Elevation Looking North (faces the housing to the South):


Looking South at the City:

Typical Housing Floor Plan (furn. under design...)

Aerial view One:
Before



After

Allowing the sun into the building core from 8am to 4pm brings light and air to each unit.

Sun angles for integration into the design.

It has come to my realization that I should step back and "enter the front door" when presenting my proposal for this site in Castellammare. Below are two Key foci me that i am testing in my thesis.

I. Culture

A. Ritual- Language
B. Place - Climate
C. People- Reason for being (Raison D’ Etre)
D. Time- History

II. Experience

A. Design
i. Personal Experience
1. Italy Trips
2. Construction
3. Studio Competition/ Collaboration: failures and successes
4. Daily Routine/Lifestyle
ii. Knowledge based
1. Investigating how to educate yourself
a. Site analysis
b. Drawing
c. Photo
d. Video
e. Talking to locals
f. Observing
g. Mimicking:
i. Walking the walk (psychology?)
ii. Talking the talk (sociology)

III. Why keep Existing Structure?

A. Historical Integrity- Iconic Value
i. Through design we can effect the usefulness of an iconic site
B. The most sustainable building already stands.

IV. Why This Site?

A. Case Study (experience & culture)
i. Specific conditions: lacks experience & culture; opportunity to explore experience & culture.
B. Outside the U.S.
i. Interest in understanding the metric system
ii. Interest in unfamiliar culture
1. Including language barriers
2. Acute to other ways of learning
C. Familiarity
i. Past trips to same location

V. Objective for site?

A. Proposition: strength the connection of the site to the city
i. Builiding needs to physically sustain itself
ii. Requires city to survive
1. As opposed to grain, the ‘reason for being on the site’ must be people
2. Because people are necessary to bring place (site) into the existing and evolving culture.

I. Concepts for exploration.


A. Geometry

1. Method of Parameter Adjustment
a. Using the site as basis of parameters, integrate this base with the new use
parameters.
b. Test new parameters with function and buildability.
2. Part/ Whole
a. Develop and explore relationships of the detail part to the unit to the cluster to the complex to the site, and finally to the coastline.

B. Culture

1. Integrate current cultural activities and events within the renewal of the site.
a. Allow for private fishing from the docks.
b. Legitimize the selling of seafood at private residences.
c. Promote the connection to other main public events along the coastline.
2. Promote the new reason for being for the silo complex.
a. Establish new cafés for outdoor entertainment.
b. Renew the ground floor of the site to be pedestrian orientated.
c. Enrich the passageway for local walking up and down the waterfront.

C. Sustainability

1. Efficient and economical reuse of the silo complex
a. Explore reuse of the steel tubing in the silos
b. Develop placement of the concrete rubble from adapting to housing.
c. Explore passive systems to incorporate in the heating and cooling of the building.
d . Explore the desalination system.
e. Establish a rain collection system to integrate with the desalination, sewage, and
water systems.
2. Urbanism/ Urban Design
a. Explore the original reason for being versus the new one.
b. Develop the waterfront edge as a pedestrian friendly environment.
c. Develop the south edge of the site as a transition to the city and a front to the main
street.

II. Goals: Areas for development


A. Finish the passeggiare and connect it to the city behind the site.

1. Continue the current waterfront to and around the silo site.
2. Engage the Fontana Grande behind the site.
a. Use the wall behind the site as a threshold into the marketplace instead of a barrier.
3. Establish an outdoor café area for social gatherings and events on the west side of the silos.

B. Reuse the Silo Relic as a housing/desalination complex

1. Develop housing units on multiple floors.
2. Integrate desalination tanks for both silo clusters on the waterfront in between the housing units.
3. Use the top floor of the silos to create a civic open lawn.
4. Incorporate passive heating and cooling vents on the roof.
5. Develop structural analysis for the silos.
6. Develop a skin system for both the housing and the desalination areas.

C. Create an open-air market on the first two floors of the silos including the pier.

1. Remove the flooring between the first two floors to create an open-air market for both fisherman and other goods to be bought and sold.
2. Reuse the crane on the pier for hoisting the seafood from boats below.
3. Use the pier as an extension of the market over the water for artists to sell their wears (live/work environment) and for the tourist ferries to dock.

The information below is from a link: Renault. It shows a shift already taking place in high tech areas: Car companies.

