THE STENCIL OF MAKING ©

The enormaties of free will, the hint of an explanation: music.

‘Times is hard, and things are a changing, so I pray to God, that we can remain the same, all I’m trying to say, is our love don’t have to change.’ JL 2004.  John Legend writes love songs, and I love what I do.  Design.

‘League of my own.’ C 2017 #won.  Enough said.

‘Filles de Kilimanjaro‘ MD sweeping on ride, cutting breaks on Miles’ trumpet, keys inter-changing with serendipity.  Snare lucy, cut tribe, front tectonics, bring forward the rain, and reign.  Pleasing to find at the back of the boc.  Gliding above any other jazz record.  Police traffic stop.  Japanizing applejacks be.  This is the dance.  Dance music.  Just chill.

Neolithic times meant stone became advanced, but timber equates to a good stencil.  Better for the wallet, easier to construct and a dancers environmentally stable habitat.

Monolithic creates time in tune with fancy ants.  Uniformity makes my building of one material, ‘monomatrices’©.  A guide is not required in the layout of ‘liberation by order’©.  ‘Times is hard, but we can deliver, I pray to God, that we can remain on planet Earth, all I’m trying to say, is our love don’t have to shame.’ AB 2017.  Andrew Brinkman writes love songs, and I love what I do.  Design.  But Architecture does frame.  Humanity remains because of it, and will always live by it.  We are, after all just human!                    

Street perspective, hand constructed & photoshop. ©

Wood stains based on back garden plant life. ©

Interior, all architects should be concerned for interior as much as ‘outer-formal form.’©

[&].

One prefabricated unit showing passive ventilation bell, making a conformity to required air circulation, detailed in timber, copper and glass. ©

Passivhaus Notes.

Mandatory Technical Requirements.

Airtightness

 Specific space heat (cooling) demand.a

Specific heat load

Specific primary energy demand.a

0.6 ach

15kWh/m².a

10W/m²

120kWh/m².a (source)

Concept.

Fabric.

Foundation/ floor, walls, roof and windows.  Money spent is an investment for a nominal 60 years.  'Bolt-on' technologies for hot-water/ space heating have a lifespan of 20-30 years. 

Testing.

Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) specialist software.  Client preference/ aesthetics/ planning considerations/ costs and other practical constraints are balanced against the design's eneregy performance.  Avoid over-engineering, and unexpected cost overruns.  More detailed work before PA.

Solar gain and Shading.

Winter solar gain important for heating. Shading devices used in summer.

Insulation and Thermal Bridges.

Insulation must wrap continuously. 

Form Factor:

Ratio: external surface area: internal usable floor area.  Better to have a compact design.

Form factor and U-values:

Form factor

Type

U-values: >15kWh/m².a

˂2

Apartments/Terrace

0.15W/m²K

2˗3

Semi-detached/ compact 2/3 storey.

0.10-0.15W/m²K

3˗4

Detached House/ Bungalow

0.10W/m²K

>4

Spaced Bungalow

0.05-0.10W/m²K

Thermal Comfort. 

Satisfaction with the thermal environment.  Reduce cold surfaces ('cold radiant') and draughts.  Provide sufficent fresh air. 

Airtightness and indoor air quality. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR).  

No air is recirculated - only heat.  Designed without noise or draught.  IAQ in winter is good/ in summertime open windows and/or the ventilation system.

Space heat demand: 15 kWh/m².a / heat load: 10W/m².a

Reference to maximum energy and power needed to heat your home.  Heat (or cooling) demand represents 90% less space heating energy.  Heat load is a key requirement for a Passivhaus.  15kWh/m².a - optimum heat demand - conventional central heating is eliminated.  Specific heat load of 10W/m².a is low enough to be provided via the ventilation system - supply duct radiator.l

For an average sized home built to Passivhaus standards, the 10W/m² specific heat load translates to a total heat load of less than 1kW.  Typical natural gas boiler = 24kW.  Therefore a similar Passivhaus could be heated with a single radiator in the main living space and heated towel rails in the bathroom(s).

Passivhaus Notes.2

Primary energy demand.a

The 120kWh/m².a specific primary energy demand discourages the use of electricity for direct water heating (an immersion heater), and encourages the use of solar hot water where practicable.  District heating - heat is produced centrally and distributed via insulated pipes.

