Alex Kaiser Nr1.Ps
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ISSN: 1402-1757 ISBN 978-91-7583-XXX-X Se i listan och fyll i siffror där kryssen är LICENTIATE T H E SIS Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering Timber Structures Timber Buildings Multi-Storey Innovative Architecturally Alex Kaiser ISSN 1402-1757 Architecturally Innovative ISBN 978-91-7583-139-8 (print) ISBN 978-91-7583-140-4 (pdf) Multi-Storey Timber Buildings Luleå University of Technology 2014 Methodology and Design Alex Kaiser Methodology and Design Methodology Architecturally Innovative Multi-Storey Timber Buildings Methodology and Design Alex Kaiser Luleå University of Technology Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering Timber Structures Printed by Luleå University of Technology, Graphic Production 2014 ISSN 1402-1757 ISBN 978-91-7583-139-8 (print) ISBN 978-91-7583-140-4 (pdf) Luleå 2014 www.ltu.se PREFACE Using several buildings uniquely designed as part of a wider investigation into the future of multi-storey timber buildings, this thesis exemplifies how such works of architecture can produce benefits to our future built environment on at least three different levels. At the urban scale, they act as vanguard works of architecture setting the scene for a future low-density city skyline. At the scale of the building, they embody an entirely new material strategy, pointing out the possibilities of a post-sustainable use of timber to an unparalleled extent. At the scale of the individual living unit, they make innovative use of modular tactics combined with contemporary CNC technology, opening up for a new era of mass customisation and investigations of that famous adage of beauty, “repetition with difference”. That definition would also be a fairly accurate account of the process of writing a licentiate thesis, as each new draft improves on its predecessor. No mass customisation strategy could have provided me with better company than the one I enjoyed during the making of this study. I would therefore like to deeply and sincerely thank my collaborator Magnus Larsson, with whom parts of the work have been carried out (whenever the word “we” is used in the text below, it refers to this working arrangement), and professor Ulf Arne Girhammar for his enduring and unwavering support for this project, which would never have been carried through had it not been for his unrelenting and sustained encouragement and advocacy. Luleå, November 2014 Alex Kaiser Acknowledgement This work has been funded by the County Administrative Board in Norrbotten, The European Union's Structural Funds – The Regional Fund, and the Regional Council of Västerbotten, which is much appreciated. 4 ABSTRACT This investigation applies architectural ideas of mass-customised difference and repetition, and tests them within the engineering paradigm of very tall timber buildings – taller than have ever been erected in the history of architecture. According to Edward Glaeser’s book, Triumph of the City, the cheapest way to deliver new housing (at least in the USA) is in the form of mass-produced two-storey homes, which typically cost only about $84 per square foot to erect. While building up is more costly, many of the costs – such as hiring a fancy, big-name architect – are fixed and won’t increase with the height of the building. In fact, once you’ve reached a height of about seven floors, building up has its own economic logic, since those fixed costs can be spread over more living units, writes Glaeser, before continuing: “The actual marginal cost of adding an extra square foot of living space at the top of a skyscraper in New York is typically less than $400”. If to this we add all the financial advantages of using stacked structures made from engineered timber – lower construction costs due to the simple geometry, and the speed of erection (four men built the nine stories of our primary precedent, the Stadthaus building in London, in nine weeks, reducing the entire building process from 72 weeks to 49); larger savings on the entire building (again, the Stadthaus came in at 15 percent less expensive than a concrete equivalent); and lower costs for transportation and foundations due to the lighter weight of the material – it soon becomes clear that timber developments make financial sense. Timber can also be precisely incorporated into different proprietary building systems: throughout this project, the systems of three Swedish manufacturers (Martinsons, Moelven, and Byggma) are used as structural frameworks. The trio of multi-storey timber buildings is based on conceptual notions of stacking, cutting, and slotting, respectively. These simple formal ideas (a variation on Deleuze’s thoughts on difference and repetition) are interpreted to align with the fundamental