ARCH513 - Integrated Project Design Studio - Lucas Hartman - FA20

Vilnius, Lithuania

ARCH 513

INTEGRATED PROJECT DESIGN STUDIO

FALL 2020

Vilnius, Lithuania

To See and to Be Seen

Technical Development

58 Structure

60 Structural Axonometric

61 Structural Plans

62 Sizing

66 Envelope

69 Wall Assembly Composite

70 Wall Assembly Axonometric

71 Envelope Analysis

72 Passive Strategies

75 Climate Analysis by Season

76 Building Passive Strategies

78 Sefaira Analysis

80 Active Strategies

82 System Selection

84 System Sizing

85 Mechanical Axonometric

86 Distribution

87 Mechanical Plans

Appendix

A4 Black and White Set Scaled to Fit Booklet

A44 Assignment 1

Site Analysis

Envelope Studies

A68 Assignment 2

Site Strategies

Acoustics Stud Program Analysis

Compositional Stud

Building Strategies

A118 Assignment 3

Preliminary Design Framework

A130 Assignment 4

Structure

A166 Assignment 5

Envelope

A184 Assignment 6

Passive Strategies

Actie Systems

Site Analysis Regional, City, and Surrounding Context

Every good architectural explorationbegins with a thorough and well documented analysis of the site and the surrounding context. This project is no exceptionand began with a deep dive into the country of Lithuania, city of Vilnius, and site of Tauras Hill. All of these investiationsare imperatie to understanding and being able to design for, the context that the project is within. This is not just as simple as climate charts and maps. A deep historical dive needed to be made to beer understand the history of Lithuania and how that has made an impact on the practice of Architecture in the area. All of this analysis ultimtely helps make stronger and more direct design decisions in how to make a project that is truly integrated with the city it will become known to represent.

5

Vilnius, Lithuania

Despite centuries of politial struggles and transformation,Lithuania has emerged a powerful economic power, rich with history hidden away during many years of Soviet leadership. In sti competitiowith Western European countries, Lithuania has high standards of living, and is a hub for innovationin the eastern half of the continet. Like many citiesin Eastern Europe, Vilnius has been working over the last decades to rebuild itself as the capital city of a now internationallyrecognized country. Situated at the meetingpoint of the Neris and Vilnia Rivers, with a populationof 580,000, it is the second largest city in the BalticStates. Vilnius is known for its historic architecture from the beginnings of the city and their mix with centuries of Soviet interventionto form a city made of many separate cities. On one side of the river is the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprised of architecture that has withstood years of Lithuania’s war torn past. At one point, this area was one of the largest Jewish centers in Europe. Outside the former city walls, a New Town was formed, bringing with it new forms of architecture. The other side of the river is home to the New City Center, a collection of modern skyscrapers, a strong competior to many western European cities. It has been centuries of back and forth creatingthis city known today, a city stilldeveloping, and constantly looking to form a stronger national cultual identit.

History of Lithuania

The Kingdom of Lithuania was originally created in 1253 by unitingmany of the Baltictribes living on the shores east of the BalticSea. As this evolved over the next 200 years, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became the largest county in Europe. During this timeVilnius was the capital city. As other countiesin Western Europe continuedto grow and gain power, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland united to form a united PolishLithuanian Commonwealth. This relationshipwas created many years earlier through royal marriages, but ultimtely aer another 200 years in this union, the relationshis began to dissolve as the commonwealth began to struggle. During the late 1700’s surrounding countries began to pick apart the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 1795 became an important year in the history of Lithuania as it fist

Gediminas becomes Grand Duke of Lithuania

1323

First Men�on of the City of Vilnius

1569

Lithuania and Poland Form Commonwealth

1795

Russia Takes Over Control of Lithuania

1920

Poland Takes Vilnius by Force, Capital Moves to Kaunas

1918

Lithuania Declares Independence

1915

Germans Occupy Lithuania during World War I

1941

Nazi Germany

Captures Lithuania

1944

Soviet Union

Recaptures Lithuania

1991

Lithuania Declares Independence and Joins UN, Capital Returns to Vilnius

2004

Lithuania Joins NATO and EU

became a piece of the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire eventually began to fall apart and at the end of World War I Lithuania, for the fist of multiple times,declared independence. This proved to be short-lived for the city of Vilnius and the eastern side of the country as Poland took them over by force in 1920. Then during World War II, the Soviet Union ultimtely occupied the full Lithuanian territory. This then was replaced by Nazi Germany, but was returned to the Soviet Union towards the end of the war. Soviet influencecan be seen throughout the country, especially in urban planning and architecture. As referenced before, this up and down cycle was finallyended for the timebeing as Lithuania once again declared independence and in 1991 became its own country.

Regional Context

Lithuania is a country of rolling hills, many rivers, streams, and lakes as well as many forests. Lithuania has more than 700 rivers and creeks crisscrossing the country. The Nemunas, one the largest rivers, was considered a strategically important shipping route through the country. There are a lot of lakes, especially in eastern Lithuania where the AukstaitijaNationalPark is located. This area is also the place where Ignalina nuclear power plants are located which they also export electricity to other countries in Europe. Its principal natural resource is agricultural land. Its fertileplains are divided by hilly uplands that are ancient glacial deposits.

History of Vilnius

Throughout the rollercoaster of power sweeping through Lithuania over the years, Vilnius was oen at the forefront of these struggles. A capital city holds a unique positionamong citiesin a country, and the architecture oen reflectsthis. The fist mentionsof the city of Vilnius was in 1323 in leers from the Grand Duke Gediminas that were sent to Germany invitingpeople to settlein this new city. It was during this timethat much of the Old Town was developed and constructed. This included the Lower Vilnius Castle and the Vilnius Cathedral, which were ultimtely rebuilt in the neoclassical style in the 18th century.

During the period of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Vilnius stillremained as one of the capital citiesand saw steady development. This however changed in 1795 as the Russian Empire took over control of Lithuania and hence downgraded Vilnius to just an administratie center. This will prove to be a large challenge for the city as when it comes timeto return to being a capital city, there is littlein terms of buildings to house the functionsof government. The Russians were also quite destructie to the work of early city planners. The Grand Dukes’ Palace was destroyed, as well as the City Wall. Important to the project site to be discussed below, it was during this timethat the Russians also laid out the Avenue of Saint George, a new axis from the Vilnius Cathedral out to the Neris River.

This axis directed a lot of the development of the western side of the city, outside the former Old Town wall. This street would now be more commonly known as the Avenue of Gediminas and it is where many of the government functionsof Lithuania are located. As the Russian empire crumbled and Lithuania broke free, there were great plans in Vilnius to revive the city and return it to a respected capital city. One of these plans included the construction of a House of the Nationto architecturally and symbolically represent the full country on Tauras Hill west of the current city. Unfortunately this timeof independence was short-lived for Vilnius as Poland overtook the city and the eastern part of the country meaning this project was never completed. This would once again prove to be a challenge for the

architecture of the city, as over the next 25 years, Kaunas would be developed as the new capital of the Lithuania territory, further settinVilnius behind. During World War II much of the architecture of Vilnius was able to survive the destruction, unfortunately many of the people did not. Due to the earlier tiesto Poland, a large portionof the populationwere Jewish or Polish and either fledthe city, or were unfortunately killed. These Jewish and Polish members of the community made up a large portionof the Old Town and as the Soviets worked to rebuild the city, they predominantly covered up all this history. This Soviet era had a major eect on the urban planning of Vilnius, as it did for many Eastern European cities. This era fueled much of the suburban development of Vilnius but ultimtely came to an end in 1991 as Lithuania once again gained independence.

Urban Evolution

Many of the earliest forms of urban structure for Vilnius were shared by many medieval Central European capital cities. This was the creationof two city centers. One center for the sovereigns and one for the townspeople. This is apparent in the separationbetween the castle complex and the original town hall. This two city theme developed further when the Russians took over control of the city. One of their fist steps was to demolish the medieval walls. As they had littleinterest in the tigt, winding street of wooden houses in the Old Town, they expanded the city, using a rather regular orthogonal grid. During the Soviet area, much of the development of the city was suburban. Here they built Soviet Microdistricts, almost like miniature towns on the edges of the city. The microdistricts included many idential housing towers centered around service buildings to provide Soviet education and healthcare. Aer Lithuania's independence the city center developed a second counterpart as well, as the New City Center of glass skyscrapers across the river has seen much development.

Old Town

The Old Town area of Vilnius (Senamiestis)is the heart of the city. It features narrow streets and countless churches of all dierent walks of faith. The heart of this area is Gediminas Hill which is crowned by the Upper Castle, built in the 14th-15th centuries. A single red tower has been rebuilt and is a popular space for great views of the city. Located at the base of the hill is Cathedral Square at the end of Gediminas Avenue. The nearby green area consists of two separate parks; the Bernardine Garden and Kalnų (Hill) park. The Old Town itself lies to the west of these religious buildings. It includes many other elaborate churches with the baroque style of 1600s-1700s being the most prevalent. To the north and west is the former Jewish gheo, where the local Jews lived untilNazi Germany forced them out. South of the Town Hall square is the Gate of Dawn, the last remaining gate from the former city wall. Vilnius University, one of the oldest continuously operatinguniversitiesin Eastern Europe is also located within the Old Town. All of these spaces discussed are located within the UNESCO world heritage area. Užupis is widely regarded to be a separate neighborhood. This 19th-century district beyond the river Vilnia is alongside the former road to Polotsk city (today in Belarus).

New Town

New Town (Naujamiestis)formed during the 19thcentury expansion of the city. Compared to many Western European cities,this expansion in Vilnius was much more minor. Gediminas Avenue which was laid out in the 19th century and took over as the main street of the city. Most of Lithuanian ministries, government, and parliament buildings are located along this street. This in additionto the NationalTheatre, central post officeand courts of law. The Courts building located at Lukiškės square was used to serve as HQ for both Gestapo and KGB. Basanavičiaus Street plays an important role in the Tauras Hill area providing access to the south side of the hill. The central bus stationand train stationare located at the southern end of the New Town, with the railroad tracks forming its southernmost border.

Šnipi�k�s (New City Center)

-Šnipiškės is regarded as a “Village inside a city”

-They are almost entiely dominated by wooden private homes. Most of them are heated by burning wood in stoves and many don't have tap water and sewerage (public water outlets are used). -Some of the streets are not yet paved.

-Southern Šnipiškės is a dierent. It was designated to be the new city center in the 1980s it saw its old homes replaced by 22 story Hotel Lietuva, planetarium and the largest department store in Soviet Vilnius.

- In the 2000s this trend continued with the st skyscraper district in Lithuania hugging the modern Konstitucijos (Contitution)venue and the new Europos (Europe) Square. Several mid-sized shopping malls and many offices e here next to Neris river

Zverynas

-Žvėrynas name means “Land of the Beasts”

-In 1990s Žvėrynas became a prestigious neighborhood. It is within a very easy reach from all main districts of Vilnius

-Next to the greenery of Vingis park and its treelined streets are never overcrowded. Therefore, many new multitory apartment buildings were built while numerous old houses were repaired.

Zirmunai

-Žirmūnai is a largely rebuilt borough.

-Tuskulėnai Peace Park.

-The Soviet brutalist Palace of Concerts and Sports

-The North Town area spent the 19th century as an Imperial Russian military base, which housed a Soviet garrison aer World War 2. Around the year 2000 it was heavily redeveloped and now there is a modern district of new apartments, offices, an retail.

Soviet Microdistricts

-The 1960s Soviet urban philosophy went from the expansion of natural city centers to the construction of new “micro-districts”. Each micro-district would have a shop, a kindergarten, and many apartment blocks. Each apartment block would be built according to a similar design as the rest of them. Every micro-district would be separated from most other micro-districts by grasslands or small forests. The areas between apartment blocks would also be open spaces that are now filled y cars.

o Lazdynai,

o Karoliniškės

o Viršuliškės

o Baltupiai

o Santariškės

o Šeškinė

o Justinišės

o Fabijoniškės

o Pašilaičia

o Pilaitė

Suburbs of Vilnius

The suburbs of Vilnius are as diverse as is the city itself. Depending on which side you will leave Vilnius you may encounter luxurious manors built by once-powerful families, Muslim, and Polish villages, unique art projects, dull Soviet “proletarian” homes, and factories, “private castles” of the 1990s nouveau-riche, modern credit-funded suburbia, genocide memorials, protected nature and wooden huts where the time (seemingly) tands still

Vernacular Architecture

The multiculural heritage of Vilnius gave the city a broad range of architectural styles and types of construction.Many historic buildings are Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical styles. Each has their own distinctappearance, including compositionalelements and finishes,which oen have been modifiedfrom their Western European counterparts. Several of these places withstood the test of timeand war, and stillstand today. Others were lost during the war, but were rebuilt in an aempt to bring back the lost cultural heritage. This challenge is stillsomething that Vilnius is working through as it tries to build its own architectural identitypost 1991.

At the turn of the 20th Century, Vilnius was faced with modernization.In an aempt to do so, the city established metal bridges, steam power, street lightin, and electric power. Prior to 1940, most of the buildings were constructed out of wood, which was viewed by the Soviets as inferior. Any imagery of the country was censored to shun this wooden architecture. The Soviet occupationalso brought upon the creationof microdistricts, selfsustaining towers of residentialand public services. These places mimicked the radical change brought on by the republic, with monolithic construction, poor quality, straight line design and a distinct grey color. Any vernacular architecture that was created to naturally respond to the environment and climate of the city was replaced with structures that could be placed anywhere in the world, with no regards to the region or climate.

Church of St. Anne

Late Gothic Roman Catholic Church built in 1500, in Vilnius’ Old Town on the right bank of the Vilnia River. It is built out of thirty-three dierent kinds of clay bricks and painted in red.

Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

Originally constructed in the 15th Century for the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the future Kings of Poland.

In 1801, the palace was demolished. It was then rebuilt in the Renaissance style to match the Cathedral of Vilnius.

Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

Built in 1701, this Roman Catholic church is home to over two thousand stucco figues, a masterpiece of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth Baroque.

Vilnius Cathedral

Also known as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Stanislaus and St. Ladislause of Vilnius, this church was built in 1783 in the Classical style. During the Soviet regime is was converted to a warehouse; it wasn’t until 1989, tht it regained status as a cathedral.

Residential Detached Homes

Richer noble families had manors made completely out of brick. Poorer families houses were then constructed out of wood.

Stelmu�� Vill age Church and Belfry, 1713

One of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in Lithuania (not in Vilnius).

Anna Dobrocheyeva Villa, 1907

Single family house with a stable, coach house, ice house, and a well. The symmetrical one-story building with a mezzanine, resembles a traditional suburban home

Palace of Weddings, 1974

Vertial structural elements, meant to resemble tree trunks with a textured plaster finish me up this striking building. High vertial and closed off spaces ontrast the open horizontal foyer.

Polish Land Bank (BGK), 1938

Two rectangular volumes made of reinforced concrete make up this building which is one of few Functionalit architecture buildings.

Flower Shop, 1968

Also under the category of Functionalit architecture, this building is made of a series of hexagons joined together. It is made from steel, glass, and concrete. The design was meant to exhibit flwers in a modern way.

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National Center for Physical Sciences & Technology, 2011

This building houses he largest science center in the Baltic tates. The facade is an exploration on cystalline structures, bringing a molecular aesthetic thoughout the structure.

Rupert Art & Education Center, 2011

Like a nod to the past, the thermally treated pine wood finish on the exterior, helps the building blend into the forest around it. The building is meant to express modernization and pecision.

Green Hall 2, Administrative Building

This is just one example of a modern office building in the w City Center. Modernization, pot war, is a big ideal for the city.

Regional Landscape Structure

Citiesoen evolve, and the process of that includes both, expansion and transformationof their space. These transformationsusually happen not in empty spaces but as rural areas transform into urban ones. Urban regions tend to occur where the urban and rural structures coexist together. The places that are more impacted by city development even in cases when territories of citiesdo not expand there are territories surrounding the cities.

During the last decades a lot of post soviet citiesand Vilnius have suered a fast transformationon their physical and social structure. These transformations are mostly caused by politial and economic changes in respectie countries and they can be seen mostly in the urban space.

As a result of these transformationsVilnius suered a huge change in the urban region, which can be divided into two: 1) changes of old urban structure and 2) city expansion meaning that some of the rural areas have turned into urban ones.

