Student Submissions Feedback

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Student Submission Feedback

Feedback on coursework submissions and presentations

Many of the comments apply to many of the students.
Some apply to individual students
Most students will benefit from reading all of the notes
The following are guidance on a good approach
You need to understand where your project fails to address the approach and edit or add to solve it
These notes do not set out to answer ‘what do I need to do to raise my score to get a pass’
But if you respond positively to them then you are likely to get a pass.
Red text is highlighting existing comments relevant to the student
Grey tone has been edited
Red text and grey tone is new for the students particular attention

Some of these notes are written at the end of the 12 weeks and may be premature for individual homework stages

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Index (this text is approximately 26 pages of A4)

Tasks 2-11
Information content and order:
Presentation.
Non-UK Projects.
Drawing content.
ETFE Facades.
Show stuff.
Layout and text.
Illustrations.
Understand the principle to be able to use it.
Show relevant information
Task 2 Brief.
Ensure that the work responds to the brief.
Building Use or Programme.
Short life projects.
Case Study (if you are not designing a building in studio).
Repeat and modify the exercise for proposed modification.
Repeat and modify the exercise for proposed buildings.
Repeat and modify the exercise for existing case studies.

Some of these notes are written at the end of the 12 weeks and may be premature for individual homework stages

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Information content and order:

Put your name and student number on it
Front cover: if it shows the site show your building on it too
A panoramic view picking up one elevation of your building would have been better
Photographs of site could show the building photo-montaged so we can both see how it sits in its context
Is it a blot on the landscape and does it respect the castle and cathedral?
Does it turn its back on the cathedral or face it and enjoy its spectacle?
Would this building become an important viewing platform for the cathedral and have you provided for it?
How does it obliterate the views from city to ocean?
Showing the building in isolation in 3D views just pretends the context does not exist if this is a diagram then it needs some labels and notes to explain itself
The 3D drawings are inconsistent with the plans (plan proportion of escalator well to start with)
3D views have no N Point so solar orientation, solar access, solar penetration and shading cannot be considered
The Context drawings show considerable overshadowing of the existing buildings do they have rights of light as we do in the UK? Do you have to compensate the existing buildings for loss of sun?

Some of these notes are written at the end of the 12 weeks and may be premature for individual homework stages

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Presentation

When you present your work in a crit you are there to present and say stuff and answer questions.
Always assume you are presenting your work to somebody who does not know the project at all.
Now assume you are not there and it has to present itself.
This type of submission needs to stand-alone and speak for itself.
It needs site plan, floor plans, sections and elevations, detail sections, servicing schematics
Try to include information that explains the project without you there and in an order that makes sense.
Imagine for a moment that you are presenting this information to a client or to a project design team.
Its best to start talking from the beginning rather than waiting until slide/page 35 before opening your mouth, hoping everybody guessed what you were thinking about.
When you open your mouth, the first thing you talk about should not be heating and cooling it should be the building use and how your building supports the use.
Analyse the site and the problem (Brief/Programme) then offer the solution that meets your brief.
When you finally start talking about services, you should have already mentioned the building, its use and the climate that sets the context for the services.
Make sure the content of the document is consistent from beginning to end
If you add ventilation and solar shading to the services strategy show them in your sections, elevations and views
If you decide not to add them because they will spoil the architecture, then there is a lesson to be learned there.
Don’t say your going to do one thing, then show another, without explaining the change
Many of these low scoring submissions fail in this respect.

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Non-UK Projects

If the project is not in the UK virtually everything you may have been taught in a UK course needs to be reconsidered for the other country’s climate.
Mediterranean climate buildings must consider solar gain overheating, solar shading, decrement delay, thermal mass as the primary issues to address, heating season is secondary but still important.
Metal cladding and foamed plastic insulation as the external walls and roofs will permit solar gains to over heat the interiors in 20 minutes
Does the external random shape size position components constitute solar protection blades?
Are these components shown in the section?
The glossy view of the accommodation answers very little more than the section and ends up raising many new questions
High performance argon glazing will prevent the heat from getting out through closed windows
A priority must be to have secure window ventilation to ventilate and prevent burglar entry
A composite metal deck concrete floor contradicts precast floors with embedded heating pipes and
A metal soffit denies the opportunity for exploitation of any thermal mass at ceiling level.
Every tenant would be forced to invest in air-conditioning units, fitted all over the facades and light wells leading to further acoustic and thermal pollution and carbon outputs.
Or the tenants will move out and the developer will sue the architect for loss of rent or sales.
Stainless steel facades in a sunny country will lead to excessive glare, migraines, and accidents.
Where addressing air leakage is regarded as fundamental no methods are described to achieve it.
Air permeable insulation does little to stop heat passing through in the air
Analyse you building use(s) and the conditions required for it/them and the conditions created by it/them.
Consider passive and active building fabric solutions to meet those needs before mechanical and electrical services.
Gallery archives probably need tightly controlled temperature and moisture conditions
Consider if there are ‘excess to requirements’ from one activity that can deliver the ‘requirements’ of another.
If so how?
Can ‘gains’ from one side of the building be moved to or shared with the other side and visa versa?
If so how?

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Drawing content

Consider every page as a design opportunity and display the content to best effect, fill the page
Don’t waste paper space resulting in small text, fill the page
If you have plenty of room make the font bigger so its readable on a laptop and when hung on the wall
make the text large enough to be readable and high resolution so when zoomed they are still readable
Add legends to explain the content of diagrams, if its important and I cannot read it I cannot judge it or consider it later
If you add a colour legend make sure the colours match in the legend and the diagram and explain the illustration
Change the scale to see the building not the surrounding when explaining the components of the facade
If you add number legends and then put the numbers outside of the diagrams add lines to connect the parts
Plans that do not show what the text refers to (roads and underground stations) are unhelpful
Describing the location and site is good but throwing in solar gain is out of context
Saying the building extends onto the public square is contradicted by the drawings
Having done the analysis: show the building (at least one/two students did not bother)
Show the building at a scale that can be studied any smaller than 1:200 is a waste of time
Use a scale that most people have a rule to use 1:200, 1:250, 1:500 not 1:300
Is it 1:300 at A3 or has it been shrunk to get 4 sheets to a page? Is it 1:600? Or worse?
If it’s a PowerPoint to be projected or seen on screen what scale at what size?
Other places 1:300 is a different size but still says 1:300 (1:300 at A?)
Add the scale to the drawings, show furniture or people to give scale
North point, Building names (next to the building), Building functions, room names (in the rooms), plant rooms, service cores, lifts, escalators, furniture layouts and equipment in place,
Show difference between indoors and outdoors in plan and section.
In section make it clear what is in section and what is in view, use line weight to distinguish between solid, glass and open, too many grids makes interpretation of building difficult.
Make sure its easy to tell which is solid wall and which is window or glass in plans and sections
If you show a tree in a section then show it on the plans too and visa versa so it can be found in both to help understand the building layout
In plan make sure its easy to understand what is partition, skeleton, and wall and pattern on floors, use bolder lines to indicate parts in section and lighter lines for parts in view, your plans are unreadable and become uninteresting
Make sure its clear what is floor and what is void
Floor plans are so congested with stuff is there room for customers?
Other floors there is no stuff
Some of the stuff overhangs the moving platform
Lots of people looking at blank walls is not a good ITC shopping experience, no wonder they are hot under the collar with anger
Using translucency in 3D views can lead to confusion: e.g. is something above or below ground?
Disability Discrimination Act requires access to all areas by wheel chair.
Where are the lifts? Wheel chairs and escalators don’t work with each other
Plans with no floor numbers, no room names and no N point, no entrance, no reception, no doors,
Sections show fully enclosed escalator and lift core but plans show some open plan some closed
No doors shown between rooms and risers
Ways in and out of the auditorium are missing, the plans do not work, where was your studio tutor during all this?
The library layouts are inefficient and show no librarians counters, shelf rows are impenetrable
All 4 escalators rising in the same direction means much time and distance walked to rise through the building
Some escalators are longer in section but consistent in plans
Ramps and staircases to basements require gorges to be cut in the pavement
Gorges creating barriers in the public realm need to be shown.
Escape tubes and landings need to be considered and their impact on circulation
Do escape tubes offer an opportunity to avoid the cashiers or are they for the non-buyers?
It’s as if they are introduced without ever understanding the impact or space syntax and hoping nobody will ask.
Gorges will create rainwater entry points that need to be considered in the services design
If new in the context of old, show it in plan(s), section(s) elevation(s) not just aerial oblique views that ‘hide a multitude of sins’
Show at least one column in context in detail, one to pavement and one through roof to site level
If multiple building on plans tone/colour code to help in reading relationships of space to each other or all the work done is futile as there is no desire to be drawn in to discover the project’s magic, if in fact there is any.
Font size: make sure its readable and try to avoid numbering rooms on plans or components in a section with a separate list
If you do have a list make sure:
- All items are indicated on the drawing (No. X missing?)
- You do not repeat items (No. X & y)
- You do not have numbers in the drawing not in the list (No. Z)
- You put the right number on each element (floor and No. V is wrong)
Entrance and Plant room are outdoors
Central staircase is not central
What are red dots on plans?
What are the blue dots and attached shapes
Main entrance is on two floors, which is the main?
A piece of kit over hangs the moving platform
Tall people crash into the kit
Show chairs on plans
Try to use the same numbers in each legend to be the same thing
Text floating is space needs to be connected to the building to show where it applies
Spell and grammar check in word processing software and read your notes before pasting them into your drawings, use the right words.
Try to get into the habit of illustrating your analysis work with thumbnail sketches of your own.
A picture per paragraph and paragraph per picture
A picture tells a thousand words
Practice sketching until they get better
If your first sketch could be improved, improve it.

