Resilience - University of Miami School of Architecture

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28 virginia key ecosystem urban • How can beer physical connecons be made to adjacent instu- ons? • How can the RSMAS campus be opened up and integrated into the system of public waterfront trails which runs from Brickell, out the Rickenbacker Causeway, and onto Crandon Park? • How could campus edges be redeveloped to funcon as es, rather than barriers to adjacent uses? ecological • What funcons of the system have been most compromised by coastal development? • What off-site impacts does the campus have? • What adverse impacts could be migated through architectural or site improvements? • What campus improvements could contribute to increased funcon or resilience of the ecosystem? building resilience sea-level Rise The concept of resilience has several implicaons in terms of evaluang the architecture itself. Most obvious is physical resilience to climate events including hurricanes and sea-level rise. Examples from other low-lying geographies are informave, but South Florida presents an unusual set of condions. Dutch architecture represents a cultural bias toward long planning horizons and durable, well detailed architecture. These qualies are appropriate to planning for university structures which are expected to accommodate sophiscated program requirements and endure over me. However, hurricane winds, intense sun, and humidity add addional stresses not considered in Dutch architecture. Coastal developments in Southeast Asia do face similar climate condions, yet few examples are expected to meet the high performance standards of University-level research facilies. thermal comfort Ability to provide climate comfort through passive or renewable means is another aspect of resilience. Again, Southeast Asia provides some precedents. Integrang tradional strategies into a high-performance building will be part of the challenge. Ideally, a combinaon of passive thermal comfort strategies, efficient building envelope, minimizing arficial lighng demand, and thoughul design of specialized laboratory equipment could result in a high performance research building which could operate with less dependence on outside power. While this seems unusual for a university building, there are many examples of field research facilies which allow for high quality scien- fic invesgaon in a much less resource dependent manner. Field staons should also provide good precedent for the integraon of housing into scien- fic research facilies. While the actual number of units may be small in terms of the overall university populaon, I would hope to determine how many residents would be required to support the culture of integrated life and learning which is evident at facilies such as Duke Marine labs which incorporate some housing. program adaptability Another aspect of resilience, is the ability of a system to adjust to change while sll maintaining its overall form. For architecture this implies a building which meets its current program, but is designed in such a manner as to accommodate future needs which may be quite different. Generally, this implies a modular system where structure and internal parons are separate, as well as design of mechanical systems which can be easily accessed and adapted. The thesis will have to explore what this means in response to the parcular program. habitat In responding to the third client, the Virginia Key ecosystem, another set of metrics apply. From an ecosystem standpoint, resilience is oen a result of diversity of species and habitat structure. A building will impact these in two ways. First, off-site impacts need to be considered in terms of drainage, air polluon, shadow casng, light polluon etc. This kind of impact is fairly well described by the USGBC LEED rang system. In a coastal marine locaon adjacent to fragile habitat, a range of impacts must be considered including site disturbance during construcon, release of pollutants during maturing of building structure, and impact of maintenance pracces such as painng or window cleaning. Second, and less explored is how the building can in fact replace or augment physical habitat structure which has been lost. One area I am curious about is the potenal for vegetated roofs to be designed to meet the habitat needs of specific species. An unintended but well documented example is the coloniza- on of parapets and cornice structures by Peregrine Falcons in New York City. In the context of sea-level rise and climate change, roofscapes may be able to provide refuge for species such as shorebirds who may lose their natural habitat due to flooding, even if only during temporary storm events. cultural context Finally, architecture is a cultural product. A building is an expensive and impacul statement about the aesthecs and cultural values of its architects and client. While it will inevitably express the dominant values and aesthecs of its moment of incepon, a resilient building will have aesthec and cultural meaning whose value and legibility endure over me. Despite the newness of Miami as an urban center, there is a rich architectural vocabulary to draw from. While there is no history of selement in Virginia Key prior to the 1940’s, the early selers of the region followed the light wooden vernacular common to the American South.
At present, there is a large collecon of mid-century concrete structures which represent the playful experimentaon with reinforced concrete construcon. Best known is the Marine Stadium, but are many other structures including park facilies and the concrete-screened NOAA facility which represent this period of Miami’s history (figures 1-3). The heavy brise soleil of the campus commons building place it in the company of other brutalist buildings of the period which connue to explore the plasc qualies of concrete and the dramac shadowing possible with intense tropical light (figure 4). The more recent Administraon Building connues to explore the vocabulary of Tropicalist instuonal architecture with its massive overhanging roof (figure 5). Any new architecture on the campus must be designed with these tradions in mind. 2. materials, aesthecs of exisng campus 29
Page 1: Resilience An investigation of Trop
Page 5: Table of Contents Overall Objecve .
Page 8 and 9: 2 1. Doherty building and campus wa
Page 10 and 11: esilient community As urban designe
Page 12 and 13: Biscayne Bay Land-Fill Rickenbacker
Page 14 and 15: environmental history As is typical
Page 16 and 17: 10 7. Virginia Key 1960’s, Yehle
Page 18 and 19: one campus. A two level south wing
Page 20 and 21: at that me for academic architectur
Page 22 and 23: uildings: interior • Poorly defin
Page 24 and 25: id building name date sq. . 1101 Do
Page 26 and 27: city of miami virginia key plan Whi
Page 28 and 29: 6. Rendering from Rickenbacker entr
Page 30 and 31: master planning critique make bigge
Page 32 and 33: site diagrams relaon to causeway pr
Page 36 and 37: proposed redevelopment sequence The
Page 38 and 39: campus square footage studies build
Page 40 and 41: “Landscape Urbanism describes a d
Page 42 and 43: 2. High Line route. adapted from go
Page 44 and 45: 8. Venice Hospital model, from Alla
Page 47: Works Cited Abramovitz-Harris-Kings
Page 50 and 51: campus challenges/ proposed solutio
Page 52 and 53: site master plan Hobie Beach To Mar
Page 54 and 55: typical fl oor plans and section la
Page 56 and 57: grosvenor north transformation shel
Page 58 and 59: circulation interior circulaon serv
Page 60 and 61: climate comfort exisng condions •
Page 62 and 63: social interaction exisng condions
Page 64: campus entry existing proposed labo
Page 68: waterfront quadrangles vising schol

Resilience - University of Miami School of Architecture

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