Networks of Parks and Public Spaces

In 2009 Vilnius was recognized by a survey as the greenest capital in Eastern Europe. Vilnius is also considered to have the cleanest air of all European cities.This was possible to achieve since during the city expansion, urban planners leftmany natural areas remain untouched. These areas are considered “parks” although some of them are actually considered urban forests. Most of them are used for walking, enjoying picnics, dog walking, strolling and many other activities

One of these areas is located next to the Cathedral and the Castle. It is known as Sereikiškių Park and the Hill Park (Kalnų parkas) it consists of many hills with good city views. Among them, the Pilies (Castle) Hill, the Hill of Three Crosses (Trijų kryžių) and the Gediminas kapo (Gediminas Grave) Hill.

Another popular park is the 162 ha Vingis park. It is mostly used for summer festials, a rugby stadium and a WW1 German cemetery. The park forms a part of the north-south chain of green zones. Even though the park is developed, much of it is just similar to a countryside forest if one walks a few hundred of meters from the residential one.

Going further from downtown two regional parks within Vilnius city limits are mostly used for recreation as they break up the dense urban grid.

CVIRKA

(Cvirkos aikštė)

Vegetation

Lithuania has more than 26 types of trees as well as more than 31 types of bushes growing naturally within its boundaries. However, only a few of these are essential to establish a forest.

During the Soviet occupation, deforestation for agricultural purposes happened leaving Lithuania with a 20% of forest cover in 1948 but increased about 30% by 1990 when Lithuania recovered its independence. Since that event Lithuania has been stable and has a forest cover of 33%.

Around 5% of Lithuania is also covered by wetlands with a few main types of vegetation. Peat bogs as the main category includes, Scheuchzeria palustris, Eriophorum (cotton-grass), sundew, cloudberry, cranberry species, and Andromeda polifolia. Lithuania is full of variety when it comes to vegetation. On the two top images it can be seen some of the main types of trees and shrub that are more common in the country and in the city of Vilnius.

Symbolism of Rue in Lithuania

Rue is a typical plant of Lithuania. It has a very strong and heavy odor as well as a bitter taste. It is often found in almost every Lithuanian garden. The rue flower is seen as the embodiment of Lithuanian culture. During the 20th century when Lithuania was dominantly agrarian. The rue flower was used for important events and ceremonies, such as baptism, first communions, marriages and sometimes funerals. The rue flower also symbolizes purity and the rites of passage in a young person’s life. Veronika Povilioniene, Lithuania’s most famous folk singers said that the true significance of the rue flower is love and eroticism and is incorporated in many of folk songs. It is also known as the herb of grace but even though is considered as the flower of purity it was used as a primitive means of birth control. Lithuanian residents believed that the flower will be a protection of a girl from unwanted consequences of trampling a rue garden.

17

Environmental Analysis

The environment of Lithuania is typically a colder climate, temperatures range from 30 degrees Fahrenheit to 60 degrees Fahrenheit on average. Although in summertimeLithuania does reach temperatures of over 80 degrees Fahrenheit this is mostly a colder climate than the yearly average temperature in the low 40s. Most months in Lithuania the average temperature is far below the Comfort temperature of 70 and above degrees. This is because Lithuania does not get solar heat. Lithuania on average does not get the amount of solar radiationas the average for the year direct number for mites was 500 btu/sq.ft.This is expected since Lithuania is a higher altitudecountry, with one of its neighbors being Russia.

That being said, the relatie humidity in Lithuania is actually quite High. Through all the winter months and some of the Fall months the relatie humidity is far above the comfort zone. However because it is such a cold climate the humidity oen turns into precipitation lie rain and snow.

Overall with Lithuania’s it becomes hard to keep Comfort levels stable, but it is not just the weather that is a factor. People tend to spend on average 50% of their income on Heatingduring the winter. Two factors that play into this fact are that Soviet Built Homes do not have proper insulation,either because they are old buildings or expensive to properly insulate. The second Factor is that gas prices in this area are very high because the putatie Russian gas companies have a monopoly on Lithuania. Many I found these factors and try to improve on them: Some have renovated their homes While others I’ve taken to planning ConstructionAgnew gas terminals that give the country energeticindependence from Russia. This solutioncould help many people Public Central Heatingwithout any possibility to regulate their Heatingor choose another supplier nevermind disconnectingall together. Even stillsome people I’ve taken to a more labor-intensive optionburning wood there make their house warm. approximately 21% of people in Lithuania use this method. If we were to look at the psychrometric chart from Lithuania we would findthat a lot of Passive strategies do not work well here.

https://www.responsiblevacation.com/vacations/Lithuania

Many have identified theseactors and try to improve on them: Some have renovated their homes while others have taken to planning the construction of nw gas terminals that would give the country energetic independence fom Russia. This solution ould help many people that have public central heating without ay possibility to regulate their heating or choose another supplier and annot disconnect all together. Even still some people hve taken to a more labor-intensive option of burning ood to make their house warm; approximately 21% of people in Lithuania use this method.

Introduction to the Project Site

The site for this project is Tauras Hill, located west of the Old Town sectionof Vilnius, and south of the current development of the New City Center. It has always held an important place in the eyes of the city, fist as a scenic spot for a panoramic view of the medieval city, and then as an open green space secluded within a quickly developing city. As the city grew, more opinions were given in regards to what to do with the hill, also known as Pamėnkalnis. The naming of the hill is oen disputed. Some argue that this is where Grand Duke Gediminas hunted a bualo and aer this hunt dreamed a dream to establish Vilnius. Others believe it is named aer a former owner. Some of the earliest plans for the site involved the building the NationHouse mentionedearlier. This was during the two brief years that Lithuania was a free state in 1938-1940. This building built on top of Tauras Hill would have represented the new independence of all the people of the country of Lithuania. Funds were raised for its construction,but unfortunately Vilnius was overtaken by Poland in 1940 and that was the end of that project. Aer the war, the preservationof the undeveloped hillside a part of an important belt of parks that connected Cvirka Square in the center of Vilnius with Vingis Park across the river. Aer the war at the base of the hill, Lukiškės Square was laid out by the Soviets, originally known as Lenin Square. This created an important axis for Tauras Hill with Gediminas Avenue (then known as the Stalin Avenue, and thereaer Lenin Avenue) and

Lukiškės (Lenin) Square. With the completionof this project, the Soviets turned their eyes upon Tauras Hill. Due to the prominence of the city, a large monument to a Soviet soldier was planned on an axis with the adjacent square. Due to the large amount of Soviet spending on security and repression measures, there was no money for this plan and the hill remained undeveloped green space. It was not until1956 that the site came back into popularity. It was decided that the city needed a venue to be able to hold 1,000 people, most likely for large Soviet propaganda events. This problem needed to be resolved quickly and inexpensively, so the chief architect of the city Vladislav Mikučiani got to work. He looked over many dierent catalogs and books of previous projects looking for a project with an assembly hall similar in size to the one required. Once one was found it was selected, even though the design was outdated at the point, actually even banned. Modifiationswere made and the building was completed.

Originally named the Vilnius Palace of Culture, it was the fist major structure to be built so prominently on the site. It originally stood next to old Lutheran and Reformed cemeteries, but in 1973 the Soviets came in and demolished the Lutheran chapel and cemetery, using the tombstones to building the steps up to the top of the hill. Over the years, the building would become the Trade Union Palace and would preserve many of these functionsaer Lithuania declared independence. In theater located on the western side of the building was home to many dierent alternatie music festials. In 2004, the western half of the building caught on fie, destroying that half of the building beyond repair. The other side was preserved and continuedto be used. The site then started to become an eyesore for the city, as the many functionshad to more out leaving it mostly abandoned. In 2015, M-City grafficovered the front like a face taoo. It was ultimtely decided that it was timefor the Soviet area building to go and for a new structure to replace it on Tauras Hill. The old building was demolished, but remnants of Soviet rule stillremain, an abandoned bunker was found underneath and is being left.In an international architecture competitionthe city of Vilnius began acceptingproposals for a new NationalConcert Hall to crown the city and to represent the city, as well as the nation.

1/Lithuania Academy of Music & Theatre

2/Municipal Department OF Tourism

3/Museum of Occupation/Freedom Flights

4/Local Pub

5/Santa Salonas - Wedding Store

6/Ping Pong Professional Club

7/Medicinos Bank

8/Ukraine Embassy

9/Baltas Medis - Food Processing Co.

10/Guest House Taurus Vilnius - Hotel

11/Aurochs Mountain

12/V. Mykolaičio-Putino Mem. Museum

13/Vilnius Memorial Museums Directory

14/Registry Centras - Corporate Office

15/Government Office

16/Holocaust Exhibition

17/ERA Esthetic - Laser Dermatology

18/KOA - Clinic Dental Academy

19/EMSI HQ - Oil & Natural Gas Co.

20/SAVY - Financial Instition

21/Ministry of Culture Lithuanian Film

22/United States Embassy

23/Taurus Mountain Park

23

Site Summary

Tauras Hill, Vilnius, Lithuania

Former Home of the Palace for Trade Unions

General Challenges

Topography:

The site is located on a natural hill overlooking the city. Over years of development at the base of the hill, this slope has increased. Access to the site is limited due to the severe incline of the northern side of the hill.

Lack of Surrounding Context:

Tauras Hill has always been an independent piece of the Vilnius urban grid. The city originally grew around the hill. Towards the base of the hill is Lukiškės Square, which was originally designed by the Soviets to include a connectingmonument on the hill, completingthe connection,physically and visually. This was never completed however and few would see how the site correlates to the city grid created by Gedminas Avenue.

Historical Context:

This is not the fist timea project has been aempted on Tauras Hill. All of them aempted to use the prominence of the site to celebrate an important movement or event. Most of these could never come to fruition,and the one that did also managed to not be completed fully and leftresidents with bad memories of a previous time and is nw destroyed.

Site Vegetation

There is a wide variety of dierent vegetationon our site and it changes with the topography. The vegetationto the south of the site, where the cemetery was, are full grown trees that have been there a long timeand have witnessed the evolutionof the site. The most seen tree is the Hoary Alder, these trees really cover this part of the site and provide a high canopy. The north side of the site does not have as many trees because of the terrain being so sloped, but the lowest part has a bit of vegetation.This area of growth, we can presume, was cut back during the soviet occupationto insert Lukiškės Square. In the west most part of the site the vegetationis quite new, there are small tree saplings that are just startingto take root. Perhaps because of renewed interest in the site these new bits of vegetationare now allowed to grow in this area. In the east there are a plethora of full-grown Hoary Alders, European Aspen and English Oak trees that line one of the roads into the site.

The Rue Plant

Topography Analysis

The topography of the site poses an interestingchallenge for access to the site. Although composed mostly of slopes below 10% there are moments where the slope increases dramatially for a short portionand can reach slopes of up to 74%. The fler slopes are Dispersed In between the steeper slopes going from north south, and along the border of the site, on the west and east, The slope increases to a dangerous level or even pedestrians Will have a hard timemoving through it. Overall, the site is bordered on the west and east side with high slopes that act as a barrier and from north to south there is a terracing slope. It is this terracing that makes access to the site very difficultThe main access to the site with cars happens at the southern point of the site where the old church and cemetery were.

There are pedestrian Walkways that move up the hill however the hill itself is too terraced for people in wheelchairs or people who are disabled to climb. This limits these people to the car and the southern entrance that cars take. The sharp Hills on the West and East also limit access for pedestrians entiely as well as cars. This difficult ain which limits access to the site will be a challenging obstacle to overcome when designing on the site. However, at the top of the hill it is mostly flt, this spot is, in a way, a pedestal to look out upon the rest of the city as it is one of the only hills in the area. A beacon of green in a bustling city, connected to other smaller parks and overlooks the history of Vilnius.

Wind Analysis

Lithuania has an interestingwind paern in that the winter months give more wind from the southwest while in the summer months the northwest receives more gusts of wind. Even still,Throughout all months wind from the East is minimal no maer what month or season it is. It is found that the highest speed of winds occurs during the winter and comes from the southwest.

Soil Analysis

Lithuanian soil has a vast range of dierent soils. It ranges from sands to heavy clays. About onefourth of the county is made up of sandy soils including the southeast, which is blanketed mainly by woodlands. In general Lithuania is about 51% flt, 21% highlands, and about 29% plateaus. Soil is a main natural resource for the country, which makes their agricultural a very import contributor to their GNP. The country has records on their soil that dates all the way back to the 1600. Some of the glacial deposits where morainic, glaciofluvial, limnoglacial, alluvial, Eolian and organic deposits. All these dierent deposits make for a very complicated soil cover in Lithuania. However, there is much pollution of hevy metals and in Vilnius there are spots of erosion as well as Vilnius reporting one of the lwest amount of fertile cops in the country.

Conceptual Framework Strategies and Design Evolution

Most architectural ideas are not developed out of thin air, and oen timesthe process of coming up with the architectural intentionsis more me consuming and oen more fun than the representationand presentationof the final project. I believe that there truly is no final project, hence why this sectionincludes a section titledCurrent Iteration. While for the sake of this course it is a final,it does not mean that there is not another potentialiterationcoming its way aerward. Architecture is very oen about the process and this sectionlays out the full conceptual framework of how the project made it from a blank slate to where it is today. This includes further analysis into the program for the project, A Concert Hall based on a competitio created by the city of Vilnius in 2019, as well as how acousticconcerns may begin to aect the project. This project required many iterations, sometimessettinother components of the project back, but were all required in the quest for a civic building to represent the city of Vilnius and to explore the relationshipbetween Seeing the City and Being Seen by the City.

A Concert Hall

The project brief calls for a building to serve as a music performance venue for the city, as well as serve as a symbol of the nationof Lithuania and the cultural identityof the country and city itself. This brief is quite similar to the architectural design competitiothat was created by the city of Vilnius in 2019. This project however is centered around only a 1600-person concert hall. The program does also call for rehearsal spaces, officesdressing rooms, in additionto a restaurant and café. This all totals around 56,000 net square feet, and with circulationand mechanical space easily requires over 90,000. An important component of this building is remembering that it is more than just a concert hall, but a civic building for the people of Vilnius and all of surrounding Lithuania.

1.7 - 2.1 Seconds

Ideal Reverberation Tim

60% Absorption

400 ft3 per Seat

Ideal Absorptie Materials in Audience Area

Ideal Coefficit for Volume of the Performance Hall

2,500 People

Maximum Recommended Capacity

Space Planning is Important, Use Storage and Office as Bers

Mechanical Spaces in Basement, Preferably on Grade Rooms with Two Matching Dimensions Should Be Avoided

Performer - Audience

- Intimte, but Not Enough to Inhibit

Projection and Higher Dynamic

- Multiple Lvels of Audience Help Performers Not See an Amorphous Sea of Faces

- Operating Theter is Not Appropriate

Duct Work Needs Acoustially Treated and Individual Branches

Audience - Performer

- Intimte, but Without being Exposed

- Some Distance Required

- Aentieness and Interaction ver Luxurious Comfort

- Both Want House to Feel Full Even When It is Not

- Front Stage Height (Around 42')

Oset Doors to Not Be Across from Each Other

Sound Isolatio Needed Between Spaces

Operable Windows Allow Too Much Ambient Noise Risers Help Performers Hear Others and Themselves

Performer - Performer

- Enough Space on Stage

- Can Performers Hear Each Other

- Risers Needed to Separate Performers

- Risers Help the Stage Feel Smaller

Audience - Audience

- Aisle Spacing

- Row Spacing

- How Many Toilets in the Restroom

Acousticsis oen one of the most challenging components to master in a project, which leads to there usually being an acoustial consultant for major projects. Concert halls and opera houses are at the peak of this complexity. Here the acousticsare everything. The acousticsin the main performance hall will be judged against thousands of other halls, trying to become the new favorite. If the quality of the sound in the space is not perfectly resolved, the orchestra or opera performers will not want to perform there, and all of this planning and money goes to waste. There are many things to be cognizant of while trying to design a space that will be used for music. One of the main ones, particularlyin how it applies to the architect is reverberationtime. This is one of the most concrete methods of judging the overall sound quality of a space. The ideal reverberationtimeis between 1.7 and 2.1 seconds. This means that there is just enough of a muffl that every single imperfectioncan not be heard, but not too long that there begins to be bad echoes and mufflespeech. The way to accomplish this is through a balance of absorptie materials and the volume of the space, both things an architect can control. The ideal volume of a performance hall is 400 ft^3per audience member. Ultimtely, space planning and the removal of ambient noise also fall in the lap of the architect. Ideally, mechanical spaces will be underground and on grade, far from the performance spaces. There are truly not all that many dierent formats for concert halls. The shapes of the spaces stay the same, oen materials are the major changes. These materials stillaim to achieve the same level of reflectioand absorptionof the predecessors that have come before them. One of the challenges of designing a mixed use, concert hall/opera house, is that both performances require dierent acousticdesign strategies. In order to combine these into one, some element of quality has to be compromised, as well as adjustable elements need to be added to the program. These include openable bafflethat act as reverberationchambers to adjust for dierent levels of sound, as well as dierent qualities of people in the audience

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Relationships

The two main types of theater halls are Vineyard and Shoebox. Vineyard halls are a fairly modern idea; here the audience is seated in terraces reminiscent to a vineyard. The seatingmay either partiallyor completely circle the stage. The classic hall, Shoebox, has a rectangular shape and the rough proportionsof a tennis-shoe box. High volume, narrow width, and multiplelevels of audience are key characteristics. Shoebox halls are actually superior to Vineyard halls in terms of envelopment, source strength, and minimal seat variation.Rectangular halls provide early sound reflectionwith narrow and parallel side walls that envelop listeners and increase clarity. Wall surfaces do not need to be smooth; it is actually beer to have highly diffusie walls that scaer the sound. The best halls have gently sloping or flt floos and elevated orchestra plaorms. Standard theaters and auditoriums have raked seatingfor beer sightlines, though in the case of opera and concert halls, it is best to have the orchestra plaorm at or above the height on the last row of seats. This ensures that clear sound can reach the back of a room, rather than gettintrapped in the pit. The orchestra has to be able to hear themselves, reflece surfaces are a must. Since the stage in Shoebox halls is located at one end of the space, right up against a highly reflece surface, sound is confinedto a 90-degree lateral angle. Compared to Vineyard halls where the orchestra is in the middle and sound radiates into the full 360-degree space, the sound strength is higher in Shoebox halls.

