Interior Design Sense

A good construction manual is a must have for any architect’s library.

The Modern Construction Handbook by Andrew Watts is in my opinion one of the best construction manuals these days, covering construction systems in an extensive way. The best of this book are the details: good quality of the drawings and 3D sections that help you understand the details in a better way.

Construction manuals tend to be very outdated, even if they are brand new. On the contrary, this book includes a whole section on energy and alternative materials, along with a section called “Future” which helps us resolve complex geometries, twisted facades, new glazing systems and more.

The book has 500 pages printed in good quality paper, something very important for  a book that you will be constantly flipping when needing help on a project.

More images about the book, along with the full index so you can see if it fits you after the break:

The Modern Construction Handbook has become a building construction classic. Its systematic approach with chapters on materials, walls, roofs, construction and environment offers clear and efficient orientation.

The second edition underwent a considerable expansion and has been thoroughly updated:

Digital fabrication techniques are included and presented in an instructional book for the first time, in addition to traditional production processes
- Constructive building principles are shown with new, color 3D drawings and illustrated with photos of built examples of the work of renown architects
- More and densely packed information provided by 3D drawings of the individual components and structures
- Glossary following every chapter containing explanations of terminology and related information
- Environmental aspects and properties of the different materials
- New design and rendering methods such as parametrical design, CAD/CAM and 3D Modeler are explained, shown and integrated in the respective chapters.

- SpringerWienNewYork

Publisher: SpringerWienNewYork
Author: Andrew Watts
Layout and Cover Design: Yasmin Watts

Language: English
Cover: Hardcover
Pages: 504
Illustrations: 1000 color illustrations
Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.5 x 1.6 inches
ISBN: 978-3-211-99195-4

Index

Introduction

Introduction to Second Edition
Changes from the First Edition
Structure of this book

1. Materials

Taxonomy of material systems
Structure and envelope
Digital tectonics
Parametric design

Tectonics in metal
Steel
Aluminium
Copper, zinc and lead

Tectonics in glass
Glass

Tectonics in concrete
Concrete

Tectonics in masonry
Masonry
Concrete block
Stone
Brick

Tectonics in plastics
Plastics and composites

Tectonics in timber
Timber
Fabrics and membranes

Internal walls
Fixed and demountable
Plaster systems
Wallboard systems

Floors
Ceilings

2. Walls

Trends in facade design
Generic wall types

Metal
Sheet metal
Profiled cladding
Composite panels
Rainscreens
Mesh screens
Louvre screens

Glass systems
Stick systems
Unitised glazing
Clamped glazing
Bolt fixed glazing
Glass blocks and channels
Steel windows
Aluminium windows
Timber windows

Concrete
Cast in situ
Storey height precast
Small precast panels

Masonry loadbearing walls

Masonry cavity walls
Brick
Stone and block
Masonry cladding
Masonry rainscreens

Plastic
Plastic-based cladding
Plastic rainscreens

Timber
Timber frame
Cladding panels

3. Roofs

Trends in roof design

Metal roofs
Metal standing seam
Profiled metal sheet
Composite panels
Rainscreens
Metal louvres

Glass roofs
Greenhouse glazing and capped systems
Silicone-sealed glazing and rooflights
Bolt fixed glazing
Bonded glass rooflights

Concrete
Concealed membranes
Exposed membranes
Planted roof

Timber roofs
Flat roof: mastic asphalt coverings
Flat roof: bitumen-based sheet membranes
Pitched roof: tiles

Plastic roofs
GRP rooflights
GRP panels and shells

Fabric systems
ETFE cushions
Single membrane: cone-shaped roof
Single membrane: barrel-shaped roof

4. Structure

Material systems for structures

Braced frames
Reinforced concrete
Steel
Timber

Portal frames

Loadbearing boxes
Reinforced concrete
Brick
Glass

Trusses

Arches and shells

Space grids

Floor structures
Cast in situ / cast-in-place concrete
Precast concrete
Steel and steel mesh
Timber
Glass

