Project Location and Features
I will be modeling a conceptual ice center on the Stanford Campus; the motivation for this being that the closest quality ice rink is in San Jose which is more than 20 miles away with no accessible public transportation from the Stanford Campus and can take more than an hour commute during rush hour times. Having an ice center on campus would increase accessibility to ice sports like figure skating and ice hockey to students and the greater Palo Alto community as well as decrease the time, safety risk, and emissions associated with students currently commuting to San Jose for ice time. This ice center will be named and referred to as Stanford Ice Center in the context of my project.
An Olympic ice rink is 200 ft x 100 ft, which is already 20,000 SF, so the ice center will only have the one Olympic-sized rink to have space for other amenities in the allotted 35,000 SF. The building will be one continuous mass as the ice surface cannot possibly be broken up. I would like there to be windows along one long side of the rink so as to connect the skaters to the outdoors as well as promote daylighting. I would also like to utilize rainwater collection for the bathrooms.
I will be placing the Stanford Ice Center on this patch of land at the intersection of Arboretum Road and Palm Drive, allowing for views of the palm trees and surrounding other trees. I would unfortunately have to cut down trees to clear the land for construction, but I would reuse those cut down trees as architectural features in the ice center.
Climate Consultant
Palo Alto has a temperate climate with an average summer high of low 80ºs and an average winter low of high 40ºs.
The psychometric chart from Climate Consultant of this area with postal code 94305 is provided below. From this, I could see that I do not need to focus so much on cooling, humidification, or wind protection as these design strategies do not contribute much to overall comfort.
Mass Options
The building will be a single continuous mass as per the function of an ice rink.
Option 1: Simple Rectangular Building
In this first option, the building will be a simple rectangular prism. From the solar analysis, we see that the roof gets the most energy and the south side gets a decent amount of energy. The other sides of the building do not get much energy.
Option 2: South-facing Sloped Side of Rectangular Building
In this second option, the building will have a sloped window wall on one long side of the ice surface as I think this would offer a beautiful view to skaters, but I am wary of how solar heat gains would affect the ice’s function.
Similar to what I predicted, a south-facing sloped wall has as much solar energy as the roof, which is not ideal.
Option 2: North-facing Sloped Side of Rectangular Building
Another option is to have the sloped side of the building be facing north. According the solar analysis, this sloped side does not have much solar energy! If I were to go with this design, the view would be of the trees in this grove, which I would not mind.
