Design-Tech Building Science for Architects

543 Pages·2007·23.56 MB·English

by  Jason Alread

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Design-Tech: Building science for architects
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To Mo and Kathy
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Design-Tech
Building science for architects
Jason Alread, AIA, LEED
and
Thomas Leslie, AIA
AMSTERDAM (cid:127) BOSTON (cid:127) HEIDELBERG (cid:127) LONDON (cid:127) NEW YORK (cid:127) OXFORD
PARIS (cid:127) SAN DIEGO (cid:127) SAN FRANCISCO (cid:127) SINGAPORE (cid:127) SYDNEY (cid:127) TOKYO
Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Linacre House,Jordan Hill,Oxford OX2 8DP
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First Edition 2007
Copyright © 2007,Jason Alread and Thomas Leslie.Published by Elsevier Ltd.
All rights reserved
The right of Jason Alread and Thomas Leslie to be identified as the authors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
2006931688
ISBN 13:978 0 7506 6557 5
ISBN 10:0 7506 6557 2
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Contents
Preface vii
A note on measurement xi
Photo credits xiii
Introduction:Basic Design Parameters 1
I.1 Human factors:anthropomorphics 3
I.2 Human factors:basic human comfort 11
I.3 Environment:basic climatology 20
I.4 Environment:solar geometry 30
Chapter 1 – Pre-design 39
1.1 Programming and program/brief analysis 41
1.2 Site analysis 55
1.3 Site and building ecology 66
Chapter 2 – Circulation 77
2.1 Life safety 79
2.2 Accessibility 95
2.3 Stairs 107
2.4 Elevators and escalators 118
Chapter 3 – Materials 131
3.1 Materials:wood 133
3.2 Materials:masonry 146
3.3 Materials:steel 165
3.4 Materials:glass 177
3.5 Materials:concrete 190
3.6 Materials:aluminum 204
Chapter 4 – Structural Design 217
4.1 Forces and loads 219
4.2 Stresses 236
4.3 Shear and bending 252
4.4 Shape and strength:beams 267
4.5 Column design 287
4.6 Slabs and plates 305
4.7 Foundations 318
4.8 Frames 332
4.9 Long-span structures 347
4.10 Appendix:Structural sizing charts for preliminary design 363
Chapter 5 – Building Components 369
5.1 Building envelope I:small scale 371
5.2 Curtain walls 390
5.3 Interior finish materials 407
5.4 Site design and construction (written by Heidi Hohmann) 420
5.5 Detailing 429
5.6 Custom fabrication 441
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Contents
Chapter 6 – Building Services 451
6.1 Environmental control:passive ventilation 453
6.2 Environmental control:active ventilation 463
6.3 Environmental control:illumination 474
6.4 Plumbing 485
6.5 Environmental control:acoustics 498
6.6 Electrical and data services 509
Bibliography 523
Index 525
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Preface
Every architect’s office of a reasonable size seems to have one person,usually
sitting in the back,still drawing by hand (and often with an advanced nicotine
habit) who knows everything. This person has been in practice forever, has
seen it all,and is often the best kept secret in the firm.When designs get ser-
ious,this person gets busy.Designers come to the back of the office with dozens
of questions that haven’t been much on their minds,but are suddenly critical.
How deep does this beam need to be? Can we get by with just one fire exit
from these rooms? What material should this component be made from,and
who can manufacture it?
We have both worked in offices where a version of this grizzled veteran played
a huge role in our educations.When we sat for our respective licensing exams,
we passed by pretending to be this person for a few days, to think like they
thought,to try for the photographic memory and instant recall that this per-
son seemed to have. It worked.
For whatever reason,the ranks of the technology-fluent seem to have thinned
over the past generation.Architects who came up in the tech-heavy 1960s and
1970s are now moving toward retirement, while architects who came up in
the theory-rich 1980s (including us) are struggling to take their place.The dis-
cipline has undergone immense specialization in the last decade, and we tend
to be spoiled by an increasing number of really good engineers with increas-
ingly sophisticated digital techniques that solve a lot of our problems for us.
Solving problems is great,and architects typically pay engineers quite well for it.
But we feel that an opportunity is often lost by passing along a conceptually
or aesthetically rich design to be ‘solved.’ In our experience,good design also
springs from knowledge and exploration. The more information architects
have at the start of a project, the more effective their solutions are likely to
be,and – more importantly – the closer in spirit the esthetics and function of
a design will come to one another. Integration, in our view, is more than a
buzzword, it’s a philosophy of design that leads to buildings that appeal on a
number of levels – from strict functionality to the intellectual adventure of
connecting building form to purpose in both the designer’s mind and that of
the user or client.
This intellectual adventure is what we’ve tried to cultivate in developing and
teaching a gently radical sequence of technology courses in the Graduate
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Preface
Architecture Program at Iowa State. From the beginning, we were asked to
put together a curriculum that taught what young architects really need to
know,in a way that made connections to the design,theory,and history they
would get in other coursework. We were both thrilled and inspired by this
challenge.Both of us came from very good,rigorous backgrounds in technol-
ogy education (Florida and Illinois),but we had mixed feelings about replicating
traditional ‘tech’ classes.Our first conversation focused on our thoughts after
taking the structures exam, and how over-prepared we had felt. Surely, given
the constraints of a 3-year Master’s program,the focus and budgeting of time
could be adjusted to substitute a bit of breadth for depth.Likewise,we wanted
to emphasize the reliance of sub-disciplines on one another. We felt that,
