Sun wind water earth life living; legends for design
Contents clickable at > Publications 2007
INTRODUCTIONexercises .xls
1SUN, ENERGY AND PLANTSexercises.xls
1.1ENERGY
1.2TEMPERATURE AND HISTORY
1.3SUN, LIGHT AND SHADOW
1.4PLANTING BY MAN
2WIND, SOUNDAND NOISEexercises .xls
2.1GLOBAL ATMOSPHERE
2.2NATIONAL CHOICE OF LOCATION
2.3REGIONAL CHOICE OF LOCATION
2.4LOCAL MEASURES
2.5DISTRICT AND NEIGHBOURHOOD VARIANTS
2.6ALLOTMENT OF HECTARES
2.7SOUND AND NOISE
3WATER, NETWORKS AND CROSSINGSexercises .xls
3.1WATER BALANCE
3.2CIVIL ENGINEERING IN THE NETHERLANDS
3.3WATER BOARDS IN HOLLAND
3.4WATER MANAGEMENT IN SPATIAL DESIGN
3.5THE SECOND NETWORK: ROADSexercises.xls
3.6OTHER NETWORKS: CABLES AND DUCTS
4EARTH, SOIL POLLUTION AND SITE PREPARATIONexercises .xls
4.1INTRODUCTION
4.2KILOMETRES: GEOMORPHOLOGIC LANDSCAPES
4.3METRES
4.4MILLIMETRES
4.5MICROMETRES
4.6SOIL POLLUTION
4.7PREPARING A SITE FOR DEVELOPMENT
5LIFE, ECOLOGY AND NATUREexercises .xls
5.1NATURAL HISTORY
5.2DIVERSITY, SCALE AND DISPERSION
5.3ECOLOGIES
5.4VALUING NATURE
5.5MANAGING NATURE
6LIVING, HUMAN DENSITY AND ENVIRONMENTexercises .xls
6.1ADAPTATION AND ACCOMMODATION
6.2HABITAT
6.3DENSITY
6.4ECONOMY
6.5ENVIRONMENT
7LEGENDS FOR DESIGNexercises .xls
7.1MAPPING
7.2CHILD PERCEPTION
7.3COMPOSITION ANALYSIS
7.4LEGENDS
7.5SCALES OF SEPARATION
7.6BOUNDARIES OF IMAGINATION
ENCLOSURES
enclosure 1 the taxonomy of dutch plant families
enclosure 2 ranking support of facilities the netherlands 2000
enclosure 3 tables taken from the statistical yearbook 2001
enclosure 4 VNG table 1 environmental impact business types in metres
enclosure 5 VNG table 2 environmental impact installation types in metres
QUESTIONS
COLOFON
Introductionexercises .xls
‘Building is cooperating with the Earth.’
Marguerite Yourcenar.
Motivation
Activating senses
Sun, wind, water, earth and life touch our living senses immediately, always, everywhere and without any intervention of reason. They simply are there in their unmatched variety, moving us, our moods, memories, imaginations, intentions and plans.
Mathematics next to senses
However, the designer transforming sun into light, air into space and water into life, touches pure mathematics next to senses. Mathematicians left alone destroy mathematics releasing it from senses, losing their unmatched beauty and relief, losing their sense for design. To restore that intimate relation, the most freeing part of our European cultural heritage my great examples are Feynman’s lectures on physics, D’Arcy Thomson’s ‘On Growth and Form’ and Minnaert’s ‘Natuurkunde van het vrije veld’ (‘Outdoor physics’). Minnaert elaborated the missing step from feeling to estimating.
I am sitting in the sun. How much energy do I receive, how much I send back into universe?
I am walking in wind. How much pressure do I receive and how much power my muscles have to overcome? It is the same pressure giving form to the sand I walk on or giving form and movement to the birds above me! I am swimming in the oldest landscape of all ages, the sea. How can I survive?
Re-constructing behaviours
No longer can I escape from reasoning, from looking for a formula, a behaviour that works. But this reasoning is next to senses and once I found a formula I can leave the reasoning behind going back into senses and sense. The formula takes its own path in my Excel sheet as a living thing. It ‘behaves’. Look! Does it take the same path as the sun, predicting my shadow? Put a pencil and a ruler in the sun. Measure, compare, lose or win your competition with the real sun as Copernicus did.
