PILES AND PERMUTATIONS, SPRING 2021 DESIGN STUDIO, Constance Vale
LOCATION: COLUMBUS, IN , UNITED STATES
PROGRAM: MUSEUM / ARCHIVE
WILLIAM KAPP
WILLIAM KAPP
PROJECT DISCRIPTION:
UNA TORRES MÁS, meaning "a few more towers," is a theoretical co-op living structure in Quinta de Torre Arias Park, Madrid, featuring two-bedroom and one-bedroom units. The project's primary goal is to create a family community using passive heating and cooling systems to manage the climate of both internal and external spaces.
The project unfolds in three phases. The first phase involved documenting thermal activity through documentary photography from Spain and studying natural and architectural climate control methods. This observation phase provided a comprehensive understanding of existing passive climate control methods.
In the second phase, was an in depth study of a climatic precedent Alhambra in Granada, reinterpreting its thermal properties into a contemporary prototype. This phase involved analyzing and adapting the historical cooling techniques used in the Alhambra.
The final phase involves scaling the prototype to create a co-op living community that effectively utilizes these thermal properties. This application phase aims to implement insights from the previous phases to design a sustainable and comfortable living environment for the co-op residents
01 Pere Palahi - Xavier Miserachs 02 Boy In Madrid Reads News Paper In Front of Fountain 03 Pond of El Retiro Park 04 Atín Aya Workers Gañanía of El Chorradero Viejo, San José del Valle, Cadis 05 Children cooling off in the fountains of the Temple of Debod in Madrid 06 Plaza de España, Madrid Aerial Shot 07 La Chanca Almería - Carlos Pérez Siquier
WILLIAM KAPP
UNA TORRES MÁS is set in Torre Arias Park in Madrid, Spain. The project draws its primary design inspiration from the Alhambra in Granada, a historic palace and fortress renowned for its advanced architectural design and innovative use of passive cooling techniques. Similar to the Alhambra, the project utilizes pre-existing water sources in the park to cool the building using a series of large pools.
While the Alhambra is located 260 miles south of Madrid in a different climate zone, climate projections suggest that Madrid will experience a climate similar to Granada’s in approximately 35-40 years. This makes the project not only forward-looking but also highly relevant in the context of global climate change. By anticipating these changes, the design leverages historical architectural wisdom to address contemporary environmental challenges, creating a sustainable and resilient living space for future generations.
QUINTA DE TORRE ARIAS PARK
UNA TORRES MÁS
CLIMATIC PRECEDENT:
The design of UNA TORRES MÁS is inspired by the Court of the Myrtles in the Alhambra's Comares Palace. Built by Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar in the 13th century, the Alhambra served as the Nasrid dynasty's royal residence until the Reconquista in 1492. The Court of the Myrtles features a reflective pool that cools the area, including the Comares Tower, by creating a cooler microclimate through evaporation and transpiration.
Surrounding towers act as heat chimneys, drawing cool air from the courtyard through living spaces and expelling hot air, reducing temperatures by 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit (5-8 degrees Celsius). The use of high thermal mass materials like stone and thick masonry, along with an increased interior surface area from walls and colonnades, helps to maintain cooler living conditions.
Through a series of experiments using a simplified version of the prototype, the units (prototypes) were aggregated into massings based on their aesthetic appeal and their ability to effectively passively cool and heat the building. The final results of the unit aggregation are depicted in the axonometric rendering to the left, illustrating the project's overall form.
THERMAL MASSING EXPERIMENTS
WILLIAM KAPP
PLANS:
The plans for "Una Torres Más" are based on the conceptual massing shown previously. The project includes 11 units with 16 bedrooms: 4 two-bedroom, 6 one-bedroom, and 1 threebedroom. Each unit is in a separate tower for climatic comfort, sharing a common pool and enclosed courtyard. The staggered design allows the towers to be close while blocking direct sightlines between them and the path.
A public pathway traverses the courtyard's first floor, providing access to picnic and reflection areas. There is also a private path and garden space for residents, with patios opening onto the courtyard.
Wellness, social, and exercise spaces are in the two largest towers on the northwest and southeast sides. These towers overhang the pools, providing shade and creating community spaces and roof top patio with views of the courtyard and park.