Stairs
Concrete
Steel
Timber
Glass

5. Environment

Energy and the building envelope

Double skin facades
Environmental studies for envelopes

Analysis for design
Solar radiation
Daylight
Embodied energy

Passive design
Natural ventilation
Solar shading and daylight controls
Solar power
Solar heating

Low energy material systems
Straw bales and hemp
Rammed earth, cob and adobe bricks
Green oak and bamboo
Green walls

Active design
Liquid based heating/cooling systems
Mechanical heating/cooling systems
Electrical lighting
Fuel and water supply

Support services
Sanitation and drainage
Fire control
Maintenance and cleaning
Lifts

6. Future

A future for building construction
Folded glazing
Metal solar shading: louvres and mesh
Triangular panels for twisted facades
Twisted panels with flat glass for twisted facades
Moving shading panels
Precast concrete panels for facades of complex geometry
Glazing systems with integral solar shading
Stick glazing for double facades
Shingled glazing for facades of complex geometry
Variable concrete panels for solar shading
Structural facades of complex geometry
Facade with integrated furniture

References

Glossary of terms
Authorship
Photo credits
Index

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Architects: Vaillo + Irigaray / Antonio Vaillo + Juan Luis Irigaray
Location: Gorraiz, Navarra, Spain
Project manager: Ibón Ibarlucea Ochandiano, architect
Graphic design of facades: Alex Viladrich, ALDRICH
Riggers: José Ingacio Sola y Julián Damboriena
Structure: Gonzalo Díez
Contractor: GOSA S.L.
Project year: 1998
Finished year: 2004
Photographs: José Manuel Cutillas, Albert Font, Joan Mundó

Location: Many small plots around a golf course,  mis-ordered devices external to the individual qualities of the environment, backed, resulting in an almost monstrous mix.

Adaptation is key into abstraction mimetic. The green totally invaded the facade, and the house disappears: as a large magnifying glass focusing on a piece of grass.

Internally an impluvium (water, light and oxygen) defines the organization, around which living gravitates. As in Alice’s house, it becomes a hole where golf balls slip.

Architects: N+B Architectes / Jacques BRION, Elodie NOURRIGAT
Location: Brissac, France
Associated Architect: Julien WAFFLART
Client: Conseil Général de l’Hérault
Delegated Client: Hérault Aménagement
Structural Consultant: SOTEC INGENIERIE
Constructed Area: 1,619 sqm
Budget: US $ 2.64 M
Year: 2008
Photographs: N+B Architectes

The exploitation center and the building for forest fire fighters, takes place on a site to be located in the very heart of a huge green zone. It is composed of hills covered with scrublands and with vast agricultural plains which transcribe the very specific character of this region. These natural elements are a major asset.

The project tries to join as a line of supplementary slope which complies to by-pass and protect major elements of the landscape, such as the big trees or the standing banks. So protecting these recognizable elements, the building goes from the basement of the hill and develops three main facades: the roof, the East façade and the West one. The whole is homogenous, thanks to the choice of the “corten”, a textured matter, the tones and nuances of which are in harmony with the environment.

Architects: Vaillo + Irigaray / Antonio Vaillo + Juan Luis Irigaray
Location: Navarra, Spain
Project manager: Daniel Galar Irurre, architect
Rigger: Pacho Jiménez
Structure: Tadeo Errea- LANDABE
Engineer: Luis Miguel Navarro
Lighting: Anton Aman – ALS LIGHTING
Facades: VITROCSA
Client: Restaurante Marisol
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Vaillo + Irigaray

The organizational scheme is due to similar patterns of micro-structures, more in line with geometric patterns of liquid and / or aerosols that Cartesian structures. In establishing a working geometry using “soft” and a unified treatment space “airy”.

The new space is conceived as a continuation of the existing fence, wrapping it all, but hidden: expressing their new identity, not as constructed element, but as a re-forested. A new plant species grown in the surrounding area … the new scalar similarity between elements of “plant” makes the proposal a new understanding of the link with the existing connection.

This species builds a base of recycled plastic tubes of different colors similar to reeds, organizing a braided flexible and deformable organic capability to adapt to any situation and geometry.