For a concert hall/opera house there are three main types of rehearsal spaces. It is important that each has their own space as the requires for each are not shared. The fist of these is the instrumental practiceareas. This oen requires the most space, as well as the most volume. It is important that these spaces are separated from other rehearsal rooms to avoid interference as well as have a large number of absorptie surfaces to dampen some of the volume that comes from a large orchestra. Choral rehearsal spaces have the ability to be a bit smaller in area and volume, as well as have slightly more flxibility with room finishes. Ballet rehearsal spaces are completely dierent and can not truly serve as music practice spaces.

Two Main Types of Theaters

Characteristics of the "Best" Hall

Guidelines for Balcony Dimensions

Initial Explorations

Site Strategies

Since the site is over 20 acres there is quite a lot of space to decide on where to integrate the building into the landscape. Here, three optionsbecame apparent.

The fist of which was to utilie the topography and prominence of the site by looking at the top of the hill as the locationof the building. This would maximize the ability to be able to take advantage of and frame views of the city, something this site has been known for hundreds of years. This also allows the building to be best seen throughout many points in the city.

The second optionwas to integrate the structure into the urban fabric utilizingthe lower portionof the hill and truly connectingit with the city. This allows the green space of the hill to be undisturbed and for the concert hall to serve as a gateway to this upper portionof the hill. Here the best views of the city are actually not from the building, but from the site created by looking it at the base. One of the thoughts on this optionhowever was that this seemed to be a wasted opportunity to utilie the hill of the site itself, potentiallyallowing some other program to come in later and utilie it.

The third optionwas to intervene on the site by trying to restore it to some of its original form. Likely during the Russian or Soviet periods of the city’s past, the site was badly sculpted and terraced, almost in anticiptionof a grand master plan that must have never come to fruition. This strategy would take the building and lower it into the site itself, allowing for the visible portions,specifially the roof, to act as the symbol of the previous, natural topography. This optionhowever also seemed to be a missed opportunity of utilizing the pominence of the site.

It became clear that the upper site was the best candidate for this project to explore an intervention that could best represent Vilnius and Lithuania.

Building Strategies

This is where the project begins to explore how a concert hall can begin to support and create a relationshipwith the city and country that it is tasked with representing. Once again, multipleoptions were explored as potentialways to proceed with the project. By selectingthe upper site, a major theme of the project became the idea of Seeing and Being Seen. This involves definingpoints where users of the building or site can take advantage of the amazing views of the city of Vilnius, but it also involves making sure the building can be seen from many points within the city. One of the powerful elements of the previous building was its ability to be seen from so many points in the city. This new structure needs to act as an anchor and be seen throughout. The idea of a civic building also begins to rise in importance. As evident in the period aer the independence in 1991, Vilnius has been forced to continuallybuild civic structures that had been moved or demolished before the previous years of politial override. This concert hall also serves this purpose. The fist explorationlooks at the idea of prominence is the sense of a long, horizontal structure that opens up at the base to allow for people and the spirit of the green space to seamlessly travel from one side to the other, uninterrupted like it is currently. This frames the views of the city, as well as provides the maximum views from inside along the longest face of the building. The vertial ascension into the space adds to the experientialvantage points of the city. Private and public spaces are divided by the grid as well as the circulation of the space

The second explorationfocuses on the idea of vertiality. This is a derivatie of the to See and to Be Seen approach by raising the building as high as possible to take advantage of the views of the city that could be best appreciated from above the trees, overlooking all directionsof the city. In this iteration,a vineyard theater plan is utilied, giving the form to the massing of the building. Since each level underneath does not require the same amount of space as the theater above, the building slowly tapers. Every other level frames the views of the New City Center to the north and the older, more rural parts of the city to the south. It was ultimtely decided that a more vertial approach such as this, beer utilied and developed the visual connections necessary between the site and the city.

Precedents and References

Many dierent precedents were used throughout the evolutionof the project. This began with the explorationof a selectionof houses to beer understand the compositionalstrategies that were used in their creation. This was primarily the Stone House by Emilio Tunon. As this compositional strategy was not the one explored in this project, a further discussion of this house can be found in the appendix. Two houses that did have more of an impact on this project are the House Without Qualitiesby O.M. Ungers and the Turegano House by Alberto Campo Baeza. The grid like modulation and locationof the vertial circulationservice of the House Without Qualitieswere originally used as a means to organize similar features of this project. The Turegano House's influencecan be seem more in sectionas the varying floorheights begin to alternatie and oset to create dynamic light filled spaces.

Outside of the compositioal strategy study a couple of dierent structures truly helped to clarify some thought in terms of challenges that were being encountered. One of those challenges was in going vertial. By going in this directionto try and take advantage of the views of the city, unique circulation and structural concerns became apparent. The MAS Museum by Neutelings Riedij explores what it means to vercally ascend by means of a journey. It would have been very simple for this concert hall project to just have a series of elevators to take concert goers up to the theater lobby, but what is truly gained in that experience. Gettinto and from the concert hall is half the experience of going out to the theater. The MAS Museum uses a system of hallways and stairs that wrap around the perimeter of the building to provide views of Antwerp while also allowing patrons to get to the destintionthat need. La Coruna Center for the Arts by aceboxalonso was also used throughout many stages of the project. It will be seen again in the envelope discussion, but was mainly used in the beginning as a way to organize and create places, more than just a series of rooms supportinga concert hall, but places where people would want to be and to gather, talk with some friends aer a concert and have a good time

The manifestationof this design has been challenging to say the least. It was decided very early on that the concert hall needed to be at the top of the building, as an ending point for the vertial journey. With this however came many dierent challenges. One of these is the competiti for the perimeter. In a building that needs to take advantage of the views of the surrounding city, it would make sense that the circulationand gathering spaces would be located on the perimeter. This is however convoluted by placing the theater at the top. By doing this, a large amount of egress and mechanical space is required. In a normal vertial building these services would be placed in a central core, or two at either end. Since the theater is at the center of the upper levels, this is not so simple. Puttinthe cores on the outer ends blocks many of the major views of the city. Much experimentationhas occurred in trying to findan appropriate locationfor these services. Currently, placing them along the longer lengths of both sides is working the best. This allows the circulationto then occupy the perimeter. While the interior space would ideally enjoy the natural light as well, many of these spaces are not well suited for windows anyway, and aempts are made to bring light into the offic spaces from the outer façade.

As the project has evolved through its many iterations,the form of vercal circulationhas evolved into a 1:20 sloped ramp system that slowly brings the patron around the building. Most of the dimensions of the building are dictated by the required length of this ramp, or the width of the theater itself. Providing access to all the landings and theater also added to the struggle. Ultimtely aer eight dierent iterations, an organizationand clarity began to come over the project as the balance for circulation,height, access, and functionall began to come together. The final steps were evaluatingan envelope for the facade. This also took some trial and error, but have led the project to where it is today, or as I like to call it, the current iteration

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Looking at the site plan and section,the prominence of the site begins to come into play. Placed on the top of Tauras Hill and standing at over 150' tall, the building has the ability to be seen throughout many points within the city. One of those in particular is Lukiskes Square, which has axially oriented the site for over 200 years. By selectingthe site of the previous building it is important to note that this new contributionis not a nod to the previous Soviet era planning and construction,but more of a rejectionof the previous building style. From a site standpoint, this did not mean rejectingthe locationof the old building, but instead embracing it as one of the most proven prominent points in the city. The building is ultiately four sided allowing for 360 degree views of the city. It would be easy to focus mainly on the historic Old Town or straight ahead to the New City skyscrapers, but the city of Vilnius and the surrounding countryside of Lithuania surround the building on all four sides. By placing the building at the top of the hill it also leaves the sloping parts of the hill itself to the people of the city, to come gather and have a picnic or to watch the sunset of the Vingis Park to the west. This site is more than just a host to a concert hall, but to a civic center overlooking a thriving city and being viewed upon by the world.

Current Iteration

To See and to Be Seen, that is truly the heart of this project. All iterationshave been made in a search for continuedclarity and focus on the main idea. Before even arriving at the site, the visitor can see their destintionoffin the distance overlooking the city of Vilnius. On foot or by car, a climb has to be made up to the top. The main entrance is on the south side as the building shields the spectacular views that are about to come. On the exterior the three-story ramping structure can be seen, and people fillthe landings. The transparent façade allows for views of the city, but also for people to view the art and culture that happens inside. Entering the building can occur in two ways. The fist is through the main entry doors that lead to a grand four-story lobby space. Natural light and views of the city poor in on three sides. People can be seen talking and gathering on each landing of the ramp. A grand escalator is front and center to transport those here for the concert up to the concert hall. The building is more than just a space for hold a concert hall, but a space that be used as a heart of culture and civic pride for the city, with areas for taken in the city, impromptu concerts, and even a café. The entrance to the café serves as the other way to enter the building. The fist sequence of the ramp is outside and leads up to a grand terrace overlooking the city. From here patrons can enter the café and have a cup of coee and take in the views of the city, even when the rest of the building is closed.

The building is organized into three components, interconnected by a series of vertial circulationand service cores. At the top of this is the concert hall itself, a terminal on the vertial journey that every building user must take. Making up the base is the lobby on the western side and a support tower on the east. These floos house the officesrehearsal rooms, and meeting spaces that help make the building and performances function. Down underground are workshop and warehouse spaces in additionto all the mechanical equipment.

The Ramp

A main focal point within the building is the ribbon of ramp that wraps around the perimeter of the building and allows for continuousviews of the city throughout its journey. Sloped at 1:20, it gently rises one floor level per side, providing a connectionbetween all the levels of the building, interconnectingthem together. While there is a natural tendency to think of the ramp as ascending, it became apparent throughout the design process that its true potentialis in the descend aer the concert. The central escalator in a much more eectie means of transportingpatrons up towards the concert hall. It was decided that this would terminate two levels short of the concert hall however. This would allow all concert goers to make one pass around the building, taking in a 360-degree view of the city before their concert begins. As it would be understood that many people would be in a rush to get up to the theater before their show starts, the descending actionhas more potential. Here it can be seen how the art of the building, the music begins to change people. People are in a dierent state of mind than when they entered. Instead of rushing down to the boom, the slowly wind their way down, talking with friends or gathering on the landings. The pace is dierent. The mindset is dierent. Eventually the patron makes it back down to the city, this time with a slightly dierent perspectie and view of the city the inhabit.

The landings of the ramp, which happen on each north and south side of the building begin to actiate the ramp and make it more than just circulation. The fist landing is technically at the base of the building and serves as the main entry area. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our world, this would also be where the security checkpoint would be. Due to the nature of the ramps, the landings alternate between north and south on each level that they go up. On the second level, the landing is on the north side and overlooks the great views of the city. This landing serves as café and dining space for people to get a bite to eat in the building, even when there is not a concert. The third-flor landing is back on the south side and is the musicians landing. This level connects with the rehearsal rooms and musicians can expand outward and use the landings to fill the lobby with space. With all of the landings and ramps surrounding the lobby, it becomes almost like a second theater with all the people that can gather in the space. The fourth-floorlanding serves as a transitionfrom the escalator to the finalramp loop to the theater lobby. This area would be quite busy on concert nights. Finally the sixth floorhouses the concert hall and here the landing expands to form the entry into the grand hall itself.

At the theater level, the best views of the city can be seen. This is truly the climax of the journey, right before the patron enters into the hall itself. The journey begins and ends at this very lobby overlooking the city. Designing a concert hall could be a studio project within itself and due to the nature of this course, there was just littleopportunity to do a deep dive into what this concert hall would look like. Two things are known, however. The fist is the quality of the main hall to truly be a jewel within a box so to speak. With all the glass wrapping the building and concrete supportingit, the main hall truly serves as a warm wooden clad object nestled within the shell. This can be seen in the many concert hall types studied for context. Also known is the importance that the vertiality be continuedinside, with a main sloping level in additionto two upper balconies. Not completely necessary for a concert hall for 1600 people, but important to strengthen the importance of seeing things from a new perspectie.

Passive Strategies

As mentionedmultipletimesabove, the passive strategies for this project stem from the architectural intentionto have an all glass façade and how best to address some of the negatie consequences that come with this. Multiplestrategies were looked at try and mitiate some of these. The fist was through shading fins,looking at a project in England by SAMYN and Partners. This is the textbook applicationof a lot of passive strategies. Unfortunately, with the climate in Vilnius, shading devices are not necessarily the most eectie strategy, as there are few months where the light from the sun is too warm to be comfortable. It is more oen the opposite, where the cold air up against the glass requires large actie systems to combat this. With the double skin façade on the building, four passive strategies where looked at and how they relate to the season that they work within. The fist is in the summer. Here the height of the building helps to draw the hot air upwards and out. In the winter, the double skin can best be described as a layer of insulation. Instead of the cold air blowing up against the glass, it is filered through the space in between where the sun has the opportunity to warm it. This decreases the amount of energy it will take on the inside to warm this glass up. When it comes to natural ventiltion,the door can be opened, especially during the evenings aer everyone has leftfrom a concert, and this natural ventiltioncan help assist the standard actie systems with cooling the building and puttinin fresh air. The finalpassive strategy that relates to this system is actually about what is behind it. Both that ramp and the core walls are concrete and act as a thermal mass when they are warmed by the sun. This would be especially eectie in the fall and spring.

Summer Mode: Heat Flushing Mode

Winter Mode: Thermal Buffer, Insulating Space

Sefaira Analysis

Sefaira is a powerful tool to help analyze a project, in this case, for daylightingand energy usage in response to that. It is important to note however that due to the complexity of the building with the double skin façade, perimeter ramp ribbon, and deep, multi-heigt interior spaces, that looking at some of this analysis it is clear that in reality the building would not perform exactly as mapped. In particularhow light would make it to the center of the building would be much less. Regardless, this study was stillvery informatie and eye-opening. Unfortunately, it was completed at the end of the project, as if it were completed earlier one major change would have been made in response. This is the materiality of the center wall dividing the lobby and officsupport spaces in the base of the building. It has always been thought that this wall should be solid to provide a strong separationbetween the spaces and the lobby, but this study points out that the majority of the natural light that would be making it into those spaces would be coming from the south, and therefore needs to come through a more transparent surface. Relying solely on light from between the cores on the east wall will not cut it.