Mathematics have no longer much to do with boring calculations. Nowadays computers do the work, we do the learning. They sharpen our reasoning and senses. We see larger contexts and smaller details than ever before discovering scale. Discovering telescopic and microscopic scale we find the multiple universe we live in, freeing us from boredom forever, producing images no human can invent. We do not believe our eyes and ears, we discover them. It challenges our imagination in strange worlds no holiday can equal. Life math is a survival journey with excitement and suspense.
Science as design
But do we understand the sun? No, according to Kant (1976) we design a sun behaving like the sun we feel and see from our position and scale of time and space we live in. We never know for sure whether it will behave tomorrow in the same way as our sheet does now. But we have made something that works here and now.
‘Yes! It works.’ That is a designer’s joy.
How to use this book
This book is not a reader. It contains original texts by the authors from our school and a civil engineer to understand how specialists think, supporting our profession as urban designers.
Systematic encyclopaedia
It is ordered in an systematic encyclopaedic style. It is accessible by its table of contents (elaborated in more detail at the beginning of each chapter), and by a key word list containing some 6000 key words at the end of the book, including other authors we refer to. Full references to other authors are given on the end of every sub-chapter, to be found via the key word list. Direct references into publications and websites to look up immediately as a result of reading are given as foot notes indicated by letters in the text and listed at the bottom of the page. Questions for exercise are indicated as end notes by numbers in the text listed at the end of the book. However, these questions don not yet cover the whole content of the book.
Design related use
So, you do not have to read everything before you can use it making inventories for design (like a local atlas of thematic maps), while designing, or reflecting on your designs. Reflecting on your design work is what we ask in the assignments of the course accompanying this book: how did you apply Sun in your earlier design work, what could you have done, how do you apply Sun in your actual design work and what could you do with it in the future? The same is asked for Wind, Water and so on. A growing number of computer programs for experiments and calculations per section is downloadable from publications 2007.
Non-disciplinary combinations like sun and plantation
The chapters Sun, Wind, Water, Earth, Life, Living and Legends for design are the same as the title of the book indicates. These subjects are ordered this way, because it is the conditional sequence we experience them directly outdoor and gradually can understand them best. However, the chapter ‘Sun’ contains sub-chapters on energy, entropy, temperature, light, the history of our territory dependent on solar fluctuations, man-made plantation (written by Prof.dr.ir.C.M. Steenbergen and Drs. M.J. Moens), shadow and vision as well, because these subjects are often related in design or better comprehensible in the offered context. Perhaps in your design you can connect things in another way than the usual scientific and specialist’s distinction of disciplines suggests. For the same reason we did not aim for a distinction between natural and man-made phenomena in the sequence of chapters. It is rather a conditional sequence of growing complexity in cycles of inductive observing, deductive understanding and practical application. So, any chapter is better understood knowing something about the subject of the preceding chapter.
Wind and noise
The chapter ‘Wind’ contains noise as well, because both are movements of air. These flows are more complex than those of mere energy and light. This chapter shows another principle of ordering we aim for in any separate chapter: the level of scale. So, you can choose the sub-chapter concerning the level of scale you focus on in your study. We have tried to start every chapter on the highest level of scale. There are arguments to start with the lowest level, most directly related to our senses, but we chose the other way round, because lower levels of scale are better understood knowing their context. This way, you may get a feeling for contextual factors determining a particular environment and its mathematical modelling with parameters stemming from that context. In design practice you can reason the reverse way or both ways.
Water and traffic
The chapter ‘Water’ is primarily based on the lecture notes Prof.dr.ir. C. van den Akker offered us for use when he retired from the Faculty of Civil engineering. Ir. De Bruin, Prof.dr.ir. Taeke M. de Jong, ir. M.W.M. van den Toorn and Drs. M.J. Moens added many subjects relevant for design. However, It contains traffic as well, because the combination of these different flows on the Earth’s surface and their resulting networks are an important part of urban and regional design. Here Bach(2006) was a great inspiration. So, we did not primarily make a distinction between natural and man-made networks. The comparison of their characteristics is interesting, instructive, and may be a source of new design ideas.
Earth and subterranian infrastructure
The chapter ‘Earth’, written by Drs. M.J. Moens, is better understood if you know something about wind and water. The division of its sub-chapters starts strictly with levels of scale, but then sub-chapters follow about soil pollution, preparing a site for development, cables and ducts, map analysis.
