Forest Architecture: Part 1
As urban areas are expanding, more and more land is being developed which is a problem as eventually we will run out of empty land. This means that we as humans will have to come up with new areas to build. Some will look to the stars and others will look to the oceans, but my concern is that we will look to our forests long before then. Currently, the only way to build in a forest is to find a clearing or remove all the trees from an area to build. The former is not always possible and the latter can be a problem as cutting down all the trees--or clear cutting--is harmful to both the beauty of the area and air quality. This seems to be becoming a more and more likely solution though, since populations are increasing and new buildings are made to accommodate. I want to stay ahead of this and start planning early. So my project is focused around how to build a building in a forest without first clear cutting the land. I would prefer not to cut down any of the trees, but that might not end up being possible. The goal of the project is to find out what is possible when forest-designing, how to repeat it, and if there is any possibility of creating an urban community that is sustainable to the forest.
My first priority was choosing a forest site that I would later make into a model. I decided to use a forest in Missouri because the state is centrally located and has a variety of features which will, in theory, make it easier to adjust the building methods for other states without being too close to an extreme. For example, Missouri experiences all four seasons pretty equally, has both hills and flat land, and can be flooded or have droughts. So if I were then to make another forest building in another state, I would only have minor tweaks; whereas if I originally designed in a forest in Texas, then tried to use the same methods in Seattle, Washington, I would run into major differences in temperature and precipitation.
Next, after choosing the state, I had to actually pick the site. I decided on a piece of land in southern Missouri, just on the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest. The section of land was 20 acres—which I would have to adjust according to the size of the building—and in an all oak tree forest.
Then I had to select a building type; I decided on a high school that would be focused on gifted and talented students. Gifted and talented or G/T is a type of educational diagnosis for “a child or youth… that exhibits high-performance capability in an intellectual, creative or artistic area; possesses an unusual capacity for leadership; or excels in a specific academic field.” Many schools across the U.S. have a G/T program, but it is often more geared for elementary and maybe middle school students; once in high school, most of those programs become just a title or nonexistent altogether. That being said, a completely G/T high school is not unheard of, just rare; regardless, it made sense for me to design a gifted and talented high school.
For the size of the school, at most I would be designing it for a total of 200 students; this means that the school should at most be around 20,000 square feet. I went ahead and marked off 4 acres of the original 20 acres site though since I would have to adjust the position of the school on the site for different design methods and concepts.
|
Trees on 20 acre site
|
Next, the site model. The first thing I did was find a topographic map of the area and mark off my site—this was done by marking off the area on Google Earth, then overlaying the topo map. Once that was done, I imported the image to AutoCAD and made sure it was the correct size. Next, I traced the topography lines along with a small stream that was on the site and removed the original picture. Then it was time to add the trees to my forest. Unfortunately, I was unable to use the actual sizes and measurements of the site, but I was able to replicate what it might be like. After doing some research, I found that there would be about 50 trees per acre in a forest like mine, then used a random dot pattern based off of nature to make the tree map; but I wasn’t done there.
Not all trees are the same size because they are in different stages of life. That being said, I had to do some more research to find generic sizes of trees of different ages. After looking at pictures of my site, I decided that the forest was comprised of trees from about 10 to 112 years old and calculated the following measurements in the chart below. Then, with 50 trees per acre, that would mean 10 of each. I randomly chose which dot would be what size—making each a different color and adding an circle showing the tree canopy/root space—and copied the square four times for the four acres. Afterward, I put the squares into the AutoCAD model. |
This only showed me a 2-D model though, and for this project I would need a 3-D one, so I exported the model to Sketchup. Once exported, I was able to raise the topography to the correct height as well as slope the ground appropriately. I was also able to make the trees; I made 5 different components, one for each size/age range, and placed them accordingly to the 2-D model.
|
Concept 1
For my first concept design for the school, I decided to put the building between the trees, in the empty spaces. The forest doesn’t have any clearings of trees near big enough for a 20,000 square foot building, so the simple solution? Make multiple buildings with multiple floors. To do that, I needed to find the best places to put the smaller buildings to utilize the land. I took my sketch of the site and put another sheet of trace paper over it, coloring in all the empty spaces. Then once I removed the bottom sheet, I could easily see the spaces with the least trees. I decided to go with 4 spaces in the middle of my site. After all, I needed enough space in one place to design a building and too many mini buildings for one whole building wouldn’t be convenient for students trying to get to class. In total, the empty spaces made up about 5,000 square feet which meant the school should be about 4 stories.
As I began making a bubble diagram floor plan, I ran into a few problems. Some of the spaces I needed were bigger than the building spaces I had and couldn’t be separated; for example, a gymnasium has a standard square footage with specific dimensions that cannot be altered and still allow a basketball court. Through some trial and error, I decided the best place for the gym would actually be outside next to the main school buildings, covered or enclosed in some way. This also meant that I would not be using the total square footage inside the main buildings as I had originally intended and in turn, the school wouldn’t be as tall. Additionally, the library and cafeteria would both have outdoor areas—probably also covered—for students to use. The general floor plan for my first concept would be as follows:
- 1st level- cafeteria, library, faculty offices, gymnasium, locker rooms, and weight/wrestling/dance room
- 2nd level- math, science, English, and history classrooms, art room, music room (includes music theory, band, choir, etc.), and space for electives such as engineering, architecture, computer science, and graphic design
- 3rd level- includes remaining electives: home ec, business, finance, law enforcement, and doctor and nursing classes
As this is a very small school, many of the classes—especially electives—would be combined and taught as needed or wanted. This also means that other electives could be added that were not listed above. I felt it was important to still include many career related courses because most students want to learn about career fields they are thinking about pursuing.
