The SMART Hub
A Mixed-Use Development In The Heart Of London
Final thesis project at rat[LAB] Education — Smart Labs 4.0
Team:
Anane Walid
Keuroghlian Ara
Megurditchian Yerwant
THE BRIEF
To put things in perspective, let’s start by quickly going over the brief. This will help highlight some of the constraints.
SITE LOCATION: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
SITE AREA: 3,600 SQ.M. (60m x 60m)
MAXIMUM GROUND COVERAGE: 50%
MAXIMUM HEIGHT: 200m
COMMERCIAL / OFFICE AREA: 70% OF TOTAL FLOOR AREA
OTHER FUNCTIONS: 30% OF TOTAL FLOOR AREA
The project is a tower in a commercial and cultural center in the heart of London, with a variety of contextual elements to respond to, such as a river, a stadium, green spaces, to name a few.
INTRODUCTION
Before starting the design process, we started with a fact and a question that followed it.
By the year 2050, the world population is projected to be over 9.5 billion people, which nearly 80% of them will be living in urban centers. This growth will present challenges, and one of the most difficult ones will be how to feed our ever-growing population in a sustainable manner.
Therefore, in addition to the office and retail spaces that constitute 70% of the tower, we proposed an aquaponic vertical farm for the remaining 30%, with the fish tank being an integrated design element.
WHY AN AQUAPONIC VERTICAL FARM? THE PROBLEM & THE SOLUTION
The importance of this project is that it tries to solve multiple contemporary problems at the same time while setting the tone for future architectural developments.
THE PROBLEM
Our current agricultural systems are nowhere near sustainable, and they contribute to natural land depletion, desertification, as well as killing of millions of unwanted animals near certain crops, and the dying of other species like bees because of being forced to pollinate monocrops, etc.
Meanwhile we are already facing water scarcity due to growing freshwater use and depletion of usable freshwater resources.
THE SOLUTION
Vertical farming in cities helps us save natural resources. It reduces the amount of space needed for farming and it greatly reduces the amount of shipping required because the goods are grown locally in the city, therefor reducing the amount of fossil fuels burned by trucks and the amount of plastics needed to package and preserve foods. This can significantly alleviate climate change and help restore ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.
Other advantages of vertical farming include a self-sufficient water use, reuse & recycling system which results in 90–95% less water usage than traditional farming, while producing 5 to 30 times more crops per acre depending on the crop. It eliminates weather related failures such as droughts, floods and pests. It is grown organically, therefor no more herbicides or pesticides that add chemicals to our food and kill the soil we grow our food in.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
CLIMATE OVERVIEW
Before getting into the project itself, we’ll take a look at the general environmental analysis of London.
This climate overview shows us 4 things. The dry bulb temperature, the relative humidity, the wind speeds and the cloud cover.
DRY BULB TEMPERATURE
Being in the northern hemisphere, the summer months are From June to August. The higher temperatures vary between 25 and 28 degree Celsius with a few peaks over 30 degree.
The lower temperatures vary between 1 and 8 degree Celsius with some days lower than 0.
RELATIVE HUMIDITY
It is relatively humid throughout the year except the hours between late morning and early evening during the months of March through September.
WIND SPEED
It is breezy most of the year and it can get quite windy at certain times, with winds up to 24 meters/second and more.
CLOUD COVER
When it comes to cloud cover, it’s definitely cloudier than most cities, but there’s still some kind of balance between clear skies and cloud covered skies, with few days that have a blue bird sky, and other days that are completely covered.
WIND ROSE
The wind rose charts indicate that most of the dominant wind direction is either from the North-East or South-West during the entire year.
RADIATION ANALYSIS
The radiation analysis shows the direct, diffuse and total radiation throughout the year. Obviously the radiation occurs from the east, south and west; with the south side having the most radiation.
PSYCHROMETRIC CHART
This chart helps us take advantage of passive design strategies to ensure thermal comfort within the building.
The goal is to see if we can maximize the amount of time that people would be comfortable using only passive design strategies, so we minimize the use of HVAC as much as possible, which is expensive and energy intensive.
As we see, by adding cooling strategies such as cross ventilation and use of fans, we were able to ensure comfort during the hotter days of the year.
By adding strategies such as capturing the internal heat gain, thermal mass and passive solar heating, we were only able to provide comfort until down to 13 degrees Celsius with a relative humidity from 0% up to 100%.
