Massing and Economy

I am adjunct faculty at Northeastern University in the School of Architecture, teaching the 5th year Comprehensive Design Studio each spring semester. This year, the instructor of the co-requisite Integrated Building Systems course, Michelle Laboy, invited me to guest lecture about some piece of current research in our practice. I chose to speak about balancing performance and aesthetics, focused on the ratio of building floor area to building skin.

Transcript

1. NU ARCH5220 Integrated Building Systems Lecture, Massing and Economy
2. What aspects of a building design process do you control as the architect? What is outside your sphere of influence?
3. What aspects of a building design process do you control as the architect? What is outside your sphere of influence? CONTROL Materials Passive Systems Active Systems Performance Envelope Aesthetics Planning Massing Orientation Other … DO NOT CONTROL Budget Program Site Schedule Owner’s Project Requirements (or OPR)
4. Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy
5. Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy 2010, US Dep’t of Energy, Building Energy Databook
6. 2010, US Dep’t of Energy, Building Energy Databook Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy
7. 2010, US Dep’t of Energy, Building Energy Databook Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy
8. 2010, US Dep’t of Energy, Building Energy Databook 50-60% Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy
9. 2010, US Dep’t of Energy, Building Energy Databook Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy
10. GreenSource Magazine, January 2010 Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy
11. Thermal imaging courtesy of www.buildingscience.com Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy
12. Lloyd Alter, www.treehugger.com “Gimme a Thermal Break Redux” Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy “As an architect, I love the look of this building. As a TreeHugger, I wonder how in this day and age, we can still be permitting continuous floor to ceiling glass walls an eighty stories of radiator fin balconies in a ‘green’ but cold city like Chicago.”
13. Lloyd Alter, www.treehugger.com “Gimme a Thermal Break Redux”, quoting engineer Ted Kesik Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy “Take your clothes off, attach a series of highly conductive fins, like the kind they put on motorcycle engines, to the skeleton of your body, and go stand outside in January,” wrote Kesik to his architectural students and colleagues, the day after Jeanne Gang, the Aqua’s award-winning architect, delivered a standing-room-only lecture at the University of Toronto. “Then tell the person who is dressed for winter they are boring, overly practical people who are squashing creative expression among the affluent members of society. …The ‘in crowd’ rules, viciously.”
14. Lloyd Alter, www.treehugger.com “Gimme a Thermal Break Redux”, quoting engineer Ted Kesik Why envelope? Life Cycle and Energy Aesthetics > Performance Performance > Aesthetics Find your balance – Is there an aesthetics of performance?
15. Why envelope? Budget Intensive
16. One Inevitability in Any Project Budget is Fixed $1500/sf $900/sf
17. Survey 8 buildings - all higher education projects Regionally diverse - MA, NY, DC, TX, IL, CT, KY, TN Construction completed between 2005-2012 Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants
18. Survey / GSF Average Size / 145,000 GSF Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants
19. Survey / Cost Average Cost / $45M Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants
20. Survey / Cost per GSF Average Cost per GSF / $315 Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants
21. How does $315/sf compare? x5 x3
22. Survey / Where does the cost go?
23. skin struct mech elec fittings interior site markup Survey / Where does the cost go?
24. skin 20% struct 15% mech 16% elec 11% fittings 4% interior 15% site 7% markup 13% Survey / And in what percentages? Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants
25. skin 20% struct 15% mech 16% elec 11% fittings 4% interior 15% site 7% markup 13% Survey / And in what percentages? Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants Say construction cost = $30M Skin cost = $6M
26. Envelope / Characteristics 1. Cost, 20%!
27. Envelope / Characteristics 1. Cost, 20%! 2. Performance
28. Envelope / Characteristics 1. Cost, 20%! 2. Performance 3. Aesthetics
29. Envelope / Characteristics 1. Cost, 20%! 2. Performance 3. Aesthetics
