Overview.
Key/Essential/Unique Design Features.
I built an ice rink! It was so fun and exciting! My main motivation behind deciding to build this ice rink was because I travel so far! and waste so much gas! and spend so much time in traffic! getting to the closest adequate training ice facility, San Jose Ice Center, from Stanford’s campus for figure skating practice. So this project is me manifesting that Stanford build an ice rink on its campus 😃.
Glass windows. The main design feature of the ice rink that I knew for sure that I wanted to incorporate were the glass windows lining the ice rink spaces. I love skating in rinks with big windows because it allows for natural daylight to come in as well as views of the outside. With where I located my rink on Stanford’s campus (Palm Drive and Arboretum Road), there are a lot of trees surrounding it, so these windows would increase occupant exposure to nature, which would increase their wellbeing. I really love the idea of this, rather than the typical, boring walls that make ice rinks feel like a shoebox. The or
Workspace. Another feature I really appreciate about ice rinks is when there are workspaces. The San Jose Ice Center has many of these (likely due to the abundance of remote jobs in the tech world as in in the Bay Area), which I really value, and I wish other ice rinks had these as well. I think a quality workspace would be very useful to incorporate for parents who are taking their kids to training, young skaters who are homeschooled and want to get schoolwork done in between training sessions throughout the day, or even just students on Stanford’s campus that are looking a nice workspace with nice views and don’t want to go off campus.
Big Successes.
Much fun! I would say my biggest success was the amount of fun I had doing this project, specifically in connecting my studies as a Civil Engineer to my passions/hobbies as a figure skater. It also impacted the way I look at ice rinks now (spaces/buildings in general honestly); every time I went to San Jose Ice Center for practice this quarter, I would analyze its layout, look towards the ceiling for what its ductwork looks like, knock on structural elements to try and figure out what material was used, etc.
Research. Another success (other than being able to create a model and not have Revit crash on me each week, honestly) were the features I modeled, mainly the glass windows (for which I went into detail in the section above). I also had to do a lot of research into how ice rinks are built, and although there is not compiled checklist of what goes into an ice rink and what those specifications are, I was still able to find a decent amount of details. For example, Olympic rinks are 100x200 ft while NHL rinks are 80x200 ft, and ice rink spaces are typically maintained at 50-55ºF.
Big Challenges.
HVAC System. Because the ice rink inherently requires big cooling loads for functional reasons, my biggest challenge was designing the HVAC system. It is also comprised of many different types of spaces, mainly the two large ice rinks, the large open workspace on the second floor, and the smaller spaces like the dance studio, locker rooms, and restrooms. All of these spaces had different thermal requirements (different cfm air flow specifications, cooling and heating setpoints, etc.). For example, the ice rinks are very large spaces with a lot of activity but require a very low cooling setpoint, whereas the offices are small spaces with not much activity and require a heating setpoint. If I were to redo this project, I would place spaces with similar thermal requirements closer to each other to minimize the amount of duct material needed, pathway navigation, and air travel within the ducts themselves (which would have its own energy implications).
Timber. Another challenge was designing the structural framing, specifically because I wanted to use timber for the horizontal elements. I am glad I was able to use timber for wellbeing and aesthetic purposes, but it was also very difficult to design because I don’t have much structural engineering knowledge. I am still not sure if the structural design I created is feasible, but I did as much research as I could and tried my best considering my limited structural knowledge.
Lessons Learned.
I believe with each module I learned something new, which is overall very valuable, but also would have been very valuable if I had such knowledge during prior modules. For example, when I was designing my HVAC system, I realized that I had a lot of thermal zones that have similar demands to each other but are all physically apart from each other, making ductwork pathway design more difficult than it could have been if I placed these spaces more closer to each other in my initial floor plan layout. By the time I learned this (Week 9), it would already be too time consuming to change my layout and essentially start my project from scratch. Another example is while creating my structural framework, I encountered some clashes where columns had to be in certain locations for the beams, but they ended up blocking openings (like doors and half partitions) in the architectural model. This led to rework where I had to move these openings in the architectural file.
Thus, I would say my biggest lesson learned was how different systems in a building work (so the class itself). This will definitely inform any future work I do in the construction industry. In regards to advice for other students, I would say knowledge in how different systems work (even if rudimentary) is very helpful from the beginning.