Technical requisites

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Technical RequisitesPantelis Charalambides wsa 5

Technical Requisites _ Pantelis Charalambides WSA 5

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Contents

Introduction...................................................................................................3-5

Social/Urban Strategy................................................................................6-8

Accessibility.................................................................................................9-10

Fire Safety Strategy.................................................................................11-12

Spatial Organization Startegy.............................................................13-15

Low Carbon Strategy.............................................................................16-23

Material Strategy......................................................................................24-26

Structural Strategy................................................................................27- 34

Environmental Strategy........................................................................35-44

Lighting Studies......................................................................................45-54

Tectonics/Architetcural Experience..................................................55-57


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Introduction:

Thesis Title:Infuences of Cypriot Vernacular architecture on contemporary Buiding Design.During my dissertation research, the observation that contemporary buildings in Cyprus neglect their context in a variety of aspects such as historical, social, environmental and technical emerged. As a result, this has yielded architecture which is often inappropriate for its context. The thesis behind my project is to use principles of Cypriot vernacular traditions in a building that will respond to its histori-cal, social and environmental context uisng contemporary building technologies/techniques.

Site & Programme: The building will be located in the historic city centre of Limassol in a prominent site facing the coast. It will be part of the newly established Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) which has set a goal to turn the historic city centre into a network of buildings that students will be able to access comfortably as pedestrians. Having pedestrianized paths on the northern and eastern sides of my site makes it a suitable choice for the wider startegy of the university which will be part of. The building’s programme will be a college for indegenous construction and material research and it aims to educate people in new construction methods of using the locally available material which is limestone.

Introduction


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Materials:The expensive extraction cost and the scarsity of the limestone in the recent decades has forced many local architects to stop using this material in their designs and as mentioned above this has yielded architecture which often doesn’t respond to its context. However, 20% of the daily lime-stone production are by-products which are never used and stay in the quarries as infill materials. Therefore, my thesis aim is to explore ways of using the various types of limestone by-products throughout the building. The smaller crushed rocks (aggregate) will be used in the concrete mixture of the structural elements of the building such as the foundations, columns and slabs/roofs , the medium sized rocks will be used in the partition walls of the building and the bigger rocks in the perimeter walls. The two latter will be used in the form of gabion walls.

Historical and Social Response to Vernacular Traditions:Vernacular buildings featured internal courtyards which developed as a traditional desire for locals to connect with outside during the Ottoman empire when fear and oppression prevented them from using the streets. However courtyards became an integral part of Cypriot architecture even after the Ottoman rule as their use had proven to be beneficial in other apsects such as social inter-action. They became the meeting places for socializing between the inhabbitants of a settlement and they were in constantly in shade something important given the hot climate of the island. Like in vernacular buildings, the project will feature a series courtyards which will reflect the rich context of the site. One of them will reflect the architectural heritage of the city centre another the sea and another the urban park opposite the site.

Introduction


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Introduction

Environmental Reponse to Vernacular Traditions:These courtyards will be constantly in shade (9:00-17:00) during the three summer months (1st June- 31st of August). The arrangement of the different canopies (one canopy corresponds to each time of the day) will be positioned at various heights which are analogus to sun angles of each time of the day during the summer period. The use of different heights of canopies also make the link between sun geometry and roof geometry very evident for the inhabbitants when they experience the building.

Vernacular Dwelling Environmental Analysis


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Social/Urban Strategy

Social Issues: Efficiency of Land UsePlan: The fact that the historic city centre is densely-built was a determinant factor to the design strategy of using internal courtyards. This allowed for the building to use the whole footprint of the site in plan providing a very efficient use of the prominent site leaving no wasted spaces.

Section: In section the building respects the existing density with the majority of the buildings being 2-4 storeys. The highest point of the building reaches 13.5 metres.

Site Strategy Experimentation: Maximisation of Land Use

3.5-4 storeys

6-6.5 storeys

3.5 storeys 3.5 storeys

3.5 st.2 st.

