AQUATECTURE

Bjarne Winther
MSc4 - grp. 04
May 2019
MASTER THESIS

University - Aalborg University, Denmark

Department - Architecture, Design, and Media Technology
Education - Master of Science (MSc) in Engineering (Architecture)

Project title - Aquatecture

Project theme - Sustainable architecture
Project period - 2019.02.01 - 2019.06.13
Submission date - 2019.05.23

Main supervisor - Isak Worre Foged

Technical supervisor - Claus Topp

Number of copies - 4
Number of pages 143
number of appendixes - 14

Group 4

_______________________
Bjarne Winther

2
3
// READERS GUIDE
e following report documents and publishes the master thesis, Aquatec-
ture, at architecture and design in the spring of 2019 created by group 4:
Bjarne Winther. e report documents the research and analysis through
sketching to the nished product. e sketching phase is presented to pro-
vide the reader context for the process that has led to the nished design.
e report is structured into seven parts with an adjacent appendix in
the following order: Introduction, Program, Site, Presentation, Sketching
phase, Synthesis, Epilogue. e appendix contains further documentation
of the technical calculations and simulation data for the nished design
along with the iterations that have been tested doing the design process.
e referencing is done in accordance with the Harvard system both in-
text and the complete reference list at the end of the report.

4
// ABSTRACT
is master thesis, by Bjarne Winther, concentrates on rethinking our
way of living, and reconsiders the organisational forming of cities for
future generations to come. e title Aquatecture comes from the project’s
objective of fashioning a housing complex upon the water surface. Interac-
tion between the residents on both land and on water is prioritized as the
complex offers the residents an ease of access to an internal courtyard and
the surrounding water directly from the homes. e housing complex has
for this research been situated in Limorden between Aalborg, Egholm
and Nørresundby, as aalborg only has a minor part of the city that is not
threatened to be submerged and larger areas of the city under threat of pe-
riodically ooding. Aquatecture offers a way of living within the city close
to water without the risk of being ooded as the building hovers with the
rising and falling of the water levels.
Additionally, to rethinking the way of living in cities and on water, the
building is built for zero energy standards in consumption of energy and
comfortable indoor climates, to offer a justi able alternative for building
strategies in the future for coastal cities, in addition proposing a way of
expanding.
Aquatecture takes a holistic design process of the three focal points;
sustainability, modern living and the interaction with the water. ereby,
the result of this thesis is a sustainable housing complex dealing with the
impending climate changes through; architecture, construction and indoor
comfort, the housing complex has been designed to bene t from the close
connection to the water foundation whilst securing for submerging as the
icecaps melt, providing comfortable living standards in close connection to
water.

5
// INDEX
// READERS GUIDE 4
// ABSTRACT 5 SITE 52
// SITE 54
// SUN 58
INTRODUCTION 8
// WIND 60
// MOTIVATION 11
// ROOM PROGRAM 62
// SUSTAINABILITY 14
// SENCE OF PLACE 63
// ZERO ENERGY BUILDING 15
// ZEB  PASSIVE STRATEGIES 16 // DESIGN PARAMETERS 64
// ZEB  PASSIVE STRATEGIES 17
// ZEB  ACTIVE STRATEGIES 18 PRESENTATION 66
// ZEB  ACTIVE STRATEGIES 19 // VISION 68
// METHODOLOGY 20 // AQUATECTURE 70
// INTEGRATED ENERGY DESIGN 22 // AQUATECTURE 72
// CLIMATE CHANGE 24 // PASSIVE AND ACTIVE STRATEGIES 94
// ENERGY AND INDOOR CLIMATE 96
PROGRAM // LIVING ON WATER 26 // MATERIALITY 98
// LIVING AT SEA 28 // DETAIL DRAWINGS 100
// HUMAN NEEDS 30
// WORK ENVIRONMENT 32 SKETCHING PHASE 102
// RECREATIONAL SPACE 34 // WORKSHOP // INITIAL SECTIONS & PLAN 104
// SUPPORTIVE FUNCTIONS 36 // WORKSHOP // SIZE AND DEPENDENCY 108
// ELECTRICITY AT SEA 38 // WORKSHOP // HOUSING COMPLEX 114
// CLIMATE CONTROL AT SEA 40 // WORKSHOP // RELATING TO WATER 118
// FRESH WATER AT SEA 42
// PRODUCING FOOD AT SEA 44 SYNTHESIS 122
// DISPOSING WASTE AT SEA 46 // WORKSHOP // INDOOR CLIMATE 124
// CONSTRUCTION AND MOBILITY 48
// CONCLUSION // SIZE AND DEPENDENCY 50

6
EPILOGUE 132
// CONCLUSION 134
// REFLECTION 135
// REFERENCES 137
// ILLUSTRATIONS 139

APPENDIX 142
// BSIM 144
// BE15 WITH SOLAR PVS 147
// BE15 WITHOUT SOLAR PVS 148
// DAYLIGHT 149
// DAYLIGHT PROCESS 150
// WINDOW CONFIGURATIONS 153
// VENTILATION HANDCALCULATION 154
// PERCIPITATION 155
// MECHANICAL VENTILATION 156

7
INTRODUCTION

8
9
 COULD A NEW WAY OF LIVING, BE
FLOATING ON WATER?
INSTEAD OF STUCK TO THE GROUND.

10
// MOTIVATION
e subject of developing architecture at sea will stand as the SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
primary architectural topic throughout the thesis. e oppor- In an era where it’s continuously more common not to have
tunity of rethinking our ways of living, while investigating the contact to your neighbour and the people living in your
architectural principles that can create the framework which neighbourhood, the importance of creating spaces facilitating
facilitates this exploration into living off the coast. a socially sustainable environment falls largely on the architect.
e main drive behind the topic of developing new ideas of rough working with the functions and the composition that
living has mainly focused on adapting and dealing with climate is desired within the project in addition to the functions that
changes and the rise in the pollution that comes with living in can be implemented to create an environment that eases social
dense environments and increased living standards during the interaction among the users. Considering which functions that
last century. Looking at the predicted growth in world pop- can be shared and fundamentally needed by the individual to
ulation, this problem only looks to extend even further as an achieve an expected living standard.
increased in living standards across the globe is to be expected ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
in the future. e prospect of building futuristic concepts release the possibil-
A result of global warming the sea levels are estimated to rise, ities of breaking out of the regular constraints within building
in uencing a large amount of the urban coastal cities around the typologies and norms, aiming for minimising the environmen-
world, threating a signi cant amount of the human population tal impact. By using modern technology within passive and
on a larger timescale. active strategies combined with materials lowering the environ-
is forms a drive to explore and develop innovative solutions mental impact of the buildings embedded energy for utilities. By
within the aspects of architecture and engineering, solving a using knowledge and principles of passive and active strategies
dilemma which can end up affecting a large proportion of future focusing on reducing the environmental impact, the importance
society. of creating a suitable indoor climate for the inhabitants are still
prioritised.

11
 Ill. 1 - Rendering - not ooded 1 Ill. 3 - Rendering - not ooded 2

12 Ill. 4 - Rendering - ooded 1 Ill. 2 - Rendering - ooded 2

 13

Ill. 5 - Diagram - of rising water levels

// SUSTAINABILITY
One of the two possible key thematics for the master thesis is In this project “environmental sustainability” is referring to the
sustainability, which in this project has been chosen the primary built environment “is creation of buildings which are energy
thematic. As a part of the Brundtland report “Our common efficient, comfortable, healthy, exible in use and designed for
future”, investigates whether the economic development was long life” (Edwards, 2010, p.29). Social sustainability is oen the
compatible with environmental capacities. “Sustainability” was lowest prioritised aspect of sustainability (Edwards, 2010) due
de ned in 1987 as “development, that meets the needs of the to placing a higher priority on the two other aspects. However,
present without compromising the ability of future generations when aiming to have a holistic approach to sustainability, all
to meets their own needs” (UN environment Commission three aspects become important. erefore, it shall be de ned
in Edwards, 2010, p.25). e task was to increase awareness to “Marked by vitality, solidarity and a common sense of place
of the subject globally and facilitate the development of the among [...] residents [, acting] as a backdrop for lasting and
understanding of economic, environmental, political and social meaningful social relations that meet the social needs of present
aspects. Even though what’s known as the Brundtland de nition and future generations” (Yiachel and Hedgecock, 1993, p.140).
is still of key relevance, following that the term sustainability has In addition to providing a high quality of life in a long-lasting
been used in numerous contexts and subjects to countless fur- community, a socially sustainable concept should ensure a
ther sub-de nitions. erefore, if sustainability is going to be a safe environment where residents are encouraged to embrace
key parameter in the project, a de nition needs to be established a sustainable and common way of living. Economic sustain-
for the project to better determine a meaning of the word. ability “addresses the relationship between human economics
Overall, Sustainability can be divided into. and natural ecosystems” (Kibert, 2016, p. 58). When looking
at the built environment, the construction industry must use
1) Environmental sustainability - Impact on the climate, re- renewable resources, reduce their waste through reuse and
sources and nature recycling and assess life-cycle costs including construction
2) Social sustainability - Impact on human health and well-be- maintenance, operational and occupancy costs, as well end-of
ing life and non-construction costs (Zhong & Wu, 2015, p.749).
3) Economic sustainability - Balance between costs and building Although the LCC-assessed buildings are more expensive as an
quality initial investment compared to traditional buildings, focus on
durability and systems such as renewable technologies, rain-
For the sake of minimising the build environment’s “footprint” water harvesting and energy saving lighting which bring short
on fossil fuels, topography and CO2-emission, technical param- term pay back (Kibert, 2016). Due to the complexity of the
eters such as calculations and measurements must be performed subject, only some aspect is included in the project, for example
to plan energy-efficient structures (here net zero energy). is when certain materials are chosen. Nonetheless, the economic
is done while maintaining a good indoor climate and creating strategy should follow principles of producing a good design
a design solution based on the local climate, while also consid- while reducing resource consumption and optimising building
ering material properties and their embodied energy and their performance through efficient technical solutions. A holistically
Life Cycle Assessment. sustainable design proposal is aiming for, the inclusion of these
three aspects of sustainability.

