Education 2008-2009 Semester 1

the red units are the supply-nodes.The yellow tubes represent elevators. All this is of course very rough in outline, but the main important factors are represented; a central void in which socializing and supplying should be realized, and the other functions around it.
In order to give it a somewhat realistic feel and scale, I put it in the surroundings, and took the square metres mentioned in the programme into account.
I decided also to give some attention to the lecture halls, because the topic ‘learning’ is not represented within our group. Thinking about the lecture halls having to be different sizes, as stated in the programme, the analogy of a nautilus-shell came to mind. I implented this also in the 3d-sketch above.

Whow, so much information to process… just a few impressions:

Venice, Korean pavillion: books, stored differently

Venice, Australian pavillion: bold colours to attract attention

Venice, Swiss pavillion: curved walls, hard on the outside, soft on the inside

Stuttgart, Porsche-building under construction: unwhole; broken and unfinished

preparation

Okay, the first bit is not exactly on my presentation, but more, part of preparing towards it.
When trying to rationalize my design so far, I was feeling like I was doing something useless. And I wouldn’t want that of course. Therefore, I decided to do some analysis drawings on the total topic of supplying, as shown below. The first three are of the former building for architecture, the last one of the building for industrial design.

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From these drawings, I made conclusions, and from these, some goals.

Conclusions from the analysis:

• Everything that supplies, supplies for something or someone
• This something or someone either exists or moves somewhere - usually close to it
• Supplying entities are not uncommonly positioned near to an area of exposition
• Supplying entities can be divided in two kinds of spaces:

1. Desks – generally where service can be obtained; porter, e-point, camera-lending-point, service point, icto-desk.
2. Rooms – generally where goods can be obtained (some exceptions); printers, copiers, binding, study-advisors, canteen, shop, library, stylos shop, stylos rooms, bouwpub.

presentation

I want:

1. An entrance hall (or area) with direct access to centralized supplying functions (branching out, so to speak)
2. These supplying entities to be independent units, as if they were little buildings inside the big building (but of course less strict weather protection…)
3. The supplying unit should be in the neighbourhood of and oriented to what it supplies for, or oriented so that someone it supplies for, can easily approach it
4. Supply-units throughout the building; decentralized supplies
5. Entry must be level, for accessibility

The first and second point are illustrated in the first presentation slide:

The other points are illustrated in the second slide, the third point in both. Also, an idea for plugging in the entire unit to electricity is shown here.

Parameters

Parameters for the units are displayed in the third slide

Rooms should be defined by:

1. square meters (decided by its content)
2. number, size and orientation of exits/entrances
3. stretched or squashed (which one is fit for its function)
4. relation to whatever it supplies for

(info)Desks should be defined by:

1. number of employees working behind it
2. number of visitors visiting it
3. preferred orientation of the desk

When analyzing the entire scope of supplying, last week Tade and I reached the conclusion that it cannot only be divided into goods, services and information, but also into centralized and decentralized. The canteen, bookshop and the library for example, are normally centralized functions, whereas coffee machines, printers, etc. are wanted throughout the entire building.

The concept of decentralized supply-units is fine by itself, but when coming to the architectural level, I realized that putting a few machines in a certain configuration doesn’t suffice. Therefore I was looking for a way to make the design for my decentralized supply nodes more of an architectural-level of design.

I came to the idea of making supply-nodes. These, being spatial elements within the building or, so to speak, architectural-scale  furniture.  I was diving headlong into different form-aspects of a possible unit, without considering the different goals and the means to achieve them.

Goals

Supply-nodes must be findable. Thus, visible and recognizable.

Supply-nodes must give space to various supplies and processes of supplying.

Supply-nodes must be extendable over a longer time. For example; it should be possible to add extra  components to a node when the number of students increase.

Means

How to make a supply-node visible?

• by making it discernable from its surroundings. A separate space and/or a different colour or material. It might even be done through a different way of lighting the ‘scene’. That will be necessary either way.

How to make it recognizable?

• By creating a coherence between different supply-nodes. This might be in colour, material or spatial properties. Of these, I prefer colour, for it is the most applicable in any context. (e.g. you can make a rabbit and a cube red, but you can’t make a rabbit in the shape of a cube, or a windowpane out of cardboard)

How to create space for various supplies and processes of supplying?

• This question requires a more graphical approach. Will be continued really soon. Of course this is one of the most important questions.

How to make it extendable?

• By using modular components?
• Does that imply linearity?
• Where would these be kept when they are not used? Or would they be so easily made that it doesn’t really matter that we can only use contemporary production methods? (it might be impossible to acquire certain things in the future that are currently commonly available)
• Or by making the entire unit as replaceable as toilet paper. Use it, throw it away. Use a new sheet…

Some extra thoughts

I was considering the attachment of, for example, toilets to the sewer system of the building. Then my mind wandered off a little, thinking: why attach at all? Waterless toilets exist as well. And aren’t toilets one of the most water-consuming things of a building like this, and shouldn’t we think a bit more of the future, also in a sustainable way? So I dug up some information, first to confirm my suspicion that toilets are the main water-consumers in a building like this. And they are. They regularly consume 66%  of the total water-usage in educational buildings.(1)

Waterless toilets exist. What I do not know, is: what scale are such toilets fit for, and how much room does it require in situ?