3.5 storeys

3.5 storeys


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Social Issues: Enhancing The Pedestrianized RealmThe ‘entrance courtyard’ opens up into the eastern pedestrianized street. The courtyrad is intention-ally pushed right onto the north-eastern edge of the site to connect with the pedestrianized street. The fact that the cafe opens up into the the ‘entrance courtyard’ also encourages public/non-stu-dents to use the cafe of the building enhancing the pedestrinized public life of the area.The existing bike racks on the northern side of the site allows easy and safe access to the bicycle users to access the building.


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Social Issues: Links to public Transport

Situated on one of the busiest roads in the city the building is very well connected with the public means of transport. This ensures that the building is connected and easily accessible for students outside the city.

Bus Routes of the City

Central Bus Station


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Accessibility

Access for all:

Flat, Pedestrianized access:The building is istuated in flat site avoiding the use of any stairs/steps to access it and it was part of my strategy to keep it accessible for disabled by keeping the access to the building flat. Moreover the site features a large parking lot right next to it that belongs to the government in which disabled parking spaces are allocated.

secondary entrance

parking

universitybuildings

mainentrance

entrance courtyard

Pedestrianroute


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Access for all: WIthin the building there are a number of ways that the disabled access has been thought during the design process: 1) width of doors : minimum 1000mm2) width of circulation spaces: minimum 18003) provision of lift: car size1200x1500mm

4) disbaled sanitary provisions on all floors

Accessibility


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Fire Safety Strategy

Fire Safety:The building features two fire- protected staircases which increases the travel distances to reach the escape routes to 45o each. Each of the staircases have clear width of 1100 mm. The staircase which wraps around a lift is enclosed in a fire protected route to avoid spread of fire between floors from the lift shaft. all the fire protected routes are signaled and lit with appropriate equipment.The firefighting staircase is accessible from the street for easy access to the fire brigade. Both limestone and concrete are highly fire resistant materialsvv. However, both of them include steel either as reinforcement or as gabion baskets. In both cases the steel will be painted with fire resistant coating.

Means of escape:

Fire Protected Route


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Fire Protected Route

Fire Safety Strategy


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Spatial Organisation Strategies

Organogram: The activities are separated into two types: The practical activities on ground floor and the theoretical activities on the first floor:

Firs

t Flo

orG

roun

d Fl

oor


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Organisation in plan: The three courtyards where key to the spatial organisation in plan. The activities such as the workshop on ground floor and the tutor’s offices and the teaching spaces on the first floor look into the architectural heritage courtyard. The ac-tivities which are more related to relaxation and peace such as the cafe on the ground and the libraryon the first floor are looking into the water and greenery courtyards. The IT room on the first floor is the mediation between the two as it related both to the library and the teching spaces.

Ground Floor:



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First Floor:



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Low Carbon Strategy

Low Carbon: Economy of Means

The main material used throughout the building is limestone by-products from the local quarries. Limestone used to be the main building material in Cyprus but in the recent years its scarsity and the expensive extraction cost has significantly restricted its use as merely a cladding material. The by-products from the production are unexploited at the moment as they are used as infill materials in the quarries. However, these by-products account for the 20% of the daily limestone production which nobody uses, making them effectively a free material.


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Low Carbon Strategy

Limestone Unit Weight: 2100 kg/m3 (value given by limestone producer)

Calculation of Limestone by-product Requirements:

1) Slabs/Roofs and columns:

The roofs, slabs and the columns will be made out of concrete and will use limestone aggregate in the mixture ensuring cheaper cost of the concrete elements of the building. The concrete slabs/roofs will be made using bubble deck technology which reduces signifigantly the amount of con-

crete reqiured for every slab/roof.

Total aggregate needed for roofs/ slabs: 1376m3

Aggregate by-products available: Infinite as it is used as infill material in the quarries


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2) Internal/Partition Walls: The internal/partion walls will be made out of gabion walls and will use the medium sized rocks from the by-products (40mm-150mm). In cases where sound or thermal insulation is needed such as the walls looking into the courtyards and spaces that need sound insulation between them they will be double-layered with insulation in-between them

Total stone (40-150mm) needed for partition walls: 427m3Amount of medium sized rocks by-products from daily limestone production: in Ipsonas: 28-35T (40-50% of daily production)

Low Carbon Strategy


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3) External Perimeter Walls:

