PATRICIA LEO

No. 10038556

Hauer-King House, Islington Construction & Material AD 1003N Module Leader: Chi Roberts

Contents
1. Intro & some sketches 2. Introduction & Location 3. Earlier Inspirations 4. Plans 1:200 - First Floor - Ground Floor - Second Floor - Third Floor 5. Sections & Elevations 6. How does the building stand up? 7. Glass Faade 8. Isometric Drawing 9. Materials used on the construction (Glass, Steel & Aluminum) 10. Staircases 11. Entrance ramp 12. Structure Plan Details 13. Faade & Structure Plan Details 14. Critical Appraisal 15. Bibliography

It is said that lives of expatriates always bear the scars of deracination. If the expatriate is an architect, then this deracination must also show in his or her designs. Martin Pawley

Rough sketches of the Hauer-King House

Introduction
Hauer-King house (also called Project 180) London, 1994 Architect: Future Systems (Jan Kaplicky, Amanda Levete & Lindy Atkin) The single family glasshouse was built for married couple English Restaurateur Jeremy King and his American wife, television producer Debra Hauer. Planning started in 1991; Building permits, rejection by realtors, a growing family, many projects In the making, Thousands of hours and nearly 100 detailed drawings made by the architects to ensure that everything fitted together with extraordinary precision, made this house one of the most heavily documented structures of its size in existence. Front View of the Hauer-King House The house has 2 brick skins on each side and the inside consists of 215 square meters of living space supported by a steel structural frame, divided between 4 decks which Reduce in size towards the top.

AutoCAD Rear View Elevation Rendering

Location
The site is small, narrow and leafy in a conservation area in Cannonbury. Though unconventional in shape, and surrounded by conventional 19th century town houses and council estates, the Hauer-King House, In Islington, North London, seems to have been in place for years. In part because the site itself stretches through from one street at the front to another one at the back at an oblique angle, making it possible to enter from both sides. Overhanging trees reinforce the structure and although they are not part of the building, they are certainly part of the design, for they could not be cut down or moved.

Location Plan

Earlier Inspirations
Before Project 180 could be completed, 4 different drafts came to the table, 2 belonged to the clients and the other 2 belonged to the architects: The 1st one was the design that had originally received permission for the site. Everything had been listed, from the pub next door to the railings by the canal and even the trees. The 2nd was a very similar house with similar shape in Camden, designed as a family home by Architect John Townsend in 1977. A 3 story house that resembles the Future Systems house designed 17 years later. It is only internally, in its method of construction, its materials, its section and plan, that this house reveals important differences. It is frameless and it slopes less steeply. Also the staircases are much different than Project 180.

Original plan

John Townsends design in Camden

Sedwick House, Futures System other only permanent building that they had built. A small, low budget project that resembled to the structure of Project 180. 2 long-span front to back cable-stiffened tubular steel trusses that divide its width into three shorter spans and a long glass wall at the front entrance.

Another very early source of inspiration was one of Jan Kapicklys 1972 design for a summer house on the Ile de Cavallo, showing all the elements of later cross wall construction.

Sedwick House by Future Systems

Jan Kapicklys early sketch

Plans 1:200 First Floor

Plans:
1. Entrance Ramp 2. Front Garden 3. Entrance Lobby 4. Living Room 5. Kitchen 6. Dinning Room 7. Rear Garden 8. Enameled Screen 9. Spare Room 10. Utility Room 11. Coat Cupboard 12. Bar/ Storage 13. Bathroom 14. WC

Ground Floor

Plans 1:200 Third Floor

Plans:
15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Master Bedroom Master Bathroom Childrens Bedroom Childrens Bathroom Landing

Second Floor

Longitudinal Section:
1. Entrance Ramp 2. Front Garden 3. Entrance Lobby 4. Living Room 5. Kitchen 6. Dinning Room 7. Utility Room 8. Rear Garden 9. Master Bedroom 10. Childrens Bedroom

Entrance Elevation and Sections:

Front Entrance

2 different sections of the whole Building

How does the building stand up?

