SAFE Project

Category: SAFE Project

16 March, 2015

SAFE Project Laboratory

The SAFE laboratories have been in construction for a while, with delays caused by material deliveries and lorries getting stolen. Despite of all these obstacles the team keeps going, building to a high quality whenever they are able and filling their time by making improvements to the temporary camp.

Below are a series of presentation drawings done by the design team to explain what the finished building will look like:

The Plan

The plan fits the tight site, between the gully of a small stream and a steep hillside. The wet lab and the dry lab have different conditions, in that the dry lab requires air conditioning and therefore a sealed construction. However, the wet lab is naturally ventilated and glass is replaced by woven bamboo panels. The close connection to the landscape through the bamboo panels; some of which open up large views to the grass and understory which is at the eye level of someone sitting at the desks; retains the feeling of working in the field.

The masterplan identified that a 2m space between buildings was a useful ‘social eddy’ that would encourage conversation and discussion. This 2m wide route between the 2 labs drives the orientation and circulation. Earth bag walls are used as a device to delineate these spaces and provide seating.

The Section

The section replicates the work done for the masterplan, trying to achieve a series of individual and group working spaces, as well as a balcony for discussion to take place. The 2m wide route is orientated to catch the uphill breeze that is generated from the main river that marks the SAFE Project boundary. The breeze is funnelled through the building and feeds the wet lab.

Overview

On approach, the labs are tucked behind the hillside. The gable elevation of the wet lab is filled with the warm colour of bamboo panels and acts as a marker for the rest of the building.

The entrance deck is skirted with gabion cages that are filled with the discarded offcuts of belian from the timber mill nearby. This creates an environment to grow ferns, bromeliads and orchids.

External Spaces

The entry sequence brings together 3 levels of exterior spaces that overlap and allow multiple connections and discussions to happen. The concrete deck at the front is used to wash boots, equipment and samples on returning from the field. This is overlooked behind, by the raised timber deck in front of the dry lab, which acts as a break out space for researchers and research assistants to relax and to discuss their projects. Also overlooking the entrance deck is the balcony of the wet lab. In these spaces, researchers returning from the field, can catch up with researchers and research assistants who are working on their data and findings; exchanging ideas and relaxing in front of the view of the forest on the other side of the river.

Working Spaces

The wet lab has 3 levels of spaces, combining storage areas, works spaces and discussions spaces. In the work area, fixed benches flank the perimeter. When these desks are used, a boundary is created from the rest of the room and researchers have space to concentrate, their focus being on their work and the view in front of them. In the centre, there are stainless steel mobile work stations. These spaces combine sinks with workspaces at standing height. These areas can be moved to the fixed desks, or can facilitate a group working in the centre of the room. Frames of bamboo panels open onto route between the 2 buildings, to encourage interaction between the 2 labs.

The dry lab is a sealed construction, but fans and opening windows are installed, so that the air conditioning does not need to be used all the time. Opening windows open onto the route, again, encouraging interaction. High clerestory lighting provides diffuse daylight to the lab, while the long opening on the front elevation provides a view over the forest and the entrance deck, while the bay window on the side elevation creates an little individual space to relax and view the trees and birds in the gully of the stream.

Many thanks to Xristina for her model renderings.
You can see more of Xristina’s drawings here
Read about the SAFE Project Masterplan to get an overview of the whole project.

1 December, 2014

Xristina’s blog

Xristina Antonelli worked with us from January to July 2014, at the SAFE Project. Here are her thoughts on life at SAFE camp.

“I had the chance to work as an intern for the SAFE project for about 6 months this year. I spent most of my time on site and only few weeks at the Arkitrek office in KK. The site is located in the rainforest, about 3 hours drive from Tawau, the nearest city. It is a beautiful place surrounded by several hills and small rivers-streams with all sorts of creatures from the animal and plant kingdom present everywhere.

The first impression you get is that the site itself has a unique power of creating extreme feelings in the people living there. In days of heavy rainstorms you feel that you are in a tiny place of the earth and totally forgotten by the world, whereas in days of incredible sky colours at dawns and dusks you may feel that you are in the epicentre of this world with all this beauty just above your head.

