Glenn Katz/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
Overview
- Key / Essential / Unique Design Features
In this project, I really wanted to experiment with the materiality of all the building components. Every material, except for the steel supports, was handcrafted through very careful research and concept ideas. The structure of the first floor slab was made in a different way than those of the upper floors, but both had an additional “floor” layer that was only the finish layer so that it could easily be adjusted without messing with the structures themselves, and that if it was changed on one floor, it would change on every single one. The bamboo finish was also a very conscious choice as bamboo is very quick growing and sustainable and makes for a beautiful finish. The walls were also all handmade, which I talk about in the big successes portion, as well as the roofs. I made two roofs—one for a terrace that is accessible from the fifth floor, and the other a green roof that is slanted for drainage that is not accessible to visitors—completely designing the green roof layers from my own research into their composition and substituting less sustainable and artificial materials for better alternatives.
- Your Big Successes -- what worked very well and what features you're most proud to share as examples to inspire others.
I constructed EIFS walls from scratch, replacing polystyrene with a natural alternative, using less toxic coatings, and adding a lot of barriers for vapor and water to elongate the building’s life span and to keep the heat that it trapped from the sunlight inside the building. I’m very happy with how these turned out, especially how they connected with the floor below it correctly, something that I spent many hours trying to figure out exactly how it is supposed to go, what is supposed to overlap, etc.. I also though that the atrium worked very well for getting sunlight and heat into the center of the building, and the abundant windows on the east facing sides (the sun sides) and less on the colder sides helped to trap the heat from the sunlight, as the air is normally very chilly and requires heating 10/12 months to keep buildings comfortable. I was also very proud of my support system, though that was also one of my biggest challenges.
- Your Big Challenges -- what aspects of the project created the biggest challenges and what would you do differently (in hindsight) to avoid or overcome these challenges.
My biggest challenge was probably the structure of the building. There were a lot of things taken into consideration when choosing which material—wood or metal—to make the structure out of, but I eventually went with steel for a few reasons. First, there were a lot of long spans that I would have had to work very hard with wood to achieve, probably adding some trusses or some other supports, and I wanted long open spans that did not need as many columns. Second, knowing that I would have to add an HVAC system right below the beam system, and given how complicated the grid system for my building had to be because every floor was offset to a different place, the drop ceiling that steel allows for to cover all of that ugliness was definitely something that would help with the HVAC process, as trying to route it in an aesthetic way around really complex beams would take way more time than I had, and the drop ceiling went with the aesthetic of the building I had more.
- Lessons Learned -- what sage words of advice would you share with other students who are embarking on a similar project.
If I had to give a word of advice to someone taking this class, I’d say that even though it seems really difficult to do all of these things at first—come up with a building from scratch, design it, make it structurally stable, install HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and lighting systems—if you think ahead through the process, the next steps will be much simpler than if you go into each module blind to the next. For example, like I talked about above, I chose steel for supports because it would allow for greater freedom in the HVAC system placement, as there also wasn’t a route around the floors that would allow the in and out airflows to be on the same plane, so there would have to be two layers of ventilation, and that would just look terribly ugly from the ground. Since it is typical to hide steel anyways with a drop ceiling, this was a perfect combination and saved a lot of time and stress with the following systems. Regarding thinking ahead, I could have done better in this area regarding plumbing, as I did not have any spaces behind my walls to run pipes through and so some had to be visible. Also, I should have put the toilets back to back, mirroring the layout of men’s and women’s multistall restrooms so that there would be two walls with space in between to run pipes through, and adding a little plumbing room would also be extremely helpful for trunk placement. Finally, it is an absolute must to stack your restrooms. If I hadn’t done this, the plumbing would have been a nightmare, and extremely tedious.
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