Architect: Guilermo Hevia – GH+A Arquitectos
Location: La Estrella, VI Región, Chile
Collaborators: Tomás Villalón, Francisco Carrión, Guillermo Hevia G, Marcela Suazo
Client: Olisur S.A.
Contractor: Pitagora S.A.
Project Year: 2008
Constructed Area: 2.800 sqm
Site Area: 5 ha (Mill) – 1.000 ha (Plantations)
Materials: Laminated Wood, Plywood, Fibre Cement, Concrete & Glass
Climate consultant: BIOTECH Chile Consultores Ltda.
Exterior skin: Pizarreño S.A.
Structure & Wooden skin: Arauco S.A.
Lighting: Opendark S.A.
Production: Jaime Gálvez – Tomás Eguiguren
Photographs: Cristóbal Palma, Guillermo Hevia

A volume of architecture simple and emphatic, which reinterprets allegorically anonymous architectures of the central valley, sits on the softer mountains of olives, looking subtly with its wooden facades and colors that stand out with the luminosity of the place. The body will mimic the geography and planning lines of trees on their facades. It uses sustainable technologies, creating the enabling environment for work and olive oil production quality.

A couple of days ago we featured the winning proposal for the new Arts and Culture House in Beirut from Alberto Catalano.

Today, we bring you the proposal from portuguese architects Kaputt!, who received an honorable mention in the international competition.

Images and architect’s description after the break.

HOUSE OF ARTS AND CULTURE

In its course and struggle to animate its great civilization, another step is taken: Beirut constructs its House of Arts and Culture. People from Beirut and the world will come to reflect upon and distance themselves from everyday life and, influenced by its extraordinary atmosphere, come together in the creation of art and culture. The House of Arts and Culture is a place of reunion and exchange. It is always free, open to all, yet shelters and protects. Like in the courtyard of a caravanserai, we will find a breathing inhabited space and through its transparency we feel its pulses. The exterior spaces, open to the outside, are both part of the city and the House itself. The House is designed with present technology but is independent of it, something bigger. Something adaptive. Change is its name. This is not an office building.

URBAN AND ARCHITECTURAL OBJECTIVES:

The project is designed from a single volume, a shell that at first occupies all the plot´s surface. From this shell, mass is removed around two perpendicular axes, thus, creating a cross-shaped void. The center of this void and the inside of the shell are structured by copper blades, generating four exterior spaces in the interior of the plot. At the end of this operation, the surface at ground floor level of the project takes 70% of the plot. The affirmative presence of the shell allows for the planned integration of the building within the urban grid planned for the location. Through the vegetation of the exterior spaces, one can see the copper blades on the interior facades. It is the_ difference of character of these two components, the peripheral shell in white concrete, heavy and compact, and the thin blades of copper, light and permeable, that define the project´s intention. Through the blades, one can see the fluidity of people throughout the whole building. The chosen materials will age and create a patina without changing their character, thereby, preserving the character of the whole building over time.~

PERFORMANCE AND CONFERENCE HALL:

For the main auditorium we propose a fully equipped proscenium stage; the small auditorium will have a black box character with a technical ceiling and movable seats to enable a vast choice of configurations; the projection room is prepared to serve the National Cinematheque. Theatre, dance, acoustic concerts and oratories are some of the most likely performances; Cinema projection, live concerts, congresses, conferences, seminars, etc. where electroacoustics will dominate the scene, are alternative activities for these spaces. Acoustics suited for live recordings and broadcasting connect it to the rest of the world. Large Performance and Conference Hall: Its shape can be read from the main exterior space through the copper blades. From the staircase it will be seen in all its amplitude. Here, one can understand that the acoustical shell is free of the covering roof. The Large Performance and Conference Hall aspires to be as encompassing as possible. The Hall´s layout consists of a series of fanned radial sections, centered on the stage, forming an ellipsoid in its entirety. Multipurpose usage for the Large Performance and Conference Hall as music and theatre require very different room acoustic properties (opposite material characteristics), raising the need to use interior variable acoustics. A box-in-a-box solution (double structure) must be applied to the main structural concept design at least for the performance halls and the movie theatre. These measures will isolate the buildings from external sources of vibration and noise.

