HOMEOSTASIS: An Organism for Living

Project for the months of October-December of 2009.
A competition entry for a net-zero energy dormitory. You can read the official competition requirements and description here: Leading Edge Competition My entry is for Challenge 2. After being frustrated for a while and changing up the design a few times, I'm pretty happy with it.

Homeostasis: hō-mē-ō-stā-sәs The maintenance of relatively constant conditions within the internal environment. To maintain homeostasis, the organism must be kept in balance. The organism in this context is the building; to be in balance means that what comes into the building and what is produced by the building must equal the sum of what is used and what is eliminated. This concept applies to thermoregulation, waste management, electricity consumption, material resources and water management. My proposal for the dormitory is to create a building that maintains this balance. The building itself will not maintain the balance alone; the interaction of the residents will play an important and vital role in the maintenance of the systems and functions of the building. The residents will not only serve the building. The building will trade the services of its inhabitants for the education that they will gain by operating, managing and sustaining their home.

Part of the competition was to use real calculations and analyses to let environmental decisions influence and inform the design.

Evolution of Form
The original concept was a 3 story building with a north facing curtain wall to optimize daylighting. Using Ecotect’s comfort analysis tool, it was evident that the third floor rooms would require air conditioning. In the mild climate of Long Beach, a passive solution should be possible. Other strategies to minimize the need were first explored. The roof form was developed in order to maximize surface area for photovoltaics. This inefficient design needed that area and perhaps more, so the strategy was to reduce the demand.

Original Concept Building: Yes it is ugly





The first step in transforming this building was to eliminate the third floor. The loss of square footage required a major shift in layout. Bedrooms were moved from the north side of the building and clustered on the east. This meant that some bedrooms were now on the south facing side. While overall, the temperatures were more reasonable, aesthetically, the structure was unbalanced and straying from the driving concept of homeostatic balance. This configuration provided adequate roof area for photovoltaics, however minimal surplus power could be generated.





First Iteration




The final iteration of the form results in a building where inhabitants and inhabited work as one organism to maintain and operate its systems. The placement of the bedrooms along the north side of the building as in the first run help to maintain more constant temperature ranges throughout the year. This orientation allows for more natural light in each room as well. Staggering the rooms allowed for placement of pivoting windows at the cooling pond directly in line with the prevailing westerly winds. Radiant in floor heating supplied by the solar hot water collectors provides heat on the coldest days. The planted perimeter of the roofs becomes the primary treatment of rainwater and the slope of the roof drains this water into the cooling pond directly. High efficiency appliances and the elimination of mechanical air conditioning reduced demand by over 50% from the original concept. See Appendix A for electricity demands and production. High efficiency photovoltaic panels provide nearly 150% of the energy needs for the dormitory. The surplus can be sold back to the grid or used at the adjacent training facility.

Thermoregulation is the key component in the maintenance of occupant comfort. The mild climate of Long Beach seems to solicit systems which utilize the natural tendencies of the area. The regularity of offshore air currents are harnessed to help balance the heat of summer days. The abundant sunshine year round will provide heat on the few days that require it. An organism’s primary system for thermoregulation is its skin. This holds true for the dormitory as well. All exterior walls are 10 inches thick with 7 1/2 inches of closed cell soy-based foam insulation. Most windows are operable, pivoting windows that the residents will be in control of to allow or block airflow. At the north and west facades, an evaporative cooling pond supplied by rain and greywater will cool the prevailing winds before they enter the building. When closed, the dual double-paned argon-filled panels will help maintain the comfort level. Much as the cardiovascular system sends blood around the body, the solar heated water that flows through the radiant floor heating system will keep the occupants warm on the coldest nights. An integral part of the balance are the residents themselves; they must maintain and operate these vital systems.

Waste Management is another important function necessary for maintaining the balance. Living organisms process what they consume, getting the most out of their food while packaging the waste efficiently. This building has systems in place that do much of the same. A comprehensive recycling program is the first step. A composting system which consists of terraced worm bins that produce excellent material used in the backyard edible garden will handle organic waste produced from the kitchen. Greywater from showers and sinks will be treated in a tertiary treatment system that culminates in the cooling pond. Again, like the thermoregulation systems, the residents will need to play a role in the operation of these processes.

