mosoarca, anastasiadis, kampouris - bena 2011 - alba iulia

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International UAB-B.En.A Conference, Environmental engineering and sustainable development,Universitatea 1 Decembrie Alba-Iulia, Romania, 26-27 mai, 2011

Book of Abstracts;pp.250, 1pg. ISBN 978-606-613-002-8

ARE FREE FORM ARCHITECTURES ECOLOGICAL BUILDINGS?

MARIUS MOSOARCA1, ANTHIMOS ANASTASIADIS

2, KAMPOURIS

APOSTOLOS3,

1*Lecturer, Politehnica University of Timisoara, 2 Traian Lalescu Street, Timisoara,

Romania, e-mail: [email protected] Civil engineer PhD U.T.T., 10 Taskou Papageorgiou, PC.: 54631, Thessaloniki, Greece,

e-mail: [email protected]

Forester engineer PhD M Sc, Department of Forestry and Management of the

Environmental and Natural Resources D.U.TH., 28 Doiranis, P.C.: 54638, Thessaloniki,Greece, e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: At the beginning, human were making buildings inspiring themselves fromdifferent shapes that existed in nature. As human kind made scientific discoveries, the

types of constructions evolved. With the purpose of ensuring the resistance, stiffness and

stability of the buildings, humans have developed pollutant technologies. In the last

period, free form buildings have appeared, which try to copy shapes from nature, from

different objects, mechanisms. Are these buildings ecological? In the article are

presented different opinions regarding this point of view.

Keywords: architectural free form design, ecological buildings, resistance structure,

consume of steel and concrete.

I. INTRODUCTION

Etymologically, the word ecology comes from Greek and is composed of two

words: ecos, meaning house and logos, meaning science. So we can define this word as

the science that studies habitats, analyzing the interaction between organisms, plants andthe environment in which they live. Beginning with the twentieth century, however, this

word becomes synonymous with the idea of environmental protection.

In terms of load bearing structures, this science of building the habitat has evolved

greatly from massive building structures with small openings to structures with largeopenings and reduced consume of materials. These performances were achieved by a

good correlation in the first stage of forming the building with the way of disposing the

bearing elements. Over time, the architects had the great merit of putting into practice thenewest results of science and technology. This made possible that the plans and visions of

the architects to be materialized in more remarkable buildings, so as shown in Figure 1. It

can be seen that over the years, as the weight of the building lowers, the opening betweenthe bearing elements increases and buildings are given more different shapes.





Fig. 1 Evolution of structural systems in time

Permanently, in everyday life, people have been inspired by nature. And thearchitects wanted to design buildings whose forms are inspired by nature and so, a long

time they did this by using natural materials: stone and wood. Remarkable buildingsinspired by nature began to come alive after the Industrial Revolution in England by

using in construction in a large-scale, steel and reinforced concrete. Unlike wood andstone, in an ecological matter, these materials are obtained only by consuming large

amounts of energy that pollute the environment.

Nature inspired a remarkable building, which signaled the entry into a new stageof architecture, the Opera from Sydney. Building forms such as can be seen in Figure 2

were generated by clear mathematical rules.

Fig. 2 Opera in Sydney





Since late 1990, following the development of science and technology, architectsbegan to design buildings with very large volumes, whose forms are not generated any

more by clear mathematical formulas as it was until that time, creating a new current in

architecture called free forms. Building shapes are inspired from nature or copy theshapes of mechanical parts or of objects.

Fig. 3 Buildings that have shapes like perfume bottels

Reference works in this new phase of architecture, was Walt Disney Concert Hallin Los Angeles (fig.4a) and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (fig.4b), designed by

architect Frank Ghery.

Fig. 4.a) Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; b) Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Walt_Disney_Concert_Hall_and_surrounding_area.jpg





These spectacular buildings, through care of architects, from an ecological pointof view, meet the requirements of low energy consume in terms of installations, from the

moment they are functional they are capable to ensure the requirements of a normal

habitat.But in terms of consuming materials that compose the resistance structure of these

buildings, it can be concluded that these buildings have a very high consume of

materials: metal and concrete. Also during the execution, buildings consume largeamounts of electricity, far more consumes than necessary consume at a similar building

with regular forms. We consider it’s very important to be presented objectively these high

consumes of energy, used to produce bearing elements of the structure resistance and

execution.