After a few days in the camp you start realising that you are not living in a city any more. You know it when you are woken up in the morning by animal calls instead of crazy traffic sounds. When the time that you spent in your favourite café is now being replaced by laying down at your favourite rock at the river for your afternoon siesta. When you start forgetting how the buildings of your neighbourhood look, but you remember details of all the trees around the camp. Even when your notebooks are full with spots of dead mosquitoes, tiny ants, spiders, rather than those of spilled coffee.

Life in the forest may seem static, slow and calm. It is only when you experience it for a long period that you get to understand that the flows of life and movement in the landscape are uncountable compared to the ones of a city. It is a whole ecosystem that you start to observe, sometimes having the guilty feeling of an invader, and sometimes having the exciting feeling of the luckiest spy ever.

A beautiful place full of secrets that can reveal some of them to you if you are lucky enough and open to discover them. That’s how I remember this place. After some years it might all fade into a distant memory but everything that I gained on a personal level will keep following me, and this is how I value my experience there. That’s also the point where the community of the people at SAFE comes into the picture. Living together with around 30-40 people and have daily interaction with all of them is a way of living that many people could not withstand easily. Yet, being part of such a community can change you positively as a person in so many ways.

What this experience made me realise is that everyone has several abilities, sometimes hidden, sometimes not. You can always learn from the others. Sharing skills and knowledge with people regardless their age, cultural or educational background is beyond any educational course you could ever take. Everyone at SAFE always exuded an aura of creativity, enthusiasm and a positive attitude on everything, from which there was no escape. Eventually everyone was touched in one or another way.

The camp, even temporary, was in permanent change. There was constantly something being created which made you start noticing everything around you and observe more of the details. Somehow the simple daily life of the camp was the greatest inspiration for a desire to experiment and try to make stuff with your hands. Buat apa hari ini? (what do you make today?) was the most common question by the locals after asking you how are you. And in addition to this I will never forget how everyone on the camp was asking about the new buildings and when they will be ready with the same craving as of kids who ask their mum when food will be ready. This experience was for me one of the best live examples of a motivational phrase of my favourite Greek architect which is always in my mind “Trying to give even greater the joy of life, that what architecture is”, by Aris Konstantinidis.

Keeping my experience as a guide I will try to continue my ”adventcure” (architecture+adventure) journey in the footsteps of Arkitrek!”

27 October, 2014

The SAFE Project Masterplan

The SAFE Project is one of the world’s largest ecological experiments and aims to understand how the impacts of forest modification ramify through the web of life. The project involves state of the art equipment, such as a Carbon flux tower and a plane to digitally model every detail of the forest. The scientists involved are monitoring animal biodiversity with camera traps, they’re taking cores of deadwood to trace changes in atmospheric carbon, they’re wading through rivers and streams to collect pond insects and climbing trees to record mosquito numbers.

When finished, the centre will provide accommodation for around 40 staff, 30 long term researchers and up to 60 short term visitors. The laboratory is underway at the moment, and soon construction on the library will start. The library will house The Tim Whitmore Library, one of the world’s most comprehensive collections on tropical rainforest ecology. There will also be dining and recreational facilities, as well as an off-grid, hybrid energy plant.

Back in 2012, a team of Arkitrekkers undertook an extensive study of the existing field centres in Sabah and then came up design principles and a masterplan for the SAFE Project field centre. Throughout the subsequent design development these sketches have been centre to almost every discussion. As such, we felt they deserved to be published. The following is the result of the hard work and talent of Daniel Cohen, Jonathan Livesey, Ong Teen Nah, Alayna Kilkuskie, Maria Kaskareli, Chew Pui Cheng and Nic Lim.

Assessment of Sabah Field Centres

Things we liked:
Malua: Proximity to the river; utility of water; rope swing; able to check if dinner is ready
DVFC: Information displays/ updates; Networking spaces
Maliau Basin: Stilted construction; Nice finishes

Our take on what makes a great field centre
Nice toilets; differentiation of public & private through material changes & level changes; expressing structure & materials; wildlife surprises; elevated paths & spaces; journey to canopy walkways; tower/ vantage points; waterfalls; recreational opportunities; river; slope/ terraced gradients; bridges between buildings; instant access to the jungle; 2′ height railings that you can sit on; architectural composition in the landscape

SAFE site strategies & execution
River: stepping stones; bridges; bathing pools; dams; beach; seating pockets; birdwatching hides; proper lighting; platforms
Slope: terraced; building into the hills; emerging forms from the landscape; earth bag construction; vantage points; cantilevers; multi-level connections; elements of surprise; cascading towards the river
Existing Trees: tree houses; swings; observation tower; inhabiting the canopy; outdoor rest areas with hammocks

Accommodation

Long term accommodation could benefit from having private areas, but should not be isolated from the general surroundings.

