Week 10 - Floor Detail

Floor Detail Sketch

Floor Detail Model

Week 10 - Concrete detail

Concrete detail

Concrete floor model

Week 10 - Lecture Summary

This week there was no lecture. During the tutorial we went to the library and researched details that are relevant for our specific building. I am doing the Church of Light, so I was looking at concrete details as well as floor and window details.

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.

Week 8 - Adding materials

Without materials

With materials