Thesis Report

HOUSE OF ALLIESTHESIA Thesis Report

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Contents Page 1. Temperature and Architecture 2. Captialising on Building Thermal Exchanges 3. Utown Study 4. Interrim Proposals 5. Archetypal Study of Environmental Control 6. Final Design

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Temperature and Architecture Like sight, smell, touch and sound, our perceptions of temperature can be an important quality that shape spaces. Spatial experiences, programmatic distinctions and human behaviors can be defined and affected by manipulating temperature resulting in different quantity and quality of warmth, coolness, humidity, radiance and coziness of a space. Temperature to a certain extent represents the social relations within a space.

We are living in the age of conditioned environments. The presence of Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings is an inescapable reality. Our society’s addiction to mechanically conditioned environment has led to the evolution of architecture in their forms and how they function to what they are today. As HVAC systems becoming more and more sophisticated, they must be taken care by engineers with specialised knowledge. Architects are forced to pass the responsibility of building performance to service engineers who are largely trained to see comfort as the product, designed using simplistic models. Povl Ole Fanger is widely recognized as the most influential figure in providing the rational scientific basis for the establishment of thermal comfort conditions. Comfort, as he has defined, is the condition of mind which expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment. Results of his research, to designed to determine the universal parameters and properties of thermal comfort, have become embodied in technical codes and standards such as those produced by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Building designers and engineers around the world consequently rely on standard as such to produce optimal thermal environments in precise specification, the reliable reproduction of which almost always requires some form of mechanical control. This attempt to precisely define comfort excludes the qualitative components and dimensions of thermal experience important to produce a productive and fulfilling environment for the performance of individual and social life. The need for air-conditioning is therefore not a natural consequence of the human condition. It is instead the outcome of a sequence of events through which a particular model of comfort has been reified, naturalized and reproduced. With these prescribed conditions, architects are accustomed to adopting straightforward design solutions based on static indoor temperatures resulting in environments of thermal monotony.

In Rayner Benham’s ‘’Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment”, he argued that the building is the amalgamation of both the structural and energy-powered solutions of environmental control. Architecture is used to be treated as a thermal system in the pre-air-conditioner era. Things that used to be part of the form and aesthetic of the architecture, are relegated to groups of machines concealed in the false ceiling and hidden out of sight in the backroom of the building. The disconnection between the designers of the structural and power-operated solutions renders the objective of these two groups are no longer in sync with each other. As a result, thermal conditions in modern buildings are often much being neglected and designed independent of the concept. Thermal environment has the potential for sensory experiences, cultural roles and linked to the way social-technical relation are organized, it’s diversity should not be designed out of existence in the name of providing a thermally neutral comfort environment in the age of HVAC. It is definite that the world tomorrow will be a thermally conditioned, how can architects claim back the control of environmental design in a thermally conditioned built environment?

HVAC system as the source of the conundrum, is an opportunity. Looking the system as an energy cycle, the current configuration of the system defines one end of the loop as beneficial and the other as undesirable. The system should not be only seen as a system of dichotomy, the intermediate environments and processes are valuable design opportunities as well. The system could be reconfigured to create a thermally diverse environment resulting in new socio-spatial relations by tapping into the different energy embodied in different parts of the mechanical system. The environmental diversity of the architecture and its spatial organization hence lie in the invisibles created by the mechanical parts. The heat, coldness, humidity, dryness and sound can be used to produce microclimatic condition unique to its position. The different physical and sensory experiences then construe the space within their sphere of influence. The air flow in the built environment and in its surrounding, could also hint the social relations within that space. This requires thinking about the current HVAC system through architectural lenses, in which how the current spatial arrangement of the mechanical part could be challenged and reinvented.

This thesis will challenge the relation between the building and the current way HVAC system is configured to re-establish the connection between the thermal experiences with spatial design. Questions such as ‘’what if the cooling tower is placed inside the lobby?’’ and ‘’what if the returned hot water pipe is exposed to the occupant in proximity?’’ are then defined.

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Quantitative vs Qualitative

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Room Level

Building Level

District Level

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Air Conidtioning and the material culture of routine human encasement

by Russell Hithings Shu Jun Lee

Wasted Cold

Urban and indoor microclimate programing

Thermal Monotony vs Thermal Diverisity

TEMPERATURE

Federico Caprotti, Joanna Romanowicz

Urban Thermal Metabolism

Cold Chain Thermal Symbolism

Ritual of Death

Cryopreservation

Cryogenic Death

Cryomation

Organ Harvesting Cold Chain

Challenging the inward looking air-conditioned building typology though microclimatic design with Volumetric Urbanism in sub-tropical reigion eg,HK

Temperature and Spatial Dynamics

Thermal Delight by Lisa Heschong Places of the Soul by Christopher Day

Human Physiology and Architecture

Food Independence Cold Crop Farm

District Cooling Plant

Urban energy input and output

Wasted Heat

Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World

By Stan Cox

Air-Conditioning

Thermal Delight by Lisa Heschong

Cultural-Socio Symbolic

Thermal Inequality

Environmental Control and Social Stratification

Foreign worker vs white collar, providing alternative thermal environment through waste energy

LNG Regasification

Fire and the heat it produces was universally the center of the house in most cultures that experiences cold climate.

