Academic / 2024

Building Systems

The services study behind the Bank Street housing, working out where ceilings drop, where the ducts run, and where the light fittings land once both are resolved.

Project type: Services coordination study
Location: 2100 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario
Status: Academic
Area: One residential floor plate
Role: Exercise 5

This is the same site as Renewal Square, 2100 Bank Street, taken from a different direction: not what the housing looks like, but what has to happen above the ceiling for it to work.

The sequence is the useful part. Establish a point of departure, identify where the ceiling has to drop, run the HVAC ducts, and only then place the light fittings, because a lighting layout drawn before the ducts are resolved is a lighting layout that will be moved. Coordinating those three in that order is most of what services coordination is.

Joint exercise, dated May 2024.

The coordinated plan with the dropped ceiling zones washed in, the bulkheads outlined and the duct and sprinkler runs drawn over the top

Floor plan of the two bedroom unit as designed, unfurnished, with the north point marked — The point of departure. The plan as designed, then the zones where the ceiling has to come down, which is the first thing every service after it has to live inside.

The same plan with the dropped ceiling zones washed in across the corridor, kitchen and bathrooms — The point of departure. The plan as designed, then the zones where the ceiling has to come down, which is the first thing every service after it has to live inside.

Light fixture layout drawn over the dropped ceiling zones — Ducts before fittings. A lighting layout drawn before the ducts are resolved is a lighting layout that gets moved.

HVAC duct runs drawn through the dropped zones, the supply spine crossing the corridor and branching to each room — Ducts before fittings. A lighting layout drawn before the ducts are resolved is a lighting layout that gets moved.

Clothes dryer venting drawn from the laundry stack out through the exterior wall — The vented appliances, each needing its own route to outside air.

Bathroom exhaust fan venting drawn from both washrooms to the exterior — The vented appliances, each needing its own route to outside air.

Range hood venting drawn from the kitchen through the bulkhead to the exterior wall — The kitchen and the wet services.

Plumbing runs drawn to the kitchen, both bathrooms and the laundry — The kitchen and the wet services.

Sprinkler head layout with the coverage circle of each head drawn so the overlaps can be checked — Sprinklers, set out on their coverage radii, then everything drawn together.

Composite of the plumbing and the sprinkler layout over the dropped ceiling zones — Sprinklers, set out on their coverage radii, then everything drawn together.

Composite drawing carrying the dropped ceilings, ducts, light fittings, plumbing and sprinklers together on one plan — Everything at once, which is the test of whether the sequence worked, and the riser drawn in three dimensions.

Axonometric of the plumbing riser showing the stack running between floor plates and branching at each level — Everything at once, which is the test of whether the sequence worked, and the riser drawn in three dimensions.