BENV 2423 Sasha Lesiuk: October 2014

Monday, 27 October 2014

This week in the lecture we looked at photographs of buildings that had been abandoned after natural or man made disasters. I found the images of Kolmanskop, Namibia really interesting especially how the sand had settled inside the buildings. We also looked at apocalyptic movie trailers such as I Am Legend. Watching these trailers made me start thinking about how I could show the Church of Light in an abandoned state.

Monday, 20 October 2014

Week 11 - How materials can be destroyed

1. Concrete Crack

2. Concrete has fallen away from reinforcement

3. Glass has shattered

Week 11 - Lecture Summary

This week in the lecture, we looked at the destruction of buildings both by nature and by man. One of the most interesting case studies we looked at was the Christchurch earthquake. As the Christchurch area was not considered very earthquake prone, the buildings weren't built to withstand the forces of such a large earthquake. It was interesting to see how the buildings were after the earthquake and the damage that this natural disaster had made. I think for my project, I will destroy my building as if it had been in an earthquake. I will then use vegetation and other methods to show that there has been little or no human maintenance on the building since the earthquake.

Monday, 13 October 2014

Week 10 - Window Frame Detail

Window Detailed Section

Window Frame Sketch

Window Frame Model

Monday, 6 October 2014

Week 8 - Glass Research

Although glass is brittle, it is extremely durable and can be moulded into any shape.
Glass doesn’t really decay; instead it crystallises, weathers and erodes. The rate of crystalisation is depended on many factors, most importantly temperature.
If glass is in the ocean for a prolonged period of time, its edges will go smooth from erosion.
The melting point of glass is between 800 and 950 degrees Celsius. In extreme heat, glass will become soft and increasingly liquid.
Spalling of glass is created by rapid cooling such as the application of water. This causes small close cracks.

Week 8 - Timber Research

Timber has superior strength qualities and can withstand some of the most extreme weather.
Timber will rot and mould will form if there is wet weather.
Timber buildings will be quick to disappear if the buildings were left to the environment.
In fire, timber will burn quickly causing the structural frame to fail and the building to fall. After the fire, timber will be blackened and there will be bits of timber and ash on the floor.

Week 8 - Concrete Research

Concrete is commonly made of a mixture of powdered cement, water, sand and gravel.
Reinforced concrete is a composite material in which the concrete’s relatively low tensile strength and ductility are counteracted by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength and/or ductility.
Reinforcement is usually steel bars that are embedded in the concrete.
The chemical environment of the hardened concrete causes a film to form on the surface of the steel reinforcement, making it more resistant to corrosion.
When the steel reinforcements do begin to rust, the rust expands and tends to flake, causing the concrete to crack and the bond between concrete and steel to break.
Cracking can allow moisture into the concrete also causing the reinforcement to rust.
Without maintenance, concrete will begin to decay and get damaged after 20 years, as can be seen from the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. Plant root systems will begin to get into the concrete and break up the structure.
In fire, concrete peels away layer by layer. As water is pulled out of the concrete from the heat of the fire, thin layers of concrete with the aggregates visible, begin to fall off the wall.