The Organic Apparatus For Sustainability: Nature's Architecture

Thesis Statement

As precedent, nature provides a self-sustaining framework showing how the integration of many natural occurrences works together through an organic process of evolution. To initiate a sustainable community there needs to be a clear depiction of how systems work within their surrounding environment. The people who inhabit this community will become inspired to participate by seeing systems of sharing spaces, sharing knowledge and interacting with the buildings as a whole integrative system. The haptic components constantly act as the apparatus in which participation with the buildings exercise each individual to understand the world around them and their role in it.

Research Methodology

The methodology of research started in the realm of how studies of nature have been incorporated into architecture through material cycles and biomimicry. The human ability to design has become a burden on this planet because suburban formations in architecture have only degraded from the natural world by separating each individual into their own world at home. With the correct analysis and proper experimentation, Buckminster Fuller has shown us that there has been designers who have revolutionized the way things are built and designed resulting in positive impacts on the world. Researching the deeper meaning of a design such as these designers go through is critical for understanding how to solve for a sustainable design and how we can implement them affectively.

Design Methodology

The design methodology of the thesis started with investigating five aspects of biomimicry and trying to draw out elements that would derive a sustainable design. The further research on sustainability through the influences of Bill Reed have led to investigations on the integration of systems. The implementation of a design will ultimately affect many naturally occurring cycles that occur in a community and it becomes a critical point in a design to understand these considerations. In this step I constructed models and diagrams to look at how biomimicry could be used to form the structural make-up of a building through the investigation of bubbles and the arches. To integrate biomimicry into the functionality of the building I started to look at how the form of the building could serve it’s purpose as a structure but also integrate with other functions such forming in a way that responds to climatic conditions. The investigation of these systems led me to the conclusion that sustainability is not in the object but the foremost important element above all is that those who inhabit the environment need to be enlightened in a way as to show them the importance of their participation in a community.

Design Concept

Everyone thinks of changing the world but nobody thinks of changing themselves. In order for a sustainable community to evolve, the most important thing The idea in organizing the program on the site expresses the community as a whole and activates a strong participation or sharing aspect to occur amongst the people. The way that people will interact with one another, the responsibility they acquire from the haptic elements, shows people that there are many systems in motion and they need to work with those systems. The atmosphere on the site is expressive of the haptic elements and are clearly visible and displayed to the public on the southern sides of the buildings. The relationship amongst the buildings are arranged in a way that they all clearly display their importance in the community and roles they possess on the site as a whole. Along with the people understanding their role in sharing spaces, the buildings themselves also play a part in teaching people that they have a role and responsibility with the interior of the buildings condition as well. 

Building and Site Programming

The design of the housing units is based on a system of building that is expressive of the thesis in how the organization adresses the larger picture. The Individual spaces are enclosed to the outside for privacy reasons, however, instead of being mysteriously organized inside a larger volume they are expressed on the outside form of the building. The individual needs to see and feel that their space is not irrelevant and it becomes a contributing factor to the overall design and organization on the site. The layering of the building on the southern facades are responsive to the solar arrangement with the intervention of the haptic walls. Instead of a flat northern facade, again the facade is layered and pulled back to expose outdoor spaces that relate to the ground level. 

The community spaces are larger program areas on the ground floor that are open to the community as shared space. The areas above these spaces are for the sharing amongst the families within the building to share and are more centered around the families within the house. In both cases, the shared spaces are represented on the outside of the building as more open to the outside. They are to show and express the connectedness with the large picture of sharing and participation. 

The site is composed as to provoke a small sense of on-site community but open up to the larger neighborhood. The buildings are arranged in a way that expresses a design response to a co-housing development. However, the organization of program on the site promotes a stronger sense of participation as all of the co-housing functions become evenly distributed amongst the buildings. This thesis adresses how the individual's participation and involvement in a community is the most critical points in understanding sustainability. The organization and distribution of this program imposes this notion on the buildings participation as well. Where a typical co-housing unit has a "common house", this plan takes down those barriers of one building being the community space and opens up all of the other buildings to the community as to show the importance of each one of them as a whole. 

Amongst the site the pathways and visual connection are what finalize the sense of community on the site. There is an interrelationship that happens between the community program spaces within each building. The community program spaces are responsive to the location that they are situated on the site. The nursery for example is located on the street edge where it can utilize a drop off zone on the street, where than it also relates to the playground on the site. The library is set back into the corner where it may be slightly more quiet. The shop and shed space is on the access with both of the community gardens as well as providing a pathway between the existing triple deckers to Franklin Park. While all of the community spaces are different, the paths in which you access them will alway cross the path of some other function on site. There than becomes an awareness and sense of importance amongst the buildings and individuals that shape the community. 