The external walls will be made out of gabion walls and will use the large sized rocks from the by-products (150mm-150+mm). The depth of the gabion baskets will decrease according to the

height and will vary from 1000mm (base) to 400mm (top) to reduce weight and waste of material

Total stone (150mm-150+mm) needed for external walls: 676.3m3Amount of medium sized rocks by-products from daily limestone production: in Ipsonas: 35-42T

LOw

Carbon Strategy


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Low Carbon Strategy

Source:(http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/mines/minesSrv.nsf/dmlquarries_en/dmlquarries_en?opendocument )

Total Volume of stone needed: 8771m3

18419.1T (total)/70 (/day) = 264 days of by-products


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Embodied Energy in Materials:

Walls: The gabion walls contain low embodied energy as the gabion baskets can be produced and filled off-site and the travel distances to reach the site are kept minimal to reduce emobied energy. More-over the robustness of limestone and the low maintanance cost make its life cycle span big without the need for any maintenance.

Roofs/Slabs, And columns:The bubble deck concrete slabs and the concrete columns will contain a fairly high embodied energy as for its production it will involve high energy consumed on site. Similar to above, the raw materials are locally sourced minimising travel distinces to the site and subsequently the embdied energy. Moreover, bubble deck has less embodied energy than conventional concrete slabs as many of the components arrive on-site prefabricated (such as its prefebricated concrete underside deck). In addition bubble deck uses much less concrete than conventional concrete slabs which means much less concrete mixing on site and subsequently less energy used.

Selected data from the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (‘ICE’) prepared by the University of Bath (UK), and available at http://perigordvacance.typepad.com/files/inventoryofcarbonandenergy.pdf

Low Carbon Strategy


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Distances traveled:

The map below shows all the limestone quarries on the island with a travel distance radiation. The small size of the island allows for small travel distances from whichever quarry the limestone will be sourced. The longest travel distance from the site is from the kornos quarry which is around 50 minutes.

Ipsonas quarry accounts only for the 5% (354 T) of the daily limestone production however, its production is sufficient to provide enough by-products for the building to be built within 264 days which is a realistic completion time.

Low Carbon Strategy


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Low Carbon Strategy

Recycled/Recyclable Materials:

As mentioned above the main material used throughout the building is limestone by-products from the local quarries in various forms and sizes (aggregate, medium-sized rocks and large-sized rocks), and each form is used in defferent building components. Even though these materials have nev-er been used before they are waste products and in these sense they are recycled in my building. Moreover, in case that this material are neeeded elswhere for whatever reason they can be reused by simply removing them from the gabion baskets making them a highly recylcable solution.

Quarry Site/Building


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Material Strategy

1) Columns, Slabs and Roofs:

The roofs, slabs and the columns will be made out of concrete and will use limestone aggregate in the mixture ensuring cheaper cost of the concrete elements of the building. The concrete slabs/roofs will be made using bubble deck technology which reduces signifigantly the amount of con-crete reqiured for every slab/roof.


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2) Internal Partition Walls:

The internal/partion walls will be made out of gabion walls and will use the medium sized rocks from the by-products (40mm-150mm). In cases where sound or thermal insulation is needed such as the walls looking into the courtyards and spaces that need sound insulation between them they will be double-layered with insulation in-between them

Internal/Partition Walls on Ground Floor: Internal/Partition Walls on First Floor:

Single Layered Gabion

Double Layered Gabion

Material Strategy


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3) External Perimeter Walls:The external walls will be made out of gabion walls and will use the large sized rocks from the by-products (150mm-150+mm). The depth of the gabion baskets will decrease according to the height and will vary from 1000mm (base) to 400mm (top) to reduce weight and waste of material

Exterior Walls on Ground Floor: Exterior Walls on First Floor:

600x1032x1032mm

800x1032x1032mm

1000x1032x1032mm

perimetrical concrete beams

Material Strategy


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Structural Strategy: Reinforced concrete skeletal frame casted in-situ with infiill gabion walls Reasons for choosing con-

crete frame:1) Can be locally sourced 3) High thermal mass properties4) Big lifespan5) Albedo effect: The high reflective qualities of concrete means more light is reflected and less heat is absorbed, resulting in cooler temperatures6) Energy efficiency in production (1.4 GJ/t compared to 30 GJ/t for steel and 2GJ/t for wood)7) Low maintenance8) High Fire-resistances