14
// ZERO ENERGY BUILDING
e goal for the sustainable aspect of the project is to design a e better the passive strategies perform, the easier it is to reach
self-sustaining building meeting the energy demand need to zero energy standard; hence, applying passive strategies is pivot-
reach zero energy, therefor having a stable energy source when al for the design process. About Zero energy buildings, there are
removed off the grid for an extended amount of time. e three sub-categories: nearly ZEB, Net ZEB and ZEB. A nearly
general de nition of a zero-energy building (ZEB) is a building zero energy building produces nearly as much energy as it con-
designed to have a low energy consumption, having the energy sumes. However, fossil fuels cover the rest of the demand. e
demand covered by non-fossil energy sources. e production other two categories rely solely on renewable energy. A Net zero
of renewable energy should equal or exceeds the energy con- energy building is connected to one or more pieces of energy in-
sumed in the building and the combination of energy saving, frastructure and actively participates in the energy network, as it
and renewable energy supply de nes the building as a zero-en- feeds energy out into the network for later consumption. A Plus
ergy building. e production of renewable energy takes place zero energy building considers the lifecycle of the building, i.a.
on site, where its either sent into the energy net where it can e energy consumed for producing, operating and demolish-
later be delivered for use or stored and used directly on the site ing the building resulting in the building needing to produce
(Bejder et al., 2014). Furthermore, a ZEB must provide a good enough surplus energy doing its lifetime to cover those. As this
indoor climate to facilitate smooth operation of the building project in connection to the grid, it ts into one of the three sub-
when the users behave as projected. If that is not the case, the categories, since the goal is to make a zero-energy building. e
users will work against the building producing an uncom- building is, therefore, a net-zero-energy building but with the
fortable climate, resulting in higher energy consumption than capability to store energy out in the electrical grid. To facilitate
predicted, and thus not reaching the targeted zero energy class. the net-zero-energy building, passive and active strategies needs
In this project, the aim is to design a zero-energy building by to be implemented and work in unison to make it a well-func-
integrating passive with active strategies into the design, work- tioning ZEB with a comfortable indoor climate.
ing towards the government’s goal of solely relying on renewable
energy sources by 2050 (Bender et al., 2014). Passive strategies
should contribute to low energy demand.

15
// ZEB  PASSIVE STRATEGIES
To reduce the buildings energy demand, passive strategies are
implemented into the building design, while simultaneously
bene ting the indoor climate. A passive strategy does not use
any purchased energy, but instead, it takes advantage of the mi-
croclimatic features such as solar thermal energy, wind energy,
temperature differences and sunlight.

BUILDING ENVELOPE
Optimising the building envelope by reducing U-values and
making it more airtight will contribute towards a lower heating
or cooling load and corresponding energy, due to a lower trans- Ill. 6 - Diagram - Overhangs
mission loss through the construction and leakage in winter and Application of solar shading through a overhang, prevents overheating during the
summer, respectively. is results in a static heat balance (heat summer, while allowing solar radiation in during the winter time.
loss equals heat gain) with a minimum of heating or cooling
required to reach a satisfactory indoor thermal comfort.

WINDOWS
In the building envelope, the glazed areas are one of the critical
parts regarding thermal comfort, as it has the highest U-value
and causes linear thermal transmittance. Windows that are en-
ergy saving have at least triple glazing, with the gaps lled with
gas to further insulate it. Furthermore, the choices of glazing
and gas in uence the g-value, which is the ration between solar
radiation hitting the glazed area and solar radiation entering the
interior, these must be considered and balanced with the light
transmittance to ensure satisfactory daylight conditions and
visual comfort.

PASSIVE SOLAR SHADING Ill. 7 - Diagram - ermal mass

Passive solar shading can work as a cooling strategy doing the ermal mass utilizes the solar energy absorbed and stored throughout the day to
summer periods this could be overhangs on the windows or then later be released as heating during the colder hours during the night.
large trees, which prevents solar rays from entering the interior
of the building and, reducing overheating if not avoiding it.
During the heating period, the sun will have a lower inclination
( g), allowing the sun to penetrate the glazed area and heat the
interior spaces, contributing towards a lower heating demand.
16
// ZEB  PASSIVE STRATEGIES
Ill. 10 - Diagram - Visual comfort
HEAT MODULATION Visual comfort
To create a more stable indoor temperature thermal mass can be
introduced. ermal mass stores solar heat in heavy materials daylight level
exposed to sunlight doing the daytime, to be released slowly do- >2%
ing night-time when the surrounding temperature falls. Doing
the heating period this helps lower the heating demand, while
similarly, in the summer period this can be reverted to provide
natural cooling by storing the lower temperature from the night
time, hence, creating heat modulation that contributes to main-
taining a steady indoor temperature.

NATURAL VENTILATION
Natural ventilation can help lower the energy demand, as it Ill. 9 - Diagram - ermometer
relies on natural forces such as wind and thermal buoyancy ermal comfort
(stack-effect). us, the efficiency of natural ventilation varies
depending on the site’s microclimate. ree types can be imple- If activity level
mented into a design: 1.2 MET

1) Single-sided ventilation with an opening in only one facade. Recommended temp.

Which is the least efficient way of ventilating, since the room Summer(clo 0.5): 23-26
depth covered, is limited to 2-2.5 times room height, depending winter(clo 1.0): 20-25
on the number of openings in the facade.

2) Cross ventilation refers to ventilation with openings in two

or more facades. erefore, it creates a more efficient air ow
across the rooms, then the single-sided does, which increases
the effective room depth to 5 times the room height.
Ill. 8 - Diagram -Co2
3) Stack ventilation, which is driven by thermal buoyancy, tak- Atmospheric comfort
ing fresh air in at lower levels and having exhaust air come out
the top. Although natural ventilation is an energy efficient way CO2 level
to lower the energy demand, it should be considered that doing 850 ppm
winter time natural ventilation causes heat loss and resulting 20% PD
in an uncomfortably cold indoor climate or increased heating
costs. erefore, mechanical ventilation is oen used to create a Ventilation rates
hybrid system for primarily winter time. Building emissions: 0.7 l/s m^2
non smokers 7 l/s pr person 17
// ZEB  ACTIVE STRATEGIES
Active strategies de ne the systems which produce the re-
newable energy that covers the buildings energy demand and
interacts with the grid. ere is a variety of different strategies,
by taking advantage of a range of natural energy sources to
produces electricity or heating respectively.

PHOTOVOLTAICS PVS
Photovoltaics is a system which produces electricity by convert-
ing the energy from solar radiation, resulting in this methods
efficiency being reliant upon the sun and the weather. As
electricity is expensive, PVs are a popular source of renewable Ill. 11 - Diagram - direct solar radiation
energy with different types of PVs being available. Monocrystal- Impact of direct solar radiation doing the summer and winter time without any
line cells being the most efficient panel in terms of performance preventive messures can result in overheating during the summer
and size, due to the high quality of silicon used, but its also the
most expensive. Polycrystalline cells are a cheaper solution,
but the efficiency is lower os it requires more square metres to
produce the same amount of energy as monocrystalline. e
in lm cells’ are more exible in their performance since it’s
not majorly affected by high temperature and shadow. However,
the general effect is very low, and therefore this type requires a
lot more square metres.

SOLAR COLLECTORS
Solar collectors produce heat to cover domestic hot water
and spatial heat demand using solar energy with only a small
amount of electricity to run pumps and related steering equip-
ment. ere are two types of collectors which vary in appear-
ance, in uencing the buildings aesthetics and performance:
at panels and solar tubes. e latter lled with vacuumed air,
Ill. 12 - Diagram - External solar shading
improving the insulation qualities and increasing the efficiency
Exterior shutters allow for no to very little direct solar radiation but still re ects
of the panels.
light inside preventing overheating in the summer while interior shutters allow
Both Photovoltaics and solar collectors must be considered early
solar radiation aswell as re ecting light.
in the design phase as they increase in efficiency depending on
inclination and orientation; furthermore, allowing for a holistic
design where the systems are integrated into the aesthetic.

18
// ZEB  ACTIVE STRATEGIES
HEAT PUMPS
Heat pumps move heat from the outside to the inside. e
system takes advantage of the heat energy required or released
when a liquid changes from liquid to gas or reverse. ere are
different types of heat pumps available.
Ill. 13 - Diagram -Ground heating
Brine to water pumps draws heat from the ground and is the
most efficient and expensive type of heat pumps, as they either
require a lot of square meters or digging into the ground. Fur-
ther, easier to install is an air to the water pump which can be
used for domestic hot water and space heating, and air to the air
pump, which is only used for space heating.

To reach zero energy standard as well as securing a good indoor

climate, there are energy requirements that should be ful lled,
as outlined previously. Tools used to contribute towards reach-
ing this goal are, e.g. Be15, Velux Daylight Visualizer and BSIM.
During the design process, passive and active strategies shall
be integrated into the design of the exterior of the building to
create a holistic expression.
Ill. 14 - Diagram - Solar energy photovoltics
e passive strategies primarily concern the facade layout, i.e.
the integration of shading and solar exposure, as well as mate-
riality both on interior surfaces. e active strategies, such as
solar collectors and PVs, are more locked in their appearance
but it can still be integrated into the roof shape and facades.
To achieve a good indoor climate, natural and mechanical
ventilation should be integrated into the layout of the buildings,
to eliminate contaminated air and further reduce overheating
during the summer period. To reduce energy consumption
natural ventilation should primarily be used during the summer
period with mechanical ventilation taking over with heat recov-
ery in the winter months.

Ill. 15 - Diagram - Solar heating

19
// METHODOLOGY
INTEGRATED DESIGN PROCESS e following phase draws from the knowledge gained in the
the integrated design process (IDP) is a method facilitates a previous phases, as well as the tools which were introduced
holistic approach, by its ability to systematic integrate academic herein, various methods of interdisciplinary sketching on the
theory and knowledge with scienti c research in an interdisci- project.
plinary project, uniting in a nal integrated design (Knudstrup, Working with zero energy buildings requires a high level of
2004). initial consideration for what technologies are possible to use on
roughout the project methodology of IDP is implemented the site and building. erefore, when sketching on the project,
by working in the ve phases proposed herein, presenting the a wide range of those elements are considered and integrated
architecture developed through an interdisciplinary approach into a proposal that creates a base for the nal design.
in architectural and technical aspects, which is traditionally Computational tools emphasise the interrelational approach
divided. of architecture and engineering, in both areas of tectonics and
e historical and predicted climate changes introduce the very sustainability, towards a holistic design.
rst phase of IDP with a problem, that is, how to reduce the e synthesis phase stands as a conduit between architectural,
build environment impact, and securing it from the climate technical and functional aspects, and should consist of pas-
changes which have already happened. sive and active strategies in a design, that through an iterative
e problem phase is used to determine the direction and focus process integrates those aspects and strategies in the process of
of the entire project and serves as clari cation for the motiva- creating a zero energy building and shaping a nal design.
tion behind future choices taken in the project. e presentation of the nal design is placed in an ordered
Analyses are relevant for gathering necessary information which manner, that best outlines the concept and ideas underlying the
serves as the basic knowledge on how to work and interact project, as well as the decisions leading up to it.
with the site and buildings being planed on the site. erefore,
preliminary site and climatic analyses are performed as well as INTEGRATED ENERGY DESIGN
analysis on similar projects to create a basic knowledge to draw e Methodology of Integrated energy design will be applied
from when going further in the process. in the method of analysing and sketching on the building.
e method of Integrated Energy Design is thoroughly analysed is methodology analyses the building itself as well as how it
to determine how it can be used about IDP to strength the de- interacts with the site and microclimate, through the general
sign process, for making a holistic building design with a focus framework and requirement, for creating a zero energy building
on integrating architecture within a low energy building. and the theories behind integrated energy design.