As would be expected, the building is heat dominated. One factor that Sefaira did not look at however was the impact on having 1600 plus people in the building at a given time,as this would begin to have an eect on that. Also not unexpected, one of the largest impacts on heatingis glazing conduction. It is not known how well Sefaira can simulate the eects of the double skin façade however.

Technical Development

Structural, Envelope, Mechanical

An important component of this course is to integrate the design and implementationof technical systems into the process of design. This is accomplished in three components, structure, envelope, and passive/actie strategies. All projects must represent a level of understanding for each of these sections. It is important to note however that most architects or designers will never in their careers go to the level that some of these assignments have asked, but it is imperatie for all designers to have an understanding of how all the elements work and how they need to be integrated together. For a vertial building such as this, if space for mechanical systems was not thought of and priorized at the beginning of the project, it would have been impossible to implement a heatingand cooling system. Figuring out the structural system of the envelope was a necessary step in the architectural design of the envelope as well. All of the stages of the process work together towards one goal of a fully integrated project. At timesone or two of the components may have been behind, but constantly looking over everything at once, they all and get caught up quite quickly.

Section Contents

72 Passive Strategies

75 Climate Analysis by Season 76 Building Passive Strategies

78 Sefaira Analysis

80 Active Strategies

82 System Selection

84 System Sizing

85 Mechanical Axonometric

86 Distribution

87 Mechanical Plans

Structural

The structural system for the building was selected by initiallylooking at two alternatie materials. The vertial nature of the building and placing of the concert hall at the top creates some unique challenges when it comes to structure. It was known that any columns would have to be prettysignifiant and have a major eect on the layout of the support spaces below. Concrete and steel were both looked but a concrete structural system was selected due to the need to keep the floorpackage a small as possible. This was necessary due to the ramp. Any additional floorto floorheight additionsmeant the ramp would need to be extended, oen a signifiant amount. In terms of acoustics,concrete also has beer qualities. This led to a full concrete system with a two-way flt slab to further reduce the floorsystem. All of this will be sized in the following pages. The other decisions that had to be made was the locationof the structural system. La Kursaal, a concert hall by Rafael Moneo utilied a unique structural system that separated the concert hall from the rest of the building. Unfortunately, this project was the inverse of this and would have required the concert hall to be suspended above the support spaces below and it was decided that this was not necessary to convey the meaning behind the design. Other precedents were looked at for beer understanding how to structurally treat an architectural object or “jewel” within the surrounding system.

The modulationfor the project in plan is predominantly based on a 30’ by 30’ grid system. This is cut in half wherever there is a central component of vertial circulation,either the ramp or the escalator. The other variationto this in within the structural cores, four to be exact, that are located on the corners. This was an early organizationaldecision to make sure that adequate egress and service could be maintained. These are 20’ wide. In section,the building is based on a 12’ floorto floorheight modulationon the levels up to the theater. At this point it transitionsto 18’ floor o floor o accommodate the balconies.

La Kursaal, Rafael Moneo

Plan Modulation

Breaking the structure down into components, the fist in the base structure. These columns and floos support and frame in all of the service and support spaces as well as create a base for the theater above. Second is the structure for said theater. Here the frequent columns are replaced with a large open space framed at the top by steel trusses. The whole building is laterally braced by the four core structures that be seen here as well. The third and finalcomponent is the structure for the envelope and ramp structure. These steel columns support the gravity loads of the façade as well as the outer portionof the ramp. The ramp is used to tiethe double skin façade by to the concrete walls of the core for lateral support.

The fist element sized was the concrete columns. Due to the height of the building, these columns qualifiedfor the tall column chart in the Architect’s Studio Companion. While the floo-to-floorheight is predominantly 12’, there are instances where this is doubled to 24’. An unbraced height of 24’ was therefore used the minimum value and a 20” column was selected. As mentionedpreviously, a two-way concrete slab was the ideal floorsystem for acousticsseparationand space efficien. The largest span distance for this slab is 30’ which led to the selectionof a 12” floorslab. This is only the structural portion,as additionalsound insulationand topcoat are added to this for another 4”. Since the connectionbetween the column and floorslab is so small relatiely speaking, a drop panel needed to be sized in order to make this connectionstronger. The depth of this panel needed to be 1/3 of the depth of the slab, therefore 4”. This same 1/3 coefficit was used in the long directionmaking each drop panel 10’ square.

Critical Sections

This sectionmost clearly shows the delineation between the structure of the lower levels and that of the theater. This sectionalso highlights an area of the lobby where horizontal cross bracing needed to be used as the unbraced length exceeded the 24’ sized. A large column could have been used, but it was decided that the bracing was a beer option. The structure for the envelope can also be seen in this section. Supported by a concrete beam tiedback to the structural cores, the ramp spans 15’ would to a HSS beam supported by columns every 15’. Outside of this, the double skin façade is aached.

To See and To Be

To See and To Be Seen S1.4 Balcony

Roger Williams University Lucas Hartman Roof

Structural Plan 12/13/2020

Structural Roof Plan

Structural Plan 12/13/2020

Envelope

The envelope was one of the most challenging parts of the project to design. By this point in the project it was known that the envelope would play a central role in communicatingthe main idea of being seen and being able to see. This would therefore require a large amount of glazing along the ramp and perimeter of the building. Three possible choices were believed to be options. The fist is a full exterior wall of glass and nothing else. Completly connected with the city on all four sides. In climate like the one in Vilnius however this seemed like a rather irresponsible move as the insulatingvalue of even the best glass would require a massive amount of energy to overcome Lithuanian winters. This lefttwo options, a full wall of glass with a double skin to provide some protection,or to be selecve in window placement. Initiallytwo dierent case studies were looked at. The fist of which is the Skolkovo University by Herzog and DeMeuron. Here the building was clad in some vertial slats of wood, becoming less dense in areas where windows were located. The historic wooden vernacular architecture of Vilnius seemed to make a strong case for this type of materiality. When this was aempted to be integrated into the Vilnius project it became apparent that there were a few issues that would make it a more challenging application. Since the programmaticportionsof the building were pulled back from the perimeter, it was rather difficul to come up with a strategy for choosing the locationof the slats. A similar issue came up aer looking at the second case study, La Coruna by aceboxalonso. Here the double skin façade is quite eectie in managing environmental impacts but has major impacts on the visibility outward. In order to facilitate this, windows would have to be placed so frequently it would make this strategy rather ineectie.

Ultimtely a third precedent was looked at, this time in Pittsurgh PA, an area with a rather similar climate. The Tower at PNC Plaza was worked on by a powerful team of designers and engineers headed by Gensler. This building has a double skin façade that allows great visibility as well as passive strategies for colder climates. This envelope was modifiedand adapted for use on this concert hall in Vilnius. There are two main components. The fist is the inner envelope. This is a sealed layer with triple pane, passive low-e glass. It is specifially engineered to improve insulatingvalues in colder climates. It has a nighttim U-Value of 0.32 and has a visible light transmiance of 76%. Located within this layer are mechanically operated ventiltiondampers. These boxes open and close to allow the outside air to enter the spaces and provide natural ventiltion. Because of the outer envelope discussed next, this air that comes through these units is already much calmer than the true ambient air would be. Additionalcomments on this are discussed in the passive strategies section

The outer envelope is what would be seen from throughout the city. This is an unsealed clear glass that allows small amounts of air to enter into the cavity between the two layers. As not all points on the journey throughout the building require completely unobstructed views, more translucent panels are substitued and provide a rhythm to the façade.

Structure and Lateral Bracing

400 Glass Passive Low-E Glass Engineered to Improve InsulatingValues in Heating-Dominted Climates Winter Nighttime Ualue of 0.32

Ultra-Clear Glass

Low-Iron Glass, Most Transparent Commercially Available Architectural Glass Standard 1-Inch IGU with Clear Glass Visible Light Transmiance of 84%

Working from the inside outward, the main structural framework of the building is concrete, and is discussed in more detail in the structure section. This wall assembly cuts through the structural core. On the interior this is leftexposed, but above and below to ramp system this needs some additionallayers. First is an AVWB layer to protect the concrete. Outside of this is a small layer of mineral wool insulation. Due to the depth of the concrete not much is needed. A horizontal z-girt system holds this insulationand supports the fibeglass concrete panels.

Within the ramp area, a precast concrete ramp slab tiesthe outer structure back to the core. In this space is a supply heatingduct that wraps around the complete perimeter of the building. This is necessary to prevent the downdraftof cold air that would inevitably occur in the winter with a curtain wall of this size. A steel column and beam system is used to support the ramp and curtain walls. This next layer is the sealed inner envelope. Due to the height of the windows, a signifiant sized mullion has to be used. This mullion is connected to the edge of the slab and is thermally broken. At the base of this window is the natural ventiltioncontrol box with an insulated door than can be opened and closed to allow air to enter the space. Outside of this is a 2’ space for cleaning and servicing. A catwalk is supported by a bracket at each mullion. These support the catwalk as well as the outer glass panel which has gaps between the panels to allow air to circulate.

MATERIAL KEY

1 ROOF ASSEMBLY

-MECHANICALLY FASTENED MEMBRANE ROOFING

-1/2" PROTECTION BOARD

-7" RIGID INSULATION (SLOPED AT 1" PER FOOT)

-CONTINUOUS AVWB

-1/2" EXTERIOR SHEATHING

-12" CONCRETE SLAB

2 CONCRETE PANEL WALL ASSEMBLY

-EQUITONE FIBRE CEMENT FACADE PANELS

-EQUITONE UNI-RIVET CONNECTORS -VERTICAL ATTACHMENT TRACK SYSTEM

-GALV. STEEL Z-GIRT

-3" CONTINUOUS MINERAL WOOL INSULATION

-CONTINUOUS AVWB -CAST IN PLACE CONCRETE WALL

AVWB

-12" SLAB ON GRADE

5 DOUBLE SKIN GLASS FACADE ASSEMBLY

-1" STARPHIRE ULTRA-CLEAR GLASS WITH 2" GAPS

-4"x6" STRUCTURAL MULLIONS

-2' METAL CATWALK FOR MAINTENANCE AND

To analyze the wall assembly four components will be looked at: structure, energy, waterproofin/ moisture, and insulation. For the structure, the gravity loads are carried by the concrete wall and the steel column. The ramp tiesthese elements together and provides the lateral bracing for the envelope. One of the main reasons for selectingthis double skin system was positie eects it could have on energy consumption. More detail can be found on the next pages of the passive strategies, but simply the double layers help to insulate the inner spaces from the extreme outdoor temperatures and winds by providing a buer zone. Waterproofingand moisture control run outside the concrete walls and run up into the mullion of the curtain wall system which has systems in place to manage those factors. The perimeter HVAC system also helps to defrost if any issues arise. Finally, is insulation. Even the best glass can not compete with insulationso there will always be some level of compromise here. All of the components of the ramp area are insulated. Even the door on the natural ventiltioncontrol box is insulated to prevent unwanted air to enter.

Passive Strategies

In order to understand the need and eectieness of any passive strategies, the climate fist needs to be analyzed. As noted previously, Vilnius is a four-season environment and has to have systems, passive or actie, to combat each of these. As can be seen from the Psychrometric Chart from Climate Consultant, without actie heatingsystems, it is only possible to be within the comfort zone for less than 30% of the year. Vilnius is predominantly a heatingclimate, so this makes sense. There are a few strategies however, especially in the summer months, that can have major eects. Integratingnatural ventiltionhas the ability to reduce the amount of air-conditioningthat would need to be required, since the need was so small anyway. One of the largest percentages for passive strategies is heat gain. This is where concrete and wall will hopefully assist with some of the heating demand that is required in the winter.

The multicultual heritage of Vilnius gave the city a broad range of architectural styles and types of construction.Many historic buildings are Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical styles. Each has their own distinctappearance, including compositionalelements and finishes,which oen have been modifiedfrom their Western European counterparts. Several of these places withstood the test of me and war, and stillstand today. Others were lost during the war but were rebuilt in an aempt to bring back the lost cultural heritage. This challenge is sll something that Vilnius is working through as it tries to build its own architectural identitypost 1991. At the turn of the 20th Century, Vilnius was faced with modernization.In an aempt to do so, the city established metal bridges, steam power, street lightin, and electric power. Prior to 1940, most of the buildings were constructed out of wood, which was viewed by the Soviets as inferior. Any imagery of the country was censored to shun this wooden architecture. The Soviet occupationalso brought upon the creationof microdistricts, self-sustaining towers of residentialand public services. These places mimicked the radical change brought on by the republic, with monolithic construction,poor quality, straight line design and a distinctgrey color. Any vernacular architecture that was created to naturally respond to the environment and climate of the city was replaced with structures that could be placed anywhere in the world, with no regards to the region or climate.

Psychrometric Chart, Winter

Psychrometric Chart, Summer

Psychrometric Chart, Fall

Passive Strategies

As mentionedmultipletimesabove, the passive strategies for this project stem from the architectural intentionto have an all glass façade and how best to address some of the negatie consequences that come with this. Multiplestrategies were looked at try and mitiate some of these. The fist was through shading fins,looking at a project in England by SAMYN and Partners. This is the textbook applicationof a lot of passive strategies. Unfortunately, with the climate in Vilnius, shading devices are not necessarily the most eectie strategy, as there are few months where the light from the sun is too warm to be comfortable. It is more oen the opposite, where the cold air up against the glass requires large actie systems to combat this. With the double skin façade on the building, four passive strategies where looked at and how they relate to the season that they work within. The fist is in the summer. Here the height of the building helps to draw the hot air upwards and out<> In the winter, the double skin can best be described as a layer of insulation. Instead of the cold air blowing up against the glass, it is filered through the space in between where the sun has the opportunity to warm it. This decreases the amount of energy it will take on the inside to warm this glass up. When it comes to natural ventiltion,the door can be opened, especially during the evenings aer everyone has leftfrom a concert, and this natural ventiltioncan help assist the standard actie systems with cooling the building and puttinin fresh air. The finalpassive strategy that relates to this system is actually about what is behind it. Both that ramp and the core walls are concrete and act as a thermal mass when they are warmed by the sun. This would be especially eectie in the fall and spring.

Summer Mode: Heat Flushing Mode

Winter Mode: Thermal Buffer, Insulating Space

Sefaira Analysis

Sefaira is a powerful tool to help analyze a project, in this case, for daylightingand energy usage in response to that. It is important to note however that due to the complexity of the building with the double skin façade, perimeter ramp ribbon, and deep, multi-heigt interior spaces, that looking at some of this analysis it is clear that in reality the building would not perform exactly as mapped. In particularhow light would make it to the center of the building would be much less. Regardless, this study was stillvery informatie and eye-opening. Unfortunately, it was completed at the end of the project, as if it were completed earlier one major change would have been made in response. This is the materiality of the center wall dividing the lobby and officsupport spaces in the base of the building. It has always been thought that this wall should be solid to provide a strong separationbetween the spaces and the lobby, but this study points out that the majority of the natural light that would be making it into those spaces would be coming from the south, and therefore needs to come through a more transparent surface. Relying solely on light from between the cores on the east wall will not cut it.

As would be expected, the building is heat dominated. One factor that Sefaira did not look at however was the impact on having 1600 plus people in the building at a given time,as this would begin to have an eect on that. Also not unexpected, one of the largest impacts on heatingis glazing conduction. It is not known how well Sefaira can simulate the eects of the double skin façade however.

When is comes to actie strategies for heatingand cooling, this building has a large demand, and some unique qualitiesthat make this more difficult To start the building was divided up into zones. The fist zone is the theater itself. Located at the top of the building, this proved to be a positie and a negatie. One of the concerns with a concert hall is to separate the mechanical equipment acoustially and physically from the performance space. The best strategy is to have the mechanical equipment in the basement as well as this reduces the vibrations in the structure. This however meant that large vertial shaftswould be needed to run the ductwork up to the concert hall. A conventionalcooling tower is quite noisy as well, so any opportunity to move away from this would be a positie. Geothermal was evaluated as an alternatie source to this. One of the key characteristicsto selectinga geothermal system is that both heatingand cooling must be used in order to oset the changes in temperature that are being pumped into the ground. Since the theater and atrium spaces are both spaces with large numbers of occupant loads, a moderate amount of cooling can be expected even on colder days. These means geothermal is a fittiapplicationfor both of these spaces. Speaking of the atrium spaces, this is another zone within the building. Here the main concern is to address the glazing conditions around the perimeter. The major concern here if for the potentialof downdraftas the air falls in front of the window, gettincolder, before moving into the space. Having perimeter distributionis essentialto combatingthis. Both the service and support spaces also require their own systems as well and need to have their own zones.