30. Envelope / Characteristics 1. Cost, 20%! 2. Performance 3. Aesthetics Figure. Volume. Profile. Line. Plane. Opening. Entry. Boundary. Mass. Etc.
31. Envelope / Characteristics Think about the projects that we have looked at in class this term. Are there commonalities in how the architects deployed the massing and envelope?
44. Envelope / Characteristics Think about the projects that we have looked at in class this term. Are there commonalities in how the architects deployed the massing and envelope?
45. skin 20% struct 15% mech 16% elec 11% fittings 4% interior 15% site 7% markup 13% Survey / And in what percentages? Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants
48. Ratio / Optimization 50K gsf 5 floors @ 10K each 14 foot floor height 10,000 gsf foundation 10,000 gsf roof 28,000 envelope 48,000/50,000 = 0.96
49. Ratio / Optimization 50K gsf 5 floors @ 10K each 14 foot floor height 10,000 gsf foundation 10,000 gsf roof 32,200 envelope 52,200/50,000 = 1.04
50. Ratio / Optimization 50K gsf 10 floors @ 5K each 14 foot floor height 5,000 gsf foundation 5,000 gsf roof 42,000 envelope 52,000/50,000 = 1.04
51. Ratio / Optimization 50K gsf 5 floors @ 10K each 14 foot floor height 10,000 gsf foundation 10,000 gsf roof 35,000 envelope 55,000/50,000 = 1.10
52. Ratio / Optimization 50K gsf 3 floors @ 15K each, 1 @5K 14 foot floor height 15,000 gsf foundation 15,000 gsf roof 37,800 envelope 67,800/50,000 = 1.36
53. Ratio / Optimization 50K gsf 2 floors @ 25K each 14 foot floor height 25,000 gsf foundation 25,000 gsf roof 17,920 envelope 67,920/50,000 = 1.36
54. Ratio / Optimization 50K gsf 2 floors @ 25K each 14 foot floor height 25,000 gsf foundation 25,000 gsf roof 33,600 envelope 83,600/50,000 = 1.67
55. Ratio / Optimization 0.96 1.04 1.10 1.04 1.36 1.36 1.67
56. Ratio / Optimization Where budget remains constant … Simple Volume = Performative Envelope Complex Volume = Lazy Envelope
57. skin 20% struct 15% mech 16% elec 11% fittings 4% interior 15% site 7% markup 13% Ratio / Optimization Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants Where budget remains constant … Simple Volume = Performative Envelope Complex Volume = Lazy Envelope
58. Ratio / Optimization “When observed as an integrated system in operation over time, the building is a poignant demonstration that complex architectural performance can – and perhaps can only – emerge from a seemingly simple compositional logic.” - Kiel Moe, re: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
59. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
60. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
61. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
62. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
63. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
64. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
65. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
66. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
67. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Hour of Day, June 20 Btu/h Shaded Single Clear Reference Shading is most effective Shading is least effective Diffuse shading in the a.m.
68. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
69. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
70. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
71. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
72. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
73. Case Study 1 / Harvard U 60 Oxford Street
74. Case Study 2 / Norwich U Wise Campus Center
75. Case Study 2 / Norwich U Wise Campus Center
76. Case Study 2 / Norwich U Wise Campus Center
77. Case Study 2 / Norwich U Wise Campus Center
78. Case Study 2 / Norwich U Wise Campus Center
79. Case Study 2 / Norwich U Wise Campus Center
80. Case Study 2 / Norwich U Wise Campus Center
81. Case Study 2 / Norwich U Wise Campus Center
82. Case Study 3 / Fort Lewis College Student Union
83. Case Study 3 / Fort Lewis College Student Union
84. Case Study 3 / Fort Lewis College Student Union
85. Case Study 3 / Fort Lewis College Student Union
86. Case Study 3 / Fort Lewis College Student Union
87. Case Study 3 / Fort Lewis College Student Union
88. Case Study 3 / Fort Lewis College Student Union
89. Case Study 4 / Norwich U Academic Building
90. Case Study 4 / Norwich U Academic Building
91. Case Study 4 / Norwich U Academic Building
92. Case Study 4 / Norwich U Academic Building
93. Case Study 4 / Norwich U Academic Building
94. Case Study 4 / Norwich U Academic Building
95. skin 20% struct 15% mech 16% elec 11% fittings 4% interior 15% site 7% markup 13% Summary Data courtesy of Vermeulens Cost Consultants