GREENwichFORUM

04-28-09

Ben Reed of Sherperd Robson

DESIGN The heart of the concept for the Lighthouse is the ambition to create homes where the innovative environmental systems and construction methods do not compromise the quality of the occupants’ life but add to it – creating adaptable, flexible spaces that are designed for sustainable modern living. The prototype is a 93m_, two-and-a-half-storey, two bedroom house. It has been designed in line with Lifetime Homes and Housing Quality indicators.

STRUCTURE The structure of the Lighthouse is a simple barnlike form, derived from a 40 degree roof accommodating a PV array. The sweeping roof envelops the central space – a generous, open-plan, top-lit, double height living area, with the sleeping accommodation at ground level. The living space uses a timber portal structure so floors can be slotted between the frames or left open as required. At ground level a timber frame structural layout carries the vertical loads of the open-plan frames above and provides stability to the load bearing shear walls. Stability is achieved through the moment connections at first floor and ceiling level. It is constructed using Kingspan Off-Site’s TEK Building System – a high performance SIPS (structurally insulated panel based system). For the Lighthouse, this will provide a high level of thermal insulation and performance reducing the heat loss by potentially two-thirds that of a standard house. U values of 0.11W/m_K and air-tightness of less than 1.0m_/hr/m_ at 50Pa. The foundations consist of off site timber floor cassettes on a ring beam of timber beams supported off the ground level by screw fast pile heads. The piles provide minimal disturbance to the ground and provide suitable supports for domestic scale dwellings. When the building reaches the end of its useful lifespan, the fast foundation support point can be removed.

TECHNICAL DESIGN Inherent to the design of the Lighthouse is the response to the predicted increase in temperature due to climate change. This is achieved through a combination of design techniques and systems.

SOLAR GAIN AND SHADING To achieve Level 6 there is a mandatory heat loss parameter which demands high U-values for the building fabric. As a result, the ratio of glazing to wall in the Lighthouse is 18% as opposed to 25-30% in traditional houses. This drove the decision to locate the living space on the first floor, enabling us to maximise daylight and volume, with a top-lit double height living space. Shading to the west elevation is provided by retractable shutters restricting direct sunlight and minimising heat gain in the summer. These can be folded away when not required to shade the space from evening sun. Future temperatures in the UK may reach those similar to southern Europe, however, sun angle will remain low. There will still be a need to maximise sun and daylight mid-season and in winter. The passive design of the house must balance the technical considerations with the occupants’ expectations who are more accustomed to light and airy living.

SELECTIVE THERMAL MASS Phase changing material in the ceilings absorbs the room heat by changing from solid to liquid within microscopic capsules embedded in the board. This process is reversed when the room is cooled with the night air, working with the passive system of the wind catcher.

WIND CATCHER/LIGHT FUNNEL Located on the roof, above the central void over the staircase, the wind catcher provides passive cooling and ventilation. When open, this catches the cols air forcing it down into the heath of the house, to the living space and the ground floor sleeping accommodation, dispersing the hot air, slowing it to escape. The wind catcher also brings daylight deep into the plan of the house and provides the ground floor sleeping accommodation with secure night-time ventilation.

BUILDING SERVICES Integrated with smart metering and monitoring which records energy consumption and enables occupants to identify if any wastage is occurring, thereby helping to promote more environmentally aware lifestyles. Renewable energy is provided by a biomass boiler with an automatic feed system for heating. Photovoltaics provide all electricity for the home and a solar-themed array, which supplies hot water and allows the boiler to be turned off in the summer, acts to significantly reduce fuel consumption. These renewable energy features have reduced energy fuel costs for space and water heating in the Lighthouse to around £30 per year and, as all electricity is supplied via solar technologies, electricity running costs are completely eliminated. The overall cost of fuel in each house has been reduced by about 94% (not including standard charges). Water efficiency techniques that have been included in the Lighthouse design consist of low volume, water efficient sanitary ware and appliances, such as spray taps, a dual flush toilet, low flow showers and a small bath. Water from the shower and bath is recycled via a stand alone grey water system that fits behind the toilet and supplies water for flushing. Rainwater from the roof is collected in a below ground tank in the garden, which is filtered by a rainwater harvesting system and re-used by the washing machine and for watering the garden. The roof-mounted wind catcher provides secure night-time ventilation for passive cooling, in conjunction with thermal mass boards in the ceilings and external shading. This helps to control the temperature of the interior environment, improving occupier comfort and keeping the house cool in the summer months. The Lighthouse also includes mechanical ventilation with heath recovery (MVHR), controlling ventilation and maintaining an airtight environment in winter months.

