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Articulation, Space and Sustainability
A Report on diploma student projects at the Technion, Israel
Jonathan Natanian1, Or Aleksandrowicz2
1 Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology,
Haifa, Israel. Founder of studioADAPT, jonathan_nat@technion.ac.il;
2 Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology,
Haifa, Israel, oraleks@technion.ac.il.
Abstract: This paper reports on recent final-year undergraduate projects completed at the Faculty of
Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The final-year studio, which
followed the conceptual framework of Research-Based Design, was entitled 'Articulation, Space, and
Sustainability', and focused on the adaptation of the Israeli built environment through the articulation of a
responsive architectural language. The paper uses four student projects for demonstrating the challenges and
opportunities involved in the application of environmental research-based design in projects of undergraduate
architecture students. The process of learning in these projects, beyond the traditional qualitative focus on
design outcomes, demonstrate the pedagogic value of a generative learning process that is based on
quantitative indicators and aims to equip future architects with new design tools urgently needed for pushing
the local common practice in Israel towards its responsive phase.
Keywords: Environmental design education, integrated Environmental design, Sustainable design language,
Performance based design, Research-based design
Introduction
For more than two decades, awareness to the environmental impact of buildings and urban
areas has been rising, leading to an increase in scientific research aimed at devising new
methods and recommendations for climatically-aware design. During that time, the need to
integrate environmental sensitivity into architectural education and training has also been
broadly acknowledged (Ismail et al. 2017). In spite of these converging trends, it can be
argued that the products of scientific research had until now only a limited effect on common
architectural design practices (Yannas 2013) as well as on the curricula of architecture schools
(Altomonte 2009).
In recent years, the aim of integrating sustainable design into academic programs has
produced several initiatives (Ismail et al. 2017), including the three-year, multi-national
European project EDUCATE (Environmental Design in University Curricula and Architectural
Training in Europe)(Altomonte et al. 2012). The EDUCATE project aimed at producing a
conceptual framework that would support the creation of environmentally-aware academic
programs in the field of architecture, introducing five different pedagogical models of
sustainable design integration into architectural curricula (Figure 1): parallel (environmental
design is taught separately from other design approaches); partially integrated
(environmental design is partially integrated into other design fields); fully integrated (various
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disciplines converge around the central core of the design studio project); iterative
(knowledge is progressively deepened through a series of cognitive ‘loops’); and elective
(optional courses in environmental design are offered to students) (Altomonte et al. 2012).
The differentiation in pedagogical approaches was meant to conform to a variety of teaching
cultures and organizations (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Five models of integration environmental design studies into architectural school curricula
(Altomonte et al. 2012)
Three of the approaches to environmental design education suggested by the EDUCATE
project were implemented in a recent revision of the Architecture Program at the Faculty of
Architecture and Town Planning at the Israeli Technion. Beginning in October 2014, the
program was transformed from a five-year to a six-year curriculum while including
specialization in five major topics: environmental design, history and theory, preservation,
urban design, and digital architecture. During the first three years of study, the "partially
integrated" model is applied, with basic concepts of environmental design being taught in
mandatory courses; as for years 4-6, an elective-iterative learning process was introduced,
with vertical studio courses in environmental design being supported by theoretical and
performance-based courses.
Inspired by the contemporary discussion on environmental design education, the
Technion's new Architecture Program included a final-year design studio entitled
"Articulation, Space, and Sustainability" that attempted to integrate environmental
performative research and architectural expressive design. The studio, led by architects
Shmaya Serfaty and the first author of this paper, encouraged the students to use
environmental design knowledge throughout all stages of design. This paper describes the
studio's methodology and outcomes after two years of experience.
Course structure and contents
At its present state, the final-year studio is a yearlong course that follows the concept of
research-based design. Students are asked to choose one of several specializations
(architectural history and theory, environmental design, urban design, digital architecture,
architectural conservation), each consisting of a research module and a design studio, and to
suggest their own theme and intervention site. Research is meant to produce a theoretical
framework for design and to support the design process in its entirety, with students
expected to constantly shift between the theoretical and the design-specific domains. The
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final-year studio "Articulation, Space, and Sustainability" follows a similar path while focusing
on environmental and performance-based design principles and concepts.
As the wider concept of research-based design suggests, the course took on the task of
synthesizing scientific environmental knowledge and formal design work. Arch. Shmaya
Serfaty, a partner in one of Israel's leading architectural firms, acted as the studio's design
director. The first author of the paper focused on teaching environmental research
methodologies and production of responsive architectural design, including an introduction
to the performance analysis platform Sefaira. Personal studio meetings were organized with
both tutors present to achieve maximum integration of the different domains of knowledge.
The studio meetings were supplemented with a research course led by the first author whose
aim was to introduce the students to the relevant body of knowledge in the field of
environmental design and to performance-based analytical tools.
Towards an Integrated design process
The integration of environmental research in the studio was designed to follow the main
milestones of the diploma course project. The project begins with the selection of a research
theme and a site of intervention by the students. The discussion on the broader context of
each theme brings to front different social, geo-political, and historical issues typical to the
local context, and is complimented by a climatic analysis specific to the project's site.
