#energy transfer is associated with mass crossing the control boundary

[terry-the-insane]

My favorite g/t trope is when T is scared of falling off high places even though being really small means your terminal velocity (maximum speed at which you can fall) is greatly decreased and T could probably fall off the roof of a 5 story building and only get scratched.

[juniperpublishersoceanography]

Coastal Upwelling and Its Teleconnections with Large Scale Indices in a Changing Environment along the Southwest Coast of India- Juniper Publishers

Abstract

Coastal upwelling process along the southwest coast of India (SCI) is dominated by the seasonal reversal of winds between the southwest and northeast monsoons. Variations in the coupled ocean-atmospheric system impact upwelling patterns and other climatic elements in SCI. Changes in the upwelling system in turn modify sea surface temperatures, sea level heights, and coastal climate. This study examines upwelling patterns from 1946-2005 along the SCI, and ties these patterns to variations in air-sea interactions. While upwelling is controlled daily mostly by local characteristics of winds, coastal topography and bathymetry, large atmospheric feature such as Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Northern Oscillation Index and El Nino /La Nina events dominate local conditions. Study of monthly sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) and Ekman Transport (ET) along the SCI reveals that both SSTA and ET are found to be low and high during the study period and both having significant strong relation (significant at 99.9% level). Results from this indicate that air-sea interactions on a large-scale do explain trends and variability of upwelling along the SCI. Additionally, these findings also point to the possible influences of global warming. Furthermore, local climatic records reveal the influence of coastal atmospheric/oceanic variations on SCI climate.

Keywords: Sea surface temperature; Along shore wind; Ekman transport; PDO; NOI

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Introduction

Sea surface temperature and the nutrient content produced by coastal upwelling are among the most important large scale variables influencing the marine environment. Previous studies to quantify the influence of climate change on coastal upwelling [1] used climate models with much simpler representations of the ocean than are common today. A number of recent papers have explored the patterns and dynamics of fluctuations embedded within the long-term, globally integrated tendency commonly referred to as climate change [2-6]. However, these studies have concentrated on large-scale temporal oscillations, generally on decadal scales; fewer examples describe variability on subbasin (i.e., 100-1000km) space scales. In a particular striking example of how global climate change may be affecting ocean conditions on smaller scales, Bakun [7] postulate that under the scenario of global warming, continental air mass will warm more rapidly than oceanic air masses, leading to an intensified summer continental atmosphere low, a greater cross-margin pressure gradient between the continental low and higher pressure over the cooler ocean, stronger equator ward wind stress, and increased coastal upwelling along eastern ocean boundaries. The effect on eastern boundary current systems could be significant because of the highly productive nature of these ecosystems and their potentially important role in the global CO2 budget.

Upwelling is not a temporally continuous or spatially uniform process, but the period of upwelling and favorable conditions (as well as substantial interannual variability) and has a distribution that suggests certain regions or sites are more conducive to upwelling [8]. Empirical studies of upwelling and its effects on biological production suggest that optimal fisheries production in eastern boundary currents occurs within a limited range of wind speeds; at speeds greater than about 5-7m/s the biomass of small pelagic fish decreases [9]. This has resulted in ecosystems that are tuned to these variations. Any long-term changes in the seasonal patterns of upwelling, their intensity or the duration of upwelling events could have dramatic implications to their living marine resources. Because upwelling has a very complex and regionalized spatial structure, its character cannot be determined or quantified with spatially integrated indices (e.g., globally or ocean-averaged sea surface temperature (SST) time series), or with a single index from an isolated location. Any long-term changes in the seasonal patterns of upwelling, their intensity or the duration of upwelling events could have dramatic implications to their living marine resources. Large scale ocean-atmospheric changes related to annual occurrences of ENSO events and decadal shifts associated with the pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and Northern oscillation index (NOI) impact sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA).

Marine ecosystems are currently exposed to two problemic global trends:

a. The incessant accumulation of global gases in the earth's atmosphere, raising the threat of major changes associated with global warming and also of inevitable rearrangements of the established patterns of energy and momentum transfers through the sea surface that control processes that have become ingrained in marine life-history strategies, and

b. Heavy industrial fishery exploitation that has become pandemic in the world's oceans.