20
Ill. 16 - Diagram - Integrated design process in combination with integrated energy design

21
// INTEGRATED ENERGY DESIGN
e Integrated Energy Design (IED) method is used in the ini- e analysis of this deals with heating, cooling and insulation
tial analysis phase and through sketching and synthesis phases needs, heat accumulation, heat insulation of windows and
to develop a strategy for integrating energy reduction into the speci es the dynamic ventilation needed in the building when
design as well as considering how renewable energy can be weighing them against the energy consumption of the building.
applied to the geometry of the building. IED started with a site
analysis to develop data to base the design upon, with initial Ventilation is the fourth step; it deals with the analysis of the
considerations on lighting conditions, weather and orientation ventilation and how natural and mechanical ventilation can
on the site, as well as determining what the goal for the indoor create a hybrid solution to cover the ventilation demand in
climate and the energy goals for the buildings. Following the the building. First, there’s looked at the natural ventilation and
initial analysis, a base geometry is starting to be developed based on step two, cross ventilation facilities that free movement
while utilising the analysis. ere are ve steps in IED to devel- of air through the building aer securing that possibility the
op a geometry ranked in order of exibility. openings are designed to ventilate the space while considering
the acoustic and odour of the outdoors to limit how much of
Daylight comes rst aer programming since there’s no that in uence the indoor climate. e mechanical ventilation
technical solution if they’re not enough daylight in the spaces, should focus on supporting the natural ventilation in the peri-
there can only be supplemented with arti cial lighting which ods where natural ventilation isn’t effective or when the demand
is energy consuming and supplies additional heat that needs to is high enough to there is a need to supplement with mechanical
get removed. ventilation.

Fire is the next step due to creating free movement and the ow Cooling comes as the last step in the IED model where rst the
through the building concerning re, but it also facilitates the options for free-cooling is examined which is the supplemented
possibility for natural comfort ventilation and re ventilation by mechanical cooling.
since they work based on the same principles.
Aer using this process for creating the geometry, a stable base
ermal indoor climate and air quality follow re and is the is built for making a sustainable building that can meet the
most comprehensive part since a lot of parameters are in uenc- requirements set for the indoor climate and the goals for energy
ing the air quality and thermal comfort in the building. consumption.

22
Ill. 17 - Diagram - Integrated energy design

23
// CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change which is currently occurring in the changes e result of that contradiction is the relevance of preparing for
of global climate, this is only sighted to continue where we are a degree of climate change with one of the most severe chang-
closing in on the point of no return where we are locked in for es that come along for large coastal cities and building within
substantial changes to the global and local climate. Where even them, being rising temperature since it brings along increasing
if it is attempted to lower the emissions in wealthy countries the sea levels.
growth of population and betterment of living standards, and
life expectancy in poorer Asian and African countries will bring RISE IN WATER LEVELS AND TEMPERATURE
a signi cant impact that works in to counteract the improve- e projected increase in sea level is estimated to be 0.54 to 0.74
ment. meters by 2100, which when looking on a global climate is a
short time scale. Where the amount of rising in sea level does
RISE IN WORLD POPULATION not seem like a lot for Western countries on a short time scale, it
e current population is 7,6 billion people and is expected to will bring large displacements of people in poor Asian countries.
reach 11.2 billion by 2100 which is an increase of 47.3 per cent While that rise in sea level is not detrimental in western coun-
this results in a massive growth in both the need for housing tries when it’s combined with weather phenomenons bringing in
but also the need for land for producing food. Which places a large amounts of precipitation or winds blowing water into the
considerable strain on the land being needed to be cultivated harbour that can result in ooding of large urban areas. While
for agriculture and converted to infrastructure that’s required to looking further out on a time scale of 2200, there’s an estimation
sustain that increasing amount of people. that a rise in sea level is 0.95 to 2.8 meters so when consider-
(United Nations, 2017) ing these rises in sea levels it can if not will permanently ood
is increase in population creates a signi cant demand on urban coastal cities.
building materials to have housing, work and support all those (USGCRP, 2017)
peoples daily life, so to gather resources for building to support e lead cause to the rising sea levels and the escalating nature
those people, without promoting deforestation of large areas of it is due to the increasing temperature which is occurring
without a plan to replace the forest that is cut down, which have alongside the rising sea level, which happens due to the melting
historically been the case doing the 20th century. of the ice sheets and thermal expansion of water. e predict-
ed rise in temperature for the year 2100, is 2.8 degrees as the
e consequence of the rise in world population and rising best estimate but within the range of 1.7-4.4 degrees as a global
living standards makes it hard to prevent further climate change average.
since the two parts are contradictory to each other with more (AMAP, 2017)
people needing to consume fewer resources to produce less
greenhouse gas overall.

24
Ill. 18 - Photo of the Crystal in London - which hosts Exhibition on the future of cities 25
PROGRAM // LIVING ON WATER

26
27
// LIVING AT SEA
With the way that larger cities are organised with the center e size and dependency are connected since a small project
of cities being living, culture, shops and offices with the heavy create a large cost and effort of making it an independent city
industry situated on the outskirt characteristically along the infrastructure, since it would require complex new set-up all for
waterfront on the periphery of the city. is structure has been itself compared to linking it up with the existing infrastructure.
developed through the changes in how much industry is present When compared to a city sized project the infrastructure still
in the city image since most of it have been optimized, making needs to be constructed or expanded signi cantly to support
it centralized and placing an emphasis on import and export, the new population in the city on water. e size also allows for
which takes a larger part of the supply of products to a city. space to place those functions where the platform the buildings
is leaves the question of how it could be possible to maintain oat atop can be lled with functions that keeps the society
the identical connection to the water as an important note of working but without needing a constant but only periodical
infrastructure, if the impending climate changes are happening maintenance.
and the ocean water levels increase. Changes must be complet- Doing the process of developing the project there has been
ed to retain the access of water to important infrastructure, by looked at various directions for the project across diverse scales
protecting from the rising water though either a water lock or by and differing degrees of dependency on external infrastructure.
gradually raising the harbour to avoid a ooding. Spanning from a city scale to small housing project where the
Considering in what ways to design for raising water levels, in to city scale incorporates all the infrastructure and production of
transition partially or completely live on the water and to hover food to be able to function completely separated from infra-
with the rises in water levels. is however sets new problems, structure on land. While the small housing scheme is relaying
initially with a need to rethink the infrastructure that supports on all the infrastructure of the city.
a city with power, water and food combined with the handling
of sewerage and trash. is highly in uence the independents
from the traditional city and its infrastructure and affects the
scale of the settlement on the water.

28
Ill. 19 - Diagram - Size and dependentcy 29
// HUMAN NEEDS
e selection of functions is derived from Maslow’s hierarchy of rough these things are more intangible there can be added
needs. e hierarchy dictates the needs for living a productive functions that facilitate a more social behaviour, by allowing for
life and tting in as a part of society; the hierarchy is divided people to meet more oen by getting people out of the housing
into three different parts basic needs, psychological needs and to interact this can be accomplished though open offices, shared
self-ful lment needs. e basic needs are paramount for being kitchens and open areas for recreation where people can meet
able to work cause when it’s missing the mind being everywhere up and socialize, hopefully creating a social environment. e
else than at work. Since the project is at sea separated from feeling of accomplishment and prestige and the nal aspect
mainland society, the priority is to get the essential functions self-actualisation fall together, to achieve the goals set in the
down, to make it comfortable to be living there, followed by the context of work combined with the personal goals which are es-
psychological needs and then ending out by providing a way to tablished and in uenced by the individual. A design containing
give them the opportunity to nd self-ful lment. To provide the these however does not guarantee self-actualisation, other than
basic needs of warmth, food, water, rest, security and safety. e giving a framework for people to have space that can be utilised
water source would come from rainwater collection run through to what they appreciate spending their time on. Examples of this
a puri cation system before its distributed to the residents. could be a personal office in the home, a workshop area where
While food would need to be either purely transported from there’s space for building something or a tness room with space
the outside and stored in freezers and fridges or supplementing for personal improvement in the physical aspect of the self-per-
a food production cultivating on the site, either by aquaculture ception.
or small amounts of urban farming as a supplement to the food
brought in from the outside. e psychological needs entail
social behaviour like friendship and intimate relationships,
prestige and feeling of accomplishments.

30
Ill. 20 - Maslow's hierarchy of needs

31
// WORK ENVIRONMENT
e office building aims to create a coworking community, by DEDICATED DESK
increasing the interaction between the employees in and across An Open Office layout where all are sharing the space but have
professions. e intention behind coworking community is their dedicated workspace. is structure of the workplace is
based on the company WeWork, who have the company philos- best suited for a single person to small sized companies. ese
ophy to create; shared workspaces focus on cooperation and a sense of commu-
nity, through interaction and working with others nearby for an
“A place you join as an individual, ‘me’, but where you become extended period.
part of a greater ‘we’. A place where we’re rede ning success Having a meeting room adds the possibility to have meetings
measured by personal ful lment, not just the bottom line. e separate from the office space while not being disturbed by or
community is our catalyst.” disturbing the rest of the office
[wework, 2019]
PRIVATE OFFICE SPACES
Based on an article by K. Steemers “Architecture for well being Twenty small office spaces for 1-3 employees.
and health” ((Koen S., 2018 ) Which describes his theories on
the health bene ts of a social work environment that facilitates DEDICATED DESK
interaction between strangers within the work environment. One large office space for 28 employees.
is should be achievable by using the model for a shared ree large offices spaces for ten employees
workspace created by Wework with a dedicated desk within the
open office space. While outside the workspace, the options for e workspace is designed aer the Danish building regulations
physical exercise covers the other part of what K. steamers talk and rules determined herein, ere is no de ned rule rules for
about the reduction in physical ill-health. the room size, height or natural light intake, but requires that it
e model for a shared workspace is being compared to the tra- is dimensioned with a sufficient size considering the number of
ditional model of individual private office spaces to see if there employees about safety, health and functionality of the space.
can be drawn strengths form the conventional way of working, [Building regulation 2019]
to create a good working environment.

PRIVATE OFFICE SPACES

Creating a private workspace, where focused and calm work
environment is facilitated. Where there’s as little external distur-
bance as possible doing the day, but the negative effect of that is
that the social climate at work is almost gone except maybe for
the brakes happening when going to get coffee.

32
Ill. 21 - Diagram - Diffrent office layouts

A Open Office layout where all are sharing one An Open Office layout, but divided into smaller Small individual workspaces are creating a fo-
large room focusing on cooperation and com- rooms which still facilitate cooperation and com- cused and calm work environment. At the loss of
mon discussions. mon discussions, but more minded to companies most social interaction and discussion.
lling out there own space.

33
// RECREATIONAL SPACE
ACTIVITY CREATIVELY
With the Platform being out at sea the amount of freedom As determined by the Maslow hierarchy of needs, the feeling of
to exercise is a limited, since it’s not possible to strap on ones accomplishment and achieving one’s full potential, which ap-
running shoes and go for a long run or go down to the local plies both at work and outside of it. Outside work it is expressed
sports club or tness centre. But with the rising increase in through more creative channels, such as arts and crasmanship,
overweight and extreme overweight [danskernessundhed. which is used as relaxation or curiosity drove activity or merely
dk], it is hoped to counteract or prevent this for the residents, a break from once daily life. Workshops act as spaces with spe-
by giving them the facilities to do physical activity within the cial equipment for a variety of a speci c cra, making exible
community. By engaging with others in the community or alone spaces that can be converted to facilitate the different cras, that
while being encouraging the development of personal goals, parts of the community want to partake in and thereby promot-
these activity-based rooms can cultivate. e introduction of ing the use of their free time. us, creating a common interest
the activity-based functions brings along exercise and mobility in the workshops to develop a culture of learning and helping
along with social bonding which happens when doing rigorous each other with the goals set, be it in the strive to design a new
training with others. Furthermore, it brings a degree of creativ- chair or creating a painting. It also provides tools to enable the
ity when rethinking the way of exercising throughout an extend- residents the tools needed to repair and maintain things both in
ed period in the attempt to reach once personal goals. e aim is the private residence and within the standard functions.
to provide a space where people in the community can interact
and compete while exercising through either tness or group
training and as a community keep up the motivation to contin-
ue using the facilities and keep a healthy level of personal tness
across the community.

