DfMA L2 Readings

Thoughts on readings: RIBA Plan Of Work: - Construction to be defined as "Assembly"- Jane Duncan RIBA President -Aka "Modern methods of construction"- Carillion

All things related to LTA

Plugins:
-First welding to connect possibly broken lines in cad
-shape bender to create surface of ramp. If the Line/Curve to reference is the inner one, then when drawing the gradient box, the line alongside should be on the outer side of it. Note length of the gradient box should be exactly the same length of curve.

This would be useful when drawing the surface of inner kerb of building or road down into the basement.

DfMA Lesson 2

Today was the class by A.J.
Overall DfMA today meant that the end product was an increase in productivity in which the way to address it was through reducing waste. In fact for every $1 spent on a building, 50 cents go into waste. So this meant that when it came to value engineering, there were 2 solutions of cutting cost, one by reducing the quality of materials, and the others by reducing wastage.

what differentiated todays class was an introduction in DfMA but from a consultant point of view whereas the last one was more from a regulatory angle. The take away was really from a global worldview which emphasises that this approach of construction is not new but in fact has been around for a long time. This was followed by primitive examples of the first cast iron bridge in london prefabricated on site with 1700 components to prefab houses immediately post war to even that of the Empire State Building which had prebox materials for each floor; flooring, panelling and more.

Today's lecturer, Mr. J also highlighted that our contributions starting from the raw materials into the finished product is, in the assembly.

went for a health checkup as well today at Farrer Park Hospital.

Cadtips

3 Cool tips picked up today would be the:

https://www.lynda.com/AutoCAD-tutorials/614-Creating-simple-block-palette/496946/622793-4.html

1. Dimensioning:
DIMSPACE: Allows one to align the offset of dim location to be based on one.

2. Insertion of Blocks
-first INSUNITS has to be set to 0 to allow for overwrite in options box
-in options box, set insertion units to mm

3. LineType Scale
-Note that setting the number in LTSCALE in command line is setting the global number.
-However, setting in properties box is only for that specific layer.

First Day of Diploma Class

Today is probably one of the more memorable days of the past 2 months. Had an interview with one of the boutique dream company and when they offered me a job and needed an answer in 2 days, i actually said i ll need the week. so stupid of me. and another interview at St Andrews Center. The house i worked on, client developer used to be at that office. Even bumped in C in the mall where i was walking around to burn time between 12 and 2pm.

At BCA Academy, this course in design for assembly and manufacturing started off with tedious admin but got more interesting when we got to the start of the lesson. Thoughts overall are that it is a very very expensive course. For a 5 months course, at 8 sessions of 3 hours per month; total of 24 hours/month that would be 120 hours for $6000, that means an astonishing $500/ hour!

anyhow, lesson 1 started out with the director of building productivity unit. Mr M, very knowledgeable and seems to be the main person spear heading the drive in Singapore. He highlighted that The Wisteria Mixed development is the first project using steel PPVC and that the Clement Canopy Condo is currently the tallest residential project in the world at 40 storeys using PPVC concrete. i had a few questions after the presentation but didn't get around to asking him, will email him the questions tomorrow.

Note worthy points are also the current max. module size for transportation. Widest being 3.4mx12m.
And height being 3150mm, because the lorry platfrom height would be 900mm, and current max when travelling is 4500mm, underneath overhead bridges. Slab thickness as a result is 300mm instead of usual 200mm, and wall thickness is at 150-200mm. And that when googling the concept of PPVC, internationally the equivalent would be VMC = Volumetric Modular Construction. There is also a list that denotes what are the finishes internally, and the percentage in which it has to be done till, eg. wardrobe 100%. In sg however, a PPVC project is define as one in which 60% or more of it superstructure in modular, so there are still components which can be precast on site; even though that makes it less consistent.

1. What does it mean that when using a height of 3150mm, developers loses one floor at the top
2. Are all the 20 over projects currently using PPVC all contractor led? What is the percentage of Design and Build?
3. Because of the way modules are stacked up, does it mean only a float foundation can be used? Otherwise there may be differential settlement of the units?
4. What was Crown Hotel Extension reason for using lightweight concrete for the slab instead of reinforce concrete? What was worth the hassle of putting the extra fire rated board, resulting in a lower ceiling?

