deployable hospital interim

Panel 1

Panel 2

Panel 3

pneumatics: inflatable hospital first iteration

schematic inflatable structural diagram
potential site aerial view

schematic elevations

volumetric massing

inflatable structural types

spatial allocations bubble diagram plans

hospital equipment inventory

msr haiti deployable hospital precedent diagram

m*a*s*h precedent study diagram

reformelb: parametric urbanism

Melbourne’s CBD is largely dominated by highly internalised buildings, most of these are heavily reliant on mechanical systems for ventilation and artificial lighting. Reformelb is a scheme that aims to address this key issue, and at the same time create a network of connectivity between the existing CBD and the eminently disjointed district of Docklands. In line with the anticipated population increase of Melbourne 2030, housing densities are also addressed together with provision of high density commercial developments. This culminates as an urban system with variables such as private to urban space ratios, connectivity ratios and floor area ratios that can be parametrically controlled to provide flexibility in the resultant built forms.

bridging through programmatic volume definitions:

mono-functional buildings reduce the potential for optimal time based distributions of activity. for example, a single use commerical building would have extremely elevated levels of activity during office hours but subsequently becomes a massive void outside those hours. as such, allowing mixed use permutations within each building is key to the avoidance of creating time dependent voids. in addition, increased levels of elevation from the ground generates higher degrees of inter-parcel isolation. for this reason, public green spaces across multiple floors within each tower are bridged with those on similar levels in adjacent towers. this creates multi-level connectivity.

physical models - tower prototypes

bridge to bridge views

bridge ground perspective

tower bridge elevations

perforations through time based use definition

bridging green volumes with minimal surface lofts

programmatic massing within tower

reformelb: site renders

aerial render
elevations & section of a typical tower

site ground perspective

reformelb: tower morphology applied

to avoid the problems associated with highly internalised buildings, a grasshopper algorithm has been developed to define a series of variables that as a combined system determine the permeability and porosity of each building. the levels of permeability can then be balanced with required lettable floor areas to determine ratios between private, semi private and public space. altering these ratios then thus not only affect the phenomenological aspects of each space (eg. emotive affections based on lux levels or optimal ventilation) but also the economics of each building.

site plan with rentable vs public spatial ratios

type1 grasshopper algorithm onto tower

building inner circulation and curved slabs applied

tower morphology diagrams

podium grain size iterations

reformelb: generative tower massing

through delauney mathematics, a pseudo closest paths network can be generated from the newly formed parcels. subsequently, the numbers of paths within each parcel can then be tabulated with its area to provide a series of connectivity ratios. these ratios inform an expected level of activity within the parcels and thus affect their volumes and heights based on a specified range. the following addition of average existing floor area ratios within the cbd defines gross floor area values and building heights.

programmatic tower iterations through path ratio variation
programmatic massing towers on site

programmatic podium massings on site

tower generation diagrams

best fitting elipses within parcels form loft curves for towers

reformelb: 3D parcels revealed

the application of the voronoi definition and 4 point junctional attractor logic across the site creates an extremely dense connectivity network but compromises the sizes of building grains and parcel sizes. as such there is a need to minimize the paths network so as to agglomerate definitively smaller grains to larger ones. this has been achieved through the employment of a simple proximity script within the grasshopper application in rhino3d which identifies a specified number of closest nodes and reconnects them.

program distinctions through path ratios
parcels on site
surface curvature control for walkability
parcel height definition through gridded path ratios

the next stage was to translate 2D diagramming into 3D parcels. path intersection ratios across a grid placed on site were analyzed and translated into podium heights. subsequently the same ratios were used to define parcel programs.

reformelb: pathway plan diagramming

there has been much debate with regards to the application of voronoi geometry in architecture. however it should be noted that many of these manifestations apply the voronoi logic to superfical systems of facade or other structures of patterning and decoration.this should be highly avoided. on the contrary at an urban scale, the voronoi logic comes in extremely useful and functional because it identifies spatial definitions around a node or attractor that is closest to that node than any other. a simple voronoi definition can as such provide a foundational spatial basis for the applications of other parametric processes.

identifying parcels
pathway bundling through closest line identification
voronoi patterned pathway across site

re-identifying junctional attractors through voronoi network

basic voronoi network & junctional radii

this series of iterative plan pathway diagramming was generated through grasshopper definition specifying a basic voronoi network, subsequently interjected with algorithms to identify junctional attractors that assist in building the parth network to define resultant parcels.

reformelb: analyzing pedestrian densities

a series of pedestrian density analyses was carried out along la trobe and swanston streets to examine the key determining factors for drastic levels of activity flux along the former site. the deduction for swanston street’s success in maintaing high levels of street activity throughout peak and non-peak periods was its consistency in providing at least 4-5 attractors along each junction. this was in stark contrast to the site which had little junctional attractors and thus low levels of street diversity.

swanston street non-peak
swanston street peak
la trobe street non-peak
la trobe street peak

undergrad collection: barlow motors

la trobe street perspective & exploded axo

victoria street perspective & interiors

long section & elevations

cross section & elevations

museum interiors

lower floor plans

upper floor plans