More detailed timeline..

I realised i needed to give my future scenario a little bit more detail.

Structural Research..

If I am going to have a bamboo roof i've realised that i'm not certain on how it will be put together, so i did a bit of research into understanding the joins and roofing system itself so i could do a couple details.

(Ecoarc n.d) 

How will the rof stay up structurally?

It will have a structural system something like this one, with triangled shapes to hold up the roof.


(Bamboo Works Inc n.d)

Walls and other structure
I just wanted to confirm the structure of my hempcrete wall so i could understand what i was working with as well. It's just like any other material, my bamboo structure will support the house and it will be infilled with the hempcrete mixture until it sets.

(Sut Mundo 2010)

References:

Bamboo Works Inc. n.d. Custom Design Architecture. Accessed October 29, 2012. http://www.bambooworks.com/custom.htm 

Ecoarc. n.d. Building Techniques. Accessed October 29, 2012. http://www.ecoarc.org/html/ideology/build_tech.html.

Sut Mundo. 2010. Hemcrete, probably the greenest material on the planet. Accessed October 29, 2012.

Roofing design..

All the designs I've been sketching have involved this skillion roof design to encourage breezes through and allow more light. I had been interested in Skillion roofs because they provide extra daylighting possibilities as well as ventilation possibilities, but maybe I need to look into another form.

Steph brought to my attention raising the roof above the house to reduce wind resistance through storms which also provides better ventilation possibilities.

I had forgotten about the house I found and talked about in an earlier post as other designs I'd been looking at had more skillion roof designs.


Maybe this type of roof will work just as well as the idea of a skillion type roof. It provides the ventilation shafts I'd diagrammed before, allowing air to travel up the top and out, like in a stack effect.








Harvesting wind off my community centre roof:

A thought came to my mind, that if I'm trying to control the wind, why don't I control it into wind turbines and use it for my benefit.
Small turbines exist that capture the wind off buildings currently and it's not far fetched to assume that the technology will improve even further in 15 years.
If I'm putting solar panels on the roof I may as well also use wind power.

An article talked about these small scale turbines being able to cut electricity costs in half for a New York apartment building, so I'm sure they wouldn't be useless for my site.

Reference:

McDermott, M. 2009. 10 Small Scale wind turbines cut NYC Apartment Building's Electric Costs in Half. Accessed October 26, 2012. http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/10-small-scale-wind-turbines-cut-nyc-apartment-buildingatms-electric-costs-in-half.html.

Tutorial Week 13..

Things I still need to consider in my design:

• Better water guidance system to channel storm water & create creek systems
• Cultural meshing
• Repopulation of rurual areas
• The day in the life of a person
• How the community serves the festival
• Mitigating the change in levels when building on the hill

What am I going to present:

• Floor plans, sections, elevations
• Site plan of community
• Masterplan of Woodfordia
• Festival structure
• Agricultural systems
• Closed loop diagrams
• Passive design diagrams
• Photomontages
• Structural details

I want to both achieve and communicate:

• Sustainability
• Storm Resilience
• Food production
• Education
• Passive design

Designs..

I've put together a basic design for the community centre as well as housing as they are the two important structures in my design and as they are both simple I think I really should be representing both.

Community Centre

Typical House

 

Exemplars for the 'Community Centre'..

Thinking about how I want the community centre I tried to find a few more designs to help me with the way i want the roof.

I like this simple model, with the split roof and the simplicity to it.

DeBoer Architects. n.d. Bamboo Structures. Accessed October 21, 2012.  http://www.deboerarchitects.com/Bamboostructures.html.

I also found this house in the book 'Off the Grid Homes' but i think i can carry it through with both housing design and community centre design at Woodfordia.

I like the way the building captures the breeze through the centre of it, the large open plan layout, the big timber decking. The large deck is poistioned away fromt he wind, with the house acting as a wind block.
Ryker, L. 2007. Off the Grid Homes. Utah: Gibbs Smith

Tutorial Week 12..

