Where there was once decomposed organic matter, now there is art, sports and leisure. It is the conversion of a sewage treatment plant into a multidisciplinary center.
After being built nearly two decades ago in Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, this place never really worked and saw its contents come into a rapid estate of decomposition. Years later, local authorities called for new meanings for the place, making it a great challenge.
Awards: Honourable Mention at the VII Biennal of Jalisco Architecture 2013
Cliente: Tlajomulco de Zuñiga City Government, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, Alberto Uribe Camacho, Ismael del Toro Castro
Project: 2011
Completion: 2013
Author: Agraz Arquitectos S.C., Ricardo Agraz
Collaborators: Erick Martínez, Miguel Sánchez, Juan Antonio Jaime, Brenda Barron, Blanca Moreno, Gabriela Villarreal, Javier Gutiérrez, Gabriel Gómez, Humberto Dueñas, Marc Fernández, Fernanda Palma, Israel Picos, Javier H. Aguirre, Leticia Macias.
Construction: Tlajomulco Public Works Office, Hugo Luna Vázquez – Strategic Project Coordinator, David Miguel Zamora Bueno – Minister of Public Works , Public bidding, Gama Constructores y Asociados S.A. de C.V. – Francisco Javier Peregrina Barajas.
Art Direction: Francisco Morales Dufour, Adrián Guerrero
The intention is to occupy anthropized contexts, where the green is extremely controlled or even absent, to make ready an infrastructure able to sew up again different economies (in a classical way) in a single system: a connection between flora, fauna and the urban landscape, in its different characters, physical and psychological. This project collects many aspects: it is a system, an ecology, a roof, a place.
Located on the Seine river front, close to a key metropolitan route (the Francilienne), évry water depuration plant is a major infrastructural element, whose stakes are environmental, technical, urban and symbolic. The first plant was built in the 70s and the aim of this renovation is to increase and optimize its capacity. The urban dimension of the equipment has guided us towards a strategy of opening-up and hospitality. Previously rejected and hidden, this infrastructure is now relocated on the urban scene, so to have a public role, and to reach a symbolic level. Regularly open to visitors, this equipment will become a landmark and a thematic park on the theme of water filtering. The formal strategy consists of a main axis along the river, along which gardens, new buildings and tanks are located. Buildings will be renovated and their façades completely redesigned as urban scale filters.
While most sewage treatment plants are invisible to their communities and separated by a chain link fence, the LOTT Clean Water Alliance Regional Service Center is a visible and active participant in the public life of Washington’s capital city. The LOTT Clean Water Alliance provides Class A reclaimed water and emphasizes water conservation through a strong community outreach program, in addition to providing wastewater treatment services to 85,000 people in four local communities. The new facility, located on the site of its existing Budd Inlet Treatment Plant, brings all management and staff together in one location. The facility includes three major elements:
When Vale, the world’s second largest mining company, planned a $2.6 billion copper plant in northern Brazil, it contracted SEI Engenharia, a design and construction firm based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to perform front-end loading (FEL) and deliver detailed 3D models. The new mine, which is expected to have a life of 24 years, will produce 16 million tons per annum of run-of-mine with an average annual production of 340,000 tons of copper concentrate. Once in production, it will help address the deficit of copper production in the Brazilian domestic market.
One of the challenges of this project was to prepare the basic engineering (i.e., the FEL 3) as 3D models. Vale wanted to use the 3D models to advance the study of key concepts prior to their integration into the detailed design plan, as well as give plant operations staff the opportunity to provide early input during the detailed design phase. At the same time, the models would accelerate project execution by shortening design review sessions and approval processes.
Image Courtesy SEI Engenharia
“From the beginning of the project we also needed to work with plant operations information to improve planning, including the use of schedule simulation in Bentley Navigator, to plan and save resources,” explained Rafael de Santiago Silva, CAD manager at SEI Engenharia.
As a long-term user of Bentley software, SEI Engenharia engaged Bentley Institute to train a multidisciplinary design team of engineers to use MicroStation, Bentley Architecture, Structural Modeler, InRoads, and Bentley Navigator to model infrastructure, concrete structures, steel structures, substations, and industrial installations in 3D.
Image Courtesy SEI Engenharia
Using these tools, SEI Engenharia’s design team developed several simulated 3D plant layouts, including options showing different internal and external access roads; these layouts helped Vale identify the optimal plant layout design that required the least enterprise investment; for example, they could quickly compare the environment, cost, and construction times associated with various plans. The result was the production of an initial mine layout followed by a master plan – mapped out in 3D–complete with a timetable for execution.