The Team; Architect, Builder and Client.

Build trust and mutual respect. The builder is more likely to accept the design and to have a deeper understanding of its rationale.

Heating Season.

The heating season is shorter than in standard builds.  Heating is not required during October and from Feburary to April - there is enough solar gain to maintain a comfortable temp. without heating.  The lifespan of the heating technology is extended.

Space heating and hot water.

Electricity/ Heat pump/ Liquefied petroleum gas-oil/ Natural gas fired boiler/ Wood burner (logs)/ Woodchip-fired boiler/ Wood-pellet-fired boiler.

[1]

‘If the waves are closer together it is harder for them to turn direction, therefore heat always travels in straight lines. It is magnetism that ravels in circles.’©

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I am no maverick when it comes to ordered design.

But how we present ourselves tells us something of the amorphous anthropological shape to our very being in an age of ‘notional love and black culture.’©

My exegesis is sustenance as thus . . .

On presenting oneself:

Knowing what to coin, knowing how to assert one’s mind, tolerance, knowing, and longevity.  Legacy and fashions, association consensus, top marks and critical theory.  Is to kill someone to propel oneself forward?  When you advance you regard the self as referee.  A blame to tutoring foregoing schizophrenic chaos.

The Roots and Portico Quartet are music.  Intellectually conceited for its true or false melancholy, to give the game in opposition.  Similar to honesty but deeper to find.  Therefore there is an analogy of my building as cartilaginous anatomy, for its co-reference to civic pride by the park as a jewllery box full of dancing jems.

Life is pointless and futile because you have got to be lewd to advance up the ladder.  If you disagree with something then disagree with it.  It is not all Hampshire roses, there is sustenance in the seminal capital metropolis.

To describe a process one must use the names of the tools, i.e. put your wood on wood with hammer and nail.  In this case saw to join seamless conjunctions.

Sarcasm will not satisfy ones soul in expression from being heard.  Best to advance in silence with patience.  i.e. comment, I agree/ I disagree then state rhetorical argument. 

In honour of the last statement a 10 second pause please, and count.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 . . .

Do you understand published material by repeating or completing its content, and therefore missing the essence.  I.e. Andy Warhols Marilyn Monroe missing sex appeal as symbol by colour.

All materials black and white or greyed out for advancement of anonymous art, i.e. one colour applied, unless realism is required.

Ostentation nallows ultimate advancement because it strips down to essential beauty, i.e. couture.

Bring gifts to the forefront but hide behind them to personify oneself: ‘i.&.’©

See life with conviction that every artwork states and re-states ones confess, i.e. represent your interiors.

Do not limit shadow, but do not focus on it either.  Always remain light in situations and expand the refelction of your light, i.e. advance with integrity.

Superficiality makes ones presentation with more esteem than without, and is not seen in this world as simple with restraint, i.e. walk and talk.

Finally self-importance denigrates a belief in one and another as caring for oneself and one another, i.e. call yourself King.

That is the anthropolgical psychoanalysis in critical theory.

Thesis

I have been involved in the design of large scale buildings and urban spaces since the beginning of my architectural education.  This has led me to design on a large scale and in essence avoided really understanding the concepts of detail.  My thinking has always been broadly based around urban concepts, object architecture, and spatial organization.  There is a level of detail that is rarely touched upon in architectural education, which involves the details of construction.  This scale and level of in-depth inquiry interests me a great deal, in-order to become more in tune with the tactile qualities of building.   

The detail is the fundamental element that connects two adjoining elements and manifests the essence of the desired architecture by the architect. It is a point at which structure may hold subsidiary structure, and so may have structural characteristics itself. Each detail may have metaphorical associations, with regards to its technique, form or method, which is about how literally the materials are joined together.  The architect is positioned to rely on his or her creative ability to associate and fabricate objects that engage materials into relationships that convey meaning.  The detail can say far more about the architect’s perceptions, thoughts and philosophies, than any other part of the building.

I believe a building’s method of construction can harness its creative potential ensuing a connection between building and user.  The concept that architecture is merely blank space  has become old-fashioned, and the architects ever growing concern for structure, construction, and detail is becoming evidently more important as we endeavour to reach a more meaningful and subjective architecture.