Student Submissions (Feedback)
ETFE Facades

If there is no façade to design (e.g. EFTE bubble wrap) explore, design and enjoy the details of the structure, decks, stairs and façade attachment and services.
Even bubble wrap comes in sheet or roll sizes that need jointing and securing the jointing layout becomes the façade design which dictates the supporting framing or its wasteful, so design it.

Show stuff

Show structure in the sections: supporting columns without connecting beams and cranked beams for stairs, ramps and escalators, will not support the proposals, a concrete wall could support a floor and span between columns but only if you show how the loads are transferred and stresses are resolved.
Show adequate thickness thermal, acoustic and fire insulation and make sure its continuous and there are no thermal or acoustic bridges
Show insulation to services or enclosure
Show services separation where required, including airtightness measures
Show opening vents in all locations where you plan to have them
Showing a steel column on a concrete footing and then shading it as if it’s concrete shows the student does not understand what is being copied.
Showing internal partitions with membranes normally used in external walls shows the student does not understand what is being copied.
Which timber walls are highly insulated: is it all glass walls to external wall?
The windows will be incredibly expensive to do what’s being asked
Using USA sourced information with imperial data needs translation to metric
Make sure the images of the building are light enough to see the drawing and its detail

Layout and text

A3 landscape is the default
Don’t stretch text across A3 in one go it becomes tiresome to read
If you paste in text make sure it word wraps not disappear under images
Add columns, 2 or 3 would be nice
Please avoid bulk text covering many subjects
Break it down into chunks and give each part a title (like this document)
Use succinct bullet points and start sentences on a new line (like this document)
Illustrate the text
More description needed

Illustrations

Missing details of construction, materials, solar mitigation, walls, floors, roofs, glazing, partitions,
If images are borrowed from other sources:
Acknowledge the source
Make sure they have some relevance to the project
You show mono-pitch in your building and pitched roof in your construction drawings
You say shingles and show tiles
Redraw information to be correct for your project and lean about construction in the process
No railways sleeper cladding
No timber frame basement walls!
Eaves detail appear to have little or no relevance to your project
Passivhaus requires mechanical ventilation with heat recovery
Positive pressure Mechanical Ventilation system and pitch roof is not relevant to your project
Make sure the proposals in words are the same as the proposal in drawings
Please don’t have a statement with an illustration 30 pages further on.
Axonometric views of plans are unhelpful,
If you have to show them stacked above each other make sure they are setout in the same position
Check your plans especially if they show staircases from one floor not aligning with the stairs on the next floor or missing in one floor and then reappearing two floors further up.
Multi-storey or single storey high level buildings need lifts or escalators to get to higher floors especially if they extend above existing roof lines, consider the users of the buildings, especially if they are rich young advertising executives, who will expect to be pampered.

Understand the principle to be able to use it

There is evidence of a great deal of grasping at design principles without thorough understanding.
Ground source heat can go to any floor using pipes
Concrete has thermal mass (absorbs heat) if exposed and exploited, columns alone will be insufficient to provide thermal mass to have much effect.
Concrete is not highly insulating so needs to be insulated (lower floor, light wells and roofs)
Concrete is not energy efficient you need to expand on that statement to explain it
LEDs in suspended ceilings prevent the thermal mass being on show so there may not be enough thermal mass to cope with 100 % glazed walls, if the sun hits the building
Timber has less thermal mass but can offer decrement delay (delays heat transfer through it if part of external wall or roof, little or none on this job)
Large glazing windows or doors can be operated by humans too, mechanical control only can be a problem if they fail
Fail-safe open or closed? In winter closed? In summer open? In between?
Embodied energy and embodied carbon are not related to energy efficiency
Resource efficiency is related to embodied energy and embodied carbon
The cement in the concrete is the high embodied energy and carbon bit of the equation not the aggregate
Concrete is not the only material to make the floors and roofs, it could be timber
100%-glazed wall could be supported by concrete columns not concrete wall but notes are very unclear, the columns would be cold bridge and will need to be insulated well.
Sections need to be annotated and use graphic conventions for materials; a load of lines means nothing.
London is on the East of the country and relatively dry

Show relevant information

When most of the construction looks like insitu concrete to show 100% glazed façade as an example construction detail makes little sense.
When the glazed façade is an atrium to show 100% glazed façade between floors, as an example construction detail makes no sense.

Task 2 Brief

Ensure that the work responds to the brief.

To compete with Apple (almost entirely free of virus) Microsoft (almost all viruses aimed at their software) as a client would probably find the prospect of promoting a virus as part of the corporate identity as a death wish. Microsoft would never make that part of their brief, so it all comes from you, can you sell the idea, and I doubt it very much. However breaking into their market is something that might appeal.
Apple would argue that Microsoft are sloppy programmers demanding more RAM to process it all, there is an analogy to be had when you break the façade and squander energy.
If you decide to break the façade then you should consider how you would make the space comfortable for shoppers how is the heating delivered and where, how does it mitigate against cold wind and heat loss.
If you break the façade how do you control precipitation entry?
Water and electricity when combined in a random way make potentially interesting let alone deathly experiences.
Warping the façade turns this into an exercise in graphic design or software manipulation and leaves architecture behind, despite MJs desire to turn out graphic designers rather than architects, I am not impressed. Please strive to be your own person aiming to be an Architect, not a clone of the lecturer, and not a graphic designer.
Despite all of the above I will try to me helpful in the remainder of this crit.
Use the brief sub-titles as your submission sub-titles
Rationalise the information provided into discrete subjects
- (Check the titles of a drawing or page reflect the content and visa versa)
- If there is integration or interaction between services and fabric cross reference between them
If your stage A and B reports have different approaches explain why you changed you mind in between
State assumptions, be critical, we can all learn by trying to be better, this or next time.

Roman Catholics can confess their sins and be free of guilt, but does that just give the weak willed an excuse to do it again?
Samaritans success is a private phone service from the privacy of your home
Burning man festival in USA has a building where people write down their messages on the building and the building gets burned down at the end of the week.
The maze is only secret until the next person comes round the bend into your space.
How does the maze guide the visitor to the entrance? There is little guiding in the maze plan.
Its very permeable at it edges where people may get lost out of the system.
The Science Museum has/d a display of live information from mobile texting displayed on a wall of monitors, could this technology be considered here too?
Your procession is well considered, but I think the people may come and have as much for the fun experience of the space and may not spend as much, too many cashiers for a slow process through the cocoons?
How is the software displayed?
How is the hardware displayed? How is it supported?
Where is the site entrance?
Where is the building entrance?
Where is the recyclate delivery?
You make no use of the dock as a materials access point?
You make no use of the dock side for interesting viewing for visitors and students at lunch break
You make no use of the dock side for display of sculptures made by the students
Your building appears to block a path along the dockside
Is there a reason for spreading the building so wide across the site? In so many Buildings?
The exploded view of the building without circulation route is unhelpful, that comes on page 20 and in isolation