34
Ill. 22 - Photo of wood workshop Ill. 23 - Photo of art worksshop

Ill. 24 - Photo of Fitness Ill. 25 - Photo of yoga

35
// SUPPORTIVE FUNCTIONS
To be able to move function from land and out onto the water WATER
there needs to be a way to produce the resources that is needed To provide clean water for all the functions requiring water
to run housing, work and recreational activities, as well as what within the buildings, there either need a supply from the city
the waste product from the daily life of the building produces. infrastructure to provide clean water or there needs to be
Depending on the degree of connection to the traditional city constructed a local infrastructure of collecting rainwater and
infrastructure. cleaning it. Before it's stored and ready to be used, its also possi-
ble to cleans seawater by removing the salt before cleaning it and
ELECTRICITY storing it, but that's an expensive energy process so it should be
Electricity is one of the easiest things to separate and create avoided if possible.
a local infrastructure to support the buildings since there's a
range of renewable energy sources, that can supply the energy FOOD
to a local storage unit. So that the building have a stable source Food is the hardest thing to start supplying since there's a large
of electricity, either if there's a diverse source of energy or the number of different things that need to be cultivated to feed a
storage is large enough. community of people a varied diet. But its exible in how the
connection to the city needs to be since as long as it's possible
HEATING to take a short trip to get food by boat it's not needed to provide
Heating can be supplied through a few different ways, electricity that locally on the building. Resulting in that there can still be a
can be converted to heating, solar energy can be used to heat separation from the coast while still being a supply of food.
water through solar collectors, or there can be an outside supply
with district heating. If the heating supply comes from convert- WASTE
ing solar energy, there's normally a supportive supply since it's To deal with the waste that's produced from the use of the build-
hard to store heated water for an extended period were there ing, where part of that is sewerage, and the other is trash. Sew-
limited to no sun. erage is part of a large infrastructure that collects and cleans all
the dirty water that is produced by buildings, and this entire in-
COOLING frastructure would need to be remodelled to handle the amount
Cooling can be supplied through mechanical cooling by con- produced by the building, the same structure is present for trash
verting electricity into the cold air and then distribute it through with sorting it, and either recycling or properly disposed of.
the mechanical ventilation, or there can construct a heat ex-
changer that draws from the outdoor water temperature to then
use that as cooling for the building by pumping it around in a
closed liquid system.

36
Ill. 26 - Input and output from buildings 37
// ELECTRICITY AT SEA

To produce electricity at sea, there a range of diffrent possible solutions for

creating renewable energy that then needs to supply the infrastructure of
the building complex and the buildings electricity consumption. To have a
stable source of energy it needs to be either a large enough production, so
that even if its at night or a still day that it produces energy to be running
the entire building complex. Otherwise, there needs to be energy storage
that collects surplus production that can then be released later when there
a limited production. e electricity produced then runs the infrastructure
and buildings consumption, to provide all the comforts that were present
when living in a city on land.

38
Ill. 27 - Sustainable sources to providing electricity 39
// CLIMATE CONTROL AT SEA

To provide heating and cooling at sea without consuming fossil fuel to

provide a stable indoor climate. When breaking the two apart the cooling
is solvable by utilising the sea water to draw in water and converting it
into a closed system with a cooled down liquid that can then be pumped
throughout the building complex to cool the buildings and infrastructure
doing the summer period.
To heat the buildings in the heating season while using at least primarily
renewable resources to do so. ere are a few different solutions for what
sources can be used to produce heating without burning fossil fuels. Solar
heating can be used when there's sun out in the heating season but when
the sun is not enough. ere needs to be an alternative to supplying where
heat pumps and wood pellets are both sustainable alternatives where both
of requiring storage of either wood pellets or electricity that can then be
converted into heating to supply the buildings with heat doing the heating
season.

40
Ill. 28 - Sources for providing cooling and heating 41
// FRESH WATER AT SEA

To provide clean water that can be used within the building complex,
theres two options for collecting water that then need to be cleaned before
it can be used within the buildings, either sea water can be collected,
cleaned and having the salt removed. However, this is an expensive way,
and it consumes a lot of energy to clean the salt water. e other option is
to collect rainwater and then clean it before its stored waiting to be con-
sumed this is a cheaper and less energy consuming way to provide clean
water but there needs to be a large area and storage enough to keep water
for dry periods so that the building complex don't run out of water.

42
Ill. 29 - Providing clean water 43
// PRODUCING FOOD AT SEA

To supply food to the people living in the building complex, is gonna

require a lot of space and work to plant, maintain, grow and harvest the
diffrent types of food all year around. eres a range of diffrent sources to
get food from indside and outside farming and then ocean farming and
mariculture, which creates a diverse production of food which is need-
ed for sustaining a healthy diet for the population. eres a lot of work
required to sustain the production of food, but following the production
theres not alot of work required, its primary storage and then preperation
for it to be eaten.

44
Ill. 30 - Supplying food 45
// DISPOSING WASTE AT SEA

e two parts of waste that needs to be disposed of one is sewerage and the
other is trash. To dispose of sewerage there needs to be a long process to
gradually sort part out of the water and then, in the end, clean the water so
that it can be let back out in the ocean or be used to for example watering
plants. e parts of the sewerage that's sorted out in the process of cleaning
the water needs to be either recycled or used to produce heat or electricity.
When disposing of the trash, it needs to be sorted and then preferably
recycled, used for compost or burned to produce heat or electricity.

46
Ill. 31 - Handeling waste product from buildings 47
// CONSTRUCTION AND MOBILITY
To build a building thats oating on water, it can be constructed by build-
ing a partly submerged creating enougth boyancy to make it oat, or on a
platform which is carrying buildings through the same principle of buoy-
ancy. To construct these buildings, it needs to be done in a controlled envi-
ronment so it can be built either on land and transported into the ocean or
be constructed in a drydock that then gets ooded, which then allows for
it to be sailed out to where it is then anchored. e drydock has the most
freedom with the construction of the buildings and platform since it's not
limited to a certain scale since it can always be ooded and then dragged to
its location to be anchored, whereas construction on land needs cranes and
something for transporting it to the water.

When transporting buildings on water there different solutions for doing

so that brings different possibilities with each, towing the building make
it quick and easy to move, but its hard to transport it across large open
waters depending on how much height clearance the building have not to
risk getting ooded during transport when its not in controlled waters.
e same factors play in when looking at a self-propelled building other
than it's quicker to begin moving but there a large amount of maintenance
for keeping a motorised system functioning, compared to how rarely the
whole building would probably be moved. e last option would be using a
semi-submerged boat that lis it out of the water and onto the boat, which
then sails it to a location and then lowers it down again. is method of
transporting the building is the most efficient for large open waters since
it's lied out and don't need to handle the ocean waves, which it is not
built for. While for short distances on relatively still water, the other two
methods are easier since it is not as large of operation to use while still
being safe.

48
Ill. 32 - Tugboat towing the buildings

Ill. 33 - Simisubmerged boat perparing to transport the building

Ill. 34 - Selfpropelled building allways ready for transport

49
// CONCLUSION // SIZE AND DEPENDENCY

Concluding on the human needs and that the requirements of infrastruc-

ture those functions need to be able to move them out onto open water,
in uencing the size and the connection it has to the city and its infrastruc-
ture. e conclusion of how those factors in uence the project lead to the
building being dependent on the city infrastructure and having a limited
size. With housing being the function chosen since its the most indepen-
dent function which is easy to separate from the city. While it still supplies
people to the city and not drawing people away and out to the platform,
which would be the case if it had been recreational activity or offices.
e housing needs to be coupled to the city infrastructure but supplies
electricity to cover its use, but simultaneously uses the electricity grid to
stabilise it across the whole year due to the high production in the summer
season and low production the winter period.

50
51
SITE

52
53
// SITE
With the site being just off the edge of Limorden in the western part
of Aalborg. e water runs either west or east so theres regularity to the
movement of the water and since the water is shallow, then even on days
with harsh winds the water is still calm. With water being the immediate
close context with the more distant context being a view of Egholm, Nørre-
sundby, while its bridged connection to Aalborg through Vestre Fjordpark
which provides access to outdoor recreational activity.
e site is close to Skudehavnen and Marina Fjordparken, which allows for
the use of boats and other water-based transportation to get back and forth
from the residents as an alternative to biking or walking to work.
e site's proximity to the city of Aalborg makes it easy to be connected
to the range of different infrastructure, which is needed to support the
residents with the things needed for daily life.

e site is chosen due to its proximity to a city that can provide infrastruc-
ture while there is outdoor recreation nearby, giving the residents with the
possibility to both use those facilities but the water as well to provide free
time activity. With the location so close to Egholm, it is within proximity
to nature that can be easily accessed, while the city is still close by for the
residents to go into and work, shop and provide food.

54
Ill. 35 - Diagram site location 55
Ill. 36 - Photo of the site 1
56
Ill. 37 - Photo of the site572
// SUN
With the location of the site at open water, there aren’t any building shad-
ing for the sun so the suns direction gives a pretty complete picture of the
direct sun on the site, which will only be in uenced by the built environ-
ment on site. at creates a great opportunity to use solar energy since
the weather is the only thing blocking it and reducing its output. at can
somewhat be negated by having storing electricity in the grid, which serves
as an energy source for the winter time or a surplus of PVs to have enough
to produce energy during the winter time when the sun is lower in the sky.

58
Ill. 38 - Sun diagram

59
// WIND
A wind rose is used in order of determine the predominent wind direction,
however this is only accurate when you have a large open space, cause the
air ow through a city or around multiple obstacles is hard to predict. But
with the site being on Limeorden the wind rose gives a somewhat accu-
rate picture of how the wind behaves in that area, especially from the two
primary directions of east and west.

e wind rose gives a picture of how the wind is every year with all data
points plotted in, so it doesn't account for uctuations which occurs doing
the different seasons. is emphasises the most efficient sides to make the
inlet of the natural ventilation on, which is used in the warm months while
using mechanical ventilation in the cold months to create a hybrid ventila-
tion system for the buildings

60
Ill. 39 - Diagram - Annual wind on the site

61
// ROOM PROGRAM

62 Ill. 40 - Room program

// SENCE OF PLACE
Due to the site being off the coast there’s only the water to relate to in
the close context and then the coast beyond that, which makes it hard to
create a connection to anything due to it being mostly uniform all the way
around. So the impact this has on the way of building the platform is to
make it, so there’s always a connection to the water, resulting in the plat-
form being of a size where the buildings have a relation to the sea. So that
it’s not so big that some buildings are hidden away from the outside and
lose the connection with the water, the focus of the buildings should be to
have a view of the sea towards the outsides of the community as well as a
connection with the rest of the built environment.
When considering the history of how humans have been living on sea
throughout history, there have been long traditions for working with wood
and steel to create boats due to its lightweight comparative to its strength,
and the ability to be worked into a streamlined shape to make it easy to
sail. ere can be made references to that with the choice of material but
since it's not made to sail but rather be stable while laying still in the water
while containing a sizable open volume. A heavy material that keeps water
out would be advantageous for at least the part of the building which meets
the water to lower its centre of gravity and be durable for long periods.