People have a natural tendency to make things; inventing, making, using, refining, redefining, abandoning and reinventing require constant effort and change; the necessity to re-invent architecture arises in accordance with the changing needs of our lives.  Architecture is in essence about building or constructing and so the detail could be the most important part of any design and should be given careful consideration.  It could also be the specific tool to architecture’s more complex understanding of solving future architectural problems, on a large scale.

There are many directions one can take to find an understanding about detail:

‘Details when they are successful are not mere decoration.  They do not distract or entertain.  They lead to an understanding of the whole of which they are an inherent part.’

‘Details express what the basic idea of the design requires at the relevant point in the object: belonging or separation, tension or lightness, friction, solidity or fragility . . . ‘

Peter Zumthor

Details can be of any form or nature; however they are an extremely important functional part of the building and so some may have better qualities than others, and by this method one can deduce how best to solve the architectural problem that arises.

There are two outcomes to the concept of detail as my thesis;

• The first is about producing a detail before the architecture, and solving the architectural problem through the detail.

• The second is designing the detail according to the architecture, which is the traditional sense of architecture.

Wood is the material I am interested in, as I think it is underused in this country and there are now resources available which are being renewed and replenished ready for future use.  There is something about the cycle of materials used within architecture which is becoming more and more prevalent as time goes on, if we are to retain resources and find new and possibly more practical ways of building for the future.

Wood is a renewable resource and has good qualities for construction.  It also poses the most problems in terms of detailing as the detail must be designed and thought about through the material itself, not just the method of fixing.  This poses two possibilities one that only the material itself is used throughout the construction; this is a very traditional method, or two that the form of fixing is self sufficient in its method, i.e. it needs no added bracing or fixative.

The Primer

 

These are two ideas I have tried to incorporate into my design for the primer project.  I initially began by wanting to design a universal detail that I could apply to my design, however it turned out that first I would need far more experience and understanding of the material in order to do that and secondly that I should concentrate on setting out my design for the project before trying to jump to the detail.

The project itself is an installation in a meeting room in the University.  The brief was to design a ceiling structure to better the proportions of the room and create an acoustic buffer for the space.  Using wood as the material for the project, and only parts from a regular DIY store in order to design the structure. 

I began by trying to understand how different elements should go together, and how existing things are joined.  For example two bones are connected by a fluid, which allows them to move, yet stay connected.  This is an example of nature’s method of joining, and could lead to ideas of architectural construction.  The concept is one of simplicity in joining and logical solutions to constructing.

I began by setting up a  structural rhythm that would support the ceiling and would form the basis of the design.  From this would arise a number of details in order to hold each of the elements together.  The design is as simple as I could make it, but has strong ideas of rhythm and structure.  I like the repetitive nature of structure and the opportunity this gives to detail.  It encourages simple and repeated details, that can be designed within the structure. 

The detail itself became one unit with which the vertical and horizontal elements are tied   together.  This allows ease of construction and acts as a monolithic object which functions when re-assembled within the structure.

The idea of the wave was an instinctual form for the ceiling as I needed to lower the ceiling level and simultaneously not enclose the space.  This worked with the height of the window within the space, otherwise the natural daylight entering the room would have been obscured.  The ceiling acts as an acoustic buffer, but is enhanced by insulation material attached to the ceiling. 

Originally I hoped to design the structure so as it would work with elements at various angles, enhancing the acoustic properties of the structure, however this was not possible, for reasons of complexity, and so I concentrated on the detail itself.

This led to my understanding of the time and labour involved in making details without mass production techniques.  I believe a far better result can be achieved by this method, but understand the difficulties of achieving this level of quality in real life.

Detail as the generator of design:

‘detail at the original moment of design not only challenges the norms of architectural production, but encourages possibilities of innovation and invention. . . by nurturing craftsmanship and intuitive knowledge, the creative process of ‘making’ unfolds.’

The thesis has led me to understand detail a lot more and feel confident about applying these ideas to real architectural problems.  It is unfortunate to think that there are few opportunities to apply these ideas in real life, as the industry normally dictates methods of construction for ease of production.  That is not to say it is not worth pursuing and identifying how these ideas can be integrated into existing methods.