04-24-09

Kathryn Findlay

Soft and Hairy House

04-24-09

James O'Leary and Kristen Kreider

Gorchakov’s Wish performance stills (2008-09) | kreider+o’leary

‘The dominant, all-powerful factor of the film image is rhythm, expressing the course of time within the frame.’ – Andrei Tarkovsky

‘Gorchakov’s Wish’ (2008) is inspired by a single extended shot from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1980 film Nostalghia, recorded on location in the Tuscan hillside village of Bagno Vignoni, Italy, at Santa Caterina Pool. The pool, a natural thermal spring and site of religious importance, infuses Tarkovsky’s film-image with an atmospheric combination of hot pool steam and cool morning sunlight that, in the context of the filmic narrative, suggests a mental space of isolation in a physically demarcated ‘sacred’ space.

The shot we are concerned with, one of the most celebrated single extended takes in the history of Cinema, follows Gorchakov as he walks the length of the emptied pool carrying a lighted candle. This peripatetic ritual and resulting cinematic scene creates an elemental ‘scape’ of steam, stone and fire that we have taken as a ‘site’ for two performance works:

The first performance entailed a temporary occupation of the Santa Caterina Pool in Bagno Vignoni, Italy in order to re-enact the shot;

The second performance, incorporating material and footage from the first, worked within the temporal constraints of Tarkovsky shot to enact an allegorical translation of it in the Triangle Space (Chelsea) where the live acts of performance (actor/director), projection and reception generated a real-time immersive filmic experience.

The accompanying images relate to this ongoing investigation of the phenomenology of the film-image and its relation to place.

kreider+o’leary (www.unnameable.org)

2009

04-23-09

May Leung

Silk Cocoon

The cocoon kiosk is a small silk factory, a sustainable ecosystem of mulberry leaves, caterpillars and cocoons – the essential and natural ingredients used to make silk. It hangs in memory of Spitalfields silk weavers that settled here in London, winding and reeling thread, in the 1890’s.

The silk manufacture process is as follows:

Mulberry bush growth is sustained by fish water. Caterpillars eat mulberry leaves and then spin a single strand of silk around themselves, which form the cocoon. Cocoons are boiled to remove the silk and the dead larvae within can be used to feed the fish. The fish water is used to grow mulberry.

What results is a closed ecosystem that enables the localisation of silk manufacture. The cocoon kiosk, although small, speaks out for the fight against the globalisation of silk garments imported from foreign countries. The cocoon kiosk is stripped bare to the essential elements for silk manufacture, and in so doing, reducing the carbon footprint of garment production.

04-08-09

The Land of Scattered Seeds

The Land of Scattered Seeds investigates relationships between Man and Nature – the efforts of Man to control the natural world, and the cold indifference of Nature in response – and also between individuals as they attempt to find their own place in the modern city. Beginning with the desperation of two brothers, the inhabitants of a single street at the centre of Graz, Austria, incrementally convert their environment into a patchwork of farms, vineyards and gardens. Cottage industries spring up, and the inhabitants seek to maximize their yield through elaborate irrigation and fertilization schemes. The ambitions of each character lead to conflict and collaborations that evolve through the development of exquisite new constructions and the growth of plants. Nature – with ambitions of its own – constantly threatens to overwhelm them.