Rather than an amphitheatre or anything like that I think it's more important to get the design of my housing and community centre down pat first.

Because I've been so stuck in actually designing a building to fit within my system i decided to sit down and remind myself of the design principles I wanted to use.

Then I then started sketching out designs I could use in my building, also thinking about all the exemplars I've looked at. The building I've been most interested in is the Community Centre and how it will function with the community and what role it needs to play.

Lecture Week 12..

This week's lecture was on presentation. I figured it was just easier to scan in my notes and sketches becuase there isn't much else to discuss on what I got out of the lecture. Just thoughts about how i'm going to present.

Amphitheatre Designs..

While I'm not going to put too much effort into the amphitheatre constructions for the design side of the assignment I started looking into structural exemplars that I can be putting into my model and final presentation.
While they can serve the festival they can also serve as outdoor educational spaces, for talks and gatherings and educational seminars or presentations.

Bamboo structures can be sustainable and structurally sound and on a site with possibilities for plantations they make a lot of sense to be the main material in most of the construction. There are some amazing structures that can be made with bamboo, some of which I've found and imagine that the amphitheatres might look like in Woodfordia.

The 'Bird Wing' Hanoi, Vietnam by Vo Trong architects:

 
World Architecture News. 2009. Bamboo Bird. http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=12629. Accessed October 17, 2012.

Bamboo housing exemplars..

Looking into the possibilities for Bamboo structures for the construction of houses as well as the rest of the buildings in the village. They are good for sub-tropical regions and the bamboo can be used just like plantation timber used for housing now.

World Architecture News. 2010. At home in the elements. http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=14032. Accessed October 17, 2012.

Hempcrete Buildings..

I've realised that the inclusion of hempcrete as well as bamboo in my designs could be really effective in having thermal massing for passive heating and cooling.

Using bracing and cases a hemp house around a timber frame has a nice appearance of a rendered concrete, has thermal mass and from this exemplar I found can be used to design buildings similar to what I'm after.

It will provide a high thermal resistance, it can be made at adjustable thicnesses, low air filtration, has hygroscopic charageristics, so it can absorb water and then release it, usese lime that hasn't been processed with high embodied energy, it is durable and recyclable and accomodated different structural systems.

Refreence:

Hemp News. Hemp House - Asheville. Accessed October 17, 2012.  http://www.hemp.com/2011/03/hemp_house_ashville_north_carolina_video_on_using_hempcrete.

Masterplanning..

In needing to define my systems a little bit clearer like Steph asked, paying more attention to types of agriculture and planting and systems i've developed a more accurate masterplan.

Transport..

At the risk of copying the rest of my group, we've been talking about a high speed rail network that would connect Australia. Prticularly the eastern seaboard.

I can't think of a better solution than this, to swiftly carry passengers north and south and with western branches reaching out at strategic western points.

I'm envisioning that the mechanics at that point might be more sustainable but that's not something I am focusing on this assignment, I'm just trying to design one exemplarly community that can start a new system.

Tutorial Week 11..

This week I was talking to steph about the layout of the festival and the systems in my community.
The things I need to be looking deeper into are:

• Closed loop systems
• Intensive agricultoure?
• Exact numbers and statistics of the site
• Cell grazing?
• Transport networks
• Putting people on the less arable lnd
• BIo digester plants
• Yearly cycles?
• Personal scale activities on site

I spent some time in this tutorial thinking about some of the buildings and systems i'll put in place and some design ideas.

Thinking about access and pathways through the community a bit futhre I thought about how there should be some sort of a centralised community centre

Lecture Week 11..

This week's lecture was by Phil Crowther, talking about the masters of architecture and then the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

His key points were about the transplanted notions of community at the event, looking at the way we do community.

There were images of rooms of process models that were amazing, I should try and do some process models as I develop my design.

He also went through the way that the past is interpreted and how we view things differently from different at different times in history. There was a time line representation of how an architecture magazine had shown opinions about things at different times and it's really interesting.