Architects: Atelje Desman & Gregorc+Vrhovec
Location: Ig, Slovenia
Project team: Miha Desman, Vanja Gregorc, Katarina Pirkmajer Desman, Ales Vrhovec
Collaborators: Sandra Banfi, Eva Fiser Berlot, Damjana Zavirsek, Dean Pertinac
Building Physics: Simon Fiser
Construction Engineer: Franc Zugel
Electrical Engineer: Ladislav Poboljsaj
Mechanical Engineer: Iztok Koch
Quantity Engineer: Irena Bele
Project year: 2005-2006
Construction Year: 2008
Photographs: Atelje Desman & Gregorc+Vrhovec

The new Civic Centre Ig creates a lively and bustling centre of the community and makes it possible to do most daily errands in one place while meeting fellow village people. The design is based on the morphology of the village. It’s important to protect and complement the characteristically built village core, and to maintain a favourable ratio between the building density and the public space. Two buildings of different height connected by a bridge follow the street line and form a small entrance square with a lime tree. A passageway between the two buildings leads to the back premises where a green square is planed with a footpath leading further towards the municipal building and the church.

The pharmacy and the businesses are going to be located on the ground floor, there hospital is going to occupy the first floor, while the library and a small hall are going to take up the second floor and the mansard. Parking is available in the basement.

The way the roof is stretched onto the side facades connects the two buildings like a membrane, protecting their open and urban core. The materials used and the implemented detailing (the wood used for the core, the roof envelope made out of chip-coated tiles) allow the building to fit in the context of the village and the region and give voice a contemporary architectural invocation.

Architect: Aldo Amoretti + Marco Calvi + Giancarlo Ranalli
Location: Santo Stefano al mare, IM, Italy
Project Year: 2003-2005
Construction year: 2005-2006
Photographs: Aldo Amoretti

The purpose of the project is the amplification of a small municipals cemetery of Santo Stefano al Mare on the north-west side of Italy in front of the Mediterranean sea.

The new intervention is situated on a small land strip between the old cemetery’s wall and the waterfront way. This strip is orientated from east to west and runs parallel to the coast. The ground floor level (+5 m) is on an intermediate level between the sea level (0) and the old cemetery level (+8 m).

The entrance is located on the waterfront way (+2 m) and it was an old structure . The existing structure was poorly executed under an old contract.

The project is planned according to the local traditional cemetery typology, where the rectangular interments (tumuli of earth or marble slabs) are distributed on the ground in sequence.

The request of the municipal administration to build tombs of three and four levels brought us a plan based on a sequence of extruded rectangles to obtain series of prismatic blocks. Those prismatic blocks, when distributed on the ground, give shape to the intervention.

At the same time, such blocks enclose the wall and the burials, while their disposition in the west-east produce a sense of gaping spaces for the ways, and in the north south a sense of the opening that allows a constant visual contact with the sea and the wall of the existing cemetery.

Each block is composed by two structural concrete walls. They are covered by Carrara marble slabs on the roof and on the front and back facades; inside each prism there are assembled the tombs previously prefabricated.

On the whole, while looking down on the new construction it produces a sense of an expanse tombstone.

This simple way of project, have permeated to not build the enclosure walls around the cemetery , and to concentrate on one repetitive element all the various functions. The prismatic block movement in the area facilitates to obtain the passages and the useful spaces and to creates a dimensional control during the execution of the project. All the work is based on a 30 cm module.

Only two materials are used : concrete in same different ways and Carrara marble slabs.

The main way is used for interment and to join the old and the new part of the cemetery, it is paved with washed cement conglomerate, The gravel strip between the main way and the prismatic blocks is designed to pick up the rain water.

The rear way is used after services and it is paved with untied gravel. There are two small gardens between the old cemetery wall and the tombs in the back. The remaining service area, along with the chapel of rest, the parking lot, the restrooms and the warehouse, are located on the waterfront level.

The work is planned according to the municipal administration austerity budget, covering 850 sqm at the cost of 250 € / sqm.

The contained costs will make the burial lots available at an equitable price.

Aquatic Complex for Panamerican Games, Competition 1st prize, under construction

After a 2 week break, AD Futures is back to bring you the best young practices from around the world.