II. DESCRIPTION OF THE BEARING STRUCTURE OF BUILDINGS WITH

ARCHITECTURAL FREE FORMS

In general the bearing structure of these buildings is composed of a core or highly

rigid metal or reinforced concrete walls and metal columns. They are straight or inclined.Roof and floor beams are generally metallic. Figure 5 presents a building with

architectural free forms. It can be seen inside the building a very stiff concrete core,

which was not necessarily a building similar in size, but with regular shapes.

Fig. 5. Buildings with free forms architecture with reinforced concrete core

Factors of high consume of reinforced concrete and steel at the bearing structure

are:

• Willing to perform irregular outer shapes, columns and beams arepositioned after any direction and are not the result of static calculation or desire to have

clear defined lines of transfer of efforts. In figure 6a are compared the graphic





calculation method and distribution efforts of the structural elements of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore Church, Florence, and in Figure 6b the bearing structure of the

museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney concert halls in Los Angeles.

Fig. 6a. The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore Church in Florence, Italy

Fig.6b.The bearing structure of Walt Disney Opera Building in Los Angeles

• The shape cross section of each structural element is almost unique. Toensure the exterior irregular surface shape, the shape of the cross section varies along the

length of the same element. Generally the bars are made of welded sections of closed boxtype. Producing these elements requires high energy consumption. Such a beam can be

seen in Figure 7 at the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China.





Fig. 7 Metal beam of box type at the Olympic Stadium in Beijing

• Joints of bearing elements are special and difficult to be made. Since the

bearing elements are joint in nodes after different angles, the joints are made only bywelding. Weld volume is very high due to large sections of the elements and the large

number of bars. This can be seen in figure 8;

Fig. 8 Details of the joints of the elements

• The sections of the elements are very large due to architectural andstructural reasons. Facade bars must be rigid enough to prevent deformations and

contractions of the facade that could lead to cracking of glass panels;

• They have as component massive concrete elements such as walls orcores, which are designed to take over the movements and bar spins. A bearing structure

very well disposed avoids damage at the elements closure elements;• Uses high strength steel and concrete;

• Requires heavy lifting equipment, which will consume more fuel in a longterm period;

• Requires special support equipment in the production factories for eachelement, which cannot be used after making each element of the building. These

sustaining elements are also massive to give a high rigidity in the process of manufacturing the elements;





• Because a part of the facade elements are transported from the productionbase already mounted, special transportation equipments are necessary on the way to the

site.

IV. CONCLUSIONS

Buildings with architectural free forms are special buildings, momentous, that

indicate a new stage in architecture. This was possible due to the vision of the architectswho know how to use the most advanced and latest software for calculating installations

and structures and manufacturing technologies in the world. Buildings meet the highest

requirements of modern habitat, being equipped with the latest equipment to make itecological in the process of exploitation, being called "green buildings".

In terms of consumption of concrete and steel, free form architectural buildings

have high consumption than buildings with similar volume, well ordered bearing

structures. It also requires a high consume of energy spent in transportation and assemblyof the structure. For these reasons the high energy consume of the resistance structure, we

wonder how much these buildings are environmentally friendly.

We believe that these special buildings should be encouraged to developworldwide, and architects should be supported in making these unique buildings that

have been included in the category of sculpture, unique works of art. It is necessary,

however, that in the near future, design engineers with architects, should find solutionsthat make these buildings as reduced as possible in the matter of pollution, by making

their low energy consume both in the manufacturing process as well as assembly. Prior to

finding these solutions there are still questions how green these buildings are.

References1. Gioncu V., Curs estetica structurilor, Facultatea de Arhitectura, Timisoara (2011).

2. Mjowiecki M.,“ Ethics & reliability in free form design. Shell and Spatial Structures:

Architectural engineering - Toward the future looking to the past”, - Simpozionul IASS

Venetia (Italia),Decembrie 3-6, (2007).

mosoarca, anastasiadis, kampouris - bena 2011 - alba iulia

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