The work develops themes that consider the interaction between the main players in our environment – vegetal, mineral, animal and human – and the relationships between social, economic and ecological concerns. These issues are seen as being dynamically linked, with continual feedback between the latest moves of the characters, the plants, the structures and the wider environment. The project speculates an architecture that fuses constructed and grown ingredients with equal importance – each structure not only supports but is integrated with and driven by its associated plant life. In turn, the vegetation/architecture gradually changes the way in which the inhabitants live in the city.

The work ends with a number of different scenarios based on the lives of the characters, which project alternately the complete control of nature by man, the revenge of the environment, and finally a new dynamic symbiosis in the nature of the city. All the while, wild plants and birds continue to invade and so the struggles of Franz, Jorg, Olga, Florian and Lola continue…

04-08-09

Zorlu Ecocity

Zorlu Ecocity is a mixed-use development on a 9.6 ha site located at the southern extremity of Buyukdere Street in Istanbul. The plan is conceptualised as an ecological city within a city in line with the polycentric planning strategy of the Istanbul Metropolitan Planning and Urban Design Centre, which aims to multiply the number of urban centres throughout the Marmara region to relieve pressure on Istanbul historic core.

The planning brief permits up to 588,850 square metres of accommodation, at a plot ratio of 2.8, including office towers, residential towers, two hotels, serviced apartments, and resort-style elderly accommodation above a three storey retail complex that includes a market, a Cineplex, health centre, fitness club and convention centre. Six thousand cars are to be accommodated within a seven-storey deep basement.

The concept takes the form of 14 towers ranging from 8 to 26 storeys. The roof silhouette of the towers is shaped to collectively form a gentle curve reflecting the rounded summits of the seven hills upon which Istanbul is located. The form is not unlike a ‘citadel’ overlooking the Bosphorus alluding to the proud history of Istanbul as the former capital of the Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman Empires. Consideration has been given to the silhouette of the towers particularly when viewed from the south and east as a backdrop to the Bosphorus and from the south west and west when approaching the site by car or bus from the E5 Motorway or D100 Highway. Conceptually the design can also be read as a ‘visual link’ connecting Europe and Asia.

The plan form of the development resembles a ‘horseshoe’ opening out to the south and physically connecting to the heavily wooded Ortakoy Valley. Responding to the perceived lack of public space in Istanbul the proposal creates a large urban plaza some 50 metres wide and up to 35 metres broad.

The opportunity is taken to create a pedestrian link via an overhead footbridge to the Zincirlikuyu Area and specifically to the Garreteer Metro Station. The Metro affords access toLevant to the north and south to Taksim Square.  A pedestrian underpass is proposed in the south west corner of the site, passing beneath the D100/E5 Highway and linking to bus stops. Elsewhere there will be improved footpaths to the residential enclaves located to the southeast and northeast of the site.

The proposal regenerates a ‘brownfield’ site in an accessible location close to the urban core. It integrates with the existing urban fabric and city life. Links are proposed to existing commercial and housing development in the Sisli-Gayrettepe-Esentepe area to the west, to the Gayreteppe Metro Station, to the Zincirlikuyu area and to Levant Buyukkdere Street

A symbol of Istanbul’s aspiration, the design for Zorlu Ecocity is a contemporary response in architecture to the city’s re-emergence as a cultural nexus exemplified by its selection as European Capital of Culture in 2010. The design embodies new spatial configurations. The result is a vibrant focus for urban life relieving pressure on the historic core of the city. The internal planning and pedestrian circulation system within the shopping mall is a modern interpretation of the Grand Bazaar and the lanes that radiate from Istiklal Caddesi.

Ecological connectivity

The masterplan, is derived, first and foremost, from an intensive interrogation of the site. The analysis revealed that the site contains fragments of a sensitive ecosystem and adjoins a steep valley containing a robust ecosystem. The potential to establish ecological connectivity became the dominant consideration in reprogramming the site. There are a number of ecological features that assist in achieving this connectivity.