The building has a composite structure of steel frame, aluminum and a glass faade all around the building. Brick walls support both sides. The modern-ness of the house starts underground. There are unsupportive mixture of clay, desiccated clay, established tree roots and a landfill dictated expensive pilled foundations. In order to support the 4 story house it was necessary to drill holes for twenty 200mm diameter piles linked by ground beams. Particular care was taken to preserve all the trees on the site resulting in small piled foundations in order to avoid damaging any tree roots. The design of the house takes advantage of the shading and privacy provided by the surrounding listed trees, creating an almost entirely glass enclosure. Then a concrete ground floor slab and an integral retaining wall on the north side, necessary because the sloping site places the lowest floor level nearly two meters below ground at that point. Above the foundation level the house is steel framed, with 3 floors carried on tapered steel beams that span rigidly across the whole six meter distance between walls. The floors themselves are in situ concrete, cast on permanent steel decking, tapered upwards on each side to increase the apparent height. All of the structural engineering was carried out by YRM Anthony Hunt. Inside, tiny Thai white ceramic tile is used throughout as a floor finish and is continued over the external terrace to break down the inside and outside, from the kitchen to the garden.

Steel framed structure

Aluminum Steel Frame

Rectangular Steel work

Early stages of Steel Frame montage

Glass Faade
Over the Floor slabs of the Hauer-King House, the great sloping glass roof arises. Twenty-two huge panels of advanced-technology, thermally efficient double-glazing, silicone-sealed together into a great sweep of transparency perforated by six electrically powered opening lights. The roof is leaking, condensation and overheating proof. The glass envelope stepping over the highest point of the Roof is carried by fingers from a central spine beam. The glass skin that surround s the whole building, forms a roof in the conventional sense only where the ten highest panels are made opaque by internal insulation covered with acoustic fabric. Everywhere else it could give its occupant not so much an unimpeded view of the outside world, as the impression of actually living in the air. Like sitting on the clouds if you will. The division between the two transparent planes is marked by a heavy fascia. Neither of the garden walls on each side takes up the slope of the roof, in fact it seems like they were carefully designed there to support it.

Fingers carrying the roof Overhanging weeping ash is as much part of the house and the structure

Model showing slopping glass roof in relation to the existing trees

Isometric Drawing
This drawing shows the true transparency of the house. The weight of the internal floor slab is invisible, carried down to pilling's by a steel frame hidden in the side walls.

Isometric Plan Drawing

Materials used on the construction

Steel
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-Beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The development of this technique made the construction of the skyscraper possible. Beams of steel are joined together by welding or bolting.

Glass
Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline) solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent. Glass is arguably the most remarkable material ever discovered. Made of about 75% silica (quartz sand) and several minor additives, specially in commercial glass production. Glass was used in The Hauer-King House to allow light to enter into rooms and floors, illuminating enclosed spaces and used as a material for external cladding. It also gives it a much modern look. All of the glass in the house was brought in from the factory. Quartz sand

Steel Framed Building

Steel Beams Glass carry truck

Aluminum
Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust, and the third most abundant element, after oxygen and silicon. Aluminum is too reactive chemically to occur in nature as a free metal. Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals. In construction, Aluminum is remarkable for the metal's low density and its ability to resist corrosion or rust. It is also very strong and durable. Unlike steel, aluminum can be complicated due to its sensitivity to heat and the fact that it would melt without first glowing red. Aluminum is widely used in construction, decoration and industry. All of the stairs inside the Hauer-King house are made out of aluminum.

Glass Panels over rear view

Aluminum Bars Lateral Aluminum staircase from the 1st floor landing

Staircases
All of the staircases inside the house are of the same design. They are all aluminum, as are the extruded aluminum sections inside the glass block front wall. Their tubular aluminum handrails are supported by cantilevered treads, and the treads in turn are carried by the elliptical-section extruded aluminum beams. Safety cords are tensionable white plaited nylon sash. The arrangement of the stairs makes it possible to use the side walls of the entrance as bookcases and shelves.

Photos showing detail on the stairs

Wood Model displaying detail work of the stairs

Working drawing of the stair linking Level 1 with Level 2 and the balcony balustrading at Level 2.

Entrance Ramp
The structural steelwork supporting the floating floors of Project 180 terminates on the east and west sides in a specially fabricated triangular steel section that follows the segmented outline of the roof profile and provides an outer edge fixing for the glass cladding panels. On the North side of the house the steel frame meets the transverse space that forms the entrance hall, the stairwell and the fire lobby of the house. This tall space arises clear from the 1st floor level to the roof, with projecting steel beams supporting 2nd and 3rd floor landings and the two intervening flights of stairs. Because of one the overhanging large tree, the outline of the steep 50 degree ramp of glass on the garden side is almost completely obscured. The effect between the trees and the ramps are concealed by the genealogy of the house as well as its outline.

