The Theoretical Application of Systems Engineering Process in Creating Frank LLoyd Wrights Vertical City - Report Example

This paper looks into the application of systems engineering processes and techniques to the problems and complexities of creating a Vertical City, the dream of the legendary architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. We will first look at Frank Lloyd Wright, the man, his achievements and his contribution to the world of architecture. We will then focus on Wrights concept of a vertical city, specifically his design of The Illinois, the Mile High Vertical City. We will then describe the approach and process of systems engineering. Finally this paper will discuss the effect of systems engineering in the design and building of vertical cities. We will look at the processes that allowed the dream of Frank Lloyd Wright of creating a Vertical city to become a reality in the enormous Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the worlds tallest building. 1. Introduction. The Dreamer Frank Lloyd Wright was renaissance artist that excelled in architecture, interior design, as a writer and teacher. Although there is no record he graduated from High School, and he left the University of Wisconsin-Madison without a degree he was recognized in his own lifetime as the greatest American architect of all time. He is renowned for his capacity to innovate and create new styles and architectural movements. He was the leader behind the Prairie School architecture movement that sought to create a truly indigenous North American style that focused on the use of handcrafted materials and craftsman guilds. He also created a new type of home, the Usonian Houses, houses that were designed to be run without servants, and that focused on creating spaces instead of just rooms. These spaces were designed to work around the lifestyles of their occupants minimizing waste, maintenance time, and encouraging families to spend time together in communal areas. He designed over 1000 projects, more than 500 were completed. His work includes the design of schools, offices, churches, museums and skyscrapers. In all of his designs injected a fresh originality that became a hallmark of his work. However this paper focuses on a design that was never built, The Mile High Illinois, the Vertical City. We will now look at the main factors that defined Wrights dream, and some of the limitations that impeded its construction. 2. The Dream, A Vertical City The Vertical City, or the Mile High Illinois, was the brainchild of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956. The building was designed to have 528 stories and a height of 5,280ft, 5680ft if you include the proposed antenna. The purpose of the building was to offer an alternative to the urban sprawl that was, and still is, occurring in large cities. Frank Lloyd Wright argued that cities could grow vertically instead of horizontally solving many of the issues that come with urban sprawl like: long transport distances, dependency on personal vehicles, inadequate health and social facilities, and a high cost per person for infrastructure. Needless to say the Illinois was never built. However, Wright believed it was technically possible to build it in 1956, even though the tallest building at that time was the Empire State Building, which stood not even at a quarter of the proposed height of the Illinois. It is probable that Wright was correct, and the building could have been built with the technology of the mid 1950s, but there are a number of issues linked with very tall buildings, which would have made the project unfeasible. Two of these issues are: The integrity of the structure and the elevator conundrum. The structure. Skyscrapers in the time of Wright used steel in their construction. This was an excellent design improvement from the previous technique of using brick or stone sheer walls. Steel eliminated the inefficient part of a wall that just adds dead weight to the building, and reduces the structure to support members of a much stronger material, steel. However, steel is a relatively flexible material which causes tall buildings to sway in the wind. This can be experienced on the top of buildings like the Empire State on a windy day. A second issue with steel structures is that as they increase in height the amount of material that must be supported also increases. This forces designers to reduce the distance between the steel supporting members which in turn increases the weight that must be supported. The elevator conundrum. Another big issue with Wrights Illinois is that the elevators that would be needed to reach the upper levels would have occupied all the space on the upper floors. Wrights solution was to set five story elevators on ratchets on the side of the building. This problem is still an issue today with smaller skyscrapers. 3. Systems Engineering, The Art of managing complexity. Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that studies on the design and management of complex engineering projects. It has its origins back in the 1940s when large companies like Bell Telephone Laboratories needed to identify and manage complex engineering projects as a whole, which in large and complex projects, is not always the same as managing the sum of the parts. System engineering sought to develop and implement new methods and techniques that could deal with new technology as well as help with the understanding of complex systems. In order to manage complex engineering projects system engineering created (and continues to do so) processes and techniques to combine the knowledge base of various engineering branches to find solutions. It centers mainly on the planning and development stages to solve multifaceted engineering problems. One of the most characteristic aspects of System Engineering is its application in the development of new technological possibilities, making the previously impossible a reality. Systems engineering can be seen as the midwife of technological progress. System Engineering provided two main contributions to engineering: 1) New tools and processes to deal with the special problems that large projects present. These tools included: modeling and simulation, decision making, statistical, system, and reliability analysis, as well as optimization and system dynamics. Although the scope of our paper does not allow us to analyze these tools individually it is worth noting that they provided a benchmark on which to study and assess the progress and management of large projects that would not be possible without the application of systems engineering. 