Central to the concept is the principal of ‘ecological bridges’, to reconnect the existing ecosystem. Eco-Bridges are concrete structures bridging the 10-metre wide perimeter road and connecting the podium roof, which is planted with indigenous species of trees and shrubs, to the landscape on the periphery of the site.

Another feature is the Eco-Cell, a continuous vegetation-covered ramp at the heart of the development that descends from ground level to the lowest basement level bringing daylight, natural ventilation and greenery to the deepest part of the development. In effect a deep ‘valley’ is constructed. It is a sustainable passive ventilation strategy that removes polluted and warm air at no cost. The vegetation will help to replenish fresh air in the subterranean space and contribute to lowering the ambient temperature in summer. A rainwater storage cistern is incorporated at the base of the eco cell and a retention pond is located at the southern edge of the site. They provide ‘grey’ water for irrigation purposes being recycled to the upper level of the towers and thereafter infiltrating the green walls and vertical gardens by gravity.

Vertical gardens or ‘green walls’ clothe the vertical surfaces and connect the landscaped podium to the roof of each tower. A proprietary system is employed which supports the vertical landscaping. Elsewhere a feature which we term ‘Green Fissures’ is created in the building façade to promote planting. Roof gardens employ a Sedum roof system and in a similar manner to the green walls assist in balancing the biotic and abiotic content of the buildings.

Sky courts are integrated into each tower and act as ‘gardens in the sky’. They serve as interstitial zones between the interior and exterior with usable balcony or terrace areas that open from habitable rooms in residences, offices and hotel suites. Sun Shading is designed to respond to the specific sun-path diagram.. Wind shafts are integrated into the towers and relate to lift cores/lobbies. This is a passive ventilation strategy to introduce natural ventilation, provide a comfortable internal environment, and reduce running costs. Wind turbines will be mounted vertically with a support frame tied back to the structure and located immediately beneath the vegetated roof.

04-08-09

Art In The Wilderness; The Poetics Of Science

When walking in the woods (of reality and mind), I think upon the gaps that have opened in my vision. The gap between what I am, flesh; blood; synapses, and what I think I am, the self. The gap between this brave new world we create, and our understanding of how it changes us. The gap between our technical revolutions and our social ineptness. The gap between head and heart, what I think and what I feel. That’s what I want to paint, that space, that crack between the worlds. Keep on walking.

Dominic Shepherd lives in Dorset. He is represented by Charlie Smith London and in Europe by Galerie Schuster.

Introduce myself, Not an architect, artist. Art serves no purpose, no function apart from that to question, to ask about the hows whys and wherefores of our time. My own work, when I make it, I don’t know what I’m creating. I wish to work in an oblique way, touching on the concerns I will elude to but at a distinctly personal level. So this talk will be a conversation on ideas, and I

Walk in woods, lived in London, enjoy the distance. Time being a hermit in wilderness, Iceland, Finland etc., trying to physically touch outside myself, mystic fusion with nature, and the ultimate failure. Could not attain union.

The gap, between the corpse on the slab, a mass of synapses, flesh and electricity. The self, when did it surface. When did we gain this feeling of self? Thomas Metzinger. What makes us different than animals?

We come back to old arguments, fate or freewill; determinism or choice. Is there a soul? In a world where we are starting to recreate our world through cyberspace and virtual reality, where do we start and stop being human.

Darwinism, The survival of the fittest, the selfish gene, but is this what I see. Is Darwinism an excuse that allowed for late 20th C. empire building and capitalist climbing to the top of the dung heap through its message of ‘survival of the fittest’? Has it allowed the mass human experimentations of the 20th century? In a post structualist/Derridean reading it is a product of our culture in same way feudal system reflected in heavenly hierarchy. Feudal system reflected in belief systems and angelic hierarchy, the thrones, seraphim, cherubim

hope sparks can be made with some of the images you will see.

04-02-09

Architecture of Shade and Air

University of Greenwich 2009