63
// DESIGN PARAMETERS

PRIMARY GENERATOR
FLOATATION
Creating a building which is separated from land while still relying on
its infrastructure to facilitate all the functions necessary for living, while
having a connection to the water, without risking getting ooded when the
water rises or when under pressure from extreme weather.

BUILDINGS
Creating buildings which facilitate ful lment of the human needs for safe-
ty, community and self-actualisation, while simultaneously being physical-
ly removed from healthy society as an exploration to move buildings out
onto the water.

64
 SECONDARY GENERATORS
- Designing a sustainable building complex
- Interacting with the water while both are getting to the building and
when inside it.
- Integrate the material properties (tactile acoustic visual, etc.) into the
shaping of the atmosphere of housing.
- Facilitate an indoor environment with a healthy atmospheric and thermal
climate with proper ventilation.
- Creating functional and comfortable architecture on the water.
- Central access space for housing to facilitate an environment where peo-
ple meet each other.

65
PRESENTATION

66
67
// VISION

To create a sustainable community, where the built environment is adapted

to being on water so that it can utilize a cities infrastructure while oating
on water, to prevent it from being endangered by rising water levels and an
increasing frequency of oodings.

68
Ill. 41 - Design parameters 69
// AQUATECTURE
e building complex is positioned near the edge of Limorden within the
city limits of Aalborg, reimaging the way of living in a changing environ-
ment affected by the advancement of climatic deviations resulting in rising
sea levels. Aquatecture focuses on the interpretation of societies way of
living near open waters, this has been the cornerstone for the forming of
cities in Denmark, along with a majority of larger settlements across the
globe. Beforehand this has been in uenced by infrastructure but has in
modern days expanded to a phenological relationship and has become a
part of the city.
By expanding the city onto the water, not by constructing a pillar foun-
dation where the structure roots below the surface creating a stable base
in the ocean oor, Aquatecture emphases on buoyant foundation oating
above the predicted rises in water levels. Simultaneously the weight of the
building generates stability from wind and movement atop the water, leav-
ing it only to require an anchor to stay in place. e building itself strives
to create an interior space that facilitates modern living without sacri cing
the comforts of living on land but instead replaces it with the additional
function of being able to use the water as an integrated part of the home,
offering the users an individual connection to the open waters through the
winter-gardens. During the winter periods, these can be closed off for the
user to use the area to grow plants.
e housing complex encloses a shared space for the residents to interact
with one another and socialise while also connecting the housing complex
with the mainland, though a longer path for the residents to freely use.

70
Ill. 42 - Masterplan, 1:300
71
// AQUATECTURE
e concept behind Aquatecture, attempts on building an environment
at sea that creates a small community, in connection to a mainland city
— forming a protected environment for the residents to live in with a
focus on providing privacy for the residents both when people get to the
residents from the central space and when getting to the housing from the
water. e internal space is connected to land to provide easy access to and
from the building complex and generates a transition from the public place
of the city to the semi-private space shaped between the households, into
the private spaces of the individual residential homes.
Despite going into a new context and making a building that is placed in
this unique context, it should also act as a catalyst for the future develop-
ment of settlements. For people moving out onto the water creating a new
way of living in a connection to the water, that has been treated as some-
thing to be controlled by meticulously moving it around instead of living
in connection to it.

72
Ill. 43 - Concept diagram 73
Ill. 44 - Facade South, 1:200
74
Ill. 45 - Facade North, 1:200
75
Ill. 46 - Facade West, 1:200
76
Ill. 47 - Facade East, 1:200
77
78
Ill. 48 - Section A, 1:100
79
Ill. 49 - Section B, 1:100
80
81
Ill. 50 - Ground Floor Plan , 1:200
82
Ill. 51 - Basement Plan , 1:200
83
 e internal space between the housing functions as an access-
way to the housing and connects it to the mainland, the connec-
tion to the mainland opens up and creates space for the residents
to use to socialise with each other and meet when entering and
leaving the houses as well as providing a space to spend once
leisure time outdoors. Since the internal space is enclosed and
people spend time and come and go there the entrances to the
houses are covered and open on perpendicular to that so there
isn't a clear view of the individual houses.

84
Ill. 52 - Rendering - Internal courtyard
Ill. 53 - Rendering - Winter garden
86
Ill. 54 - Ground oor plan single unit 87
Ill. 55 - Rendering - Bedroom
88
Ill. 56 - Basement plan single unit 89
 When approaching the site from the mainland the facade is
closed off so that visitor and residents cant look into the resi-
dents at the gabels. But it then opens both outwards and inwards
towards the common space. e common space then leads into
the covered entrances to the different houses before entering
them. e outwards facing facade faces away from the path so
that there is no clear view of the two houses that face the most
towards the path to provide privacy to the residents living in
them.

90
Ill. 57 - Rendering - Approach from land
91
 e approach from the water brings you to your own housing
unit or to the internal space between the housing where in both
places, it is possible to dock and store small boats.
With the water being a part of the housing, this allows for the
water being used as an active part of the dwelling. e tenants
are given the possibility to sail directly to and from the house,
which makes it easy also to use the water as a recreational place.
ere is a wide range of possibilities depending on interests of
the residents be it shing, sailing, swimming or something else
entirely, but with the easy access to the water, it can become a
part of the daily life for the residents.
ere aren't any oor to ceiling windows towards the water since
that would impact the privacy within the houses since people
sailing by could look into the housing, so the windows are raised
to that at least while in a boat it's not possible to look directly
into the houses

92
Ill. 58 - Rendering - Approach the water
93
// PASSIVE AND ACTIVE STRATEGIES

94
Ill. 59 - Active and passive strategies
Ill. 60 - Rendering - Multiple complexes in city context
95
// ENERGY AND INDOOR CLIMATE

96
ENERGY DEMAND INDOOR CLIMATE
To determine the energy demand of the housing complex and To have a building categorised as a zero energy building it needs
reach the energy frame set down by the Building regulation to uphold the standards for indoor climate to ensure comfort for
2018, which sets a goal for the buildings energy consumption by the residents, part of the indoor climate is simulated with BSIM
2020 as 20 kWh/m per year, which is calculated in Be15. The for the different units that are orientated north, west and south-
building is partially submerged and partly above water, which west. BSIM simulate the indoor climate, so it's used to provide
poses a critical situation for the calculation of the buildings thermal climate to look at overheating within the upper floor
transmission loss which the program can't quite calculate. The of the housing, which contains the kitchen, dining and living
temperature for the underwater part of the building is therefore room. To verify that the indoor climate is below the limits for
set to be against a surface which is 10 deg across the year as an overheating where there can be no more than 100 hours above
average of the water temperature year round while the part of 27 degrees and 25 hours above 28 degrees. The other aspect of
the building above water is set to interact with the air as normal. comfort is the atmospheric comfort, which has the upper limit
Though a building envelope with a low U-value, which is air- for CO2 pollution set to 850 ppm. The last aspect of indoor
tight, the energy frame is reached with an energy consumption climate that have been tested is visual comfort, where Velux
of 17.1 kWh/m per year of primary energy. Furthermore, solar Daylight Simulator has been used to test the natural lighting of
PVs are implemented to the different roofing surfaces, but since the rooms, where the minimum requirements is 300 lux or more
the roofscape is so varied they are places with various efficien- for at least half the floor area, which if the 300 lux is converted
cy, but within the Be15 it is placed as direction, which is a little to daylight factor gives 3 % [Bygnings regimented, 2018].
below average to ensure that it produces enough energy to The Bsim and Velux DaylightSimulator simulations demon-
cover the yearly consumption of the housing. The total energy strate a good indoor climate in regards to the atmospheric and
demand, including PVs, is -2.1 kWh/m per year with 110 m of thermal environment, in which the user can be comfortable all
solar PVs. year around.

SOLAR PVS
e calculations within BE15 for solar PVs bases the buildings
energy demand on heating, ventilation, cooling and domestic
hot water. However, there is additional energy consumption for
appliances, which are not taken into account within the BE15
calculation, so part of that is covered by the additional energy
production, while the rest is covered by the electrical grid to
which the building is connected.

97
// MATERIALITY

Ill. 63 - Material - Board formed concrete Ill. 62 - Material - Board formed concrete partly through the patina process Ill. 61 - Material - Board formed concrete further through the patina process

e material that’s used for the exterior facades is chosen for their ex-
pression and the way that they patina and deteriorate over time since the
environment the building is in a wet environment, which is hard on the
materials. e high amount of moisture in the air, as well as part of the
building being submerged cause a constant interaction with the water
speeding up the process of deterioration, which has a large in uence on
what materials are suited to be used in the situations.
Concrete is chosen for the material which is submerged as well as transi-
tioning out of the water since it’s oen used in this environment, which is a
testament to is durability under those harsh circumstances. But also due to
its way of changing over time as patina takes effect on its surface. e co-
lour of the concrete darkens, and the prominence of the texture strength-
ens, to utilise this change in appearance there chosen a board formed
concrete since it brings extra texture to the concrete. at then becomes
more visible over time.
Another Reason for going with concrete is its the weight which gives the
building its overall stability since it lowers the centre of gravity and gives
it a mass so that it is not in uenced by weather and or people moving
around, which if it was light could in uence the proprioception senses of
the humans living in the building.

98
Ill. 64 - Material - Cedar wood Ill. 65 - Material - Cedar wood partly through patina process Ill. 66 - Material - Cedar wood Finished the patina process

Wood is chosen for the roo ng, to stand in contrast to the concrete and
since it has a long lifetime, even in harsh environments. e type of wood
chosen is western red cedar wood due to its resilience against the climate
and the weather, where it have a documented lifetime of 50 years. But even
with its long lifetime, it goes from its initial look to the nished patina aer
a few years of being exposed to rain and sun, but if it gets treated before it
gets mounted to the façade, the facade will keep its colour for a prolonged
period. It is there for decided to treat the wood before putting it up so that
it holds is colours. e wood remains its warm yellow-reddish colour for
an extended period before it becomes a gradually more silver grey colour.
e pattern of cladding also matches the verticality of the pattern that is
imprinted into the concrete by the wooden boards that are used to make
board-formed concrete.