Users Will Put Off Lage Amounts of Body Heat

Heat Will Likely Only Be Needed During Down Times

Area Will Need Adequate Heat with Individualized Control

Ceiling Height is at a Premium

Zone Will Benefit fom Heat Gain from all the Glass

Glass Also Can Never be as Efficit as Other Means, Requiring Heating at the Perimeter to Make Up for the Heat Loss

Will Require Heat but Can Be at a Lower Temperature/Comfort Level than the Rest of the Building

Zone is Located Near Mechanical Equipment

Will Require High Cooling Loads Due to Large Amounts of People in the Spaces

Cooling Has to Be Quick Responding as Well

Zone Will Require High Amounts of Ventiltion Due o the Number of People in the Space

Natural Ventiltion and the Conditioning of the Space Surrounding the Support Spaces will Help Cooling

Some Small Amounts May Be Used

Due to the Large Number of People using the Space, Some Cooling will be Required

Natural Ventiltion will Help with This Though

Little o No Cooling Would Be Required Underground

May Require More Than Natural Ventiltio

Ceiling Height is at a Premium

Height of Space Will Allow for Natural Ventiltio

Due to Large Number of People in the Space, This Will Need to Be Supplemented

Large Amounts of Ventiltion Will Be Required Due to Trucks, Equipment, and the Type of Work Performed

Conv. HVAC

Air

Less Noisy w/ AHU in Basement

Has Ventiltion Include

Conv. HVAC

Water

Geothermal

Closed Loop

Less Space is Required with Pipes than Ducts

Negative

Space for Ducts

Pollution fom Boiler and Cooling Towers if Used

Noisier with Mini AHU in Each Space or Radiator/ Fan Box

No Ventiltio

Replaces Noisy Boiler and Cooling Towers

Lower Level of Pollutio

Geothermal

Open Web

Radiant System

More Consistent Water Temperature

Costly to Install

Still equires Energy to Run Pumps

ERV

Smallest Profile in Floor/Ceilin

Heating and Cooling is ossible

Not An Option on this Sie

No Ventiltio

Not Good for Large Spaces with Many People

Helps Provide Ventiltion with Minimal Ductwork

May Be Quite Noisy in Space

Forced Air System is Required to Meet Needs of Ventiltio

Will Require Limited Heating During Rehearsals but will Also Require Cooling During Performances, Making

Low Floor to Floor Heights Make Ductwork a Challenge

Surrounding Atrium will Dampen a Large Amount of the Heat Meaning Minimal Cooling

Forced Air System is Required to Move Enough Air for the Number of Potential eople in the Space

The Double Skin Facade will Assist with Cooling and Ventiltion During Non-Peak Hours

Since the System is Already in Place in Most of the Building, It Can Be Expanded for This Space

Primarily Used for Large Amounts of Ventiltion and Het

Geothermal Tubes Under Building Heat Pump

Potentially owered by Solar Air Handling Unit Ductwork

High Efficiency Boil

Potentially owered by Solar Heat Pump Manifolds

Coils

ERV in Each Area

Geothermal Tubes Under Building Heat Pump

Potentially owered by Solar Air Handling Unit Ductwork

Geothermal Tubes Under Building Heat Pump

Potentially owered by Solar Air Handling Unit Ductwork

In sizing the equipment, The Architect’s Studio Companion was used to base the calculationoffof the square footage of each zone. These charts lead to a series of numbers and sizes of required equipment. It is also important to note that in additionalto square footage, the sizing and selectionof the equipment is relatie to the number of occupants in that space, which in this case can oen be quite large. The atrium will require the largest system with the theater not far behind. Using this process, all of the duct work can also be sized for distributionthroughout the building. The one zone that has a dierent system is the support tower. Due to the lower number of occupants, and being completely surrounded by conditionedspace, a radiant system of selected as a way for users to have individualized control over their space. Ventiltionwas stillrequired however. Instead of using multipleERV units, a zone wide unit was placed in the basement. Since this system would not be responsible for cooling, it was allowed to be sized at 25% the numbers received from the charts above.

The geothermal system needs to be quite substantial for this building. Placed underneath the building it requires 94 boreholes to be drilled to a depth of 600’. These are spaced 21’ apart and divided up into zones that correspond to the three spaces that use HVAC systems. The radiant system was also sized. Here only 400 square feet can be cover by a coil, requiring many dierent coils to be connected back to a manifold on each floorbefore connectingdown to a high efficiencboiler in the basement. The boiler also assists with heatingfor the service zone, as the lack of need for cooling will make the geothermal less efficit. The boiler is vented through a chimney up through the roof.

The distributionof the system is centered around the locationof the eight vertial chases that run throughout the building. Without these, it is not sure if any of this would be possible. The shaftsin the four corners provide distributionfor the perimeter system. Each side of the building is controlled separately as dierent timesof the day will require dierent amounts of heatin/cooling on dierent sides of the building. Four vertial ducts travel upward and branch out at each level of the ramp. The return main is right next to this, but instead of the vents being located at the perimeter, they are located in the wall of the core. The two largest ducts are connected to the theater. The theater has a floor based distributionsystem that allows for slow and quiet distributionof the air right where it is needed most. The return is placed up in the ceiling, pulling the air upward and removing the hot, stale air at the top. Ventiltionducts for the support tower are also run on the east side of the building in the two other shaftsthat are not utilied by the theater ducts. These also branch out at the three levels of the base. All of the mechanical equipment itself in located in the basement. All three Air Handling Units, the ERV, and high efficiencboiler fillthe lower space. It goes without saying that there are many potentialerrors on how the distributionis laid out on this lowest level, but it should be eectie enough to communicate the complexity of connectingducts from their respectie unit to their specific shft loation

This critial sectiontakes a look at the system and how it relates to the structural and building as a whole. Starng at the top, the theater zone has the return in the ceiling and the supply can be seen entering the plenum under the floo. While laying this out, it became apparent that it would have been a beer idea to have the service level underneath the theater have an 18’ floorto floorheight as well as the other levels above. This would have eects on the ramp, but additionl space is required for the large main that needs to get from the shaftinto the plenum. Additionalspace underneath the space would also be a positie gain. While radiant floor tubing cannot be seen as it is running parallel to the sectioncut, the ventiltionducts sized at 25% can be seen running in the support tower. Also to note are the perimeter ducts that wrap around the ramp structure to help combat the downdraft. Finally, the heart of it all, the basement shows the mess of ductwork and equipment that is required to heat and cool a building of this shape and size.

Appendix Black and White Set, Previous Assignments

A4 Black and White Set Scaled to Fit Booklet

A44 Assignment 1

Site Analysis

Envelope Studies

A68 Assignment 2

Site Strategies Acoustics Stud Program Analysis

Compositional Stud Building Strategies

A118 Assignment 3

Preliminary Design Framework

A130 Assignment 4

Structure

A166 Assignment 5

Envelope

A184 Assignment 6

Passive Strategies

Actie Systems

MATERIAL KEY

1 ROOF ASSEMBLY

-MECHANICALLY FASTENED MEMBRANE ROOFING

-1/2" PROTECTION BOARD

-7" RIGID INSULATION (SLOPED AT 1 2" PER FOOT)

-CONTINUOUS AVWB

-1/2" EXTERIOR SHEATHING

-12" CONCRETE SLAB

3 BELOW GRADE WALL ASSEMBLY

-1/2" DRAINAGE BOARD

-3" RIGID FOAM INSULATION

-CONTINUOUS AVWB

-CAST IN PLACE CONCRETE WALL

5 DOUBLE SKIN GLASS FACADE ASSEMBLY

-1" STARPHIRE ULTRA-CLEAR GLASS WITH 2" GAPS

-4"x6" STRUCTURAL MULLIONS

-2' METAL CATWALK FOR MAINTENANCE AND CLEANING

-SUPPORT BRACKET FOR CATWALK AND LATERAL BRACING

-SUNGATE 400 TRIPLE PLY WINDOWS (SEALED LAYER)

-4"X12" THERMALLY BROKEN CURTAIN WALL MULLIONS

-AUTOMATED VENT OPENING WITH INSULATED DOOR

2 CONCRETE PANEL WALL ASSEMBLY

-EQUITONE FIBRE CEMENT FACADE PANELS

-EQUITONE UNI-RIVET CONNECTORS

-VERTICAL ATTACHMENT TRACK SYSTEM

-GALV. STEEL Z-GIRT

-3" CONTINUOUS MINERAL WOOL INSULATION

-CONTINUOUS AVWB

-CAST IN PLACE CONCRETE WALL

4 SLAB ON GRADE ASSEMBLY

-COMPACTED GRAVEL

-2" RIGID INSULATION

-CONTINUOUS AVWB

-12" SLAB ON GRADE

Structural

The service cores of the building a reinforced cast in place concrete walls that also act as lateral bracing for the building. This travel the full height of the building and are located in the four corners. The base of the building is constructed of cast in place concrete columns and a two-way slab system on a roughly 30’-0” by 30’-0” grid. This system supports the theater above. The balconies are �ed by to the service cores and the back wall of the theater. The roof is supported by open web trusses that span the width of the theater and provide a column free space. The final area is the structure for the ramp and envelope. This is a steel framework consis�ng of HSS columns and beams that support the end of the ramp slab and the gravity loads of the glass facade.

Structure

General Reference

The mechanical systems required for a concert hall have to be well sized to handle the demand that comes with having 1600 plus people enclosed inside a small volume within a ma�er of minutes from when it was empty. This building is divided into four zones. The first is the theater itself. It requires a large AHU to make sure air can be changed and cooled when needed. This is the same for the atrium/lobby space. The support spaces for offices and mee�ng rooms are all designed with radiant floor hea�ng and a zone wide ERV unit to provide ven�la�on. All of the large equipment is placed in the basement and is vented to the exterior. Distribu�on is contained through a total of 8 mechanical chases located throughout the building. 12/3/2020

Wind Analysis

Lithuania has an interestingwind paern in that the winter months give more wind from the southwest while in the summer months the northwest receives more gusts of wind. Even still,Throughout all months wind from the East is minimal no maer what month or season it is. It is found that the highest speed of winds occurs during the winter and comes from the southwest.

Soil Analysis

Lithuanian soil has a vast range of dierent soils. It ranges from sands to heavy clays. About onefourth of the county is made up of sandy soils including the southeast, which is blanketed mainly by woodlands. In general Lithuania is about 51% flt, 21% highlands, and about 29% plateaus. Soil is a main natural resource for the country, which makes their agricultural a very import contributor to their GNP. The country has records on their soil that dates all the way back to the 1600. Some of the glacial deposits where morainic, glaciofluvial, limnoglacial, alluvial, Eolian and organic deposits. All these dierent deposits make for a very complicated soil cover in Lithuania. However, there is much pollution of hevy metals and in Vilnius there are spots of erosion as well as Vilnius reporting one of the lwest amount of fertile cops in the country.

Spring

Environmental Analysis

When examining Lithuania and its environment we fin interestingchallenges for designing new buildings. For the weather that happens in the area there seems to be a great need for heating during the fall and winter. Ideally when designing, passive strategies for heatingare preferred and with Lithuania’s social economic issues with gas heating these less xpensive methods are ideal. Yet when we look at the psychrometric chart from Lithuania, we would findthat a lot of Passive strategies do not work well here. The three strategies on the chart that provide the most indoor comfort are typical heating(62.9%), internal heat gain (22.9%), and passive solar direct gain low mass (9.3%).

On the chart the most eectie strategy to make indoor spaces comfortable is general heatin, whether by gas or electrical heatingwith adding humidifiationwhen needed. The people of Lithuania typically use gas heatingin their buildings which is mandated by the Russian government and is very expensive. However, there are more passive strategies that can be implemented in this site with the use of ground temperature. In the winter temperatures can reach bellow zero degrees, yet if we look at the ground temperature chart the ground 13.12 bellow in the winter stays at 39 degrees. There is a passive way to access that heat trapped under ground and use it in a building. This strategy is geothermal heat pumps, tubes pump the heat from the ground by running cold water through tubes that are 14ftunderground and lettinthe ground warm up the water. The heated water then gets pumped into the building and under the floorboads to warm the house. This can be a good soluon since the ground temperature in the winter is much warmer than the surface temperature.

One passive strategy is passive solar heat gain, this is the amount of heat a building can receive from the sun passively. Lithuania has a very low solar radiationexposure which makes passive solar heat gain an issue, without having a lot of solar gain it will be very hard to passively heat a building. The chart states that

Environmental Analysis

Passive Solar Direct gain only contributes to 1.7% heat gain in high mass and 9.3% in low mass, where objects with high mass would only receive 1.7% of heat gain from the sun while objects with low mass receive of heat.

The most heat gain that can be estimted, from a more passive strategy, was from internal heat gain; The internal heat gain Is approximated to produce 22.9% of heat retention. However internal heat gain is not an exact measure, many factors need to be considered with internal heat gain such as amount of equipment in the building, quantityof lights and whether those are used frequently or not. Another more passive strategy for raising the Comfort level in Lithuania would be dehumidifiation. Although not a typically hot environment Lithuania does receive a bit of humidity during the summer months, when temperatures rise it does become a bit humid. stilldehumidifiationdoes only factor in at 1.1% Comfort increase. Such a strategy does not seem to provide much relief in the long run. Lithuania has an interestingwind paern in that the winter months give more wind from the southwest while in the summer months the northwest receives more gusts of wind. Even still,throughout all month’s wind from the East is minimal no maer what month or season it is. it is found that the highest speed of winds occurs during the winter and comes from the southwest. Taking this into account the wind is a factor working against us when trying to increase heat for the winter months. All these factors must be taken into consideration when examining the site for design and providing the best systems for overall comfort.

Caruso St John

Nottingham Contemporary Nottingham, UK

Located in the heart of NottinghamEngland, the NottinghaContemporary is an art gallery and educationcenter completed in 2009. Designed by Caruso St. John to filla former railway trench, the irregular site constraints led to a four-story building, with three of those levels mostly below ground. One of the most noticeddesign elements of the building are the precast concrete scalloped panels that wrap the façade. Each panel is cast in a mold that gives an impression of lace, one of the key economic drivers of industrial Nottingha

SITE PLAN

Design Narrative

During the Industrial Revolution,the textileindustry was thriving in England and Nottinghamound itself as one of the worldwide leaders in the production of machine-made lace. The museum seeks to honor this foundationof the city through the use of concrete panels, scalloped to give the appearance of a pleated drapery. The aempt is to make them look as if they are almost hanging, to behave like a ‘curtain wall’. Each panel has a lace paern, that was found in a tim capsule on an adjacent site, molded into the surface. The jade color was selected to complement the surrounding red brick facades. Each panel ranges from 4 to 11 meters tall and form a parapet that is constantly responding to the adjacent street elevations. These panels are non-load bearing and therefore require a substantial steel structure behind them for to support. ARUP served as the structural engineer for the project. The goal was to keep the structure on the perimeter, allowing open, light fille, flwing spaces for the galleries inside. As all the lower levels are below grade, their structures are mostly cast-in-place concrete walls and slabs. Up on the roof, a green roof is installed to insulate against some of the heat gain, as well as slow some of the water runo. For any of the spaces of the building that rise above the top of the precast panels, a golden aluminum steel profilepanel are secured by clips, holding them into a convex arc, counter to the concave scallops below.

A49

NOTNAMM CONMPOY

NOTNAMM CONMPOY

NOTNAMM CONMPOY

3D Wall Assembly

Cladding/Sacrificial/Protection

As discussed brieflyabove, the cladding system for this building is one of its most recognizable features. Large precast concrete panels are non-load bearing and are therefore hanging from the steel structure behind. The panels themselves are 1.86 meters wide and range anywhere from 4 to 11 meters tall. At their seams are aluminum strips to cover the joints and act as flashing. The panels themselves have a lace texture imprinted into them, paying homage to the lace making history of Nottingham There are a couple other types of cladding used by Caruso St John. on the building Above the precast panels, a golden aluminum concave panel is used. At the base of the walls and on select corners, a much simpler black precast panel is used.

