Green Roof

I looked at some details of various green roofs to work out what would be the best way to construct one.

Flat Green Roofs

Knowledge of green roof construction methods and the benefits of incorporating them in building design is steadily becoming more widespread in the UK.
Unlike pitched green roofs, flat green roofs can either take the form of
extensive (consisting of a thin layer of turf or sedum matting), or
intensive (characterised by a greater soil depth that can even
accommodate shrubs and trees). This more frequently takes the form of
roof-top gardens, providing valuable secluded green space in urban
settings.

Flat green roof build up

The build-up of a flat green roof will vary depending upon the intended use. We therefore suggest that you contact our technical department early on in the design process. However the diagram below shows a typical build-up for an extensive or semi-intensive green roof:

A standard roofing membrane and insulation layer is laid onto the underlying roof structure, then a studded, perforated drainage membrane such as Oldroyd Xv20 GreenXtra is used in addition to provide a drainage layer with reservoir capability. A filtrating drainage layer (Oldroyd Tp filter fleece) is laid down before adding the required soil loading and plantings, as shown in the diagram above.
In situations where the roofing membrane does not offer adequate root resistance a Safeguard Root Barrier layer may need to be included between the roofing membrane and the Oldroyd Xv20 Green Xtra drainage layer.
Other examples of typical green roofbuild-ups can be found in our library of CAD drawings.
For roof-top gardens, concrete decking is often used to provide a suitable load-bearing construction, whereas substantial reinforcement is not usually required for a lightweight flat turf roof.

http://www.safeguardeurope.com/applications/green_roofs_flat.php

Flow Diagrams

Gallery and Wellness Centre

Flow diagrams showing access in and out of the heritage and new building form.

- Integrated with landscape of site.

- Cafe tables spill out into the landscape.

- Tenancy spaces have access both sides and internally.

Water feature provides a marker for orientation around the builidngs. The water feature acts to link the buildings together and becomes part of the building fabric. It also assists with wayfinding as follows the path of the Brisbane River.

Emerging Technologies-Further Research

Solar Power Breakthrough Could Render Photovoltaic Cells Obsolete

Researchers at the University of Michigan have made a discovery about the behavior of light that could change solar technology forever. Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics and William Fisher, a doctoral student in applied physics, discovered that light, when traveling at the right intensity through a material such as glass that does not conduct electricity, can create magnetic fields that are 100 million times stronger than previously thought possible. In these conditions, the resulting magnetic field is strong enough to rival a strong electric effect.

The result is an optical battery, which could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation.

Lecture Week 11- Computing without computers

Computing without computers

This weeks lecture was given by Professor John Frazer.

- How nature stores information - stores it in DNA.
- Gets imported into seeds, such as the acorn. Every leaf is different. Each tree is different.
- This is affected by climate, water, sun.

What would be the architectural equivalent of DNA?

Back to the beginning: Cellular and genetic structures 1968

- No good access to computers in the 70's
- Good programs where introduced in the 80's
- Not accepted until the 90's

End of the 60's - no software, no display screens, John Frazer hired a machine by the hour. It could do an enormous amount however it was quite difficult to work it out.

By the end of the 60's the cafe grey screen became available. - He had access to the only machine at Cambridge University.

Tried to find ways to simplify using the analogy of the acorn.
- Encoded all elements and left the machine to do the development work
- Was able to use nature  and evolution as a powerful tool.


Building Brief

Generator project: Cedric Price 1976
- Client wanted flexible centre - poetry reading, camp for kids.
- This needed to be rearraged accordingly
- The idea of a crane was used to move the parts of the building around on a day to day basis.
- Embedding electronics (micro process)
- Electronic model of self organising
- Parts would be intelligent and reconfigure itself through computing
- Publishing as 'first intelligent building'.
- Personal Electronic Transactor (PET) If the users didn't change the building enough- it would make the building change itself.

Concept of Boredom
-Provoke interaction with system
-Active/passive computing
-Active is interested in engaging.
-Massive computing allows temporal compression of space and spatial compression of time.

