Semi D Journal (July 2014)

SEMI D JOURNAL
(photos shall be added according to progress/process)

Stumps before backfilling work.

1.

The soil is acidic and require additional compound to be added to substructure component.

Load test 1 and 2 failed, as such, about more than 50% pile and pile caps need to be redesigned.

Some units has been reduced to mere stumps.

Backfilling work with starter bars exposed.

2.

Backfilling work completed, and starter bars and rebars  are fabricated.

At this point, Architect requires to see shop drawings of the underground services for coordination and checking of the works.

 Ground beam formworks.

3.

 Formwork installation before casting of the ground beams. Notice the crookedness of the installation.

Shop drawings will show which location the underground pipes may cross or punch through the beams.

Ground beam formwork removed.

4.

 Ground beam formworks removed. Notice the link bars for the slab and the starter bars for columns.

Ground beams are suspended structure, independent of the ground. most underground services went below them, or punching them through  anticipated sleeve laid before casting.

 Coordination of underground pipes.

5.

Example of underground pipes are such as soil pipes, rainwater down pipes, floor traps, gully traps, wash basin down pipes, sumps and manholes.

Some pipes that will be boxed up such as soil pipes and rainwater down pipes are coordinated in such a way that they will be located as close as possible to the ground beam or wall in order to minimize the box size.

Ground floor casting starting.

6.

During casting of ground floor slab, all pipes shall be protected, and plugged to avoid clogging.

During or before casting, the level for floor traps openings shall be anticipated in order to result in correct 'laid to fall' condition.

 "Chezy" Sump and Manhole Units

7.

Sump and manhole are some of time consuming conventional works. This project is using HDPE portable sump and manhole units in order to reduce labor cost, and speedy installation.

The end product is tidy too. Contractor is reminded to ensure heavy vehicle do not damage the installed units.

 Internal view

External view

8. Underground Services
Underground services have always been overlooked in such a way that COORDINATION sometimes only been made after ground beams have been cast.
While actually a lot of pipes of different sizes need to cross below beams and above pile caps.

It is appeared here that some hacking have been carried out due to either the first sleeve is made to far from wall or there is no space between pile caps and bottom of beam
Either way, shop drawings have not been followed.

 The ABS cold water pipes also not in line with the line indicated in shop drawings.
 If the Engineer accepted this, should have appeared in as-built drawings.

Dilema: The square pipe and the white round pipe supposed to joint with sump. Now its already far apart horizontally, and at different height vertically.


9. Safety

This scalffolding  set up staging to support the formwork for RC Flatroof has been commented to add bottom support to sit on ground. Notice the flimsiness of the bottom member?

In progress...

A Friend's Hideout

A Friend's Hideout

I could have been a disturbance to his peace, but he welcome me anyway.
I couldn't help it anyway, when I heard where he lived. He pick me up at night, had dinner and then brought me to see his house. It was a dream!!!... (in architect's way).

A few days later , I drove there myself.
It was near Kota Kinabalu, in fact, closer to the airport. The access into the kampung is a typical messy , dirty, and narrow passages. Familiar bridges and decking crossing over muddy dirt brought me to confuse looking house frontage.

 The house is actually a jetty, or personal boat house.

With minimum security element or absence of  it, one can only imagine that this is only a place for single male. Inside, the place is actually almost a mere deck. Only about 40% of wall visible, the rest were transparent shades or no wall at all.
Cracking timber planks with gaps wide enough for my finger greeted my steps.

 You can peek through into the toilet, easily.

 You can enjoy the view while doing your business easily too!.

 Bedroom is equally transparent.

 Where there is a gap or no wall, we can call it a window.

This was actually a luxury, in many senses:
If you were insecure, you cannot afford this. If you got wife, and sexually active also, would have been too liberal in many sense.
If you got small crawling stage children , even worse.
Nevertheless, he got that freedom (for a few brief years), and that was more than most of my architect friends can afford to enjoy so far, in my opinion of course.

 It could have been a kitchen, but I saw dining room actually, with a view, or full of it.

 Breezy

 Can only do this a few years throughout your whole life.

 Parking space.

 Imagine what you can observe with binoculars, better still, a camera.

 With a space like this, a living room came naturally.

Still, like I mention earlier, this is a luxury we can't afford, for the obvious reasons:

Partner/s
Kids
Security
Aging parents
Geography (distance to work)

However, I still believe that some people are that lucky. And to be surrounded by the real live poverty living , is a valuable experience in itself.

VerticalCirculation

Staircases

Ideas are funny things you let in.

(own life project)

(own life project)

More often than not, Staircase is a significant space that is often ignored, or so as I see it. I come to this accusation because from my observation, under cost reduction in commercial housing, staircase space is the one that is most likely to get cut, either in cost, design quality or in size.

(own life project)

 

(own life project)

Some Developers (Marketing) have a tendency to let potential purchasers dictate the property, and as such living room, kitchen and toilets are made bigger at staircase’s expense. And they are mostly correct, since they are not exploring the design enough. It is not their fault as design, and especially a mere staircase is not their concern.

(own life project)

 

(own life project)

 

Still, stairs remain loyal, still serve in all multistory structures.

Still. Its finishes made simpler. Its width reduced. Its railing made cheaper.

(own life project)

(own life project)

The fact is, staircase is one of the most important architectural elements in multistory structure. It is even equally important in single storey building.

 

It transport user to different level.

It reduce or minimize the work required to climb certain height.

It is a Fire Fighting tool.

It is directional.

It is vertical, horizontal, spiral and diagonal space all in one.

(own life project)

(own life project)

The staircase space value could be highlighted and featured better if:

1.      Its structure to be designed, selected, not assumed.

2.      Its steps made wider and more comfortable.

3.      Its railing is given multiple functions, other than to be held.

4.      Its landing is actually a room in itself.

5.      Its structure is minimized.

6.      Its material is selected.

7.      It is a viewing point to the rest of the spaces.

Examples:

Staircases as Features (stand on its own) as such, empty space below is acceptable.

Constraint:

Spaces below staircases are presumed impractical. That is one reason it was used as stores in most conventional housing.

The fact is, it could as well be other function:

1. Kitchen.

2. Library.

3. Bedroom.

4. Toilets.

Livingroom on staircase's landing.

Library on staircase's landing.

 Kitchen below the staircase's flight.

Kitchen counter sharing the slab of staircase's landing

 Staircase is the vintage point of view, continuous view as move up/down.

LIVE'S STUDY

 Eat, Sleep, Study, Play, Work, Living.

Recently sending my eldest to College. Never actually seen or remember my own university layout some 20 plus years ago, this is why I got excited.

Its going to be a new playground, a group of new friends and a new home for the young man.

Eat, Sleep, Study, Play, Work, Living and others that I may not discovered yet could be the theme at this point.

One of directly defined axis I observed. Main axis is straight.

Circulation

1.1.      Straight linkage in a form of corridor/walkway from hostels to Administration and Lecture Hall. Shortest distance is a straight line.

2. 2.      Walkway columns are facilitated with steel board where notices can be paste magnetically.

3. 3.      Walkways are covered, and paved with none slippery finishes

4.  4.     Intersections or the points where the walkway cross each other are actually fully covered huts, with benches for the above ( Eat, Sleep, Study, Play, Work, Living.)

5. 5.      A walkway with views, information, and study spots.

Yet to see the classroom...