Ramp Details 1. 6 mm Aluminum plate 2. 20 mm aluminum decking 3. 50 mm stainless steel tube 4. 114 mm stainless steel tube 5. 88 mm stainless steel tube 6. 50 x 15 stainless steel flat section 7. 6 mm white plaited nylon cord 8. 50 mm stainless steel tube 9. 6 mm stainless steel plate 10. Concrete pads

Ramp detailed drawings

Structure plan details

Wall to Glazing Plan details:
1. Stainless Steel capping 2. Rainwater pipe 3. 300 x 300 mm glass blocks 4. Insulation 5. Brickwork 6. Insulation 7. Blockwork 8. Mild steel continuous edge section 9. Aluminum floor channel 10. Heating pipe 11. Radiator 12. Sliding doors 13. Radiator cover

Glazing and Roof cladding details:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Continuous extruded aluminum section Stainless steel supporting arm Double glazing panel Stainless steel button fixing 12 mm glass Insulation 12 mm plywood Pvc and foam rubber acoustic lining

Faade & Structure plan detail

Glazing details:
1. Glazing 2. Stainless Steel button fixing 3. Continuous extruded aluminum section 4. Spine and Horizontal bracing junction 5. Sliding Doors to garden 6. Radiator floor recess 7. Anodized aluminum grille 8. Drainage recess 9. 18 mm diameter ceramic tiles 10. Decking and concrete slab floor 11. Main steel structure 12. Plaster ceiling 13. Aluminum frame to vent 14. Frameless glazed opening vent 15. Stainless steel gutter section 16. Glass blocks 17. Anodized aluminum plate stiffener 18. Vapor barrier

Diagrams showing detail

Critical Appraisal
Living inside this house you find a lot of Pros and cons. The idea of living inside this whole envelope is designed to battle with considerable and opposing natural forces. The tremendous South facing area of glass not only represents a problem of heat gain, but the shading effect of the overhanging trees worsens it by also making it necessary to maximize daytime lightening in order to keep the deep-plan lower floors adequately lit. This conflict was resolved in numerous ways: - By the use of low-emission coated glass to modulate heat loss. - By the use of full-width motorized white blinds for reflectivity - Through the provision of motorized frameless opening lights. At the beginning, the excess heat was disposed of by directing it up the inside of the glass cladding to vent out through the opening lights at the top of the house. Using these lights, Breeze can be generated by cross ventilation from north to south or up and down. Glass is one of the easiest materials to recycle and is economically viable. Because the glass walls are pretty thick, not only does it keep the noise away giving the house noise proof protection but it also gives the house a sense of privacy, comfort and enclosed protection. The Hauer-King house, like a time machine, has extended the life of modern Architecture forward into another century. Using simple materials, its achieved to reconnect the old tired British Architecture with the new world of modernism and futurism. The Pros of working with stainless steel aluminum and steel beams are that is very strong and rigid material and also Maintenance-free metal alloy. The only cons of living in this house is that because is all glass, the habitants lose a bit of privacy both from the outside as from the inside towards the others that live inside the house. If there was more walls inside the house, the problem Could be solved, although it wouldnt as aesthetical for the house. Also going up and down those stairs all day long could be pretty exhausting. Lifts could have been designed to make it easier for the people inside.

Entrance view While both steel structures and reinforced concrete cement (R.C.C) structures have their pros and cons, the steel structures have better strength-to-weight ratios than RCC and can be easily dismantled. Steel structures, which have bolted connections, can also be reused to some extent after dismantling.

Steel Beams & Aluminum Beams

Bibliography
Hauer-King House, Future Systems ,1994. Martin Pawley Architects Pocket Book, 2009. Baden-Poweel, Hetreed, Ross Grid Systems, 1998. Kimberly Elam Hauer-King House. VHS Video Documentary A whole house with a view, 1994. The Independent The lightness of being, 1994. The Observer www.google.co.uk en.wikipedia.org www.aluminum-profiles.com www.steelbuildingss.com