This means that we will need to heat the building, mostly during the days with temperatures less than 13 degree Celsius, and we will be able to spare the usage of HVAC during cooling season.
All this environmental data will come in play later on in the design phase and we will be talking more about certain aspects as we go.
SITE PLAN
Our site is marked with the red square in this site plan.
Additionally we see the sun path, wind directions, views and neighboring buildings which will all be taken in account in the later design phase in addition to the rest of the environmental data that we previously saw.
INTEGRATED ENERGY & FOOD PRODUCTION DIAGRAM
This is where the conception of the project started.
One of the most important elements of this project is the integration of the active and passive energy and food production systems and creating closed loop systems.
Solar panels capture the energy of the sun and give us power. The excess is saved in batteries and possibly transferred into the city grid.
An on-site biogas digester makes use of all the organic waste generated by the building and converts it to methane gas and liquid fertilizer. This organic waste consists mainly of the non-edible parts of plants and fish.
The methane gas could potentially be used by the kitchen burners and stove tops, and/or it can be converted into electricity and added onto the energy generated by the solar panels.
The liquid fertilizer would be used back in the vertical farms.
The captured rainwater from the roof of the building and all other exposed platforms and the ground floor, would be used partly to feed the aquaponic system, and partly as grey water for the building, which would be filtered and recycled on-site to be used as black water before finally sending it out to the wastewater facility.
The circulating water of the aquaponic system finds its way to the algae tubes installed on a façade exposed to the sun. This algae system makes use of photosynthesis, sucks in the CO2 from its surrounding and releases oxygen, while giving algae harvest every couple of weeks, which then can be processed and used as nutrients and medication.
TOWER USAGE & PERFORMANCE DIAGRAM
Next was time to decide what kind of functions would occupy the building and how to configure the different spaces and systems in a diagrammatic section.
The main functions as we already know are the commercial spaces, which are the offices and retail, and the indoor vertical farms. In addition, the building integrates public spaces, a farmer’s market, exhibition and multipurpose spaces, a farm to table restaurant and a rooftop lounge.
The offices would be facing towards the north to prevent direct sunlight and glare as much as possible.
The vertical farms would be facing towards the south, and will have double heights, to maximize the direct sunlight in each floor.
The green corridor will be the public space and the area where the employees of the building can take a break and go out and be in an urban natural setting. It will be the space that is dividing between the two main functionalities of the building, the commercial side and the vertical farm side.
The ground floor will be activated by the retail spaces, the exhibition and multipurpose spaces and the farmer’s market.
The fish tank will be a main design element of the building, situated on the corner of the cross streets that our site is on.
The farm to table restaurant will be a little above midway of the tower, oriented towards the best views, serving the food grown in the building.
Similarly, the rooftop lounge would be oriented towards the best views.
DESIGN CONCEPT
TAKING SHAPE
We started by aligning the perimeter of the tower with the neighboring buildings.
Next, taking the direction of the wind, we created a breezeway that splits the building in two.
Lastly, we pushed back the south building to create a smaller footprint for the vertical farms, and we pushed back the bottom of the office building to make room for the fish tank at the corner of the site.
SCULPTING & DETAILING
The ground floor is sculpted in a way to create activated inner streets with multiple entrances to encourage pedestrian circulation within the site
This interior circulation is protected from the noise of the adjacent busy streets with the exhibition and retail spaces that act as a buffer.
The vertical green corridor is the continuity of the pedestrian circulation with its landscape, one that would take the visitors on a journey upwards.
This journey is made possible with a series of ramps. Several moments are created on this ramp.
It crosses in a tunnel that passes through the fish tank, it also peaks into the vertical farm spaces and it terminates a little above the neighboring building heights to ensure a 180 degree view of the cityscape.
These green spaces also serve the offices, creating a biophilic environment, rich with urban biodiversity, for the workers to spend their time in, still being connected with the outside world, rather than feeling isolated in a box.
The algae tube system is installed on the south facing portions of this green corridor.
Finally, the roof is sloped towards the south to maximize solar power harvest.
SUN EXPOSURE
This diagram shows that naturally the east and south façades will be receiving the most sun radiation.
We want to maximize the sun exposure in the vertical farm, and we want to somewhat protect the office spaces to prevent glare. This will be affecting on the façade treatment strategies which we will see later on.