The structural strategy of the building will be separated into five different different ele-ments:1) Perimetrical buttressed reinforced concrete columns2) Perimetrical reinforced concrete beams on the buttressed columns3)Internal reinforced concrete columns4) External L-profiled steel columns infilled with gabion baskets

5) Concrete bubbledeck slab/ roofs

Structural Strategy

20mm Steel Reinforcement bars

854 x 350mm Profilile dimen-sions on the top

1450 x 350mm Profilile dimen-sions on base

3o Inclination


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2) Perimetrical Cocrete Beams: These beams will be part of the perimetrical structure that will hold up the gabion infill panels. They will be at 3100mm intervals. The depth of these beams will be smaller on the upper parts of the colums as the gabion walls will be smaller and the weight that needs to be supported is much smaller.

225 x 600mm reinforced con-crete beam




800 mm depth concrete plat-form

pile foundation

3 x

Gab

ion

Bask

ets

Structural Strategy


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3) Internal reinforced concrete columns:These columns will consist the internal columns of the building. They will be placed on a 5x5 metre grid. The grid size was chosen according to the spatial organisation of the space. Having a small grid distance allowed for the columns to be relatively small in section. Similar to the buttressed columns the concrete mixture will consist of limestone aggregate and will be left unrendered to expose the agregate.

Grid spacing: 5x5 metres

Visible lime-stone agrregate

350x300mm

Structural Strategy


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4) External L-profile columns with gabion baskets infill: These columns will be used in the courtyards where there is no partioning wall determining the size of the column. They are used in all the courtyards as a more expressive means to use the limestone compared to the concrete ones. The steel vertical profiles will have horizontal bracings at 1032mm intervals to hide the connections betwen the gabion baskets making it the gabion infill look like like a single uninterrupted basket.

Gabion infills

600x600mm overall size

Horizontal bracing @1032 mm inter-vals

150x150mm L-shaped steel profiles

Structural Strategy


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5) Roof/Slabs:The concrete slabs/roofs will use the bubbledeck technology. This essentially creates a formwork for the concrete to be poured in and create a grid of two-directional I-section concrete beams. In addi-tion, the bubbles within the slab decrease the amount of concrete needed resulting in svaings of con-crete, and weight at the same time without compromises in the strucutral integrity of the slabs/roofs.

Benefits of Using Bubbleck over conventional concrete slabs:

Structural Strategy


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Coonection to concrete column

Bubbledeck Slab End Detail

Bubble sizes and arrangement

Structural Strategy


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Bubbledeck on site process

Structural Strategy

Bubbledeck


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Structural Strategy


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Environmental Strategy:

One of the main initial aims was to design the building in such way so as to make it work passively throughout the year. The island’s warm climate as well as the microclimate of my site were both be-nificial factors in acheiving this without the need of any mechanical aids. This was achieved through a series of design decisions that were taken throughout the project all of which are expressed and are evident when inhabbiting the building. The aim was to make the building work passively on its own without the user’s need to do anything for the building to work other than to enjoy the rich experienc-es it offers through the above.

1)Use thermal mass to provide stable/comfortable internal temper-atures:

1_a: External/Perimeter Wall stratetgy: The externall walls are thick to increase the capacity of heat to absorb the strong southfacing sun

Environmental Strategies


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1_b: Walls Looking Into the courtyards: Thinner double layered insulated walls

Night time: 14-25oC

The thermally massive gabion walls are coolled down from the lower night time temperature by leav-ing the windows looking into the courtyards open. In daytime where the outside temperature is high the gabion walls reamain cold due to the insulation.

Day time: 33-40oC+

The heat comming from outside and the internal gains (people, computers, etc) is absorbed by the thermally massive insulated gabion walls which were cooled down at night when the temperature falls.



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U-value calculation:

Roof:

5/25/13 uvalue01.xls

www.vesma.com/tutorial/uvalue01/uvalue01.htm 1/1

Uvalue calculator 1

Element and exposure

Element: Roof

Exposure: Severe

Conditions

Temp C RH %

Internal: 25 50

External: 35 90

Details of structure Thickness Conductivity Resistance Condensation

Layer (mm) (W/mK) (m2K/W) risk?

