Final Design Poster

Final Design Drawings

Elevation

Ground Floor Plan

Level 1 Floor Plan

Levels 2-5 Floor Plans

Site Plan

Section

Interior Perspective - Museum

Exterior Perspective

the facade.

I wanted the facade of the research centre to begin to 'peel back' as the building meets the green roof, as can be seen in the rough perspective view above. The design for the Broad Museum in Los Angeles does this really well, incorporating a facade that appears to fold back as it descends to ground level.

research centre: spatial planning.

The museum is fairly simple, elongated exhibition space. The research centre, on the other hand, required more spatial adjacency analysis. The diagram above simply shows the public vs private levels of the building. The private areas, containing the staff facilities, are in the core of the building. The bottom and top levels are public because they are major points of entry into the building from above the cliff at Bowen Tce, as well as from the pedestrian path along the river at the HSW site.

facade systems.

I have decided to use the homeostatic facade system on the museum glass facade that faces the river. The technology was designed by Decker Yeadon, and the system opens and closes itself in response to the amount of light that enters the building. When sunlight hits the silver-coated elastomers, an electric charge is sent across the surface which causes the material to deform. When there is an excessive amount of sunlight, the material expands to provide shading. Alternatively, when the building is not hit by a great deal of natural light, the material contracts to allow more light into the building. This facade system really activates the building to be a 'living' thing, which goes really well with my theme of 'environmental responsiveness.' 

THE BIOMIMICRY STORY

Decker Yeadon's facade system was inspired by muscles, and by homeostasis in biological systems. The actuator that runs the system is similar to muscles. Homeostasis in organisms allows them to regulate their internal conditions such as temperature. Decker Yeadon's facade regulates a building’s climate by automatically responding to environmental conditions. This makes them attuned to local conditions and they use locally available materials and energy.

(http://www.asknature.org/product/0c2046bdbcb82fbcec31c8b4030f6e6b)

http://yazdanistudioresearch.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/kinetic-facade-products/

I really liked the facade system on the Q1 Headquarters building in Germany and wanted to incorporate a similar system in my research centre facade. The 'metal feathers' are controlled by user input and sensor data, so they move and breathe, being open for maximum solar exposure or completely closed. 

Sketch of the configuration of the perforated metal panels.

The different angling of the metal elements also creates an interesting aesthetic. The forms are reminiscent of the rigid rockface and site contours, reinforcing the building's connection with the site.

The research centre will be designed to have a double skin, so that the grid with the perforated metal panels will be the exterior skin that wraps around an inner glass core. This will achieve a 'chimney effect' for the building to allow circulation of air between the skins, which regulates indoor temperature.

Modelling.

Sketch section through the buildings

I was having issues with fully resolving the built form. I had been working only in plan, section and elevation, but building a rough physical model was really helpful in consolidating the design. I also took photos of the model from different angles to help me with drawing an exterior view of the buildings.

I found that modelling up the section of the site where I wanted to place the building was really useful for accuracy of the section and to help me understand the topography.

floor plan.

I finally resolved a floor plan which I think works well in integrating the 2 programs. On the diagram, the dark green represents the ramped areas, while the lighter green is the flat part of the roof. The reason I wanted to incorporate a green roof is because it replenishes much of the green space lost in the building footprint. It also provides an alternate platform of circulation. At this stage I was still struggling with visualising the buildings in 3 dimensional form.