Field course in London

MAKE architects web page on Heygate Master plan

The Elephant and its new castle, the Strata tower

2nd Feb 2012: We had a day out in London, with students seeing the site and more. We started at the London Building Centre, seeing the large model of London, and viewing the exhibition of projects in the region... although these didn't include the Elephant and Castle probably because these are still at a consultation stage. We walked on to MAKE architects who have produced the most recent master plan for E&C and whose plan has been the subject of consultation in 2011 and 2012. John Prevc of Make delivered a talk about the area and about the proposals, and helped to paint in the context for the work we are doing on the St Mary churchyard site. We then took the Tube to Elephant and Castle, had a lunch in the E&C shopping centre, and then viewed our site. Although we can't get on to it, the site is flat, and we can see through viewslots in the hoardings. We had a good walkabout of the site and the locality, checking out Dante Road, the Leisure centres, the Strata tower, the Heygate estate, the railway arches and the Metro Centre flats.

The Shard is well under way, and has a baby shard being built nearby,
in the foreground

 We took public transport to the London Bridge Shard, admiring it from below, but not have had much luck yet with getting a ride up the tower while it is being constructed. That will come in future field trips.

From the Elephant, two thirds of the group took the classic London
Red Bus route to London Bridge, along the old Roman road line.
The others went by tube.....

We had a long walk from there, over the London Bridge, past the Monument, past the Fenchurch St tower building site. We enjoyed seeing the Leadenhall tower site and Lloyds building, and had a tea-stop under the Gherkin. It was about as windy and cold as many of us could bear, with Siberian winds blowing through London. Moving on north, we admired the Heron tower (with its megaframe, PV wall and giant fish tank), and then continued up past Liverpool St to the Broadgate Tower... from where we took the bus home. A good day out!

The group at the Broadgate Tower in freezing conditions, waiting for the bus!

Briefing for London Project

30 Jan 2012: The new Tall Building Studio met for the first time for a briefing, and formed 3 working groups. Each group has a fair distribution of STB students experienced in tall building, and of EED students who have done the Isover Multi-comfort house competition with Lucelia and Brian Ford.
   Each group has to do their own site analysis, and they must look at a special topic in addition - Group A to consider the adaptation of Passivhaus and Active House ideas to tall buildings, Group B to consider Social spaces and Multi use towers, and Group C to tell us about London and tall buildings in London, including the more notable towers, but including examples of residential high rise.

Our site is the triangle bounded by Newington Butts, Dante Rd and Brook Drive. There is already some student housing on the site and two leisure centres, and our primary site within that is the flattened slab that used to be the London Park Hotel. 

Final crit of first semester

19 Jan 2012: We had the final crit of the semester, and everyone completed on time. We had Ivan visiting, Dirk was booked but couldn't get to Nottingham, and from in house we had Katharina Borsi and Amy Tang. Steve Fernandes called in for the afternoon to check on structures. One of our alumni from last year, Lee Bali, stepped in to take Dirk's place.

  This project was the star of the show, a mixed use twin tower scheme for Singapore with a special interest in PV solar capture and water autonomy, supported by some fantastic renderings in Cinema 4D (Pelin Gurkan and Soni Jue Shi).

The Oasis team explain their residential tower for Abu Dhabi, with a special interest in creating reed bed wetlands on sky courts using falling grey water. (Aaron Marriot and Clarissa Wenborn)
 There is still 10 days in which the students can rest and then do a bit of work to improve their artwork for portfolio submission at the end of January.

Talkback at the end of the day

We will try to post some more images, perhaps on issuu.com.

Tall ships keel over

Screen capture from BBC website

19 Jan 2012: I have been amazed at how high modern cruise ships have become, and even ferries seem high out of the water. They have shallow draft, to avoid running aground, and because tank tests must show they are stable. The Concordia is something like 14 storeys high, depending on how you count, and the draft is only 8.2m. Its impossible for the centre of gravity to be below the waterline, but the vectors from the CofG to the waterline are such that it cannot capsize, providing it is not punctured.
See this BBC page, with drawings of the ship tilting.

