Saturday, November 30, 2013

Another article about TB Studio

30 Nov '13: Pranali Shah, a graduate from our first vintage of MArch STB students has written an article for an Indian journal about studying in the UK, particularly about her experience with our Tall Buildings course.


Tutorials 28 Nov '13

28 Nov 2013: After last week's crit, we had a day of tutorials with just Phil and David, for the calm resolution of details. Great progress was made since last week, especially with the fifth year student group.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Article about the TB studio

29 Nov 2013: Here's a glimpse of an article about the graduate students from the Tall Building Studio in Nottingham. Arham Daodi, David Calder and Matt Humphreys have all spent time with Jason Pomeroy in Singapore.
The article appears in Exchange Issue 71, University of Nottingham, October 2013.

Exchange features the latest research and industry collaborations to news of staff and student achievements. In a recent issue, two emerging University of Nottingham alumni, Arham Daoudi and David Calder are, 'Raising standards for tall buildings'. Both graduated in 2011 and are now based in Singapore, working at Pomeroy Studio.
"Sustainability shouldn't be an afterthought; its part of the design process," Arham said. Being part of a small team of Trump Tower, Manila enabled him to learn a lot in a short time period.
Meanwhile, David is proud of his work on The Veil, an ambitious and technically challenging mixed-use development in central Kuala Lumpur. He comments, "Good design is driven by context, and we're particularly inspired by the history and heritage of the site."

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Case study Presentations

27 Nov '13: we are getting to the stage of term where the students start giving the lectures, and we had five 15-min presentations from students on Celosia (Madrid), Solaris (Singapore), Park Royal Pickering (Singapore), Sliced Porosity (Chengdu) and PS100 (Singapore)

Friday, November 22, 2013

Interim crit of 21 November

21 November 2013: We had our first interim design crit, and the main guests were Prof Edward Ng from Hong Kong and Cambridge, and Steve Fernandes from Arups. John Morgan from UoN also took part.


Khushboo and Harsh explain their multi-tower multi-sport complex in Singapore for Edward and DNC. We admire the amazing presentation, but felt that the project had grown too large with 14 different venues, scattered vertically. Having centre cores in the 4 towers would cause endless problems for the management and participants.


Sports tower complex from ground level


K and H's renderings are impressive!


Phil and John view James' tower for recycling electronic waste in Tianjin


John and Phil discuss Haniyyah's performing arts complex in Tianjin


James has been working on models for his recycling tower. We were concerned that by extending the industrial processes for the entire height of the tower excluded normal families from living in it - converting the residential element into workers' dormitories - we ask, can the need for recycling be extended to such height?


Edward discusses James's tower


Steve managed to see all 12 schemes with structural advice.


DNc and Edward are looking at Philip's pharmaceutical farming and residential tower


Steve is helping the Rotterdam ground, Siyi, Lucia and Shuo


Alfie is making ingenious use of Lego for exploring the possibilities for his Hutong-inspired residential tower. DNC is thinking of getting a large Lego set for next semester's ATB module - the ability to colour code element of the building and the variety of block sizes gives creative possibilities - although it encourages a rectilinearly dominated geometry


Phil is getting close up to the drawings of the Rotterdam group

Friday, November 15, 2013

TB Tutorial day with Paul Simovic 14.11.13



14 November 2013: Paul Simovic of the global architectural practice KPF (Kohn Pedersen Fox) spent the day with us for tutorials, one week before an interim crit stage. Here, Paul examines the design of Khushboo and Harsh (Sing-HK). There is an astonishing amount on the wall! It is a Sports centre, and as the ideas have deepened, the ground plane has acquired a full size football pitch. Can this become a multi use stadium with a cluster of tall buildings above?



Hemant and Sanjiv (Sing-SH) have a new model: four linked towers, and abolished the old podium



All the Masters groups have moved from models to drawings: it is a tough leap to make, but must be done. Even if plans are not right today, they will be better next week. There is a lot of detail planning in there!



Sing-ZCC have last week's models, and some drawings on drafting paper. Doesn't seem much more than a week ago, so they need a talking to!



As we look deeper into it, we can find ways to improve the core and plans of the Sing-ZCC project.



Paul draws out a schematic diagram of how the cores and floor plates could be organised for ZCC



Rotterdames have a new model and lots of drawings - every week, we see improvements on the original good idea



There is now a pair of linked vertical farms dominating the south facades (photo is from the north)



Haniyyah is planning a performing arts centre at Tianjin, and as the thought is planted, we work to make it more meaningful. It is difficult to imagine this when the Binhai area has no population, no traffic and no culture at this moment in time - but we have to take a very long term view.



Alex has a very interesting idea for a large vertical tube that flushes polluted city air through an electrostatic dust collector. The tall building accommodation is built around this.



Philip has a stepping back vertical farm for pharmaceutical plants, and we are urging him to make it bigger and more ambitious



Phil, Yuri and Michael Photiou are gathered round considering Guilia's idea for a stack of three schools, for all ages from primary to age 18.



After a long tutoring day, it's time to take Paul back to the station. Unusually, we did not encounter a single hold up on the way, and Paul was delivered to the station with record speed. It's been an excellent day for all concerned (two of the fifth year students were unable to attend).

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Visit to Ecohouses



13 Nov 2013: Despite an impending tutorial deadline, the Tall Building students took an hour out to have a good look around the Creative Energy Homes on the campus. Thanks to Tom Whiffen for showing us round.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Tutorials 8th November 2018


Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Singapore-ZCC

Singapore-ZCC

Singapore-ZCC

Singapore-SH

Singapore-SH

Singapore-SH

Singapore-SH

Singapore-HK

Singapore-HK

Singapore-HK

Singapore-HK

Singapore-HK


Friday, November 8, 2013

Tall Building progress 6-7 November



6 Nov 2013: Phil gives the HRI lecture on Tall Building organisation and cores



There is a lot of redesign taking place before the tutorials of 8 November



Harsh and Kushboo have a new model every week, sometimes twice a week



Singapore ZCC group now working well together



'Rotterdames' have made a major advance into more levels of detail with their scheme - the basics are right.



7 Nov: The Tianjin group have a day of tutorials - Philip N is working through a sequence of design ideas, using models. His idea is vertical farming, especially for high value pharmaceutical herbs and products.



Philip O is considering James' idea for a tower that includes facilities for E-recycling