The fireplace hence is always located in the common area such as living rooms and dining area. Living room being a very casual setting, Furniture are placed around the hearth so that everyone can enjoy the dissipated warmth.

The fire creates sphere of warmth with an invisible boundary that constantly shifts as gust of air moves through.

The fire become a bonding agent of the family. The dining area is of a different spatial dynamic because dining has higher social and ritualistic significance. Fireplaces in most case are in front of a wall while dining take would be place beside it. With the head of the family sitting back facing the fire closes to it, the distance from the fire to a person’s seat reflects the family hierarchy. The fire and its comfort in this case, become an item of social status.

Thermal qualities not only are an able to reflect of social relations, when it is felt among individuals, the pleasurable experience bonds them together.

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2. Captialising on Building Thermal Exchanges

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Global LNG Flow

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LNG Value Chain

LNG Usage in Singapore

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District Cooling Plants in Singapore

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CBD Land Use Map

CBD Cooling Load and Power Flow

Demand and cooling stations. Location of cooling demand (color and line thickness of edges) and cooling stations (triangles).

Cost-optimal power flow during peak load

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Traditional Urban Cooling Grid ejected heat exhuast

ejected heat exhuast

ejected heat exhuast

ejected heat exhuast

ejected heat exhuast

ejected heat exhuast

power station

District Cooling System

subscribers

ejected heat exhuast coolant return pipes

heat exchanger coolant pumps

coolant intake pipes

coolant grid

chillers

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power station

SDE 3

Engineering BLK E1

Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore

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University Town District Cooling Plant

HVAC system as a power-operated solution for environmental control, do not only produce cold conditioned air, but it should also be looked at as an embodiment of energy. The current configuration of the system defines one end of the loop as beneficial and the other as undesirable. The undesirables here could prove to have its position in the building environment as the exhaust heat could be used as heat source for a thermally diverse interior space. The intermediate environments and processes of the HVAC system that are currently hidden away by the “service and served space� paradigm are valuable design opportunities as well. By tapping into the different energy embodied in different parts of the mechanical system. The environmental diversity of the architecture and its spatial organization hence lie in the invisibles created by the mechanical parts. The heat, coldness, humidity, dryness and sound can be used to produce microclimatic condition unique to its position. The different physical and sensory experiences then construe the space within their sphere of influence. The air flow in the built environment and in its surrounding, could also suggest the social relations within that space. This requires looking current HVAC system through architectural lenses, in which how the current spatial arrangement of the mechanical part could be reconfigured.

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3. Univeristy Town Study

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Human Traffic Flow

CREATE Tower

Aye r ay

ssw

xpre

hE

Raja

Venturi Effect Draft

Utown Plaza

RESAERCH

District Cooling Plant

United World College

Medway Park Estate

Utown Study - Program and Cost

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Utown Study - Cooling Grid

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Utown Study - Air Conditioned Spaces

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Utown Study - Occupants Routine

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Reconfiguring sensory experiences at Eudcation Resources Centre

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Parasitic Thermal Attachment to South Beach Tower

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Cooliung Tower Maintanance Deck 32

District Cooling Plant Interior 33

Cooliung Tower Maintanance Deck 34

Cooliung Tower Maintanance Deck and Entrance 35

District Cooling Plant Aerial View 36

Topside of Cooling Tower 37

4. Interrim Proposals

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Bed

A Cold Surface that allows user to enjoy the sun while enjoying the coolness of the concrete

Room

A cold room enclosed by structure that is cold, allowing people to gather in coolness

Rock Climbing

A cold surface that simulates climbing in cold region. The wet slippery and cold surface resemble one in a temprate region

Study Table

Cold table and cold bench, this let user to rest or study while enjoying the pleasure of skin contacting with coolness.

Niche

This niche provide a space that allows one to lie down in privacy and enjoy the full coolness of the material in shade

Drink Storage

Captitalising on the thermal mass of the wall, allowing drinks to be stored and cooled through slotting into the wall

Moss

A relatively dark tunnel that allows moss to grow on the purtudings in a wet and cold environment.