2) Processes that provided a framework in which to organize projects. These processes can be divided into four main types: agreement processes, project processes, technical processes and evaluation processes. System engineering processes provide a step by step approach to project management which allows for a systematic approach to effective project management. These processes allow the owners, designers and builders to agree on a) the feasibility of a project, b) the work breakdown structure, c) a requirements analysis, and d) a heuristic evaluation. The overall process is, of course, much more complex, but this illustrates the mechanisms that system engineering provides to manage a systems life cycle. 4. Dream becomes reality. A systems engineering success story. The issue of if Wrights dream of a Vertical City has already been achieved is a matter of debate. Some would agree that super tall buildings like the Willis Tower in Chicago, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, and recently the Burj Khalifa in Dubai are examples of vertical cities. Although the 206 floors and 2,717 feet of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building on the planet, is not comparable to the 528 stories and a height of 5,280ft, it could be said to at least be in the same league. What is certain is that systems engineering has played a vital role in doubling the height of the tallest building (from 1,250 feet to 2,717 feet) in 79 years. However, other Vertical Cities that would meet the specifications of Wrights Vertical City are already in advanced stages of design. Take for instance the Nakheel Tower which was set to be Dubais new "capital". This building is designed to be over a kilometer high and hold 15,000 people, providing all the services and commodities of an entire city. The design stage of this project is virtually complete and depends on extra financial backing to become a reality. Increasing the height of a tall buildings is not only a case of scale, a whole new set of problems arise. Following the processes set by systems engineering is vital if there are to be any chances of success. Design teams and owners have to meet to agree on the requirements of the design. Feasibility is their first concern, price and technical analysis are also vital. Let us illustrate the need for an interdisciplinary approach to solve these issues by looking at one of the problems that Wrights vertical city faced, that is structural stability. For instance the biggest stress large buildings have to face is wind. The above mentioned candidate for the first true "Vertical City", the Nakheel Tower "solved" this design problem by including wind engineering, aerodynamic engineering, structural engineering and the architecture of the tower from the very beginning of the project. This massive collaboration between different branches of engineering is impossible without a holistic framework that will keep all the sub-systems working in unison. The complexities designers had to deal with were huge. Many building shapes and refinements were analyzed. The currently favored shape, a cylindrical form, made the tower susceptible to vortex shedding. In the end designers had to include aerodynamics as their main driving force in designing the tower. Slots were designed into the cylinder to create what effectively are four towers in one, joined by several sky bridges. This way the wind actually flows through the building reducing the forces acting on the structure. In order to reach these technological advances the designers had to use computational fluid dynamics to model the effect small changes in the towers geometry would affect the balance of forces. This was only the beginning, further studies into the fluid dynamics, aeroelastic model testing and high frequency integration were needed. Systems engineering is not only vital in the initial stages of a project, its processes can also start at the middle of a project. The construction of the Petronas towers are a good example. The owners of the building asked the design team the feasibility of increasing the height of the building to surpass that of the Willis Tower, once the construction of the building had already started. This created the need to reassess the entire roof and shape of the pinnacles. In effect systems engineering had to start with the agreement process, when the technical process had already started. The loop effect that systems engineering process allow for made it possible to reassess the specifications of the project and meet the requirements of the owners, making the Petronas Towers the tallest building in the world. At least until the Taipei 101 in Tokyo was built. The Petronas Towers also required the introduction of a complete new type of high strength reinforced concrete that simply did not exist before the project started. Designers had to create a new type of concrete by the use of computer models that then had to be tested and analyzed to check the structural reliability of the concrete. Once the right concrete mixture was found each batch of concrete had to be tested and quality checked before it could be poured. All of this was done by using systems engineering processes and tools that excel at introducing new technology to complex projects. Systems engineering has proven itself the great enabler of large and complex projects that could not be carried out by simply following traditional design techniques. Although the Vertical City that Wright envisioned still does not exist, smaller versions do, and the design of projects like the Nakheel Tower in Dubai proves that systems engineering is there to make it happen once the financial side of these project allow them to go ahead. References A. Swenson/P.-C. Chang, Architectural Education at IIT, 1938–1978 (1980), Illinois Institute of Technology Press Arthur D. Hall (1962). A Methodology for Systems Engineering. Van Nostrand Reinhold. ISBN 0442030460.  My Father: Frank Lloyd Wright, by John Lloyd Wright; 1992; page 35  Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography, by Meryle Secrest, Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, p. 202 Bahill, T. & Briggs, C. (2001). "The Systems Engineering Started in the Middle Process: A Consensus of Systems Engineers and Project Managers". in: Systems Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 2 (2001)  Burj Dubai & The Illinois Comparison  Dubai Debt: What the Burj Kahlifa—the tallest building in the world—owes to Frank Lloyd Wright., By Witold Rybczynski, Slate.com, Jan 13, 2010 Read More