With the downfall of industry, cityscapes have become speckled with post-industrial building fragments. Skeletons, left as the evidence of a past generation are waiting patiently for their chance to reemerge as active elements. Furthermore, they are ever-present but remain out of touch within the thriving urban organism that has engulfed their surroundings. These condemned giants, rich in history, location, aesthetics, and vigor sleep underneath the growth. Their post-industrial urban sites are generally discarded and forgotten. On these sites the fragments of the massive and extraordinary crumble. These large industrial buildings have become a burden to their communities. Not realizing what these decaying giants have to offer, people in the community wish to see them removed, losing the potential and beauty of these buildings forever. Through adaptive-reuse, these sites can become active contributing parts of their communities. Sites become a canvas on which the voices of the past and present can speak to the future. Through research in new and inventive renovation techniques, cost efficiency, historical value, modern innovations, 2 green design, technology, as well as the use of new and existing materials, these buildings can begin to gain the approval of those opposed to their existence. Through an in-depth, hands-on look into interesting areas of mechanics, industrial gearing, and machinery, interactive elements of the past can come to life. These unused irritations can then be molded into working inhabitable elements for the future. On a small island in Saco Maine a few of these giants slumber. A design project [reusing] these buildings and their sites will be developed to invigorate the area. This development will be designed using prior research and conceptual thinking related to an adaptive reuse strategy. This pursuit awakens idle, industrial buildings and generates a progression that links these elements as a cohesive part of the city.

A study to optimize insulation thickness for stock-, industrial- and office-buildings for external walls and roof in an economical perspective has been conducted on behalf of DynaMate. DynaMate’s role is to maintain all Scania’s buildings. Analysis has also included other parts of the building envelope, such as windows, exterior doors and industrial doors. In this thesis, three different types of exterior wall constructions has been investigated, these are a sandwich design consisting of sheet metal and a another one consisting of concrete, as well as a wall of concrete with a coating of plasters. Furthermore, two types of roof structures have been studied, these are TRP-sheets and a concrete structure, both of which are externally isolated. For all types of building envelopes, different standard thicknesses of insulation have been used and the U-value of the windows has been varied. To calculate the energy needed for the different kinds of buildings, the program IDA Indoor Climate and Energy has been used.  Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis of the air tightness has been implemented for the building envelope. Based on the program results LCC (Life-cycle cost) calculations have been carried out for all combinations, thus be able to form an idea of ​​the combination and what kind of structure that is most economically tenable. A thermograph study was conducted in an existing warehouse at Scania. Observations show that the connection between the sandwich material of sheet metal and the foundation wall is flawed as this has a much lower thermal resistance compared to other parts of the building envelope. An alternative connection was developed which reduces the heat loss to one-fifth of the initial connection. An analysis regarding the companies approach to the vapour barrier in roof structures for industrial buildings has been investigated from a moisture standpoint. The analysis shows that without a functioning vapour barrier the moisture content in the construction increases over time, which leads to increased heating costs. The conclusion of this study shows that a reduction of insulation thickness for all types of studied buildings is more economically tenable than increasing the thickness. This is mainly due to the high cost of capital that the company uses for these investments. This means that any savings on cooling and heating costs very quickly is overthrown by the interest rate of the additional cost of the investment.

In single storey industrial buildings, the most common material used for the load-bearingsystem is steel. The load bearing system can be designed in different ways. The two mostcommon load-bearing systems of steel industrial buildings are portal frame and thetruss/pillar-system. The benefit of using these systems is the possibility of having largespan structures. These systems have also a high load capacity in function of its weight.Geometrical parameters like width, height, length, and roof slope of the building effectsthe design and the selection of which load-bearing system will be more suitable.The purpose of this thesis is to compare the two systems in terms of weight of steel, priceand global warming potential (GWP) and to see how the load-bearing systems differ. Tofulfil the purpose, it is necessary to find the geometrical parameters to design an optimalportal frame system and use the same parameters in order to design the truss/pillarsystem. By using the same geometrical parameters, the two systems can be comparable.The results of this thesis show that the truss/pillar system has less weight, lower price andlower global warming potential than the portal frame.As conclusions of this parametrical study, it was seen that the truss/pillar system isperforming better than the portal frame system. In general, it is not possible to say that thetruss/pillar-system is better. This is because this thesis work did not consider amongstithers the bracing system, foundation, connections, mounting or fabrication. But it ispossible to say that the differences between the two systems are not major.