Building Use or Programme

Your programme is one line long, the remainder addresses issues called for and repeated in other pages
Your introduction to the planes is interesting but the only point of relevance is the weight of the Halifax which you indicate is an ‘issue’
Your analysis of the structure ignores the ‘issue’ and shows no strengthening for the ‘issue’
Precedent: shows no hanging planes, but does show how strengthening could be introduced.
Views do not show the suspension system for the ‘Issue’
You have copied information straight from Borough Literature/website as if it were your own
- It makes you sound intelligent but it is not yours
- But you have some how added spelling errors into their text.
- You have repeated the ‘Clients Brief’ word for word as your ‘Potential response’
- Making you look less intelligent.
- Your potential response is not borne out in your proposal or its details.
- Edit text on Word or word processor and fix typing, spelling and grammar errors before copying into drawings
- The spelling is poor and not proofread so it undermines your project.
- The words you have introduced and wrong Hemp is Hemb in your text and both on next page
Explain the primary and any secondary purpose of the building in your own words: there is more to it than 3 aircraft
What happens in the ground floor between the two hangers?
Where is your disabled access to restaurant and toilets
The farm is not a farm but a raised planter and no more.
Temporary building build for 6 months store for 6 months and build for 6 months
- Or recycled (as suggested on Accoya page)
If farming is 9 months and the building 6 months what happened in the other 3 months?
- Where are the tools for the farm in 3 months?
You have ignored this aspect in everything you have shown subsequently
- The design has no temporary nature to it
- Nothing about it is easy to assemble, disassemble or store
- Who is going to assemble it and disassemble it?
- Where is it going to be stored?
- Have you considered how shapes will pack to allow it’s compact storage
- Big cantilever and big rain entrance is constructed and not easy to take apart
Explain the layout with comprehensive annotation don’t miss number out or add shading that obliterates
The floor plan suggests a WC block, plant room and store room and you have not show the layout of any of them; on such a small project I expect you to do it all.
- This is less complicated than a house.
- What WC provision? For whom?
- What plant?
- What is being stored?
How can this tiny little project be justifiable at Part 2 Year 1?
It’s just an elaborate garden shed, with little other purpose.
There is not obvious market stall in the drawings so how is the produce to be sold?
Could the pavilion not have fold down market stalls?
How do market stalls get laid out in the space?
The Borough could probably do all this with 4 market stalls and would, given the complexity and cost.
The farm is about the size of an allotment, how much food will be produced?
The pedestrian routs of the site analysis are not provided with paths to match one whole in the façade has no path.

Short life projects

Should consider short life materials, however if long life materials are used then design for deconstruction must be considered to allow reclaiming for reuse.
- Cement mortar for granite floors for 15 years life is irresponsible.
- Consider instead lime mortar or sand bedding and sand jointing

Case Study (if you are not designing a building in studio)

The Tesco Eco Store case study

Some statements standout as odd and difficult to interpret or justify,
- needs more care with choice of words:
Timber is an extremely effective isolating material
- (don’t understand: acoustic, thermal, decrement, fire, and moisture?)
- with high-energy efficiency (disagree poor k value)
Sustainable End of Life Criteria: High recycled content (no connection)
Resin and wood fibre panel (does not seem to match objectives)
Timber cladding is 100% recyclable (better to be reclaimable and reusable)
Offers embedded/ carbon energy saving 8% (do you mean embodied energy or embodied carbon and the % is likely to be different with each)
Results in no wastage (should say: no site wastage, there will be waste in the factory unless you design it)
Rooflight nanogel core (working characteristics sound interesting but is not explained in any detail)
- Is the confusing aerogel and Nano technology?
- Or is this a proprietary name of a product?

Project comparisons

Unilever HQ uses passive ventilation unlike yours

Task 3 Survey

Analyse the site and the buildings within and around the site

Is the site a listed building or in a conservation area?
History and context of site: how has this informed your design?
You mention many new developments but I do not think they are shown on the plans
How will your proposal respond to the new developments?
With so many cultural buildings in the near vicinity is this building justifiable? What are its specific qualities to fill a gap in the current offering?
Topology: the monster on the skyline in the photo is missing in your sections
At this scale its unclear if your building is in Sections AA and BB but is missing from CC and DD
Red arrows on plans suggest two possible entries at two different levels
No entrance/reception is show on the two lowest floors, how do they get in?
You say the winds are strong but only 11-12 knots which is almost still
If the winds are strong you could have exploited them
Wind off the sea are potentially cooling you could have exploited it
How will you exploit any of the things you found out about the site?
Building Location on site: plan with shadows that are closer to sunset time are misleading and are not long enough for sunset.

Site Resources:

The harbour is close enough to exploit its resources by way of pipelines.
Prevailing wind and and sea cooled wind could be exploited
Solar mitigation shutters are mentioned but not needed if the windows are to the north
Actuated windows will be necessary
Active and passive ventilation systems are noted as potentially exploitable and needed, but mechanical ventilation and air-conditioning is already mentioned elsewhere, you need to decide and be clear.
How do you justify scaring the face of an old friend?
Would Londoners hate you for this?
Show the site: nowhere is there a view (photos or sketches) of the site, showing the shape of the space and the height of surrounding buildings, if you never looked you have no idea what the challenges are, from this proposal I don’t think you even looked. If you looked you did not see or understand.
Your building will block windows of adjacent buildings; a large eaves overhang putting the whole building in shade most of the time overhangs it.
Determine what can be obtained free, passively from the immediate surroundings, adjacent infrastructure, existing buildings, site surface, ground, ground water, water courses, air, air movement, solar gains, daylight, moonlight.
One statement about Urban Topography does not then explain your interpretation of the Urban Climate or Urban Heat Island Effect and your ‘building’s’ response to it.
Existing adjacent buildings above ground will contribute nothing to the solar protection of a buried building on adjacent ground
They may add to urban heat island effect and heat the ground around and above the buried building
Its unclear how zones of high conductivity affect anything, it fails to explain itself
Dismissing wind turbines due to noise in an urban area like London is a bit weak, when the reason that turbines are wrong is because its an urban area with variable skyline that will disturb the wind, and London is a shallow geographical bowl, all of which will result in inefficiency with this form or renewable energy.
Wind turbine is mentioned and suggested it must be x m higher, than what?
Wind study that says SW prevailing wind says very little that we do not already know
Considering a turbine facing in one direction denies 80% of the wind for the rest of the year, the tower near the LSBU is an example of how not to do it
The wind turbine is not mentioned again
No analysis is made of the form of the buildings spaces and roofs
Diagrams with more than one colour needs a legend to explain itself
Many of the site analysis diagrams do not explain themselves, despite the interpretation you provide
Charts without words to explain themselves are a waste of paper space
Charts that do not show the building or even resemble the building could have been taken from anywhere else and are of no value unless explained
Charts without explanation or interpretation or application are useless
Weather Charts go into too much detail, but then there is no interpretation to inform the brief or the design process or choice of materials and servicing strategy
Site plan with angled grid of lines gives no clue about what on the site determined the angle adopted, if anything
Is there a desire line?
Analyse the site, then show your response to it, or it just looks like post rationalization for a design that popped out of your head from no where, or copied from somewhere else
Is the municipal waste segregation site on the same site? How do the students get their materials? How does the LA choose what to supply to the students?
Site geography: Good scaling down maps to the site but where is the site on the borough map?
No maps to show the location from large global or continental scale down to site
Is the site currently a car park? If so where did you move the cars too?
The views are noted as 60 degrees but show roughly 15 degrees.
This and other pages should come earlier in the document.
You have described details of the surround area but not shown them on the maps nor illustrated them
Eventually London City Airport? But it already exists!
What did you learn from the geology, that informs the project?
Light Analysis: Trees to West will cast shadows in the evening not the morning look at your diagrams
Site Topology: Is there a flood risk here? Other students identified the airfield as having flood risks
Geology statement: it’s thin and not illustrated and your foundation depth is inadequate for clay.
Geology statement: none
I still don’t know where the Silo is
The royal docks map: not a single word on the map to locate the text and still no site indicated
Site Weather: Is Heathrow relevant enough what about London City Airport?
Site Solar Access: I still cannot see the site indicated.
I think the view of the model is orientated incorrectly compared with the map, no mention of elevated train and if it overshadows the site.
Site Resources: only considered solar thermal and shows its plumbing not the site
Rainwater harvesting: it’s another shame there is no schematic showing the proposals in the text and watering the farm, flowers or landscape on the site
Rainwater harvesting could have been introduced for WC flushing at the very least
The 2^nd in line filter also needs a drain
Could have included a diagram of RWH and WC Flushing
Why two systems of water supply to WCs you could use rainwater for landscape irrigation
Is there a basement if so is there a flood risk here?
Your analysis of the site goes from satellite image to plot, without ever showing the location of the site, its orientation its surrounding context or N point.
You mention the Thames river, normally know as River Thames or Thames Estuary
You do not mention how far it is
The Thames is tidal so the site is both Urban and Marine atmosphere, how will that affect your proposal
Does a plane being brought into the building have wingspans that damage the surrounding trees?

