CANNERY BUILDING REUSE
A reimagination of an old bean cannery building in Portland, Maine for Northeastern University’s campus expansion.
ROLE: DESIGNER
FOR: NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY M.ARCH
STATUS: COMPLETED
Architecture is ever evolving. Specifically, architecture has evolved in innovative ways over time to address contemporary challenges like new trends, new codes and the effects of global warming. When addressing these challenges, it is important to highlight a way of building. The answer might lie in defining a structure that becomes fixed on the site with a framework that is versatile to current and future use scenarios. After all, a building designed with intention is the first step for it to become part of the Earth’s crust rather than a placeholder for the next one.
Cannery Adaptive Reuse Building (left), New Proposed Building (right).
For a building to be systematically integrated, it needs to start at a solid potential structural prototype. The testing for this phase began with a creative synthesis of conceptual design, and evolved into the exploration and design of a proprietary structural unit, along with the repetition and modulation of it in a bigger structural system, along with the resolution of joinery systems.
Although the first iteration of the structural unit design was tested as a reinforced concrete structure, the exploration involved calculations for the span and load bearing capabilities, which concluded in depths too large for it to be viable in a modular and felxible prototype, for which the system was changed to heavy timber.
Structural unit and system.
The project’s objective is to minimize impact, and hence, it was necessary to minimize in various aspects of the design. The final decision involved using minimum material, both in volume and type. This is translated into modular structure units that define the dimensions between components, which are interlocked using techniques inspired in Sashimono or Japanese joinery system. For the material, mass timber was elected with a sustainable mindset in the aspect of the building’s longevity: it is able to be reused and it has a lighter carbon footprint than other commonly used building materials.
Upper right: Facade, SIPS panel and punched windows
Lower left: Joint for column and double direction beam assembly, using sashimono technique.
Lower right: Facade, double skin with curtain wall, wooden louvres and double pane insulated glass.
Construction process of structural prototype unit.
The site is located in a vulnerable to flooding area. The project expands itself across inundation zones, with the bulk of it located in the zones with moderate to low inundation risk. However, as a coastal location, it was necessary not only to try to take the building out of contact with floodwaters, but also to work with the landscape and design a wet-proofing solution. For the project, the landscape portion contouring the coastal line is terraced, and hosts productive platforms with lobster farms and green areas that allow themselves to flood if necessary, protecting the pedestrian program and the buildings in multiple tide rise scenarios.
Flood Risk Levels and Uses Diagram.
The project finds complexity in its flexibility. In order to ensure the adaptive reuse as an option for the future, two future iterations were analyzed and considered in the design. The idea is to enable to human flourishing and support the imagined future contexts at different times in the project’s life.
Low Tech + Community Scenario. Site Plan + Floor Plans.
The buildings display different approaches to the integrated system, comprehensive of mechanical, structural and facade components. The New Proposed Building displays a Central All-Air System, Stacked Ventilation through the atrium, and exterior walls with a double-facade system that includes a curtain wall and wood cladding in the form of orientation-specific louvers. The reused Cannery Building features a Central All-Water System, and harnesses most of it’s thermal control from the exterior wall, which features brick and concrete. It also has an addition of the louvers system on the courtyard-side facade, extending the new language to existing structures.
By identifying the permanent processes of the site, such as the air, sea, and soil conditions, they can be used as anchors for the evolution and future iterations of the spaces proposed. While these will persevere in time, the project will adapt alongside its relevance, allowing for parameters or limits within what the building will transform into. In such manner, and by acknowledging natural constraints and forces that act on the site, the systems implemented do not challenge them, but rather make full use of their potentials to maximize the use and construction of the project.
Main Entrance.
Courtyard.
View from the bridge into the courtyard.
Terrace/interior dual view, New Proposed Building.