W2 - The Quest for Height: Yeang's Vertical Landscaping Strategies - The Rotating Spiral (TE2.5, C4.2)

Ken Yeang's practice has always been governed by two principles:

1. the acknowledgement of the scarcity of both natural resources and time, as well the extensive degradation of natural environment that cannot continue if future generations are to have appropriate access to natural resources
2. the belief that all those concerned with building design can, with the application of ecological principles, make a significant contribution towards a sustainable future through 'green' approach that evolved from a comprehensive method.

The structural system used in Nara Tower embodied the fundamental factors of these two principles, taking into considerations the amount of irreplaceable materials necessary for building construction while at the same time optimizing the impact of its eco-friendly design approach through the building form.

THE ROTATING SPIRAL FOR VERTICAL LANDSCAPING

1. THEORY
For Nara tower design, Yeang used the same theoretical ideas from his 1992's Mesiniaga, where both his Nara tower and Mesiniaga contain the principle of "a vertical spiral of boundless dimensions".

Yeang's original sketches describing the design principles of Mesiniaga  Menara ( IBM ) green tower. 
(Source: http://archidialog.com/tag/mesiniaga-menara-tower/)

Yeang's approaches in dealing with the built form, vegetation, orientation and shading devices.
(Source: Menara Mesiniaga Project Brief. Extracted from http://www.akdn.org/architecture/pdf/1356_Mal.pdf)

What Yeang wanted to achieve in applying this approach is the abundant foliage that assists in cooling the building mass. In theory, the spiral space configuration allows floors and atrial spaces to have planted fringes that essentially contribute to the control of air movement within the overall structure. An abstract model was done to explore its functional application:

My abstract model of a rotating spiral tower design based on Ken Yeang's approach, along with my analysis relating to the use of vertical landscaping. 

Other factors needed to be taken into consideration can be referred from Chris McCarthy's engineering studies on the Nara tower design, where he developed a vertical graph that illustrates different floor's sensitivity towards external elements. The elements that are most relevant with the rotating spiral design include temperature, daylighting, wind velocity and frequency, air density and humidity.

McCarthy's engineering studies on the Nara tower. 
Retrieved from Ivor Richards "T. R. Hamzah & Yeang: Ecology of  the Sky"
(2001), page 73.

From this study, McCarthy proposed both active mechanisms and passive design approach responsive and adaptable towards the external elements that differ in different height. His proposal involved:

• the subdivision of blocks stacked upon each other
• the structural thickness reduction with height
• the use of composite material
• energy centres for each blocks
• nominal energy provided by wind power, water power, solar power and waste power

McCarthy's remarks concerning the atmospheric character surrounding the higher level of the building:

"In general, the higher the building unit the less it will experience seasonal change and it will exist in a wider and cooler climate with greater solar radiation. However, even though the climatic change occurs within a smaller margin, it will happen more rapidly than we are used to at ground level."

His engineering studies effectively influenced Yeang's rotating spiral approach for Nara tower in terms of the axes for the floor plates in different floor levels, spatial configuration of its public spaces and services, the hollow characteristic of the tower and the means in which the construction process is implemented. 

In theory, the rotating spiral approach appears to cover every aspect that needs to be taken into consideration when designing spaces higher than the normal altitude of habitable space.

For week 3, I shall construct a conceptual model that illustrates Nara tower's structure to study and demonstrate the practicality of the rotating spiral as a method for vertical landscaping.