 They had great problems lowering the lifeboats because on the low side, the boats would be crushed by the capsizing ship and on the high side, the lifeboats would not release.
 We have all seen how the Titanic sank.... with a similar gash in the side, she gradually filled up and gracefully settled in upright position into the water, taking several hours to do it, and allowing lifeboats to be launched both sides (until it finally broke and pitched down nose first). The Costa Concordia, and the Herald of Free Enterprise in the 1980s are so high that they capsize sideways when punctured, the capsize happening in a few minutes. Also, the shallowness and nature of the seabed in the the more recent cases prevented the ships from sinking upright.

WTC collapse
If buildings did this, there would be a very different attitude to structure. The twin WTC towers in New York were fatally damaged, but they fell vertically, like a collapsing accordion, within their own footprint. Imagine if the impact of the planes had caused the buildings to either snap (and the upper part fall) or to fall over onto its side like a collapsing tree, or like this ship has done.

Secret mission to the Elephant

9 Jan 2012: DNC visited the site for next semester's project which is going to be in the Elephant and Castle, London, wearing his best black hat. Chris Gaylord lives a mile away in Kennington, and turned up on a Boris bike.  Pelin Gurkan travelled down (also incognito) by bus and we all met near the Tabernacle, an impressive Roman portico. We did a walkabout of the area, including the site itself, then looking at the housing, the Strata tower, the leisure centre, the railway station, and the currently being demolished Heygate estate. The site itself is surrounded with hoarding, but this is not a problem, as it is flat and vacant, and there are enough views of it from aerial photos and cracks in the hoardings.

The programme for the building is to be the Vertical Passivhaus (or 'Active House' depending on how the students interpret the brief.)

Mission completed, we walked west a short while and had lunch in the Imperial War Museum. After a quick look at some of the exhibition, we got the Tube to Goodge St for a browse of the Building Centre. The London Model is excellent, and we shall make this the starting point for the Field course in February. We walked on to the office of MAKE, nearby, for a briefing about the Elephant and Castle, from John Prevc. Make have been the master planners for the most recent attempt at regeneration, and there has been a consultation process during 2011, and going on into 2012.

Researching the Elephant and Castle

9th Jan 2012: DNC and Pelin went to London for the day to check out the site for the coming project - Elephant and Castle. We also met Chris Gaylord on site (who turned up on a Boris-bike), and had lunch at the Imperial War Museum (pictured). Later, we took the Tube to Goodge st to meet John Prevc at Make who are the lead architects for the master planning process to regenerate the Heygate Estate at the Elephant. 

DNC and Chris pose in front of the V2 rocket!

Graduation 2011

16 Dec 2011: We had the 2011 Graduation ceremony for Master students, and witnessed the passing out of our STB students and the others who had taken part in Tall Building Studio in 2010-2011. It was great to see the culmination of all that work in a grand event, and it was good to meet some of the parents, aunties or siblings. However, none of them seem to have a job yet, which is worrying for us. We hope that with a degree in a niche subject, it should make it easier to get a specialised job. Some of our previous graduates have jobs, mostly in tall building design, so it is working - but the UK professional scene is in a recession. 

Vinu, Phil, Ranjit, DNC, Rahul

Maryam, DNC, Masoud, Phil, Soha, Fahimeh, Katayoun

Not all of the students in the photos are SB candidates, but they are all ones who have taken the tall building design studio.

Party at DNC's house

11 Dec 2011: DNC invited the studio members to a Sunday-lunch party at his house in Peveril Drive, West Bridgford, everybody bringing a little bit of food. Mrs N-C made some fine desserts. It was rainy, so we didn't have the hoped-for walk on the hill south of the house, but anyway, a good time was had by all.

Interim Crit 8th Dec

Chris learning about ADac's design in Abu Dhabi

8 Dec 2011: We had the second Interim Crit, and our guests were Chris Gaylord and Lukasz Platkowski. The die is cast now, most of the designs are finalising, and this crit is aimed at toughening up the thinking, especially in facade, structure, planning, and fulfilment of their ideas about their agenda.
   It's a rigorous schedule trying to get all ten groups seen twice in one day, and snacks or tea had to be snatched in hurried moments. Phil and DNC hope that everybody got something useful from the interaction with two such good reviewers as Chris and Lukasz.