Life and demography, genius loci
The ecological chapter ‘Life’ supposes sun, wind, water and earth. These conditions are discussed earlier in the book, so the chapter can focus on the distribution and abundance of life itself. Biology is physics with numerous feed-back mechanisms, not te be modelled so easily in a mathematical sense. However, it introduces approaches of system-dynamics, demography, useful in human environments as well. Life contains human life. So, this chapter tries to consider man as a species between other species (syn-ecology), while the next chapter ‘Human Living’ concentrates on human species only (aut-ecology). However, there are sub-chapters on valuing and mananging nature by man in your plan, and on the role of an urban ecologist.
The subject of this chapter is not very familiar to designers. So, you can think it is not very relevant. But in my opinion ecology, the science of distribution and abundance of species, is the very core of urban and regional design. Local vegetaton and wild life clarifies much about what designers feel as a mysterious ‘genius loci’. Ecology is a neglected source of local identity.
Evolution and design methods
Evolution of life has something in common with design thinking: its course of trial and error into diversity and order. The evolutionary taxonomy of plants and animals, types of life, their distribution and adapation into different environments, accommodating and modifying them, give examples of the same problems any design task stands for. Your typological repertoire of design solutions selects environments and the reverse different environments select different types of design.
Human living, habitat, density, economy, and environmental problems
The chapter ‘Human living’ shows the history of human occupation in general and in The Netherlands in particular. That piece of land in between France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain contains both lower and higher grounds, combining many characteristics of its neighbours. Its delta gives an impression of a development known from many densely populated lowlands in the world, the spatial composition of ecological, technical, economic, cultural and administrative components. A sub-chapter is devoted to urban density on different levels of scale. The sub-chapter ‘Environment’ discusses some consequences of living in high densities like environmental problems, environmental norms, gains and losses.
Legends for design and composition
The chapter ‘Legends for design’ stimulates to consider these phenomena of urban physics as innovative components, legend units, spatial types given form in a design composition. It raises philosophical questions on unusual types, their suppositions, combinations and consequences.
References on Introduction
Bach, B. (2006) Urban design and traffic / Stedenbouw en verkeer (Ede) CROW
Feynman, R. P., R. B. Leighton, et al. (1977,1963) The Feynman lectures on physics I (Menlo Park, California) Addison-Wesley Publishing Company ISBN 0-201-02010-6-H / 0-201-02116-1-P.
Feynman, R. P., R. B. Leighton, et al. (1977,1964) The Feynman lectures on physics II (Menlo Park, California) Addison-Wesley Publishing Company ISBN 0-201-02117-X-P / 0-201-02011-4-H.
Feynman, R. P., R. B. Leighton, et al. (1966,1965) The Feynman lectures on physics III (Menlo Park, California) Addison-Wesley Publishing Company ISBN 0-201-02118-X-P / 0-201-02114-9-H.
Kant, I. (1976) Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Frankfurt am Main) Suhrkamp Verlag.
Minnaert, M. G. J. (1974) De natuurkunde van 't vrije veld. Deel I. Licht en kleur in het landschap (Zutphen) Thieme & Cie ISBN 90-03-90780-3.
Minnaert, M. G. J. (1975) De natuurkunde van 't vrije veld. Deel 2. Geluid, warmte, electriciteit (Zutphen) Thieme & Cie ISBN 90-03-90790-0.
Minnaert, M. G. J. (1971) De natuurkunde van 't vrije veld. Deel 3. Rust en beweging (Zutphen) Thieme & Cie ISBN 90-03-90840-0.
Minnaert, M. G. J. (1993) Light and color in the outdoors (New York, N.Y.,) Springer ISBN 0.387.94413.3 p; 0.387.97935.2; 3.540.97935.2.
Thomson, D. A. W. (1961) On growth and form (CambridgeUK) Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 43776 8 paperback.