Power production and consumption is the third component of homeostasis. As animals, we take in fuel and convert this fuel to energy. The building will do the same. The fuel in this case is light from the sun. Long Beach gets almost 6 hours per day of sun strong enough for photovoltaic systems to generate power. A solar array of 130, 210w panels will provide all of the necessary electricity plus a surplus that can be sold back to the grid or used by the adjacent education center. The surplus will provide an estimated $1570 annually. Detailed information can be found in the accompanying data packet.

Material resources take the concept of balance beyond the site. The use of reclaimed wood for siding and flooring keeps the material from trees harvested over 100 years ago in use. These woods are sourced from a local yard in Temecula less than 80 miles away. Where the use of reclaimed wood is not viable, Forestry Stewardship Council certified wood is specified. The concrete used for the foundation and pond will be composed of fly-ash as the primary binder. This will effectively “sink” some the carbon produced by the coal fired power plants that dominate Southern California’s power sources. Decomposed granite pathways and patios will allow for the percolation of uncollected rainwater back into the aquifer while also minimizing the use of water intensive landscape materials. Plantings have been carefully chosen for the project to negate the need for permanent irrigation and provide an edible garden. Native California grasses such as Leymus Condensatus that require no water in this climate and can tolerate shade or sun while maintaining their color will be used. Citrus trees will be planted and maintained by the residents, providing fruit and shade.

All of these systems combined with the interaction of the residents form a complete and balanced home for the future workers. The building will help to educate the students that must operate the systems. The lower roof photovoltaics will provide a daily reminder of where their power comes from. The reflective cooling pond will teach them the importance of conserving and recycling Southern California’s limited water supply. The edible garden and compost bins will teach them how live in conjunction with the land and the resources it provides. The homeostatic balance between building, resident, site and earth will provide an example that the residents will take with them once they’ve completed the program and returned to their neighborhoods to make those places more balanced.


Project book and datasets available upon request.

Site Plan

Second Floor

First Floor

Section with Solar Penetration
Ventilation Diagram

Wall Section

"Lighthouses Are More Helpful Than Churches"

     So why is it then that churches get the great architecture?  Ben Franklin didn't give us an answer to his original question. It seems such a waste that some of the most magnificent edifices have been in homage to imaginary friends.  People have given everything to build these places for the egomaniacal foundations that wanted nothing but symbols of their own power, imposing upon the weak and poor.  

     Places of learning and places that have a real purpose - ie lighthouses - deserve better than those that only serve to take. 

Richard Meier's building at the Crystal Cathedral Compound pic taken by me 

     The Reverend Robert Schuller is one of those that used religion to build monuments to himself.  At the awards ceremony for this years AIAOC student design competition, the man gave a little lecture on the importance of architecture, all while wearing a giant gold necklace not unlike something 50 cent would wear.  I couldn't help but think of how many people that gaudy thing could feed or clothe or shelter.  And the necklace was just a drop in the bucket for the multi-millionaire.  His buildings - masterpieces by Phillip Johnson, Richard Neutra and Richard Meier - could have cared for even more.  But this man, like every other megachurch egotist, needed something to show off.  

Richard Meier's building at the Crystal Cathedral Compound pic taken by me

     I picked on Schuller here, but he's not alone, he's not the first and he won't be the last to use religion to build great buildings of little purpose on the backs of the weak. 

Some lighthouses do have nice lines: 

oi on flickr Knarraros Lighthouse

Contemporary Venerability

We have been practicing architecture since we first walked out of the caves and until recently, people built sustainably. Not because they were concerned with man's effects on the planet, but out of necessity. Local materials were all that was available, scarce resources were conserved, etc. People have inhabited virtually all corners of the earth and because of this many different ways to deal with the climates and resources came about.

Then came the industrial revolution and many of lessons learned over the past tens of thousands of years were forgotten by most. We fell in love with drywall, stucco and air conditioners. These things made it easy to build the wasteland that is sprawling across much of the industrialized world. These things have contributed to climate change more than anything else we've done.

Today's post here is intended to remind us of some of the ways we were able to manage before we stopped thinking. This is not a comprehensive compendium by any means, but it hopefully makes some of us start to think again.