rather than separating sustainability into its own course or unit, the entire
curriculum should be woven through with issues of environmental and social
responsibility.Finally,we wanted to transmit some of the joy and excitement
we’d felt in practice when things got figured out – when a subcontractor
explained something in a way that gave us an inspiration for design,for example,
or when a meeting with a structural and mechanical engineer produced a
really clever solution that was neither pure architecture nor pure engineering.
We wanted most of the learning to be intuitive, believing that formulae and
figures could always be looked up,but common sense or basic understanding
could not.
SCI-TECH,the technologies course sequence,has proven remarkably success-
ful. We have enjoyed watching students from diverse, often non-technical
backgrounds develop good working understandings of the complex physical
issues that arise from building construction and performance. We have seen
these issues tackled in parallel studio courses,where integrated designs have
arisen based on the student’s learning in the technology sequence and studio
instructor’s recognition that this knowledge is,essentially,another tool in the
designer’s box. Most importantly, we’ve seen students with backgrounds ran-
ging from art and music to physics and medicine wrap their heads around
some fairly abstruse physical and technical concepts in a hands-on,laboratory-
like environment. We believe that this approach is inherently efficient and
enjoyable,and we believe it can be easily replicated in a variety of academic –
and professional – settings.
In short,we believe the time is right for a reassessment of what ‘tech’ means
in architectural curricula.A new generation of students demands a curriculum
that reflects what they’re likely to need in their professional lives. This, we
think,is important enough that tech might as well lead the way in connecting
architecture’s ‘two cultures’ – art and science – in practice and in education.
There are dozens of exciting developments in the discipline today, including
remarkably effective energy efficiency strategies,new material developments,
structural modeling techniques and new ways of assessing and developing build-
ingenvironments.As with previous advances,the hard number crunching for
these will inevitably be done by engineers and consultants.But we believe that
architects need to know where these developments are heading, what their
design implications and possibilities are, and how to work with increasingly
sophisticated subcontractors, engineers, and technologists.
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Preface
Design-Techoffers what we think is a basic framework for integrated knowledge.
We’ve broken down a traditional curriculum into thematic sections – human
factors, pre-design, building circulation, structural design, materials, and build-
ing systems. For each of these we’ve put together what we think practition-
ers need to know,given some history,some technical background,and some
case studies that reveal how these aspects have been integrated into well-
known or admirable designs.We’ve included the basic reference information
that we think is needed at the desk,and suggested where students or practi-
tioners can go for deeper resources. Our intent has been to focus on the
breadth of technical knowledge required,following Vitruvius’ admonition that
all architects must be educated in a wide variety of fields,or in today’s cliché,
that architects must be jacks of all trades, if not masters of any.
We are deeply indebted to a generation of technology educators who have gone
before us, and whose books have inspired and been constantly used by us.
Design-Techis,we think,best seen as an addition to such important,vital books
as Ed Allen’s Fundamentals of Building Construction and (with Joseph Iano) his
Architect’s Studio Companion,Francis D.K.Ching’s Building Construction Illustrated,
Mario Salvadori’s Structures for Architects,Rowland Mainstone’s Developments in
Structural Form, Harry Parker’s Simplified Engineering for Architects and Builders
(improved and expanded by James Ambrose), Victor Olgyay’s Design With
Climate,Charlie Brown and Mark DeKay’s Sun,Wind,and Light,Ernst Neufert’s
Architect’s Dataand the perennial Architectural Graphic Standards.We have ref-
erenced these books throughout our work, and noted carefully where one
might turn to these for further information or elucidation.
Likewise,our careers have been informed by important mentors and teachers.
Prof.Leslie owes much of his technical background to teachers at Illinois and
Columbia,especially Mir Ali,Tony Webster,and Robert Silman;colleagues at
Foster and Partners and Ove Arups,in particular David Nelson,Nigel Dancey,
Peter Lassetter,Kevin Dong,Eric Ko,and Jon Markowitz;and a raft of collab-
orators on the Stanford University Center for Clinical Sciences Research pro-
ject. Finally, Prof. Leslie would like to particularly acknowledge the teaching
and guidance of the late Don Bergeson at Illinois. It is, sadly, too late to pro-
pose this book as extra credit for Prof. Bergeson’s Environmental Systems
class, but Leslie wishes (for many reasons) that this was still possible.
Prof. Alread thanks his good fortune for having started his education under
the guidance of Martin Gundersen and Bernard Voichysank at the University of
Florida, and later to have the mentorship of Thomas Beeby at Yale. Mentors
in practice have continued that education with firm and patient guidance, in
particular Rick Rados, John Locke and Mark Schmidt. Prof. Alread must also
thank his longtime collaborators,Paul Mankins,Tim Hickman,and Todd Garner,
who keep him ever mindful of the need to be humble and relentless in the
pursuit of good work.
Finally, our teaching at Iowa State has been influenced and supported by col-
leagues who have welcomed our attempts at innovation,offered commentary
and suggestions for our coursework,and reviewed elements of this book.Clare
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