Then there is of course also the issue of acceptance of such toilets by students and teachers…

(1) Documentation on water usage. (specific for Australia, but seems generally usable for the Netherlands as well: http://www.yourbuilding.org/display/yb/Water+use+and+sustainable+commercial+buildings

First-off: I am posting my blog-entry today, because I wont be able tomorrow.

level: group

Today we (group 4) had a really productive group meeting. We have talked about what it is we want to achieve with our project and how to get some coherence between the parts. We decided upon a central theme, or target:

inspiration through interaction

We thought about several examples of how to achieve this goal:

• We want to have places where people can get inspired by each others work; the design studio is at the same time a place to exhibit. (display case, beamer…)
• We want to give studying people a place in the building where they are visible. This will inspire people to also work hard. (an example was mentioned about the university in Atlanta, where the studying area is divided from the canteen by a soundproof glass plate, preventing the noise, but making lazy people feel guilty they aren’t also studying so hard)
• We want to have places where socializing can take place; people will inspire each other by talking about each others projects.
• Also good lectures and lecture series can be very inspiring. Of course we will need lecture theatres.

We also discussed about several levels of interaction and ways of achieving them. One-on-one contact (furniture), interaction within groups (studios), interaction between groups (layout of the studios)…
Well, someone else in our group has done a better job taking notes during the discussion, maybe this person can also say something about all of this.

level: one-on-one

Within our group, Tade Godbersen and I were assigned the same subject: Supplying. After our group-meeting, we set out to divide which part of supplying each of us would take, because until then, we had both made a (very) preliminary design of the cafeteria, which were quite similar.
We did not want to be designing the same element, so we both chose a different subject to tackle.

The topic of supplying can not only be divided into ‘goods’ / ‘information’ / ’services’, but also into ‘centralized’ and ‘decentralized’. Certain functions are handier to be placed at a central point, such as a cafeteria, other things are necessary all around the school, or in both locations. There is even a third placement; things that are accessible via the internet. In the diagram I made before, I coloured most elements, divided by these placements, as shown: (click image to enlarge)

Thus, Tade will be dealing with one of the centralized elements, whereas I will be concerning myself with decentralized elements.

level: one alone

The decentralized supplies can either be spread out through the building evenly, or clustered in several supply-clusters. For clarity, I would like to do the latter. Each cluster might contain the following elements:

• food and drinks; coffee and tea, sodas, snacks (always)
• a tap (always)
• A4/A3-printers (always)
• One or more ‘info-columns’; a computer which is always logged in, with, basically, only a web browser installed. This allows, for example, checking of timetables and other information, or to show a co-student images that you’ve emailed to yourself or uploaded somewhere. (always)
• some seating, to allow for social interaction in a relaxed environment (always)
• a place to post announcements, such as posters for lecture series, ads for instemmingen, etc. (always)
• a smoking place, also for social interaction (sometimes)
• toilets (sometimes)

I have made some preliminary sketches, also incorporating in some of them the chair which Harikrishnan has designed… We will still have to confer about this.

I made sketches of three variants. One with a smoking room, one with toilets, and one without either. The shapes are, of course, not definitive. It is about the general idea of combining these functions in one unit.

Some background-toughts

Any university has (or should have) these two goals:

• To acquire knowledge
• To pass on knowledge

Two main activities are instrumental in achieving these goals: research and teaching, both of these activities could also be described as learning.
Two parties are the main players in this play: professors and students. Their roles: researching and teaching, learning and researching.

Delft University of Technology (together with Enschede and Eindhoven) takes a rather special place in the field of Dutch universities, having a strong interest not only in a sort of virtual knowledge, but also in applying knowledge in concrete situations. Where Leiden writes thesis’s on theories about early Latin language development, Delft researches not only solar ray energy, but also designs a car running on solar energy. Thus, we may conclude one extra activity: designing. This activity also may be described as learning.

Now, coming to the general subject of our design, the faculty of Architecture, we might want to quantify the percentages in which these activities take place. (Measured, for example, in hours.) However, we must first define other activities, which are all meant to be serviceable to the main goals and, as such, to the main activities.
I have been given the task of designing one of these supporting activities, namely Supplying.

Organizing. All things are supposed to go smooth. And there are either people or systems or both necessary to make this happen.

Socializing is an very important part in a school for architecture. It facilitates networking and inspiration. When talking to each other, people are able to generate new ideas, creative processes have a greater chance of occurring. Networking is important for students individually in order to get ahead professionally. Something to do with EQ versus IQ.

This is where my topic enters the story

What would you do on the faculty of architecture if you didn’t have internet? What would your lecturer do if there were no electricity? Or someone to help him to get the beamer working… You need to be supplied with all the things that are necessary for the faculty to run. Where to get your books? The library. The shop. Where to eat, where to print, where to make your 3D models? You need to be supplied with all kinds goods, services and information.

All these activities together make up a network of activities, which, together, make up the total system of education.

Thinking about how all these supplies would get through the building and mixing this thought with some thinking-activity about the building-components-are-organs-thing, I think I’m having to conclude that there are several different analogies for supplying, as illustrated in this picture:

What we are seeing in this picture is that the veins, nerves and other means of transporting things through our body, can be used as analogies for supplying water, electricity and internet through the building, whereas the actual organs can be used as analogies to different locations, either centralized, or maybe decentralized (for example the kidneys), where supplies can be retrieved by users.

Furthermore, to get some insight in the task I was given, I made this mindmap-diagram, click to see full size: