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TRANSstructuresfluid architecture and liquid EngineeringResponse-able innovative structures

foreword by kengo kuma

matyas gutaI

T R A N Sstructures

fluid architecture and liquid EngineeringResponse-able innovative structures

foreword by kengo kuma

Graphic design by Liliana Rodrigues // Illustrations by Aris Kafantaris

Academic Editing by Zoheir Mottaki

matyas gutaI

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Trans StructuresFluid Architecture and Liquid Engineering.Response-able Innovative Structures

Author and editorMatyas Gutai

Published byActar Publishers New York, 2014

Graphic Designer Liliana Rodrigues

Illustrations Aris Kafantaris

Academic EditingZoheir Mottaki

ISBN 978-1-940291-44-4A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., USA.

Copyright© 2014 Actar Publishers© Text and Images by the authors

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written consent of the publishers, except in the context of reviews.

The editors have made every effort to contact and acknowledge copyright owners. If there are instances where proper credit is not given, the publisher will make necessary changes in subsequent editions.

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contents

part two74

part threepart one06On Trans-Structure

Towards Trans-Structure

Trans-Structures

TransitionInterrelationDual CycleMultifunctionEnergy

0820405064

Foreword04

EndnotesAcknowledgements

175176

Memu MeadowsWater BranchHygro Skin PavilionBIQ Building Hamburg

7694110132

Allwater PavilionTea Water Pavilion

152162

150

transi-tionstability of change

Busan Cinema Center, stage area © COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

Stability is a fundamental characteristic of building since the dawn of architecture practice and discourse, starting with the Vitruvian ‘firmitas’. Maintaining a relatively unchanged state of structure and indoor environment is essential and primary function of every building still today. Stability is not only an issue of material, construction or esthetic preference but also about indoor comfort and permanent thermal quality. These two aspects of construction and comfort may seem very different, yet the problem of unchanged state was always solved based on the same strategy in the past for both. The keyword was cumulative strength and passive resistance, achieved by additional materials. This assured stronger construction, and also higher resistance against external heating-cooling effects. The long history of this strategy might have led the misconception that strong is stable. These two aspects of stability are also connected by energy as a mutual value. Life Cycle Assessment refers to both operational demand and embedded energy for material provision and manufacture. Their union however also shows the limitations of current low energy building methods: more matter can lower operational energy demands, but since it causes the embedded energy to increase, the total impact for the whole life cycle remains high.

TRansition:stability of change

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on trans-structures

branchwater

Water blocks before assembly© Kengo Kuma and Associates

Water Branch is a unique project in which engineering and technology is united in one hybrid structure. The research took years until Kuma Laboratory built the first house for Gallery MA exhibition (project leader Mr. Nishikawa). Ms. Sasaki of Kengo Kuma and Associates worked with Mr. Miyazawa and Mr. Ohba one stage before that, when during the MOMA exhibition the project became a real structure. On May 30th, with my colleague Yuta Ito, we asked her about the project in KKAA Tokyo office.

Hybrid BuildingInterview with Ms. Tomoko Sasaki,Architect of Water Block project of Kengo Kuma and Associates

Tokyo, 30th May 2014

95

towards trans-structures

Exhibition at Gallery MA, Tokyo © Kengo Kuma and Associates

100

part two

SUMMER

WINTER

Section and energy diagram in summer and winter

109

towards trans-structures

all-water

P a v i l i o n

Allwater Pavilion

Cooling cycle (heat storage) in summer

159

trans-structures

Trans-Structure is an Emerging Design Paradigm that perceives the demands of sustainability as sources of inspiration rather than limitation. Embedded Responsiveness leads to new possibilities in design and construction: a building that is both light and heavy while being assembled with multifunctional elements, utilizing dual material loop of industry and nature. Trans-Structures redefine dogmas of architecture that we always thought of being more static and relatively unchangeable.

Architecture is allegedly based upon the misconception that strong is stable. Real stability comes with response-ability, when any ‘effect’ (structural or thermal) is counteracted with an immediate ‘affect’, a response of the structure. Energy and weight could be counteracted as well, so on the overall scale, change would not occur. A structure like that would be always in transition from one state to another in order to assure a microclimate that never changes at all.

Back in 2007, Trans-structure was conducted as a research at the University of Tokyo, initiated in Prof. Kazuhiko Namba laboratory and has been continued since then with Prof. Kengo Kuma. After 7 years, what we are facing is more than just a theory. The first realized structure ‘Water House Pavilion’, a hybrid building that uses water as building material, is introduced here for the first time, and interviews on similar projects are included namely with Takumi Saikawa and Tomoko Sasaki of Kengo Kuma Associates, Prof. Achim Menges at University of Stuttgart and Jan Wurm and Martin Pauli of ARUP.