Auxiliary Architectures: Augmenting Existing ... - Wiley Online Library

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Studio (SCL) and Extended Threshold Studio. ... corresponding systems in Japan and elsewhere that ... Here the membrane system is implemented on a scale.
The current speed of growth of the built environment is staggering and the existing global building stock immense. In this context one may wonder what to do with all the existing architectures that are ill equipped to provide reasonably habitable interior or exterior spaces for a broad range of uses. Clearly the swift replacement of entire architectures on a large scale is not feasible. Other options include extensive building adaptation or the implementation of compensatory technology, yet both are costly and often not sustainable. Today’s preferred option is the technological modulation of interior and sometimes exterior climate conditions by way of heating, cooling, air-conditioning and so on. Yet, the question is whether architectures can do so without added mechanical-electrical equipment?

For the existing built environment there is another option: supplementing it with auxiliary architectures within, around and between existing architectures. These can be designed in close consideration of their interaction with the local physical environment. Needless to say, this approach is not new. There are, for instance, numerous historical examples of textile membranes as shading and sheltering devices, such as the sun sails used in the Mediterranean, the Spanish toldos, and corresponding systems in Japan and elsewhere that are used homogeneously to shade the street space between or adjacent to buildings.1 If, however, a more differentiated modulation of light, ventilation and shelter is required, there are only a few examples at hand.

OCEAN Design Research Association and Izmir University of Economics, Luminous Veil, Izmir, Turkey, 2009 opposite bottom left: The textile screen wall enhances the light conditions in the dark space during the early evening hours.

Michael Hensel

Augmenting Existing Architectures with Performative Capacities

Auxiliary Architectures

Auxiliary architectures are a feature of many local building traditions across the world. Sited adjacent to existing structures, they are most often built as a means of tempering the climate, frequently offering additional shade in the summer months. Here Guest-Editor Michael Hensel proposes the development of auxiliary architectures as a solution to retrofitting and readapting existing building stock as climate conditions globally become increasingly unpredictable. He showcases the research that he has undertaken in the field in collaboration with the OCEAN Design Research Association, Scarcity and Creativity Studio (SCL) and Extended Threshold Studio.

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OCEAN Design Research Association, M-Velope, New York City, 2008– top left (both) and bottom right: Exploded axonometric showing the different constituent subsystems and parts of the spatial membrane screen wall, and analysis of views from and to the gallery space and the transitional space relative to different curatorial requirements. top right: Renderings of the M-Velope project in context.

Members of the OCEAN Design Research Association have been designing and analysing differentiated textile membrane systems since the early 2000s.2 This includes on the one hand the design and implementation of such systems to establish production and assembly procedures, while on the other obtaining empirical data pertaining to the performance of the systems and therefore the provisions afforded by them. It includes the development of design methods that utilise local data in the process of articulating textile auxiliary architectures. These research-by-design efforts take place predominantly in integrated research and educational contexts such as the Advanced Computational Design Laboratory and the Scarcity and Creativity Studio at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.

The Luminous Veil project was designed and implemented in 2009 by OCEAN with architecture students at the Izmir University of Economics in Turkey. Here the membrane system is implemented on a scale and range of provisions akin to screen walls. The use of a form-found tension-active membrane system in conjunction with a cable net spatially articulates the screen with the array of geometrically individually articulated and rotated textile membranes constituting a deep structure. The Luminous Veil is installed in a corridor that needs shading and glare protection during the early hours of the day while at the same time not resulting in a dark space, and illumination during the later hours of the day. This design experiment illustrates how an auxiliary architecture can be implemented within an existing building.

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In a similar manner, OCEAN’s unbuilt scheme for the M-Velope project in New York, designed in 2008, consists of an exterior textile and steel-mesh screen wall. Designed for an adjacent gallery, the membrane screen together with the glassed climate envelope result in a semi-sheltered transitional or interstitial space. The membrane screen wall provides nuanced modulation of views, light, shading, glare control, solar heat gains and ventilation. The combination of steel frame, mesh and textile elements makes it possible to change and adapt the membrane screen according to requirements pertaining to exhibitions in the gallery and seasonal climate change and related changes in the pattern of use of the street space. Auxiliary architectures need not always be applied to already existing architectures; they can also be co-developed alongside new architectural design to