Stealing from adjacent land and buildings

Stealing the neighbour’s gardens to incorporate into your design or extending the site boundary by 10 m in an urban area are not what I had in mind, nor did the neighbours.
Smoothing out the corners of neighbouring building to accommodate a new building is not free either and would require legal party wall agreements and compensation payments, which in London would be excessively high.
Stealing many pieces of floor area from many other surrounding buildings and applying your random geometry to these stolen spaces is madness that needs to be justified.
Where are the existing functions to be decanted to?
But I assume your tutor allowed you do run this dream/nightmare and so I will try to respond accordingly.
If you propose to make a building that defies any logic or business sense then should you not propose an IT solution that can make it work?
Stealing pavement & access road space to place columns to support the ‘building’ without ever showing the column places on a plan, means you have either never considered the impact of the columns on the urban space, architecture, buildings, extensive labyrinth of basements across the square, roofs, sewers and services, space syntax, circulation, places, hard landscape, or you’re ashamed to show them to the reviewer?
The only view of columns is an aerial oblique view, where there is no detail of the landscape and its obscured with dark shadows hinting at the affect of this selfish giant spider will have on the daylight of the space.
Stealing existing basement space from the existing successful businesses is not feasible.
Stealing space and trespass under existing buildings and sites, means you made a bad site choice, inadequate for the purpose, but is now potentially possible because the incumbent government has changed the ancient law to permit fracking under your house
Stealing the internal air space from a church for platforms and noisy kit is wrong, noisy, expensive and disrespectful
Where are the columns and staircase on the ground floor in the church? Through the pews and blocking the views.
It better be beautiful but you have not designed it.
Platforms block the light from the windows
Your building appears to make an adjacent building’s external wall with windows into an internal wall what happen to the occupants of the building?
Stealing support from the existing building would need to be investigated to determine its capacity to support the loads and the dynamic stresses.
Consider lighter than air gases to inflate and reduce the load, but be cautious of creating lighter than air cocoons which may result in different stresses on the existing structure

Solar shading studies

Shadows on plans and views should reflect the truth of the site, The Building Virus shows sunlight from the north in the view and from the south on the plan
9 am 12 pm 3 pm solar studies:
- Misses out on the evening when solar energy can be exploited to either heat or drive cooling
- An absence of evening shadows from studies tells a more optimistic story than reality
- An absence of any shadows means the student has learned very little from the study probably just added a fancy picture that looks good and says nothing
Summer sun path studies show the most advantageous solar access conditions,
- Winter would show a worse situation, work with the worst-case scenario too.
Sun light does not penetrate below pavement, but solar gains will penetrate shallow below the pavement. Ground source heat and coolth is normally collected deeper down but pavement can be a solar thermal panel if you use the technology to exploit it
Sun path studies at 1:50,000 – 1:billion scale tell the student nothing, but ticks a box;
Better to analyse the site at 1:100 – 1:500 as long as the shadows from surrounding buildings, the proposed buildings and corridors all show in this analysis.
Solar analysis can be carried out on elevations as well
Shadow ranges are recorded but there is no evidence of analysis and learning
Analysis in words not evidenced by illustration because of the scale of the analysis diagrams
Sections through the site with surrounding building and proposed building will reveal a lot about the way the building will or will not get the sunlight the diagrams suggest, and if reliant upon solar gains in winter may not get any.
The site is exposed to sunlight throughout the year is plainly not true, the solar studies make that abundantly clear, daylight plenty, but no sun in winter?
The mesh some time screen views and sometimes permit light and heat and some times screen sun and light, it they are that clever then you need to design them in detail.
Shadows from the East show solstice midday South angles and from the West show winter South angles, this is not convincing at all. Show summer midday and winter midday and also analyse east and west sunlight at realistic angles and in relationship to the slots on the ground.
The site plan in the shading analysis is of the ground floor retail only, no relevance to the topic.
There is little or no understanding of the buildings to the South of the proposal.
Shading suggested as necessary but no solution is offered.
Site plans and sections through sites need to show existing and proposed building and corridors location, and models need to show sun angles and context specific shadows or the initial analysis becomes nothing more than ‘a tick box exercise’ and total disconnection between analysis and application remains real.
Use of solar gains and its solar shading or blinkering must acknowledge the range of angles of the sun on each elevation and variation in orientation, for time of day and annual seasonal differences.
Showing solar shading or light shelves and then showing the sun angles missing the extremities of these components shows the student does not understand the purpose of the drawing/study.
If solar shading is proposed in a detail then it should be shown in the other views of the building.
Vertical farms could have unproductive areas that could be set aside for packing activity
Plans, sections, aerial views and sketches need to be consistent with each other and not show the most advantageous and untrue view in each.
Analyse different elevations separately and thoroughly. Minimum: N & S, ideally: + E & W
Analyse heating season and cooling season separately and thoroughly.
A study of the multiple layer mesh will reveal that there needs to be offset between layers or differing grid sizes or you get clear views through the mesh in many directions.
A study of the mesh sections and profiles would reveal how the light is permitted or blocked.
Solar studies without a north point are probably wrong
Orientation: is mentioned but no N point, and then talks about materials
The street map does not show the building!
The text is incredibly repetitive
Solar PV and Solar thermal are mentioned facing south but they are not shown anywhere and will be overshadowed by the Church and its big eaves overhang.
There is no South facing part of the roof, its flat, if you copy text from elsewhere edit it to suit your project
The light well is ignored in the solar analysis
The only light reaching this building is from the morning east and possible evening west but illustrations suggest southerly summer and southerly winter angles, this is fundamentally wrong
The building does not want to be cooled in winter
Thermal Efficiency: Heal loss and heat gain: I have finally worked out where the site is, without your help!
Now would be a good time to show the building not just the circulation routes (not movement patterns)
We could see the relative positions of rooms and circulation and windows and rooflights (if any)
Spelling: has, glazed,
Section is not orientated so no interpretation can be done.
Solar access was excellent until you added the tall trees on the south side of the building
The solar exposure diagrams suggest the direction of the sun but your PV panels appear to point in the wrong direction.
3D views show no N point
No indication for glazing and solid walls, nothing can be leaned from the 3D views
Plans showing windows are remote from plans
Response to solar gains and ventilation:
What level is this and which other upper floors are shading it?
Scale is probably wrong again 1:300 at what size?
Morning solar gains are more about light and less about heat
Afternoon sun is much more about heat as well as light
Last page says nothing about page title and lists materials, communicating nothing

Describe your existing building:

(if you do not know, state your assumptions)
A statement that every interface building will generate different conditions is a cop out;
Is your building intervention to be autonomous from the interface buildings or scavenge from their conditioning services?
And who is paying the bills?
Will there be sub-metering?
Are you a tenant or a sub-tenant?
Including site plan (site boundary/orientation/North point/scale/street names if referred to in text),
Structure: Foundations/basements/columns/wall/cores/floors/roof
Building Fabric: External envelop: façade walls/soffits/roof/partitions
Services:
- Sewers, Mains, Underground tunnels, extensive basements
- Heating, source/fuel/distribution/outlet/Hot water/Ventilation/Air conditioning/lighting
Consider the interdependence and appropriateness of existing building fabric and services
g. What kind of building fabric and heating/ventilation systems
g. mismatch of Lightweight fast response building fabric and slow acting heating systems
g. raised access flooring isolates the concrete floor from the solar gains, and isolates the underfloor heating from the room its trying to heat
Analyse the existing and determine its strength and weaknesses and potential for reuse what can be kept, improved or removed salvaged and reuse or recycled.
Building close to existing windows shows a lack of understanding of rights of light, and ventilation let alone T&C Planning permission

Modifications

If you decant one activity to make way for your new activity, explain where the existing activity moves to.
If you remove, replace or relocate an item explain the reasons why and what will put back in its place or in another place, to play the same function or what has been put back to do something differently.

Repeat and modify the exercise for proposed modification

Make sure your proposals address all floors not just the interesting bits
But no need to show every floor plan if they are all the same in every respect except floor number
If wind has to play a significant role in your building at it is a number of stories above the existing how do the lower floors benefit?

Repeat and modify the exercise for proposed buildings

Make sure your proposed methods match in words and drawings
Additional floors: make sure the structural grid match or add a transfer slab between
Where supporting structure will clash with existing show it and understand it don’t guess or ignore it.

Repeat and modify the exercise for existing case studies:

Attempt to describe the building you are working with, with your own analysis of the existing as a drawing
Measure wall thicknesses, look at surfaces and analyse what it’s made of,
- tap it to see if it is solid or hollow.
- Use a lighted match/lighter to see reflections in glass layers in multi-pane glazing.
Be careful to avoid including aspirational information in a case study, only include what they did.
- If the schedule of ingredients fails to list cement substitution then to include information on cement substitution might be misinterpreted as being included in the building.
Case studies should be carried out by the student and not copied wholesale from other sources or there is very little learning carried out by the student.
Please avoid case studies that are substantially observation without criticism,
- be critical, draw conclusions and lessons leaned.

Task 4

Task _ Elemental Performance

Please use the right words

‘Massing’ and ‘Thermal Mass’ are completely different issues
What is ‘thermal massing’?
See scribd.com/brianspecman and search for the Jargon buster: 395 pages of terms for you to get your head around.
What is Glading? Cladding?

