Tallinn University of Technology – Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies
Academic year 2020-21 - Fall semester –
Study program EAUI71 - EAUI12/17 - 6 ECTS credits
Research Scientist Francesco De Luca,
Lecturer Ioannis Lykouras
Thursday 14:00 – 17:15 - TalTech U03-405
Syllabus
Introduction
Contemporary cities alter local climate conditions, which
significantly influence building occupant and pedestrians comfort. In the warm season,
the increase of air temperature and surface temperature of buildings, pavements
and streets decreases the comfort of people in public areas. At northern
latitudes in urban environments, the exploitation of solar radiation during
winter times can help increase the comfort of people, whereas building
overshadowing and increased wind velocities can significantly increase
discomfort due to low perceived temperatures hence specific urban design
strategies are required.
Urban comfort, building interiors daylight and view out are
strictly related and dependent from urban morphology, i.e. buildings size,
orientation and distance. Architects and planners are urged to improve the environmental
performance of buildings for occupants’ comfort and energy efficiency and the
comfort and safety of urban environments.
Scope of the course is the realization of design proposals by
students for a new urban district located in the quarter of Karjamaa in
Tallinn. The new district will be a high-density cluster of residential and
office buildings. The designed urban district will be architecturally sound and
will fit the urban area and surroundings. The cluster buildings will receive
enough natural illumination and the interiors will enjoy appropriate views to
the outside. The public areas around and between the buildings will be
comfortable and safe. Though it is a high-density district, green areas and
open public areas will be integral part of the design proposal. No internal car
circulation has to be designed inside the district.
The aim of the course is to introduce to the students the evidence-based method that drives design decisions through the performance analysis of buildings and environments and digital design tools. Evidence-based design permits to adopt the scientific method of investigation in architectural design and planning. In an architecture school it is important that students learn methods to design using objective data as input and evidence as outcome. The ability to incorporate credible evidence into design decisions is an indispensable skill for the future architects and planners.
Area
The area used for planning is located along the coast in the Karjamaa quarter, between Kalamaja and the Palassaare peninsula. It is located in a zone of the city with high potential of transformation, close to the Kalamaja quarter where other development along the coast are successfully being developed such as the Noblessner district. However, due to the previous naval activities, the planning area would require soil pollutant decontamination prior a real development as characteristic of brownfield areas in many European cities. The area is characterized by businesses activities such as maritime transport, ships repair, shooting range and warehouse buildings and large parking lots functional to the businesses. The area is visible in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Part of the Kopli peninsula and the Karjamaa quarter where the design area for the new urban district is located (red border rectangle).
The red line represents the limit of the planning area that is a rectangle 548 m by 300 m in size. The buildings actually present on the area and in the vicinity are demolished for the planning of the new district. The area of the new urban district is visible in internet on Google Map at following link to https://www.google.it/maps/place/Reneko/@59.4564344,24.711066,2471m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x46929390124b07cf:0x106b182e13101121!8m2!3d59.4567675!4d24.70895?hl=it. A 3D model of the area has been realized with Rhinoceros to be used by each group (Figure 2). It is possible to download it from the section Materials.
The course will be conducted as a design studio. It will consist of lectures, tutoring and team work to be conducted in the computer lab with the assistance of the lecturers. Most part of the work to finalize the project proposals will be conducted in the computer lab. The software used for design and simulation is available on the computers of the lab. Additionally, students can install the software on their own laptop if need to continue to work at home. Most of the software is free or has educational (free) licenses. The software used is:
- Rhinoceros/Grasshopper for parametric design (www.rhino3d.com). It is important to notice that the software Rhinoceros/Grasshopper has a free license for 3 months, thus it is recommended that students install the trial version of Rhinoceros for lesson 07 of 15.10 and not before, otherwise the software will stop working long before the exam period.
- Ladybug Tools for solar access, view out and urban comfort analysis (www.ladybug.tools). The link to download the software is available from the page relative to the specific Ladybug software. The software is free.
It is possible additional
software will be used during the course. The software used for rendering, image
editing and presentation board layout can be any decided by students.
Teams
The projects will be developed by
students in teams. Each team is composed by 2 students. In few cases 3 students
can form a team. It is advisable that the teams are formed in a way that, if
possible, one member has already skills in using the parametric software
Grasshopper (and in case additionally skills in using the plug-in Ladybug Tools
for urban comfort analysis).
Activities
The course is divided in different activities, each one with a specific outcome. During the different activities, there will be lectures and teamwork for the students to apply the techniques and methods learned during the lectures and to develop their design idea with the possibility to take advantage of tutoring. The course is organized in a way that the activities related to the use of software for parametric design and simulations will be carried on fully in the computer lab. Ideally the students will not have to carry on these activities at home, because the software Rhinoceros has a limited duration. All the other activities will have to be carried on at home as well as required by studio courses. The activities are.
