Yueying Zhong
THE FORM OF WATER: San Miguelito Flood Shelter, Daycare and Community Kitchen
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The San Miguelito Flood Shelters and Community Kitchen
Bio
San Miguelito is one the most populated district in the country, formed of dense residential structures. As an urban intervention along the river Abajo, this project is an architectural response to the seasonal flood and drought for the local communities. A water tower, a community kitchen and six flood shelters inhabit the valley, making use of the natural topography to harvest, store and distribute rainwater. The temporal flood shelters can also be used as day-care classrooms, working together with the community kitchen.
The San Miguelito Flood Shelters and Community Kitchen
Site Plan
Urban Section
Form and materiality
The programme is expressed spatially and materially through different configurations and mechanisms of rainwater collection devices. For the community kitchen, water-proof fabric structured in rope baskets forms the roof, catching the rain. The volume of water within these roof vessels animates the roof form – revealing the form and weight of water.
Community Kitchen Interior Rendering
flood shelter and community kitchen
Rotatable Roof Panel for Rainwater Collection
Flood Shelter Section
Sectional view to the community kitchen
Modelling of the Roof Form
Once the structural form is found, a layer of fabric can be attached to give the container skin. The use of wax as a model material successfully retains the materiality of fabric with its draped texture and edges. It also brings translucency to the object where the hand-knitted net can be seen through the fabric skin. This roof model conveys the sense of gravity and gives form to the water containers.
Roof making
Exhibition model
Details of the Exhibition Model
Close-up of the Model
Wax Roof Model
Lightness of the structure
This model is an abstraction of a 1:50 community kitchen with elements of the roof vessels, rope baskets and the primary steel structure. This expression of the roof elements is exaggerated to accent the materiality and configuration of the naturally draped fabric roof. Thin hand-welded copper rods convey the slenderness and structural lightness of the gridding system. The mirrored plate underneath reflects the details of the under-roof and the hand-weaved rope baskets.
Exhibition Model with Components
Roof Details
Net Basket
Finding the roof geometry with light and shadows
Flood Shelter Model
Yueying Zhong
THE FORM OF WATER: San Miguelito Flood Shelter, Daycare and Community Kitchen
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