Chris checking the section of Singapore group SP2

Lukasz considers the New York tower of the Floating Clouds group

Chris has something to say to Singapore group SP-busy

Ivan visits in December

Group 'ADam' explain their scheme for Abu Dhabi

1 December 2011: We had another visit from Ivan Jovanovic of BDSP. Its only 2 weeks from the end of term and one week from the second crit, so it's important to push things ahead to some form of resolution. We asked everybody for a lot more drawing content, particularly a large Section and some more Plans (Models can wait till next week).
    Ivan's task was to focus on ensuring that the environmental strategy was working, and to question how this was reflected in ideas for facade design, and the special technologies required of their environmental agenda.

Group 'NYJuicy' are making good progress

Group 'SPbusy' are building three schools!

Group 'ADsav' separating salt and water in Abu Dhabi

Tutorials with fresh starts

24 Nov 2011: Sometimes a Crit is like a really good laundry or garage clear out.... we have had a few of these with at least four groups coming up with a new form since the crit of last week. It's only 3 weeks to the end of term and that sharpens minds hugely. Everyone now seems to be on a better path with these decisions. It's just as well as we now want to shine the spotlight on primary structure, some more detailed examples of planning, and for next week, will be looking at facade and more detailed sections.
  We had a day-visit from architect Harjinder Singh who is on leave from W.S. Atkins of Hangzhou, China (one of the alumni from this design studio in 2003) and we had half a day from Steve Fernandes of Arups, Nottingham, who is an architect and structural engineer. He is coming back in December to see how his advice was taken.

Interim Crit 17 Oct 11

17 Oct 2011: We had the first Tall Buildings interim crit today with a guest visit from Chris Gaylord, who has been taking part in the Tall Buildings module for many years. He is currently working with CABE.
   Each group got two crits during the day - there was the usual range of progress from 'very good' to 'could try harder'. There's three weeks to the next crit in December, so many decisions, and much resolution needs to be done.

Collage by Hu Chen of the Floating Clouds group at work
on their hotel and office tower for New York

Lukasz visits the TB studio

10 Nov 2011: Lukasz Platkowski of Gensler visited us for a day. We were very lucky to have him as he is doing a lot of travelling to Doha, Dubai and Riyadh, with major projects on site under construction. This was an ideal time for him to visit as he is expert on the process of form finding and configuring of tall buildings. Lukasz delivered a lecture at lunchtime, with some case studies of some of Gensler's current projects. This included the Shanghai Tower which is about 100m high now, and will be about 650m when it is completed. He also covered the KAFD World Trade Center in Riyadh.
http://inhabitat.com/shanghai-tower-by-gensler/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=185963
Gensler are one of the world's largest architectural practices and their projects page is a wonder to behold!

As for the humbler projects by our students, he says he enjoyed the day and felt that everybody had a concept and a form developing. There's a week to go before the first interim crit, so we anticipate a tough week ahead of modelling and drawing.

Ivan visits Tall Building studio

3rd November 2011: We were honoured to have a day with Ivan Jovanovic of BDSP, tutoring and delivering a lecture. This was the second week of design proposals, and the designs are beginning to shape up, literally - we are seeing the agenda and the site analysis becoming a form.
   This set of tutorials is still two weeks from a preliminary crit (on 17th November), so there is still time for major changes of direction, if needed. But we feel that every team has an agenda now, and it amazes me how the 'chemistry of design' works so well every year, and somehow, designs emerge when it all seemed so difficult two weeks earlier.

Ivan's diagram of the design process

Ivan's lecture was ideally pitched, with environmental strategies to apply to this early stage of a project. This is a way to avoid descending to too much detail too early when there are still fundamental things to be understood. The building form and facade have to be considered before one goes overboard with technology add-ons - starting from the outer circle of the diagram.

Jason Pomeroy visit

31 October 2011: Jason Pomeroy, head of the Singapore branch of Broadway Malyan visited the school for a day. He delivered a lecture on the recent construction of a zero-carbon house in KL, Malaysia. The main thermal load is cooling; natural ventilation and water management strategies are important. It was impressive to see the design process explained clearly. He also brought copies of his book and was sold out quickly.
  After that, he delivered his lecture that follows the topic of his PhD, that is about the ideas of Social Spaces in Tall Buildings.
  By the way, we were delighted to meet Jason's wife and mother who had come up to see the Nottingham school.

