| 22 8 STAIR VAULT* |
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. . . this pattern helps complete the rough shape and location of stairs given by staircase as a stage (133) and by staircase volume (195). If you want to build a conventional stair, you can find what you need in any handbook. But how to build a stair in a way which is consistent with the compressive structure of efficient structure (206), without using wood or steel or concrete—good materials (207) ?
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Within a building technology which uses compressive materials as much as possible, and excludes the use of wood, it is natural to build stairs over a vaulted void, simply to save weight and materials.
A concrete stair is usually made from precast pieces supported by steel stringers; or it is formed in place, and then stripped of its forms. But for the reasons already given in good materials (207), precast concrete and steel are undesirable materials to use—they call for modular planning; they are unpleasant materials to touch, look at, and walk on; they are hard to work with and modify in any relaxed way, since they call for special tools.
Given the principles of efficient structure (206), good MATERIALS (2O7), and GRADUAL STIFFENING (208), We suggest that stairs be made like floor-ceiling vaults (219)—by making a half-vault (to the slope of the stair), with lattice strips, burlap, resin, chickenwire, and lightweight concrete. The steps themselves can then be formed by using wood planks, or tiles, as risers, and filling in the steps with trowelled concrete.
When we first wrote this pattern, we thought it was very doubtful-—and put it in mainly to be consistent with floor and roof vaults!, Since then we have built a vaulted stair. It is a great success —beautiful—and we recommend it heartily.
Therefore:
Build a curved diagonal vault in the same way that you
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228 STAIR VAULT
build your floor-ceiling vaults (219). Once the vault hardens, cover it with steps of lightweight concrete, trowel-formed into position.
A lightweight concrete tread, colored, waxed, and polished can be quite beautiful and soft enough to be comfortable—see floor surface (233)—and will eventually take on the patina of wear called for in soft tile and brick (248).
The vaulted space under the stair can be used as an alcove (179) a child cave (203), or closets between rooms (198). If it is plastered, like a regular ceiling—see floor-ceiling vaults (219), it makes a much more pleasant and useful space than the space under an ordinary stair.
TOWNS
Therefore:
Break the urban area down into local transport areas, each one between i and 2 miles across, surrounded by a ring road. Within the local transport area, build minor local roads and paths for internal movements on foot, by bike, on horseback, and in local vehicles; build major roads which make it easy for cars and trucks to get to and from the ring roads, but place them to make internal local trips slow and inconvenient.
To keep main roads for long distance traffic, but not for internal local traffic, lay them out as parallel one way roads, and keep these parallel roads away from the center of the area, so that they are very good for getting to the ring roads, but inconvenient for short local trips—parai.lel roads (23). Lay out abundant footpaths and bike paths and green streets, at right angles to the main roads, and make these paths for local traffic go directly through the center—green streets (51), network of paths and cars (52), bike paths and racks (56); sink the ring roads around the outside of each area, or shield the noise they make some other way—ring roads (17); keep parking to a minimum within the area, and keep all major parking garages near the ring roads— NINE PER CENT PARKING (22), SHIELDED PARKING (97) i and build a major interchange within the center of the area—interchange (34). . . .
2 29 DUCT SPACE
. . . in a building built according to the principles of efficient structure (206) and built with vaulted floors—floor-ceiling vaults (219), there is a triangular volume, unused, around the edge of every room. This is the most natural place to put the ducts.
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You never know where pipes and conduits are; they are buried somewhere in the walls; but where exactly are they?
In most buildings electric conduits, plumbing, drains, gas pipes, telephone wires, and so on, are buried in the walls, in a completely uncoordinated and disorganized way. This makes the initial construction of the building complicated since it is difficult to coordinate the installation of the various services with the building of various parts of the building. It makes it difficult to think about making any changes or additions to the building once it is built since you don’t know where the service lines are. And it leaves a gap in our understanding of our surroundings: the organization of utilities and services in the buildings we live in are a mystery to us.
We propose that all the services be located together and run around the ceiling of each room in the spandrel between the vaulted ceiling and the floor above—floor-ceiling vaults (219).
Heating and electrical conduits will be universal throughout the building and should thus be run around every room. Plumbing and gas lines will be around some rooms only. All lines will also be concentrated vertically at the corners of rooms. Thus the lines form vertical trunks from which horizontal loops spring. This configuration of pipes and conduits is easy to understand and plug into.
Therefore:
Make ducts to carry hot air conduit, plumbing, gas, and other services in the triangular space, within the vault, around the upper edge of every room. Connect the ducts for different rooms by vertical ducts, in special chases, in the corners of rooms. Build outlets and panels at intervals along the duct for access to the conduits.
wall-ceiling triangle
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Once the duct is in, you can fill up the triangle with lightweight concrete—floor-ceiling vaults (219). Place heating panels along the surface of the triangle—radiant heat (230) ; and place outlets for lights at frequent intervals below the duct, with leads and conduits running down in rebates along the window frames—pools of light (252). . . .
23O RADIANT HEAT*
. . . to complete wall membranes (218), floor-ceiling vaults (219) and duct space (229), use a biologically sensible heating system.
This pattern is a biologically precise formulation of the intuition that sunlight and a hot blazing fire are the best kinds of heat.
Heat can be transmitted by radiation (heat waves across empty space), convection (flow in air or liquids by mixing of molecules and hot air rising), and conduction (flow through a solid).
In most places, we get heat in all three ways from our environment: conducted heat from the solids we touch, convected heat in the air around us, and radiated heat from those sources of radiation in our line of sight.
Of the three, conducted heat is trivial, since any surface hot enough to conduct heat to us directly is too hot for comfort. As far as the other two are concerned—convected heat and radiant heat—we may ask whether there is any biological difference in their effects on human beings. In fact there is.