material logic of wood, as well as with the specific ramifications of these existing timber building systems. Methodologically, these buildings utilise a primary organisational principle to inform its volumetric massing, circulatory planning, arrangement of living units, fenestration configuration, and so on, while allowing for other principles to guide further aspects so as to avoid what Reiser + Umemoto call The Abuse of the Diagram: “Any one organizational model has limits. The ambition to carry a diagram through all levels of a single architectural project is exhaustive and reductive. To have one model determine all aspects of design is to simplify what is in reality a richer, more heterogeneous complexity. A true multiplicity requires that many different models be coordinated. A single model relentlessly deployed at all scales emerges as merely formal.” 5 Having said that, an initial investigation into simple formal moves at the outset of a project often yields a plethora of potential trajectories created by the self-imposed constraints that are carried through by the limiting conceptual framework we choose to adopt. There appears to be a certain psychology of limitation that are highly beneficial for devising new ideas, be they formal, spatial, or haptically driven. As neuroscience journalist Jonah Lehrer puts it in his book Imagine: How Creativity Works: “...the imagination is unleashed by constraints. You break out of the box by stepping into shackles”. The following is a study of such a break-out attempt. 6 SAMMANFATTNING Den här avhandlingen undersöker idéer om “mass-customised” (ung. individuellt massfabricerad) skillnad och repetition och hur denna kan appliceras inom det ingenjörsområde som täcker mycket höga flervåningsbyggnader i trä – högre träbyggnader än som någonsin byggts. Enligt Edward Glaesers bok Triumph of the City är det billigaste sättet att leverera flerbostadshus (åtminstone i USA) att låta massproducera tvåvåningshus, vilka typiskt bara kostar $84 per kvadratfot (ungefär $904 per kvadratmeter, vilket i skrivande stund ungefär motsvarar 6 700 kronor). Medan det är dyrare att bygga på höjden är många av de associerade kostnaderna – som anställandet av en berömd arkitekt – fasta och opåverkade av byggnadens höjd. Faktum är att efter en höjd av ungefär sju våningar följer högra byggnader sin egen ekonomiska logik, då de fasta kostnaderna kan spridas över fler bostadenheter, skriver Glaeser, och fortsätter: “Den faktiska marginalkostnaden för att addera ytterligare en kvadratfot yta på toppen av en skyskrapa i New York är typiskt lägre än $400. Om vi till detta lägger att de finansiella fördelar som kommer med staplade strukturer av industriella träprodukter – en enkel geometri som ger lägre konstruktionskostnader, en snabbare konstruktionsfas (fyra män byggde de nio våningarna i vår främsta förebild, Stadthaus-byggnaden i London, på nio veckor, vilket reducerade den sammantagna byggprocessen från 72 veckor till 49); större besparingar över hela byggnaden (Stadthaus var 15 procent billigare än en motsvarande betongbyggnad hade varit) samt lägre kostnader för transport och grund på grund av materialets reducerade vikt – står det snart klart att träbyggnader är smarta ur ett finansiellt perspektiv. Trä kan även enkelt införlivas i olika byggsystem: genom hela det här projektet använder vi tre svenska dylika (från Martinsons, Moelven och Byggma) som strukturella ramverk. Den trio av flervåningsbyggnader i trä som här presenteras bygger på konceptuella idéer kring staplande, skärning och “slitsande” (slotting). Dessa enkla formmässiga idéer (en variation på Deleuze tema om skillnad och repetition) tolkas så att de linjerar med den fundamentala materiella logiken hos trä, tillsammans med de specifika avgränsningarna hos de existerande träbyggnadssystemen. Metodmässigt använder de här byggnaderna en primär organisationsprincip som informerar deras volumetrik, cirkulationsplanering, bostadsenhetsarrangemang, fönstersättning coh så vidare, medan andra principer tillåts styra olika aspekter för att undvika det Reiser + Umemoto kallar The Abuse of the Diagram (Diagrammatiskt missbruk): “Any one organizational model has limits. The ambition to carry a diagram through all levels of a single architectural project is exhaustive and reductive. To have one model determine all aspects of design is to simplify what is in reality a richer, more heterogeneous complexity. A true multiplicity requires that many different models be coordinated. A single model relentlessly deployed at all scales emerges as merely formal.” 7 Med det sagt leder en undersökning av enkla formmässiga manipulationer i början av ett projekt ofta till ett övermått av potentiella vägar framåt, skapade av den självpåtagna bundenhet som kommer med att avgränsa