the tunnels
8. Envelope readjustd based on (7) and to meet height requirements
5. Tight envelop
6. Envelop broken down into smaller triangles based on midpoints
3. Tunnels drafted based on the grid 4. Tunnels extruded to form ‘Elemental Tubes’
form ‘Elemental Tubes’
2. Grid overlay on the axis 4. Tunnels extruded to form ‘Elemental Tubes’
9. Facade calibrated to create micro-climates
8. Envelope readjustd based on (7) and to meet height requirements
9. Facade calibrated to create micro-climates
B
8. Envelope rea meet height req
mathematics of the equatorial villa
Villa model (Ng Jin Xi)
Villa section showing circulation
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Villa render (Bryan Lim)
Villa section showing perceptual effects of structural system
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Villa Model (Thia Shan Quan) mathematics of the equatorial villa
villa twelve
mathematics of the equatorial villa
Villa long section showing tidal changes and sunlight reflections. sections
1:50
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models (clockwise from top left) Ang Shing Yee Erica Ivan Daniel Deviano Goh JiaHui Jan Kerine Kua Yeo Zi Yi Khystelle Ryan Chee Wei Shen Tan Yu Jie
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renders (clockwise from top left) Kerine Kua Thia Shan Quan Ng Jin Xi Ryan Chee Wei Shen Cheong Yi Lei Goh JiaHui Jan
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VILLA PLANS
01 Ivan Daniel Deviano 02 Cheong Yi Lei 03 Ng Jin Xi 04 Pheeraphat Ratchakitprakarn 05 Yeo Zi Yi Khystelle 06 Kerine Kua 07 Ang Shing Yee Erica 08 Tan Yu Jie 09 Ryan Chee Wei Shen 10 Kwang Guochuan 11 Goh JiaHui Jan 12 Bryan Lim Wei Guo
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01
03
100
mathematics of the equatorial villa
LEVEL 6 +8.85M
LEVEL 5 +7.85M
LEVEL 4+6.85M
LEVEL 3 +4.35M
02
LEVEL 2 +2.85M
+2.5
+0.7
LEVEL 1 +0.35M
+0.7
+1.6 GROUND +0M
+0.7
+1.6
04 +2.5
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UP+DOWN
mathematics of the equatorial villa
+3.5m
+2.8m
+2.8m
+2.6m
+3.5m
+3.0m
+4.5m
05 +5.2m +5.2m
+3.5m
+6.4m
+2.8m +6.4m
+3.0m +6.2m
+4.5m
+5.2m
+7.6m +3.5m
+2.8m +6.4m
+9.1m
+8.6m
+8.3m
plans
sutd asd sdos 1 & 3
07
102
1:50
Khystelle Yeo
mathematics of the equatorial villa
06
08
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09
+ 0.45 + 4.05
+ 2.95
+ 5.35
+ 4.55
+ 4.34
+ 3.60
+ 1.15
+ 1.15
Level 2 Plan 1 : 50
11
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Level 3 Plan 1 : 50
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2F FLOOR PLANS 1 : 50
10
12
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presentation
SUTD ASD ASD is part of the young Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), which was established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The university opened its doors to the first students in May 2012. At ASD, we were given the rare opportunity to create a new school of architecture completely from scratch, unencumbered by legacy. Our challenge: How to design a brand new school of architecture as a tabula rasa? What should be its intellectual footprint as part of this larger new university, SUTD? According to Professor Thomas Magnanti, SUTD’s founding president, SUTD was created with the mission “to advocate knowledge and nurture technically-grounded leaders and innovators to serve societal needs, with a focus on Design, through an integrated multi-disciplinary curriculum and multi-disciplinary research.” The multidisciplinary dimension of the university is deeply embedded in its structure. With no traditional departments, the curriculum is organised around four initial pillars with fluid boundaries. Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) is one of the four pillars, next to Engineering Product Design (EPD), Engineering Systems and Design (ESD), and Information Systems and Technology Design (ISTD). ASD thus derives its identity from its particular multidisciplinary context within SUTD, the university’s emphasis on technology and design leadership, and its specific geo-political location in Singapore. 107
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Pillar Overview Architecture is currently undergoing fundamental changes as it transitions into the digital era. The constraints on resources necessitate a radical rethinking of the traditional skills and trade-based production of the built environment. Advances in digital design and fabrication, together with digital mass-customisation techniques, are simultaneously providing resource-efficient opportunities to the designer and lowering production costs Environmental changes are demanding a more ecological approach to the design of architecture and cities; digital data harvested from local sensor networks, satellites, and crowd-sourced information will feed the simulation of environmental forces and conditions for the sustainable design of future buildings and cities as appropriate ecological responses The urbanisation of the world in the coming decades will add three billion people to urban populations, an amount equal to all city dwellers today. This process of rapid urbanization, especially in Asia, calls for sustainable architectural and urban solutions at an unprecedented speed and scale, demanding the use of digital tools in architectural and urban design The Architecture and Sustainable Design (ASD) pillar focuses on this changing reality, and prepares students for the immediate present and future needs of architecture in a digital era, through an innovative curriculum. The ASD pedagogy is characterised by a hands-on approach to architecture and sustainable design, a holistic understanding of the ways in which technology is changing our design and building processes, and an inclusive approach to the cultural and historical aspects of designing buildings and cities. 108
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PORTRAITS OF A SUSTAINABLE WORLD The Sustainable Design Studio Option explores the multi-dimensional issues of sustainable design at diverse temporal and spatial scales. Issues of resource efficiency, resilience, material and typological innovation, micro-climatic and site affordances, life-cycles and metabolism, and many other critical issues will serve as the projective context in which students will develop critical design solutions for small, medium and large scale architectures and urban interventions.