99
// DETAIL DRAWINGS

Ill. 67 - 1:10 Detail drawing wall, skylight and solar pvs

100
Ill. 68 - 1:10 Detail wall, window and oor
101
SKETCHING PHASE

102
103
// WORKSHOP // INITIAL SECTIONS & PLAN

Ill. 69 - Diagram - relation to the water

Before initiaing the rst workshop, theres e three concepts are as shown in the dia- is way of building on the water is suscepti-
looked at three diffrent ways of oating and grams above: raised above the water, leveled ble to rough seas, so there needs to be protect-
interacting with the water. ose three create with the water, partly or entirely submerged. ed, or it needs to be placed in safe waters. e
a foundation, for which the sketching in the e raised above the water, functions of the platform can be used for supporting func-
workshop can be focused around, while still same principle of an oil rig, with large bun- tions, and technical equipment that doesn't
allowing for freedom and variations within kers that creates buoyancy, which makes the need natural light or are used oen.
the different iterations. buildings able to be lied out of the water, but e last concept is submerged or partly sub-
ese three concepts for oating are then makes it hard to get to and from the building, merged, works of largely the same principle as
sketched on top of to nd a plan layouts, to the ipside of that it creates safety from rough being level with water but instead utilises the
nd an initial base to start the thought process seas. built environment underneath the water for
for what's needed to create a comfortable e concept of building levelled with water additional square meters, which then balances
place to live on the water. e workshop with relies on the buoyancy of the platform, which the buoyancy out so that the building is at the
plans and sections is continued alongside the the buildings are situated upon. With its close required level so that the openings are free of
other workshops until the nal concept is connection to the water, it's easy to access the water getting in.
selected so there's constant development on buildings and platform from either a boat or a
the overall plan and the more speci c plan oating path leading directly to land.
solutions for the functions.

104
Ill. 70 - Plans of diffrent concept soutions 105
106 Ill. 71 - Sections of diffrent roo ng soutions
 107
Ill. 72 - Plan and section of early mixed use concept
 // WORKSHOP // SIZE AND DEPENDENCY

Ill. 73 - Diffrent project scales

Following the rst initial workshop, which e city scale idea includes all the necessary So it needs to stay in a location coupled to that
starts the thought process for what needs infrastructure from the production of food infrastructure, but it would be possible to live
and considerations are required to produce a and water to the removal of waste product all there with only needing to go to the city for
holistic concept for building on water. Doing done locally, which results in it being inde- acquiring food.
the rst workshop, it became apparent that it pendent so that it can sail around without a Lastly, on the scale of size and dependency is
is needed to determine its relation to the coast connection to the mainland and mainland a housing complex where it's reliant on all the
and the infrastructure which is on the site infrastructure. Since that amount of infra- infrastructure of a city as well as for its func-
and which parts it is reliant on from the city. structure is present and produced for a certain tions of work and recreational activity.
Where it depends on the size what infrastruc- amount of people and building its possible to
ture is practical to have on the site and which make it entirely sustainable with its produc-
it's reliant on from the city so there are set tion and consumption of resources.
up different scenarios to determine the scale A village scale project where the different
and what infrastructure should be present on functions are present at the site with recre-
the site and the scale of the site. ose scales ational activity as well as living and work-
being a city scale which has all the infrastruc- space. A part of the infrastructure required
ture needed, a village size which has parts of to run it is present as well, but it still requires
the infrastructure and all the functions, and a connection to a cities infrastructure, for
housing complex that is just housing and none sewerage and handling of trash as well as the
108 of the infrastructure on site production of food.
 109

Ill. 74 - Plans - Diffrent city scale concepts

110 Ill. 75 - Section - City scale concept
Ill. 76 - Plan - City scale concept 111
112 Ill. 77 - Rendering - Mixeduse Building
 Ill. 78 - Rendering - Diffrent Housing complexes

When considering the requirement for infrastructure which comes from

the different sizes and amount of dependency, along with the project size
so that it doesn't move more towards the urban project instead of an archi-
tectural project. is lead to the choice being between a housing complex
or a project that combines housing, work and recreational activity within
the project. ere are chosen a small housing project to facilitate further
interaction with the water instead of doing a large platform with space for
different functions and the additional infrastructure. e small project
suits an early exploration into building housing on the water that then in
the future can be developed into oating cities, which is self-sustainable for
either extended periods if not permanently.

113
// WORKSHOP // HOUSING COMPLEX

Ill. 79 - Rendering - Diffrent relation to water

For the third workshop aer nding the size To further explore the development of the While designing the layout of the units with
and the dependency in connection to the concept of a housing complex and to build on consideration to the methodology of integrat-
mainland city infrastructure. To nd the top of the development of plans and sections, ed energy design to at least the extent that it's
nal concept for how to facilitate housing on was exploring some of the concepts as volume possible when part of the building submerged
water. Where aer several iterations trends studies and developing them along with how it eliminates some possibilities for natural
started emerging of protected internal space interior plans would take shape within the ventilation the possibility to have another
and a close connection with the water, be it by overall shaping of the different concepts. is re escape other than the staircase. ese are
having a partly submerged or levelled with the has been done with the help of different tools considerations that need to be included when
water building, where the water adds value to with both sketchings but also more com- valuing it up against the qualities gained from
the architecture. So that the building is related prehensive tools such as rhino and Revit for having a platform which lis the building out
to the environment that the building is built drawing up a three-dimensional space that of the water and therefore allows for natural
and placed in, this also emphasises creating an can then be explored with depictions and live ventilation and providing the option with an
architecture were removing it from the water rendering when moving through space. additional re escape route.
and placing on a plot in a city gives the resi- e quality of the different ideas was valued
dents the same qualities but with a different for their ful lment of the primary and sec-
view to the outside of the residents. ondary generators

114
Ill. 80 - Sketching of plan solutions 115
116 Ill. 81 - Rendering - group of housing complexes
Ill. 82 - Rendering - Housing complex
117
// WORKSHOP // RELATING TO WATER

Ill. 83 - Rendering - Sketching relation to water 1 Ill. 84 - Rendering - Sketching relation to water 2 Ill. 85 - Rendering - Sketching relation to water 3

e fourth workshop aims to investigate the relationship between the

building and the water, to look at the different scenarios of how water can
be used as a function in the housing. e water also interacts with the
building from the outside through the principle of buoyancy where the
volume of the building and the mass determines how deep the building
lays in the water so a consideration for the materials since that the primary
in uence on the overall weight of the building. e opposite side of the
heavyweight is the problem of stability if there's lightweight since it's then
more susceptible for waves and wind, resulting in an uncomfortable indoor
climate due to disturbance of the proprioception scenes.

118
Ill. 86 - Rendering - Sketching relation to water 4 119
120

Ill. 87 - Rendering - Relation to water 1

 121

Ill. 88 - Rendering - Relation to water 2

SYNTHESIS

122
123
// WORKSHOP // INDOOR CLIMATE

In the h workshop, the focus is to determine the right dimensions of

windows and their placement, in a balance between thermal, atmospheric
and visual comfort, which is tested in an analysis of windows through Bsim
simulations that shows overheating hours, Velux Visualiser illustrates the
daylight factor. e natural ventilation is calculated within Bsim based on
the window openings and the weather data that are included in the BSIM
calculation model.

BSIM is a simulation tool for the indoor climate within a simple geometry
where all walls can see each other so to create the room that is suspected to
be most susceptible to overheating, which in this project is the entire top
oor of the building. When creating a model of the top oor, the model
needs to be split into two rooms. While then being allowed to share air
between the two to simulate an approximation of one large room this way
of building simple geometry leads to some differences from how it would
perform in reality, but the main parameters are the volume of the room
and the direction and size of windows.

Velux Visualizer as a calculation tool, there a selected set of material that

is given prede ned values, so the daylight simulation is based on that ma-
terial selection. While there is a lack of the correct material for the context
since it doesn't have the capability for placing water as the material that
surrounds the building, so there's chosen another re ective material but it
doesn't have the same properties water would realistically have for re ec-
tion, transparency and absorption. at then also removes the possibility
to calculate the daylight for the bottom oor since its underwater, so that
part of the housing is designed with windows to be able to look out under-
water but with the primary lighting being arti cial.

124
Ill. 89 - Construction of the essential elements of the bsim model
125
 Ill. 90 - Diffrent window con gurations 1 - Oriented north

Windows - lavE Opening nat. vent. Windows - lavE Opening nat. vent. Windows - LavE Opening nat. vent.
Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 00 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 %
Entrance: 2x1.5 Entrance: 2x1.5 10 % Entrance: 2x1.5
Kitchen: 1x3.5 00 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 Kitchen: 1x4.5 00 %
Living room: 1x3.5 00 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 00 %
Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1

Overheating Overheating Overheating

With the primary amount of windows facing With the addition of natural ventilation to the With widening the windows in the kitch-
north this housing unit is the least susceptible housing unit, lowers it further underneath the en and living room to create a panoramic
to overheating which is also re ected in the limit of 100 hours > 27 degrees and 25 hours > window spanning the facade. While using
numbers of hours above 27 and 28 degrees 28 degrees, with natural ventilation it reduces buoyancy for natural ventilation through the
69 hours > 27 deg and 10 hours > 28 degrees it to 4 hours > 27 degrees roof leading to 59 hours > 27 degrees and 16
hours > above 28 degrees
Daylight Daylight
With a reference plane 90 centimetre above e amount of daylight is the same as in the Daylight
the oor for the calculation model resulting previous iteration with 2.5 % in the entrance 6 e wide windows provide a steady amount of
in 2.5 % in the entrance 6 % daylight in the % daylight in the kitchen and dining area and light within the rooms without dark corners
kitchen and dining area and 5.5 % in the 5.5 % in the living room. integrated with the skylight for natural ven-
living room. tilation and light deep into the rooms, results
in 3% light in the entrance and 6.5% in the
126
kitchen, dining and living room
Ill. 91 - Diffrent window con gurations 2 - Oriented north

Windows Opening nat. vent. Windows Opening nat. vent. Windows Opening nat. vent.
Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6, 2x2 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 %
Entrance: 2x1.5 Entrance: 1x2 Entrance: 2x1.5
Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 %
Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 %
Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1

Overheating Overheating Overheating

e fourth iteration of adding a window to the e h iteration is replacing the roof win- As an iteration on top of the third iteration
side of the roof facing north, using cross ven- dow from the previous, with a roof window were adding natural ventilation to the kitchen
tilation between the wall towards the north above the entrance to allow light in from the and living room window resulting in 21 hours
and the roof window to reduce overheating roof instead of through a glass door. resulting > 27 degrees and 4 hours > 28 degrees
with 38 hours > 27 degrees and 8 hours > 28 in 37 hours > 27 degrees and 8 hours > 28
degrees degrees
Daylight
Daylight Daylight Brings the same amount of daylight as the
With the additional skylight in the living With the addition of a window allowing light third iteration
room, the daylight factor in there goes up to into the entrance instead of having the door
9.4% and the dining room and kitchen go being the source of light there, brings more
up to 6.9%, while the entrance stays at 3% light into that area with 4% while still having
daylight. 6.5% in the kitchen, dining and living room.
127
 Ill. 92 - Diffrent window con gurations 1 - Oriented due west

Windows - lavE Opening nat. vent. Windows - lavE Opening nat. vent. Windows - LavE Opening nat. vent.
Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 00 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 %
Entrance: 2x1.5 Entrance: 2x1.5 10 % Entrance: 2x1.5
Kitchen: 1x3.5 00 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 Kitchen: 1x4.5 00 %
Living room: 1x3.5 00 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 00 %
Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1

