Systems and the future
Services shaft
office buildinghospitalhotelresidential buildinglaboratory
A vertical or horizontal space reserved for pipes, cables and ducts, with access covers or doors to inspect them without breaking walls or floors.
What it solves
It allows services to be repaired, replaced and added throughout the building’s life. In the humid tropics it reveals in time the leaks that cause mold and damage.
Today
Group services in shafts aligned from floor to floor, near bathrooms and kitchens, with access from common areas. Leave free space for growth.
Common mistake
Embedding pipes and cables in slabs and walls without access panels, so every repair requires demolition.
Tomorrow
A building with large, accessible shafts will be able to change use or add panels, batteries and water reuse without demolition. Designing for disassembly extends the life of what is built.
Fact The Paris sewer network, almost 2,600 km long, houses drinking water pipes, non-potable water for irrigation and cleaning, telecommunications cables and a chilled water network for cooling buildings.
Where it comes from
- 119th-century sanitation Paris, France, since 1854
The sewer galleries begun by Eugène Belgrand also carry drinking and non-potable water networks and telecommunications cables.
Masters
- Louis Kahn Richards Medical Research Laboratories, Philadelphia, United States, 1960
He moved the stairs and air ducts out into brick towers next to the laboratories. It was his first clear expression of the servant spaces that attend to the served spaces.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Systems and the future
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.