Knowledge map week one

Key idea of the subject: how the design idea gets translated into the build form.

Materials • Strength—strength property, strong or weak: for example, steel is

stronger material, and it is strong in both compression and tension.

• Stiffness—stiff, flexible, stretchy or floppy: for example, carpets and

robbers are not stiff but flexible materials, and concrete is stiff material.

• Shape—mono-dimensional (linear), bi-dimensional (planar) or

tridimensional (volumetric): planar shape—sheet mental, volumetric

shape—brick and concrete

• Material behavior—isotropic or anisotropic: isotropic materials display

similar characteristics no matter which direction the force is applied

• Economy&Sustainability—include the price of the material, availability,

impact on the environment, transport of the material and its efficiency.

Basic structural forces Force: is any influence that produces a change in the shape or movement of a

body.

Tension forces: external load pulls on a structural member

Compression forces: produces the opposite effect of a tension force

load paths

Two types of loads need to be supported by structural system.

Static loads: are assumed to be applied slowly to a structure until it

reaches its peak value without fluctuating rapidly in magnitude or

position.

• Live loads: a variable weight on a structure.

o Occupancy loads: the weight of people, furniture, stored

material, and other similar items in a building.

o Snow loads: the weight of snow.

o Rain loads: the weight of water on a roof.

• Dead loads: the constant load on a structure due to the weight of

the supported structure itself. • Settlement loads: are imposed on a structure by subsidence of a

portion of the supporting soil and the resulting differential

settlement of its foundation.

o Ground loads

o Water pressure

o Thermal pressure

• Impact loads: kinetic loads of short duration due to moving

vehicles, equipment, and machinery.

Dynamic loads: applied suddenly to a structure, often with rapid

changes in magnitude and point of application.

• Wind loads

Wind exerts both positive

and negative pressure of a

house.

• Earthquake load

Our tower’s arrangement is like

brickwork bonding building in

circle, overlapping between courses

in order to distributethe imposed

load. This kind of structure provides

stability of the tower.

The tower is also taper-like, for the

lowest bricks have to bear the

combined load of everything above

them, we have more bricks on the

lowest layer to distribute the load.

The bricks are lapped over each other in successive courses, in order

to distribute imposed loading.

Avoid straight joints

whichconsiderably weaken the wall. The

loads only applied on each row if the

bricks.

Load paths

When we took away some of the bricks

to build an arch, the tower was still

stable. Then we have two “columns” to

transfer the load of the structure to the

ground.

Other groups’ towers are all based on “stretcher bond” brickwork,

because not only it is stable but also it use the bricks efficiently.

Knowledge Map week two

Structural systems • Solid

• Surface

• Frame

• Skeletal

• Membrane

• Hybrid

Construction systems

• Structural system: columns beams and loadbearing walls

• Enclosure system: shell or envelop of a building, consisting of the roof,

exterior wall, windows and doors.

• Mechanical system: provides essential services to a building such as

the water supply system, the sewage system, heating, ventilating and air-

conditioning system, electric system, vertical transportation system, fire-

fighting system and waste disposal and recycling system.

The factors should be taken into account:

• Performance requirement

• Aesthetic qualities: about proportion, color, surface qualities

• Regulatory constraints

• Environmental impacts:embodied energy associated with materials:

efficiency of materials in terms of moderating our environment.

• Construction practice

• Economic efficiency: make the building affordable

o Initial cost of the building

o Life cycle costing: include longevity of the material

and how well the building performs to create comfort without air-

conditioning for example.

Structural joints Roller joints

Pin joints

Fixed joints

Environmental Sustainable Design (ESD) and selecting materials Some important concept:

Embodied energy: the total energy (oil, water, power) that goes into

construction and operation of buildings.

Recycle Reuse and Reduce

Carbon footprint: the total sets of greenhouse gas emission.

Some materials have positive carbon footprint

impact: hardwood, softwood, sandstone, clay, plywood, concrete etc.

ESD stratgies

• Local materials

• Material efficiency

• Thermal mass

• Night air purging

• Solar energy

• Wind energy

• Cross ventilation

• Smart sun design

• Insulation

• Water harvesting

Reflection: in my opinion, the sustainable site design and waste classification

system should also be included in the strategies. It is necessary to consider of the

interaction between house and its neighborhood and environment.

Lecture activity: hold a box with a few straws and pins and make it as stable as

possible.

The pattern that each when we add another

straw is fastened by pin, the joints are

one pin is the most stable, because the

unstable one. Because two pins not allow the

pin joint allow free straw to spin. But it is

rotation at the pin, so still not stable enough.

it is not stable.

But if we add two cross straws to reinforce the

four legs. It will be more stable, because the two

cross straws prevent the movement of the four

legs.

The foundation of

our balsa tower is

a triangular prism.

Triangle is stable

structure, so it is

more stable than

rectangular prism.

The upper part of

the frame is not

reasonable, the

hour-glass-like

structure could

stand just because

of the light

material.

Basically, the three columns hold the whole load of the tower. So when we break

the beams of the structure, the tower still could stand.

The slant beams is to prevent

the movement

of the frame. The frame

could stand without these

slant beams, but they make

it more stable.

The joints of the frame are

rigid joints which is not

flexible and allow the loads

from different direction.