The project was expected to progress by following four generic milestones of the design
process: conceptual design, massing, programmatic layout, and envelope detailed design.
While students were encouraged to integrate environmental knowledge into their design on
each of the stages, experience showed that they tended to limit their environmental focus to
only one of the stages. The following paragraphs describe several of the students' projects,
while demonstrating how environmental design issues were considered in each of the design
stages and affected final design.
Conceptual design
Among the diverse mosaic representing the evolution of the typical Israeli city, a unique
interaction takes place between developing urban areas and former military industrial zones
located within them. The specific condition of the IMI (Israel Military Industries) compound
in Tel Aviv was explored by student Maayan Sheiman (Figure 2). The severe soil pollution of
this 44,000 m2 site, caused by years of industrial military activity, prevented its development
for decades despite its central location. The project began with a review of the site's current
state of pollution and soil remediation practices and technologies.
The strategy chosen by the student outlined an innovative process in which soil
treatment is preformed simultaneously with gradual reconstruction of the site. Quantitative
assessment of the different degrees of soil pollution within the site was used during
conceptual design in a way that generated a system of spatial interventions. Since pollution
was not similar in all parts of the site (percolating to depths ranging from 6 to 16 m), soil
removal could be performed in an uneven way, thus creating an "inverse topography" that
wholly reflects the quantification of pollution percolation into the ground. Inspired by its
historical purpose, the entire site was designed to become into a soil purification factory, one
which will also reconnect to its surrounding urban fabric.
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Massing
The notion of urban compactness in Jerusalem, Israel's capital city, had served as one of the
key drivers in Nattalie Mor's project (Figure 3). The constitutional role of the city has left its
impact on its urban form, creating a large inner-city secluded compound consisting of the
Knesset (the Israeli parliament) and many government office buildings. The project is based
on the concept of relocating the Israeli parliament to the Clal Building, one of Jerusalem's
'white elephants' situated in its city centre. Apart from the functional and urban benefits of
this act in reviving the building and its surroundings, the relocation of the parliament was also
meant to democratize the legislation process through its spatial opening-up to street life. The
concept was given form by a programmatic deconstruction of the parliament to its different
functional roles and their re-composition according to a new spatial hierarchy, in which the
city and its citizens interact beneath, above, and around the new built volumes.
For the new massing of the building, a detailed climatic analysis was conducted,
highlighting the importance of solar radiation availability during winter and mid-season to
both indoor and outdoor spaces. Positioning of the new masses followed radiation and sun
hours' availability parameters along other programmatic and functional parameters, all
Soil remediation research
Soil pollution topography mapping
Design concept based on
remediation scheme and time line
Existing soil condition
Excavation
Packing
Treatment
Remediation
End of process
-16 m
-10 m
-6 m
Figure 2: Generative design scheme driven by a soil remediation process in a contaminated
former military industrial zone in Tel Aviv (project by Maayan Sheiman, 2016)
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included in a generative code using the Grasshopper-powered Ladybug and Galapagos
modules. The quantitative thresholds of the Israeli green building code (IS 5281) were used
during analysis. The application of computational tools enabled to integrate environmental
considerations alongside other design parameters; the urban space which was created below
the new parliament building allowed not only for street-level pedestrian continuity but also
addressed issues of outdoor comfort. However, despite the detailed solar analysis that
dictated the building massing, the decision to demolish the entire lower part of the existing
building and to replace it with new construction was not supported by a valid environmental
justification, mainly due to lack of available indicators and tools to perform a thorough life
cycle analysis in the project's limited scope.
Programmatic layout
In her project, Bosmat Ekstein addressed the issue of urban walkability in Tel Aviv (Figure 4).
The Ayalon Highway built on the path of Ayalon River is crossing the city from north to south,
creating a physical barrier between the city centre and its developing eastern areas. Ekstein's
project attempted to revive the river as a public green space that connects the two parts of
the city by creating a multi-purpose walkable mix of open, semi-open, and enclosed spaces.
Urban block sub-divisio n
Differential roof surface heights
Differential distance between
buildings to allow solar rights
Envelope deformation and
angulation
Massing orientation and
physical connection
Differential floor level
Sunlight hours calculation on ground
floor (for Dec 21st)
Radiation Analysis for south facing
facades (Dec 21st)
The existing 'Clal' building
Design outcome
Parametric optimization process
Figure 3: Redesigning the Israeli Parliament as an urban regenerator for Jerusalem's city centre
by an adaptive reuse of Clal Building (project by Nattalie Mor, 2016)
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As part of the research process, future building plans along the Ayalon motorway were
considered and modelled in 3D. The model was used in shading analyses that affected the
programmatic layout of the scheme, with a variety of indoor and outdoor activities positioned
according to sun hours' availability on hourly and monthly cycles. By integrating outdoor
shading analyses, the project demonstrated how quantifiable microclimatic considerations
can play an effective role in urban design without compromising other programmatic goals.
