Skyscraper Design Morphologies

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Skyscraper Design Morphologies

Stevens Institute-Product Architecture-Engineering Design Program

Skyscraper Design Morphologies-Neil Katz (SOM) / Ajmal Aqtash (SOM)

Integrated Design Workshop and Seminar Lecture Series

The research / design studio will investigate emerging systems by utilizing dynamic responsive form finding techniques to generate morphologies that will facilitate the growth and development of intelligent skyscraper design. Student teams will be asked to research concepts that present geometries or solutions for intelligent building designs, many of which can be found in nature or natural evolutionary systems. The research / design studio will focus on various performance-based design strategies and advanced design tools that are, or can be, used as part of an iterative design process. A mixture of physical and digital simulation techniques will be a key factor in shaping these building geometries. Student teams will investigate existing and new building enclosures systems that address and incorporate sustainability in driving forward well-integrated buildings. Towers in a mixed-use environment enabling the city of New York to move forward into the next generation of well-engineered buildings – buildings genetically attuned for such an environment – will be one of the driving goals of the studio. Coverage of recent advances in digital technologies for design, fabrication, and material science – and how they are applied towards developing architecture – will be a key focus in developing concepts which sustain the notion of a Digital Design Ecosystem.

An important component of the course is geometry. We start with simple concepts and explore how they relate to a building’s form, systems, and analysis. Eventually student teams will be responsible for resolving complex geometries, understanding how to streamline these geometries into the fabrication of components, and the economic considerations intrinsic to the realization of such strategies themselves. Fabrication concepts will be reviewed and integrated within each project.

In addition to the team “skyscraper” projects, each student individually will select a topic (from the following list: L-systems, the Golden Section, higher dimensions, folding, fractals, minimal surfaces; or suggest a topic for approval) and create a research paper, demonstrating an understanding of the concepts and documenting known or possible applications in architecture.

Site:

New York City, Moynihan Station Towers

Program:

Mixed use (total square footage:2.5 million sqft.)

Office:

Commercial:

Retail:

Week 1: August 28th

Class Overview:

Brief description about the design studio will be introduced to the students. The description will express the schedule for the semester and the topics that will be covered each week. The topics are broken down in two days a week.

Tuesday (Aug. 28): Neil Katz / Ajmal Aqtash

Thursday (Aug. 30): no lesson-class; will resume the following week on Tuesday

Week 2: September 4th

History of the Skyscraper:

Introduction to the social, economic, and technological forces leading to the development of tall structures, skyscrapers, and super-tall buildings. History of skyscraper design in America (New York, Chicago), internationally (Europe, The Middle East, and Asia) and the (ongoing) race to build the world’s tallest building.

Tuesday (Sept. 4): Neil Katz (Math-Lab)

Improvements in structural systems and concepts, fabrication techniques, and design technologies allowed taller and slenderer buildings. Environmental consciousness encourages urban environments as well as overcoming design challenges (such as non-uniformity) that were not possible until recently.

Find a built example; describe the advances which make this example possible, and analyze the building from a geometric point-of-view. [possible examples to consider: works of R. Buckminster Fuller, Antonio Gaudi, Santiago Calatrava; gothic cathedrals]

Thursday (Sept.6): Ajmal Aqtash (Morph-Lab)

Guest Speaker (Sept. 6): TBA

Week 3: September 11th

Morphology:

Investigate morphologies found in nature that will reveal emergent systems for tower design enclosures, design cores and design structures. Develop a language to convey certain morphological performances and generate a chart-taxonomy of shapes found. Students will be asked to identify few examples to research and develop through out semester.

Tuesday (Sept. 11): Neil Katz (Math-Lab)

Transformations occur frequently in nature, and are occurring more frequently in skyscrapers, for reasons indicated above. Examples will be shown of some of the drawings of M.C. Escher and William Huff. We will create a transforming pattern in two dimensions (using scripting) [this week]. Extending these into three dimensions will be explored [next week].

We will look at the following concepts: polygons (generic, regular, semi-regular, duals, etc.), tessellations, transformations. We will also begin to explore proportions, and how they relate to polygons, and architecture. Beginning to explore curves, we will study conic sections, curve-creating functions (sine, cosine), and splines.

Thursday (Sept.13): Ajmal Aqtash (Morph-Lab)

Guest Speaker (Sept. 13): TBA

Week 4: September 18th

Structural Systems:

Introduction to concepts and ideas in the development of tall structures and their associated support frameworks, including: Vertical/horizontal systems, diagonal grids (diagrids), x-bracing, space frames, cable-nets, internal shear-wall/ concrete cores.

Tuesday (Sept. 18): Neil Katz (Math-Lab)

Extending last week’s concepts into three dimensions, we will look at polyhedra (regular (platonic), semi-regular, duals, etc.), tessellations, transformations, slicing, unfolding.

Thursday (Sept 20): Ajmal Aqtash (Morph-Lab)

Guest Speaker (Sept. 20): TBA

Week 5: September 25th

Environmental Systems: Digital Development and Simulation:

Discussion on the development and use of digital design technology, and the implementation of simulation methodologies to simultaneously associate metaphoric and programmatic geometry to implicit, resultant, environmental/behavioral characteristics.

Tuesday (Sept. 25): Neil Katz (Math-Lab)

Many types of environmental analysis require some understanding of geometry and/or physics: for example, wind studies and thermal transfer use computational fluid dynamics (CFD)), and sun studies require vector/plane relationships and projections. Happily, tools designed for this type of analysis do much of the computational work for us, but an understanding of the physical and geometry involved is essential.

We will find simple shadow areas, and compute sun incidence angles.

Thursday (Sept.27): Ajmal Aqtash (Morph-Lab)

Guest Speaker (Sept. 27): TBA

Week 6: October 2nd

Building Core Technologies:

Introduction to design of efficient building cores. Integration of vertical transportation and egress (building safety) systems along robust, internal, spines. Introduction to lease-span concepts (measurement of commercial space from building core to exterior curtain wall), and floor layouts having a direct relationship to elevator drop offs.

Tuesday (Oct. 2): Neil Katz (Math-Lab)

Often three factors in a skyscraper compete with each other: building form, core layout, and lease spans. Each may need to sacrifice some sense of “purity” or “ideal” to make the building work or be more efficient.

[find exercise]

In a transforming tower (either the teams’ projects, or, of more appropriate, a new “simple” transforming tower), document each floor, indicating the following: floor number and elevation, gross area, core area, net area, and lease spans.

Thursday (Oct. 4): Ajmal Aqtash (Morph-Lab)

Guest Speaker (Oct. 4): TBA

Week 7: October 9th

Curtain Wall Systems:

Discussion on documentation of curtain wall systems, and options that have been (or are being) implemented within SOM projects. Will review options that have made an impact on curtain wall design.

Tuesday (Oct. 9): Neil Katz (Math-Lab)

Curtain walls need to be well-performing and efficient. Particularly in non-uniform towers, optimizing a curtain wall is often a challenging geometric effort.

[find exercise]

Thursday (Oct. 11): Ajmal Aqtash (Morph-Lab)

Guest Speaker (Oct. 11): TBA

Week 8: October 16th

Midterm Review :

Review student team’s work, student teams will be presenting to all.

Tuesday (Oct. 16): no class

Thursday (Oct. 18): Midterm review

Guest critics will be invited.

Week 9: October 16th

Morphology:

Review student team’s work.