Decrement delay

What have to learned and applied to this proposal

Thermal Mass

Masonry has thermal mass but only if exploited, timber frame does not,
Concrete has thermal mass but only if exploited, show how it is exploited
Wrong choice of insulation in timber frame roofs and walls can lead to solar overheating
Insulation exhibiting decrement delay characteristics can prevent solar gains entering through the walls and roof
Internal linings need to be dense to offer thermal mass to lightweight timber frame construction to absorb solar gains that entered via windows doors and roof lights
Plasterboard offers insufficient thermal mass
Surrounding soil around basements or buried buildings offer some thermal mass

Guesswork

There is some evidence of wishful thinking even using ‘hopefully’ in the text.

Task 5

Task 6 Services

The schedule of performance requirements is welcome but simplistic, incomplete and inadequate or missing
g. An unheated library or office will not be used in winter
g. A lecture theatre can become excessively warm and humid any time of year
If you made the whole building Passivhaus then you have a starting point for an inhabitable building and passive or mechanical systems can make the extreme conditions livable.
Passivhaus requires mechanical ventilation with heat recovery not natural ventilation or Nat vent in summer
Computers and machinery may need cooling all year
Computers can be low energy but most do not make low energy computers try IAMECO Irish company that makes computers that are low energy, modular, maintainable, adaptable, fixable, which is potentially part of the culture of your project.
Section through the auditorium: upper level seating front rows cannot see the speaker
Controlling the internal conditions may not need air-conditioning if active or passive ventilation can achieve the requirements
Warping of books less likely: mould if too moist, brittleness/fragile if too dry
Where are the satellite dishes for the TV studio?

Annotation of plans and sections

Colour codes on plans are not accurately defined, distinguish between, needs legends:
- lines (walls) arrows (sun) areas (Heat generating functions) (Controlled and uncontrolled areas)
- Showing red arrows on your plans as solar gains and heat movement passing though partitions and party walls shows you do not understand heat
- showing arrows without explanation or any analysis means you have learned little and communicated nothing
- Arrows from sun to room ignoring external walls, windows, party walls and partitions is wrong.
- An area with broken façade is uncontrolled but you might want to control it.
- opaque walls obliterate views of cathedral
- bookshelves against glass walls means you do not know your own building and you are making it up as you go along
- Wall to escalator core looks like it could play an important function but its materials are not declared
Concrete as an external wall is solar shading on an south elevation
‘Concrete cooling thermal material’ needs to be explained, I am not sure you understand in what way.
Do you mean exploitation of Thermal Mass?

Below ground

Mentioning an existing 30m borehole, says nothing; what have you learned from that?
How have you responded to the borehole data analysis and geology of the site?
You assumed GSHP would be okay.
Where are the underground tunnels, do they cross the site?
Where are the sewers and mains?
Where are the existing drains?
If you analyse one bit of the building show which bit so orientation can be established and further analysis can be fruitful.
Daylight entering a building will not act like air movement, curly arrows are potentially misleading to the reader and the writer.
Warm air will rise out of the spaces via perimeter slots, cooler air could enter to replace but will they fight each other for supremacy?
Hot will win but stalemate may occur.
Show hot stale air as red and cold fresh air as blue
The slots at street level will need to be protected (vehicle resistant balustrades?)
Will emergency services vehicles be blocked by these barriers?
Animals and termites know that different profiles at either end of the burrows can create wind pressure differentials that can generate air flow, what are you doing to exploit this phenomenon?
Are you considering any form of cowls to enable or drive airflow?
What happens when it really windy and rainy will there be controls to prevent excess airflow and water entry?

Natural daylight

The scheme is heavily reliant upon natural daylight but there is not study to see how good horizontal slots at the perimeter can be.
1 It looks like a health spa where are the interactive walls of excitement?
The 4.2 Interior pathways refers to ‘use of natural daylight and enhances natural light ‘s refection through the space’ but it’s a line drawing with no light shade reflection or atmosphere
UV light transmission is good for plants, but you do not have any, but will fade the goods on show, if you have any

Lighting

What does ‘have natural lighting that will be mainly focused from the North’ mean?
The TV Studio lighting may or may not be supplied by the film crew but you have to make provision for it so what are you providing?
Since your building has excessive external envelop with much accommodation surrounded by air the opportunity to use natural daylight through light tubes, roof lights, and borrowed lights is extensive.
Your section is terrible at explaining what is building, outdoors and where light and shadow occur.
Emergency egress via static escalators is highly problematic and stairs may be needed.
What artificial lighting to the tree?
Not mentioned in any detail
Deciding against Fluorescent lights is okay
Deciding to go to Halogen which generates heat is a potential problem
Energy efficient (30% reduction) will probably be insufficient a reduction in heat gains
Dimmable light will need to be electronically controlled to respond to sunlight and daylight fluctuations, how will this be done?
Check spelling to ensure the notes are readable.
The text refers to office space lighting strategy not a shop
Amenity lighting? Computers are internally lit screens.
What circulation space? Stairs only?
Is artificial lighting needed if so how?

Heat loss and heat gain

Heating and Cooling:

No mention is made of heating
No colour coding legend
Cooling can be achieved by ventilation
Where are the plant rooms?
Low emissivity coating to glazing is shown but not mentioned or explained
Pavement lights are not made this way, they are usually cast glass bulbs in concrete surround
Glass in pedestrian loaded floors is multilayered and laminated akin to bullet resistant glazing
Glass in vehicle loaded pavements will be proportionately thicker and still damageable
ETFE will stop the wind and the rain, unlikely to stop pedestrians and no vehicles
If you say glazing will need to be protected from solar gain then show the shading in your proposal
Some comments referring to Northern Hemisphere will apply to Southern too.
There is a ventilation slot at perimeter but also ventilation pipes are show here too
The Underfloor heating and Geothermal systems are confused and only shown as one system
There will also be perimeter wall top slot and stair or ramp gorge drainage systems to accommodate and there may be some synergies to consider.
Glazing is quite often solar (heat) controlling and light permitting or over heating occurs
100% glazed walls will do little to stop feeling cold in winter unless Passivhaus U values and internal face temperature.
Thermal bridges are eliminated allegedly but nowhere is this shown the meshes are fundamental to the design so it needs to be detailed
Heat exchange by conduction when people enter cocoon, needs explanation, I think you are wrong

Passive stack ventilation and atria:

Hot air rises in atria and draws air from floors to atria
Fresh air from perimeter windows or vents will replace the air on the floors

Ventilation:

Showing straight lines of air flow passing through internal partitions and external walls shows you do understand air movement at all
Does air move vertically through your building?

Services

Show evidence that you have considered how they are distributed through the building and not just in the words
Show services in separate drawings so there is something that can be realistically be considered, assessed and criticised
In plans: transformer rooms, plant rooms, cores, risers, lifts, Escalators, IT distribution
In sections: show structure and construction and show services in dedicated voids or expressed services
Show thermal insulation to services especially with long runs
Some services don’t like each other and need separation distances to be acknowledged
Buildings separated by long corridors force a high level of the manning of each building or very clever IT for communicating between rooms and another person to answer all the communications between departments.
On elevations: if expressed
Don’t show a detail from another project and then change completely how you use it in yours without some explanation of how your interpretation is supposed to work.
Electric under floor heating uses electricity as well as what?
You are designing the proposal so choose a location for the in fabric heating wall floor or ceiling
What is the white inner lining to the orange steel perimeter?
Diagrams which are large in area and small in detail tell very little their legends need to be more informative and self explanatory showing flows or liquids and flows of heat or coolth
Hot air rises cold air falls they usually swap places with each other
Every piece of display technology will use electricity and generate a great deal of heat
Every person will generate 100 Watt idle and many more Watts if active in physical or mental action games will there be a mechanical back up ventilation system?
People will generate heat and convection is the mechanism for its release not conduction
Does Microsoft have a policy of making low energy consumption equipment? No.
Do you have an IT solution to minimize heat generated?
Consider making this building for IAMECO computers from Ireland or EasyPC.
Is there any heat recovery opportunity? (If the solar studies reveal its heated by the sun)
You will need summer bypass on MVHR to avoid over heating?
Natural, passive ventilation and MVHR, which is it?
Will the MVHR be controlled to not be on when the glass wall is mechanically controlled to open?
When and why do you need under-floor heating when you have so much heat gain from sun and people?
If you have a lot of plant then show the plant room (not just a number on a plan) and show the plant in it.
Show services distribution ducts or risers
There are no staff kitchen or toilets on the plans, so why the solar heating of water, how water cylinders, etc.
HW Cylinders are not particularly expensive
How do you future proof a HW Cylinder
Where is the Biomass fuel store?
How is the fuel store charged?
How will the Biomass fuel be sourced? Where from?
By copying text from many sources and not reading them means you contradict yourself in different pages
You’re very good at describing the technology but not good at making the right choice, is it appropriate, not just green
You have just about every bit of eco-bling and duplication of provision
100% glazed façade, air conditioned office buildings are everywhere in the UK, so statement about summer cooling is incorrect.
Zoning of floors is necessary on big building or with different functions needing different conditions this is a house sized building and one use
The church overhang will stop half of the rain falling on the building, prevailing wind is stopped by the church, RWH is likely to be a waste of money
Fig 4.1 is not below; it’s too small and unreadable and not explained or applied.
On cold wet windy days can the cocoon be comfortable?
The statements about use of PV generated electricity is confusing and indicates a lack of understanding
PV can provide power during brownouts, blackouts occur at night and PV do not work in the night unless street lighting is very high
PVs are not normally portable, but can be dismantled and refixed on another building but you need them here
PVs have high embodied energy and some high embodied carbon see the ICE data
Did you consider Water Source Heat or coolth pump using the dock?
No consideration is given to passive systems, a noiseless well allows windows or vents to be opened
Statements about electricity demand and PV supply v mains contradict each other on different pages
There is no roof space
Show in the drawings what you have said in the text
Hundreds of A3 sized PVs is not the way to do it unless they are solar shingles
Use larger PV panels and point them at the sun.