The house above was imagined by Terunobu Fujimori, architectural historian and architect. The charred cedar siding is an ancient Japanese method of protecting the wood. Craftsmen burn the cedar for 7 minutes before dousing with water. This creates a layer of charring that resists insects and rot. It also helps to prevent fire; burnt wood doesn't burn again. It also looks pretty cool with that silver-black sheen. Beats stucco if you ask me.
Most of us have grown accustomed to air conditioning and for good reason sometimes, but our current method of cooling is quite wasteful and has led to some very unimaginative behavior in the practice of designing the built environment. I know that many think that people used to just suffer through the heat before the magical AC unit came into existence, but the examples below tell a different story.
The picture above is of a cabin on the boat Cheops. Ancient Egyptian boat Cheops. The ribs over the cabin would have been covered with a wet canvas thousands of years ago. This is a simple and easy way to use the effects of evaporative cooling. We still use evaporative cooling today, but we tend to mechanize the process instead of finding a simple passive way of doing so.

These towers here are examples of Persian wind catchers. They bring cooler air from outside in while allowing warmer air to escape. Used to keep buildings cool in the middle east for centuries, these towers and variants like solar chimneys and evaporative cooling towers can work almost anywhere in the world where AC is needed. In a place like Southern California where we have such a mild climate, systems like these could eliminate the need for mechanical devices.


The image above is of one of the first examples of a rammed earth building in the world. It is in the Gansu province of China and was built over 2000 years ago. Rammed earth is one of the most sustainable methods of building; the material(dirt) is readily available, unlimited and is found in every climate and region on the planet. It's also quite durable (I'd like to see what an Irvine home looks like in 2000 years). This method also is incredibly insulating, keeping the interior cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The example below is a rammed earth house built in BC by Terra Firma builders.
Building the future is going to require looking to the past.

photos:
galchonok on Flickr; wikipedia; lighthousesbc

Glass Light and Warmth

Came across this house on MoCoLoco. My first thought was that this was a great vacation house somewhere along California's Central Coast, but I was wrong (it does happen quite often). What I wanted to know was how the architects - Simon Winstandley Architects - keep this place warm with all that glass. Light is obviously not a problem, and is certainly used for direct gain, but this is in Scotland. And Scotland gets cold.


This is from their page on the home:
- The external walls, floor and roof are insulated to a high standard and air infiltration is minimised.
- Triple glazed windows with warm edge spacer bars, thermally broken frames and inert gas filled to achieve a whole window u-value of 0.7W/m2K.
- Heat pump using a borehole as the ground source for the underfloor heating and hot water system with a closed combustion woodburning stove as back up.
- Whole house heat recovery ventilation system.


These systems don't take any crazy futuristic technology, just some common sense.


Why don't we do this here more? For those that will complain that a ground source heat pump costs more than AC and a furnace, you're wrong. Initially, yeah, it'll cost a bit more, maybe double, depending on the drilling, but it pays for itself in 5 years and lasts for 50 before you need to replace a fan.

If this was incorporated into a dense development, the initial costs go way down per unit. Shared cost of drilling, using buried cooling/heating tubes under areas of fill. Seems like a sensible alternative to the status quo.


To answer the question of "Why don't we do this here more?" - I won't list them, but if you've ever seen a new development in Irvine or Riverside, those responsible for that nightmare are to blame. Maybe I'll go into more detail on what is wrong with them some day, but for now, just check out Simon Winstandley Architects

Grand Opening

Hi, you've found my new blog. I created this blog to showcase and at times, evaluate progressive architecture. Occasionally I'll post up some of my projects, but that's not really the main focus of this blog. I know what some of you may be thinking, "We don't need any more fucking architecture blogs", and you're probably right. I will post up links to other blogs, so this place will be a collection of what I find interesting. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't. I don't really care either way.

Here's something to look at:

Newport Beach prefab:
via Inhabitat

I put this one here first because it's close to my house and I've heard the opinions from some of the neighbors. Alot of them don't like it. Some think prefab equals mobile home, some think modern equals cold and unfriendly, most are super conservative, old rich people that fear change. To them I say, fuck you, you won't be here for much longer anyway, so why should we care about your opinion on the future.