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expand the range of associated provisions. Examples include projects designed and built by the Scarcity and Creativity Studio (see pp 48–57) such as the Las Piedras del Cielo (2012) in the Open City in Ritoque, and the Community Centre in Pumanque (2014), both in Chile. Alternatively, auxiliary architectures may be designed without associated architecture as an individual provision, such as OCEAN’s Membrella Canopy (2008). The development of designs such as these benefits from physical form-finding experiments as well as data-driven computational processes. Directed by OCEAN members, the Extended Threshold Studio and the Advanced Computational Design Studio at the Oslo School of Architecture, for example, focus on the design of auxiliary architecture for neglected urban public spaces and developing design methods

Scarcity and Creativity Studio (SCL), Las Piedras del Cielo, Open City, Ritoque, Chile, 2012 top left: Analysis of the impact of the frequently severe Pacific coastal winds that cause on average more damage at the coast in Chile than earthquakes. bottom: The project in the context of the Pacific coastal dune landscape of the Open City. OCEAN Design Research Association, Membrella Canopy deployable prototype, 2008 top right (both): Visualisation of light modulation and shading pattern.

top: Analysis of light conditions on the membrane and the ground. Extended Threshold Studio, Vika Membrane Canopy, Oslo, 2012 centre left: Rendering of the complex membrane canopy for a neglected urban public space, providing shelter for various outdoor activities during all seasons. centre right: Augmented reality visualisation of the membrane canopy and time-specific shading pattern. bottom: Elevation of the membrane canopy.

and tools for this purpose. This frequently involves integrating physical form-finding methods and computational associative modelling with local weather data input based on custom-made weather stations, and the deployment of artificial and virtual reality (AR/VR) visualisation tools to make the interaction between architectures and environment tangible for architects.

packages that operate on averages. Locally specific real-time data sets are thus deployed to facilitate a much more nuanced understanding of the conditions that precede the design to enable detailed analysis prior to implementation, as well as post-occupation analysis in which the use of sensor networks, not unlike the network of weather stations, is becoming more common.3

Research-by-design work in the studios concentrates on utilising different kinds of data to facilitate iterations between design and analysis. This includes the collection of locally specific weather data by way of the custom-made weather stations that directly feed data into computational models. This approach takes care of local climate variations and peak conditions that occur in specific sites that are not usually addressed by off-the-shelf software

The types of work discussed above extend the scope and inquiry from concept and design development and analysis to questions of workflow, workspace, tools and techniques, and the way architectural practice will need to be rethought in order to acquire the capacity for cutting-edge, performance-oriented design for the new and potentially vast market segment of auxiliary architectures.4 1

Notes 1. See for instance Georgina Krause-Valdinos (ed), Schattenzelte: Sun and Shade – Toldos, Vela, IL Vol 30, Institute for Lightweight Structures (Stuttgart), 1984. 2. See for instance Michael U Hensel and Achim Menges, ‘Membrane Spaces’, in Michael U Hensel and Achim Menges (eds), 3 Versatility and Vicissitude: Performance in Morpho-Ecological Design, March/April (no 2), 2008, pp 74–9, and Michael U Hensel and Defne Sungurog ˘lu Hensel, ‘Extended Thresholds III: Auxiliary Architectures’, in Hülya Erta , Michael U Hensel and Defne Sungurog ˘lu Hensel (eds), 3 Turkey: At the Threshold,

January/February (no 1), 2010, pp 76–83. 3. In industrial agriculture the use of sensor networks is today quite common and architects can learn a lot from the way they are deployed in this context, in particular when architectures are intended to underpin ecology and biodiversity conservation efforts. 4. The topic of auxiliary architectures and some of the projects introduced above are discussed in greater detail in Michael U Hensel’s 3 Primer Performance-Oriented Architecture: Rethinking Architectural Design and the Built Environment, John Wiley & Sons Ltd (Chichester), 2013.

Text © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Images: pp 117(t&c), 118(tr), 119(tl) © OCEAN Design Research Association; p 117(b) © OCEAN Design Research Association, photos Melih Uçar; p 118 (tl&b) © Scarcity and Creativity Studio; p 119(c&b) © The Extended Threshold Studio

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