The many steep slopes of the SAFE Project site present an opportunity to create private spaces that are close together by layering them along a steep slope. A steep slope would also allow visitors and/ or users to be situated at a higher elevation, giving good views.

Scientists that are at SAFE for a short stay could benefit from staying closer to the edge of the site, to allow more interaction with wildlife.

An outdoor, semi-open shower would give visitors and short term researchers a memorable experience. A bathroom that consists of natural materials would give a better sense of cleanliness as opposed to the typical pristine, tiled up, white bathroom that quickly looks very dirty.

Laboratories

The lab should aim to allow integration and ideas to flow easily between scientists. As experiments are never the same, and the researcher requirements often vary, the lab should allow for flexibility when working.

The ‘Core’

The ‘core’ building should be inviting, and should be the one place other than the hostel/ rooms that people really feel like spending time. It has to encourage not only that people go there, but also the integration and exchanging of ideas. It should provide opportunities for scientists, visitors and research assistants to have conversations, to meet people, to transfer information between each other. It should be the nucleus of the whole site.

Exploring different archetypes of Masterplan

We experimented with how a combination of complimentary words could be the root of the masterplan itself.
Balanced The ‘balanced’ masterplan is created by combining ‘segregated integrations’, ‘social eddies’, and ‘defining without separating’. Together, they produce a masterplan that gives privacy to its users, but at the same time, has many opportunities for social interaction.
Private When ‘defined layers of privacy’, ‘close but isolated’ and ‘green natural barriers’ are placed together, we are presented with a masterplan that doesn’t encourage interaction between it’s users. Rather, it focuses and emphasises more the privacy of the user within the architecture.
Social By including ‘rhythm’, ‘circuits’, ‘stopovers’ and ‘accidental beauties’ together, it naturally generates a masterplan that not only encourages interactions between users, but almost forces it. It makes users meet along pathways, and creates spaces where one can stop and have a conversation before moving along.

Conceptual Masterplans

These diagrams are conceptual masterplans. They describe different criteria and characteristics that were identified as important.
Bridging Voids Separate buildings can be designed around each other to create voids. These voids can in turn, be used to bind each space and building together.
Terrain, Levels & Hierarchy Hierarchy can be assigned to the project brief by designing in accordance to the existing slopes.
Functional Ambiguity & Transitions Here we test creating opportunities for interaction with nature, by creating spacial transitions with gradients, and in maintaining connections without needing to have any physical connections.

The SAFE Project Masterplans

All of these design principles and concepts come together to generate the SAFE Masterplan below. Further, in the design and development of the individual buildings these design principles are still guiding decision making.

4 August, 2014

Sketchbook of an Arkitrek Intern

Part 2, An Arkitrek Design/Build

Simon Feather’s sketchbook of the SAFE project design/build in 2013 keeps a record of the design decisions made by the design team including highlights from his understanding of Arkitrek and the project, to the proposed masterplan and the detailing of columns.

Simon’s thoughts on Arktirek and the SAFE project

The proposed masterplan

The powerhouse design brief

Site constraints

Material spcifications

Detailing columns and a gabian wall

Development sketches

Getting the proportions right

Developing structural details

Writing the construction schedule & bill of quantities

Design sketches

14 July, 2014

Sketchbook of an Arkitrek Intern

Part 1, Life on Site

What is life like for an Arkitrek intern? Simon Feather, who lived in the forest and worked on the SAFE Project for nearly a year, created a gym which he wrote about in his blogpost ‘How to Stay Buff on Rice and Cabbage’ . He also kept a series of meticulous sketchbooks. This sketchbook records the design development that Simon contributed to the field lab at SAFE, as well as his process of understanding the natural building materials that Arkitrek works with.

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