Universal Constructor 1990 AA
Diploma Students

Michelangelo
- made his own tools precisely how he wanted them
- He would also go to the quarry to select his own stone
- Preparing mentally

Students were required to design & construct their own computer and design own software
- Each cube has a micro processor in it.
- Message passes up and down inside it
- Cubes could represent a city, architectural column or a door etc.

Netherlands to Pave Roads with Solaroad Solar Panels

Netherlands to Pave Roads with Solaroad Solar Panels

In addition to being one of the most bike-friendly places in Europe, the Netherlands is about to make their bike lanes even more green — by paving them with solar panels. The initiative is part of a larger plan to pave all of their roads with solar panels but the Dutch have elected to start the experiment with two-wheeled transportation lanes. The technology is called SolaRoad developed wby Dutch firm TNO.

The actual make-up of the SolaRoad is a layer-cake of sturdiness and energy. They start with a layer of concrete, then place over that a centimeter of silicon solar cells and then finish it all off with a layer of strengthened glass. It is estimated that the Dutch road network is comprised of 85,000 miles of roadway with the potential for generating 54 kWh per square yard.
Each SolaRoad panel is comprised of concrete, solar cells, thick glass. TNO is working with the government on this pilot program and hopes to expand after testing the SolaRoad in Krommenie.

The energy produced from the road can be hooked up to the grid and will be used to power streetlights, stoplights, businesses and homes.

Lecture Week 10

WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE?

Yasu's Story

Confucious

"tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand"

AA Workshop

Yasu explained of his experience as a student utilising the workshop to build models and furniture encouraging us to utilise our own workshop facilities as it is through this construction process that you will learn how things are put together, and enable you to design more effectively.

He also spent much time submitting to international competitions.

Junction Space

He became interested in internet & progamming however still missed the tactile nature of physical forms and being able to touch what was made.

Triggering Events (2001)

Found that he didn't learn very well from textbooks. Instead offered to do an installation at a museum in Hong Kong. Made from toughened glass sources the piece measured people moving through space, which then sent a message back to the computer.

Later the discovery of an electronic circuit prototype was made which enabled the ability to experiment straight away without studying electronic engineering - world of controlling electronic devices. Prototype called - Parallax BasicStamp Development Board.

Kinetic Pond (2002)

Hypothetical idea for a bridge/pond, created as a 1st year student exercise. This was a relatively short project to figure out a very simple idea of how it could be done. Models were built with lego pieces.

This idea then led to Kinetic Cube 2002, which was a continuation from the first idea. The interest was in it being an interface the people play with.

ACTIVE BUILDINGS

What can we do about buildings that simply stand still?

- Take a huge amount of resources to build a building
- Huge waste of resources when demolished
- Need to provide a more creative solution
- Next 21, Osaka Japan  - Components are modular, panels can be recycled or reused.

Nakagin Capsule Tower

- Movement called Metabolism
- People don't utilise modular buildings
- Take away the capsules to refubish and rearrange
- None of the capules have utilised this capapbility to date
- Was built to be very sustainable  as it can renew itself
- Major design flaw - have to take away all capsules above before you can remove ones below

Next 21

- A huge research project run by a gas company
- Sent researchers to the building to explain how the building works and what it can do.
- At the moment this is successful while the researchers are there to explain the functionality of the building however once this is stopped it may not be quite so successful
- The user therefore needs to be provided with an interface

Office Space in Margaret St

- This building is quite limiting in terms of what could be done with the environment for individual users
- The idea was to create an interface so that people could control their own environment.
- Achieved through the controlling of blinds. An electronic device was attached to the manual window control which allowed the blinds to be controlled remotely.

This was done through Pachube, a server available to the general public for repository of data. Allows access of data anywhere in the world.

Cedric Price described architecture as  "a kit of parts, not a building".

In essence this encourages designers to think about creating something else and to really think about different aspects of what architecture really could be.

Final Modelling