Progress During March

The Figure Ground plan and the Context Plan display the relevant conditions for the surrounding neighborhood. There are many pieces (systems) that will be affected by the implementation of a housing complex on the site. It is very important to understand these systems and how they will benefit form the installation of the additional families into the community. 

These diagrams are representing the systems that work within one housing unit building. This initial schematic model is to show how spaces start to work together to display the concept of understand the bigger picture and the individuals role in it.

One of the very important pieces of the diagrams above are the use of the Haptic Walls. This schematic model is expressing the relevance of orientation of this haptic wall to fully utilize passive and solar energies. This wall/building element will be a very important for engaging people to participate with the architecture itself. The concept of the thesis relies greatly on the arrangement of spaces to encourage participation amongst families and the community. The next piece from that includes the importance of the architecture itself to be responsible for promoting this idea by getting people involved with climate control and solar awareness by the individual so they become conscious their actions within the building. 

This model is an iteration of the way that the building can be manipulated to fit into the scale of the surrounding buildings while also arranging space in a much more efficient and coherent manner for the haptic and community experience. 

Within the site there needs to be a relation amongst buildings in order for each building to have relevance and importance. To get the inhabitants of the site to understand the role of their building there needs to be specific relations amongst each unit. By the arrangement of pathways and orientation of views, this idea of participation amongst buildings become clear as people begin to occupy this community village.

Each building has an idea of sharing spaces amongst the building. Within those sharing spaces there will be a community sharing space that is shared with the rest of the buildings on the site and the adjacent neighborhood. Within the five buildings, each will hold a unique program element for the site that may include a library/media center, a fitness center, nursery, lounge, and a utility room with washing machines and workshop space. 

As opposed to the typical co-housing site where there is a "community building", this organization of community spaces displays an importance for each building. A co-housing site with a community building could still exist and function as a community if you were to remove a single unit from the site. With the Organic Apparatus implemented on this site in the type of organization displayed above, every building plays a very important role on the community and it would not work properly if you were to remove one of the units. The idea of understanding the world around you and the importance of each building become relevant. 

The design of the unit is developed so that instead of having spaces tucked away in the back corners of a building, each bedroom and each space becomes part of the facade and the haptic wall. This is to stress the importace and equality amongst each of the private and shared spaces.

This exploded axon lays out the private vs public spaces throughout a single unit. There are three stories where each floor becomes smaller as it rises in elevation. As the private spaces move up, they compensate smaller families. The bottom floor has a three bedroom space, the second floor has a two bedroom space, and the top floor has a studio/1 bedroom space. The importance of this is to add a mix of people into a single building. This participation amongst different social position of families can create a affective integration of ideas and activities in the inhabitants lives.

Form and Site Planning

The organization of the forms on the site need to not only adress the site itself but the surrounding context. The concept is to understand the bigger picture and to see that the surrounding buildings need to become a part of the design. It's not a matter of addressing a single contained element on the site but working in harmony with everything that surrounds it. These 5 conceptual models exhibit studies of how the forms and patterns may start to engage the surrounding context.

To understand the bigger picture in the shape of the building, this model represents how spaces might be integrated with the structural system. This model represents the idea that you are part of the structure because the spaces may start to occupy the truss form.

This is a typical design problem. The stick in the lower right is the architect/designer. The block in the middle of the circle represents the design problem. And the box in the upper right represents a built solution to the problem. Notice that the problem is isolated in a circle. There are no other impacts on this "problem" other than the way the architects comes in. The resulting building is just a reflection or solution to the problem. 

This is a model representing the design methodology that a sustainable design goes through. It consists of the same component but the process the architect goes through is very different. Instead of going right at the problem and producing a solution, the design turns from the problem and takes a path around the problem. The path investigates everything that is surrounding the idea and understands the problem in the contexts in which it rests in. The result is still a reflection of the problem from the designer, but the path considered produces a sustainable path of design by investigating the entirety of the problem.