VIEWS
This diagram shows that different moments in the tower provide vantage points across the cityscape ranging from the nearby buildings, parks and river.
This diagram shows the urban fabric of the surrounding area and the interconnectedness of the immediate network.
FUNCTIONAL DISTRIBUTION & DIAGRAMMATIC FLOOR PLANS
This diagram shows the different functions and floor plans in the tower.
SECTION CUT
Here we can see the different spaces and systems in a bit more detailed section cut. The pictures show how the different spaces are being imagined.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
RADIATION ANALYSIS
Once we had our main building mass, it was time to do a radiation analysis.
Based on this analysis, the day with the most radiation in the year is July 21st, with a total radiation on the building surfaces of 68,908.08 kwh.
Naturally the roof has the highest radiation number per square meter, followed by the south facing façades then the east facing façade.
The west and north façades have relatively low radiation.
These numbers confirm what we had determined in the previous diagrams. The east and the south façades are the most exposed to the sun, therefore they will be receiving the most radiation.
SUNLIGHT HOURS ANALYSIS
Based on this analysis, the longest day which is the summer solstice, June 21st, has 17 hours.
Of those 17 hours, the roof receives more than 15 hours of sunlight, followed by the south façade which receives 12 hours of sunlight, then the east façade receiving 9 hours of sunlight.
The west and north façade each receive as little as 4.5 hours of sunlight.
ELEVATIONS & FAÇADE MODULE
Based on the radiation and sunlight hours analysis, we determined the different treatments of our façades and rooftop.
The rooftop having the most radiation and sunlight hours, a large portion of it is used as a solar power farm (around 1152 sq.m.), and a smaller portion of it is used as a lounge that operates only after sunset.
The south facing vertical farm building has the most radiation and sunlight hours. These factors are favorable in this situation; therefore, the entire façade is curtain glass.
It contains 5764 sq.m. of solar glass; basically the whole area of the façade above 50 meters in height, which is the height of the neighboring building blocking the bottom part of our tower.
This glass allows up to 70% of visible natural light to pass, while the unwanted wavelengths of UV and IR are used for power generation.
The east façade of the office building is also exposed to a good amount of radiation and sunlight hours. Although it is lower than the vertical farm building, we still needed to create a façade that blocks some of these sun rays hitting from the east side to prevent glare in the offices, while keeping a high visibility and indirect daylight on each floor plate.
After a few iterations and qualitative analysis, this module was created.
The main design idea of the façade is inspired by the fish skin, creating an aesthetic connection to the fish tank and the aquaponic system.
FAÇADE MODULE RADIATION ANALYSIS
Here we show how each module performs.
First off we calculated the total radiation on a piece of curtain glass that would have otherwise covered the same surface area as one module.
This number is 103.13 kwh per 27.40 sq.m.
After designing the module, the exposed surface area would become 116 sq.m receiving a total radiation of 259.73 kwh. Most of this radiation would be captured as thermal mass.
In the end, this module results in a smaller curtain glass surface area, 21.60 sq.m vs. the original 27.40 sq.m. and the total radiation of this new surface would be 20.77 kwh.
This means that this façade module contributes to a reduction of 80% of radiation piercing through the curtain glass, causing glare, meanwhile maximizing the radiation on the solid parts of the module and capturing the heat as a thermal mass, and slowly releasing it into the space.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
RADIATION ANALYSIS
In these diagrams it shows the reduction of the radiation on the glass on the east façade of the office building after the façade treatment.
We can see how this façade turned from yellow to blue with a reduction in radiation of 80%
VISIBILITY ANALYSIS
The visibility analysis shows the percentage of the 360 degree horizontal view band bounded on top and bottom by a 30 degree offset from the horizontal (which is derived from the human cone of vision), from the floor plate on 3 different levels, to the exterior.
Obviously the core of the building has the least visibility. This percentage increases the more we get closer to the perimeter of the floor plate.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this tower will not only be a sustainable biophilic office tower but also a regenerative green urban space, where local food will be produced and energy will be generated while raising awareness for proper water utilization and management and integration of symbiotic closed loops systems.
It brings nature back to the city and enhances the biodiversity by inviting birds, bees, butterflies, bats, etc. and it strives to decolonize and democratize the urban space by giving access to all.
Copyright Yerwant Megurditchian, Los Angeles, August 2021