Thermal Insulation

Since the concrete panels of the building do not have any insulatio, 100m rigid polyurethane insulation panels are installed behind each façade panel. The metal panels above are a sandwich panel made of aluminum and rigid insulation. Since the window frames are so wide and tall, the mullions are also insulated. As for the horizontal surfaces, the floor slab is insulated from below. 155 millimeters of rigid polyurethane insulationis used on the roof surfaces.

Waterproofing

Continuinginward, the precast concrete panel façade is not watertigt, so waterproofingis required and applied behind the insulationpanels. Above the roof line, the waterproofingis wrapped above the roof slab and up to the parapet cap on the outer wall. On the inner wall, it is extended behind the insulationagain and up to the roof above that to prevent any water the make pool on the roof from entering into the wall assemblies.

Moisture

Moisture control is managed alongside the waterproofin, being applied on the warm side of the insulationpanels. For the roof, this is accomplished as an asphalt sheet aached above the slab and below the rigid polyurethane insulation panels

Fittings/Ties

One of the most important components of this project are the tiesand bolts that connect the precast and metal panels to the steel structure. The majority of the weight of the panels is carried at the boom by a concrete wall. In the conditionof a window, a steel lintel is fabricated to supports the weight of the panels. In order to keep them from falling o, they are secured into steel angles that connect directly to the beams supportingthe flooror roof. Occasionally a c-channel has to be added to provide a fastening surface where there is no beam to connect to. The bolts also vary in length depending on where they enter the panel, as there is less concrete in the inner portionsof the scallops. The metal panels are hung from the parapet above using metal clips, two at the top and one at the boom.

Structure

With three levels of the building being underground, a concrete structure was used. Due to the unique dimensions of the site, these walls are mostly formed by the perimeter of the site. At the north end of the site is a former railroad tunnel, and the basement levels of the building are positioneddirectly in the narrow opening for this tunnel. In order for the ground level to fillthe block between the streets, an infill,or mat slab, was used to span over the walls of the tunnel portal. The steel structure above this is either anchored into a foundationwall below or into a transfer beam. The shiftbetween the mat slab and the three-story concrete wall makes for two quite dierent foundationstrategies. The steel structure that rises above is positionedmainly around the outer perimeter of the building. The resultingspans are carried by a relatiely standard system of steel beams and girders. The roof slabs are then poured on metal deck on top of this system.

Energy and Stormwater Management

In an aempt to mitiate some of the heat gain from the roof as well as help slow the storm water runo, a green roof was installed over most of the building. This is except in the areas that are predominantly covered in skylights. The green roof is constructed of a geotextie separatinglayer on which a layer of 50 millimeters of compost was laid. It is difficulto get any informationon this roof system, as not a single photo can be found. The green roof designer has also went out of business, leading to a suspicion that some component of the roof system did not function ell.

PASPELS SCHOOL

Paspel School

The building is located at the top of Paspels village and it falls down to a slope facing south-west. The school complex is composed of three individual buildings that are placed in a row along the contour line of the slope. The new school building is placed at the top end of the village. The building can be described as a distorted square on plan since its sides do not have right-angles. The building and the pitch of the roof follows the shape of the slope of the site.

The program of the building consists of a central corridor at the ground floor level that reaches the two floors of classrooms above by a flight of stairs. On the two top floors of the building there are three classrooms and one ancillary room arranged in the four corners of the building leaving a cross-shaped common area lit from all sides. Although the classrooms in the upper floors appear the same, the changing lighting is what makes the room so different from each other. This can also be seen on the outside of the building. It can appear the same even though they are not. All the windows frames of the building are made out of bronze which gives a noticeable contrast to the simplicity of the concrete around the building. The building construction was designed so that the solid concrete walls form the load bearing structure which will create a contrast between the wood-lined rooms making them feel more homely and intimate. The classrooms will then create a contrast between the hard cool common areas, making the rooms feel more bright,warm, and acoustically designed to serve their function.

The school not having any preference in style and being so neutral in the exterior as well as the interior, it makes it feel as if it belongs in its exact location.

The structural aspects of the building were carefully designed, starting from separating the inside of the building from the external facade by adding 120mm of thermal insulation avoiding a second load bearing wall to support the floor slabs by adding high-strength double shear studs. On the ground level the two walls located at the left and right of the stairs are structural elements supporting the first floor. The interior walls of the first and second floors are the structural elements supporting the floor above and the roof. All the support reactions are transferred at the wall junctions transervese to the external walls. On this facade with the junctions, double shear studs, one above the other, were incorporated. The number of the shear studs was determined depending on the load bearing capacity of a single stud.

Additional support points with shear studs were incorporated in the center of each slab edge spand and at the corners of the facade to avoid deflection of the unsupported slab edges.

The thermal insulation was reduced 50mm around the shear studs to prevent the formation of cracks in the exterior walls, especially around the windows. To reinsure the areas where cracks could possibly appear, additional longitudinal reinforcement was fitted.

The use of materials on this project is fascinating as you would think there would be less materials used as from the in and outside the project looks like a concrete box, however this is not the case. The first material used are battens which can be made out of wood, fiberglass, or plastic. The next material is the vapor barrier that goes along the roof to protect from moisture. The next material is the liquid vapor barrier that goes in the walls to protect from moisture. The next material is the bitumen roofing, which is used under the metal roof and is highly durable and helps stop against leaks. Next, we have the boarding that is used on the roof for structure of the roof. The final material on the sheet is the concrete type 2 which is the main concrete that you see around the building on the inside and out of the building.

The first material on this sheet is the granolithic concrete, which is a nice polished concrete that is usually used for the flooring, which in this case is used for that exact purpose in the Pasepels school. The next material is Pavatherm NK impact sound insulation, which is used to dampen the noise in the building. After that we have Polyethylene Sheet, which is used to help protect and seal of rooms and is a plastic film made from petroleum. The next material is underfloor heating, which is used in the building as most of the floors are concrete which can get very cold. The next material is sheet metal roofing which is the exact roofing that is used on our roof as the top layer of the roofing. The final material on this sheet is the tongue and groove boards, which is the other flooring that is used in the building.

The final three materials in our building are thermal insulation, which runs through all the walls the roof and the flooring allowing for heat to stay in the building at all times. This insulation runs between the layers of concrete around the building. The next material is concrete type 6 which is used in the structural walls where the rebar is used to help support the building/ structure. The last materials is counter battens, which are used to allow rainwater to pass off the metal sheeting and away from the roof.

The diagrams to the right help explain the crucial parts of the assembly as well as an overall general picture of how they work together. The first diagram shows and up close of the exterior cladding/siding, which is concrete. The next diagram shows a zoomed in picture of the thermal insulation in the building, which is surrounded by concrete on both sides of the insulation with a vapor barrier as well. The next diagram shows how the building deals with the storm water as it has gravel along the base of the building to collect all rainwater and have it drain out into the soil. The second to last diagram shows where the vapor barrier is in the building, which helps protect against moisture. The last diagram shows a zoomed out view of all the main points of the assembly and where they are in the building and how they work together with each other.

Finishing/Cladding/Sacrificial Layer

Site Strategies

Concept 1

Prominence

The site for this project is located on a prominent hill overlooking the city of Vilnius. Just as the Soviet government recognized, there is an important visibility that comes with positioningthe building at the top of Tauras Hill. This allows the building to be seen all throughout the city, as well as for all of the city to be seen from the building. From this location, it is quite clear the divisions in architecture that have formed throughout the many eras of growth and construction. The Old Town, with its historic and classical architecture, constructed of the material of the times,wood. This is juxtaposed against the concrete, steel, and glass that makes up the New City across the river. This dichotomy cuts across the site along the axis that define the urban development at the timeof this material conversion. The eastern form points towards the Old Town, but also acts as a funnel to direct visitors to the break between the forms, directingthem down to the views of the city. The western form connects with the New City across the river, emphasizing the views from the site.

Inclusion

The contrary to the prominence responded to above, is a strategy of a level of inclusion within the urban fabric at the base of the hill itself. This serves two important purposes. The fist is to connect the structure with the city itself, and not have it represent a figue that towers over the city, seemingly disconnected. The second is to preserve the qualitiesof the Tauras Hill that made it known even in the 1300s, the views from the peak of the hill itself. Placing the structure at the top removes the natural possibilitiesfor people to gather and overlook the city, without having to fulling interact with the building itself. The opposite of this serves the best of two worlds, one where the park can live undisturbed, and the building can interact with the city.

Site Strategies

Concept 3

Rejectio

Over the years Tauras Hill has been subject to many alterationsand changes that have eroded away at its natural form. One of these is with the topography. The smooth slopes have been graded away to form flt terraces connected by steep declines. This strategies begins to reject these alterations and proposes a building that fitsinto the existing landscape, exposing the man-made topography at its base while suggestingthe former topography with it's roof line. The southern portionof the building is anchored into the site to allow a seamless transition from the peak of the hill. Connectingthe cemetery and park space south of the site to a rooop terrace overlooking the city.

A74

Program Requirements

General Concerns on Acoustics

Acousticsis oen one of the most challenging components to master in a project, which leads to there usually being an acoustial consultant for major projects. Concert halls and opera houses are at the peak of this complexity. Here the acousticsare everything. The acousticsin the main performance hall will be judged against thousands of other halls, trying to become the new favorite. If the quality of the sound in the space is not perfectly resolved, the orchestra or opera performers will not want to perform there, and all of this planning and money goes to waste. There are many things to be cognizant of while trying to design a space that will be used for music. One of the main ones, particularlyin how it applies to the architect is reverberationtime. This is one of the most concrete methods of judging the overall sound quality of a space. The ideal reverberationtimeis between 1.7 and 2.1 seconds. This means that there is just enough of a muffl that every single imperfectioncan not be heard, but not too long that there begins to be bad echoes and mufflespeech. The way to accomplish this is through a balance of absorptie materials and the volume of the space, both things an architect can control. The ideal volume of a performance hall is 400 ft^3per audience member. Ultimtely, space planning and the removal of ambient noise also fall in the lap of the architect. Ideally, mechanical spaces will be underground and on grade, far from the performance spaces. There are truly not all that many dierent formats for concert halls. The shapes of the spaces stay the same, oen materials are the major changes. These materials stillaim to achieve the same level of reflectioand absorption of the predecessors that have come before them. One of the challenges of designing a mixed use, concert hall/opera house, is that both performances require dierent acousticdesign strategies. In order to combine these into one, some element of quality has to be compromised, as well as adjustable elements need to be added to the program. These include openable bafflethat act as reverberation chambers to adjust for dierent levels of sound, as well as dierent qualities of people in the audience

1.7 - 2.1

Seconds

Ideal Reverberation Tim

60% Absorption

400 ft3 per Seat

Ideal Absorptie Materials in Audience Area

Ideal Coefficit for Volume of the Performance Hall

2,500 People

Maximum Recommended Capacity

Space Planning is Important, Use Storage and Office as Bers

Rooms with Two Matching Dimensions Should Be Avoided

Oset Doors to Not Be Across from Each Other

Sound Isolatio Needed Between Spaces

Mechanical Spaces in Basement, Preferably on Grade

Performer - Audience

- Intimte, but Not Enough to Inhibit Projection and Higher Dynamic

- Multiple Lvels of Audience Help Performers Not See an Amorphous Sea of Faces

- Operating Theter is Not Appropriate

Duct Work Needs Acoustially Treated and Individual Branches

Audience - Performer

- Intimte, but Without being Exposed

- Some Distance Required

- Aentieness and Interaction ver Luxurious Comfort

- Both Want House to Feel Full Even When It is Not

- Front Stage Height (Around 42')

Operable Windows Allow Too Much Ambient Noise Risers Help Performers Hear Others and Themselves

Performer - Performer

- Enough Space on Stage

- Can Performers Hear Each Other

- Risers Needed to Separate Performers

- Risers Help the Stage Feel Smaller

Audience - Audience

- Aisle Spacing

- Row Spacing

- How Many Toilets in the Restroom Relationships

Characteristics of the "Best" Hall Guidelines for Balcony Dimensions

A76

Types of Theaters

The two main types of theater halls are Vineyard and Shoebox. Vineyard halls are a fairly modern idea; here the audience is seated in terraces reminiscent to a vineyard. The seatingmay either partiallyor completely circle the stage. The classic hall, Shoebox, has a rectangular shape and the rough proportionsof a tennis-shoe box. High volume, narrow width, and multiplelevels of audience are key characteristics. Shoebox halls are actually superior to Vineyard halls in terms of envelopment, source strength, and minimal seat variation.Rectangular halls provide early sound reflectionwith narrow and parallel side walls that envelop listeners and increase clarity. Wall surfaces do not need to be smooth; it is actually beer to have highly diffusie walls that scaer the sound. The best halls have gently sloping or flt floos and elevated orchestra plaorms. Standard theaters and auditoriums have raked seatingfor beer sightlines, though in the case of opera and concert halls, it is best to have the orchestra plaorm at or above the height on the last row of seats. This ensures that clear sound can reach the back of a room, rather than gettintrapped in the pit. The orchestra has to be able to hear themselves, reflece surfaces are a must. Since the stage in Shoebox halls is located at one end of the space, right up against a highly reflece surface, sound is confinedto a 90-degree lateral angle. Compared to Vineyard halls where the orchestra is in the middle and sound radiates into the full 360-degree space, the sound strength is higher in Shoebox halls.

Types of Rehearsal Rooms

For a concert hall/opera house there are three main types of rehearsal spaces. It is important that each has their own space as the requires for each are not shared. The fist of these is the instrumental practiceareas. This oen requires the most space, as well as the most volume. It is important that these spaces are separated from other rehearsal rooms to avoid interference as well as have a large number of absorptie surfaces to dampen some of the volume that comes from a large orchestra. Choral rehearsal spaces have the ability to be a bit smaller in area and volume, as well as have slightly more flxibility with room finishes. Ballet rehearsal spaces are completely dierent and can not truly serve as music practice spaces. Hee solid finishe

Never Carpeted

Absorptie Panels on Front and Rear

Choral

erson 15 ft Ceiling Heigts

Carpet Not Recommended

Absorptie Panels on Front and Rear Walls

Two Main Types of Theaters

Proscenium Thrust or Open

Three Main Types of Stages

such as wood floos and mirrored walls produce spaces that bounce too much sound back into the center of the room. This can be corrected by having absorptie panels that can cover the mirrors when the space is not used for ballet. Risers that are also needed in choral and instrumental practicespaces can also not be used in ballet spaces, unless they are temporary and can be removed easily.

Types of Stages

There are many dierent sizes and shapes of stages. The three main types of stages are Proscenium, Thrust, and Arena. A Proscenium theatre stage is located at one end of the hall and physically separated from the audience with the Proscenium Arch. A Thrust stage extends into the space and the audience surrounds it on three sides. The Arena, on the other hand, is where the stage is completely surrounded by the audience. Among these three, there are other sub-varieties of tages.

Proscenium

o End-stage

o Plaorm

Thrust

o Traverse

o Studio

Arena

o Environmental

o Black Box

o Theater-in-the-Round

o Courtyard

o Hippodrome

Case Studies

Vienna Philharmonic

The Grosser Musikvereinssaal in Vienna is one of the oldest, and finet concert halls in the world. Constructed in 1870, this shoebox style hall has a reverberationtimeof 2.0 seconds when fully occupied. The majority of the surfaces are plaster or brick, with many irregularitiesand ornamentation around the audience area. The seats are only lightly upholstered, some are not even upholstered at all. This hall does not have an orchestra enclosure, but does have a slight proscenium. Most audience seats are located in rows looking directingat the stage, but a few seats are located on balconies on either side.

Luzern Philharmonic

Continuingwith looking at concert halls in the shoebox style, the Switzerland Culture and Congress Center Concert Hall in Lucerne was opened in 1999. The hall seats 1,892 in a similar manner to the concert hall in Vienna discussed earlier. One of the unique things about this hall is the 6000 cubic meters of reverberationchamber on the sides of the main audience area. With 50 operable, curved doors, the acousticquality of the space can be adjusted depending on the quantityof audience members or the type of performance being done. With the doors open the reverberationtimeis 2.1 seconds. When they are closed, 1.9 seconds. When the curtains are pulled in front of the door, the reverberationtimebecomes 1.7 seconds. It might not seem like a lot of change, but this versatilityis essentialto the performers and audience members that have developed extremely sensitie hearing from years of study.