The Renault eco² vehicles

Environment within reach

Renault is committed to proposing a range of environmental and affordable vehicles.

A Renault eco² vehicle meets three criteria:

it has CO2 emissions under 140 g/km or runs on biofuel,
it is manufactured at an ISO 14001-certified site,
it is 95% recoverable at end of life and contains at least 5% recovered plastic (of total plastic mass).

An environmental commitment

Renault is taking yet another step forward with the launch of Renault eco² signature in Europe, by publicly announcing its commitment to environmental and economical vehicles.

• Environmental because results can be measured throughout the vehicle’s life cycle,
• Economical because the vehicles consume very little fuel but also because they bring customers affordable technology that in some cases offers tax advantages.

After walking up the coastline to Torre Annunziata I found out that there is a new shipyard for private boats to be safely stored; something to take into consideration for the renewing of the coastline.

During my research i found out that there was also a storage facility for salt next to the grain silos on the east side. The below picture shows the empty haul lined with oak planks and port holes in the top for filling.

Some thing that I of interest after discussing the silos with both locals and professors is the cutting through the concrete which is confirmed to be 15.24cm thick with re-bar reinforcing. Two ideas that have been recently discussed is actually using the inside for housing versus using the silo solely for its structural support as a column and building on the outside or around it. In the area surrounding Castellammare i have found other silo sites: some also closed down and some active. I have documented them each with the history told to me by the locals and the dimensional information as well. Below is a picture of the steel tubing used to pour the grain out of the silo and channel to the truck below for distribution throughout the regions of Italy.

There seems to be several layers to the boardwalk allowing several activities to occur simultaneously:

Beginning of the 3rd trip to the Site:

first design meeting wall

After reading an article about Biomimicry, I drew this diagram of my site and how nature side-by-side with technology might interject the manipulation of the industrial ruin in Castellammare, using the example towards the ended of the reading. If this is to be a multi-use establishment, as is the current course, and with sustainability being a primary principle then, according to this article, not only does nature need to be studied but the culture does to, as is the intention.
As was mentioned previously in a lecture by Richard Sennett, concrete is a very non-sustainable material due to the high level of energy require to produce it. However, once it is finished, as is the current state of the industrial concrete ruin in Castellammare, adaptive reuse of such "a waste of energy" seems to be a logical step. To counterbalance the material, or to effectively get closer to having a "zero environmental impact building," other more locally resourceful materials can be used and integrated to help support the notion that the building is an educational tool for learning.

Programmatic thoughts:
Most elitist juxtaposed against the conventional, activities and functions on site.

crew, personal boating: make, test, race, exist
geothermal plant
bio fuels
solar plant
solar energy
switch grass
tofu
fermentation tanks
solar panels-dock, warf
power plant in center of city
museum of city (as a resultant)
housing and bio-fuel "side by side"
self surviving eco system, self supporting but requiring the engagement of the city
clean technologies--> connect to city (2/3 brewery like, 1/3 gas station like)
ground level as porous civic engagement, museum etc.
geothermal vats above with pipes extending to earth below
corb.--interested in industrial aesthetic, not just that but now also about the industry
industry and architecture are co-spatial
power plant in the middle of a city "doesn't happen"

Cultural influence on a building (see comments)

Current ideas about visual literacy. (see comments)

visual literacy for castellammare di stabia:
-it seems as though there is a greater issue at hand in the the southern part of the gulf of Napoli.
a. the water is forgotten (people can not engage the water as much as once was possible.
b. visual literacy is also an issue (the understanding of society in this area and the surrounding is diminishing.)
c. not many are aware of it (there is a program RAS in the area of Castellammare which is trying to accomplish some of the issues at hand and restore and promote the history of the Villas along the coast above the city. )

-Perhaps there is more to do here then anyone thesis can accomplish. But it can be the start, or continuation of an already ongoing transformation in the city and above on the hillside.

The immediate context allows for both the use of an abandoned site that seems to be a key player in the change to the city. The vast array of visual resources that are currently underused in the area also becomes applicable to this thesis.

Eric Owen Moss understands the Ise Shrine in Japan similar to the way the silo complex is : "The temple 'is fixed, constant, unmoving and eternal; at the same time it is in flux, ephemeral, changing and limited.'"