1Sun, energy and plantsexercises.xls
Contents
1.1ENERGY
1.1.1Physical measures
1.1.2Entropy
1.1.3Energetic efficiency
1.1.4Global energy
1.1.5National energy
1.1.6Local energy storage
1.1.7References to Energy
1.2TEMPERATURE AND HISTORY
1.2.1Long term variation
1.2.2Seasonal variation
1.2.3Seasons and common plants
1.2.4References to Temperature
1.3SUN, LIGHT AND SHADOW
1.3.1Looking from the universe (a, b and latitude l)
1.3.2Looking from the Sun (declination d)
1.3.3Looking back from Earth (azimuth and sunheight)
1.3.4Appointments about time on Earth
1.3.5Calculating sunlight periods
1.3.6Shadow
1.3.7References to Sun
1.4PLANTING BY MAN
1.4.1Introduction
1.4.2Planting and Habitat
1.4.3Tree planting and the urban space
1.4.4Hedges
2Wind, sound and noiseexercises .xls
Contents
2.1GLOBAL ATMOSPHERE
2.1.1Air, its mass and density
2.1.2Wind, its force and power
2.1.3The atmosphere
2.1.4Climate
2.1.5The urban impacts of wind
2.1.6Measures, targeted impacts per level of scale
2.1.7References to Global atmosphere
2.2NATIONAL CHOICE OF LOCATION
2.2.1National distribution of wind velocity
2.2.2Closer specification of wind statistics
2.2.3The energy profit of wind turbines
2.2.4Energy losses from buildings
2.2.5Temperature impacts
2.2.6Comfort of outdoor space
2.2.7Dispersion of air pollution
2.2.8Summary national comparison
2.2.9References to National choice of location
2.3REGIONAL CHOICE OF LOCATION
2.3.1Roughness of surrounding grounds
2.3.2Impact of new urban area lose from or adjacent to town in case of Westerly wind
2.3.3Impact of new urban area lose or adjacent in case of Easterly wind
2.3.4Impacts on energy losses by ventilation behind the edge in the interior of town
2.3.5Highways, railways, green areas and forests
2.4LOCAL MEASURES
2.4.1Local shelter of residential areas
2.4.2Increase of wind velocity by height
2.4.3The form of a town
2.4.4Dispersion of urban area
2.4.5The form of town edge
2.4.6Wind directions, temperature and built form
2.4.7References to local measures
2.5DISTRICT AND NEIGHBOURHOOD VARIANTS
2.5.1From calculable ‘rough surface’ into allotments in a wind tunnel
2.5.2Wind tunnel experiments
2.5.3Pressure differences between front and back façades
2.5.4District lay out
2.5.5Neighbourhoods
2.5.6References to District and neighbourhood variants
2.6ALLOTMENT OF HECTARES
2.6.1From wind tunnel experiments into methods of calculation
2.6.2Impact of trees
2.6.3Comparing repeated allotments 100x100m
2.6.4Wind behaviour around high objects
2.6.5References to allotment of hectares
2.7SOUND AND NOISE
2.7.1Music
2.7.2Power or intensity
2.7.3Sound and noise
2.7.4Birds
2.7.5Traffic noise
2.7.6References to Sound and noise
3Water, networks and crossings
exercises .xls
Contents
3.1WATER BALANCE
3.1.1Earth
3.1.2Evaporation and precipitation
3.1.3Runoff
3.1.4Static balance
3.1.5Movement ignoring resistance
3.1.6Resistance
3.1.7Erosion and sedimentation
3.1.8Hydraulic geometry of stream channels
3.1.9River morphology
3.1.10Simulating a simple drainage system
3.1.11Bifurcation or trunking in traffic networks
3.1.12Catchment area and river length
3.1.13Local morphologies
3.1.14Measuring velocities to get Q
3.1.15Discharge Q on different water heights
3.1.16Interpolation of experimental data by using Excel
3.1.17Calculating drainage Q with a rough profile
3.1.18Level and discharge regulators
3.1.19References to Water balance
3.2CIVIL ENGINEERING IN THE NETHERLANDS
3.2.1History
3.2.2The distribution of water
3.2.3The threat of floods
3.2.4Risks of flooding
3.2.5Measures to avoid floods
3.2.6Coastal protection
3.2.7The Delta project
3.2.8The central coast line
3.2.9The northern defence system
3.2.10Polders
3.2.11Need of drainage and flood control
3.2.12Artificial drainage
3.2.13Configuration and drainage patterns of polders
3.2.14Drainage and use
3.2.15Weirs, sluices and locks
3.2.16Water management tasks in the landscape
3.3WATER BOARDS IN HOLLAND
3.3.1Delfland Waterboard
3.3.2Policy
3.3.3Spatial plans checked on their impact on water: ‘Watertoets’
3.3.4References to civil engineering in The Netherlands
3.4WATER MANAGEMENT IN SPATIAL DESIGN
3.4.1Introduction
3.4.2Hydrologic cycle and water system
3.4.3Water quality and management
3.4.4Sustainability and water management
3.4.5References to water management in spatial design
3.5THE SECOND NETWORK: ROADSexercises.xls
3.5.1Names and scale
3.5.2Functional charge of networks
3.5.3Rectangularity forced by connections of a higher level
3.5.4Superposition of levels
3.5.5Interference of different networks
3.5.6Crossings
3.5.7A traffic network
3.5.8Measures
3.5.9A residential street
3.5.10Space for speed
3.5.11Roads of a higher level
3.5.12Urban islands in a network
3.5.13A neighbourhood
3.5.14A road hierarchy
3.5.15From a model back into a real city
3.5.16Traffic surface
3.5.17Harbours P.M.