Overheating Overheating Overheating

With the primary amount of windows facing With addition of natural ventilation to the With widening the windows in the kitch-
west this housing unit is amongst the most housing unit, lowers it underneath the limit en and living room to create a panoramic
susceptible to overheating which is also re- of 100 hours > 27 degrees and 25 hours > 28 window spanning the facade. While using
ected in the numbers of hours above 27 and degrees, with natural ventilation it reduces it buoyancy for natural ventilation through the
28 degrees with 161 hours > 27 deg and 59 to 14 hours > 27 degrees roof leading to 106 hours > 27 degrees and 43
hours > 28 degrees hours > above 28 degrees
Daylight
Daylight e amount of daylight is the same as in the Daylight
With a reference plane 90 centimetre above previous iteration with 2.5 % in the entrance e wide windows provide a steady amount of
the oor for the calculation model resulting 6 % daylight in the kitchen and dinning area light within the rooms without dark corners
in 2.5 % in the entrance 6 % daylight in the and 5.5 % in the living room. integrated with the skylight for natural ven-
kitchen and dining area and 5.5 % in the tilation and light deep into the rooms, results
living room. in 3% light in the entrance and 6.5% in the
128
kitchen, dining and living room
Ill. 93 - Diffrent window con gurations 2 - Oriented due west

Windows Opening nat. vent. Windows Opening nat. vent. Windows Opening nat. vent.
Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6, 2x2 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 %
Entrance: 2x1.5 Entrance: 1x2 Entrance: 2x1.5
Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 %
Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 %
Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1

Overheating Overheating Overheating

e fourth iteration of adding a window to e h iteration is replacing the roof win- As an iteration on top of the third iteration
the side of the roof facing west, using cross dow from the previous, with a roof window were adding natural ventilation to the kitchen
ventilation between the wall towards the west above the entrance to allow light in from the and living room window resulting in 40 hours
and the roof window to reduce overheating roof instead of through a glass door. resulting > 27 degrees and 10 hours > 28 degrees
with 117 hours > 27 degrees and 40 hours > in 61 hours > 27 degrees and 18 hours > 28
28 degrees degrees Daylight
Brings the same amount of daylight as the
Daylight Daylight third iteration
With the additional skylight in the living With the addition of a window allowing light
room, the daylight factor in there goes up to into the entrance instead of having the door
9.4% and the dining room and kitchen goes being the source of light there, brings more
up to 6.9%, while the entrance stays at 3% light into that area with 4% while still having
daylight. 6.5% in the kitchen, dining and living room.
129
 Ill. 94 - Diffrent window con gurations 1 - Oriented south west 140 deg

Windows - lavE Opening nat. vent. Windows - lavE Opening nat. vent. Windows - LavE Opening nat. vent.
Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 00 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 %
Entrance: 2x1.5 Entrance: 2x1.5 10 % Entrance: 2x1.5
Kitchen: 1x3.5 00 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 Kitchen: 1x4.5 00 %
Living room: 1x3.5 00 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 00 %
Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1

Overheating Overheating Overheating

With the primary amount of windows facing With the addition of natural ventilation to the With widening the windows in the kitch-
south-west this housing unit is amongst the housing unit, lowers it underneath the limit en and living room to create a panoramic
most susceptible to overheating which is also of 100 hours > 27 degrees and 25 hours > 28 window spanning the facade. While using
re ected in the numbers of hours above 27 degrees, with natural ventilation it reduces it buoyancy for natural ventilation through the
and 28 degrees with 101 hours > 27 deg and to 12 hours > 27 degrees roof leading to 59 hours > 27 degrees and 19
31 hours > 28 degrees hours > above 28 degrees
Daylight
Daylight e amount of daylight is the same as in the Daylight
With a reference plane 90 centimetre above previous iteration with 2.5 % in the entrance 6 e wide windows provide a steady amount of
the oor for the calculation model resulting % daylight in the kitchen and dining area and light within the rooms without dark corners
in 2.5 % in the entrance 6 % daylight in the 5.5 % in the living room. integrated with the skylight for natural ven-
kitchen and dining area and 5.5 % in the tilation and light deep into the rooms, results
living room. in 3% light in the entrance and 6.5% in the
130
kitchen, dining and living room
Ill. 95 - Diffrent window con gurations 2 - Oriented south west 140 deg

Windows Opening nat. vent. Windows Opening nat. vent. Windows Opening nat. vent.
Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6, 2x2 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 % Roof: 2x1, 2.5x1.6 10 %
Entrance: 2x1.5 Entrance: 1x2 Entrance: 2x1.5
Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 % Kitchen: 1x4.5 10 %
Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 % Living room: 1x4.5 10 %
Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1 Wintergarden: 2.1x1.6, 1x1

Overheating Overheating Overheating

e fourth iteration of adding a window to e h iteration is replacing the roof win- As an iteration on top of the third iteration,
the side of the roof facing south-west, using dow from the previous, with a roof window were adding natural ventilation to the kitchen
cross ventilation between the wall towards the above the entrance to allow light in from the and living room window resulting in 40 hours
south-west and the roof window to reduce roof instead of through a glass door. resulting > 27 degrees and 10 hours > 28 degrees
overheating with 117 hours > 27 degrees and in 61 hours > 27 degrees and 18 hours > 28
40 hours > 28 degrees degrees Daylight
Brings the same amount of daylight as the
Daylight Daylight third iteration
With the additional skylight in the living With the addition of a window allowing light
room, the daylight factor in there goes up to into the entrance instead of having the door
9.4% and the dining room and kitchen goes being the source of light there, brings more
up to 6.9%, while the entrance stays at 3% light into that area with 4% while still having
daylight. 6.5% in the kitchen, dining and living room.
131
EPILOGUE

132
133
// CONCLUSION
In Limorden off the coast lies a new innovative architecture Towards the water, there a view through the winter garden for
that deals with the coming climate changes by creating a oating part of the panoramic view which allows for access to the water
housing complex that through buoyancy deals with rising water from within the individual resident and includes that as a part of
level – a sustainable building built following the zero energy the housing creating a connection with the water that’s different
standards for housing and gives it a new take on the relation from the bottom oor.
between living and the water. Dealing with increasing water levels due to climate change by
e housing offers a holistic and sustainable way of dealing making the building itself oat works but only to a degree, cause
with climate change in areas exposed to ooding’s whether they even if it the housing doesn’t get ooded if the city to which it
are permanent or recurring in the future. at is done through is connected to would get ooded. When this happens, it could
working with the volume and mass of the building to make it impact the infrastructure connected to the complex, but also
oat at a level so that the door is being safely above water so that the opportunity to utilize the functions that it is dependant on
it never gets ooded. ashore, which could be work, shopping or recreational activity.
For housing, it is desired to work with both environmental and e solution works best for periodical ooding, but since the
social sustainability and nd a balance between the two. In complex is oating its possible to transport it to another city
several cases, the design must prioritise one above the other. that could be further inland or a city at sea where the same or
However, they are both present in the design with an emphasis new residents could then reuse it. e possibility of in principle
on environmental sustainability since the project deals with the recycle the whole building just by moving it without having to
consequences of climate change is valued slightly higher than deconstruct and recycle the materials bring an exciting pros-
social sustainability. pect for the sustainability of the building if maintained in good
Environmental sustainability has through this master thesis condition.
been explored within the aspects of creating a zero energy By applying the strategies mentioned, the scheme of building
building with a primary focus on passive strategies to lower the on water meets the design criteria set forth while creating a
buildings energy consumptions so that the amount of energy zero-energy building that makes for a sustainable alternative
needed to be covered by active strategies is reduced. to living on land without sacri cing modern living standards
e housing units brings the residents close to the water with or losing privacy be people sailing in proximity to the housing
the bottom oor being underwater with a view to the outside complex. By producing a design that introduces safety from
but also the top oor where the entrance leads into the social some climate change into residential functions, it can act as a
space created for the residents to socialise between each other catalyst for the future development of project similar to it or on
and leading the residents onto the mainland and into the city. a scale that would be more similar to a traditional city, by apply-
While the other end of the residents open up towards the water ing some of the principles outlined in this master thesis.
with a panoramic view out but raised above the oor and the
water, so it's not as easy to look in if sailing by in a small boat
while at least sitting down.

134
// REFLECTION
Aquatecture does not t into a de ned typology, but the build- Sustainability has been a critical driving force since even if
ing program is like that of housing complexes built on land but addressing the climate changes by translating to water-based
in a different context. is meant that the aspect of typology architecture that makes oating as a response to the rising water
needed to be explored in the process of coming up with a design levels. at is ongoing the building should not keep adding
for the master thesis along with a concept for how to construct pollution to its environment and worsening the extent of climate
buildings on the water. e relation between the building and change, by continuously polluting the environment the result
water have been rede ned doing the process of the sketching of that is that the building is aimed at a zero-energy building.
where along with the size of the project changed how inde- To fully express the intention of the design and to persuade the
pendent it could be about a city’s infrastructure. is posed a residents and the viewers externally of its potential, to handle
challenge since building a sustainable build that was adapted to climate changes locally while not contributing to it in a broader,
being placed on the water either needed to be independent of more global context. e materiality in a sustainable context
traditional infrastructure. To create a self-sustainable city that should have played a more signi cant role in the project where
could be placed separately from a city or a small project which it’s not chosen for primarily aesthetic aspects while its carbon
could be functioning in connection with a cities infrastructure footprint hasn’t in uenced the choice — but instead assessing
to utilise its functions and infrastructure while being oating on the element of pollution under the materials life cycle from
water. raw material to being disposed of. To make the building itself
While dealing with the issue of climate change and the impact, sustainable instead of only having a sustainable operation of the
this will have on the future on a variable timescale, to cities and building.
the amount that the water level will rise in a particular place While environmental sustainable have been hard to handle as an
alone is a complex issue. at has had to be gured out, and aspect of the project, social sustainability has been more consis-
the prediction for the changes depending on who is asked and tent since the goal and perception of that for a housing complex
on what time scale, one looks at has a lot of variables involved is pretty consistent. With that, there is a need for a social space
in what the impact on the coming climate changes and their that the residents that create interaction with between the peo-
impact on the world. e esis has brushed over climate ple with a volume that gives it an amount of intimacy so that it
change lightly with only looking at a small amount of research doesn’t become so large that it makes it a space that not com-
which has been done into that subject and summarizing the fortable to use. While still providing the residents with privacy
impact that it could have on the globe. But Even with the limited while they are within their residents, e addition of a winter
research into the topic, it seems the consensus for the future is garden that serves as a private garden to the residents and gives
that most coastal cities will come under some degree of threat them access to the water from their residents gives them the
and that it is therefore needed to be acted upon not to be over- possibility to use the water as a part of their residents.
whelmed by the consequences of climate change.

135
 With sustainability has been a key driver in the project, contin-
ually needing choosing, to determine what’s the most important
within the de nition of sustainability, which is de ned in this
master thesis. To determine what is most important for a specif-
ic design issue, be it ventilation, glass area, daylight, volume or
the materials used.