Some primliminary shots of the site:

the start of reusing the site

This discussion with Katie Wallace lead to a re-understanding of the iconic adaptive reuse:

Architecture: Built, Thing, for People

If one is to reuse an existing iconic relic and reuse it 'for people', it needs to be about just that, for people. Just as grain was once transported from the boats-->pier-->silos, with both quantifiable and unquantifiable attributes, then 'people' need to be perceived as with the same results. People now become both observing and observed.
Ex.
How does that grain (people) get up there?
So, the grain (people) move through the pier into the bridge?

new working title?

Me: preserving iconic architecture; use parametric modeling to allow certain restrictions but allow for more freedom and possiblities in adapting relic architecture to current uses without losing its cultural reason for being.

Carl: define iconic

Me: Iconic- root is icon; having some sort of symbolism for a group/ culture

Carl: Symbol doen'ts equal Icon?

Me: Icon- has a spiritual component or one of rememberance; memory; as a constant reminder of a function, act, dream fullfilled; some attribute that has become extraordinary or unquantifyable, that has through the icon become quantifyable.

Carl: Icon- is a special kind of symbol. An icon has special meaning in that it is funtional

Parameterizing as a mode of design process allows for less restrictive opportunities by giving certain rules.

Building is Parameter
Parameter is Architecture
Architecture is Building

This site is fruitful in both literal and unquantifiable parameters; a brown field to be use for the investigation of parameters.

Discussion with Carl Lostritto led to another potential 'why': quantifing parameters that are currently unquantifiable; two lists:

List of unquantifiable parameters (perception):
site
express(siveness)

-notions of expressiveness
likelihood
probability
expectation
anticipation
eagerness
suspense
transcendence
extraordinariness
reminiscence
resemblance
traceability (notions list from Kostas Terzidis: Expressive Form)

interaction
memory

List of current quantifiable parameters (architecture):
site space
workshop space
exhibition space
office space

According to Kostas Terzidis, "Expressive form is the result of a synergy between the creator and the viewer, for without one another 'expressive' or 'form' cannot exist."

The program of this shipbuilding school will in effect be part of the influence of the design for the grain silo complex. Here much like the "Museum of the Sea" in Genoa, the shipbuilding school will be a specialized trade school with areas of exhibition; the long pier extending past the waterfront edge.

Snohetta also has a similiar idea about connecting to the water with a pier at the Karmoy, Norway fishing museum. This pier is more like a telescope on land that focuses on the water beyond. (Photo courtesy of Snohetta.com)

Below is the Table of Contents from:
Ship construction / D.J. Eyres.

This starts to inform the quantifiable program elements of the building.

Preface                                                vii
Acknowledgments                                         ix
PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO SHIPBUILDING
Chapter 1 Basic Design of the Ship                       3
Chapter 2 Ship Dimensions, Form, Size or Category       10
Chapter 3 Development of Ship Types                     15
PART 2 MATERIALS AND STRENGTH OF SHIPS
Chapter 4 Classification Societies                      35
Chapter 5 Steels                                        42
Chapter 6 Aluminium Alloy                               50
Chapter 7 Testing of Materials                          55
Chapter 8 Stresses to which a Ship is Subject           60
PART 3 WELDING AND CUTTING
Chapter 9 Welding and Cutting Processes in Shipbuilding 75
Chapter 10 Welding Practice and Testing Welds           97
PART 4 SHIPYARD PRACTICE
Chapter 11 Shipyard Layout                             111
Chapter 12 Ship Drawing Office, Loftwork and CAD/CAM   115
Chapter 13 Plate and Section Preparation and Machining 124
Chapter 14 Prefabrication                              136
Chapter 15 Launching                                   147
PART 5 SHIP STRUCTURE
Chapter 16 Bottom Structure                            161
Chapter 17 Shell Plating and Framing                   174
Chapter 18 Bulkheads and Pillars                       191
Chapter 19 Decks, Hatches, and Superstructures         209
Chapter 20 Fore End Structure                          226
Chapter 21 Aft End Structure                           234
Chapter 22 Tanker Construction                         251
Chapter 23 Liquefied Gas Carriers                      264
PART 6 OUTFIT
Chapter 24 Lifting Arrangements                        277
Chapter 25 Cargo Access, Handling, and Restraint       290
Chapter 26 Pumping and Piping Arrangements             298
Chapter 27 Corrosion Control and Anti-fouling Systems  309
Chapter 28 Ventilation, Refrigeration, and Insulation  326
PART 7 INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS
Chapter 29 International Maritime Organization         335
Chapter 30 Tonnage                                     339
Chapter 31 Load Line Rules                             343
Chapter 32 Structural Fire Protection                  352