Despite the limited time frame of the design studio, which did not enable to extend the
microclimatic analyses to consider the effects of vegetation, wind, or radiant temperatures
on outdoor thermal comfort, the shading analyses produced rich and diversified design
solutions on the level of programmatic layout.
Envelope detailed design
The focus of Tomer Licht's project was on one of several abandoned buildings along Haifa's
waterfront (Figure 5), offering to adaptively reuse it as a collaborative working and living
environment in the spirit of the existing bottom-up communal organization already taking
place in this area. Based on the initial decision to preserve certain parts of the existing building,
the project consisted of detailed design of the housing units and communal spaces in the
building. The envelope design of the complex consisted of a 3-dimensional canopy hovering
above the semi-open and open communal spaces on the rooftops and central courtyard.
beyond the ambition to unify the external appearance of the complex, the canopy provided
Solar availability analysis dictates programmatic concept
Figure 4: Transforming vehicle transportation artery into an urban walkability generator between
eastern and western Tel Aviv over the Ayalon Highway (project by Bosmat Ekstein, 2016)
Hourly programmatic scheme
Afternoon
Sitting
strolling
Dining
Exercising
Noon
Sitting
strolling
Cafe
Outdoor picnic
Morning
Sitting
strolling
Cafe
Existing and new urban pattern based on walking distances
between urban power nodes across the Ayalon Highway
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such features as shading and energy production that were optimized by the student to admit
high levels of solar radiation during winter while blocking it during summer. The optimization
process followed quantitative criteria and was performed through the Grasshopper-powered
Ladybug and Galapagos modules. Detailed energy yield of the canopy's PV panels was not
calculated.
Conclusion
The paper introduced the challenges of integrating environmental knowledge into the
education of architecture students, and especially into their design studios. The four student
projects that were presented above demonstrated the potential of applying quantitative
environmental analysis throughout all design stages: conceptual design, massing,
programmatic layout, and envelope detailed design. Although a holistic approach that would
encompass the design process in its entirety is favorable, the limited timeframe of the final-
year design studio proved to limit the students' capability to apply such an approach.
Therefore, a more realistic approach would be to encourage the implementation of
environmental strategies on specific stages of the design process or on different scales, in
accordance with the project's theme.
A key pedagogic issue is the quantification of environmental themes through well-
defined indicators, which proved to invigorate the original design strategies and produced
intelligent design solutions that could be justified and evaluated according to measurable
criteria. Quantitative indicators could be generated from a computational analysis but may
Figure 5: Adaptive reuse of an old port building into a collaborative residential
complex in downtown Haifa (project by Tomer Licht, 2016)
Existing half-abandoned building in Haifa's
deteriorating downtown area along the beach front
Proposed scheme combining old and new wings unified by
an energy productive shading envelope
Existing building
Proposed scheme
Solar + shading PV
envelope
Summer
Winter
Radiation rooftop analysis
(for 21st Dec)
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also derive from surveys, technical reports, or literature reviews. At undergraduate level
diploma projects, computational tools could be extremely useful in producing quantitative
indicators that could guide informed decision making along the design process. However,
without a prior knowledge of these tools (even on a basic level), only limited amount of
diploma students would be willing or able to implement these tools in their projects. Thus,
these tools must be taught earlier on in the curriculum through dedicated workshops,
alongside theoretical background lectures focusing on environmental design fundamentals
and indicators.
As the new Iterative- Elective program structure at the Technion was introduced in 2015,
few major issues which were found critical to help the successful promotion of environmental
design in the curriculum were highlighted. Future development of the program should focus
on the following issues: the importance of timing the introduction of analytic tools and
synchronizing their implementation with the different design studios; the creation of an
adapted body of knowledge in the field of environmental design on which future students
and researchers can rely and build upon; and also, the shift of focus from the evaluation of
single buildings to the urban and district scales. These aspects are expected to drive the
progression of environmental design agenda in the design studio at the Technion in years to
come.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Maayan Sheiman, Nattalie Mor, Bosmat Ekstein, and Tomer
Licht for allowing us to share their work. Additional acknowledgements should go to Arch.
Shmaya Serfaty, the design director of the studio 'Articulation, Space, and Sustainability', and
to Profs. Gaby Schwartz, Alona Nitzan-Shiftan, Guedi Capeluto, and Abraham Yezioro for their
academic support.
References
Altomonte, S. (2009). Environmental Education for Sustainable Architecture, Review of European Studies,
Vol. 1 (2), pp. 12-21.
Altomonte, S., Cadima, P., Yannas, S., de Herde, A., Cangelli, E., de Asiain, M. L. & Horvath, S. (2012).
Educate ! Sustainable Environmental Design in Architectural Education and Practice. PLEA 2012, Lima.
Ismail, M. A., Keumala, N. & Dabdoob, R. M. (2017). Review on integrating sustainability knowledge into
architectural education: Practice in the UK and the USA, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 140, pp. 1542-1552.
Yannas, S. (2013). Architectural Research for Sustainable Environmental Design. European Network of
Heads of Schools of Architecture Conference on Environmental Design, Chania, Greece.
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