That notion of architecture over time is really interesting in this small world of pavilion architecture. Some of the pavilions were so old but had such a timeless beauty to them. That is what I love about architecture, the way it can seem so new when it is in face 50 or 60 years old.

Effective storm resistant design for SEQ..

I found a great little building exemplar to point out really clearly the key features I must address with my buildings.

6 Features for Green and Storm Resistant architecture

Refrerence:

Make it right. 2012. Make it right Home. Accessed October 11, 2012. http://www.makeitrightnola.org/index.php/building_green/detail/storm_resistant_features/

Self sufficient farming..

I forgot about Murray's calculator for land use. After looking into that as well i've realised that I can support drastically less than the 1000 peole i'd thought I might. But that would probalby make more sense for the size of the educational program anyway.

 When the future projections are put into it, it decreases the projected ability of the land to support the population.

 However I believe that my sustaianble farming techniques on the site would allow the site to support more people, more effectively than Murray's calculator suggests.

Aim:

Self sufficient regions - of which Woodfordia is a sub community.

My aim is a mostly self sufficient community of 500. The production within Woodfordia wouldn't be the same as Murray's calculator predicts due to the changes in farming methods i'm proposing and the fact that there will be greater trading with nearby communities.


I did a bit more research into self-sufficient farming and found some really simple steps that will be mostly easy for the community at woodfordia to live by:


Tips to self sufficiency

1.  Grow your own Vegetables
2. Save seeds
3. Learn how to grow herbs
4. Grow edible flowers
5. Make your own compost
6. Start a worm farm
7. Collect rain water
8. Make your own leaf mould
9. Make your own liquid manure and liquid fertilisers
10. Make your own pesticides and insecticides
11. Add solar panels
12. Raise some backyard chick
13. Keep a bee hive
14. Make you own jams
15. Preserve vegetables
16. Make homemade bread
17. Make homemade wine, cider and beer
18. Make meals from scratch
19. Juice your own vegetables
20. Make your own yogurt, cheese and ice cream
21. Sprout your own seeds
22. Make you own furnishings, materials and quilts
23. Make your own soap
24. Make your own makeup
25. Build your own home
26. Recycle

From  Country farm Lifestyles. Self Reliant Living. Accessed October 11, 2012. http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/self-reliant-living.html

Events..

This week we were also meant to have thought about "events".

Educational Program
The life of the residents of the program are there for about 2 years each, in which time they can develop the skills to cook, build, plant, understand the land and develop the systems necessary to live self sufficiently.

Daily plan activities list:

1. Water garden at home
2. Store and preserve some plants
3. Check what upcoming events down at community centre
4. Spend morning working with 15 others on an agricultural lot
5. Check on the animals
6. Check aquaponics system at home
7. Weekly dinner with friends exploring different cuisines

 The Festival
After talking to Steph the idea of the festival being an educational event will work really well but it should really be seasonal to reflect the different things that will be going on in the site.

The festival will have musicians still, it will have cultural exhibits and classes to learn about the cultures of the climate refugees, there will be classes in farming and talks on how the community works.

Tutorial Week 10..

I decided to stop myself, sit down and just sketch out all the principles or patterns that i'm trying to follow on this site to guid me towards what my architecture will be.
I've let myself get too caught up in what things might be and what the systems will look like with nowhere near enough focus on the practical elements and how it will actually function.

Lecture Week 10..

Today's guest lecture was thinking about what the architecture does for those who use it again.
It posed many questions that I should be considering as I continue to develop my project and life as an architect.