- Urban layout development - Activity in which the planning project is developed, its robustness and fitness verified with the lecturers. The urban layout development start with a project idea represented by bi-dimensional diagrams. The diagram express the possible linkage of the project idea to the site, surrounding urban morphologies or specific concepts. The three-dimensional urban idea is developed through generation of different alternatives using parametric design.
- Parametric design of urban layout – Practical lectures about how to design parametric models of urban layout are given.
- Parametric modeling of urban layout alternatives - Teams will develop urban layout alternatives using parametric design. The design outcome quality is assessed together with the lecturers. Validity and appropriateness is assessed not for every urban layout alternative but for the model that generates it on the basis of few cases.
- Sunlight and view out analysis - During this activity lectures about solar access and view out simulations of urban models. The simulations will be used by the teams to assess the performance of urban layout alternatives with respect to standards. The scope is to produce a number of alternatives that meet the requirements and even perform better. Each team will select, also on the basis of the lecturers input, one final layout, among those that meet the requirements, to use for urban comfort analysis and final urban design proposal development.
- Urban comfort performance analysis – After having selected one final layout each team will locate a snippet of the entire designed district, a small portion of the entire project, on which develop the public open area design. It must be an area between buildings where a public area as a square can be located. During this activity lectures about urban comfort analysis are given. The teams will perform the simulations and will use the results of the analysis to locate terraces, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, green areas, free time areas and entrances to surrounding buildings, features that constitute the public open area design.
- Performance analysis presentation – During this activity lectures are given to students about how to properly present results of performance analysis for an architectural project. It will be important that project presentations will show how the performance analysis results have guided design decisions. During this activity, the teams will have the possibility to develop analysis presentation for the relative drawing boards.
- Urban project and open area design + presentation – During this activity the teams will develop and finalize the urban design proposal and the open area design creating views with legends, callouts and graphics.
Requirements
The new urban district will have
to meet qualitative and quantitative requirements. Qualitative requirements
refer to the architecture and urban quality of the proposal. The quality is assessed during the tutoring
work with the lecturers and during the interim review. Quantitative
requirements refers to the performance of the urban district and are the
following:
FAR – Floor Area Ratio measures the density of the built environment (the ratio between the total built floor area and the design area). It is required to achieve a FAR of minimum 1.8 (update 19/11/2020). Residential buildings will be maximum 7 floors, office buildings maximum 14 floors (the required FAR and maximum number of floor need to be confirmed). Floor height used is 3m for both residential and offices.
Sunlight – The access to sunlight is an important requirement for buildings. An adequate quantity of sun light hours during specific periods guarantee healthiness of interiors, occupant indoor comfort and quality of interior architecture. All the buildings of the selected district will have to guarantee the following requirement based on solar access requirement of the European EN 17037:2018: 1) at least 80% of the total facades area must receive a minimum of 1.5 hours of direct solar access during March 21; 2) at least 80% among all the building facades must receive 50% of the solar access required by the standard (update 19/11/2020). A presentation of the standard is available from the section Materials.
View out – As stated by the new European daylight standard EN 17037:2018, view out, together with sunlight, is an important building performance that guarantee pleasantness and visual comfort of interiors. All the buildings of the selected district will have to guarantee a view out requirement based on the new European standard EN 17037:2018 (to be communicated). A presentation about the standard is available from the section Materials. It is required that at each façade of the new district has an average Sky Exposure (sky view) of minimum 20% (update 19/11/2020).
Urban comfort – For urban comfort
analysis will be used the metric Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI - www.utci.org). UTCI
express the perceived temperature of a pedestrian in a open area. The perceived
temperature is due to different climatic conditions as air temperature, solar
radiation, wind and humidity and takes into account the effect of built
environment in modifying local micro-climate through shadowing, reflected
radiation, own emitted temperature (surface temperature) and wind patterns
modification. The UTCI model takes into account as well a person clothing model and physiological model. A scientific paper presenting the UTCI model is available in the section Materials. The chosen public open area will be tested for comfort during
winter and summer. The results will give the indications to take into account
for the design of the area. The urban comfort maps generated through analysis
will indicate the comfortable open areas for sitting, walking and playing or
the less uncomfortable and dangerous for building entrances and pedestrian
paths.
Deliverables
The final presentation (exam) will be done by each team using 4 drawing boards (placard) of standard size A1 (594 mm width x 841 mm height). The number of 4 is mandatory and should not been exceeded. If necessary can be agreed with the lecturers to add 1 more drawing board. The content of each drawing board is standard and is the following:
1 - Diagrams for presentation of the project idea. Diagrams for presentation of the parametric design process for the generation of urban layout alternatives. Different urban layout alternatives used in performance studies.