Internal surface 0.10

Steel 5 50.000 0.00

Polyurethane 100 0.025 4.00 *

Concrete, Innner 450 1.280 0.35

0 0.00

0 0.00

0 0.00

0 0.00

0.00

External surface 0.02

Total resistance 4.47 m2K/W

UVALUE 0.22 W/m2K


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Wall:

5/25/13 uvalue01.xls


Uvalue calculator 1


Element: Wall

Exposure: Severe

Conditions

Temp C RH %

Internal: 25 50

External: 35 90




Steel 50 50.000 0.00

Stone 700 1.300 0.54

Steel 50 50.000 0.00

Glass 10 0.00

Glass 10 0.00 *

Polyurethane 100 0.025 4.00 *

0 0.00

0.00



UVALUE 0.21 W/m2K


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Floor:5/25/13 uvalue01.xls


Uvalue calculator 1


Element: Floor (not in contact with the ground)

Exposure: Normal

Conditions

Temp C RH %

Internal: 25 50

External: 35 90




Concrete, Innner 70 1.280 0.05

Polyurethane 100 0.025 4.00

Concrete, Outer 800 1.400 0.57

0 0.00

0 0.00

0 0.00

0 0.00

0.00



UVALUE 0.21 W/m2K


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2) Provide sufficient air flow/ventilation throughout the building using stack effect and cross ventila-tion: The building is designed in such way to avoid the need of mechanical ventilation. The fact that the site is located near the coast where cool breezes are coming from contributed to this.

2_a) Stack effect: The courtyards allowed for the stack effect to happen within the building

2_b) Cross Ventilation: The openings in the courtyards allow for flexibility in the air flow throughout the building.



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3) Provide cooling environment in the courtyards by introducing water:

Water Courtyard:

Relative HImidity Extremes: 40-80%



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4) Provide trees in one of the courtyards to enhance air movement and provide shade:

Greenery Courtyard:

Channellling breezes into the courtyard theought the aid of the tree canopy


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5) Provide a solid thermal envelope to keep the strong sun’s heat outside.

Continuity of insulation:

50 mm RigidInsulation

Double Glazing

Double Glazing

100mm Rigid Insulation

100mm Rigid Insulation



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6) Provide courtyards which are constantly in shade during the summer season (1st June- 31st of August)

Shadow analysis of a courtyard during the whole summer. (sceenshots taken for 21st June-the hottest day of the year)

Each Canopy Corresponds to each time of the day to ensure all the courtyards are constantly in shade during the 3 summer months where the temperatures get extremely high



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Lighting Studies:

One of the main design drivers from early in the project was the protection of the building and es-pecially the internal courtyards throughout the summer from the strong sun during the peak hours which were also the times when the building will be mostly in use (09:00-17:00). The main aim was to make the form of the building expressive of this central idea to the project. To do this a series of form experimentations where made using ECOTECT in order to find ways to achieve this:

1) Form Experimentations:The main aim was to make the form of the building expressive of this central idea to the project. To do this a series of form experimentations where made using ECOTECT in order to find ways to achieve this:

1_a) 3 storey-high walls surrounding the courtyard: As mentioned above the majority of the buildings in the context are around three storeys. Therefore, the initial idea was to erect 9 metre walls around the courtyard and test whether they were enough to shade the courtyard throughout the summer (1st of June- 31st of August):

Results: Due to the steep summer sun angles the courtyard was almost never in shade.

Lighting Studies


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1_b) 40 meter walls in the southwestern side and 18 meter walls in the northeastern side: The tallest building around the site is the one right next to my site (eastern side which is round 40 me-tres high. Therefore this variaton was doen to check whether I can shade the courtyard while respect-ng the heights of the buildings in the context.

Results:

The courtyard was in shade early in the morning and in the afternoon however during peak times (9:15-12:45) the courtyard was exposed to the sun.

