Small-Scale Public Transportable and Pre-Fabricated Buildings

Evaluating their Functional Performance

Junjie Xi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138698482
• eBook ISBN: 9781315518879
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

This book investigates the design, operation and use of contemporary transportable buildings, and explores how functional performance can be assessed in small-scale examples for public use alongside their relationship to other design elements. The research focuses on three case studies, Chengdu Hualin Elementary School, Exxopolis and Kreod, that do not require a high-technology building environment or complex construction skills. Transportable buildings are defined as those that are transported in a number of parts for assembly on site. Contemporary transportable buildings respond to ecological issues, social impacts, technological innovation and economic demands. They can be used to measure a society's development in environmental sustainability, innovation and economic growth through various forms. Small-scale transportable buildings fulfil many temporary habitation needs in diverse roles, such as non-emergency transitional housing, ephemeral exhibition buildings and seasonal entertainment facilities. Small-Scale Public Transportable and Pre-Fabricated Buildings will be a useful research text for academics and students in architecture, design and sustainable building performance.

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Part I

Current position

Part I reviews current research related to small-scale public transportable buildings. A list of relevant definitions are discussed, including transportable building, evaluation, functional performance, small-scale and public building, to establish the research scope. Key factors in the design and operation of public transportable buildings are identified to create the research context.

Chapter 1 consists of three sections: (1) definitions of the key terms used throughout the research; (2) analysis of the notion of small-scale buildings (presented through examining four key aspects: function, finance, timescale and aesthetics); and (3) analysis of two groups of selected transportable buildings projects and their relationships to the surrounding environment.

Chapter 2 analyses a series of large transportable buildings projects to ascertain the relationships between public transportable buildings and sites, for two reasons: to overview the interconnection between buildings and their sites; and because most large transportable buildings projects are designed by world-renowned architects, engineers and designers with rich experience in architectural design. As such, their projects are representative of the building design industry and can have a deep and wide influence in the future design of transportable buildings.

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1 Key factors in the design and operation of public transportable buildings

List of definitions

This section identifies the key definitions that have been addressed in this book, including transportable building, evaluation, functional performance, small-scale and public buildings. These definitions will clarify the scope of the research.

Transportable buildings

The meaning of transportable buildings can be adapted from Robert Kronenburg’s definition of demountable buildings as:

Those that are transported in a number of parts for assembly on-site. They are much more flexible in size and layout and can usually be transported in a relatively compact space. They have some of the limitations that site operations bring to a conventional building and, depending on the size, complexity, and ingenuity of the system, are not as instantly available.¹

Similar to transportable buildings, transportable structures are often used for public events. These structures include temporary seats, shelters, media facilities and stages. The Institution of Structural Engineers identifies the definition of temporary demountable structures as:

Structures which are in place for a short time, generally no more than 28 days, that are designed to be erected and dismantled manually many times. They are usually made from lightweight components and are used for a wide variety of functions at public and private events. They include grandstands, tents and marquees which may accommodate large numbers of people, and stages and supports for performers.²

Historically, there has been a demand for the construction of transportable buildings and structures. To summarise the key aspects of transportable structure, P. S. Westbury states that:

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The system must be capable of being transported within a minimum number of standard-size units, it must be quick and easy to erect and dismantle, it must involve as few dedicated site personnel as possible and it must be deployable on any realistic site.³

The boundary between transportable buildings and structures becomes blurred when structures can provide the same functional use as a building. It is important, however, to identify whether a project is a building or functional structure when construction law needs to be addressed for installation and deconstruction guidance.

Evaluation

In the Guidelines for Operational Programme Formulation in Post-disaster Situations, developed by the UN-Habitat Risk and Disaster Management Unit, evaluation is defined as: “a process that seeks to determine as systematically and objectively as possible the relevance, effectiveness and impact of activities carried out with regard to their objectives”.⁴ In order to make the definition clear, the UNCHS (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements) explains the differences between evaluation and monitoring. It states:

Evaluations tend to place value on the achievements of a project, while monitoring is usually not judgement based. Evaluations are therefore more selective and are geared to determine specific criteria–relevance, success and performance of the project.⁵

In the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) online database,⁶ there are many different definitions for evaluation, with a selected list of relevant definitions as shown in Table 1.1.

The OECD/DAC (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Development Assistance Committee) highlights four key points relating to evaluation:

It is a systematic and objective assessment of a project (either ongoing or completed); it assesses the project design, implementation and results; the goal is to determine the project’s relevance, achievement of objectives, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability; it should provide credible, useful information that will enable the lessons learned from the project to be incorporated into the programme or project.⁷

Yehuda E. Kalay defines the meaning of evaluation as “a direct consequence and derivative of the uncertainty that is inherent to the process of design”,⁸ further stating that “the process that performs such predictions and comparisons and determines if the solutions meet the goals and abide by the constraints”.⁹

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Table 1.1 Selected definitions of “evaluation” from the ISO Concept Database (11 October 2010)

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Bernhard Tschumi¹⁰ was invited to a public debate event at ETH Zürich with Rem Koolhaas¹¹ on 18 May 2011. His opinion on the use of evaluation was that an evaluation system is used to create a series of scenarios in order to understand what architecture is and how it can be designed differently.¹² This book argues that evaluation methods for small-scale public transportable buildings can be varied and optional, with the key point being that the selected methods reflect the architect or designer’s design intention from a specific aspect. As such, the meaning of evaluation can be discussed logically and the possible evaluation methods can be quantified. Consequently, in this book, evaluation means establishing a set of relevant criteria for evaluation to enable project operators to begin to address functional performance from a public perspective and reflect on the scope of their projects.

Functional performance

Volker H. Hartkopf,¹³ Vivian E. Loftness¹⁴ and Peter A. D. Mill¹⁵ argue that it is important to identify a complete definition of building performance mandates to be met by building policy makers, programmers, architects, engineers, contractors, owners and managers in order to understand the meaning of functional performance.¹⁶ The performance of a building reflects on the performance of its function, and there are six performance criteria in building performance evaluation: building integrity, thermal comfort, acoustic comfort, visual comfort, air quality and spatial comfort (see Table 1.2). Any problems arising from these six performance criteria will affect users to varying degrees and, therefore, the functional performance of the building.¹⁷

The building comfort criteria are generally affected by temperature, humidity, outdoor air supply, filter selection, visual criteria and noise, alongside other factors potentially affecting comfort, such as temperature variations, colour of surfaces and lights, and the age, gender and health of users.¹⁸

For small-scale public transportable buildings, the typical development team includes:

• Clients – owner of the project, main funding body;

• Designers – including architects, designers and artists who are involved in designing the development in accordance with all relevant constraints (including site, costs, regulations and market intelligence);

• Developers – monitor the project and manage it through to completion;

• Planning consultants – advise on acceptability to local planning authorities and negotiate with planning authorities in cases where planning consent is controversial.¹⁹

The above groups consist of professionals who participate together to deliver projects to public visitors, the end-users of the building. Depending on the project scale and complexity, each role within the development team may be flexible: for example, designers may also take part in the developers’ or planning consultants’ work. Designers are at the core of the team because they are charged with responding to all other parties during the design ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Small-Scale Public Transportable and Pre-Fabricated Buildings
• Routledge Research in Architecture
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List Of Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I Current Position
• Part II Review and Synthesis of Analysis and Evaluation Methods
• Part III Case Studies
• Part Iv Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index