• People want an idea, an experience rather than a 'building' think about the experience before the physical place
• What draws us into the place and into life
• How can the design of the place nurture the social society
• Will digital culture change our understanding and knowledge of the spatial, geometrical, material phenomenological and tectonic worlds?
• Nature should be central
• The architect is an 'enabler' but ultimately people will use the space in different ways they see fit

Exemplary Project -
Augmenting Spatiality - Abercrombie Lane
At first i didn't see how her presentation of a light show showed any relevance to me but her principles and motivation correlated with my goals.
Her enthusiasm and drive to step outside the box was very inspiring. The light and wires installation in Abercrombie lane used a curator, engineer and architect working at a team to create something that had never been done before. They were dedicated and confident that they could solve the problems and present their idea.
Just like me, they weren't sure exactly what would happen and it was a hypothetical idea but it is still important to have that technical understanding of how it might happen. She couldn't present a competition entry and have no idea of how it would come together in the end. She had to learn electrical mapping for the lights and explore her knowledge base just to achieve it.

The later exemplary projects also showed this bespoke nature to the things she does. She creates entirely new solutions to her architectural problems, designing and manufacturing shelving units, seating and any number of things to complete the architectural entity she envisions. Even to the minute details of landscaping a site to reveal a building in the right way and designing lighting into particular shapes of a winery to achieve the right affect. Her attention to detail was inspiring.

Archetypes..

What exactly will I be proposing/designing/building at Woodfordia?
Thinking about the community that I'm proposing that is essentially an educational facility teaching all aspects of living sustainably in the new age of fossil fuel depletion, overcrowding and limited resources.
Woodfordia will need:

• Houses
• Learning Centres
• Festival structures - amphitheatres? temporary stalls? festival accommodation?
• Communal gathering areas - some sort of a community centre
• Administration buildings? At entrance to the site?

I sketched out positioning of buildings and how things might work together and when I looked at the map again I realised that accommodation would work as effectively on the south western terraces.

Storm Resistance of Architecture

Principles
This presentation at the ideas festival looked at how we can come back from various natural disasters and how they have destroyed homes and lives. Flood, fire and cyclone design.

Resilience to the fires and floods come through design elements like:

• Single skin rather than cavity skin
• The ability to clean debris away after the storm
• Envelope that is resistent
• Roofs without cavities
• Simplicity of the building envelope
• Elevated buildings to dissipate wind pressures
• Design that equalises wind pressures
• Sealed floors
• Flood compartments

Within the fires and the floods, the agriculture is in danger too.
Other than that the main problems were in the ages and positioning within flood plains.

Raised architecture
Stilted designs are a simple and effective method to mitigate the flood waters, and it provides space under the building to plant. It will allow more breezes and is already very vernacular to the sub-tropics.


Exemplar:
Disaster Proof architecture. 
 
This house off the coast of South Carolina uses most of these principles, it is off the grid, storm resisitant, bush fire resistant and has survied floods.
Made of recycled steel and SIP panels.
Under house space functions as a screened porch in fair weather.

 (Web Ecoist 2012)

Domed Architecture

Other methods for countering the high winds of storms are in domes. Geodesic domes are incredibly strong, and with a smooth exterior finish guide the winds around the structure.

Said to hold up very well with both wind and water the domed designs have survived many natural disasters.

The "New life family Church" in Mississippi had withstood many disasters, including Katrina.

"Monolithic domes are extremely cheap, easy to build, and energy efficient. They are also fire-resistant, mold-resistant and impervious to rot. They’ve become the building type of choice in disaster relief areas, as they can often be erected in a couple of weeks with minimal materials and resources. Building them basically just consists of pouring a concrete foundation, inflating a a heavy-duty, dome-shaped “balloon”, erecting steel rebar scaffolding around that, and then spraying Concrete (Shotcrete) over the outside." (Fehrenbacher 2005)

While I had begun to turn away from hempcrete, these could apparently be used very easily as structures and constructed quite quickly and i'm sure hempcrete could be used as a concrete substitute.

References:

Fehrenbacher, J. 2005. Hurricane Resistant Housing: Monolithic Domes. Accessed October 2, 2012.http://inhabitat.com/monolithic-domes.

 Web Ecoist. 2012. Disaster-Proof Architecture: 13 Super-Strong Structures. Accessed October 3, 2012. http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2011/04/22/disaster-proof-architecture-13-super-strong-structures/