E: EXERCISE
K: SHARED KITCHEN
P: COMMUNITY PATIO
W: WELLNESS
S: SOCIAL
RENDERINGS:
The interior courtyard is designed as a water garden with terracotta paver pathways weaving through and around the pools and small gardens. Shifting walls adorned with trellises and vegetation populate the courtyard, blocking sightlines and providing shade The community towers extend over the water, further shading and enclosing the courtyard creating a more secluded atmosphere.
Inside the community towers, large glass windows open onto the park and courtyard, offering views of daily activities. Concrete is used for its high thermal mass properties; to offset its starkness, warm-toned concrete will be utilized, and the interiors will feature dark wood finishes to soften the spaces Large floor-toceiling windows provide ample light and allow for the greenhouse effect during the winter months. The tops of the towers, primarily constructed from galvanized aluminum, function as sealed greenhouses during the winter and as heat chimneys during the summer
WILLIAM KAPP
UNA TORRES MÁS
MATERIALS & TECTONICS:
The UNA TORRES MÁS project's towers are built with warm-toned hollow concrete masonry units. The flooring system uses hollow-core precast concrete planks reinforced with steel. The first floor features floor-to-ceiling glass pivot doors to maximize airflow from the courtyard. The top floor functions as a heat chimney, with clerestories at the top to pull cool air from the courtyard through the open stairs to the roof.
The project will use ECOPact Concrete from Holcim, a low-carbon concrete reducing CO2 emissions by at least 30% compared to standard concrete. It also promotes a circular economy by using waste and recycled construction materials. Recycled aluminum will be sourced from Hydro’s recycling plant in Torija, Spain, 67.1 km from Madrid. This aluminum offers excellent weather resistance, durability, and thermal properties, ideal for temperature regulation.
RECYCLED CONCRETE LIFE CYCLE DIAGRAM
GALVANIZED ALUMINUM OVERHANGING ROOF
PARAPET
OPERABLE CLERESTORY PIVOT WINDOWS
GALVANIZED ALUMINUM GLASS ENCLOSURE
THERMAL VENTILATION VOID (DOTTED LINE)
RAIN GUTTER
CONCRETE MASONRY CAPPING BLOCKS
CONCRETE TOPPING SLAB
REINFORCING STEEL
HALLOW CORE PRECAST CONCRETE PLANKS
SOLID CONCRETE MANSORY UNIT
HALLOW CORE PRECAST CONCRETE PLANKS
CONCRETE STILLS
REINFORCING STEEL
GLASS PIVOT DOORS
GARDEN WALL (HCMU)
WALL TRELLISES
COOLING POOL
WILLIAM KAPP
THE EMMAUS HILL RETREAT
INTRODUCTION
The Emmaus Hill Retreat is a 48-bed Christian religious retreat center designed to inspire through meditative walking as a means of reconnecting with faith. Many individuals feel alienated from their faith due to past experiences. The Retreat encourages visitors on a pathway to faith through walking and quiet meditation instead of common ritual worship. It offers three-day to week-long stays focused on reflection, meditation, and conversation within a community.
The architecture is inspired by both historic and modern precedents of reflective walking. For instance, the ambulatories of cathedrals, as seen in Study Model 1 on the left, allowed pilgrims and visitors to visit shrines and chapels without disturbing church activities. They were also used for ceremonial processions. A modern precedent explored is Peter Eisenman's Holocaust Memorial, seen in Image 6, where visitors wander around a haunting field of perfectly aligned but differently sized obelisks, creating a liminal space to contemplate the tragedy.
These explorative studies, along with those listed below, played a critical role in inspiring the form of the Emmaus Hill Retreat. Their underlying architectural and programmatic concepts were essential in shaping the retreat's meditative and reflective environment.
1.St. Louis Basilica Ambulatory Exploration Model 2. Conceptual Project Model 3. Miniature Site Study Model 4. Descending Down the Mountain 5. In the Ambulatories of the St. Louis Basilica 6. Wandering the Peter Eisenman Holocaust Memorial 7. Ascending the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona, AZ (Architect: Richard Hein) 8. Ascending Croagh Patrick, County Mayo, Ireland 9. Walking Types exploration: processing, pacing, promenading, wandering, spiraling, ascending, ambulatory
WILLIAM KAPP
WILLIAM KAPP
THE EMMAUS HILL RETREAT
SITE CONTEXT
The Emmaus Hill Retreat is located on the former Emmaus Homes, in marthville missouri originally a seminary for the German Evangelical Church established in 1859. Four original buildings remain: the Farm House, Bake Oven, Publishing House, and Dormitory. In 1883, the seminary moved to St. Louis, and the site became the Emmaus Home for Epileptics in 1893. By 1928, the campus had eight buildings. The site is notable for its sturdy limestone construction in German styles by immigrants and was placed on the Missouri Preservation Society’s Places in Peril list in 2019.