At Home, i bought horfun and L cooked a delicious soup of vegetables of broccoli and celery with meat balls!

GFA and its subtleties

Today is about Ground Gardens and Sky Terraces and what encourages their proliferation in our city.
In the same way that if there isn't regulation about handicap toilets and minimum toilet sizes and corridor widths, Singapore wouldn't be what it is.

" Covered communal ground garden"
- Covered area is more than 50% of first storey area.
-Of this covered area, 60% has to be lushly planted preferable flat and permanent, and 40% to be activity areas such as pools an facilities


"Sky Terrace" starts with 45 degrees
- Basic areas:
1.Perimeter opening >40%, areas within the 45 degrees to be planted lushly.
2.If area is < 40%, minimum 2 strata units.

-Residual areas:
1.Area within 45 degrees to be >60%
2.Perimeter opening to be >60%
3.Exempted area max 20% of floor plate

2 examples came to mind that maximises what this means really well. Hotel Park Royal at pickering street by WOHA and The Oliv by W architects. Interesting comment from MokWeiWei.

Cant seem to find the plan for Oliv.

The Sky Terraces in this 2 projects features a repeated sky terrace. one mentions that it is to capture the scale of the shophouse, every 4 storeys, the other setback drawn at the 45 degree point to maximise the non-gfa. having it is just basic, but what determines the extent of it is the necessity for it to be >60% ( this would require looking at the floor plan). The visuals as a result of that is quite amazing really, creates an image of anything but the ground plan. as mok said, this addresses the aspirations of living in a landed property even those who stay in a high rise apartment. Hence the developer just like before for that of the bay window phenomenon is able to sell for the area but not be counted as GFA for it.

Making sense of regulation and sequencing

URA:
About gross floor area

1. What counts and doesnt count. All area is counted to center of parti wall.
2.Service ducts just like lift to be counted once.
2.Sky Terrace has main excluded area and also an additional one known as "residual area". This has to be <20%, with ST at >60% of floorplate and perimeter opening at 60% for it to be not counted.

BCA:
About accessibility:

1.Corridor width
2.Push Pull of door and wall setback
3.Lift if handicap friendly
4.Handicap toilets comply

FSSD:
About fire

1.Entry of fire engine, extent of access way
2.FCC
3.Fire fighting lift min 2 if >24m
4.Fire fighting lobby+ PWD
5.Staircase
6.Means of escape and occupant load

CBPU: Important to use the latest. current is 2013.
About refuse and toilet

1.Refuse top vent above roof min 2.1m
-Refuse amount based on typology will determine if bin center is needed ( >1000L/day)
-1 bin plus 1 extra needed
2.Toilet given by chart, based on GFA, for female and male
-Ambulant disabled ratio increased. (BCA accessibility 2013; 2 required for 6-10WC)
3.Tap point for cleaners sink
4.Diaper changing station
5.F&B: for a food shop with food stalls, min kitchen 8 sqm, min servery area 5sqm
-when >6 stalls, 1 handwashing basin with soap and towel, n litterbin

Today is FSSD day

Smoke Stop Lobby, Fire Lobby ,Fire Control Centre & Access way:

Any building exceeding 4 storey needs a smoke stop lobby for each staircase on every level. It shall be 3m2 and 6m2 if it is a fire fighting one, with no dimension smaller than 2m.

If naturally ventilated which will be first choice as it is cheapest. Opening needs to be 15% of area and not more than 9m from an airwell;

If building is >24m or has a basement >9m
-2 fire lifts are needed, where one can double up as a PWD.
-A fire lift needs to be placed next to a fire staircase and smoke stop lobby.
-any part should not be > 60m from lift.