Using Diamond Ranch High School by Morphosis to use as a guide in terms of:

computer model that is of the topography of the site, folded like origami for the elements of the spaces inside and in between.
a similar idea about integrating the school in its site
"'the site does not want a building on it', and that the ideal image would be that of a parent leaving a child in a beautiful prk, a natural setting, rather that in a built structure."-Thom Mayne

This school also uses tubes for classrooms, movement, connection.

What, Why
The shipyard nearby would benefit from a shipbuilding school that would be housed in the grain silo complex.

How:
The tube will be used much like the hull of a ship:

Why, What:
to house the exhibitions
stockpile the goods and services
shelter the crew (students)
allow for views and varying perceptions inside and out, to the surrounding industry and public

How:
investigate the parameters of the concrete modular structure to adapt to the new use

What:
The silo complex will connect the water to the interstitial space to the city.

How:
The Pier projecting out onto the water will become a two way system that extents into the city to be use as a connector element

What, Why:
The surrounding parts of the complex will be used for both the shipbuilding school and further expanding the boardwalk park

This wall both encloses and separates the site from the city.
-->the wall as a threshold for porousity instead of a divider.

shots of current parameters

view looking at silo/ pier

view of silo context



















view looking back at silos


















view of transitional part of pier



















view inside the pier (part A)



















view inside the pier (part B)





























view of pier construction

view of entrance to waterfront

working abstract


Model as Parameter (Overarching Idea)

Site is used as form determinant in a multi-faceted exploration of parametric modeling. In parametric modeling, parameters are given to define characteristics of systems or functions. Relationships between parameters in the entire model are tracked, in order to allow for change among variables*. This thesis plays with geometric transformations and manipulations, to explore the movement in space of the building occupant, in the current site along the coast of Castellammare near the main shipyard.

Culture as Site (Cultural Risk)

Castellammare di Stabia has always had industrial roots: shipbuilding and repairing, grain transportation, naval base. The city is currently under repair with public works, the Fontana Grande (public fountain), or the Stabiae Terme (public spa). This thesis takes advantage of the current under goings reconnects the city with its place of being. The current site where the old grain silos stand is under investigation as a potential link between the current downtown and the public industry region. The industrial part of town is focused on the use of water bottling, drinking, transportation, bathing, cooking, cleaning, preserving, heating/ cooling, leveling, importing/ exporting, healing, entertaining. This thesis also uses water as a generator for site investigation.

Program as Emergent Result (Architectural Risk)

Contextual use relationships effect the transformation of the coastline in Castellamare di Stabia. By promoting unity and porosity simultaneously, this thesis uses the current industrial events in and around the shipyard to respond to the fragments of the city.



* Parametric feature based modeling uses change states to maintain information about building the model and use expressions to constrain associations between the geometric entities. This ability allows a user make a modification at any state and to regenerate the model's boundary representation based on those changes. This ability is called a transmigration operation.

working table of contents

Preface

A project fulfills a goal(s) by understanding the question, successfully.

Intro (Foci of a thesis, interests, priorities)
The chapter introduces different possible foci on a thesis project in architecture. The values structure or priority placed on each of the areas in important to understand and decide when undergoing a thesis. The interests of an individual have direct correlation to what aspect of the thesis is the generator for the analysis/design/ process.

Site Selection/ Analysis
In this thesis the Site selection becomes important on the basis that architecture needs to be experienced. Visiting the location of a thesis is just as important as the design development of a project through physical and digital modeling/ drawing.

Cultural Integration
Since this thesis, just as all others, is set in a context, this context is integral to the constant understanding of a site manipulation.

Using Metaphors/ Vehicles/ Operations
By using an operator as a device for constructing the further unifying the development of project, the projects correlation to other events/ actions is possible.


“An answer” versus “the solution”
In architecture, an architect/ designer come up with the “so what” of a project. Understanding that this is a mere interpretation and not the only resolution, is crucial.

Astethics/ Politics/ Media/ Language
Each of this is a chapter on there own, but in this thesis these topics play a role too. The integration and stance on each of the topics determines various outcome of a project.

view looking north along pier