As the constant evaluations between architectural and technical

considerations throughout the projects, which at times posed
huge challenges, when including the two aspects into making
a holistic building that’s both comfortable and brings quality
to the residents living there. When looking at the decisions
that stem from technical and architectural considerations, it
seems only to have enhanced the project by drawing from the
strengths of both those aspects, within choices, iterations and
modi cations, under the design process and synthesis towards
the design that is presented in the master thesis.
With the project having been drawn primarily digitally with the
only analogue tool in the design process has been sketching by
hand. e media of modelling have been le out; it is hard to
anticipate the impact it would have had on the project, if this
media had been used heavily within the design process, instead
of substituting it with live rendering. While live rendering also
gives a sense of how things are when you can interact with the
building there are is an aspect of seeing everything through a
screen that loses part of the information compared to sitting
down with a model. e process of working with models instead
of solely digital modelling could as an example have helped get
the project into a direction faster without spending an extended
amount of time on testing out which scale and independents
it should have from mainland infrastructure. To have a built
environment that adds to the way humans live in a world where
climate changes are seemingly escalating.

136
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Bygnings relglementet 2018, Dagslys, Viewed 18 May 2019, <http://bygningsreglementet.dk/Tekniske-bestemmelser/18/

Krav/379_381>

Steemers, K. (2015). 'Architecture for Well-being and Health', Daylight & Architecture, 23 (July), 1-22

Stoewen D. L. (2016). Wellness at work: Building healthy workplaces. e Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire cana-
dienne, 57(11), 1188-1190.

Danskernes sundhed, physical activity <Viewed 10 February 2019> http://danskernessundhed.dk/

Wework, Office environment <Viewed 15 February> https://www.wework.com/mission

Bejder, A., Knudstrup, M-A., Jensen, R. And Katic, I. (2014). Zero Energy Buildings - Design principles and Built examples for De-
tached houses. Denmark: SBI forlag.

Ir. Karina C, Ir. Bart R, Arch. Barbara Z and Dr Ir. Rutger G. (2013) Seasteading Implementation Plan. DeltaSync BV.

Pallasmaa, H. (2012). e eyes of the skin. Chichester: Wiley Academy.

Kongebro, S. (2012). Design med viden. Copenhagen: Henning Larsen Architects, pp.14-17.

Edwards, B., 2010. Rough Guide to Sustainability. London: RIBA Publishing

Yiachel, O., Hedgcock, D., 1993 Urban social Sustainability: e planning of an Australian city. Cities, 10(2), p. 140

Kibert, C.J., 2016. Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons

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steel project. Journal of cleaner production 108(12), pp. 748-756

Knudstrup, M.-A., 2004. Integrated Design Process in Broblem-Based Learning. In e Aalborg PBL Model: Progress, Diversity and
Challenges. Aalborg University press

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 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: e 2017
Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables. Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP/248.

USGCRP, 2017: Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I [Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A.
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138
// ILLUSTRATIONS
Ill. 1 - Rendering - not ooded 1 12
Ill. 4 - Rendering - ooded 1 12
Ill. 3 - Rendering - not ooded 2 12
Ill. 2 - Rendering - ooded 2 12
Ill. 5 - Diagram - of rising water levels 13
Ill. 6 - Diagram - Overhangs 16
Ill. 7 - Diagram - ermal mass 16
Ill. 8 - Diagram -Co2 17
Ill. 10 - Diagram - Visual comfort 17
Ill. 9 - Diagram - ermometer 17
Ill. 11 - Diagram - direct solar radiation 18
Ill. 12 - Diagram - External solar shading 18
Ill. 13 - Diagram -Ground heating 19
Ill. 14 - Diagram - Solar energy photovoltics 19
Ill. 15 - Diagram - Solar heating 19
Ill. 16 - Diagram - Integrated design process in combination with integrated energy design 21
Ill. 17 - Diagram - Integrated energy design 23
Ill. 18 - Photo of the Crystal in London - which hosts Exhibition on the future of cities 25
Ill. 19 - Diagram - Size and dependentcy 29
Ill. 20 - Maslow's hierarchy of needs 31
Ill. 21 - Diagram - Diffrent office layouts 33
Ill. 22 - Photo of wood workshop 35
Ill. 24 - Photo of Fitness 35
Ill. 23 - Photo of art worksshop 35
Ill. 25 - Photo of yoga 35
Ill. 26 - Input and output from buildings 37
Ill. 27 - Sustainable sources to providing electricity 39
Ill. 28 - Sources for providing cooling and heating 41
Ill. 29 - Providing clean water 43
Ill. 30 - Supplying food 45
Ill. 31 - Handeling waste product from buildings 47
Ill. 32 - Tugboat towing the buildings 49
Ill. 33 - Simisubmerged boat perparing to transport the building 49
Ill. 34 - Selfpropelled building allways ready for transport 49
Ill. 35 - Diagram site location 55
Ill. 36 - Photo of the site 1 56
Ill. 37 - Photo of the site 2 57 139
 Ill. 38 - Sun diagram 59
Ill. 39 - Diagram - Annual wind on the site 61
Ill. 40 - Room program 62
Ill. 41 - Design parameters 69
Ill. 42 - Masterplan, 1:300 71
Ill. 43 - Concept diagram 73
Ill. 44 - Facade South, 1:200 74
Ill. 45 - Facade North, 1:200 75
Ill. 46 - Facade West, 1:200 76
Ill. 47 - Facade East, 1:200 77
Ill. 48 - Section A, 1:100 78
Ill. 49 - Section B, 1:100 80
Ill. 50 - Ground Floor Plan , 1:200 82
Ill. 51 - Basement Plan , 1:200 83
Ill. 52 - Rendering - Internal courtyard 85
Ill. 53 - Rendering - Winter garden 86
Ill. 54 - Ground oor plan single unit 87
Ill. 55 - Rendering - Bedroom 88
Ill. 56 - Basement plan single unit 89
Ill. 57 - Rendering - Approach from land 91
Ill. 58 - Rendering - Approach the water 93
Ill. 59 - Active and passive strategies 94
Ill. 60 - Rendering - Multiple complexes in city context 95
Ill. 63 - Material - Board formed concrete - Courtesy © Arroway Textures 98
Ill. 62 - Material - Board formed concrete partly through the patina process 98
Ill. 61 - Material - Board formed concrete further through the patina process - Courtesy © Arroway Textures 98
Ill. 64 - Material - Cedar wood 99
Ill. 65 - Material - Cedar wood partly through patina process 99
Ill. 66 - Material - Cedar wood Finished the patina process 99
Ill. 67 - 1:10 Detail drawing wall, skylight and solar pvs 100
Ill. 68 - 1:10 Detail wall, window and oor 101
Ill. 69 - Diagram - relation to the water 104
Ill. 70 - Plans of diffrent concept soutions 105
Ill. 71 - Sections of diffrent roo ng soutions 106
Ill. 72 - Plan and section of early mixed use concept 107
Ill. 73 - Diffrent project scales 108
Ill. 74 - Plans - Diffrent city scale concepts 109

140
Ill. 75 - Section - City scale concept 110
Ill. 76 - Plan - City scale concept 111
Ill. 77 - Rendering - Mixeduse Building 112
Ill. 78 - Rendering - Diffrent Housing complexes 113
Ill. 79 - Rendering - Diffrent relation to water 114
Ill. 80 - Sketching of plan solutions 115
Ill. 81 - Rendering - group of housing complexes 116
Ill. 82 - Rendering - Housing complex 117
Ill. 83 - Rendering - Sketching relation to water 1 118
Ill. 84 - Rendering - Sketching relation to water 2 118
Ill. 85 - Rendering - Sketching relation to water 3 118
Ill. 86 - Rendering - Sketching relation to water 4 119
Ill. 87 - Rendering - Relation to water 1 120
Ill. 88 - Rendering - Relation to water 2 121
Ill. 89 - Construction of the essential elements of the bsim model 125
Ill. 90 - Diffrent window con gurations 1 - Oriented north 126
Ill. 91 - Diffrent window con gurations 2 - Oriented north 127
Ill. 92 - Diffrent window con gurations 1 - Oriented due west 128
Ill. 93 - Diffrent window con gurations 2 - Oriented due west 129
Ill. 94 - Diffrent window con gurations 1 - Oriented south west 140 deg 130
Ill. 95 - Diffrent window con gurations 2 - Oriented south west 140 deg 131
Ill. 96 - Bsim For the nal model orientated due west 144
Ill. 97 - Bsim For the nal model orientated 140 degrees south-west 145
Ill. 98 - Bsim For the nal model orientated due north 146
Ill. 99 - BE15 result for the nal product including solar PVs 147
Ill. 100 - BE15 result for the nal product excluding solar PVs 148
Ill. 101 - Daylight for Window con guration 3-6 149
Ill. 102 - Daylight for Window con guration 1-2 150
Ill. 103 - Daylight for Window con guration 5 151
Ill. 104 - Daylight for Window con guration 4 152
Ill. 106 - Window con guration 1 153
Ill. 110 - Window con guration 4 153
Ill. 105 - Window con guration 2 153
Ill. 109 - Window con guration 5 153
Ill. 107 - Window con guration 3 153
Ill. 108 - Window con guration 6 - Final con guration 153
Ill. 111 - Ventilation Amount hand calculation 154
Ill. 112 - Percipitation 155
Ill. 113 - Mechanical ventilation top oor 156
141
Ill. 114 - Mechanical ventilation bottom oor 157
APPENDIX

142
143
// BSIM

Ill. 96 - Bsim For the nal model orientated due west

144
Ill. 97 - Bsim For the nal model orientated 140 degrees south-west

145
 Ill. 98 - Bsim For the nal model orientated due north

146
// BE15 WITH SOLAR PVS

Ill. 99 - BE15 result for the nal product including solar PVs

147
// BE15 WITHOUT SOLAR PVS

Ill. 100 - BE15 result for the nal product excluding solar PVs
148
// DAYLIGHT

Ill. 101 - Daylight for Window con guration 3-6

149
// DAYLIGHT PROCESS

Ill. 102 - Daylight for Window con guration 1-2

150
Ill. 103 - Daylight for Window con guration 5

151
 Ill. 104 - Daylight for Window con guration 4

152
// WINDOW CONFIGURATIONS

Ill. 106 - Window con guration 1 Ill. 105 - Window con guration 2 Ill. 107 - Window con guration 3

Ill. 110 - Window con guration 4 Ill. 109 - Window con guration 5 Ill. 108 - Window con guration 6 - Final con guration

153
// VENTILATION HANDCALCULATION

Ill. 111 - Ventilation Amount hand calculation

154
// PERCIPITATION

e presented data for precipitation for Aalborg is the data presented by

DMI, which was collected for 2018.
In itself doesn’t pose a problem on the site, since it can easily be lead away
from the roof and the outdoor areas and into the ord. To get an idea of
the precipitation across a year weather data for 2018 has been looked at
to get the idea of the rain across the year to then later be compared to
the amount of water used by each resident. is is done to determine the
amount of area and storage of fresh water there need to be on the site to
supply the site’s resident with water without running out. e year 2018
was chosen since it was a year with a rough period with limited rain, to
be prepared for bad scenarios that could in uence the site in the future so
that it is not needed to have the ability to convert seawater to freshwater by
installing a desalination device. So since there is not a fresh water supply
from the outside, there needs to be a large storage unit with the possibility
to let out water to the ocean to compensate between periods with large
amounts of water and periods of dry weather.

Ill. 112 - Percipitation 155

// MECHANICAL VENTILATION

156 Ill. 113 - Mechanical ventilation top oor

Ill. 114 - Mechanical ventilation bottom oor 157