This time, I choose a practice based in Medellin, Colombia. Why did I choose them? Paisajes Emergentes (Emerging Landscapes) has a very unique approach to landscape architecture, which has made them win several competitions. Most of those competitions  weren´t even landscape specific projects, yet the result is always a built environment which becomes a new landscape – not just limited to small interventions but as the base for the whole project: sports centers, parks, public facilities, libraries, etc.

Also, they have a very good representation technique, that in my opinion is able to transmit the proposed atmosphere the landscape will create over time, not as a brand new shiny project  but as an evolving project becoming one with its location.

Enough of my words, and lets see the projects speak by themselves:

House in ladera

Design: Paisajes Emergentes  (Edgar Mazo, Sebastián Mejía, Luis Callejas )
Structural design: Ing Jorge Aristizabal
Year: 2007-2009
Status: Under construction

With minimal intervention on the original soil, the 400m2 house is displaced over the plot.

The apertures in all the facades are determined by distant and near landsape events selected with the client.

The roof becomes the main facade when you arrive to the house, and is the first thing to appear visible, it simply emerges as a geometriced version of the terrain in which the house in located.

Aquatic Complex for Panamerican Games

Competition, 1st Prize
Medellin, 2008
Status: Under construction

Design: Paisajes Emergentes – Luis Callejas, Edgar Mazo Sebastian Mejia)
Support architects: Juanita Gonzales, Andres Zapata, Sebastian Betancourt, Eliana Beltran, Clara Arango, Adriana Tamayo.
Landscaping advisor: Andres Ospina
Structure advisor: Ing. Jorge Aristizabal

Acuatic complex the new acuatic complex is articulated and inmersed in a completly acuatic landscape.

The acuatic gardens tha surround the pool competition areas allow a constant relation of swimers and a live ecosystem. This areas are planted with species that are capable of biorremediate the water in an all natural cleanning proccess similar to a natural wetland.

The service areas (bathrooms and dressingrooms) are below the water garden level articulated by open air yards that are the only apertures in the flooded zones.

The Hours – Lagoon Park at Venice

Finalist project 2G Venice Lagoon Park, international competition
2g Magazine Barcelona, Spain
2007
Proyect: Luis Callejas, Edgar Mazo, Sebastián Mejia, Juan Pablo Martinez.

The park as a living museum of the slow death of the city.

The Venice lake is colonized by an artificial reef system that intends to recover, keep and protect a living fertile ecosystem. With the change of the tides the reef emerges and disappears partially.

inside the canals the light and water level reveal the passing of the hours. Eventually the canals get flooded and become unwalkable.

The surface of the island is covert with as many seeds and spores as possible, the strongest and most capable species will impose and some months later there will be a completly unpredictable, wild and convulse garden.

The island coasts are the main circulation system, no paths and no program.

“I draw, not with ideas, not with stones; but with light and air the way of my transit.”
Octavio Paz

Naos, Water clock house and confined forest.
The residential and workshop constructions of the city of Venice, Murano and the other islands are colonized by contemplative uses as they are abandoned or become obsolete .
Roofs are removed, walls stay, new gardens emerge, sitting rooms that will eventually get flooded. New decks, galleries, small parks and public thermae appear within the old walls in an unplanned way.

“there is nothing built on stone. Everything is built on sand, but it is our duty to edify as if the sand should be stone”
Jorge Luis Borges

Inside the canals the light and water level reveal the passing of the hours. Eventually the canals get flooded and become unwalkable.

Lagoon Park

Competition, 2nd prize

Design: Paisajes Emergentes – Luis Callejas , Sebastian Mejia, Edgar Mazo.
Collaborators: Luis Tobon, Clara Arango, Adriana Tamayo, Ana Maria Jimenez, Sebastian Monsalve, Erica Martinez, Farid Maya.

The runway of the old airport is completely flooded to generate an active hydrologic park.

In August 2008, a design competition was launched to generate ideas to convert Quito’s Mariscal Sucre International Airport after its planned closing in a couple of years.