Tunnel

Circulation tunnel that let people to walk through in coolness

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5. Archetypal Study of Environmental Control

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Archimedes House Living rooms Bedrooms Bedrooms also used as living rooms Bathrooms Kitchens Hallways, toilet Staircases Laundry room Drying room

ยบC 20 16 to 18 20 22 18 to 20 15 to 18 12 12 12

The house is organized according to the physiological needs of inhabitants, so as to relate to their bodily activity and their nudity provide for the thermal comfort of the inhabitant and architecturally project the spaces in which the interior temperature is adapted to the activity and the clothing of the occupants.

This equilibrium is relative to clothing, from nudity in the bathroom, to the thermal protection of blankets, to light clothing worn in the living room.

Designed to follow the form taken by the air in the entire height of the house, in accordance with vertical air movements in relation to temperature, and the functions that are suggested as a result.

vapor apartments sleeping awake cook shower

40g 150g 1500g 2400g

The design of this building is based on the route of vapor throughout the house.

The air renewal starts in the driest part of the house and finishes in the most humid part of the house, A slow stream of air, running in the entire building, exhausting the humidity in the air in one way, starting from the dry area (the bedroom) and becoming always more wet in the route though the house to the wet area (the bathroom).

Route of this air is determined by the use of the space and the vapor produced by the body in relation with the physical activity performed there.

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The apartment will become closer to a natural landscape, with a sort of variation of latitudes of relative humidity. The apartment becomes an interior geography, stretched between a miniature desert and an indoor tropical jungle, between a dry area at 30% of relative humidity and a wet region at 90% of relative humidity where the inhabitants could freely wander.

airscape Showers restroom stores

sports hall

lockerroom

Foyer

Foyer Stores Restrooms Locker rooms Sport halls Showers

4 times/hour 10 times/hour 15 times/hour 20 times/hour 25 times/hour 30 times/hour

Articulation of the movement of air as an inhabitable airflow: an architecture as a drawing of wind, where its qualities express themselves in terms of velocity, volume, movement, propulsion, and extraction are transformed, both poetically and spatially, into an issue of ventilation.

sports hall

The plan is composed according to the requirements of the management of air flow, all the while prioritizing the matter (issue) of the hourly rate of air renewal.

The recirculation of interior air is then determined by a particular rate that is a function of its usage, of the number of occupants, the duration of their stay within the space, and of their level of physical activity: a sparse or physically inactive occupation will require a lower rate of air renewal than a more densely occupied space or one where more vigorous physical activity will demand a higher hourly rate.

Showers restroom stores

Foyer

sports hall

lockerroom

From 7.5 liters during times or rest, the output of the ventilation process is raised to over 120 liters per minute during physical activity. This increase is made possible by a parallel increase in breathing rate, which necessitates a more rapid exchange between fresh and stale air. precise relationship between the geometry of the space and the quantity of air that needs to be recycled and renewed, reinitiating the issue of a building’s ventilation as being a decisive factor in its architectural form

sports hall

mollier houses Degree of humidity in the air, its regulation within the home, and the distribution of air in space according to its temperature density, define, by their physical and sensory nature, the organization of the building in plan and section Attempt of merging from the sensual and physiological results of the treatment of building techniques.

Rahm tries to transform a problem of building physics into an architectural question An occupant of an indoor space produces water vapor, not in a constant manner, but according to the primary activity to which each room is dedicated. The presence of water vapor in the air originates naturally from respiration and hot water usage Like a set of Russian nesting dolls, the living areas are designed according to the route of air renewal through the house, from the driest to the most humid, from the freshest to the stalest, from the bedroom to the bathroom.

But here, none of the rooms are specifically determined by a function. They remain freely appropriable according to the level of humidity sought.

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6. Final Design

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House of Alliesthesia In the age of air-conditioning, the problem of over-cooled and monotonous thermal spaces arises. This project seeks to rethink the relationship between temperature, physiological experiences and the built environment through the lense of thermal exchanges in buildings. By challenging the notion of servant-and-served spaces, mechanical spaces that are usually marginalised could become a source for alternative thermal experiences. This is an opportunity for the ‘servant’ to be re-designed to become thermally more intriguing and enjoyable than the ‘served’.

The proposed thermal refuge offers a contrasting thermal experiences for those who constantly dewell in air-conditioned spaces. By utilising the different kinds of environmental conditions existing in the NUS University Town District Cooling Plant, the residual thermal energy from the air-conditioning process is captured to create a reliefing and delightful experiences for those who stays in buildings that the very smae mechanical system is maintaining.

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Thermal Exchanges as deisgn opportunities

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