Urban-architectural study of an area within the city of Brno enclosed by the streets Zábrdovická, Cejl, Tkalcovská, Pastrnkova and Šámalova. The project formulates a strategic approach for compact city structures redesign and displays possible ways of their revitalisation. The procedure is than practically verified in the former textile factory Mitop Zábrdovice in Brno.

Our thesis project consists of three architectural interventions: The Mushroom, The Gnat and The Snake, fitting into a vision of a Swedish forest managed in a more sustainable way. A future in which the practice of clear-felling has been abandoned in favor of alternative methods falling under the umbrella term Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF). As the biological aspects of forestry is not our area of expertise, we have investigated what this reorganization at large would mean for the Swedish landscape, economy and society. Where it becomes a question for architecture. When the timber industry looses its hegemony over the forest, the forest becomes available to different uses. For life and recreation, and for the production of forest goods other than timber, such as wild game meat, berries, and mushrooms. These activities are able to take place within the same space as forestry, thereby overcoming the spatial separation of functions we see today. Our interventions work by docking onto different points of today’s logistics flow, in order to later replace them. They take into account more of the different values and users of the forest which we have identified. The project follows the flow of goods from the forest as they make their way towards the larger markets. The Mushroom is an outpost in the middle of the productive forest which supplies the surrounding area with the necessary infrastructure in order to extract goods from it, doubling as a recreational dwelling. One of these can be placed every 30 km. The Gnat is a tower structure containing multiple different functions ranging from marking the pick-up spot for the harvested timber, functioning as a hunting tower, shelter and storage. Many of them are placed along forest roads. The Snake is a local processing plant managing small-scale refinement of the goods of the forest close to their site of harvest, thus channeling some of the economical flow back to the communities living of the forest. Together they form a complete series of infrastructure demonstrating how we could organize the future Swedish forest.

Sustainable urban development is one of the dominant movements in the urban planning realm in the 21st century. It focuses mainly on improving current life while keeping future effects to an extent with which future life is not restricted. Adaptive reuse can play an important role in this movement towards more sustainability due to its simple reuse approach. But to improve the process of adaptive reuse a holistic framework is needed. This thesis first develops a holistic framework from recent research literature with the later aim of testing it in form of a case study – focusing on The Plant in Chicago, USA. Six themes were identified as the six to consider for a holistic perspective on adaptive reuse – economic, environmental, technical, context, social, and regulations and policy. Site visits, interviews, GIS-analysis, and desk-based study build the core methods to test the framework and produce the findings. Capital investment, market demands, reconstruction costs, and the influence on the local economy are economic factors that determine the economic performance of the adaptive reuse project The Plant. These findings show the applicability of the framework and further point out possible synergies and conflicts that can be utilized and avoided in future processes. The research indicates, for example, conflicts between environmental performance and economic expenses. Overall, the results indicate the applicability of the framework and the needed consideration of the identified synergies and conflicts for the positive performance of the adaptive reuse process and thus a positive contribution to sustainable urban development.

No description available.

A small factory / Master of Architecture

Lam Hiu Yan, Janice. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2010-2011, design report." / Includes bibliographical references.

Tsang Chui Lan, Cara. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2006-2007, design report." / Includes bibliographical references (p. 68) / Chapter 1.0 --- Foreword / Chapter 1.0.1 --- Thesis Statement / Chapter 2.0 --- Background Study / Chapter 2.0.1 --- Old Dilapidated Industrial Buildings / Chapter 2.0.2 --- Other Uses in Industrial Buildings / Chapter 2.0.3 --- Exhibition Sites / Chapter 2.0.4 --- Concern of Artist / Chapter 2.0.5 --- Existing Galleries / Chapter 3.0 --- Site Study_ FoTan / Chapter 3.0.1 --- City Level _ FoTan Industrial District / Chapter 3.0.2 --- Building Level _ Wah Luen Industrial Center / Chapter 3.0.3 --- Unit Level _ Interview of Artsit / Chapter 4.0 --- Design / Chapter 4.0.1 --- Material / Chapter 4.0.2 --- City Level / Chapter 4.0.3 --- District Level / Chapter 4.0.4 --- Unit Level / Chapter 4.0.5 --- Details / Chapter 5.0 --- Precedent Study / Chapter 5.0.1 --- Steven Holl's Project / Chapter 5.0.2 --- Intervention / Chapter 5.0.2 --- Details / Chapter 6.0 --- Reading List / Chapter 7.0 --- Final Panels