According to the organizers, “the coming availability of 126 hectares of space with a flat topography, located in the midst of a consolidated area, which thanks to the decision of the Quito Metropolitan Council, will be transformed into a park, constitutes an exceptional event and a unique opportunity. This leads us to rethink the city and to take advantage of the opportunity to set forth solutions to multiple issues linked to: changes in the use and building capacity of land; improvement in mobility and transversal connectivity; expansion of infrastructure; provision of green areas and public spaces; improvement in environmental conditions, recovery of urban landscapes and environment; improvement of the quality of life of present and future inhabitants of the city.”

Per the competition brief, water has to be central element in the design. After all, the organizers refer to the future park as Parque del Lago.

In response, Paisajes Emergentes flooded the 3-kilometer runway to create an “active hydrologic park,” which they then partitioned into 6 programmatically discrete areas.

1. At the north end of the park are wetlands. These bioremediated waters redirected from the south end of the park after having run its course through this outrageously elongated pool.

2. Relatively clean water from the wetlands is then used to fill an open air aquarium. The tanks here contain fluvial species from tropical ecosystems.

3. An aquatic botanical garden comes next in this hydrological assembly line. Whereas the faunal variety is showcased in the aquarium, tropical plants are the main attractions here, though both are equally essential to maintain any kind of a robust ecosystem.

4. From there, water moves into circular water tanks, where it is mechanically oxygenated and filtrated. And the organic material coming from the botanical garden is removed from water. Pedestrian walkways involve people with process that are usually is hidden in every city.

5. Pools and thermal baths. Clean water is used to fill the public pools and thermal baths. a combination of eolic and solar energy is used to heat the aquatic complex..

6. Finally, we come to a recreational lake, where the water is collected in subterranean tanks to satisfy the need of irrigation systems and general maintenance of the park before.

Additional activities are also programmed adjacent to this central pool. For instance, the old terminal building is turned into a convention center. Soft materials and walls are removed, and the remaining forest of columns confines 3 theaters inside hanging gardens.

Open air aviation museum.
“…my favorite building of the XX century is the Boeing 747” Norman Foster.

All over the golf field diverse planes from obsolete Ecuador fleet now appear scattered.
this area is then colonized spontaneously by wetland species.
water from the botanical garden is guided through canals to specific spots where the spontaneous vegetation is predicted to grow.

.Open air theater / rain water collector.
Surprisingly adaptable, it’s a space attuned to the temporal vagaries of climate, the fluctuating rate of water consumption and the cultural preferences of Quito’s residents.

Architect: Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter Aps
Location: Ringsted, Denmark
Project Year: 2006
Client: Brainstones Development ApS
Engineer: Lemming & Eriksson A/S
Construction Area: 790 sqm
Photographs: Adam Mørk

The terrace houses have been built in connection with the official exhibition ‘Living 2006+’ in Ringsted. The construction consists of 7 terrace houses, placed in rows of 2 with respectively 3 and 4 housings, which stagger along a building line.

The 2 floors of the terrace houses are split-levelled around a mid zone that secures an optimized utilization of the spaces, with a logical and functional distribution inside the housing. At the same time the split-levels provide an interesting spatial sequence and an ample environment in the relatively small accommodations.
The split-levels of the construction, both in the horizontal and vertical arrangements, emphasize the landscape’s descending grounds towards the open plain-like terrain, whilst carrying with them an almost sculptural expression.

This form of construction arrangement makes it possible for semi-private outdoor living areas, with the possibility of informal meetings with neighbours. Yet the construction in itself appears spacious with great views of the surrounding scenery. The common areas are planted with grass and with blooming trees, such as cherry and magnolia. Back yards are bounded with beech hedges.

The terrace houses are built in concrete elements with bearing gable facades. The facades are covered with a veneered facing of plates in a warm and vibrant reddish-brown colour. The window frames are conducted in pinewood. The outside has been painted black, whereas the inside is pale white.

The interior is prepared with natural light materials and surfaces, with open spatial sequences.

The construction contains housings with 3 and 4 rooms, ranging from 96m2 to 130m2. Every housing has its own shed covered with the same material as the main building, and the houses at the end are equipped with private roof terrace.