Lighting Studies


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1_c) 145 meter walls in the southwestern side and 35 meter walls in the northeastern side: The surrounding walls where then extruded upwards until the courtyard was fully in shade for the whole summer and during the set times: (09:00-17:00)

Results:

The courtyard was in shade during the whole day however, the height of the building is out of scale in relation to its context.

Lighting Studies


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1_d) Curved wall simulating the sun’s movement: The key idea was to make the form of the building evident of the intention to protect its internal courtyars from the sun. Therefore this variation attempts to make a curved wall that simulated the sun’s movement in order to protect from teh sun.

Results: The courtyard was not in shade except very close to the wall.

Lighting Studies


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1_e) Extruded curved wall simulating the sun’s movement: The curved wall was then extruded to see the performance of the wall as a mean for shading the site effectively.

Results:

The area behind the wall was not in shade ex-cept close to the wall.

Lighting Studies


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1_f ) Optimum shading device generated by Ecotect: This option was tested to see what form would ecotect generate in order to shade the courtyard du-ing the assigned period.

Results:

The generated shape was too high and peculiar-ly shaped.

Lighting Studies


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1_g) Canopies with open-top courtyard:This variation was generated according to the sun’s movement. Each canopy correspond’s to the posi-tion of the sun at a given time. There are 9 canopies (09:00-17:00) and it includes three versions: i) Open-top courtyardii) 1500mm wall surrounding the openingiii) 6000mm wall surrounding the opening

i) Open-top courtyard

ii) 1500mm wall surrounding the opening

iii) 6000mm wall surrounding the opening

Lighting Studies


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i) Open-top courtyard

ii) 1500mm wall surrounding the opening

iii) 6000mm wall surrounding the opening

Results: None of the above was sufficiently shading the courtyard. Especially during peak times

Lighting Studies


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Physical Model Lighting Studies:

The physical model lighting studies where conducted in the skydome, where the last variation was taken (the series of canopies) and removed the openings from the canopies to see how this variation performed.

09:00

11:00

10:00

12:00

13:00 14:00

Lighting Studies


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16:0015:00

17:00

Lighting Studies


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Architectural Experience/Tectonics:

The form of the building is expressive of its environmental qualities and due to that the tectonics of the building has been influenced by that. Subsequently, the qualities of the space and the architectur-al experience has also been expressive of that.1) Canopy reflections:The different height between the canopies has given the chance to allow reflected light into the spac-es: i) The roof celebrates the strong summer’s sun’s movement by reflecting a color for each time of the day making the roof effectively a clock ii) The fins on the canopies are spaced and angled such so as to block off the sun angles of the other times iii) The sun angles taken are from the 21st of June and the 31st of August which are the steepest and the shallower respectively for each time of the day iv) The colour and their sequence are selected so as to simulate thre transitions of the sun’s move-ment v) The area of the canopies which is painted is calculated according the sun angle for each hour from 9:00-17:00 which is when the sun is still high and bright. Moreover these are times whch the building will be occupiedd

Architectural Experience/Tectonics

Diagram with sun angle reflections


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2) External Gabions: As mentioned above the perimetre gabion walls use the larger rocks from the limestone quarry by-products. The bigger rocks allowed for bigger gaps between teh rocks within the baskets leeting through in. Therefore the external gabions are acting as light filters for the intense sun-light. Moreover, this works perfectly with the introverted character of a courtyard building allowing for minimisation of openings onto the south as the focal points are the courtyards which all the spaces within the building look into.

south facing external wall Light patterns from the Gaps between the rocks of

Coloured reflections between the concrete roofs


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Bibliography:

http://www.BubbleDeck-UK.com

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VO1ZnYhx6jAC&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=struc-tural+strategy+architecture&source=bl&ots=1DEW58N8su&sig=pAwi4eGD-fN9KhkI4i-UIvItipmg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=31GdUb3AMs7c4QSLyoFg&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBw#v=onep-age&q=structural%20strategy%20architecture&f=false

http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/mines/minesSrv.nsf/dmlquarries_en/dmlquarries_en?OpenDocument

http://www.vesma.com/tutorial/uvalue01/uvalue01.htm

http://www.wbcsdcement.org/index.php/about-cement/benefits-of-concrete#10

Documents

Technical requisites