Structure and Programming

The idea of a community is simplified in our modern society as a cube. We have developed a sense of community to be a walled cube where you cannot see in or out of it. The cube represents a way of life where you cannot see or understand a community other than the six sides and the mystery of what is enclosed. This model represents a form of community that need to be established. This model is still a cube, and resembles a community. However, this is the vision where we see and understand the structure of the cube (community). We can see what pieces make it work and hold it's shape. Every part of the cube is part of the overall idea and everything has a role in the community, even the voided space. This understanding of each piece's role in the cube is recognizable and in full affect.

We need to stop seeing the cube for just an enclosed object but understand the essential components of the object.

This is an exploration of an adjustable structure. There are very many variables that can affect a structure and many considerations when adapting it to a particular situation. This model is an alteration on many levels of the same form responding to different conditions. 

Further exploration of the notion of an adapting structure has derived a solution for solar conditioning. This model represents an arched vault that consists of six different sides that rest at different angles. Each of these angles plays a different role in the larger picture of the interior space. The skin adapts to the different lighting and solar conditions. By the implementation of this particular type of structure, it engages the design of the skin to flourish in it's purpose and function, creating a harmony and clear coherence between structure and skin.  

These two models are investigating spatial arrangement that might work within the form of the building. There are levels of the program that are to be designated as private and pubic areas where these diagram models start to investigate their relationships.

This model is a simple depiction of a central focus and an organization of spacial arrangements. The relationships between void space and form start to describe a vocabulary of how many pieces interact to achieve a larger idea of form.

The abstraction of a typical suburban environment is depicted in this model on the right side. The black walls between the buildings represent the "home life". People build and live in houses with the idea that once they are there they can do anything. When they do what they please in these spaces they are not exposed to the outside world. 

For example: When you are in the typical private home you have a choice, you can toss the aluminum can in the trash or you can place it in a recycling bin. As an individual in your own house, nobody is there to enforce you to do anything and since you are hidden behind the threshold of your home, you will never see the environmental impacts of what your ignorance to recycling will produce. 

The idea of the model on the left is to take down those walls and start to envision the world without an ignorance of your neighbor. There needs to be a practice of coherence between households, streets, and communities so that people can be exposed to the larger picture at hand.

The concept that has risen out of these investigations is that the world needs to become recognized as a whole and not just one solution for one individual. Society needs to understand the nature of this world and understand our role in it. Without understanding the bigger picture in what your action inevitably produce, than forever will we live in a decreasing world. 

Green Building is not going to achieve sustainability! The idea of sustainability is to understand the whole situation of a design problem in any case. Building one thin will affect something else. Destroying one thing will affect something else. Unless you have fully understood that notion you cannot achieve a design that is sustainable. All elements must be considered and united to benefit all situation and not just the one you are trying to solve, all affected elements must be considered.

Sustainability will not be achieved by building a building. The idea that placing a building somewhere will not make this world sustainable. Placing 100,000 of them all over the world will not either. The first step is to reform society to understand their bigger role in this world. Human being in their lifestyles need to surpress the idea of their front door and realize that they are part of the world outside that threshold; there is a world outside and your actions are directly affecting this planet. For every action there is going to be a reaction, some greater than others.

To achieve sustainability we need to first be educated in a way of life that form people to understand their role in nature. In this type of integrated co-operative housing design of this thesis, the idea of the individual role of a person become very clear to every person involved. Not only in function of sharing spaces but the idea of how spaces are shaped start to comprehend the larger idea of how the structure is responding to the larger picture at hand. As the model before was adjusting to the larger picture of solar conditioning, this model is a representation of spaces. In the way that these spaces are shaped, the occupant will have a very good understanding of why is it shaped that way. The occupant understand that the space is shaped by the larger picture; the overall arch.

First Crit: Program Analysis

 This is a diagram portraying the idea of how an aspect of nature is organized in a logical way that can be studied for investigations on biomimicry. It represent the organization of wolfes that contribute to a single territory. 

This is an image of how these wolf packs work in a single territory. There are central gathering spaces where they assemble. 

This Diagram is a representation of how a single house can operate on the same sharing and contributing idea of a wolf territory. Each of these red areas in these diagrams represent a shared space. Within a single family space there is a shared common area. Within one single house there is a common area between all the families.

 Within a single building there is a community space between the houses. Within a single lot there is a community space between all the buildings.

Within a single community there is a common space that is shared by all adjacent lots. This notion of how a wolf territory organizes itself is just a compounding element of how families, buildings, lots, and communities can  display an very organized solution of organizing people and spaces in a community.