2 - Sunlight and view out analysis on selected urban layout alternatives including data and charts that are used to compare performance.
3 - Planning design proposal of the selected urban layout among those that fulfill both sunlight and view out requirements. Architectural presentation using 3D views and general plan of the proposal (simplified asendiplaan).
4 - Urban comfort analysis result presentation for two period of the year of the selected open area design, with indication of the outcome that are used in the design. Presentation of the design of the open area using perspective/axonometric 3D views with callout and legends for localization of functions and features such as terraces, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, green areas and free time areas.
It is required to each group that
the 4 drawing boards of the project are sent by email to course lecturers
before the exam day in pdf format. The maximum file size for each A1 project
board in pdf format is 5Mb. Together with the A1 boards is requested to deliver
an A4 file in pdf format of all the project boards with a maximum file size of
1Mb.
Grades (updated 11.01.2021)
Project/group exam grades will be assigned in an objective way according to the method described hereinafter. However, a certain degree of subjective evaluation cannot be excluded. The course grades will go from 0 to 5 and will be the sum of partial grades given for the following sections:
1. Project idea and urban design quality – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates the quality of the project idea, the urban layout and its relation to the surrounding urban environment or to a specific urban design concept. It evaluates as well the relation of the urban design proposal with the project area and program. This section is relative to the material presented on the project posters 1.
2. Parametric model – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates how the project idea has been included in the parametric model and the efficiency of the parametric model to generate a number of different project variations. This section is relative to the material presented on the project boards 1.
3. Building performance simulations – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates to which extent the project meet the performance required of FAR, sunlight and view out (sky exposure) and the correctness in performing the performance simulation as presented in the course. This section is relative to the material presented on the project board 2 and 3.
4. Analysis results and requirements presentation – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates the analysis of the performance results for the selection of the final project urban layout, the correctness and completeness of the textual presentation of the performance requirements used in the course and the accuracy in the presentation of the simulation project diagram (3D views with false colors) using variation names/numbers, legends, title e.g. Sunlight Hour Simulation (or Analysis), abbreviations e.g. SEF for Sky Exposure Factor, and units e.g. %, h for hours. This section is relative to the material presented on the project posters 2 and 3.
5. Presentation – from 0 to 1. This section evaluates the quality and completeness of the whole presentation, through diagrams, drawings, charts and images of all the project posters. It evaluates as well the clarity of oral presentation with demonstration by students of the sufficient level of building performance knowledge acquired (relative to what presented in the course).
For the final grade will also be taken into account the quality of midterm presentations and participation in course. All the students of the same group will receive the same grade. Exceptions can be made for students of the same group with different level of participation in the course and showing different level of building performance knowledge relative to the aspects presented in the course.
Course Schedule
01 - 03.09 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Parametric design 1
02 - 10.09 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Parametric design 2
03 - 17.09 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Parametric urban layout design 1
04 - 24.09 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Parametric urban layout design 2
05 – 01.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15 (I L)
Formation of design teams - Design idea discussion
Students exercise on parametric urban layout design
06 – 08.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Parametric urban layout design 3
07 – 15.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15 (I L)
Parametric urban layout design discussion
Students exercise on parametric urban layout design
08 – 22.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Environmental analysis and design tools
Performance analysis – Solar access
09 – 29.10 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Performance analysis – Solar access compliance to daylight
standard
Teamwork on parametric and performative urban layout design for solar
access with tutoring
10 – 05.11 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Performance analysis – View out for daylight standard
Teamwork on parametric and performative urban layout design for
view out with tutoring
11 – 12.11 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Performance analysis of urban layout alternatives for solar access
and view out and results presentation
Teamwork on parametric and performative urban layout selection for
solar access and view out
12 – 19.11 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Midterm review
Selection of open area and design idea discussion
13 – 26.11 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Performance analysis – Urban comfort
Teamwork on urban comfort performance analysis with tutoring
14 – 03.12 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Lecture performance analysis and urban comfort results
presentation
Team work on open area design through urban comfort performance
analysis results with tutoring
15 – 10.12 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Performance analysis result presentation
Teamwork on performance analysis result presentation, urban layout
presentation and open area design presentation
16 – 17.12 Thursday 14:00-17:15
Final review
Materials
Through this sections materials
useful for the course are available. They are links to download files to be
used in the course, scientific work related to the design and simulation
software used, urban design and performance design examples, websites useful
for the course. Materials will be added during the course to this section.
>>>>> Link to Tallinn City repository (Ruumiandmed) where to download the source 3D model and dwg files.
>>>>> Scout. Parametric urban model for view, daylight, comfort and energy real time evaluation.
>>>>> Estonian daylight standard EVS
894:2008/A2:2015.