WCs

When all the toilets are all in separate rooms this does not fit with resource efficient design
- So you might want to justify it
WC rooms opening onto staff occupied floors or circulation routes
- Without acoustic, olfactory (smell) or visual lobbies is clumsy
- Ventilation extraction system must be very effective and fast acting.
If you need 10 Toilets per floor why then only one or two on some floors of similar area?
Full time staff need toilets even if you do not provide them for customers
DDA probably requires WCs for wheelchair customers and staff
Toilets may be needed in many locations if the rooms are distributed around a labyrinth of tunnels
The majority of the rooms are on a circuit (sensible) and others are on dog legs (not so)
Is there a processional route through your building Microsoft spaces?
If somebody is caught short do they piss in the corridors, they piss outdoors after a night drinking if they can’t find a WC easily.

Task 7 Construction

Little or no information on method of construction, walls, roof, partitions; types of insulation, Surface materials, thermal mass and decrement delay so I cannot judge what you know or how you have responded to the heat gain or loss
Copying out of date English or current American details that have nothing to do with existing buildings external walls shows you do not understand the existing building (probably solid brick wall) and what you plan to do to upgrade it.
If you did use cavity wall the distortions will make it expensive to make and would fail technically.
No construction of roof, floors and partitions to consider.
No construction of the façades, its distortions, its holes, its mitigation, and its services.

Substructure

If you go below ground then the building will immediately require concrete or steel pile walls to support the ground; and spoil will be removed from the site, its heavy its bulky and will need to be removed by truck and deposited in inert landfill, if clean, or treated (expensive) if polluted.
There may be a need for perimeter drainage to the basements
Steel shipping containers may be strong enough to be used below ground, but may need reinforcing
Light steel framing volumetric construction are suitable above ground not below ground
Reference to entire walls with glazing has no place in basements!
You site shows a difference in levels east to west with a big retaining all between
Your site analysis shows a need for entrances on two levels
Section ignores all of this, Plan shows no retaining wall?
Is your plan designed in complete isolation from context?

Superstructure

There is a steel frame here but it’s likely to be thermal bridges through the external wall, external balconies/overhangs will create more thermal bridges: show it, detail it and solve it.
Columns spanning down a window to carry stair landings shows a complete lack of respect, care and capability as a designer responding to a context
The structure is achieved by inflatable skeleton, this needs to be rigid to create a place to work and concentrate on the sales, your description says it can cope with wind pressure, but not foot traffic, this will be a very wobbly place.
Your detail section shows a rigid frame around the perimeter of the pillows
Fans are used to raise inflatable roof buildings which need little structural rigidity, achieved by skin in tension, your structure needs to be much more rigid and probably needs to be permanently inflated with a high pressure top up mechanism probably from pressurized cylinders.
The noise of the fans may make sales talk impossible
The other half of the structure is the tension cables and connectors, these will need to be beautiful and need to explored and be detailed to show you have some knowledge of their ways and details
What is shown looks like picture hanging hooks for your house walls
Bends in cables shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the tensegrity (tension integrity) of these structures
On an dark overcast day the PV panels may not make enough electricity to turn the fans to inflate the structure
Your diagram says the CHS is geothermal: explain, there is an unconnected note further on
Your heat transfer is better done through large surface area not large volume
Ground sourced heat is low grade it is put through a heat pump to intensify it, your large diameter tubes will dilute the heat and leave nothing to warm the space
Does the structural frame absorb heat and move it around the building?
Your superstructure shows no lateral stability in any plane it will buckle like the Twin towers catastrophic failure
Your could accept the structural engineer or contractors proposal for bolted connections or you could design it like Pompidou Centre with unique and beautiful parts, look at Victorian seaside piers (different stronger forces I agree but the loads from above are sever compared to piers)
Could you add wind exploitation kit in this external structure? Turbines, passive and active ventilation, sculpture, viewing platforms?
What corrosion protection in this marine environment?
On Site strategies: what does that mean?
Wind turbines could be included in the exposed external structure and wind could be concentrated through the gaps between floors
Dock is not too far away.

Building fabric

Explain what the materials are in all locations
Annotate the details
Do a close up section of a part of YOUR building which represents the bulk of the structure, construction finishes and services
Show how its made and with what, all of it including nanogel
Copying very good marketing information or from good books is okay but you need to be critical too.
Your application is more sever than a rooflight.
Is there any off gassing?
Its still petrochemical, non-renewable, high embodied carbon
Is any Nano coating/quit compatible with this highly durable ETFE?
ETFE has no thermal mass so cannot store it
HDPE is petrochemical and will release carbon if it could biodegrade, bit it will not
If you propose to use a bio-based alternative then your better research it and communicate it
Do you know what Oxo-biodegradability means? Aerobic? In Oxygen Only?
What material is offering thermal mass for storing heat?
What is the wall section made of?
The section through the external wall and roof show little resemblance to the building except the steel frame
The columns are in the wall thickness on the plans creating thermal bridges
There are no walls like this section in the building it looks like its 100 % glazed
Perforated metal panels are not show on the section
Statement ‘store is characterized by high thermal mass, tight sealing and high levels or thermal insulation’ is not supported by the drawing on three counts.
Concrete is said to provide the thermal mass but there is no concrete in the floors in the section
Heavy weight walls are insulated internally so there is no thermal mass to exploit
The wall is described as wet plaster but there is no solid background to apply it to
The wall is described as 300 mm mineral fiber insulation (frame not mentioned) any solar gains will over heat the interior in minutes
Later you say sheep’s wool, which is it and why
The wall is described as aluminium cladding and there is perforated aluminium screens but none is detailed
The wall is described but a different wall is illustrated
Steel floor cannot be exploited for thermal mass concrete can which are you using; there are three different descriptions 2 text and 1 drawing.
What reclaimed steel is used?
Where is the glass in the floor?
Internal wall will not lose heat, external wall will
Timber studs have less embodied energy and carbon, they are not less energy consuming
Aluminium can reflect light, there may be some aluminium in solar collectors, but that does not reduce embodied energy and will increase embodied carbon, 33% recycled will reduce embodied but 100% will be better
Glass also looses heat
Window 3 x glass has krypton it will not be U value 1.9 but 0.5 as noted later
GGBS is cement not concrete. Concrete has thermal mass
GGBS is available at most concrete mixing plants with 2 silos and delivered in mixer truck, e.g. north of kings cross
South facing glazing is shaded by the church

Temporary Building

With a permanent raft foundation and a temporary structure how is the plumbing connection made and left safe for 6 months?
The raft foundation in the text is not a raft foundation in the drawing, and precast in the materials schedule.
You have not stated the internal conditions you want to achieve and where or how.
But you have said it will be serviced passively without adequate explanation.
You have added 30 mm. of insulation which is 200 mm. or more inadequate for a heated building.
The details of the section do not reflect the elevations and the roof plans.
How is the cantilever achieved? Some parts are ¾ unsupported and ¼ supported.
How is it assembled and disassembled?
How is the I beam steel frame temporary?
The construction details show no understanding of how the roof or walls are to be constructed.
A project this small should have been explored, every inch and every detail.
The ‘rain entrance’ in the roof is nowhere near the farm so it has not influence on rainfall on the crops.

There are no Construction details

The panes of glass in the end elevations are large and unlikely to be available in these sizes
Can the doors slide aside to permit the aircraft in and out?
Interface between end elevations and roof structure needs to accommodate movement: Show the details, you say custom fit to arch so the interface is going to get complicated to accommodate movement.
Centrally pivoted doors may not provide the height for the tail fins to pass through
Hanger doors are usually steel (could be aluminium?) because glass this size may not be available, will be very heavy to transport and expensive to handle into place, expensive to replace and may be difficult to use in situ.