Type of Theater Surround shape

Year Built 1963

Luzern Philharmonic

Volume m³ 18,000

Number of Seats 1,840

Reverberation Time 3.0s

Type of Theater Shoebox shape

Year Built 2000 Walt Disney Concert hall

Volume m³ 30,600

Number of Seats

One of the most famous concert halls is the Berlin Philharmonic, seating2,212. 250 of those seats are actually behind the stage, with 300 on either side. This hall is one of the pioneers in the vineyard style, with seats surrounding the stage on all sides. This style of hall has unique features acoustially. The experience when seated in front of the stage are quite dierent than for those sittinbehind. The sound from the rear seats is not ideal, but many concert-goers enjoy the experience of feeling like they are involved in the actionthat it makes up for the less than ideal acoustics. This hall is considered one of the more successful vineyard shapes halls however. Curved panels had to be hung from the ceiling to help with projectionas there is no wall behind the performers that would normally help with this. The reverberationtimefor this hall is 1.9 seconds.

Type of Theater Shoebox shape Year Built 1870

Philharmonic

Type of Theater Surround shape Year Built 1963 Berlin Philharmonic

of Seats

The home of the Los Angeles Philharmonia is the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in 2003. While the exterior of the building is quite expressive and unique, the interior performance hall is a rather standard hybrid of the shoebox style with some minor additins from the vineyard. The majority of the seats are in rows directingin front of the stage, there are however seat on all four side of the stage. Many of the sound qualitiesdiscussed for the Berlin Philharmonic above apply here as well. The reverberationtimeis 1.85 seconds, which is on the lower end of the spectrum. The reflectinwalls and panels of the space are not extremely eectie, with many complaining that the rear and main floorseats do not have satifactory acousticquality. Many say the hall is best for contemporary music or large orchestral compositions

Auditorio de Leon

Leon, Spain

Mansilla and Tunon

The auditorium Leon is a magnificet architectural piece that is divided into two separate buildings in response to the environmental conditionsof the emplacement. The main part of the building hosts the concert hall, while the second part of the building hosts the exhibitionrooms. The large auditorium can hold anywhere from 600-1200 people. Due to the fact that concert hall is a bifocal hall it can host much more than just concerts. The unique façade that gets everyone’s aentionis constructed as a stack of windows with two dierent orders, the perimeter of the hollow and the hollow of each window, as a response to the needs of the spaces inside. The theater part can be broken up into three dierent types of theaters allowing for multipleevents to be going on at one time.The theater is located in the middle of the city allowing for easy access as well as a centerpiece for the city to see. Connecting the cemetery and park space south of the site to a rooop terrace overlooking the city.

Mechanical Systems

The mechanical system in this building is one of the most unique systems that has ever been built or placed in a building. In a normal building the mechanical system is usually in the raers or on the roof. However, in this building the mechanical system is located underground. This allows for the building to act in the way it does, by breaking up into three dierent spaces, while keeping one continues mechanical system throughout the building.

The heat and A/C travel up through the sides of the walking paths that go around the theater. This allows for the building to stay cold or warm. As well keep it all underground allowing for beer acoustics in the building.

Programming and Occupancy Data

This charts include calculationsto findthe total number of occupants allowed in each space and how this corresponds to the number of required restrooms and egress locations

Stone House / Emilio Tuñón

Cáceres, Spain

Conceptual Narrative

The Stone House, or Casa de Piedra is designed as a simple geometric volume located in Cáceres, Spain and was designed by Emilio Tuñón and completed in 2018. It has a simple square floorplan with a dimension of 16 meters (52.5 feet) on each side of the square. Each side of the house has three square windows that can slide into a cavity in the wall, creatinga seamless transitionfrom inside to outside. The exterior walls are constructed with local quartzite stone over the entiety of the walls. Extremadura granite is used to frame around the windows. The project is strictly regulated by a nine square grid system. Tuñón then uses the grid lines and expands them to house private, service spaces within the house. The grid divides the house into nine cubed spaces that are 4.2 meters 13.7 feet) square in plan. The center space is the locationof a spiral staircase leading down to the lower level. The other spaces include a kitchen, officspace, and bedrooms. Two of these cubes are combined together to form the living room. The closets and bathrooms are then located within the thickness of the grid between the rooms. Vertially, the spaces are divided in half through functionand material. The lower layer is clad with oakwood boards. Behind these boards are closets, mechanical equipment, and appliances. Above this is a layer of white concrete, completely free of services, with the exceptionof one window per room. The lower level, below grade, features a garage, utility space, as ell as a guest bedroom.

This house is located in an area of Spain that does not see an extreme amount of temperature variation, requiring strong thermal performance for winter conditions. This is evident through the continuity between inside and outside and with outdoor spaces inside the house. Since the lower service level is hidden within the ground, a long sectionof the site was excavated to lead down to the garage doors from vehicular access. The remainder of the site is laid out with a variationof dierent sizes of squares, playing offthe strong motifof the house. A square pool provides an opportunity to see the reflection of the cubicolume continue furthe.

Geometry

As mentionedbrieflyabove, the 16-meter by 16-meter square plan is divided into nine equal squares that form the many rooms of the house. This main grid is used to develop the fenestration paern as well. Each third of the wall has a square window directly in the center of it. This creates the repetie, yet simple, matching facades on the exterior. Each of these windows can slide into the wall and open, dissolving the boundaries between interior and exterior space.

Geometry

Each square of the grid is then further subdivided into a 6x6 grid. This overlay throughout the entie house is what dictates the service areas of the dividing walls. In section,the division between the lower wood paneled service area and the smooth white concrete finishof the upper part of the house can be seen. This datum is strong throughout the entie house.

Spatial

While the nine square grid provides much of the geometric references for the house, it also is experienced spatiall. Each room is a compartment of the system. There are two exceptionsto this system. One is the entry area that the roof it lefto, opening up a small courtyard like space. The other exceptionis the living room space that is plan is a combinationof two squares. In sectionhowever, there is still some semblance of the grid verhead.

Spatial

The grid is given a width of almost fie feet to allow for program to occupy the grid itself. This is accomplished three ways. The fist is through the bathrooms located at the verticesof the grid. They are rotated in a pinwheel fashion, varying which wall of each room has access or service/closet space. O of these bathrooms are T-shaped wall assemblies that frame in closets, makeup areas, as well as mechanical equipment. The spaces within the grid that are leftover serve as transitionspaces between each room. Each of these has four doors and one must assume that make of these doors remain open through the day.

Sequence

One of the unique features of this house is the absence of a front door. Since every exterior window can open and allow entry, there is no need for one specialized point for this to occur. For the family, the entry through the garage and up from the dark lower level, through the spiral staircase, to the brightly lit house above would have to be quite spectacular. As for movement throughout the house, this is almost unlimited. Every room has four entrances/exits making circulationquite fluid. There is one counterclockwise path that would be dominant however as user would circulate from the entrance to the kitchen, working their way through the living room and eventually to bed, following the standard daily routine

Structure

For a house with this many walls it would be thought that the structure would be quite simple, but in reality, the designers had to use large beams to carry the roof load from the exterior walls. There are no load bearing elements on the upper level below the white concrete datum line. This leads to quite thick walls and roof elements, but this thickness directly fits with the smaller grid discussed earlie.

Hierarchy of the Square

Hierarchy

The Stone House is predominantly a house with littleemphasis on hierarchy. From the exterior, the house is a simple cubic volume sunken into the site, with square windows positionedvery regularly around the exterior. From the plan, there is a strong emphasis on the square and that can be seen at many dierent levels. This square theme is broken only by the spiral staircase, which draws your eyes to the center of the space. The other area that clearly not following the hierarchical system is the living room discussed earlier, where two cubes become one.

Program

The design solutionsfor private vs public spaces in the Stone House is one of Tuñón’s strongest accomplishments for this project. By placing the lower level below grade, Tuñón was able to hide the majority of the less sightly functionsand any features that could not conform to the grid system above, down here. The only private spaces in the upper level are hidden away with the walls so to speak. This makes the public spaces of the house that much more prominent.

Building Strategies

Concept 1

Elevated Prominence

This fist building strategy is the synthesis of the original site strategy for prominence on the site as well as portionsof the compositionalstrategy of the Rural House by RCR Architects. This site strategy was selected through further analysis of the site and the importance of utilizingthe topography of the hill to its fullest potential. This led to a further explorationof using the top of the hill to host the structure. The goal of this strategy was to create a building that takes advantage of the views of the site. This is a two-part operationhowever. First is to take advantage of the views from the site looking out over the city. Second is for the building to be visible from other points within the city. This can be seen in the previous building on the site. Allowing the views to penetrate through the building, the lower lobby is a view layer of glass, similar to the Rural House but turned on its side. The layer above this is a solid layer of rehearsal spaces and offices Above this layer is the upper lobby, another transparent layer. This provides the best views of the city and serves as an important point in the sequence to enter the theater, which is the next layer above. In order to maximize the visibility from throughout the city, the height of the building is one of the key factors being looked at. The minimal footprint of the building is the outline of the theater space. Since the full square footage of the theater is not needed on every level below, the floorplate of each subsequent level is carved away, maximizing the height. This also creates a covered overlook area to view the city. Since this building holds a civic prominence in the city, the progression throughout the space reflects this experientiall. The views of the city can be seen upon entering the structure, but the user is now directed to an escalator sequence to raise them up to the upper lobby, where here the views of the city are magnified. At this point, the user can enter the theater and see their performance. At the opposite end of the building is a warehouse and shop space below grade to service the building.

The lowest level of the building houses a warehouse, shop space, as well as mechanical spaces to avoid ambient noise in the performance and rehearsal spaces. This level also houses a loading bay and receiving area. Above this level is the ground level entrance area. Here is the lower lobby, along with a restaurant as well as receptionand info areas. O to the side is an additionalentrance for the staffand performers so they do not have to travel through the lobby space. Above this level is the space for the performers. Here are rehearsal spaces separated by storage rooms to maximize the separationof spaces. On either side are offices Up on the next level is the lobby for the theater in the front and the backstage and dressing room areas in the back. The top level of the building is the theater main hall itself, separated in two levels, the lower, and the balconies. The style of the theater is vineyard as this leads to the creation of the form of the building.

In order to frame the views of the city, the rhythm and spacing of the Rural House is used on its side to accomplish this. As for passive strategies, there are two major benefitsof this strategy. The fist is the pulling back of each level. This provides an overhang to shade some of the direct sunlight into the space. Since so much of these levels are glass, this is an important feature to have. An example of this can be seen in the Bank of London and South America building in the brutalist style. This also has signifiance with the city of Vilnius as some of its government buildings are in this style. The other benefitis the ability to minimize the eect of the building on the site. By decreasing the footprint of the building to make it taller, also decreases the amount of green space utilied. A precedent of this is by Tzannes Architects and how they applied these strategies to a house with views of the water, but little sie to work with.

Building Strategies

Concept 2

Elongated Prominence

The second strategy follows many of the same principles as the fist. This involves using the prominence of the site to create a building that can see and be seen. Here it is accomplished through a long bar building facing the city. In order to leave the connectionfrom the back of the site to the front, the building is lied offthe ground. Here the compositionof the Stone House is used to help decide which objects penetrate down to the ground to support the building and allow for circulation. Each dierent type of user entering the building has their own tower to enter into. For concert goers, they enter through a large escalator lobby to ascend up to the lobby level. Here they have great views of the city as well as the courtyard. The four central pieces are mainly multiplestory spaces, with the spaces in between being only one level. The public is mainly kept to the central level with private spaces being above and below. There is a plinth underneath of the building, but only under portionsto facilitate mechanical rooms.

Startingunderground, underneath the outer towers are mechanical rooms to reduce ambient noise above once again. There are no mechanical rooms underneath the rehearsal spaces in regard to this as well. The next level is the ground level. Most of this is open to allow the site to seamless flw from the top of the hill to the boom. The courtyard allows light to enter the space and allows things to grow. The building touches the ground at three points. The fist lobby is the entrance to the main hall with the large escalator to bring people into the lobby. The next area is for the warehouse and rehearsal spaces. They have their own entrance and service areas. Above this level is the main level, 30’ above the ground with great views of the city. Here is the receptio and info areas as well as the lobbies into the main hall. The stage and dressing rooms are on the opposite side. The level above is for the restaurant, with even beer views of the city, as well as officesor the whole building.

The separationof multi-tory spaces and single-story spaces from the Stone House helps to definethe sectionof the building. It also can be seen in plan as the separationof large open spaces framed by small ancillary spaces. There are once again two passive strategies to look at for this building. The fist is the courtyard as it allows natural light to enter into the center of the building, and also allows greenery to grow underneath the building. This reduces the eect of the building on the environment and site. The Stone House is once again a precedent for this. The second strategy is the large horizontal potentialfor a green roof. The ancillary spaces can be completed covered with a green roof that will slow the flw of rainwater as well as provide a natural form of insulation,similarly to how this was accomplished at the Nottingham Ctemporary.

Building Strategies

Concept 1

Elevated Prominence

This fist building strategy is the synthesis of the original site strategy for prominence on the site as well as portionsof the compositionalstrategy of the Rural House by RCR Architects. This site strategy was selected through further analysis of the site and the importance of utilizingthe topography of the hill to its fullest potential. This led to a further explorationof using the top of the hill to host the structure. The goal of this strategy was to create a building that takes advantage of the views of the site. This is a two-part operationhowever. First is to take advantage of the views from the site looking out over the city. Second is for the building to be visible from other points within the city. This can be seen in the previous building on the site. Allowing the views to penetrate through the building, the lower lobby is a view layer of glass, similar to the Rural House but turned on its side. The layer above this is a solid layer of rehearsal spaces and offices Above this layer is the upper lobby, another transparent layer. This provides the best views of the city and serves as an important point in the sequence to enter the theater, which is the next layer above. In order to maximize the visibility from throughout the city, the height of the building is one of the key factors being looked at. The minimal footprint of the building is the outline of the theater space. Since the full square footage of the theater is not needed on every level below, the floorplate of each subsequent level is carved away, maximizing the height. This also creates a covered overlook area to view the city. Since this building holds a civic prominence in the city, the progression throughout the space reflects this experientiall. The views of the city can be seen upon entering the structure, but the user is now directed to an escalator sequence to raise them up to the upper lobby, where here the views of the city are magnified. At this point, the user can enter the theater and see their performance. At the opposite end of the building is a warehouse and shop space below grade to service the building.

In order to frame the views of the city, the rhythm and spacing of the Rural House is used on its side to accomplish this. As for passive strategies, there are two major benefitsof this strategy. The fist is the pulling back of each level. This provides an overhang to shade some of the direct sunlight into the space. Since so much of these levels are glass, this is an important feature to have. An example of this can be seen in the Bank of London and South America building in the brutalist style. This also has signifiance with the city of Vilnius as some of its government buildings are in this style. The other benefitis the ability to minimize the eect of the building on the site. By decreasing the footprint of the building to make it taller, also decreases the amount of green space utilied. A precedent of this is by Tzannes Architects and how they applied these strategies to a house with views of the water, but little sie to work with.

The lowest level of the building houses a warehouse, shop space, as well as mechanical spaces to avoid ambient noise in the performance and rehearsal spaces. This level also houses a loading bay and receiving area. Above this level is the ground level entrance area. Here is the lower lobby, along with a restaurant as well as receptionand info areas. O to the side is an additionalentrance for the staffand performers so they do not have to travel through the lobby space. Above this level is the space for the performers. Here are rehearsal spaces separated by storage rooms to maximize the separationof spaces. On either side are offices Up on the next level is the lobby for the theater in the front and the backstage and dressing room areas in the back. The top level of the building is the theater main hall itself, separated in two levels, the lower, and the balconies. The style of the theater is vineyard as this leads to the creation of the form of the building.

Offices

Entrance/Lobby Cloakroom

First Aid

Reception/Info

Security

Staff Enter

Offices

Rehearsal 1

Recording Studio

Rehearsal 2

Rehearsal 3

Manager Instrument/ Equipment Storage

Final Design

Early Preliminary Draft Submission

Design Narratie

The design solutionfor this project is the synthesis of a site strategy involving taking full advantage of the prominence of the site within the city, and a compositionalstrategy used in the Toregano house, which was well suited for a vertial application.The idea of prominence was manifested into the project through the concept of to see, and to be seen. From this hill overlooking Vilnius, any building located here can be seen all throughout the city. From this site, this view works in the opposite directionas well, with the panoramic views of the city being what the hill has been known for for hundreds of years. Bringing this into the architectural realm, to accomplish the best visibility from afar, it was decided to make the building tower over the city, reducing the footprint to the smallest size possible and extruding the program and theater upwards. The pinnacle of this structure is then the 1600 person theater, a new crown of the city. To accomplish the second portionof the goal, to see, the journey up to this theater was used to frame and showcase the panoramic views of the city in ways never seen before.

