ARMILLA

Water Infrastructure Driven Urban Environment and Architecture Design.

Multi-Functional

Sustainability

Urban Design

When

Feb 2021 - May 2021

Who

Instructed by Tomas McKay

Project Overview

"Armilla has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically and spread out horizontally, end in taps, showers, spouts, overflows. ……Nymphs and naiads live in water found it easy to enter into the new aquatic realm, to burst from multiple fountains, to find new mirrors, new games, new ways of enjoying the water. "
-- Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

This project focuses on enhancing the resilience of urban water systems while exploring the dynamic interactions between water and human daily life. Drawing inspiration from Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), it minimizes reliance on municipal pipelines by incorporating the use of stormwater and graywater for supply. The design integrates water infrastructure as a central element, shaping the form, space, and circulation within the project. Seasonal variations in precipitation influence the functioning of the water system, creating dynamic interactions between water and human livings.

Water Crisis in San Francisco

San Francisco is not a city with sufficient water supply, whose water supplyment is complelely depending on one single water source -- Hetch Hetchy Reservoir -- hundreds of miles away from the city. However San Francisco is not the only city doing so, overloading Hetch Hetchy. At meanwhile, transporting water over hundreds of miles making water supplyment in SF really costy.

On the other hand, seasonal storm flood risk in San Francisco is not a trivial topic, which imply a considerable amount of precipitation in the city, at least in certain season.

Putting these pieces together, the project is proposing an architecture perspective of rethinking water supplyment in SF, considering reusage of stormwater and graywater.

Urban Design - The Water Net

In order to renovate the water sequence of San Fransisco, a new set of water infrastructure is overlayed onto the road grid.

After analyzing the topography of this area, water storage infrastructure are places at the lowest corner of each block, and water transportation infrastructure are extended from them to connect each other, moving water among them. And water catchment infrastructure are place in between according to existing artifacts.

Urban Design Mapping and Formation

Infrastructure Components

Infrastructure is extensible using a set of pre-designed components. Instead of redesigning the city directly, the urban design project is proposing an extensible system, have the possibility to grow both spacially and timely, by reusing the infrastructure components.

The New Topography

The water infrastructure elements not only processing water within the urban environment, they also turn into new topography, modifying old, providing new surfaces for activities, and link people's daily life with water.

Urban Design Section

Urban Design System Axonometric

Urban Spacial Experience

Water infrastructure elements interacted with citizens' daily life tightly, providing people opportunity to access water and communicate with each other with a background of water, formed a different way to read and to experience the city.

Urban Spacial Experience Scenarios

Architecture - Armilla

The architecture part of the project share the same concept as the urban part, integrating and visualizing water infrastructure in peoples daily lives.

Starting with ideation of water circulation in different seasons, water infrastructure not only shaped itself, but also drew the form, space and circulation of the architecture. Water flows differently over the years, while human will have different behavior. The interaction between human behaviors and water plays the key role of design.

Climate in San Fransisco

Precipitation in SF not even around the year, winter usually comes with heavy precipitation, leaving summer with almost no rain at all.

Reusing Gray Water and Storm Water

Considering how San Fransisco is utilizing water nowadays, and the huge amount of storm going to sewage every winter, it is in deed intuitive to propose to reusing gray water and storm water in winter, to compensate the nature of lackinging water in summer.

Form - Shape of Water Infrastructure

When water flow through the architecture, the water draw the shape. The architecture project have the same form language as the urban design project. Water elements extend, extrude and fold, finding its way generating spaces for human activities.

From municiple water pipe and storm water catchment, to water transportation, to water storage, water infrastructure inside the architecture turn into different buildilng elements while serving different role in water sequence

Architecture Water Circulation Components

Exploded Axonometric

Water Over Seasons

Due to the huge discrepency of precipitation in different seasons, water is displayed differently throughout the architecture over the year. In winter, water will become more and more visible in public spaces, while gradually go down over the summer.

Water as Entertainment

In Winter, thanks to heavy precipitation in San Fransisco, water is an element of entertainment through out the building.

By placing water storage in public spaces, as fountain, as swimming pool, or just as water fall, people have fun with water, interact with water throughout their daily lives.

Water as Entertainment - Swimming Pool

Water as Entertainment - Water Fall

Water as Entertainment - Pool on Roof Garden

Water as Commodity

As time pass from winter to summer, amount of precipitation reduced. Disappearance of waterfall, drop of water level in open water storages showing the reducing amount of water collected over the passed winter. Water is changed from kind of entertainment to commodity.

Ground Floor Plan

Water as Monument

Water is heavy, heavy structure are constructed to transporting water from place to place in ancient ages. While water infracture is almost invisible nowadays, the project using heavy structure to replay the monumental moment of water in history and vital role it plays in our daily life.