3.5.18References to the second network
3.6OTHER NETWORKS: CABLES AND DUCTS
3.6.1The electricity network
3.6.2The gas network
3.6.3Water pipes
3.6.4Pressure pipelines for sewage water
3.6.5The telephone network
3.6.6Radio and television transmitters
3.6.7Network for the transport of raw materials
3.6.8Tunnels
3.6.9Urban scale
3.6.10The future.
4Earth, soil pollution and site preparationexercises .xls
Contents
4.1INTRODUCTION
4.1.1Span of view
4.1.2References Introduction
4.2KILOMETRES: GEOMORPHOLOGIC LANDSCAPES
4.2.1Landforms created by water
4.2.2Landforms created by rivers
4.2.3Landforms created by ice
4.2.4Landforms created by the wind
4.2.5Landforms created by slope processes
4.3METRES
4.3.1Pedological landscapes
4.3.2Clay soils
4.3.3Sand soils
4.3.4Peat soils and peat reclamation soils
4.4MILLIMETRES
4.4.1Soil structure
4.4.2Ground water
4.4.3Soil horizon differentiation
4.5MICROMETRES
4.5.1Chemical composition of the earth’s crust
4.5.2Weathering
4.5.3Sediments
4.5.4Soil
4.5.5Identifying soil fractions
4.5.6Naming of ground types
4.6SOIL POLLUTION
4.6.1Soil pollution
4.6.2General soil knowledge
4.6.3Soil pollution and building activities
4.6.4Exploratory survey
4.6.5Follow-up investigation
4.6.6Causes of soil pollution
4.6.7Remediation methods
4.6.8Soil purification techniques
4.6.9Appendix saneringsregeling wet bodembescherming P.M. (remediation regulations under the Soil Protection Act)
4.6.10References soil pollution
4.7PREPARING A SITE FOR DEVELOPMENT
4.7.1Site analyses
4.7.2Preparing a site for development
4.7.3Methods for preparing a site for development
4.7.4Detailed elaboration for urban functions
4.7.5Check lists
5Life, ecology and nature exercises .xls
Contents
5.1NATURAL HISTORY
5.1.1Long-term biotic changes
5.1.2400 000 000 years ago
5.1.3230 000 000 years ago
5.1.465 000 000 years ago
5.1.5Pleistocene
5.1.6References to natural history
5.2DIVERSITY, SCALE AND DISPERSION
5.2.1The importance of diversity for life
5.2.2The importance of diversity for human living
5.2.3Scale-sensitive concepts
5.2.4Spatial state of dispersion as a condition of diversity
5.2.5300km continental vegetation areas
5.2.630km national counties
5.2.73km Landscape formations
5.2.8300m local life communities
5.2.930m ecological groups
5.2.103m symbiosis and competition
5.2.1130cm individual strategies for survival
5.2.12Identifying plants species
5.2.13References to Diversity, scale and dispersion
5.3ECOLOGIES
5.3.1Generalisation
5.3.2Six kinds of ecology
5.3.3Scale classification
5.3.4Cybernetics
5.3.5Regulation theory
5.3.6Separation and discontinuity
5.3.7Selectors and regulators in the landscape
5.3.8Ecological networks
5.3.9Urban ecology
5.3.10Distribution and abundance of people
5.3.11Comparing and applying standards for green surfaces in urban areas