The general forms of my first concept would look as to the right on the site both with and without the immediately surrounding trees. To utilize vertical space, the back half of the first floors would be set in the hill, serving as a half-basement. |
|
Concept 2
For my second concept, I used a slightly different design method; instead of just building around the trees, I would allow some of the trees to actually be inside the building. When I looked back at the empty spaces on my site, I decided that this concept would fit better lower on the site. This concept was also a bit tricky as the first floor has more square footage than the above floors since the lowest floor only has to deal with the tree trunks where the above levels also have the tree canopies to worry about.
|
Overall, this building concept ended up turning out much like the one above with uniquely shaped spaces, an "outdoor" gymnasium, and the following floor plan:
- 1st Level- outdoor gym, wrestling/weight/dance room, locker room, offices, library, semi-outdoor cafeteria, the arts rooms, and most of the electives
- 2nd Level- math, science, English, and history rooms, along with foreign language
Unfortunately, this design concept runs into the problem of any floor above the first floor having trees in it. And as seen in the bubble floor plans above, these are not small trees--they would take up most of the upstairs space--and would make it difficult to move around.
Concept 3
My third design concept was a combination of the first two of designing around the trees and with them inside, but also added something new. While I originally set off to not cut down any trees, it made designing very limited, so I wondered what would happen if a few were cut down. But not just any trees would be removed, I would have to be strategic as to limit the trees cut. So I decided to look into if the age of a trees affects its efficiency of removing carbon dioxide from the air--as part of my project goal is to design sustainably for the forest--and found it does. When a tree first begins to grow, it doesn't absorb the carbon dioxide very well, in fact, a tree has to be about 10 years old to start absorbing carbon dioxide efficiently. And, on the flip, once the tree starts getting pretty old--about 75 to 90 years--it also isn't as efficient, with its prime years being about 35 to 55 years old. As my forest consists of trees from 10-112 years old I decided I would remove all the 112 year old trees. This freed up a lot of space since those were the biggest trees; this would also allow the younger trees to live their entire efficient life span. On top of that, the big trees being cut down could also be used to help build the high school itself.
So to see what spaces would be created by removing the eldest trees, I took my AutoCAD model and hide the said trees. I was then able to take a big space of land that was left for my high school. Additionally, with this concept, I was able to make the school only one story with space left over. The gymnasium was also able to be incorporated into the main building, but does have some trees in it that the students would have to learn how to work with as seen in the floor plan below.
So to see what spaces would be created by removing the eldest trees, I took my AutoCAD model and hide the said trees. I was then able to take a big space of land that was left for my high school. Additionally, with this concept, I was able to make the school only one story with space left over. The gymnasium was also able to be incorporated into the main building, but does have some trees in it that the students would have to learn how to work with as seen in the floor plan below.
Forest Architecture: Part 1 Conclusion
Designing in a forest without clear cutting the trees made for some interesting building shapes and forms, but that was to be expected. Yet this is definitely not an easy challenge, especially if one were to also factor in costs. Quite a few problems arose, particularly in the beginning with trying to find enough square footage for the designated building, but when I worked at it, I was able to make it work. Also, another issue is that trees grow. So while I have modeled out different age ranges for the forest, those will change and the trees will no longer fit exactly into the curved cutouts of the school. Unfortunately, during the time frame of this part of the project, my only answer was to trim the trees. The concepts have enough room for the trunks to grow considerably, and the roots will grow away and around the building; the only major problem would be the branches growing out, but if the branches that are too close to the building are cut and the rest left alone, there shouldn't be too much of a problem. And since the trimmed side of the trees will be next to the school, they won't look too odd either.
It also might not have been necessary to go in as much depth with designing the high school. The idea of the project is to find methods and solutions to designing forest architecture and I detoured toward designing the building which made the project a little rushed. On the contrary, I was still able to come up with three different methods of design and showed how they would affect a common building type, so it wasn't a complete loss. All in all, this project has shown me that designing in an unconventional area without completely changing the landscape can be done--it just takes time and effort.
For the next half of this project, I would like to get back to my original goal and try to come up with more solutions to the problem. I also want to get more in depth with how those processes would work for other areas of my forest. Additionally, this would mean how the building could actually be built--like how machines would get to the site without cutting down trees.
It also might not have been necessary to go in as much depth with designing the high school. The idea of the project is to find methods and solutions to designing forest architecture and I detoured toward designing the building which made the project a little rushed. On the contrary, I was still able to come up with three different methods of design and showed how they would affect a common building type, so it wasn't a complete loss. All in all, this project has shown me that designing in an unconventional area without completely changing the landscape can be done--it just takes time and effort.
For the next half of this project, I would like to get back to my original goal and try to come up with more solutions to the problem. I also want to get more in depth with how those processes would work for other areas of my forest. Additionally, this would mean how the building could actually be built--like how machines would get to the site without cutting down trees.