Double glass facades

Do not do the same as thick masonry walls in any circumstances
Double facades do not replace heating,
Unless a full compliment of other requirements are in place:
It needs to be sunny in heating season, its not sunny all the time, too much sun in cooling season can be a problem that needs to be addressed
Building that get wet (rain) lose more heat in the drying process
The whole building needs to be insulated to passivhaus standard not just the windows.
Double facades do offer better overall U value, weather protection, acoustic performance, a buffer between warm inside and cold out, in the heating season
Glazing allows solar gains to warm objects inside the buffer zone; in the heating season this can be captured, in the cooling season this needs to be permitted to escape.
Double facades allow high thermal mass building fabric inside to be warmed by solar gains which in turn warms the air inside, but if the inner façade is glass or metal it is low thermal mass and there are no benefits.
Show furniture in sections to show where the thermal mass can be exploited or not, because its in shadow
Thermal mass for short-term exploitation needs large surface area facing the source of heat; floors and wall surfaces can work, if the right materials and orientation, but if only the floor edges can be warmed there is insufficient to store beneficial heat.
Once the buffer zone is heated internal windows can be opened to heat the interior rooms, which is good for homes but may not be suitable for gyms or offices.
The upper surface of floors and internal face of external walls and selected faces of internal partitions must be made of high thermal mass materials to be able to store excess heat.
The method of support and restraint of the second outer wall is fundamental and should be explored.
Any vegetation within a double façade used for shading does not want to be located to shade thermal mass, but only to shade windows.
Any solar shading vegetation to be contained within a double façade needs to be supported, irrigated/fed, drained, accessed for maintenance/trimming such supports are a fundamental part of a design that these need to be included in the submission.
Vertical farms need also to consider V & H access and space for vehicle, trolley and human picker, collection, packaging, handling, circulation, distribution.
Vertical farms are made of support structure; floors and skin, the method of support and attachment are fundamental to the design and should be explored.

Living Roofs

Living roofs do not insulate roofs, wet soil does little to insulate.
Living roofs can be thin sedum matting offering very little benefit or deeper planted intensive offering most benefits or extensive biodiverse brown roof, all playing different roles.
The building roof needs to be competently insulated and water tight before adding a living roof.
Living roofs can add thermal mass and decrement delay protection from solar heat gain

A living roof can be:

Thin rolls of sedum matting on no additional build up: there is no thermal mass, little solar protection, no thermal insulation, some water retention in the succulent plants and matting, little sustenance for native (UK) insects and a little evaporative cooling.
Brown roofs made up of gravel, crushed builders rubble and inert subsoil and nothing else, (but sometime pre-seeded) providing some solar protection, thermal mass, self-draining with some water retention and a little evaporative cooling, nature delivers biodiversity by bird droppings with seeds and manure or wind blown seeds, they can become beneficial to biodiversity.
Green roofs can be deeper planted roof with rainwater reservoir boards, drainage layers, root barriers, growing media, grass, planting, irrigation systems, paving and public access,

They can be beneficial: solar reflective, albedo effect, help with urban heat island effect, beneficial to biodiversity, protect sewers from rainstorm surges, evaporative cooling, thermal mass, little thermal insulation, with the right planting they can be beneficial to biodiversity, etc.

Task 8 Materials

Temporary Building

Accoya wood does not give energy efficiency.
The information about Accoya is a copy of the manufacturer’s literature
The last two paragraphs are yours and they are very badly worded and spelt.
With a 50 year life is Accoya compatible with a temporary structure?
Materials list numbers do not relate to the section
Sheet metal for forming gutters not sheet met for foaming gutters
Are 6 and 7 the same thing?
Where is 8 PVC
PVC ignores the brief
9 what is it? Where is it? What is it for?
10 Aluminium is high embodied energy goes against brief
Volume of what is 100 m3 (spelling?)

Materials

Show the addition for framed vents at roof and low level (see your illustration) and supported solar shading.
Glue laminated timber is glued and end connectors are often bolted.
Stronger/better grades are used at the extremities and poorer grades in the core, or all stronger/better.
Sweet chestnut appears on the next page why choose this species? Special properties for this application?
Glulam is usually softwood, Sweet Chestnut is hardwood.
Sweet chestnut is usually best used in the round.
ETFE (not polycarbonate) will be in pillows of small dimension and you need to design the joint layout. (see your illustration)
ETFE is translucent not as clear as indicated (see your illustration)
How is the two storey accommodation constructed and which materials?
Materials explain the properties but do not indicate how the site, weather, brief or programme helped to choose these materials.
Where is the ground floor materials and the two storey building, aluminium frames in the materials schedules
Waste creation and potential reduction will happen at the factory when most parts are made in there.
Cold air entering will stay low, hot air will rise, show vents are base of ETFE,
Leaky shed may not overheat the air, but solar radiation may make it uncomfortable for visitors?
Ventilation and Solar are the only things you have considered, there are many more for this building

Thermal break and airtightness

Airtightness could have been addresses at building level and performance levels since you have opted for Passivhaus in you building performance schedule
This would need you to consider services penetrations too.
You have shown two methods of construction, which are you using and why?
The void in the floor in the wall thickness could have been insulated too, instead you created a thermal bridge
The depending upon the insulation materials in the timber frame zone the vapour barrier could have been an air tightness layer too
Glazing systems need to airtight and have insulation value in winter and solar and daylight control in summer
Glazing systems can have thermal breaks between inner and outer faces
Concrete walls need to be airtight and have insulation value but can offer decrement delay to protect from solar gains
The junction between concrete walls and glazing needs to be insulated and airtight
Make sure you circle the correct places to attach a note to a drawing
Don’t describe detail and then show them at 1:300 or what ever, get in close and demonstrate you are doing it

Materials Schedule (Outline Specification)

Missing
Wholly inadequate list:
Shows a complete lack of understanding of this purpose of this exercise and no response to it
Material listed but no application or no method of construction described,
Sometimes function but not material,
Not present, only three materials listed
The building is an opportunity to show salvage, reclaim, reuse, recycling, recovery to a much greater extent than this uninspired set of materials, internal linings and furniture could be from the many recycled materials glass and plastics and paper pulp, cardboard and bank notes, resin, etc.
Reclaiming oak shingles unlikely, leave them on the existing building, (not shown on your details)
A basement has no external cladding
Sleepers are big section you need to show this unusual cladding, cladding could be scaffold boards or shipping containers
A basement structure is unlikely to be timber frame
Basement floor: has a cavity, please show it,
Floor: Concrete could have been improved with by-products GGBS or PFA, secondary or recycled aggregate or recycled concrete aggregate
Floor: could be reclaimed hardwood or scaffold boards,
Roof: No waterproofing mentioned,
Roof: Sedum often inadequate as solar protection and often poor for biodiversity
Roof terrace: what paving?
Landscape: what materials?
Reclaimed granite curbs as pavement?
Recycled glass as paving bedding
Compost from waste in soil

Planting:

If planting is an essential part of the building conditioning then show its extent and how it works, how its irrigated and with what
See note above about Green roofs some is relevant to green planting
Planting absorbs carbon dioxide and emits oxygen

High thermal mass materials are only beneficial if exploited.

High thermal mass of external brickwork cannot benefit the interior but will add to urban heat island effect if orientation is right.

Bricks are reclaimable and reusable

If laid in lime mortar, cavity wall brickwork was normally laid in cement mortar, which prevents reclaim and reuse but permits downcycling as hardcore.

Structural steel can be reused in preference to recycling

Very easy to recycle comes with considerable energy input
Reclaim and reuse as is, is a much better solution
An assumption is made that a materials needing to be structural cannot use recycled content, this is wrong, most steel has recycled content and stainless steel is all recycled.
The plastics sector claim they can only trust virgin plastics to do the job, but plastics are also claimed to be durable and not biodegradable so they end up in landfill forever, they should be brave about use of recycled plastics in structural components, or be green and avoid plastics altogether.

Green-engineering is undefined

Green-engineering? What do you mean?
Bioengineering? What does that mean to you?

Mesh is not fire proof,

The flames and smoke pass straight through it,
But may be non-combustible.

Joints in concrete do not automatically mean it is precast,

Insitu concrete suffers from drying shrinkage and will crack
So joints are deliberately added to control where the cracks occur.

Polished concrete floors:

See https://greenbuildingencyclopaedia.uk/?p=737

Gypsum Plaster and Gypsum Plasterboard

Is a stable non-reactive hazardous waste
(Equivalent to asbestos; in a mixed landfill in contact with biodegradable waste can release gasses to make acid rain)
Requiring special landfill sites or special cells, at great expense.
BRE CRWP surveys have shown offcuts wastage at 30%,
It is fast becoming an expensive material to waste and to use.