Bakun [7] opens the disquieting possibility that as incessant accumulation of global gases in the earth's atmosphere continues, additional intense regional upwelling ecosystems that exist in other regions of the world’s ocean might be switched to undesirable states similar to the currently existing off Luderitz. One of the reasons that coastal upwelling tends to be a more year-round phenomena in the tropics, is that a strong pressure gradient forms between a thermal low pressure cell that develops over the heated land surface an higher pressure existing over the more slowly warming waters of the ocean. This crossshore pressure gradient supports an alongshore geostrophic wind that drives and offshore-directed Ekman transport of the ocean surface layer. When the surface waters are thereby forced offshore from the solid coastal boundary on spatial scales too large for them to be replaced by waters moving horizontally along the coast, mass balanced is maintained by upwelling of subsurface waters. As atmospheric global content increases, the rate of heating over the land is further enhanced relative to that over the ocean, particularly as night-time radiative cooling is suppressed by an increasing degree of blockage of outgoing longwave radiation. This causes intensification of the low pressure cells over the coastal interior. A feedback sequence is generated as the resulting pressure gradient increase is matched by a proportional wind increase, which correspondingly increase the intensity of the upwelling in a non linear manner (by a power of 2 or more these strong wind conditions) which, in concert with ocean surface cooling produced by the intensified upwelling, further enhances the land-sea temperature contrast, the associated cross-shore pressure gradient, the upwelling favorable win, and so on [10-15].

The southwest coast of India is a monsoon dominated coast. Coastal upwelling occurs along the coast during the southwest monsoon season (JJAS) between 7 °N and 15 °N [16-21]. In this region, upwelling is a wind-driven process and the strength of alongshore winds stress modulates the coastal divergence and hence the input of cold upwelled water over the shelf. A strengthening of the alongshore wind stress enhances upwelling and results in lower SST over the shelf. Upwelling trends and patterns at three coastal locations for the past 60 years are examined and related local winds, sea level heights, SSTs and Pacific climatic indices to establish trends and mechanisms responsible for changes observed. Possible ties of upwelling to global warming and climate change are also investigated and speculation of their future impacts on southwest coast of India upwelling presented. Finally, coastal variability is relate to changes in southwest coast climate and speculate how trends will impact future climate variability.

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Data and Methods

The wind speed data (calculated by assuming a constant wind stress drag coefficient Cd = 1.5x10-3) and SST data were taken from Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS), a monthly averaged, 2° x 2° resolution, historical data file of ocean observations starting from 1899. The data have been collected, quality controlled and put into common formats and units [22-25]. As the data density before 1946 was poor and the measurement procedure has changed since 1946, only data from 1946 to 2005 were used in this study. The geographical boxes are referred to in terms of their central latitude (e.g., 8 °N refers to the 7°-9 °N COADS box).

Two large scale indices are used to investigate the atmospheric teleconnections, one is Northern Oscillation Index (NOI), a new index of climate variability based on the difference in 55 sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies at the North Pacific High (NPH) in the northeast Pacific (NEP) and near Darwin, 56 Australia, in a climatologically low SLP region. NOI data is downloaded from http://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/products/PFEL/ modeled/indices/NOIx/noix.html during 1948 to 2005 on monthly basis. Second one is The «Pacific Decadal Oscillation» (PDO) is a long-lived El Niño-like pattern of Pacific climate variability [26]. While the two climate oscillations have similar spatial climate fingerprints, they have very different behavior in time and the data is downloaded from http://jisao.washington. edu/pdo/ during the study period.