Entering the building, one passes underneath an overhanging walkway, 45’ above, gettintheir fist glimpse of the journey they are about to embark on. Once inside, the long narrow lobby is <> with a ramp, pointed upwards towards the city. At the base of the ramp, the lobby is almost 60’ tall, framed on all sides by dierent functionsof the building. On the leftat the second level are windows giving glimpses into the rehearsal rooms. Straight in front of you on the third level is a walkway that carries staffbetween their various officesUp near the ceiling, small openings give glimpses of performers lining up to begin their own journey up to the stage. And don’t forget the stairway you previously walked up. The building is buzzing and people are moving everywhere.

To the leftof the ramp, people wait in line for informationor to hang their coats. For some couples here to see a concert it is the sixth one this year, and they make their way to the elevators at the end of

the lobby for their own journey to the top. But to all the fist times, the ramp seems like a more exciting way to try. As the ascension begins, the ceiling lowers as the officspace enters the void above. This is temporary as the ceiling once again soars. At the top of the ramp, it turns leftand is replaced by a two sets of stairs. The fist views of the city appears. Some skyscrapers in the New City Center are visible, but mostly a lot of trees. On the leftare people sittinin the restaurant gettina bite to eat before the concert starts. They get to take in the view as well. At the top of the stairs to plaorm turns le again. At this landing and opening appears for access to the meetingareas overlooking the city. But for those going to the show, the ascension continues. Here the views of the western side of the city, Vignis Park and the Soviet era TV Tower come into view. The ramp ends and turns leftagain, returning to stairs. The second set provide a looking point back into the lobby space previously occupied. Looking out the windows the flooris now high enough to be over the trees and views of south Vilnius come into sight. Rounding the corner again, the finalsectionof ramp is commenced. On the right are stunning views of the Old Town. Here the regulars who took the elevator join the procession and take in the views of Old Town. One last corner is rounded into the upper lobby. The journey culminates with the best views of the city, from 65’ above it. This last step shows the growth of the city, from the historical center on the east to the New Town and New City Center on the north from a perspectie that could not be seen from anywhere else but Taurus Hill.

The compositionof the building is framed by three service areas. The circulationstarts between these volumes but ultimtely curls its way outside of them. In between these service cores are a variation of single and double height spaces framing in the lobby. Each level is based on a 13’ horizontal grid that allows for components of program to connect and interact. Up on the upper levels is the theater itself, a standard shoebox style. Below the main entry level is an underground level with areas for receiving and storage, as well as the main mechanical room for the building.

While it could be considered excessive, the ascending circulationbegins to give to life to a building that may only see occupants a couple evenings a week. Similar to Hudson Yards in NYC, the stairs and ramp become a programmaticelement within itself and could allow for visits to the city, or life long residents, the opportunity to tour the building and see their city from a completely new perspectie, while gettina glimpse of all the inner workings of the orchestra as they wind their way up.

Final Design

Early Preliminary Draft Submission

Design Narratie

The design solutionfor this project is the synthesis of a site strategy involving taking full advantage of the prominence of the site within the city, and a compositionalstrategy used in the Toregano house, which was well suited for a vertial application.The idea of prominence was manifested into the project through the concept of to see, and to be seen. From this hill overlooking Vilnius, any building located here can be seen all throughout the city. From this site, this view works in the opposite directionas well, with the panoramic views of the city being what the hill has been known for for hundreds of years. Bringing this into the architectural realm, to accomplish the best visibility from afar, it was decided to make the building tower over the city, reducing the footprint to the smallest size possible and extruding the program and theater upwards. The pinnacle of this structure is then the 1600 person theater, a new crown of the city. To accomplish the second portionof the goal, to see, the journey up to this theater was used to frame and showcase the panoramic views of the city in ways never seen before.

Entering the building, one passes underneath an overhanging walkway, 45’ above, gettintheir fist glimpse of the journey they are about to embark on. Once inside, the long narrow lobby is <> with a ramp, pointed upwards towards the city. At the base of the ramp, the lobby is almost 60’ tall, framed on all sides by dierent functionsof the building. On the leftat the second level are windows giving glimpses into the rehearsal rooms. Straight in front of you on the third level is a walkway that carries staffbetween their various officesUp near the ceiling, small openings give glimpses of performers lining up to begin their own journey up to the stage. And don’t forget the stairway you previously walked up. The building is buzzing and people are moving everywhere.

To the leftof the ramp, people wait in line for informationor to hang their coats. For some couples here to see a concert it is the sixth one this year, and they make their way to the elevators at the end of

Diagram

A167 the lobby for their own journey to the top. But to all the fist times, the ramp seems like a more exciting way to try. As the ascension begins, the ceiling lowers as the officspace enters the void above. This is temporary as the ceiling once again soars. At the top of the ramp, it turns leftand is replaced by a two sets of stairs. The fist views of the city appears. Some skyscrapers in the New City Center are visible, but mostly a lot of trees. On the leftare people sittinin the restaurant gettina bite to eat before the concert starts. They get to take in the view as well. At the top of the stairs to plaorm turns le again. At this landing and opening appears for access to the meetingareas overlooking the city. But for those going to the show, the ascension continues. Here the views of the western side of the city, Vignis Park and the Soviet era TV Tower come into view. The ramp ends and turns leftagain, returning to stairs. The second set provide a looking point back into the lobby space previously occupied. Looking out the windows the flooris now high enough to be over the trees and views of south Vilnius come into sight. Rounding the corner again, the finalsectionof ramp is commenced. On the right are stunning views of the Old Town. Here the regulars who took the elevator join the procession and take in the views of Old Town. One last corner is rounded into the upper lobby. The journey culminates with the best views of the city, from 65’ above it. This last step shows the growth of the city, from the historical center on the east to the New Town and New City Center on the north from a perspectie that could not be seen from anywhere else but Taurus Hill.

The compositionof the building is framed by three service areas. The circulationstarts between these volumes but ultimtely curls its way outside of them. In between these service cores are a variation of single and double height spaces framing in the lobby. Each level is based on a 13’ horizontal grid that allows for components of program to connect and interact. Up on the upper levels is the theater itself, a standard shoebox style. Below the main entry level is an underground level with areas for receiving and storage, as well as the main mechanical room for the building.

While it could be considered excessive, the ascending circulationbegins to give to life to a building that may only see occupants a couple evenings a week. Similar to Hudson Yards in NYC, the stairs and ramp become a programmaticelement within itself and could allow for visits to the city, or life long residents, the opportunity to tour the building and see their city from a completely new perspectie, while gettina glimpse of all the inner workings of the orchestra as they wind their way up. Circulation Diagam

Envelope Diagrams

7-Assignment 6

Trusses Carry the Roof Loads to the Outer Edges to Produce a Column Free Space

AdditionalFloors Surround the Theater to Service Egress for All Levels of the Main Hall

The multicultual heritage of Vilnius gave the city a broad range of architectural styles and types of construction.Many historic buildings are Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical styles. Each has their own distinctappearance, including compositionalelements and finishes,which oen have been modifiedfrom their Western European counterparts. Several of these places withstood the test of me and war, and stillstand today. Others were lost during the war but were rebuilt in an aempt to bring back the lost cultural heritage. This challenge is sll something that Vilnius is working through as it tries to build its own architectural identitypost 1991. At the turn of the 20th Century, Vilnius was faced with modernization.In an aempt to do so, the city established metal bridges, steam power, street lightin, and electric power. Prior to 1940, most of the buildings were constructed out of wood, which was viewed by the Soviets as inferior. Any imagery of the country was censored to shun this wooden architecture. The Soviet occupationalso brought upon the creationof microdistricts, self-sustaining towers of residentialand public services. These places mimicked the radical change brought on by the republic, with monolithic construction,poor quality, straight line design and a distinctgrey color. Any vernacular architecture that was created to naturally respond to the environment and climate of the city was replaced with structures that could be placed anywhere in the world, with no regards to the region or climate.

Psychrometric Chart, Winter

Psychrometric Chart, Summer

Psychrometric Chart, Spring

Psychrometric Chart, Fall

Passive Strategies

The building is located at the highest point on the site, which happens to be the locationof the former building. The building is over 150’ tall and allows for users to look out over the trees that surround the site.

Summer Mode: Heat Flushing Mode

Winter Mode: Thermal Buffer, Insulating Space

Sefaira Analysis

The building is located at the highest point on the site, which happens to be the locationof the former building. The building is over 150’ tall and allows for users to look out over the trees that surround the site.

Passive Strategies

The building is located at the highest point on the site, which happens to be the locationof the former building. The building is over 150’ tall and allows for users to look out over the trees that surround the site.

Zone Diagram

Vertical/Accoustic Concerns

Users Will Put Off Lage Amounts of Body Heat

Heat Will Likely Only Be Needed During Down Times

Area Will Need Adequate Heat with Individualized Control

Ceiling Height is at a Premium

Zone Will Benefit fom Heat Gain from all the Glass

Glass Also Can Never be as Efficit as Other Means, Requiring Heating at the Perimeter to Make Up for the Heat Loss

Will Require Heat but Can Be at a Lower Temperature/Comfort Level than the Rest of the Building

Zone is Located Near Mechanical Equipment

Will Require High Cooling Loads Due to Large Amounts of People in the Spaces

Cooling Has to Be Quick Responding as Well

Zone Will Require High Amounts of Ventiltion Due o the Number of People in the Space

Natural Ventiltion and the Conditioning of the Space Surrounding the Support Spaces will Help Cooling

Some Small Amounts May Be Used

Due to the Large Number of People using the Space, Some Cooling will be Required

Natural Ventiltion will Help with This Though

Little o No Cooling Would Be Required Underground

May Require More Than Natural Ventiltio

Ceiling Height is at a Premium

Height of Space Will Allow for Natural Ventiltio

Due to Large Number of People in the Space, This Will Need to Be Supplemented

Large Amounts of Ventiltion Will Be Required Due to Trucks, Equipment, and the Type of Work Performed

Conv. HVAC

Air

Less Noisy w/ AHU in Basement

Has Ventiltion Include

Conv. HVAC

Water

Geothermal

Closed Loop

Less Space is Required with Pipes than Ducts

Negative

Space for Ducts

Pollution fom Boiler and Cooling Towers if Used

Noisier with Mini AHU in Each Space or Radiator/ Fan Box

No Ventiltio

Replaces Noisy Boiler and Cooling Towers

Lower Level of Pollutio

Geothermal

Open Web

Radiant System

More Consistent Water Temperature

Costly to Install

Still equires Energy to Run Pumps

ERV

Smallest Profile in Floor/Ceilin

Heating and Cooling is ossible

Not An Option on this Sie

No Ventiltio

Not Good for Large Spaces with Many People

Helps Provide Ventiltion with Minimal Ductwork

May Be Quite Noisy in Space

Forced Air System is Required to Meet Needs of Ventiltio

Will Require Limited Heating During Rehearsals but will Also Require Cooling During Performances, Making

Low Floor to Floor Heights Make Ductwork a Challenge

Surrounding Atrium will Dampen a Large Amount of the Heat Meaning Minimal Cooling

Forced Air System is Required to Move Enough Air for the Number of Potential eople in the Space

The Double Skin Facade will Assist with Cooling and Ventiltion During Non-Peak Hours

Since the System is Already in Place in Most of the Building, It Can Be Expanded for This Space

Primarily Used for Large Amounts of Ventiltion and Het

Geothermal Tubes Under Building Heat Pump

Potentially owered by Solar Air Handling Unit Ductwork

High Efficiency Boil

Potentially owered by Solar Heat Pump Manifolds

Coils

ERV in Each Area

Geothermal Tubes Under Building Heat Pump

Potentially owered by Solar Air Handling Unit Ductwork

Geothermal Tubes Under Building Heat Pump

Potentially owered by Solar Air Handling Unit Ductwork

The building is located at the highest point on the site, which happens to be the locationof the former building. The building is over 150’ tall and allows for users to look out over the trees that surround the site.

FifthFloorEgressDiagram Scale:1 16"=1'-0"

TheaterEgressDiagram Scale:1 16"=1'-0"

BalconyEgressDiagram Scale:1 16"=1'-0"

SITEBOUNDARY

V.KUDIRKOS V. MYKOLAICIO-PUTINO

SITE BOUNDARY

SITE BOUNDARY

ToSeeand

ToBeSeen

ConcertHallandCivicCenter TaurasHill Vilnius,Lithuania

MATERIALKEY

1ROOFASSEMBLY

-MECHANICALLYFASTENEDMEMBRANEROOFING

-1/2"PROTECTIONBOARD

-7"RIGIDINSULATION(SLOPEDAT1 2"PERFOOT) -CONTINUOUSAVWB

-1/2"EXTERIORSHEATHING -12"CONCRETESLAB

3BELOWGRADEWALLASSEMBLY

-1/2"DRAINAGEBOARD -3"RIGIDFOAMINSULATION -CONTINUOUSAVWB -CASTINPLACECONCRETEWALL

5DOUBLESKINGLASSFACADEASSEMBLY

-1"STARPHIREULTRA-CLEARGLASSWITH2"GAPS

-4"x6"STRUCTURALMULLIONS

-2'METALCATWALKFORMAINTENANCEANDCLEANING

-SUPPORTBRACKETFORCATWALKANDLATERALBRACING

-SUNGATE400TRIPLEPLYWINDOWS(SEALEDLAYER)

-4"X12"THERMALLYBROKENCURTAINWALLMULLIONS

-AUTOMATEDVENTOPENINGWITHINSULATEDDOOR

-8"RAMPSLAB,THERMALLYBROKEN

-6"X12"HSSSTEELCOLUMN

-DUCTFORHEATINGANDMOISTURECONTROLONGLASS

4"x6"STRUCTURALMULLIONS 2'METALCATWALKFORMAINTENANCEANDCLEANING

DUCTFORHEATINGANDMOISTURECONTROLONGLASS

4"X12"THERMALLYBROKENCURTAINWALLMULLIONS

SUNGATE400TRIPLEPLYWINDOWS(SEALEDLAYER)

6"X12"HSSSTEELCOLUMN

2CONCRETEPANELWALLASSEMBLY

-EQUITONEFIBRECEMENTFACADEPANELS -EQUITONEUNI-RIVETCONNECTORS -VERTICALATTACHMENTTRACKSYSTEM -GALV.STEELZ-GIRT

-3"CONTINUOUSMINERALWOOLINSULATION -CONTINUOUSAVWB -CASTINPLACECONCRETEWALL

4SLABONGRADEASSEMBLY -COMPACTEDGRAVEL

-2"RIGIDINSULATION -CONTINUOUSAVWB -12"SLABONGRADE

SchoolofArchitecture Fall2020 ARCH513Section01 IntegratedProjectDesignStudio Prof.RobertoViolaOchoa

Structural

The service cores of the building a reinforced cast in place concrete walls that also act as lateral bracing for the building. This travel the full height of the building and are located in the four corners. The base of the building is constructed of cast in place concrete columns and a two-way slab system on a roughly 30’-0” by 30’-0” grid. This system supports the theater above. The balconies are �ed by to the service cores and the back wall of the theater. The roof is supported by open web trusses that span the width of the theater and provide a column free space. The final area is the structure for the ramp and envelope. This is a steel framework consis�ng of HSS columns and beams that support the end of the ramp slab and the gravity loads of the glass facade.

Mechanical

The mechanical systems required for a concert hall have to be well sized to handle the demand that comes with having 1600 plus people enclosed inside a small volume within a ma�er of minutes from when it was empty. This building is divided into four zones. The first is the theater itself. It requires a large AHU to make sure air can be changed and cooled when needed. This is the same for the atrium/lobby space. The support spaces for offices and mee�ng rooms are all designed with radiant floor hea�ng and a zone wide ERV unit to provide ven�la�on. All of the large equipment is placed in the basement and is vented to the exterior. Distribu�on is contained through a total of 8 mechanical chases located throughout the building.

ConcertHallandCivicCenter TaurasHill Vilnius,Lithuania