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.

week 12 | design development

'landscape laboratory' by cannatà & fernandes architects, guimarães, portugal
images © luis ferreira alves

one of the best way to design a new building in paddington area without losing it's character, would be associating the character of existing typology into a new design.

 
the site itself is surrounded by a historical residential area and even the existing paddington central has a trace that it was designed to capture the view of the surrounding which was expressed on the facade.
i think a good design is a harmonious design that fits into the site without disturbing the surrounding, especially the paddington area where has a history and character throughout residential area and shops along latrobe tce.
and i tried to associate it with with the roof shape to keep the feeling of the atmosphere.

feed back 
the main feed back from my tutor was that i need to look at the design with human scale. and detail of how my design would work.
for example, how high the ceiling/each level need to be? space for every area.
without looking at human scale it would not work.

- as my intention is to design an indoor farm area there should be a fairly large space and height to grow plants.
as it was explained on week 10, the space will be only for ground grow plants/vegetables. as the space given is not enough to provide all different types of veges and fruits, i decided to look at the main vegetables that people mostly consume in everyday life. 
for example, potato, onion, capsicum, bean, herb, salad greens etc...
so those veges can be specilised in paddington area.
but high grow plants can be grown if they grows under 3m for example corn by user's choice.

week 11 | design development

as it was mensioned before there is a power problem to run the facility as it could use 8 times of electricity  generated by all the power plants in US over a single year to operate LED light constantly 24/7..

solution...?
solar panel roofing

this might be the general idea of solar panel installation..
but would it be enough? it is still being under research to create more energy with same amount of solar panels..


solar panel wall cladding

another way of installing solar panels.
but i guess by installing panels on the wall the location of them would make big difference and would not get sun light as much as when they are on the roof...

new solar panel shape

a better way of generating 20 times more electricity of solar energy than normal flat solar pannel by using spining cone shaped panels calls V3 Solar has been developed and undergoing refinement currently..

this might be a way to solve the energy problem, as the facility may require lots of lightings and generater to operate the urban farm for temperature and commercial area.
but the question is, can this be installed anywhere such as sloped surface or vertically as well..?

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design development

 simplified the shape and level to reflect site slope as previous design required more space and level drop.
6-7 level is suitable for the ground level drop and as it's not high even on the street level, it would not cast a shadow over the residential area.

 

above layout will be the basic pad layout on the private farm level.
ther user gets to choose and rent a pad site as many as they want and also it's their to choose from the pad types of tower or traditional type.
from the tower pad type, low height crops (such as herbs) can be grew on the layers on top of each other to use the land size efficiently.

made a concept model to visualise the form and area

 
floor layout following function of each floor.
ground-upper 2nd floor for public. - community & gathering space.
lower ground 1-2 - private farm
lower ground 3 - office and car park
lower ground 4-5 commercial farm

feed back and things to be considered
the existing building (paddington central), as i observed it, has a trace that the interior was designed to look like a street shop scape to incorporate with the surrounding character of paddington, however, the overall design of the building especially both side of the building with high blank walls that are facing the residential houses, was not considered the surrounding area.

therefore, throughout my design, it is required to consider how this will sit / fit within the surrounding area. such as will it merge into the site? or stand out?
how will it draw the movement of people into the building? 
how space works through out the whole building? such as circulation or indication.