Fig I shows the four stations labelled A-D along the southwest coast of India for which the alongshore wind stress have been computed. The wind stress was calculated using a constant drag coefficient of 1.5 x 10-3. (Because wind stress is used in this paper as a relative index of upwelling), the choice of the constant drag coefficient is not critical, as a higher drag coefficient will simply linearly scale up our wind stress values. The average orientation of the coastline at each station was measured from maps, and the alongshore wind stress component was then computed. Details are given in Xie & Hsieh [27]. Ekman transport (ET) was calculated using wind data from ICOADS, W, the sea density, pw = 1025kgm-3 , a dimensionless drag coefficient cd = 1.5X 10-3 , and the air density, , by means of

f is the coriolis parameter defined as twice the vertical compoentn of the earth's angular velocity, Ω, about the local vertical given by f = 2Ω sin(θ) at latitude θ. Finally =, x subscript corresponds to the zonal component and the y subscript to the meridional one [28] (Figure 1).

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Results

The mean wind stress for June-September (the upwelling "season") were calculated for each year from the seasonal model series for the COADS 2° boxes, and plotted as upwelling time series (Figure 2). The alongshore winds stress during the summer season (JJAS) has apparently intensified in the 30-year period 1946 to 1976. Since 1976 the stress values have trended back toward the mean for entire (~60 year) period. Actually, the period since 1976 has been one of anomalously warm conditions in the ocean off the southwest coast of India; whether warm ocean condition could have affected the onshore-offshore pressure gradient by lessening the relative barometric high at the oceanic end of the gradient is unclear. In any case, substantial, natural interannual and inter decadal variability should be super imposed on any trend related to climate warming. Certainly, the trend line fitted to the values in Figure 2 indicates a trend toward substantially increased southward wind stress off the southwest coast of India, even over entire 1946 to 2005 period.

The summer (June - September) alongshore wind stress (Figure 2) shows generally strong upwelling at stations A - D. Comparing the stress from the 1976s onward with earlier wind stress, the upwelling winds have intensified at stations A and B. At the four stations, low stress values are observed during El Nino events. AS shown in Figure 2, the sudden decrease of alongshore wind stress observed in summers of 1952, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002 can all be related to El Nino events. During a typical E Nino, this develops in the northern summer, a strong atmospheric teleconnection pattern of alternating high and low pressure cells.

Coastal SSTs during the upwelling season (JJAS) show a shift from the cool phase to the warm phase leading to a warming trend for the period 1946-2005 along the southwest coast of India (Figure 3). The rapid drop in SSTs in 1998, a strong La Nina, corresponds with increased upwelling at stations A and B. After five cool summers in the southwest coast of India, weak El Nino brought warmer waters and reduced upwelling in 200203. Coastal winds stress was unusually weak in 2002 (Figure 2). The relationship between SSTs and upwelling is not simple. Large-scale Southwest coast of India SST patterns influence atmospheric circulation, which in turn drives the coastal current.

The existence of SSTA during summer monsoon season (JJAS) at the SCI and significant positive correlation between SSTA and My for southwest monsoon along the SCI (Figure 4) and the relation is statistical significant at 99.9% level at three locations (Trivendrum, Cochin and Calicut). This relation strongly suggests that the SSTA variations are caused due to coastal upwelling. It is thus clear that the alongshore wind stress is responsible for causing the upwelling along the SCI similar to that of western Arabian Sea. Alongshore winds and coastal upwelling patterns are reflected in the temperature and precipitation patterns along the SCI. The link between the PDO, NOI and upwelling is investigated by looking at the correlation between indices (NOI, PDO) and the corresponding SSTA over the areas represented in Figure 1 (Table 1). Negative and statistically significant at 99.9% level correlation between NOI and SSTA at four locations along the SCI. Positive and statistically significant at 99.9% level correlation between PDO and SSTA over the same areas represented in Figure 1. These correlations suggest that an intensification of westerlies across the SCI intensifies the upwelling favourable wind that also enhances the upwelling process (negative SST anomaly). The relationship emphasizes the pre-eminent rate of climate variability on coastal sea surface temperature trends. The observed physical coupling between NOI, PDO and SSTA through an effect of climate on water column stratification.