The precise operational directives, briefs and specific sites, are defined by the individual design critics in separate yet interconnected studio options, conducted in parallel under the umbrella of sustainable design. Each of these individual studio options, led by ASD faculty and visiting professors from around the world, culminate in speculative final projects that articulate architecturally specific positions regarding sustainable design in real world projects. Learning Objectives:
Measurable Outcomes:
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
-Interpret the sustainable parameters and other issues of relevance to the project using drawings and diagrams -Respond to a specific project brief and specific context with a meaningful design concept -Produce coherent architectural representations and models at sufficient levels of detail -Communicate convincingly sustainable design propositions in the form of renderings, drawings, simulations, models.
-Identify issues of sustainable design in relation to socioeconomic, demographic and cultural trends,through the analysis of literature and review of architectural precedents -Perform rigorous site analysis and map the site conditions -Critique a project brief and develop strong, generative sustainable design concepts -Translate design concepts into meaningful architectural and/or urban propositions at appropriate scales and levels of granularity -Create convincing arguments for the design propositions and persuasive visual and tangible evidence
No of Credits: 18. Prerequisites: 20.101 Architectural Core Studio 1, 20.102 Architectural Core Studio 2, 20.103 Architectural Core Studio 3
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SOURCES The literature list comprises the sources mentioned in the texts as well as additional readings assigned during studio. Andrea Palladio ‘Book II.’ In The Four Books on Architecture. 1570. Buckminster Fuller Designing a New Industry. 1945-6. Buckminster Fuller ‘Accommodating Human Unsettlement’ in Town Planning Review. 1978 Caroline O’Donnell and Catherine Ingraham. Niche Tactics : Generative Relationships between Architecture and Site. 2015. Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky Transparency: Literal and Phenomenal. 1963. Colin Rowe Mathematics of the Ideal Villa. 1947. Corbusier ‘Mathematics’ in The Modulor. 1948. Corbusier Ineffable Space. 1946. Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith ‘Element House.’ In Log (29) 2013. Immanuel Petit ‘Spherical Penetrability.’ In Log (31) 2014. Jane Burry and Mark Burry ‘Datascapes and Multidimensionality.’ In The New Mathematics of Architecture. 2010. Kersten Geers ‘Villa Buggenhout.’ In Log (29) 2013. Liam Mouritz ‘Aesthetics of Data’ in Singapore Prototypologies. 2017. Peter Eisenman ‘Diagrams of Interiority’ in Diagram Diaries. 1999. Peter Eisenman ‘Villa Foscari.’ In Palladio Virtuel. 2015. 111
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Peter Eisenman From Object to Relationship. 1971. F. Peter Ortner ‘Design-driven Data’ in Singapore Prototypologies. 2017. Rosalind Krauss Sculpture and the Expanded Field. 1979. Rudolph Wittkower Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism. 1949. Rudolph Wittkower Proportion in Art and Architecture. 1951-1953. Sarah Whiting ‘Euphoric Ratio’ in Tracing Eisenman. 2006. Sol Lewitt Paragraphs on Conceptual Art. 1967. Timothy Love ‘Kit of Parts Conceptualism’ in Harvard Design Magazine (19) 2003. Vitruvius ‘I.ii 1-8 The Fundamental Principles of Architecture.’ In The Ten Books on Architecture. 30-15 B.C.E.
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INDEX OF STUDENT WORK Ang Shing Yee Erica 94,100 Bryan Lim Wei Guo 33-41,92,103 Cheong Yi Lei 33-41, 75-77,95,99 Goh JiaHui Jan 16-18,71-73,86-87,94,95,102 Ivan Daniel Deviano 94,98 Kerine Kua 33-41,59-61,90,94,95,101 Kwang Guochuan 103 Ng Jin Xi 91,95,98 Pheeraphat Ratchakitprakarn 22-23,89,99 Ryan Chee Wei Shen 16-18,55-57,88,94,95,102 Tan Wan Ting 67-69 Tan Yu Jie 20-21,49-53,84-85,94,101 Thia Shan Quan 22-23,63-65,93,95 Yeo Zi Yi Khystelle 94,100
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PARTICIPANTS STUDIO DIRECTOR
F. Peter Ortner
(SUTD, EPFL)
doctoral candidate and lecturer in architecture with the Media x Design Lab (EPFL). His doctoral research explores the evolving formal basis of architecture in the data-driven city. He holds a Master in Architecture from Harvard University where he was recipient of the Faculty Design Award, and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with distinction from Yale University. His professional experience includes work at SsD Architecture, Safdie Architects, and SOM New York. He maintains an architectural practice in Geneva. TEACHING ASSISTANT
Geraldine Kuo (SUTD) STUDENTS
Ang Shing Yee Erica Bryan Lim Wei Guo Cheong Yi Lei Goh JiaHui Jan Ivan Daniel Deviano Kerine Kua Kwang Guochuan Ng Jin Xi Pheeraphat Ratchakitprakarn Ryan Chee Wei Shen Tan Wan Ting Tan Yu Jie Thia Shan Quan Yeo Zi Yi Khystelle SPECIAL THANKS
Charmaine Koh Ai Ling Chua Liqi Evelin Tay Lee Kah Wee Sim Ai Leng Kathy
EXPERTS
Callum McCulloch (WEB STRUCTURES) Calvin Chua (Spatial Anatomy, SUTD) Erwin Viray (SUTD) Geraldine Kuo (SUTD) Hossein Rezai-Jorabi (WEB STRUCTURES) Ng Seksan (Seksan Design) Thomas Schroepfer (SUTD) Trevor Patt (SUTD) 117
ISBN 978-981-11-8667-7
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