PV cells in glass facades

Do some shading of the interior
But create high contrast glare
Also reradiate heat inwards from the cells

Gasses escape if not sealed in

Double glazed windows: are filled with expensive and high embodied energy and embodied carbon argon gas in sealed units
But masonry cavity walls would not hold the gases in so the gas will have been wasted.
This is applying one approach in the wrong place without any understanding

Thermal insulation

Sheep’s wool thermal insulation
- Is for dry timber frame construction
- Not potentially wet masonry cavity walls
Batts (usually mineral wool, but can be sheep’s wool, wood fibre)
- Are used in framed roof or wall construction
  - But mineral wool, sheep’s wool are ineffective against solar radiation heat gains
- Not below ground floor slabs, they would be squashed, wet and no longer insulate
  - Use expanded polystyrene or cellular glass protected by DPM
- Insulation in lintels
  - Does nothing for airtightness
  - And little for thermal insulation either,
  - Thermal bridging is the problem with steel lintels
  - GRP lintels can help solve that, but they have short spans,
  - So composite steel and GRP can be used
  - Or steel and steel with thermal breaks are necessary.

GRC construction

Glass reinforced cement or concrete
If you make a building with no straight lines in any direction the method of construction and the temporary and permanent materials become important;
If you adopt GRC to prefabricate to avoid on site formwork be aware that the offsite formwork is as complicated.
If you will use so much timber to make the formwork that will be used once and then sent to landfill would it not be more resourceful to make the construction out of timber in the first place?
The GRC is ‘highly insulate(d? Insulating?) Concrete’ in one place, GRC itself is not insulating, but there is no evidence of the insulation, the problems with formwork noted above apply just as much to the shaping of the insulation in the panels.
No matter how much money advertising companies get paid this project would be value engineered to make it more practical to make and assemble or build.

Task 9 Whole Building Calculations

DIY

The figure given for embodied energy is in British or American Units, we live in a world of Metric Units. Why?
Only showing totals, does not show calculations, I cannot judge if you have learned anything

No submission

Small sites may in your opinion be exempt (from what?)
But they are not exempt from my brief and your task for this lecture series.
The excel spreadsheet is applicable by my brief for this course.
So you can justify there is no need in words, produce the goods or get no score for this activity. (10 points missed)

2 sets of Calculations

There is no Calculation Sheet for embodied energy embodied carbon or sequestered carbon
Its difficult to correlate the content and dimensions in the spreadsheet to the building parts
High concrete, glass and ETFE, but sequestered carbon from your beams and 2 storey could have compensated a bit.
Positive and negatives do not show up so its difficult to see how the totals worked out.
You have interfered with the spreadsheet and showed sequestered carbon against a no timber, and the totals do not work out as expected.
Your comments about insulation and thermal comfort are unrelated to this spreadsheet and relate to the sheet you did not do.
You have not included U values, energy demand in use for the block joining the two hangers.
No servicing strategy for the kitchen, restaurant and public toilets and other accommodation
No ground floor plan of accommodation between hangers.

Embodied energy and carbon calculations

Not included
Included but very few materials listed it is inadequate to list structure only where are the finishes
Where is the superstructure frame? What is it made of and how is it corrosion protected?
Make sure the materials lists reflect the content of the project
What is SRC? What are SRC doors?
Is the glass façade all glass no frame?
Is the external wall all-concrete no insulation?
Is the internal partition all plasterboard and no framing and not acoustic insulation?
If the materials are not the same show how you have interpreted any existing data
Make sure the quantities reflect the project.
Make sure the selections reflect the building: flat roof is closer to pavement than pitched roof
Its completely unclear what materials are used in the construction and insulation other than concrete, steel, sheet, ETFE, glass
Chroma Morph is a colourant not a material
What is the exciting (in the manufacturers opinion) monolithic solid material with 40% factory floor sweepings?
Units: kgCO₂/m²
Sequestered carbon in ETFE needs explaining and justifying, I think you are wrong, (manufacturer’s information is wrong)
Quote your sources ‘Internet’ is insufficient, URL would be a good reference for you to find it later
Nanogel quilt not included
Cables and bridges not included
Where is the corrosion protection and decoration of the steel
Where are the floor finishes, wall, ceiling, partitions, PVs, services

U Value and carbon in use calculations

You have not proposed to replace windows and doors so U values are too good for existing
External wall area grossly underestimated
You have not proposed to improve the existing solid external wall so will not meet 0.1 U value
You have blacked out the external wall results
You have not proposed to improve the existing roof so will not meet 0.1 U value
Not included
Basement wall is external above ground so should be calculated as external wall temperature differences
Your basement wall consumption is too high compared to windows
External wall length is O m wrong
Window area is grossly underestimated
Window U value is 0.7 why not 1.9 or 0.5 as stated elsewhere?
ETFE U value 0.8 may need to be justified its only 2 layer not 3
Despite 0.8, 92% of heat loss through this element
Partitions lose no heat despite an earlier statement to the contrary
Roof is flat (with falls) not shallow
Good to see 4 studies
But this all contradicts your room performance schedule
10 am to 3 am use is not 8 hours in the calculations
Will the shop be open 8 hours or longer?
92% of heat loss though ETFE, does it not occur to you there is a better way to clad the building?

U Values

50 mm of thermal insulation will be inadequate or very expensive material, no material is mentioned,
Insulation reduces energy consumption and hence reduce CO2 emissions
Window of U value 1.9 are rubbish we can get to 0.7 or 0.5 today, justify this if it is right, its inconsistent see calculations later
ETFE Pillows with U value 1.5 is not great, triple glazing can achieve 0.5
Adding blanket of Nano gel (do you mean Aerogels?) will improve U value but how is that done?

Task 10 Waste

Glass waste comes from the size of the sheet it is cut from not the number of sheets you need,
but tailoring and iteration allows you to consider the waste and match your sizes to sizes available and strive for waste minimisation

GBE Courses

LSBU PGDip Architecture EREID 2017 G#9905

GBE Files

GBE Download File

Feedback on university students coursework submissions
Available in Dropbox Folder (students only)
Download the left column as a PDF

Student Submissions (Feedback) G#1023 N#1042 End.

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%%%11/01/24 24/07/13 ECH Feedback on Student Submissions G#1023 N#1042 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Task 6 Task 7

Student Submissions (Feedback) G#1023 N#1042

Student submissions Feedback

About:

Student Submission Feedback

Feedback on coursework submissions and presentations

Student Submissions (Feedback) Index (this text is approximately 26 pages of A4)

Student Submissions (Feedback) Information content and order:

Student Submissions (Feedback) Presentation

Student Submissions (Feedback) Non-UK Projects

Student Submissions (Feedback) Drawing content

Student Submissions (Feedback) ETFE Facades

Show stuff

Layout and text

Illustrations

Understand the principle to be able to use it

Show relevant information

Task 2 Brief

Ensure that the work responds to the brief.

Building Use or Programme

Short life projects

Case Study (if you are not designing a building in studio)

Project comparisons

Task 3 Survey

Analyse the site and the buildings within and around the site

Site Resources:

Stealing from adjacent land and buildings

Solar shading studies

Describe your existing building:

Modifications

Repeat and modify the exercise for proposed modification

Repeat and modify the exercise for proposed buildings

Repeat and modify the exercise for existing case studies:

Task 4

Task _ Elemental Performance

Decrement delay

Thermal Mass

Guesswork

Task 5

Task 6 Services

Annotation of plans and sections

Below ground

Natural daylight

Lighting

Heat loss and heat gain

Heating and Cooling:

Passive stack ventilation and atria:

Ventilation:

Services

WCs

Task 7 Construction

Substructure

Superstructure

Building fabric

Temporary Building

There are no Construction details

Double glass facades

Living Roofs

A living roof can be:

Task 8 Materials

Temporary Building

Materials

Thermal break and airtightness

Materials Schedule (Outline Specification)

Planting:

High thermal mass materials are only beneficial if exploited.

Bricks are reclaimable and reusable

Structural steel can be reused in preference to recycling

Green-engineering is undefined

Mesh is not fire proof,

Joints in concrete do not automatically mean it is precast,

Polished concrete floors:

Gypsum Plaster and Gypsum Plasterboard

PV cells in glass facades

Gasses escape if not sealed in

Thermal insulation

GRC construction

Task 9 Whole Building Calculations

DIY

No submission

2 sets of Calculations

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Index (this text is approximately 26 pages of A4)

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Information content and order:

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Presentation

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Non-UK Projects

Student Submissions (Feedback)
Drawing content

Student Submissions (Feedback)
ETFE Facades