week 15 | presentation

my presentation took a while because of the bad time management.
i was not able to finish explaining all my ideas and design due to the time limit.
however i had a positive feed back on the design of the basic form as i tried to adopt  shape of the existing surrounding buildings into my building fascia to give the character of paddington area.
but there were few negative feed backs regarding..

structure - would need more columns to hold the whole block as i've shown columns in the centre line of the building

deep level - especially commercial area. the commercial area is too deep under ground level. it was recommended if i designed whole building (inside) following contour line just like i designed on out side. but it was the initial idea as it was shown on week 9 and 10 but as the space were commercial, i tried to give much space as possible....

one of the comment  was regarding the messiness would cause with the soil and temperature in urban farm area which i never thought about....

week 15 | design process

there are 3 major feature on the deck area
1. deck - there will be rain water catchment
2. sky light - to light up the dark area of the building and also to save the energy
3. greenary - reproduced park and public outdoor farm area the produce/fruits will be free to users

 design form

upper 2nd floor - cafe & library/research area

 upper 1st floor - food court & community meeting area
it is designed with long tables so user is encourage to interact with others sitting next to
community meeting area where looking down to the foyer area

 ground floor - entry open foyer with feature tree structure column
this space will be the main space of the building as from here user get a clear idea of where to go 'sense of place'.

ground floor - fresh produce market
again feature tree column structure in the middle. the structure works as a lighting as well

lower 1st and 2nd level - community farm

lower 3rd level - research centre

lower 4th & 5th level - commercial farm growing area and preparation area

and for last diagram shows how the water filteration would made through the building
through...
- septic tank.
- sand filter
- pump pit
- and through palnting pads
- fresh water

plans

sections

my main design intention of the form is keeping paddington's character.
from the fascia by adopting the character of the surrounding buildings it will soft the concrete slab structure fitting into the area.
and second by using horizontal mullions on the glazing giving similarity with weather boards of the surrounding residential houses the whole building would associate with the whole paddington site. 

week 14 | design process

the root
just like the main structural purpose of the root 'holding up the body and absorb the nutrients from the ground.
my concept is to design a space/building where give the energy to the community and hold them together...

deign process

after the last check up with tutor i finalised the floor plan and building form to start on the CAD system. i mainly used revit to draw the whole model and going to use lumina for rendering and animation..

revit process
form work

as per the initial concept the form of building is following step farm.

through the building i tried to open the building as possible as to get a view of paddington area using advantage of the slope and also for the maximum sunlight. also if someone is looking at the building from the bottom the whole inside structure will be seen. so even user is inside they can see the outside and feel the outside while inside..

the interior of the building will be formed following series of the feature tree column. trunks will be spread out from the main column with lighting feature.
so every level looks like they are all linked up as a tree.

i tried highlight the entry foyer space. from that space people get a clear sense of space where to go. from the entry foyer where with high ceiling with open view to up and downstairs, clear idea of each floor can be seen or imagined. it will lead the user through the whole building.

week 14 | research

energy recycling system
recycling and reusing energy will be the biggest issue on the design.
most of all, as the building would require alot of energy, not just depends on the solar energy but creating an energy from the waste will be the way to solve the problem...

 by using food waste making methane gas to run the turbine to create an energy is what i found to be the best way as well as it can reduce the food waste made from the cafe and food court from the upstairs and the waste will be used as compost for the urban farm.

week 13 | planting

pad system

above is the basic idea i had from the beginning how the farm works with the constant lighting 24/7. but still needed to figure out how the pad works.

 from the web site www.austech.com.au i found the solution for the in and out door planting pad system. with water proofing system and other layers the planting is possible over concrete slab system.
even though i drew the rough sectional detail below, it did not clear visual image of how it works. and above image gives the clear idea of what materials are needed and how it works.

seasonal vegetables 

and to finallise the vege types found the list of the veges grown in australia by the season

based on the above list the facility can divide up the vege types into two different weather conditions as 'warm' and 'cool' so urban(community) and commercial farm can operate with two different floors with two weather conditions.

week 13 | detail research

aeroponic system
as i'm looking at different ways of growing crops in an indoor urban farm, below is one of the way of stacking up the pad on the same size of land given by following aeroponic system.
led lighting are installed under layers to light up each layers.

water filtering system
water filtering system is the main feature of the building by filtering through the natural farm system.

as it is shown above the building needs to have alot of space for the water tank with septic tank, sand filter and through pump pit to the planter bed so even the planters filter the grey water it still feeds the fairly clear water to the planters. and planter will be the last filtering system.

week 13 | design development

further sketches of the building view

 to visualise overall form of my design i sketched few perspective veiws

design concept

from the base concept 'step farm' for the basic form of the building i tried to develop the idea further by adopting bio mimicry concept.
every plants have their own root that absorb water and nutrient from the ground.
from the image of the root i tried to project it onto the building with simple shape by redrawing void space between roots and creating them into a usable space.
within those shapes there will be functions of water collection under timber decking(water), sky light that lead the sunlight into the building(nutrient) and greenery/farm area. and the roof top above very top floor will be covered with solar panels.

detail section

the image above is a rough detail section of indoor community farm area.
i tried to design each building low as but at the same time high enough for growing crops indoor to shape whole building with the existing contour levels.
my tutor advice me the space should be at least 5m with slab, beam, services and feature goes inside but by suing flat plate slab structure, without using beams to support the height of each level could reduce to 4.5m floor to floor and there will be at leas 3m-3.5m floor to ceiling on each floor.

planning
space planning from the top to the bottom floor.
all floors functions are based on the week 11, it's been revised to suit new shape of the building and access to each floor.
lifts are the main access to the top 2 floors and  travelators are the main access to the urban/community farm area where it can be seen from the ground floor.
and as commercial farm is a private space it will be accessible by the lifts only.

ground floor is on latrobe tce level. which will be one of the main feature of the building 'fresh market' is placed.
above ground level will be more for social area.
upper 1st level is food court
upper 2nd level is cafe and library/research area

lower 1st and 2nd are urban farm for paddinfton community
lower 3rd is research centre.
upto lower 3rd floor will be public accessible
and lower 4th and 5th will be commercial area including crop and preparation area.

feed back

after i showed design from the very first concept to where i am now the main feed back from my tutor there were 3 major issues.
1st roof structure on the entry view is over whelming
2nd location of lift and stairs as primary circulation is not visible from the when approaching to the building.
3rd sense of activity from the ground level (outside of the fresh market) is missing.

and for the last it was suggested to soften the building with the similar concept(root and tree) i had through the building structure.