For purpose grps 3-8, FCC is needed (min 6m2)
-if GFA > 5000sqm, >24m in height
-best to be located next to fire lift lobby

Lemme try in a point form.
-> 4 storey, every staircase needs a smoke stop lobby
-3m2 or 6m2 if fire fighting, all dimensions >2m
-natural vent opening to be 15% of area
-no other opening within 1.5m horizontally and 3m vertically of natural vent.
-2 PWD holding points on every storey except if only 1 staircase, <15m, < 4storeys; l

*location within smoke stop lobby, at least 500mm away from either doorway
*within staircase, (only for bldg <4storeys; 900x1400mm)
*corridor escape route min 1200

Access way: note access road and access way is different
Overall:
-Height clearance 4.5 m
-Access openings min 850 mm x 1000 mm at every <20 m apart
-Breeching inlet within 18 m
-Access way to be 50 m from hydrant, hence in the middle every 100 m( 50 50 to next)
-turn radius of 3.5 m m u-turn of radius 7 m

Purpose group 3-5,7:
->10 m, coverage of access way based on largest floor plate whether 1/6,1/4,1/2/3/4, island site access
-<10 m, within every 45 m point, pump appliance access road of 4 m width.

Purpose group 6,8,
-extent of access way is by cubical extent
-access way is min 6 m, 4 m width road, and 2 m setback for ladder

exception: 
-if internal staircase is pressurized and <24m to habitable ht
-external exit staircase
-in open sided carpark that is naturally ventilated

not exempted if:
-purpose group exceeds 4 storeys and from purpose group 2 and 7
-internal pressurized stairs >24m habitable height
-stairs is fire fighting staircase next to fire fighting lift

Discharge staircase:
-Direct discharge with no cover
-or with cover, only 50% of staircase, and covered area must not be > 10m, and has to be a direct access ( probably a covered corridor)

Scissor exit staircase:
-between doors at least 7m

#2 Buffer Setback and capacity

Today i started with an idea to do a flowchart and began with the ubiquitous staircase. To understand a typical capacity of a 2m wide stair with 1m width and its capacity. Refer to #1 of Sg Code for the steps. With the most recent council flats Grenfell tower: with 6 apartments per floor, 8 pax/unit, about 50 people per floor, going by just the fire escape code, capacity is sufficient. however this is w/o the highrise code in.

For factory, shop and office, per unit width of 0.5m; capacity is 60pax. For resi is 30pax. Hence for typical stair at 1m, capacity is 120m2. Roughly at 10m2/ pax; that is a floor plate of 1200m2.

Travel distance for sprinkled, was also reviewed with 1 way and 2 way. Factory and shop at 1way: 25m, 2 way: 60m, office and resi at 1way: 30m, 2 way at 75m. this is important because when considering any cluster bigger than 1 unit, what would be an efficient module to have per block so as to reduce the stairs without being a hazard

Another thing was the setbacks for landed housing. I read about detach, terrace 1 and 2 and GCB, with the land size and also min widths. This is useful for master planning and concept design for designing min modules of land parcels. And also understanding what gives an urban city a certain perspective. The view of a perspective.

Reading up on toilets and stairs

i started by reading the accessibility code of bca. it started with a typical design problem of finding an approx length of stair needed for a given floor to floor height. it seems though that length can be found, for width probably a (1+1+0.2 ) 200mm could be a spacing or if structural wall could be a full brick with plastering. sizing of bricks can be found below:

http://www.bricktiles.com/products/claybrick_clayblock.html

For F-F of X: approx length Y (including wall thickness)

 3000mm - 6500mm
 3200mm-  7000mm
 3600mm-  7300mm

Plants and stairs

types of plants to buy:

kaffir lime tree
kangkong
basil
pandan
dill
bittergourd

 

Staircase:

1; showflat stair at funan, handrail that is not align
2: handrail options, showing when extension is symmetrical and when not
3: plan with section handrail
On plan, whether to achieve a handrail that is align and symmetrical when going upwards ( to right; op 2) or have the handrail start as early as possible( op 1 ). For op 2, on plan, the riser going up starts 600mm after edge of railing, wheras for going down just 300m


To estimate accessibility compliable length of staircase for a given F-F height:

Scenario: Assuming a F-F height of 3m, hence, for max riser at 150mm, 20 risers needed. hence 10 treads on each side. To make sure that railing is align, stagger one step, for min tread at 300mm.
Hence for estimation of total stair length needed= (10x300)+(300+600)+(1000 turning radius of movement)+(900 for pwd provision) = 5800mm excluding wall thickness.