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Conclusion

Alongshore wind stress that drives coastal upwelling has been increasing during the upwelling season [JJAS) of the past 60 years. These are the only seasons during which thermal lows in surface atmospheric pressure develop over the adjacent land mass and therefore in which the hypothesized greenhouse mechanism could operate. When various series are differenced, effectively removing the linear trends, significant interregional correlation among the time series vanishes. Evidently, the only feature shared among regions is the long term trend. Other known types of global teleconnections, such as El Nino-Southern Oscillation, are known to evident in shorter period components of inter-annual variability. The substantial shorter period inter-annual variability is evident in the time series (Figure 2) is apparently not shared among regions to any significant degree. A greenhouse mechanism is consistent with the simple monotonically increasing trend that corresponds to the observed interregional patterns.

Increase upwelling is related to alongshore winds and large scale ocean-atmospheric interactions such as the NOI and PDO. The trends in SSTA, alongshore winds stress follow the gradual warming taking place for the last few decades, they are also explain in terms of large scale switches in phases of the PDO and NOI. The relationship between the SSTA and the ekman transport along the SCI indicates that upwelling occurs due to wind drive systems.

In projecting direct physiological effects of climatic warming on organisms, a first inclination might be to merely increment present characteristic isotherm patterns and to predict changes in biological distributions according to the resulting translocation of temperature ranges. Clearly, there are problems with such a procedure. Also, care must be taken in using evidence from past warming epochs, where various casual aspects of the warming have been some what different, to predict the effects of global warming on the ocean ecosystem. The dynamic ocean processes that determine the SST distributions could be fundamentally altered. Many of the consequences of global climate change to marine ecosystems and also to marine-influenced terrestrial systems could depend on the relative importance, in each local situation, of these competing effects.

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[architectnews]

Striatus Masonry Footbridge, Venice

Zaha Hadid Architects Venice, Striatus Masonry Footbridge, Italy Architeture Images

Striatus Masonry Footbridge in Venice: Zaha Hadid Architects

19 Jul 2021

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects

Location: Venice, Italy

photo © Naaro

Striatus Masonry Footbridge

Striatus is an arched masonry footbridge composed of 3D-printed concrete blocks assembled without mortar or reinforcement. The 16 x 12 metre footbridge is the first of its kind, combining traditional techniques of master builders with advanced computational design, engineering and robotic manufacturing technologies.

photo © Naaro

Exhibited at the Giardini della Marinaressa during the Venice Architecture Biennale until November 2021, Striatus has been developed by the Block Research Group (BRG) at ETH Zurich and Zaha Hadid Architects Computation and Design Group (ZHACODE), in collaboration with incremental3D (in3D) and made possible by Holcim.

photos © Naaro

Proposing a new language for concrete that is structurally informed, fabrication aware, ecologically responsible and precisely placed to build more with less, Striatus optimises the properties of masonry structures, 3D concrete printing (3DCP) and contemporary design; presenting an alternative to traditional concrete construction.

photo © Naaro

The name “Striatus” reflects its structural logic and fabrication process. Concrete is precisely printed in layers orthogonal to the main structural forces to create a “striated” compression-only structure that requires no mortar or reinforcement.

As the construction does not need mortar, the blocks can be dismantled, and the bridge reassembled at different location. If the construction is no longer needed, the materials can simply be separated and recycled.

photo © Naaro

Strength through geometry Striatus is an unreinforced concrete structure that achieves strength through geometry. Concrete can be considered an artificial stone that performs best in compression. In arched and vaulted structures, material can be placed precisely so that forces can travel to the supports in pure compression. Strength is created through geometry, rather than an inefficient accumulation of materials as in conventional concrete beams and flat floor slabs. This presents opportunities to significantly reduce the amount of material needed to span space as well as the possibility to build with lower-strength, less-polluting alternatives.

Striatus’ bifurcating deck geometry responds to its site conditions. The funicular shape of its structural arches has been defined by limit analysis techniques and equilibrium methods, such as thrust network analysis, originally developed for the structural assessment of historic masonry vaults; its crescent profile encompasses the thrust lines that trace compressive forces through the structure for all loading cases.