Streamlining Collaboration and Review Cycles
Using Bentley Architecture, Structural Modeler, andMicroStation, SEI Engenharia developed 3D models quickly and efficiently and published them via i-models. These i-models, which are containers for exchanging precision 2D and 3D engineering information, gave Vale direct access to the underlying design data down to individual component details with complete accuracy. Vale had two ways to view i-models using Bentley Navigator or downloading them through FTP into Bentley View for deeper analysis.
Image Courtesy SEI Engenharia
“Replacing the usual design drawings with i-models as the project ‘deliverables’ was a breakthrough in the relationship with the client. For example, everyone could analyze designs to any level of detail and send and receive comments electronically.” i-models also accelerated client review cycles. “The design review sessions grew shorter since everyone had made comments directly in the i-model. This accelerated the approval of the project,” said Santiago Silva. Because safety and operational engineers could review the 3D models during audit review meetings, the final design was also safer; for example, using Bentley Navigator, they could review these models in detail, redline them, and check for inconsistencies throughout the design process.
Image Courtesy SEI Engenharia
Bentley software enabled SEI Engenharia to develop detailed 3D models and facilitate a streamlined collaboration process, ensuring that Vale ended up with an optimal, detailed, and safer plant design–on time and within budget. The integrated workflow enabled by the software also saved SEI Engenharia approximately 5,100 man-hours and reduced FEL costs for the customer by US$400,000. And by using i-models as their main deliverable type, they completed the project with 80 percent fewer large-scale drawings created using plotters–a real cost saver.
In addition to significantly shortening the time spent on design engineering, using Bentley software and i-models increased the quality and accuracy of designs. And because the team had a single, integrated model providing 3D visualization of the entire project, SEI Engenharia was able to reduce construction time, save on labor and rework costs, and minimize the need to create costly printed documentation. Most importantly, the increased accuracy and improved review cycle meant time and cost savings were achieved while increasing construction and plant operational safety.
Image Courtesy SEI Engenharia
Developed by Bentley, i-models (containers for open infrastructure information exchange), enable the precision sharing of engineering data without loss of accuracy. Bentley i-models are information rich, including 2D and 3D geometry, from lines and arcs to surfaces, solids, and meshes. i-models also contain business properties and data, provenance(knowledge of its origin and evolution–essentially its i-model change history), the state of the information when the i-model was published, and the purpose for which it was created. Lastly, Bentley i-models store information reliably, using digital rights management to secure access and reuse permissions, and digital signatures to validate and verify an i-model’s status.
Article source: Mekano Studio
Design will save the world
We are running out of Time to save our planet, our sources of Energy are nearly depleted, Global Warming problem is the most threat that can destroy the whole planet, The Climate is deeply Affected by the fossil fuels. Unfortunately, Human been are the cause of all those problems and we who should solve all of those for a better future to the upcoming generation.
Layers Of Dubai
Architects: Mekano Studio
Project: Layers of Dubai
Location:Dubai, UAE
Type: Competition (honorable mention)
Client: studied impact (land art generator initiative)
The restoration and preservation of the Ford Assembly Building on the San Francisco Bay waterfront, saved an historic architectural icon from the wrecking ball, and converted a long-vacant auto plant into a current-day model of urban revitalization and sustainability. The 525,000 square foot building had been designed by Albert Kahn for Henry Ford, and constructed in 1931. Following the facility’s initial car factory function, the Ford Building had many incarnations, including the famous World War II tank factory “manned” by Rosie-the-Riveters. In 1989, the Loma Prieta Earthquake’s devastation of the structure rendered it dangerous and unusable. Finding a way to revive the magnificent but crumbling 500,000 square foot industrial hulk was challenging; multiple attempts had failed to create a financially viable way to adaptively reuse the building, while adhering to the preservation standards of the National Park Service and the State of California Historic Preservation Office’s (SHPO). Fortunately the most recent attempt took, as the current owner, who acquired the property in 2004, and his architect found the successful path to rejuvenation of the building substantially completed in 2009.
Tower of Power features 600 rotors that together produce 6 MW. Tower of Power is not just a symbol of good intentions; it actually produces green energy. Instead of being yet another ‘empty’ icon it actually is a usable object: next to its required functionality as sightseeing tower and telecommunication base it is an environmentally friendly Power Plant.
What is long-lasting and what is recycle friendly was one of the key questions, the architects were able to follow in the project for a metal recycle plant, where they first accumulate and then separate different waste metals and prepare them for reuse. The project consists of an immense production plateau and two small buildings on the edge of it.