TBI'11 First design tutorials

27 Oct 2011: Tall Buildings design is now underway for Autumn 2011, and we have had our first design ideas. The first few weeks have consisted of the Field Course in London, the Tower building exercise, the Site analysis preparations, and now we have had coverage of key topics useful to tall building knowledge. We also have had the first design and agenda ideas.

At this early stage, we encourage the model making to  be very simple and to enjoy the use of free materials like foam, wire, mesh, kebab sticks etc. No laser cutting! We encourage a lot of freehand drawing too - plenty of it. The students also develop ideas on the 'agenda' - the research topic or the special unique qualities that their building will have. We are not commercial developers working for a standard office tower - it has to maintain our interest for the whole of the semester, so we are looking for mixed use buildings with unusual complexities.

In this picture, Pelin and Soni have a model that is quite advanced after only a week, constructed with foamboard and with a credible agenda already. The students are now in 10 groups of 2 and 3. Today, some people came with as many ideas as people, and in the next couple of weeks, they have to move their focus on to a single one that they can agree on. 

Things to Remember

7 Oct 2011: Motivational talking! Every semester, DNC delivers a talk on how to work in groups, but actually, most of the talking is done by the students - that's the point.
   Each person in the group has to think of something important about how to work in groups, or things to avoid. We have a scribe who writes it on the wall. Nobody can repeat anything that has already been said. DNC elaborates on each suggestion with an anecdote or illustration or clarification. It's a lot of fun, and it keeps people friendly right through the semester.
  DNC usually starts off the game by offering one suggestion which is "Remember, this is Business" i.e. we must always remember we have a job to do, and not let personal differences stop us achieving that.
  He rounded off the session with a final one, the friendly converse of the first one, that "we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously because we are here to learn and have fun." !
  Thanks to Seetal for writing them on the wall.

Field Visit to London

6 October 2011: Early in each semester, we usually take a bus to London and have a look at the city and some tall buildings. We have to do it all in the one day, so time is short, but we managed to see a lot. On this occasion we had to give the Building Centre (Store St) a miss, because there was much to see. We took the bus to Wembley Park, seeing the great Wembley arch by Fosters. After a long ritual buying Oyster cards we all got on the tube into Liverpool St station.

We first did a turn around the Broadgate Tower and Exchange house both by SOM (this photo is from last Feb 2011), and walked on to the Heron Tower, Bishopsgate, which we had arranged to visit.

Paul Simovic, of architects KPF (Kohn Pederson and Fox) showed us round the Heron Tower, taking us to two key floors, the mid height marketing suite and the upper one. we enjoyed seeing the interior of the building, and appreciating what Paul told us about the construction, and we also enjoyed some wonderful views of London, including this one, looking down on the Gherkin, and seeing Willis and the Shard in the distance.

After admiring Heron (and the glass elevators and the amazing water tank inside the lobby), we walked on to St Helens Place, the Pinnacle, the Gherkin, Lloyds and Willis, the Leadenhall tower site, and on to the Bank of England. Our intention to walk to London Bridge was dashed by a rain shower so we got the tube to London Bridge to see the Shard by Renzo Piano.

  Our final destination was Canary Wharf, for a brisk walkabout before getting the bus home. Here, emerging from Fosters Canary Wharf station canopy.

Meet the new students

4 October 2011: We meet the new intake of students to the Tall Building Studio for 2011-2012. The first semester includes a design on the New York model, so we've been unpacking it, to rebuild. Its far too large, so the peripheral base panels will be lost. We will also use Singapore and Abu Dhabi.

As before, it is very international with student from India, China, Chile, Turkey, Sudan, Vietnam and even Wales!




We are lucky this year to have for the first time, our very own studio - we don't have to hot desk any more, yay! This room in Paton house is not really big enough, but it's ours, and there is plenty of table space for tutorials and for model displays - so we will enjoy it!