Steel tension ties absorb the horizontal thrust of the arches. Neoprene pads placed in between the dry-assembled blocks avoid stress concentrations and control the friction properties of the interfaces, echoing the use of lead sheets or soft mortar in historical masonry construction.

photo © Naaro

In plan, the boundaries of the structure form deep arches that transfer horizontal loads (for example, from visitors leaning against the balustrades) to the supports in pure compression. Advanced discrete element modelling (DEM) was used to refine and optimise the blocks’ stereotomy and to check stability of the entire assembly under extreme loading cases or differential settlements of the supports.

The bridge’s 53 3DCP voussoirs have been produced using non-parallel print layers that are orthogonal to the dominant flow of forces. This avoids delamination between the print layers as they are held together in compression. The additive manufacturing process ensures the structural depth of the components can be achieved without producing blocks with a solid section, hence reducing the amount of material needed compared to subtractive fabrication methods or casting.

Striatus follows masonry structural logic on two levels. As a whole, the bridge behaves as a series of leaning unreinforced voussoir arches, with discretisations orthogonal to the dominant flow of compressive forces, following the same structural principles as arched Roman bridges in stone. Locally, on the level of the voussoir, the 3DCP layers behave as traditional brick masonry evident in the inclined rows of bricks within Nubian or Mexican vaulting.

photo © Naaro

Circular by design Circular by design, Striatus places material only where needed, significantly reducing its environmental footprint. Built without reinforcement and using dry assembly without binders, Striatus can be installed, dismantled, reassembled and repurposed repeatedly; demonstrating how the three R’s of sustainability (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) can be applied to concrete structures.

Reduce: – Lowering embodied emissions through structural geometry and additive manufacturing that minimises the consumption of resources and eliminates construction waste. – Placing concrete only there where needed, 3DCP minimises the amount of material required, while the low-stress, compression-only funicular geometry of Striatus proposes the further development of 3DCP that will enable the use of much lower-strength, less-polluting printable materials. – Compared to embedded reinforcement in concrete, Striatus uses external ties to absorb the thrust of its arched shape and dramatically reduce the amount of steel required. A high carbon-intense material, steel reinforcement (100% recycled) per unit mass is more than ten times that of a standard concrete.

Reuse: – Improving circularity and longevity. Unlike conventional reinforced concrete structures, Striatus is designed to be dry assembled without any binder or glue, enabling the bridge to be dismantled and reused in other locations. Its funicular design ensures the 3DCP blocks experience low stresses throughout their use, resulting in no loss of structural integrity. Striatus separates components in compression and tension, ensuring external ties can be easily accessed and maintained, resulting in a longer lifespan for the entire structure.

Recycle: – By ensuring different materials are separated and separable, each component of Striatus can easily be recycled with minimal energy and cost. 3D printing also avoids the waste and costs associated with single-use moulds. Additionally, the component materials within Striatus remain separate and separable with the use of mechanical connections such as simple dry contacts between the voussoirs rather than chemical glues or binders, ensuring a simple, low-energy recycling process at the end of the elements’ life, potentially after multiple cycles of reuse.

photo © Naaro

Robotic 3D concrete printing Unlike typical extrusion 3D printing in simple horizontal layers, Striatus uses a two-component (2K) concrete ink with corresponding printing head and pumping arrangement to precisely print non-uniform and non-parallel layers via a 6-axis, multi-DOF robotic arm. This new generation of 3D concrete printing in combination with the arched masonry design allows the resulting components to be used structurally without any reinforcement or post-tensioning.

To prevent misalignment between the direction of structural forces and the orientation of material layers that arises from typical shape-agnostic slicing of explicitly modelled geometry, a custom-developed design pipeline was formulated for Striatus to ensure that its printed layers are wholly aligned with the direction of compression forces throughout the entire bridge and also locally through each 3D-printed block. To address issues and challenges that could prevent in-between stability during printing, the coherence and feasibility of the gradually evolving print paths have been modelled using a Functional Representation (FRep) process.

photo © Naaro

This process encodes and continuously checks rules of minimum overlap, maximum cantilever between print layers and print length, print speed and the volume of wet concrete extruded. These measures, typically used in horizontally layered 3DCP, have been advanced and refined to work on an inclined-plane setting:

– The angular differences between start and end planes of all 53 printed blocks have been simultaneously adjusted to meet multiple criteria such as an appropriate structural contact and angle between adjacent blocks, and maximum print inclination. – The careful design and iterative refinement of the hollow cross sections and infill triangulation have ensured that material is placed corresponding to the precisely analysed, local structural performance of each block. This design and optimisation has been applied to each individual layer of every block (with 500 print layers on average per block), ensuring that all blocks are as hollow and light as possible, and consequently use the least amount of material possible, while maintaining structural integrity under all loading conditions. – The resulting intricate cross-sectional design has been processed into a single, continuous print path meeting various criteria that include appropriate print speed and turning radii, structurally required material width and thickness, and controlled expression of naturally occurring printing artefacts.

photo © Tom van Mele

A nuanced aspect of robotic 3DCP masonry is the re-introduction of intelligence and highly skilled labour into the manufacturing and construction industry. The digitisation of fabrication and digital augmentation of skilled assembly and construction techniques makes historically-accrued knowledge accessible to younger generations and enables its systematic upgrade towards industrialised construction through the use of computational and robotic technologies. In stark contrast to a brute force, and often materially wasteful economy biased towards automation and assembly line production, 3DCP masonry introduces possibilities of a symbiotic human-machine economy. This promises an environmentally, socio-culturally and economically sustainable alternative to its 20th-century predecessor.

photo © Tom van Mele

Computational design-to-construction integration Integrating design, engineering, fabrication and construction, Striatus redefines conventional interdisciplinary relations. The precise manufacturing of the blocks was enabled by well-defined data exchange between the various domain-specific software toolchains involved in the process. This co-development approach was facilitated through the use of COMPAS, an open-source computational framework for collaboration and research in the AEC industry, which enabled the fluent interaction among the key players of the project, working together in five different countries, under a very tight schedule and budget, at a time in which travelling was not possible.

photo © Tom van Mele

Disruptive outlook Striatus offers a blueprint for building more with less. Created with the same structural principles and a similar fully-integrated computational design-to-fabrication approach that form the basis of the vaulted, rib-stiffened, unreinforced concrete floors being developed by the Block Research Group in partnership with Holcim, Striatus proposes an alternative to the standard inefficient floor slabs within any building.

Compared to typical reinforced-concrete flat floor slabs, this new floor system uses only 30% of the volume of concrete and just 10% of the amount of steel. The very low stresses within the funicular structure also enable the use of low-embodied-carbon concrete that incorporates high percentages of recycled construction waste. Prefabricated and dry-assembled, and therefore fully demountable and reusable, this floor system is easily and cleanly recyclable at end-of-life.

photo © in3d

With an estimated 300 billion square metres of floor area to be constructed worldwide over the next 30 years, and floors comprising more than 40% of the weight of most high-rise buildings (10+ storeys), introducing the principles demonstrated by Striatus would truly disrupt the construction industry — transforming how we design and construct our built environment to address the defining challenges of our era.

photo © in3d

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects

Photography: Naaro, Tom van Mele and ©in3d

Zaha Hadid

Striatus Masonry Footbridge, Venice images / information received 190721

Location: Venezia, Italia

Installation by Alison Brooks Architects at 16th International Architecture Exhibition photo © Luke Hayes ReCasting by Alison Brooks Architects

Venice Architecture

Venice Architecture Designs – chronological list

Venice Architecture Tours by e-architect

Venice Architecture News

La Biennale di Venezia 2021

Home Ground, Alison Brooks Architects

The Majlis at San Giorgio Maggiore

Pavilion of Finland Venice Biennale 2021

Japan Pavilion Venice Biennale 2021

Young Talent Architecture Award 2020 picture Courtesy Fundació Mies van der Rohe Young Talent Architecture Award 2020

La Biennale di Venezia Pavilion of Slovenia 2021 photo Courtesy of Božidar Jakac Art Museum, Kostanjevica na Krki (photo: Lado Smrekar) Venice Biennale Slovenia Pavilion 2021

Zaha Hadid Exhibitions

Venetian Architectural Archive

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Venice Architecture Biennale – Review + Images

Website: La Biennale di Venezia

Comments / photos for the Striatus Masonry Footbridge, Venice page welcome

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[321arka]

Leers Weinzapfel Associations is mainly a Boston-based award winning method which has specialized in architecture, urban and framework projects. They had worked on a tri-faculty building with an inventive timber structure for the University of Massachusetts. The principal of the associates, Tom Chung had given an interview to SketchUp team and this article is about that interview where reader can find a new method of designing for designers, effectiveness of association helped the project team for making a fascinating and continuous project.