The Emmaus Hill Retreat is located on the east side of the site between the hilltop chapel and the other campus buildings. Embedded into the hill, the retreat maintains the existing hill chapel, serving as a visual plinth while offering beautiful pathways to and from the hilltop. The retreat aims to restore the historical legacy, making it a place of healing once again. The road to Emmaus in the Bible, where followers of Christ could not recognize him by his words only by walking with Him on a journey.(Luke 24:13-35), and witnessing a sign
St.Louis
THE EMMAUS HILL RETREAT
PLANS
The architectural design consists of six clusters of dormitories on the first floor, each with four rooms along a curved hallway. These clusters are separated by prayer rooms and stairwells that bring light into the corridor. The second floor features expansive community spaces built around the building's arch, along with an outdoor rooftop terrace with fields and gardens with curving paths. The north and south edges of the second floor contain entry hallways that tunnel into the hill, leading to base programs hidden in the chapel's plinth.
The third floor replicates the first floor's configuration, creating twelve clusters of four dorms, totaling 48 rooms. The first floor of the program built into the plinth includes a footwashing basin within a glass courtyard surrounded by a sitting area. The fourth and fifth floors house the library and prayer spaces within the plinth. The top floor provides access to the chapel through a glass entrance and exit. This design creates a matrix of pathways along the hill's curve, fostering community while integrating the natural landscape into the architectural experience.
WILLIAM KAPP
PROJECT MODEL
FLOOR 3
FLOOR 1
TOP FLOOR
FLOOR 4
THE EMMAUS HILL RETREAT
On the left, you can see the diagrammatic section of the building, demonstrating how one might navigate through the different spaces, ultimately terminating in the chapel. This section reveals that the project consists of two major parts: the semicircular base curving around the hill and the plinth/foundation for the chapel, which contains the enclosed courtyard, washing basin, and library.
The courtyard is designed to allow people to circulate up and out towards the light, moving toward the chapel around the perimeter of the courtyard's curtain wall. The entire system functions as a giant light well, delivering light deep underground.
On the next page, you can view the technical section that shows the building in greater structural and material detail. This section is drawn through the two pathways that burrow into the hill from the second floor and lead to the plinth, where you can observe the spiral staircase that circles around the courtyard and passes through the library.
WEST ELEVATION
THE EMMAUS HILL RETREAT
MODEL PHOTOS
The model is constructed from 3D-printed resin parts in white, which were then coated with an additional layer of spray paint. The base is made from black foam core capped with museum board, built around the resin model. Black shrubbery complements the model to give it a fuller look. The contrasting black and white colors were chosen to better showcase the form of the project, which is partially embedded in a hill. The scale of the model is 1' = 1/16", and it measures approximately 32 by 42 inches.
The project features a heavy concrete form that contrasts with its programmatic openness to the outside. It is designed to capture both the kinetic curve of the hill and accentuate the preexisting verticality of the chapel and its foundation. Rather than integrating the site conditions, the project amplifies and accelerates their functions and forms.
RESIN TEST MODELS
WILLIAM KAPP
MODEL SOUTHWEST
MODEL PLAN
MODEL NORTHWEST
MODEL PHOTOS
THE EMMAUS HILL RETREAT
RENDERINGS
To offset the projects tectonic forms, the materials include warm-toned tan concrete paired with brick paver floors on the second level, adding warmth to the space. These brick paver floors extend via pathways into the hill leading to shared spaces like the library and enclosed courtyard clearly delineating between path/ walking/living spaces and the privacy of the rooms. The design emphasizes monumental movement and kinetic sightlines, guiding occupants through the spaces. Light filters into the hill through light wells, skylights, and multistory open staircases.
At night, dormitory living spaces are lit by a semitransparent coffered concrete ceiling, with lights hidden behind thin concrete panels. The hill and chapel face the setting sun, and the buildings curved plans create interesting shifting lighting conditions. Concrete, glass, and black steel curtain walls and windows are complemented by wood bookshelves, furniture, stairs, and colorful modern art and rugs, achieving a balanced look
This blend of materials and design elements aims to craft a dynamic and harmonious environment that's both functional and visually appealing.