About the project: The team got a project where they had to design a new home for three agencies which were connected with the design of the building environment that was spread across the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. In the campus, the department of Architecture, department of Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning and the department of Building Construction had to bring together so that they could have the same type of teamwork, association and advance in their disciplines. The total building had to be smart and continuous and the boundaries should be pushed of geographical, construction and landscape design in a single budget as the project was state funded.

Problems in the project: The team also concerned about the previous street contexts and captured the basic views around the campus; they had expanded their site between two streets with various characters. Among the twp streets, first one was faced with the larger sized buildings of the campus and the second one had smaller structures located the historic part of the campus.

They tested many locations, forms and design ways in SketchUp and their Landscape Architect, Stephen Stimson Associates suggested that both the street could be conditioned with a coherent courtyard bundled in between. Both the streets had became a common focal point in the project as it had created a common space for the citizens and visitors of the building which was started from the landscape garden on the third floor and ends up on the ground floor to welcome the least of the campus.

They made this ‘commons’ space in an animated way with a dynamic 3D truss which was made with Glulam beams and metal tension rods. It was basically made as a support for the roof garden that had up to 18’ of soil and dense planting.

Reason of selecting timber in this project: Alexander Schreyer, chair of Building and Construction was the main enthusiast for using the timber structure in the project of the client. Alex had knowledge and interest on this matter and gave the team confidence for using timber in the project. They took help form some specialist timber structure engineers, Equilibrium Consulting and as a result they had arrived as the first group timber structure of its size and scale in the United States. In this timber made structure, the structural body was of glulam beams, the columns and the floor deck was the unique combination of Cross-Laminated Timber or CLT and concrete. The complex floor was combined of wood and concrete for creating delegate long spans which were stable, serviceable and wonderful for controlling vibration and auditory.

SketchUp in design process: According to the Leers Weinzapfel Associations, SketchUp is a very useful tool for them and could easily model things for having the skill and energetically works on projects. They had tested various absorptions and conceptions which vary on the location form the Google 3D map and plug in their design for the contextual fit. The walk-through feature also helped them to capture and demonstrate the quality of the main spaces. For changing the design they transferred it into the construction documents created in Revit. They also had focused on specific conditions in SketchUp before centralizing it into the final drawings and this method was become helpful for further long term deign processes.

Project’s point of continuity: A timber structure defined that it is a sustainably harvested renewable material with very low illustrated energy and carbon. The instant nature of the timber structure also decreases on-site labor demanding processes and accelerates the building process. Choosing the timber structures instead of steel and concrete also could leave a big impact on global carbon emissions and can make the world healthier. Besides the specification on the material, they also had a limited budget that prevented them from using costly bolt-on renewable strategies at the end of the work. But it is also true that the building consumed less energy from the beginning and they used a LEED Platinum rating and renewable energy sources due to their cost boundary in the project, so they used campus’ existing chiller system that was very helpful. They also planned spaces for fitting the mechanical heating and cooling services.

Role of collaboration in the project: In this low-budget project, collaboration played an important part which was very much necessary for the success of this project and the collaboration could be seen everywhere. The collaboration between the team and the clients showed by the three different UMass department heads, they also used their imagination in various way into the dimensional planning of the building ensured the chance encounters between the students and faculty in the departments increased. The sustainability consultant, Atelier Ten, MEP engineer, BVH Integrated Services were there with the team from the beginning and by handling massing, orientation and façade design they made an energy efficient building. Though their method was not familiar in the Boston Area of the United States they tried their best to make the project successful and they did it.

Article Source: blog.sketchup.com